Dapper Day Fall 2019

Oh yes, it's that time - another Dapper Day recap! This the fifth Dapper Day I've attended, and while I don't necessarily have a ton to share about this one, I really like that I can look back through my blog and see every one of my Dapper Days (both the experience and the outfit) documented. 

First, let's talk about the outfit for this one. As with every Dapper Day, it was a STRUGGLE. First, I ordered a dress from a vintage seller and it was an ordeal. Long story short, the dress was both damaged and didn't fit, so that was a no-go. Then, I ordered a dress off of Unique Vintage. I absolutely love it, but it didn't fit quite right and was a little baggy. I had every intention of just making it work, but after I put it on in the morning, I just didn't feel good in it. Dapper Day can be a lot of pressure on people, but it was less about impressing anyone and more about just feeling my best. I own a lot of vintage that I don't wear often, so I dug through my closet to see if I could find anything better, and I honestly put this outfit together maybe 20 minutes before my friends got to my apartment. It worked out because I used most of the accessories I had planned for my original outfit so it wasn't TOO last-minute. Both this top and skirt are really special vintage pieces to me, and I ended up being happier that I could break them out for this. 

(Almost) 31 Days of Halloween

Happy Halloween! It's been a hot minute since I last wrote a blog post, but I shared nothing but Halloween looks on Instagram all October so I wanted to give a little bit more detail as to how I did it. I've never been the biggest Halloween fan, but the past couple of years I've started to dip my toes into getting excited about the season. This year, my girl Alyssa decided to do 31 days of Halloween outfits, and since we take most of our outfit pictures together, I decided (with her help) to go along with the theme this month as well. I actually found it extremely inspiring to stick to a theme for the month. Even though I still had the question of "what do I wear?", it really narrowed it down. I think I want to start doing more theme months, so I'll be doing all fall looks in November and all Christmas looks in December.

My hesitance toward Halloween looks previously has been that I've found it hard to justify spending money on items that I can only wear for a month. I still bought some new pieces for October, but here's how I did it on a budget:

• Bought fall items that I could easily style for Halloween, but also wear outside of the spooky season (the outfit above is a good example).
• Used anything black, white, orange, green, and purple that I owned. 
• Bought affordable accessories (like earrings and pins) that could make outfits more Halloween-friendly, but wouldn't break the bank. I bought most of these from small, women-owned shops like Femme de Bloom, Em and Sprout, and Mint Julep Maven.
• Borrowed items from Alyssa. I recognize that I'm fortunate to have such a stylish and generous friend who wears the same size as me and has seemingly unlimited Halloween goodies, so this tip isn't for everyone. But still, sharing items with friends can apply to anyone!

You can see all of my Halloween looks on my Instagram, but here's some of my favorites (so...most of them) and details on the outfits.

3 Summer Outfits

It's been far too long since I've put together an actual outfit post for this blog, but I took some cute photos today and it gave me the motivation. I'm not naive enough to think that I'll write a separate blog post for each outfit, though, so here are three outfits that I'll be wearing all summer.

Side note: strange as it is to say, last week marked 7 years (!!!) of blogging for me. It really does feel like yesterday that I was dragging my sister-in-law outside to help me take my first set of outfit photos, and I couldn't even imagine the community I'd find through doing this. I usually try to do some sort of giveaway to celebrate, but considering I'm not doing a great job of keeping this up, it didn't feel right to make a big deal out of celebrating. Well, that and I got lazy. But also the other thing.

Weekend Wears #2

Considering I take photos of my outfits every weekend, but can barely muster up the motivation to blog them regularly, I figured that sticking to a consolidated format would work great. Going forward, I'm going to be sharing a few outfits at a time, with some exceptions. I have a few of really exciting collaborations coming up, and I'm starting to feel optimistic about keeping this up again!

As for this past weekend, it was the first one in weeks where I had virtually no plans. The last few weeks consisted of my sister-in-law's bachelorette party, my brother's wedding, and Dapper Day, so needless to say it's been a little exhausting (in the best possible way). I wanted to take it easy this week so I slept in, did some cleaning, and caught up on a lot of TV - both myself and with Jon. We watched all of Barry, and I'm so into it. I can't wait to watch more. 

On Sunday, we did some grocery shopping and photo shoots before going to a friend's place for Thai food and even more TV. This first outfit is what I wore on Sunday, and I'm obsessed with this dress. It's a bit different from what I normally wear so I had a little bit of struggle with styling it. I actually wore it out to dinner on its own during the bachelorette weekend in Palm Springs, but I felt much more comfortable wearing it with a cardigan over it. I wouldn't call myself a "modest fashion blogger," because I'm all for others sharing their skin and showing off what they've got, but I always feel a little naked without a sweater. I swear I have some skin under there though!

Weekend Wears

Hello again, old friend! I've only been blogging when the mood strikes, and while it hasn't for a while, I'm starting to get the bug again. I miss the writing aspect, and while I share all of my outfits on Instagram now, it sometimes feels like too small of a platform for the amount of effort I put into photos. This might be my only post this month, or maybe it'll motivate me to do it more often, but I'm happy to be here for the time being. 

I did already share these outfits on Insta, but I thought it might be fun to do a little roundup of all of the outfits I wore in San Diego with links to the items. I was there for my brother's wedding, and it was the BEST weekend. My whole family was there, including on of my brothers and kids from Illinois, and because my brother married one of my friends from high school, some of my best friends were there as well. It was just so wonderful to see both families get along so well all weekend and see how loved they are, and the night of the actual wedding could not have been better. Everyone was having so much fun that the wedding was over before anyone realized because we were all having too much fun. Jon and I stayed until Monday so that we could spend some extra time with my brother from out of state and my nieces and nephew, which was the best, but the rest of this week has been tough. Going back to work after a weekend of partying and relaxing in San Diego is not easy!

But anyway, the outfits. The last dress in this post is what I wore to the rehearsal lunch (definitely overdressed, but whatever) and the other two were a couple of your typical "getting food with family in San Diego" looks. You know the ones. I was a bridesmaid, and while the dress was really pretty, it felt good to be in my own retro clothes after the wedding. Also, I should stress that this post is in no way sponsored by Unique Vintage. I just happened to place an order that came in right before we left and couldn't help but bring all of my new pieces with me.

Top: vintage (similar, similar) | Skirt: Hell Bunny via Unique Vintage | Purse: Thrifted | Shoes: BAIT Footwear (similar)

Top: Voodoo Vixen via Unique Vintage | Skirt: Vintage via Elsewhere Vintage  (similar)| Cardigan: MAK Sweater (similar) | Shoes: BAIT Footwear

Dress: Unique Vintage | Shoes: BAIT Footwear (similar)

Disney Darling

Have you been able to tell that I'm seriously loving having a Disneyland pass again? Well, I am. I've been having an absolute blast going about once a week after work, and it's been so much fun feeling that infamous Disney joy on a regular basis. The best parts of having a pass: 1. I don't feel the pressure to go on every ride each time I'm there because I can come back whenever I want and 2. it opens up an entirely new facet of my blogging/outfit photo hobby. So many new locations to take photos at, new themes to plan outfits around, accessories to buy... it's exciting! If there's one way I think I've grown in the past year or so, it's learning to not be embarrassed by this hobby. I've spent a lot of time in my five years of blogging acting sheepish about taking photos and apologizing to the people I'm with. When it comes down to it, it's a silly thing to do, but it's also my favorite. I love planning shoots and learning about photography and what kind of aesthetic I like. I've done a lot better at owning up to the fact that this is something I enjoy and not a thing to be embarrassed by, but this weekend really drove that point home for me.

For starters, I went to the Museum of Ice Cream on Saturday with Erica. I have a dedicated blog post coming this week so I won't elaborate too much just yet, but the entire museum was filled with people trying to get the right Instagram shots. At Disneyland, I started to notice more than ever just how many spots had lines of people waiting to taking photos. What I'm trying to say is that, well, we're all doing it. It's silly and self-indulgent, but you know what? It's fun. And though I used to be convinced of it, no one is judging me. They're all just waiting to get their own perfect shots. In a way, it's just another lesson that Disneyland taught me. That and, always double check that they put alcohol in your drink because I'm pretty sure my Spine Chilling Lemonade did NOT have vodka in it even though I paid for the alcoholic version. You win some, you lose some.

I'm genuinely curious, how many of you have also had to deal with learning to not be embarrassed about style blogging? Or did you naturally have no shame about it from the beginning?

I was thrilled to bust out this dress yesterday for the first time. Despite the fact that I've been drawn to bright colors lately, this black Voodoo Vixen dress caught my eye recently, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I got a Unique Vintage gift card last week, and I looked at just about every single dress on the site, but I kept coming back to this one. The material is much stretchier than I had expected so I think I might have been better off sizing down, but it's not nearly noticeable enough to return it. If you're short like me, you may want to consider doing so as I kept having to pull it down in the back so it wasn't too large in the shoulders, but it was still comfortable enough. It's super breathable, and it ended up being great for a long day at the parks. 

The best part of this outfit though has to be the ears. Erica made them for me when I showed her a pair made out of Rifle Paper Co. fabric that I wanted to buy. I got the fabric for a fraction of the price as the ears I had seen, and Erica was a true angel and made them for me. Don't they look amazing? I'm going to wear them All. The. Time.

Dress: Voodoo Vixen via Unique Vintage (exact dress here)

Shoes: Modcloth (exact shoes here)

Ears: made by Sweets and Hearts (similar here)

Back At It

Hiya there. Should we talk about the fact that I haven't posted in a month? Nah, you get it. Work, exhaustion, being an adult...the blogging thing has just kind of fallen by the wayside for me, and I've still been questioning if I feel fulfilled by it. So, I took another short break, and I'm glad I did. I'm feeling re-energized lately, though, so I want to get back into it. Before I really do, I thought it made sense to share these outfits that have been sitting on my computer for a while. While I haven't been posting, I've still been taking photos regularly and posting them on Instagram. It's still part of my regular routine, I just haven't been taking the time to edit them and write about them. So please enjoy these Instagram outfits (they're some of my favorites), and look out for some actual outfit posts soon. Hopefully. I think. We'll see. 

OTS Again

Happy belated Father's Day to all of you dads! Just kidding. I am positive that there are no dads reading this. On that note, though, my family did have a lovely holiday yesterday. I made guacamole, my brother brought beer, and we all made s'mores. My dad seemed super happy, which is really all that matters. I'm very close with my dad, so it's always nice to see him in such a good mood.

As for this outfit, I really don't have much to say about it, but I do love it. I kind of threw it together on a whim, and it turned out better than expecting. I'm still absolutely loving off the shoulder tops, so I'm wearing them as much possible. I can't get enough of the neck scarf trend, and now I just want to wear them with every outfit. Would that be weird? Let's hope not because it's happening.

I'm going to Disneyland again tomorrow night, and I'm crazy excited about going all the time now. It was so much fun being back in the parks last week, and I love that having a pass means that I don't have to try to cram everything in each time. Last week we didn't go on many rides at all and instead just walked around and ate, which was perfect. Because I grew up so close, there's something about Disney that just always like home. 

Vintage Inspired Mustard

Hello from gloomy Palm Springs! That's right, I happened to visit during the one time of year it rains here. And okay, fine, Palm Springs is only about an hour and a half away from me, so it's not like I was coming here for the weather. It actually was raining while I took these photos, which is the only reason why they were taken on our balcony. When the weather is nice, I usually try to take photos in front of one of the cute houses with a white picket fence on our street, unless I can convince Jon to go somewhere other than our block. When it's rainy though, my options are limited. This isn't my favorite my background, but it gets the job done.

While you apparently all thought that Monday's outfit was the best thing I've ever worn (according to the majority of comments I got on Instagram at least), this one is actually my new favorite. I've always loved vintage styles, but ever since I started following more vintage bloggers, I've been drawn to it even more lately. I still love doing a mix of vintage and modern as I've always done, but I couldn't resist just going for it when I realized how perfect this mustard top looked with this skirt. It begged for BAIT wingtips, a bow in my hair, and curled bangs. I took these photos on Sunday, and I haven't been able to stop wearing my hair like this since. 

Palm Spring Neutrals

Oh look, for once I'm trying something new! I've been eyeing off the shoulder tops since they started becoming trendy recently, but I wasn't sure if I had the body type to pull it off. Being pretty busty, I tend to shy away from things that require me to wear a strapless bra. That said, I was perusing Unique Vintage during their 20% off sale and noticed that this ruffled off the shoulder top actually looked fairly flattering AND was affordable. So I figured why not? As luck would have it, I absolutely love it. I'll definitely get more use out of it in the summer, but I can't wait to bust it out on those sweltering days when the mere thought of putting on clothes makes you sweat. For once, I will be a little prepared. 

I'm leaving for Palm Springs today for a conference, and while I'll be wearing work-appropriate clothes while I'm there, I thought it might be fun to do an outfit based on what I wish I could wear. If I were just going for vacation, you better believe I'd be packing this top and skirt combo. Regardless, I'm still excited. This will be my first big e-commerce conference with my current company, and there will be speakers from some huge companies. Plus, one of my closest friends happens to be attending with her work as well, so I know it'll be fun. 

P.S. Don't forget - today's the last day to enter the Feminist Resistance Giveaway! Don't miss out.