Brb!

Last summer.

Be right back! I'm a little slow posting this week, so we'll call it a break and be back to regularly scheduled posting in a few days!

<3

My Favorite Scarf: A Retrospective.

I love scarves. I end up grabbing them everywhere I go, buying them even though I'm not entirely certain I'll wear it, and now I have a drawer that is bursting (although my collection is nowhere near my mother's, which is also beautifully organized. Sometimes mine aren't even folded, and I drape them across my room pretending that I did it for design reasons).

In the end though, there is one that I love above all the others. I worry about it when I can't find it, which is frequent because I so often grab it on my way out the door that it might be in a pocket, tote, or bag (sometimes it's still knotted in a blouse). I usually have it with me, either to tie onto said bag, or just thrown inside because most of the time I'm in such a rush in the morning that I'm not sure if my outfit feels quite right until hours later. Thankfully, my two go-to ways of wearing my best friend of a scarf make me feel instantly fashionable.

The other day I wore it on my head.

At the end of last summer it was a bow-tie.

And it dressed up my dingy little tote.

A bow on my head for a freckled birthday.

And a few weeks ago it was a bow-tie again.

The thing about this scarf is I never imagined it would be the one. It's the right size, and somehow the colors are just perfect. It makes me look like I tried when I'm at work, up to my elbows in flour, when I forgot my mascara. It goes with stripes, flowers, and polka-dots. It's just nautical enough without adding to my stripe addiction.

I wear it, without exaggerating, probably three or four times a week. I don't know what I shall do when it disintegrates into the universe. It is my faithful friend, my outfit-fixer, and probably the one item of clothing I could not do without if I tried.

Uniform Days.

In trying to think about this post, I keep rolling off the edge into about eight different other places (that sounds much more ominous than I mean it to. Really, it's just that there are several things I want to write about). For the past few months I've been sort of struggling with exactly what I think my personal style is. I think at some point someone asked me and where I used to know that if a doll would wear it, I probably would, suddenly that didn't seem so true anymore.

I didn't used to worry about it. For the past few years I've been of the philosophy that you should just buy what you want (I don't mean go nuts, but rather, don't talk yourself out of something because you don't think it fits with your style) and eventually it will all fit together somehow. But now I've been thinking about it more. I suppose I'm starting to find a kind of uniform that's not, but a general kind of outfit that I'm finding more ways to repeat. I'm getting back into unapologetically wearing the same thing, like I did when I was younger.

Hence, this chambray shirt (I keep collecting them!) and my favorite scarf of all time, every day.

Outfit details: Shirt: J. Crew; Shorts: J. Crew; Scarf: J. Crew (2005); Shoes: Urban Outfitters; Bag: Vintage

Pictures taken by John M.

Guest Post for Holland 1945!

Hello friends!

Just popping in to direct you over to Holland 1945, where I've done a little guest post for Alison, who is on vacation! Check it out if you'd like, and peruse the rest of her lovley blog :D

Repetition.

I get fixated on things. This extends to books and movies, wanting to be inside a world so thoroughly that it becomes something I have to keep myself from talking about every moment of every day, but also ends up materializing in little things like which teacup I use, or, of course, whatever I end up wearing.

Which is why I'm posting this silly dress again.

Outfit details: dress: J. Crew; shoes: Urban Outfitters; bag: vintage; watch: mom's; sunglasses: forever21

Like this dress. It really is my summer bff. I knew it was going to be some kind of love affair when I first got it, but it's been much better than I ever imagined it would be. I've worn it several times, and so far it's become my go-to summer dress when I don't know what to wear but know that I want to feel a certain way.

I think it's something that happens a lot with clothes. Since starting this blog it's waned a bit (of course I still have my favorites, but they don't get the kind of constant wear they might have if I wasn't trying to think of new things to wear) but I used to wear one particular shirt or sweater with almost obsessive constancy. In particular I had a blouse that was green, with little pink flowers on it, that I think I wore until the stupid thing fell apart (it wouldn't button anymore anyway). Before that, it was a red sweater with an argyle print across the chest that I think I hated when I first got it, but then wore for days and weeks straight. I really hated when it was in the laundry because it meant I had to come up with something else that day.

Oddly enough, I have very few pictures of either of these things.

I should probably get another one, because I'll be very sad when something happens to this one. In the meantime, my Remus Lupin shoes are getting lots of wear, and I love them to a million little shoe-pieces!

Pictures taken by John M.

Too Old, Too Poor, Too Dangerous.

"The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey."

Outfit details: shirt, vest, blazer, and pants: J. Crew both recent seasons and from several years ago; tie: dad's; shoes: Urban Outfitters; wand: home-made; chocolate bar: Cadbury's

Scars: Liquid latex and lip liner/blush

I love Harry Potter. A lot. I'm not entirely sure how to explain what it is, but the past few days then, have been very strange. It seems terribly overdramatic to say these kinds of things over something like this (because it isn't just books anymore, or just books and movies. It's something entirely different, a strange oddly intangible and fleeting thing inextricably personal and also linked with a larger fan community) but really, it's very upsetting. Of course it isn't over--in the sentimental way it will never be over--but at the same time this is the last in a long series of midnight releases and day-after events of a certain kind.

Of course, I knew this was my last chance to dress as my biggest favorite, Remus J. Lupin. November's costume was alright, but I knew there had to be a way to do it better. To be baggier, thinner-looking, with better scars. In the end I pulled together what i could, added a chocolate bar because it will make you feel better, and tried my darndest. I am quite pleased with how my makeup came out, although it's a bit fake-looking in the above picture I think it looked pretty realistic in life!

My thoughts and feelings on the movie are mixed. At the moment I'm feeling not so good about it, but I think my little costume is a nice heartbroken homage to my favorite werewolf.

Pictures taken by John M.

Daytime Nightgowns

When I was in the throes of my Jane Eyre obsession (don't be fooled, it's not over. It's resting while I prepare myself mentally, physically, and spiritually for the final Harry Potter movie. Which is also why I've been dormant for a little while) I started getting an eye for nightgown-y looking dresses. At first I started looking for frilly, going-to-bed-on-the-prairie type things in all of the usual spots to wear as they're intended--tucked neatly into bed--but my search didn't yield much until I started letting my tendencies yield to things only vaguely-nightgown looking.

outfit details: Dress/nightgown: Vintage; Shoes: J. Crew 2010; Necklace: vintage; Belt: J. Crew; Tote: fieldguided

The first thing I found--after that J. Crew dress--was this. I think it's probably an actual nightgown, but it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. It had that detailed, delicate lace around the neckline that peeked out from the calico dresses in Eyre, with a little yellow ribbon to make it really perfect.

And since then I've been somehow really lucky, because I keep finding like-looking dresses and nightgowns in vintage and antique stores, where before I came out empty handed.

Pictures taken by John M.

Chambray Saturday.

Outfit details: Shirt and Jeans: J. Crew; Shoes: G.H. Bass; Bag: Vintage; Scarf: J. Crew circa 2004 (I think, it's older)

I had to resist calling this something like cham-brain, although I putting it as the starting line of a post isn't much better.

I have plenty of chambray dresses. In fact, most of them that are have become my favorites, and yet I've really resisted the chambray shirt. I don't know why. I never saw one and thought, yes, I want that! I need it to be in my life! Hanging on racks I never found myself inspired by one, clinging to it in sadness, leaving it behind, united at last in purchase.

But the thing is, lots of people have them and wear them with almost anything. Calivintage, comes to mind. I suspect it might be her that pushed me over the edge into buying one.

I think you can also tell that I was reading Tomboy Style this morning. This is one of those outfits that stumps me. Most of the time my aesthetic is something dreamy, floaty, beribboned or bowed in some way, and then every now and then I feel the need to be bookish and fusty, like old furniture, I need something downright boyish.

Pictures taken by John M.

Berry Picking.

Yesterday was a real true-blue summer kind of day. I woke up early, ate candy for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch before heading our for the first embarrassingly typical summer activity of the day: berry picking.

My 'tourist' shot by the sign.

If I'm being honest, I feel pretty lukewarm about strawberries. They're very nice, but I'm a raspberry gorger at heart who occasionally dabbles in blackberries (I do not like cherries, and will almost never reach for a blueberry unless it is all that is there), aside from the fact that the berries gleaming under the little plastic boxes in grocery stores are strange, freakish behemoths compared to the little gems of normal strawberries. Coincidentally, I will eat strawberries in their natural state one stained handful after another.

Outfit details: Shirt: J. Crew; Shorts: J. Crew; Sneakers: Bensimon; Watch: J. Crew; Hat: Forever21

For two or three summers I've been envisioning a blog post of berry picking, with some winsome summer frock, a straw hat, or something properly farm-ish in nature. Instead, I ended up in my trusty gingham shorts and a ratty striped t-shirt that ripped at the sleeve (hidden, cleverly, in these pictures) when I put it on. In the end it seemed more right to be less prim and a little torn at the edges for this sort of elbows and knees in dirt activity.

This is also a much more typical outfit than what usually shows up here. Most of the time, especially because of work, it comes down to what is best for moving around in the heat while not looking like a dehydrated leaf.

We visited some goats and sheep before heading home, to plop strawberries with cream on top of pound cake, fall into the pool, and ride bikes around the neighborhood. My arms are properly pink, despite liberal application of a usually trusty SPF, my legs are heavy and tired, so it seems it was all meant to be for the eve of the first day of summer.

Pictures taken by John M.

Clermont

I have a lot of memories of places that I only barely remember in the way where I can't tell if they're real or just images from books or movies that I've stolen for myself. A lot of these places are historical sites or other picturesque places that I visited as a child or adolescent, that I'm certain exist, but of course I hardly paid attention it when I was there or was only barely cognizant at the time of anything other than my current, phase-ful, obsession.

It's hard to get back to places when you don't remember their name.

I have a very (well, relatively. It's not that strong, it's just distinct I suppose, in the general feeling I get from it, but the image itself is fuzzy and sort of lacking in definition) strong memory of this place. I remember wearing a white t-shirt, playing with a necklace made of a plastic lanyard that I had looped through a bangle, sitting on the railing on front of a stone lion (I might have been sitting on the lion. I did a lot of sitting on sculptural animals for a while there). I think I remember wandering into the house, the entrance hallway, because doors were open on both sides, and I ran into a woman who was a tour guide or something, but I don't remember talking to her or anything at all. I remember some cracks on the ceiling, or a watermark, or something. In my memory of it, I spent a large part of the time there wandering around waiting to do something else.

Eventually, it turns out the place I remembered is Clermont, with it's deeply sloping hills and the frighteningly wide view of the Hudson River.

Outfit details: Dress: vintage, via Five and Diamond; Shoes: J. Crew; Bag:fieldguided

It might be one of my new favorite places to go. Optimistically speaking, I suppose I should warn you that there will be future outfit shots taken here, since I imagine summer picnics and wandering of trails. In the end though, I'm never sure if I'll follow through on those kinds of daydreams, but we did end up back there this time, so that's hopeful.

I do wish my hair would hurry up and grow. I'm so wistful and sad for long hair in the summer. There is that thing that happens, like when people who want have babies but haven't suddenly see them everywhere, I keep seeing these long, floaty braids streaming all around and all I can do is shake some strands and hope it loosens some length.

Pictures taken by John M.