In Bloom.

And just like that, it's summer. 

Maybe not just like that. It's only May, and the early days of it at that, with potential for cooler days looming, but these last two weeks have been full of days in the 80s with brilliant sun. I've already had my first burn of the season (I forgot sunscreen, I forgot about bare arms and forehead freckles) and at home we've pulled the cover off the pool. It's not quite warm enough to go in, but it's all glistening and thirsty sparkles in the sun. I'm making a pool float wish-list. 

Blouse: Antique (estate sale), Shorts: Allen Company on etsy, Shoes: Old, Sunglasses: H&M (current season)

This is the week when everything has popped. Full-fledged leaves are happening, and every flowering tree has exploded with a lush-ness I don't think I've seen in a few years. For once everything is timed together, probably waiting to burst after the coldest winter in ages. 

I've been celebrating by basically flinging myself into every blossom explosion possible, mostly apple-blossoms in trees in the park, but also our lilac bush (tree? shrub? I should know these things). I can take about ten minutes before the sticky-sweet smell starts to turn my stomach and I've become aware of the confectioner's sugar sheen of pollen on my skin from every other plant in the area, but it's hard not to feel really stereotypically happy to be alive with your head in a bunch of flowering branches with the happy, fat bees.  Also this skirt? Is shorts, so I can lie in the grass and climb on branches without much fear in the way of exposure. More 90s floral floucy tap pants please?

First Falling.

It's fall for real. I've spent more days than not the last few weeks in tights, remembering how much more myself and better I feel in these kinds of clothes. There's an urgency in autumn, like we know the leaves are going to change and there's only a good week or two when everything is really aflame, and already I have the tiniest of knots in my gut that's dreading the long winter. Of course there's nothing to be done about it, and the weather is a boring topic, as though there isn't anything more interesting or original to write or think about, so I might as well slurp up these golden days and enjoy them. 

You know (you don't) I first saw this dress almost exactly a year ago? A little shop in Burlington, VT had it, and even though I had an extra little cushion of spending money burning a hole in my pocket, I left it behind. I even went back at the end of the day to visit it, think about it, and then never did a darned thing about it. It popped up here and there on other blogs and online shops, and I kept thinking about it on at least a monthly basis. Finally, a few weeks ago I thought well, if you're still mulling it over a year later you might as well bite the bullet and go for it. It has planets and stars on it for goodness sake! Why did I wait so long?

Dress: Family Affairs Life on Mars Dress, Tights: look in burgundy, Socks: J. Crew, Boots: Steve Madden Fall 2013, Bag: J. Crew (sold out), Jacket: J. Crew fall 2009

Then of course I had plans. A hat that is a favorite but has never quite gone with anything, a certain bag, hair-do, shoes, hosiery. It all fell through. My hair was flat and un-set from a night staying up too late laughing over dumb tv-shows, there was a promise of a sunny fall afternoon but the shoes were wildly impractical. A pair of tights purchased the previous afternoon (rainy, feeling urge for a new treat, drawn to the color) threw a wrench in the whole thing so that I just went well, throw on the big ugly socks and boots that are falling apart and do that whole honest-outfit blog thing. 

I mean, it's better that way right? I love a good gussied-up bit, with everything matching in that slightly-off just-so kind of way and I do often run around in some pair of slightly impractical footwear for the sake of my own amusement, but I also end up throwing on the boots that are peeling at the sole, or the flats that offer almost no support anymore. Not that either is really better, just, I suppose since the last several posts have been a little fantastical it's nice to switch the gears for something a little bit more indicative of my every day. 

These are also the really choice weeks when outfits are pretty much exactly what I want them to be. in a month or so it'll be cold, and I'll end up in flannel-lined jeans or thick leggings and 3 sweaters, sad that I can't wear dainty little shoes because of the salt and snow. But you know, for now everything is burnished gold and red and it's all walks outside and everything smells like dirt. In a good way. 

Thanks to David for snapping a bunch of these!

Leapfrogging Spring.

This isn't an outfit from today, or even from anytime in the past few days. According to my camera, it's from April 11th--the day that I went for a walk and for 3 bug bites in ten minutes, when it suddenly hit eighty degrees without warning. In the interest of trying to post more regularly, and since I hadn't shared this then, here it is now! It's been a summery-kind of warm here, out of nowhere, and some people are actually complaining that it's too warm!

This is a dress that I saw, and even though I knew I wouldn't be wearing it for ages, I bought it on-the-spot. Dotted swiss! Puffy sleeves! Weird little linen details! I had been thinking of it as my Snow White dress, although I don't know why, until I realized it was exactly the sort of thing that really reminded me of the movie in yesterday's post.





But I'm pleased. I'm reliving summer memories from back in the day and relishing the familiar feelings of summer that I don't really know how to articulate. There's something about how the way the windows are open, the way the room is really messy, the way sunscreen smells that all combines to something really specific but also general.





These flowers have long-since died, but that's alright, because there are finally some outside anyway.



I'm really excited for night-time in summer. I think it might just be that I'm nostalgically remembering summers in high school as being a certain way, but I always get excited for it.

Outfit details:
Dress: J. Crew
Headband: J. Crew circa 2009
Shoes: J. Crew
(Oh jeez, I didn't mean for that to happen! Entire outfits from one place, oh dear)
Flowers: Ranunculus

Spring Inspiration: Bright Star

Uh, I'm not sure how to explain this. This is a long-ass post, and I'm holding myself back. I had a good two pages of my feelings on Keats and his poems and letters before I realized that I ought to get to the dress as soon as possible, and save the rest for my thesis.

When I first heard of Bright Star (alternate title: A Girl Sitting at a Window with Her Cat), I was dubious. I have that very particular feeling, that sense of snobbish ownership, about Keats and his works. It's really hard to fight the rising aggression that surfaces whenever a quotation is out-of-place, so strangely transplanted in an alien context (my only other real qualm is something many period movies are guilty of. When a woman moves from one room to the next carrying her embroidery with her, but not bringing any extra thread or scissors. Irritated!). But that's a silly attitude to have--movies about real people aren't really about them at all, and besides all that, it's just one little image, one rendering of a version of a story about a person who existed. Not to mention (but I'm going to mention it anyway) that anyone who says this is a movie about Keats is surely missing every point ever pointed. It's a movie about Fanny, and after decades and ages of scholarship maligning her, I think this is a nice reprieve. I love that the movie parallels Keats and writing, with Fanny and sewing, making her a poet in her own sense.

But besides all of that, the movie is a gorgeous watch. It has become a site of my primary spring inspiration this year--all dotted swiss, strange collars, light cotton blouses, pastels, stripes in pale colors, and triple-strap flats. I especially love that we see Fanny wearing the same items over and over in different ways. The sea-green over-dress she wears pops up in springy scenes with a blouse in the same shade, and later she wears it over a cotton tunic lounging around the bed in hot weather. One of my favorite details is that both Fanny and her sister have dresses in matching fabrics--because of course, you wouldn't just buy enough to make one dress, but enough to get several items out of it. I think my favorite is the light brown and cream striped dress that pops up a few times (under a pink striped jacket--not shown--with white blouses both frilly and plain).

I also love the men's dress in this, although my interest there is mostly limited to Samuel Brawne, following around the background with his tall straw hat and light-colored spring suit (my favorite though, must be the striped jacket he wears in the kitchen and in the fields catching butterflies).

And of course, I can't resist a movie with a girl and a cat.

(Since I am incapable of controlling myself, I tried to use smaller versions of the stills to save you from too much extra scrolling and giant images!)

In the end, if I can just dress like this for spring, and even summer, it will be a good year.