Lavender Turtleneck Dress

This weekend could not have been more perfect if it tried. I got to spend time with most of my closest friends, including my friend Kyle who is in town visiting a few month stint in Texas for the Air Force. I also tried a new coffee shop, ate a lot of junk food, spent time with Jon, played board games, and saw my family. The best weekends are the ones that feel like they lasted forever, but still feel gone too soon once Monday comes around.

One of the my favorite things that I did was do a photo shoot with my best friend, Whitney, at a nearby park. Whit is finally starting her own blog on nerd culture, so we took some adorable photos of her in her best geek attire. I'm still a novice at photography, but I love getting to practice and be behind the camera occasionally. I do think the pictures turned out great, but that could just be my ego talking. We also carved out a little bit of time for my own outfit pictures, and I made sure that we ventured into the deepest part of the park to do so. It's a giant park with a lovely lake, but I loved how this lavender turtleneck dress looked against the mess of tall trees and overgrown plants. 

Lazy Sunday

I don't know how this happened. After years of staying away from them, I now own not one, but two dresses that are not fit and flare. It's strange, but I've kind of been more drawn to trapeze dresses lately. It's probably because I'm lazy and just like having a few pieces to throw on, but it's nice to have some pieces that are comfortable and work for lazy days and plane rides. This dress in particular was one that I picked up after selling things at Buffalo Exchange on Saturday, and I wore it for a lazy Sunday immediately.

This past weekend was actually my first lazy Sunday in years. I started working at my dad's restaurant in high school, and even when I was away at college, my job at the newspaper had me working Sundays as well. Ever since I moved back to Orange County, I had been working at the restaurant again, and I kept the weekend shifts even after I got my full-time job for some extra money. Finally, I decided to let it go last week since working a full-time job, doing the social media for the restaurant, and freelancing for a newspaper are exhausting enough. So, for the first time in years, I got to enjoy my first lazy Sunday this past weekend. Obviously there was brunch and mimosas involved. What else would I do?

Mustard Scallops

The hardest part about working Monday through Friday, is by far dealing with how short the weekends feel. This past weekend was honestly wonderful, and I couldn't stand to see it end. One of the most exciting parts was getting to meet up with Erica in LA and attend Modcloth IRL with her on Saturday. I had met Erica in person about a year ago, and after hanging out with her again over the weekend, I'm beginning to think that I was crazy for not making it a point to see her all the time. She's the the best, and we had an absolute blast together. I have a bunch of pictures from the Modcloth event, so I think I'm going to try to do a post on it, but it was great. There were gorgeous dresses on display and ready to try on, jewelry and vintage clothes to buy, and adorable Modcloth employees to chat with. Erica and I both fangirled over meeting Susan Kroger, Modcloth's co-founder, and Winston, that adorable pug mascot. I'll try to post all of my photos this week, but the meantime, check out my Instagram for a few photos.

This outfit was one that I wore to work last week, and it's a new favorite of mine. I love the mustard color of this top and the scalloped detail is beautiful. It's nice not having a dress code for work, but part of me does kind of wish I had an excuse to challenge myself more with business professional attire. Though I have to admit, I like the fact that someone in my office building most likely thinks of me "that girl in the polka dot dress." I wouldn't be surprised. 

Pinstriped Pure Joy

If I could design a dream dress for myself, it probably wouldn't be too far off from this one from Shop Ruche. I've been trying so hard to save up for an apartment, but I can't lie. Right after I got my job, I might have done some perusing on Ruche with thoughts that I deserved to treat myself with adulthood finally on the horizon. From the moment I laid eyes on this dress, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I put it in my cart, left it there, took it out of my cart, put it back in, and dreamed about it. Then I came back it to it the next day, promotional code for a discount on all dresses in "hand." And, well, somehow I magically found this dress in my room two days later. I told myself that it was really an excuse to support a local business (Ruche is based out of the city I currently live in), but we all know I'm just weak. So, so weak. 

I wanted to save this dress for a time when I knew I'd get good use out of it and a time when I'd be able to take outfit pictures. I waited until I went to Venice over the weekend with my friend Caitlin, and did that embarrassing thing most of us bloggers do of asking someone I don't see often to take photos of my outfit. Fortunately, Caitlin was game, and she took some great photos for me. I remembered this sidewalk and green house from back when I took photos with Kelsey, and it proved to be perfect and secluded once again. Venice is just too damn photogenic in general if you ask me, and it's the perfect place to highlight a perfect dress. 

Mint Lace

By the time you're reading this, I'll have seen Jenny Lewis perform live for the first time in my life. Lewis is one of my all-time favorite musicians, and I've listened to Rilo Kiley ever since my brother and sister-in-law burned me a few CDs when I was probably 13 or 14. I've never gotten to see her live, but somehow I now find myself seeing her twice in the span of a month. Whitney and I bought tickets to see her perform with Ryan Adams (also exciting) in Pomona next month, but the seats are pretty bad. So when I saw another one of my all-time favorite people, Adam Scott, tweet a link to a show in LA for only $25, I immediately sent info to my two best friends and told them that we were going. The event is a night of comedy and music that Lewis, Sarah Silverman, Tim Heidecker, and more are performing. The show was technically last night, but I'm writing this ahead of time, but I think it's safe to just assume that it was incredible. Hopefully. 

I got this Ruche dress a few weeks ago with the floral dress on sale, but I've been saving this one for the perfect occasion. I figured seeing Jenny Lewis was an appropriate event for a cool lace dress. I really love that it has the potential to be dressed up and dressed down so easily, and I'm looking forward to hopefully playing around with it for a wedding coming up. It's still not cold here, which I know I should be grateful for, but I'm itching to put on my layers. I'm so close to being able to justify putting on tights, but until then I'm making do with booties and comfy sweaters. I'm really just lying to myself now.

Update: I ended up swapping out the cardigan for a leather jacket. The show was incredible and probably one of the best nights of my life. More updates to follow. I'm still processing everything.

Jeff Winger

Whenever I write posts late at night, it's usually because I've been doing something awesome that has kept me up. Okay, oftentimes, it's really just because I've stayed up too late watching a TV show, but last night was was of those rare times when I actually had a reason to be kept awake. I went to another taping of the Harmontown podcast, which is starting to become a regular thing with my friends. It started as something I introduced to my friend Adam, and we've been to two tapings ever since we realized that Meltdown Comics (where it's taped) isn't that far of a drive and that it's only $10. Since the last one we went to, we've gotten a few more friends into the podcast, and a small group of us went last night. Harmontown is always unpredictable, since you never really know what Dan Harmon will talk about or who will end up on stage, but it's not every time that a huge celebrity drops in. Sure, there's always that hope that someone famous will make an appearance, but it's certainly not expected. That said, I was shocked when a guy in the front row started freaking out at someone backstage, Harmon said that he had told a friend to stop by, and Joel McHale ran out and did a lap around the room. As a giant "Community" fan, and a fan of McHale's comedy in general, I was elated, especially when he sat down on stage and stayed for the entire show. He was just as funny and charming live as you'd expect, and watching him play Dungeons & Dragons will likely be one of my favorite experiences ever. Harmon & co. often make jokes about how busy and famous McHale is, so I never once expected to see him there. The great thing about the Nerd Melt showroom is that the theater is tiny (I think it only seats about 100), so we got to be fairly close to him. And might I add, he was just as attractive in person as one might hope. And by "one," I mean that's what I was thinking about.

Enough humble bragging ("Community" reference!); let's talk about the outfit. Ruche sales at any time or place are dangerous, but they're especially dangerous when you realize that you live 20 minutes away from Ruche's warehouse and that the website offers warehouse pickups (so no shipping cost) and 10% off your purchase if you do. I ended up getting two dresses that I've had my eye on for a while, including this one, for less than $30. Even though I'm craving fall, I love that I can still buy summer dresses and wear them all year round. This one in particular has me swooning over the print, and the cut is just dreamy. At some point I hope to layer it over tights and boots for a fall or winter ensemble, but for now, I'm happy wearing it with a light sweater for an afternoon out with my sister-in-law and nephew. 

Wishlist: Graduation

I decided that I'm going to start sharing wishlists for specific occasions, and I couldn't think of a better way to start than with graduation right around the corner. Thanks to a wonderful Flock Together girl, I already know what I'll be wearing, but it hasn't stopped me from looking at other pretty options online. My graduation isn't too formal, and I can't afford most of the things on this list, but a girl can dream. To say that I'm clumsy would be an understatement, so I also picked out some gorgeous flats and short wedges to go with them. Is it weird that I almost want to graduate twice so I can wear my outfit that I have planned and get one of these?

Full Disclosure: In case you haven't noticed, I have started using to Reward Style. What this means is that any time you click on an item I post and buy something from that website, I'll receive a small commission. However, I ONLY post items that I actually like, and they are not sponsored links in any way (no one asked me to post this). I use for two reasons: 1. It's a prettier, more appealing way to share items with you and 2. Yes, I could use the extra money. I don't blog for the money, but I do put a lot of time into it. If I'm going to be working at unpaid internships this summer as it looks like, any extra money will help me continue to to blog.

All I Ever Wanted

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Today's my birthday and, if you couldn't tell, I have a childlike enthusiasm about it. As I've said before, I'm mostly just thrilled to be hitting that milestone of turning 21, even if I am incredibly lame about it. I thought it would be fun to share some items on my wishlist, ignoring the fact that they're all out of my own and my loved ones' price ranges. I'd be perfectly happy if everyone just wanted to forgo buying me drinks and just gets me pretty dresses instead. On the off chance that my wish comes true and my brothers or any random kind soul takes the hint, I'm generally a size medium. Thanks in advance, world.