I'm leaving my previous post up for now, because it is early for me and I am leaving for work. At the moment, I'm not entirely sure how to proceed from this.

It seems that The Dewey Decimals have asked that their readers post a comment on their behalf, accusing me of stealing their blog premise. I am very sorry to have given this impression to the bloggers, since I know it is frustrating and disheartening to feel that your work is being used elsewhere, but I must make clear that this is the first time I have come across their blog and work, and I absolutely did not steal their idea.

In my post, I do specify that I was inspired by another blogger's series in my post, and link to it appropriately. I even e-mailed her to ask if she minded that I was so strongly borrowing from her style of presenting two images, if the concept was to similar to her's, to make sure I was not stepping on anyone's toes. I realize this has little to do with how The Dewey Decimals feel about the situation, but I want to impress that I am careful about these kinds of things, and do my best to avoid things devolving into this.

I'm very sorry about all this, and I would like to seek some kind of resolution. At the moment I'll leave the previous post up, but I'm not sure if it will stay that way, or if I will just disable comments and not continue with the series.

Edited to add:

I also want to ask that we please not say anything bad about each other. I'm sure that both the writers of The Dewey Decimals and myself are equally upset about this whole thing, and I'm not posting this to start anything. Please, I ask everyone not to refuse to support or read their blog if it is something you would otherwise have been interested in or enjoyed.

This is a misunderstanding, I simply wanted to post about it here in case readers saw the comments on the previous post. I have reached out to the authors there via e-mail, and I would like to ask that my readers not harass them in any way (I don't think anyone would, but you know), because that isn't what this is all about. Thank you!

Edit 8/30:

Hello everyone! Thank you for all your kind words and support. I am pleased to say that this has all been resolved, and I meant to post this edit sooner because really everything was alright by the end of the day on Thursday, but I wasn't sure if I now wanted to leave this post up, if I should take it down, because who wants to see controversy and things? I'm a bit behind on my posting, but rest assured I'll be back up in no time!

Wearing the Book: St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

I buy a lot of books, and can hardly ever let any go (I buy even more books now that I have a kindle, because if it's cheap on there I get it, and then if i love it I buy it again in paper form). What's even worse (or better, depending on your opinions of space) is I have a really bad habit of buying several copies of the same book. If it's languishing somewhere used for five dollar or under, it's coming home with me.

I can justify it often though, because of the different covers. First of all, I hate the cliché 'don't judge a book by it's cover', because while I know that authors rarely have control over what actually ends up encasing their work, sometimes you just have to turn a book over because of the cover, staring up at you in strangely inconsistent oblivion. When I'm loafing around the bookstore 90% of the reason I pick up a random book for it's cover (the rest is the title), so you know, you have to judge a book by something, really.

But getting back to different covers, I really love collecting several versions of favorite tomes. Partly because it's so pleasing to arrange them in tableau somewhere, but it's also somehow about all the different things a certain book can be. What's really frustrating is when I see a book cover that really strikes my fancy and then I cannot find it anywhere. There is a specific copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being I am really hoping to find someday, but so far I'm bereft.

I love looking at book covers. I love staring at them, looking for them, thinking about them, arranging them together or alone, and sometimes, I like dressing like them. Inspired by the color comparisons of Miss Moss, I've been thinking I should share the outfits and book covers side-by-side.

Hopefully this is the start of a little series I'd like to do, but I can be a bit flakey when it comes to committing to things in succession. It's only that I've felt myself getting a bit tired looking at street style blogs and catalogs for my inspiration, because often in the end I still feel a little bit of 'well, it's not quite as good as the original, I had to make do you see'. If I'm not dressing as a character in a book, I might as well dress like the book itself.

Wearing the Book: St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Dress: J. Crew, Shoes: Urban Outfitters, Cardigan: J. Crew, Tote: fieldguided

I wrote about this book once before, and my love for it is still just as strong and jealous as it was then. I've accumulated another copy of the above cover (one is signed—I wanted to die of excitement when that happened) and another of the UK paperback version. I almost used the latter, but it's a bit more tan and warm looking than the one I've gone with, and there is no reason why I can't use it later.

I don't want this project to be about dressing like the things on the cover of the book, so I've not done my hair like the little wolfette there, and though I thought a reference to the titular story would have been clever with a pair of penny loafers (when I read the line about not chewing on your loafers in it, I thought about how I was keeping myself from doing that very same thing all the way through my uniformed school-days in knee socks) something about the fusty-ness of wingtips goes better, somehow, with the typeface on the book.

I ended up with the other outfit items in a similar way. The dress, in real life, matches the base color of the book perfectly, and has little red dots mirroring the hidden red text of the title, and the little in her dress, and all of that. I relied on my hair for the browns, and another beloved fieldguided tote for the dreamy strangeness I associate with my favorite kinds of stories.

Beachy Keen Jellybean!

I've another roll of film trundling around here somewhere, but in the meantime here are a few favorites from my vacation to the beach last week! It already seems like ages ago, but I don't really want to be anywhere but home and burrowing into my own bed instead of into the sand.

(Picture taken by John)

My typical beach outfit. A large hat, a t-shirt or cotton cardigan, and occasionally a skirt if we're walking to the snack bar or if my legs are getting particularly freckly. The poor hat ended up being the floppiest thing by the end of the third day, the salt air wilted it, and I relinquished it for a straw cloche for the rest of the week.

The first day we were there, the water was warm, just calm enough to hang out in the froth, and the perfect blue-y green shade. But it was not to last, and it all got moody and grey. Which ended up being fine, although I ended up staying out of the water for the most part. A bit too churn-y and wild for my tastes, but I've got pocketfuls of broken shells to account for my time.

The Birthday Dress

"You know I'm gonna be 25 in June"

"You are?"

"That's a quarter of a century, makes a girl think."

"About what?"

"The future."

Some Like it Hot (1959)

I've been waiting years, ages, practically my entire life until I would be 25, just the right age to be able to quote that line for a while and have it apply to me. I don't think at six I knew what a quarter of a century was, but that didn't matter to me one little bit, because it was just the most glorious fun of a line to say.

Somehow, I also never really cared much about birthday outfits (I'm not entirely sure why I stuck that somehow in there, or the also, but I can't just leave these two sections unconnected without some kind of verbal hand-holding going on to string them together sloppily) but this year I was struck by a need to have a bona-fide birthday dress. It also means I could justify the kind of dress purchase I would normally think thrice about.

Of course I got it into my head that this was the one I had to have. Of course, there is no Anthropologie anywhere near here (psst, put one here, it is the best idea!) but I had seen the thing on a recent day trip, and just loved the print to little pieces. It helps that it looks very much like a vintage dress that is amazing and just tight enough in the waist to keep me from wearing it to any activity that involves eating, drinking, breathing, or moving.

Details: Dress: Anthropologie; Shoes: Anthropologie (2009); Bag: Aldo Outlet

Despite a setback or two, I had the thing in my grubby little hands just in time for a birthday dinner. It wasn't the actual day, but for a celebration I plunged into the unnecessary items I overpacked and attempted to do justice with lipstick and heels to the little dandelion print.

But then today is my real-deal birthday, so I wore it again.

Details: Dress: Anthropologie; Shoes: Urban Outfitters; Bag: Vintage; Jacket: Vintage

With some rather out-of-place looking shoes I somehow miraculously acquired for ten dollars.

And now that it is almost post-August 11th, I can start thinking about sweaters and tights, boots, and jackets and scarves without feeling bedraggled by the rest of summer.

Photos by John.

Docked Out.

Home, home, home! After a week at the beach, collecting freckles and napping in the sand, I'm pleased as punch to be home and burrowing into my own bed and doing my usual thing. I always feel a little bit off for the first day or so home, and so in an effort to get back into the swing of things, I'm posting first-thing!

I've been waiting to wear this little shirt from Clever Nettle for ages, but somehow the few times I've worn it haven't been days when I've documented the outfit. This seemed the perfect time and setting though. I loved it the second I saw it in Anja's shop, and thankfully I had a few pennies lying around the old paypal account, which is just about all it takes for me to snap something up.

Outfit details: Shirt: Clever Nettle; Pants: J. Crew Waverly Chino; Shoes: J. Crew (2010); Sunglasses: Forever21.

I had planned to visit this little dock area a few times, but of course other plans kept us from there! It was only a short walk from the house we were staying in, so we did pop over there one night to drop rocks in the water and see the bioluminescence and the green light on the buoy being Gatsby-esque.

Pictures by John M.

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.