jessjamesjake Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway this past week, and of course, a big thanks to Jess of jessjamesjake for the gift certificate and pin!

The winner is Marisa Violeta at Green Grass Black Clouds! Congratulations!

In her entry she liked this 1960s blazer:

Nautical Blazer by jessjamesjake on etsy

For everyone who entered please feel free to use the coupon code  "allthishappiness25"  for 25% off at jessjamesjake on etsy running through the end of April. Jess updates the shop frequently, so keep checking in (I kind of stalk her listings and then get depressed over the thing that I missed that is now sold, which is the worst thing a person can do on Etsy) because things move fast over there!

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and of course to Jess!

Once it was Warm.

It's been a while since a real post--hopefully I'll get back into it soon, I'm afraid March was not a great month for me, so for now I'll post a slightly older outfit until I'm feeling more myself!

Remember when it was eight degrees out? That was weird. During a normal early spring I would be perfectly happy with these current somewhere-in-the-fifties temperatures we've got going on, but now my frame of reference for warm weather is all off. I keep running around with bare legs or no socks, my toes freezing by the afternoon.

Dress: Vintage from jessjamesjake, Shoes: Chelsea Crew, Bag: Aldo circa summer 2011, Belt: J. Crew circa 2009, Glasses: H&M 2011

These are from one of those warm days, two weeks ago now, when I couldn't wait to wear a new dress out and about. Ages ago, in middle school I think, I had a sailor tunic type thing that I loved but never wore. I've still got a soft spot for anything sailor-esque, especially vintage, although most of the 60s and earlier dresses that I love are often way out of my price range. I find most of the dresses from the 80s and 90s have collars that are so large all I can do all day is imagine Flying Nuns.

This one is perfect though. It's been sitting in the closet again now that it's chilly, but I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing it all summer.

Pictures taken by Jess.

Sponsor Giveaway: Win a 50$ Gift Certificate to jessjamesjake!

I'm thrilled today to post about another of my March sponsors, jessjamesjake! It's kind of hilarious that after secretly eyeballing lots of the things in her shop, Jess and I finally realized that we live not far from each other at all! Since then she has been a wonderful lunch date, taking my outfit pictures when needed (stay tuned this week for another post with pictures taken by Jess), a thrifting partner, and a really wonderful supporter of my funny little blog here!

So this month, Jess and I have partnered to offer you lovely readers a 50$ gift certificate to her shop!

And then, this little guy will also find a home with the lucky winner:

Oh my goodness, look at him! I can't deal with it.

"I picked him especially for your lovely readers, assuming they also love cats and pins!! He's in overalls. Overalls! He's a copper-toned metal cat pin, circa 1960s - 70s, with a simple pin back and teeny-tiny shape. He's just over a 1/2 inch long and probably one of the cutest little kittens in town (aside from Minnow, of course). He'll ship with the winner's order, whenever she redeems her gift certificate."

To enter, visit jessjamesjake on etsy and leave a comment linking the item(s) you would choose if you won the gift certificate!

For additional entries follow Jess on...

the blog

twitter

facebook

Please leave separate comments letting us know if you do, for a total of four entries!

The giveaway will be open until Saturday night (March 31st) at midnight.
Winner will be chosen via random number generator and will be announced on April 1st.

Open to international readers as well!

Good luck everyone!

The Ballerinas.

This weather is bizarre. It's hot, like, summer hot all blazing sun and iced tea, but without the benefit of leaves on trees. They're getting hazy with buds so soon enough we'll have flora (I've been stalking the pollen counts). 

Dress: J. Crew, Shoes: Anthropologie circa 2009, Scarf: Vintage, Pins: Bohemian Bisoux

The upside of it all is I've been wearing the summer things that otherwise would be waiting for real live summer. I didn't love this dress the first time I saw it, although something about it made me keep looking. It's not the color--bordering on neon though it is--but something about the waist or shape of it. I tried it on and loved it for it's being prim and neat. 

After the dress everything else fell into place. The pins needed to go with the scarf, because the little ballerinas on each match just too perfectly, and the yellows seemed right together. I can't be a ballerina, but I can live vicariously though pins and scarves!

Two summers ago I wore my hair like this a lot. I'm not sure why I stopped, since I still wear scarves on my head with alarming frequency, but usually I pin them to my hair until it won't budge. I think I just forgot about this method, where I pull the hair over the scarf so that it hides my ears (I hate when they stick out) and does that loose-romantic thing that make up-dos less proper. I'm quite pleased to have rediscovered it.

Even if I did decide to take my outfit pictures in the windiest spot in the city.

The scarf is still one of my favorite finds of all time. I think it was about 8$, and I think I uh, got it for my mother as a gift and then it (as several things have done) ended up in my scarf drawer instead. It's really just a pooling of scarf resources.

March Sponsor: poshlocket and Shorts.

It's close to eighty degrees out today. I don't know what's going on, but I'm okay with that. Soon we'll have bud-hazy trees, allergies to accompany them, and the glorious sight of leaves. I've never missed leaves so much in my life!

Shorts: H&M, Shirt: Forever21 circa 2010, Shoes: J. Crew, Earrings: Posh Locket Hampton Drop Earrings, Belt: J. Crew

Just in time for said weather, I bought some new shorts. I have mixed feelings about shorts. I want to love them, wear them, run around and get things accomplished in them, but I just feel so exposed. And these are quite short, and I don't have tiny legs. But then, when I saw them sitting in the store, I thought there, those shorts, that print, they are just what I need.

You may have noticed that this month I've dipped a toe into the world of sponsors (over on the right-hand side over there), and one of these first partners is poshlocket. I'd been waiting for just the right outfit to debut a pair of earrings they sent along a week or so ago, but they just seemed so summery, and try as I might I just looked out of place in a summer outfit while it was still hovering around the 50 degrees mark.

Until today. 

Hampton Drop Earrings

I used to wear earrings all the time. I used to wear big, loud, obnoxious earrings until somehow I stopped, and I've missed them. I don't feel like being quite as loud with them as I used to be, so these are pretty much the perfect little thing. They're larger than I usually wear, but something said do it, they called to me. That's how I end up with a closet-full of bizarre things, but these have integrated well. 

And really, they go just so perfectly with the shorts, that the latter had to be mine. So I supposed that's how I ended up with an outfit centered around a pair of earrings.

I'm having a seriously difficult time taking my own pictures. Least favorite activity.

Hello, Minnow!

Sometimes I meet people out in the world who know me from this little blog (or twitter, or tumblr) and after a few moments of conversation, this new person is usually shocked to learn that no, I don't actually have a cat. I did, but as these things go we have been without her for a while now. That didn't stop me from making friend with every cat I've seen since, taking pictures of cats in windows, planning my walk to work so I could run into the usual suspects on their steps, wearing cat clothing, watching cat videos, and all the rest. 

But last week we brought home this little lady! I'd visited this particular shelter several times, mostly just to visit the cats and look, and I'd had my heart set about a year ago on a kitty (who has since been adopted of course) and had a little bit of a feeling that I'd want one like her. 

But then this gal was the first one I was drawn to, with her gigantic green eyes, sitting straight up in her little cage. I deliberated for a little while, wanting to give most of the cats their chance, but in the end she's the one we took home. 

She's much more active than our last cat, constantly in motion except when she's sleeping, and refuses to be in a room by herself. She'll follow you around room to room, although isn't too fond of being picked up, and sleeps under the covers. She sits and walks kind of funny, her legs sort of splayed out a bit like a ballerina or, less gracefully, like a penguin.

Naming was hard, as usual. The last cat we had didn't really ever get a proper name. We just called her several things, the main one being Baby, so this time I spent a good amount brainstorming things to call her. It's hard, everything seems either too twee, or prim, or too lady-like for her. At first I thought I'd name her 'Cake' because it seemed like it sort of fit, but after a few days it just didn't really seem to be working.

At the moment we've landed on 'Minnow' because I liked the sound of most names starting with M, and the word is fun to say or sing-song, with a nice kind of weird, slanted symmetry. We'll see if it sticks!

Lunch Date.

This past Monday I met up for a lady date with my friend Jess  (who was super obliging and wonderful and took my pictures for me!) for a game of catch-up over lunch and some thrifting, something we made a bit of a habit of over January! I don't always wear something blog-worthy for these occasions, especially if extensive thrifting is part of the plan for the day, but I've been itching to wear this dress since I got it. It's one of the three I bought during my NYC visit a few weeks ago. I don't have anything else like it, and aside from the Peter Pen collar it's a bit of a different thing for me.

Coat: J. Crew circa 2009, Dress: Vintage, Tights: J. Crew, Shoes: Target, Goofy Smile: Birth

It was also supposed to be fifty degrees out that day, but somehow that didn't happen. So much for saving this dress for the nicer weather as planned! 

I don't know that it's the world's most flattering dress shape on me, but I sort of love everything about it. I think I needed it because it reminds me of a mid-sixties version of my Mad Men dress, except I can sit down and eat in this one. It's a bit wrinkled here, even though I risked my life and steamed it while wearing it (worst idea ever, but it has so many inside snaps and buttons the thought of taking the whole thing off, steaming it, and then putting it back on was not something I was inclined to do), from sitting down at lunch and I suppose I should have given it a better soak and mended other bits of it. I just can't be bothered sometimes, especially if I want to wear something very much.

Thanks a lot wind, for sending like, three stands of hair across my face.

The little cat buddy on my collar was also a gift from Jess, so of course I had to wear him. He's just the perfect size--some of my pins, and I do love them dearly--are a bit too strange, or big, or shiny for certain moods. 

We ended up stopping at an abandoned building on the way to a thrift store, and found a little empty house behind it. It was all boarded up so exploring wasn't going to happen--but mostly we were just cold. The good thing is there are always warmer days (we hope. At the moment it's snowing, something it hasn't done properly since October. But I know better. Spring is soon, even if the weather does decide to snow on us for days).

Pictures taken by Jess.

The Other Mother.

Jacket: H&M, Dress: Vintage, Sweater: Vintage, Tights: J. Crew, Shoes: J. Crew, Bag: Vintage, Pin: Vintage

I'm really struggling with this self timer thing. I sort of hate it a lot, but I've been wearing all sorts of outfits lately and have pictures of none of them, even though I dressed with intentions of documenting them. I'm trying to be better about it, honestly I am. I just need someone with  me to tell me to stand up straight, stop scrunching my shoulders, and for Pete's sake close my mouth! The above picture was the only one even close to acceptable of me with the trench on, and even then I start to feel it's really insipid the longer I look at it. 

I really had to do a post today though, not only because it's been so long, but because I've worn this dress about half-a-dozen times and it's never seen the light of blog. 

I got it three or so years ago at a vintage shop for a steal. It was was all wrinkled, having been balled up at some point, but it has nary a flaw on it! And the print! It's tiny buttons! So I call it my Other Mother dress, after Coraline. The sleeves are a little bit weird, and it was a bit too big for me so my genius mother took the waist up in the most clever way--not that you can see it, because of the sweater--but I really do love it. It was one of the dresses I brought with me to New York and didn't wear.

The sweater is one I snapped up while having a thrift date with Jess. She spotted it, and the poor thing had been sitting there on the rack for weeks. It's quite old but it's riddled with holes in the back and along one of the arms. I took it home, along with a skirt full of holes, because I get that thing that you have as a kid where you feel bad for stuffed animals that can't all fit in your bed at once, or the heels of bread that get left behind in the bag because no one wants them so you eat them even though you don't even like that part of the bread.

So I've rescued it, although I haven't entirely finished mending it before wearing. There are still a few holes that need some invisible mending or patching. I was pretty mad that I had to wear a sweater to begin with, I want spring and warmth so much, so I decided I would wear what I wanted and that's that. 

And my little mouse, another pin from etsy. 

Lincoln Center.

It's not likely that I'll fit in an outfit post until Monday, and seeing as I've already posted the pictures I took last weekend, some images borrowed from elsewhere will have to do!

Dress: Vintage, Coat: J. Crew, Shoes: Bass, Tights: J. Crew, Purse: Vintage, Pin: Vintage, Gloves: Anthropologie, Lipstick: NARS Schiap

I'm not miserable, despite what my expression here might say! It's one of those things, where my default face looks a bit irritated, although in this instance I think I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. It's very strange to stand around, get asked for a photo, and suddenly more cameras pop up! 

In the flurry of activity that was last weekend, I (as you can see) toted my camera around and hardly used the darn thing! I was able to snap a few of Emily's outfit before being chided by a security guard that I was not allowed to take pictures without press credentials, which I am fairly certain was untrue, but, well, I complied. 

I am an over packer. I like to be prepared for every eventuality, and that's how I end up with nine pairs of shoes and seven sweaters (those number are partially made up. I don't have any idea how many shoes or sweaters I ended up bringing, but I didn't need as many as I brought). Even more typical is that I purchased three dresses during my trip, and wore two of them during it, so I didn't actually wear much of what I brought. 

Which is how I ventured to Lincoln Center in my un-ironed new dress, happy as a clam about the whole thing. 

Pictures from Teen Vogue

Visiting Flowers.

It already seems a sad pile of days ago, but just yesterday I was still in NYC with Emily, the kindest and most generous of hostesses (not to mention stylish, gorgeous, and all-around amazing!), for my weekend visit. I somehow, in true-to-me style, dragged my wretched camera around with me and hardly used the stupid thing. I did have enough wherewithal to get some use out of it when we visited Amy Merrick of An Apple a Day.

Amy is hosting a little pop-up shop at Castor & Pollux for Valentine's day (so I realized I had better get this post up asap in case someone wants to pay her a visit tomorrow!) from 12-7, you can see more pictures here at her post on the event, and also over at Emily's blog. But you really should go see it in person, if only for the lovely setting and wonderful people. 

I've been the biggest fan of Amy's since I first started reading her blog, and was so excited when Emily suggested we head over to say hello and grab some flowers. I think I've starred every single one of her posts in my reader. Her vision of the world comes through so strongly in her posts and photographs, and she has the occasional turn-of-phrase in her posts that makes me simultaneously enamored and poetically jealous (one time she used the phrase flower-drunk and for some reason it's haunted me ever since). And then she was just about the sweetest lady I've ever met, in the most effortless of dresses and just wonderful! I left the city last night overwhelmed by all the totally rad, beautiful, and charming ladies I got to hang out with all weekend. 

It was the best end to the best weekend! I knew that I've missed color and warmer weather, but I didn't realize quite how parched I was for green, growing things until we got there, and somehow I wanted nothing more but to be somewhere where things looked alive. It's not long now, and I suppose if I've got one thing to be happy about when it comes to time going faster, it's that I can hopefully make another trip downstate sometime soon!