Cutout

Is it Monday already? These weekends (and just weeks in general) have been flying by too fast. But anyway, here's a fairly simple outfit I wore yesterday. I got this top recently, and I love how the cutouts are done in a classy way. It's such a good, versatile piece that will go with everything, but is completely unique. It makes for a perfect "winter" piece right now while I'm living in 70-80 degree weather. I guess tights weather is gone for good, but it was nice while it lasted.

I wore this yesterday to hang out with two of my best friends. I'll be honest, having everything change in my life suddenly isn't getting any easier. In addition to my parents selling the house I grew up in and dealing with potential buyers coming in while I'm home, I also have to deal with one of my closest friends, Jon, moving. He's moving to Washington today, so I pretty much spent my entire weekend with him, putting off saying goodbye for as long as possible. It was tough. I'm not a particularly emotional person, but goodbyes always seem to get me. I can already tell that I'm going to be a wreck when I have to say goodbye to this house this month. Is it too much to ask for everything to just stay the same forever? That's a reasonable request, right?

Why Wait?

All cards on the table, I haven't actually worn this outfit anywhere yet. I may have also just gotten this top in the mail yesterday and then immediately took pictures in it. You see, I realized recently that in my big closet cleanout, I managed to be left with a ton of dresses, a large amount of skirts, and barely any tops. So when I, ahem, " accidentally" clicked on a J. Crew Factory email, you know, just to take a quick peak, I couldn't help but think it was time I spend the money on some well-made basics. There was a 30% off coupon code, and since J. Crew Factory is actually really reasonable, I ended up buying this short sleeved button down and another simple Peter Pan collar top. They both came in the mail yesterday, and when I realized that I had forgotten to take outfit pictures for today's post, I figured "why not?" Might as well take one of the tops for a spin to make sure I'm getting my money's worth, right? The result is a super simple outfit that I really love. I'm thinking I need more short sleeved button downs in my life (especially with Peter Pan collars) because I'm pretty sure I want this to be my summer uniform. Relaxed, easy, but still cute. This is pretty much all I want to wear.

In other news, I saw "Boyhood," the new Richard Linklater movie last night. If you haven't heard of it yet (it's still only being shown in limited release), it was shot over the course of 12 years and shows a boy's (Ellar Coltrane, an unknown actor who has essentially only filmed this his entire career) from when he was 6 until he was 18. I have a pop culture post planned to go up either Friday or Sunday where I'll talk about it more in detail, but I do just want to recommend it right now to everyone. It was completely different than anything I have ever seen, and it was beautiful. It sounds cheesy, but it was honestly more of an experience than a movie. Even though Coltrane plays a character, the audience gets to see him (not to mention the other actors including Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette) actually grow and change over the course of 12 years. I'm having such a difficult time putting my experience watching it into words, but hopefully I'll be able to make sense of this jumble of thoughts and feelings by the time I write that pop culture post. In the meantime, go see it. See it right now.

Weekend

Oh, summer. What is it about you that makes me just want to throw something light on and be done with it? For non-internship days (especially days after working at the restaurant), a sleeveless top and airy skirt are just about all I've been putting on. I assume we're pretty much all in the same point at this point of summer, so I don't feel so bad.

The past few days have been fairly exciting. One of my best friends, Jeremy, proposed to his girlfriend last night and as "the female groomsmen" as I've dubbed myself without telling him, I've spent some time helping him with the proposal. His family owns a limo (because that's normal, right?) and he had our friend Adam drive his girlfriend and her friends around on a scavanger hunt around Orange County in it. On Thursday, Adam drove all us, plus our friend Jon, out to dinner in it to practice driving, which meant I got to be fancy for the night. Then yesterday, I helped Jeremy set up for the proposal at his girlfriend's house as she was being driven around. For once my inner Pinterest side came through as I helped make paper lanterns to hang from trees in her backyard. I'm not a particularly sappy person, but I have to admit that it was incredibly sweet and the place turned out to look beautiful. 

Even though Jeremy's a couple years older than me, it's still weird to be at that age where my friends are getting engaged. All of this growing up stuff is messing with my head.

Neutrals

Before I talk about anything else, let's get this out of the way — this top is by far one of the best items I've ever received in a swap. When a girl agreed to swap me this for a shirt I haven't even worn in a long time, I was half tempted to send her back a message that said, "joke's on you, I'm getting the way better end of the deal!" I've realized that almost all of my Forever 21 pieces have from swaps, mostly due to how much of a nightmare it is to step foot in that store, regardless of how many cute things I know I'll find. As much as I have issues with it, there are those select items hiding out in there that are actually well-made and don't look cheap to even the most untrained eye. This top is one of those gems. I was this close to pairing it with fun colors, but I ended up liking it better as I went the all natural route. 

These pictures were taken by my friend Alena outside of South Coast Plaza, a really upscale mall in Orange County. As with every time we visit the mall, we spent the day having conflicting feelings of happiness from being around such gorgeous designer clothes and depression from knowing that we could never afford any of it. Really though, it's always fun to look around at the designer boutiques, especially since a Lanvin store just opened recently and it's not far from the Miu Miu store. There's also some more affordable stores, like H&M and Zara, but my favorite part of going there is always visiting Madewell. What I would give to own everything in that store. 

Stripes and old boots

Time is not on my side. These photos are a little bright (which is in NO way Jennifer/my photographer slave's fault) and it's really because of my lack of free time. See, when you take pictures in the middle of work (while you're trying to write a recap of Walking Dead last minute and your photographer has 9879870 stories to edit), you don't really get to be picky about where you take them or where the best light is. Then when you have classes until 1:00, a lab until 3:30, club meeting until 6:00, and a ridiculous amount of people to email/other work to do, it's a little difficult to find time to edit pictures. It's even harder when you don't really have a great grasp on how to do so correctly, nor the time to learn. So, voila, bright photos.

This outfit came together kind of randomly, I really just kept putting things on and hoped for the best. I picked up this sweater at a thrift store for either $1 or $2 and it's one of those pieces that I ended up loving even more when I got home. It's also one of those items that's way too big, but I'm finding ways for it to work anyway. That's how much I love striped sweaters. As for the boots, they're actually not new, despite showing up here for the first time. I bought them a year ago and wore them all last fall, however, when I pulled them out this year, I decided that I hated them. They felt cheap and I started looking for a new tall black pair (because why wouldn't I need a new pair?), but then decided I try these again before I coughed up the big bucks that all boots cost. They still feel a little cheap, but I decided I like them again. Who knows how I'll feel next week. Or tomorrow.

Sweater: Thrifted

Button down: Madewell (sale!)

Skirt: Darling, via Hautelook

Boots: Endless

Necklace: Gift

Ring: L.A. boutique

Green lake water and a new face

I realized not too long ago that I've yet to take outfit photos while I'm wearing glasses. I've worn glasses since I was 7, but upgraded to contacts when I was in Jr. high and have mostly stuck to them. I've never really liked my glasses all that much, but I got a new pair about a month ago and now I seem to want to wear them all the time. They'll probably be making more regular appearances on the blog, so consider this an introduction to my new face.

I got coffee with my friend Patty this morning and she was nice enough to hop over to a park with me and help me take a few photos. This was my first time taking outfit photos with my own camera, so the quality might not be the best. I've got the wearing cute outfits and writing parts of having a personal style blog down, but I'm completely clueless when it comes to photography.

I wear this Darling skirt all the time, but I haven't taken pictures in it since my very first outfit post. I probably wear it too much, actually. Not that I care, the color goes with everything. This top is definitely one of my best thrifted finds. It's another one that's a size too big, but I make it work anyway. On an unrelated note, am I only one who's too immature to take the term "pussy bow" seriously? It just reminds me of that episode of Arrested Development when Michael doesn't realize that Rita is saying he's sweet when she calls him a pussy and he tries to prove his manliness to her for the rest of the episode. Obviously, I just look for any excuse to reference Arrested Development.

Top: Thrifted

Skirt: Darling, via Hautelook sale

Tote: Clothes Horse

Flats: UO

Ring: boutique in L.A.

Bracelet: Thrifted