Mercurial

it is HOT HOT HOT in Cincinnati right now... in between my TWO jobs (a summer internship at the Contemporary Art Center and a permanent job at the local Nordstrom) I was able to meet up with my friend Arielle for a few quick snapshots and an iced coffee...

my absolute FAVORITE summer cardigan (confession: i wear it in the winter, too...) - I got it at Anthropologie right before I went away to college FIVE years ago... I think I maybe wore it once until my junior year, but ever since then I've been wearing it with everything. The appliques are getting loose and it's getting a little dingy, but I'm hoping to get it fixed up a little sometime soon...

New dress, bought with my new discount... I really love the lacy detail

OMG sparkly gold TOMS... when they catch the sun, they're absolutely blinding. Super comfortable, but definitely not for the faint of heart (also purchased with my new discount...)

Arielle, my lovely photographer...

cardigan: moth for anthropologie

dress: soprano for nordstrom

shoes: TOMS

sunnies: men's dept. in urban outfitters

poppies will put them to sleep...

soooo... a quick word about my new layout...

poppies are my favorite flower by a longshot. it sucks that you never see poppies in flower arrangements, because if they were easy to keep in vases, my room would be full of them all the time.

they're so delicate and papery, and fields of poppies look so gorgeous with the orangey red up against the green of the stems and the blue of the sky. i first fell in love with poppies as a tiny, tiny girl watching The Wizard of Oz - I always wanted to go curl up in that poppy field and fall asleep (not realizing how morbid that scene kind of was...).  it was compounded by my first trip to europe, where my family took a train through the countryside and we flew through field after field of beautiful poppies in france...

someday, if i ever get married, i'm going to find a way to have a bouquet of poppies. then, if i have a daughter, i bet you can guess what my first choice of names would be...

when i move out of my parents' house, i want to have a whole wall of poppy prints - here are some of my favorites...

red poppy: georgia o'keefe

poppies: jean picton

red poppy abstract: margaret little

boys, take note: never send me roses, always send me poppies

Mixing Patterns

I've been admiring the way some of my favorite bloggers mix patterns. As a novice, I wanted to start mixing slowly. I've been REALLY loving these tights lately... I think I posted them a few days ago, but since I picked this skirt up at Target, I've been wanting to pair the two together. To keep the ensemble less busy but still work on the pattern mixing, I added this white T with very subtle grey stripes.

I really love the way this turned out!

plus, secret pockets!! I love skirt pockets...

T-Shirt: Gap

Skirt: Target

Tights: HUE

Casual Thursday

I've been having a lot of insomnia, so today I woke up late & had to throw on something fast to get to a class and a bunch of meetings! I need to look somewhat professional, because my last meeting of the day was a review of my thesis outline with my advisor. I picked this silk blouse because I love the big floppy collar, and the cardigan is one of my favorites!

I picked up this little red flower at Trader Joe's the other day - I can't get another cat (since Winnie's staying with my parents) but I wanted something alive and colorful in my apartment...

Cardigan: American Eagle

Silk Blouse: Anthropologie

Jeans: Mika (purchased in Italy)

Earrings: Handmade (purchased at Summerfair)

Flower: Primrose, Trader Joe's

Stop & Smell the Flowers

Today I had a meeting with my French professor, since I missed a big exam - She's EXTREMELY stylish (about 60, and a former designer for Victoria's Secret - I hope I'm that stylish when I'm her age) so I always try to look extra polished on days when I have her class. I found this skirt in the back of my closet the last time I visited my apartment, and I can't believe I forgot about it! I'd bought it about 3 years ago for a New Year's Eve party (after a VERY long search for a pencil skirt that was fitted enough for my skinny legs) and even though I'm still really skinny, I've gained a lot of weight in strange places because of the steroids I was on, so it barely fits... I can't wait to get back to Pilates to get toned up again!

The sweater is a great find from Urban Outfitters - I've been looking for a big grey sweater to replace my favorite one (it died a very noble death by overuse after many, many winters). Now I'm on a search to replace a couple of my solid colored turtlenecks (my winter go-to staple for under all kinds of dresses) - mainly a couple of black ones...

I love the buttons up the back of the skirt - sometimes I would unbutton the bottom one if it got too hard to walk around, especially in heels. This skirt is so hard to keep smooth - the material is very difficult to iron, and it picks up wrinkles at the drop of a hat...

Details from the purse - I bought this in Paris, from a tiny shop full of these hand-beaded purses made by a tiny old Frenchwoman. I wish I'd bought more than one! It's extremely roomy, and has a HUGE bone button to keep it closed. The handle is bamboo, and I couldn't get a picture of it because my camera died. The only thing I wish this purse had was an interesting shoulder strap - it's so big that it's a little hard to carry in my hand or on my elbow if it's got a lot of stuff in it! I've thought about adding one, but I don't want to ruin it!

Skirt: Bebe

Turtleneck: INC, Macy's

Sweater: Silence & Noise, Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Steve Madden
Purse: unknown shop, Paris
Earrings: American Eagle

Back to School Again!

I picked up this dress about a little over a week ago and I've really been looking forward to wearing it. I was at one of my favorite stores - Francesca's Collections - looking for some plain black dresses to replace the ones I've had for a few years (they're all starting to get stretched out and faded) and these colors really caught my eye, plus the leaf pattern is a really unusual take on the "Fall Florals" that are all over the place right now. The material is really interesting as well - it sort of feels like a mixture between jersey and velvet - a strange combination, but it's perfect for this fall weather.

The jacket I actually found last night on sale at Target. My original plan for this dress was to pair it with my black leather jacket, but I was so excited about this jacket (especially because I was eyeing it a few weeks ago and had decided against it - when I saw it on sale, I had to buy it...) The color is one of my favorites - a really rich peacock green/turquoise - and the satiny material makes it look a lot more expensive than it really was. I'm thinking it will pair nicely with a faux-fur stole I found in my closet once the weather starts getting a little colder

One of my favorite things is bold gold jewelry, and until recently, it was really hard to find! I'm SO thrilled that the 80's are making a serious comeback, because it's so much easier for me to find inexpensive gold accessories to pile on, and I've amassed a much bigger collection so I don't have to keep wearing the same pieces over and over again!

Dress: Myan (purchased at Francesca's Collections)

Jacket: Mossimo for Target

Shoes: Steve Madden

Bracelets: H&M

Earrings: Summerfair Cincinnati purchase