modcloth sale alert! (it's a good one!)

I get really excited about modcloth sales since a lot of their items can be too pricey unless they're marked down -- but I'm really REALLY excited about this particular one because it's chock-full of super cute items. Sometimes the sale section is stocked with pieces I wouldn't want anyway, but this time it's literally almost 4,000 (!!!) ridiculously cute and pretty things marked down a whopping FIFTY percent. YESSS.

If you're itching to take a look, you can view the sale section here. Everything pictured in my image is on sale (including this dress I wore in my last outfit post!) yay!

a new hope

Yesterday me and Kyle went to see Star Wars at The Film Forum in New York. He dressed up like Darth Vader and I did my best impression of a 1960's storm trooper.

I was originally trying to channel c3po with a gold glittery dress that's tucked away in my closet and hardly ever gets to see the light of day, but without any other accessories I just looked like I was going to a fancy party. After lots of last-minute closet rummaging I put this together and I was pretty happy with how it turned out! Once I stood next to Kyle... er.. Darth Vader.. I think it was more obvious that I was supposed to be a storm trooper.



It was really fun seeing Star Wars on the big screen. My experiences at the Film Forum tend to be really hit or miss. I'd say about half of the screenings I've attended have had wonderful, respectful audiences. When I went to see Dr. Zhivago two weeks ago you could have heard a pin drop in the theater. It was wonderful! When I saw the original Japanese Godzilla back in April, everyone was horribly disrespectful and kept laughing at things that weren't even remotely funny. If you've seen the Japanese version you know that it's a lot more serious and less B-movie than the American version. It didn't deserve that kind of reception.

Star Wars fell somewhere in between. Obviously a lot of Han Solo's lines deserve a little chuckle, but people seemed to be laughing AT the movie, not at the funny lines in the movie (if that makes sense?) I mean serious stuff, like when poor little r2d2 is damaged towards the end. I thought Star Wars would have been immune from this kind of thing?? It didn't ruin the screening for me like the Godzilla audience did, but it was still really annoying.

After the movie we decided to take advantage of Kyle's costume to get some photos around the city. We ended up walking to a lot of the major tourist attractions for a little series of Darth Vader going sight-seeing. My personal favorite was his selfie in Times Square, ha!

dress - asos | black sweater - f21 | cardigan - thrifted | tights - we love colors

purse - h&m | hat - vintage | shoes - payless | sunglasses - asos | lipstick- nyx

a very happy dress

As much as I love layering, finding fun color combinations, accessorizing with cute brooches and accessories -- sometimes a dress is so good that you only need to throw on matching shoes & a matching belt and you're all set.

I was a little worried this dress would be too toddler-ish at first, but then I thought about all the times that I've walked past the kids section at Target with a single tear rolling down my cheek, heartbroken that all of the really cute clothes are reserved for people 2' and under. If I like this dress, who the heck cares if it looks too young for me? I sure don't. So I got it. And guess what? I think it's pretty darn perfect. It's probably my new favorite dress in my whole closet.

Moral of the story? Just wear whatever you want and be happy.

dress- c/o modcloth | shoes - bait footwear | belt - from another dress

a girl can never have too many etsy shops

I've been working on a new project that I am super thrilled about and I hope so badly I'm not alone in my enthusiasm, haha!

About a month ago I had a train of thought that probably started with "I'm hungry" and somehow led to "there really needs to be a garlic* fan club," which led to "there should be fan clubs for all KINDS of awesome things" which led to me starting a new etsy shop, of course.

It's called Your Fan Club - and the premise is that there is a fan club for everyone. I brainstormed and came up with about 40 fan clubs to start with, but I'm planning on adding more on a weekly basis. From the very obscure (Bradford Dillman Fan Club, a nod to Millie) to the kind of obscure (Joan Blondell Fan Club) to the cult favorites (Bill Murray and Ira Glass Fan Clubs) to the pop culture heroes (Dwight Schrute and Ron Swanson Fan Clubs) to the science rock stars (Carl Sagan and Nikola Tesla Fan Clubs.) There's food, people, animals (well, animal. just dinosaurs at the moment) and even causes like feminism and kindness.

The fan club pins are all 1" and laser-cut from black and white acrylic and feature my drawings in the center of each pin (except for the heart on the kindness pin, that was clipart courtesy of photoshop.) I'm really excited about the classic movie pins -- I've been wanting to re-purpose some of my old drawings and paintings and this was the perfect way to do it! You better believe I'm keeping a Robert Montgomery fan club pin for myself ;)

*And* I also have custom listings in case your fan club isn't listed. Want a pin for the Basil Ice Cream Fan Club? How about the Rubber Ducky Fan Club? Literally anything is possible. Technically they don't even have to say fan club! If you want to order a custom pin with different text that's totally fine!

*AND* the pins are kind of super cheap. They're only $6 each or 4 for $20. I also have a listing for 12 pins for $48, which is perfect for ordering the most awesome party favors or stocking stuffers EVER.

Ok, that's about it! If you want to check out the shop, it's Your Fan Club and you can pop over and visit right here. yay!



*I'm not kidding, this train of thought also involved me wrangling my family into attending the Garlic Festival in The Poconos in August.

UPDATE 12/2017 -- This etsy shop is now closed but you can still find most of my fan club buttons in my shop here.

zing and peplum

If you got the title reference, I love you.

You know, in general I like fall and winter much more than spring and summer but I realized yesterday that my brain seems to really like spring. A lot. I was looking back through my archives and almost all of my favorite outfits are from June/July each year. I come up with more new artwork and products, my mind is racing with ideas for projects and I even seem to be better at staying on top of things (except email, of course. even in spring my brain still loathes email.)

Case in point -- tomorrow I am launching a SUPER exciting new project (seriously, I'm so excited I COULD BURST! I don't even know how I'll wait until tomorrow) I started working on my 2015 calendar illustrations, I'm working on my first two (two!) e-books and I just finished a new blog layout for Sammi from The Soubrette Brunette. And, I kind of love every single outfit I've posted this month.

I wish I could figure out what exactly makes my brain work better this time of year. Is it the bugs? The humidity? Maybe my brain runs more smoothly when my body is riddled with histamines. Whatever it is, I'm taking advantage of the creativity and productivity boost while I can :)

blouse - uo | skirt - c/o chicwish | shoes - bait footwear | belt - from another dress

for whom the bell tolls

First things first -- my hair is up! YAY! It requires an army of bobby pins, but it's kind of long enough for maiden twists. I'll probably keep wearing it down until it gets slightly longer but it's nice to know that I have an option on really hot summer days :)

I recently got this shirt in the mail and I've been wearing it quite a bit with backless dresses. I rely heavily on wearing a bra (haha!) so I usually have to layer cardigans over anything backless, but the design on this shirt is absolutely perfect for concealing my straps and looking pretty at the same time. And the sleeves bell out a bit at the end which is one of my all-time favorite details in clothing. Give me a bell sleeve and I'm a happy girl!

dress- asos | lace shirt - c/o chicwish | shoes - vintage

saturday night movie: torn curtain

I consider myself a pretty big Alfred Hitchcock fan, and I think I've seen almost all of his movies, give or take a few silents... and Torn Curtain. I'm not entirely sure how it eluded me all these years but, until this week, I had never seen it. I've always heard that it wasn't too great, so I popped it into my DVD player with incredibly low expectations. And I was pleasantly surprised!

I thought it got off to a slow start and didn't really grab hold of me until we - the audience - were fully informed about what was going on. I've always thought that was one of the best trademarks of a Hitchcock movie, that you're aware of things that the main characters aren't. You know that there's a murderer about to whip back the shower curtain, but Janet Leigh has NO IDEA. Once I was in the know, though, I thought the movie was incredibly suspenseful and classically Hitchcockian.

The movie stars Paul Newman (the obsession continues) and Julie Andrews as an engaged pair of scientists about to attend a conference in Copenhagen. Paul Newman's character starts acting kind of fishy and before Julie Andrews can say "iron curtain" she's caught in an unexpectedly traitorous predicament. And that is when the movie starts to get really good.

Honestly there was a part of me that was just like "Oh my gosh, Paul Newman, just tell your finance what you're up to and end this charade! For the love of God just tell her already!" Secrecy as a plot device is always a major pet peeve for me. Of course, a lot of movies depend on misunderstandings or confusion to move the plot forward, so honesty might not always be the best policy when it comes to screenwriting. There were several moments in Torn Curtain where the suspense rested completely on the lack of communication between Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. It definitely added a layer of anxiety to the first hour or so of the movie, but it's still very annoying that Newman's character would hide such a ridiculously important secret from someone who was his intellectual equal, and his partner in life.

Unnecessary secrecy aside, Torn Curtain way exceeded my expectations. Maybe it's because my expectations were so low that I was able to enjoy it so much, or maybe it's just a really great, underrated movie that deserves a second look. Either way, I think it's definitely worth a watch. Oh, and (to ruin what could have been a perfectly serious review) Paul Newman is shirtless again, so there's that. ;)

It's available to rent on amazon here.

pink lobster

Last outfit for the week! It's funny, I feel so weird about posting four in a row but when I started blogging regularly in 2011 I think I used to post one every single weekday. I also did non-outfit posts every weekday night, too.. I really blogged A LOT.

I had a lot of fun shooting this one, for some reason. Maybe it's just because it's a happy outfit (with all the pink and the collar it's impossible to feel anything but bubbly, lol!) but I had a lot of fun goofing off in my photos. Of course I still picked a kind of regular one for this post, but I shared some of the outtakes on my instagram, here.

Today I'm spending the day in New York with Nicole, we're going to see Dr. Zhivago on the big screen! I am SO excited I really just can't even deal with it. Dr. Zhivago is one of my favorite movies and I've been hoping & wishing that it would be re-released for its 50th anniversary next year. Turns out The Film Forum scheduled it for Alec Guinness' 100th birthday, so I don't even need to wait until next year :D Of course, if it's still re-released I'll probably go see it 20 times anyway, ha!

dress- c/o modcloth (and it's on sale now!) | cardigan - forever 21

collar - romwe | belt - forever 21 | shoes - bait footwear

memories are made of this

I feel like I'm exceeding an outfit post quota this week (3 and it's only Wednesday?!) but I have a bit of a backlog of pictures saved on my computer and I thought I'd just unload as many as possible this week. Plus, I've sort of been dying to share this skirt.

I spend way more time than any adult probably should thinking about the things I wish I had bought from Delias catalogs in the 90's and early 00's. I've mentioned the white Roxy strawberry bag (which, actually, I did own, but then stupidly sold on ebay and have regretted it ever since) and there was this giant inflatable piece of furniture that kind of looked like a hamster wheel for humans but it was SO cool. There was a hatbox that had the coliseum printed on it, which wasn't even for sale, but I wanted it so badly.

And then there was this skirt with an all-over print of a landscape painting. I can remember it so vividly, even the layout of the page it was featured on! I thought it was the most beautiful thing ever. It was more purple/blue-ish than this skirt, but this is probably the closest thing I've come across in the years since the Delias skirt eluded me.

Maybe it's the art history major in me, or maybe it all comes down to my star-crossed love affair with the skirt in the catalog, but I don't think I'll ever be able to resist a piece of clothing if an all-over painting print is involved. Art is beautiful on walls and in museums, but there's something to be said for wearing it, too :)

blouse - vintage | brooch -vintage | skirt - c/o chicwish | shoes - bait footwear

I'm a little teapot

Let's take a minute to appreciate this pinafore -- it's a mustard yellow corduroy fabric covered in a dainty teapot and teacup pattern. I can't even. This has to be one of the sweetest, most precious things I've ever added to my wardrobe (and -- I seem to add this every time I really love a piece of clothing -- it fits like a glove. yay!) It's from Pretty Parcel, a label with no shortage of super cute pieces (I mean, look at this scalloped onesie! this rainbow raindrop skirt!)

And I don't care if I look like an idiot, it would basically be sacrilegious to take outfit photos in a teapot covered pinafore without doing the I'm a Little Teapot pose. Right?

pinafore - c/o pretty parcel | shirt - c/o oasap | shoes - c/o bait footwear

tiptoe through the tulips

Yesterday we went to the flea market and out for brunch for Father's Day. At the flea market I spotted this amazing mural and, despite having a kind of blah outfit on and not being an outdoor-outfit-picture kind of person, I felt absolutely COMPELLED to take photos. Isn't it just perfect?

This is my go-to outfit when I'm not in a dress mood. I'm still not much of a jeans-wearer. I wear them occasionally but I don't find them as comfy as they're supposed to be! I really prefer shorts and tights. So for a day like yesterday -- outdoor shopping, lots of wind, and rolling out of bed a few minutes before it was time to leave (oops!) -- I threw on my lazy uniform: shorts, tights, a light sweater and flats. I also got these new sunglasses recently from ASOS and I love them! I realized most of the ones I own have lightly tinted lenses and aren't really great on super sunny days or days when I want to avoid eye contact, lol. These are dark enough to take care of those problems plus they feel kind of movie-star-ish, which is always a plus! :)

scalloped shorts - asos | sweater - h&m | scalloped bag - asos

shoes - blowfish | sunglasses - asos | tights - target

saturday night movie: the fuzzy pink nightgown

This probably seems contrary to what everyone in the world would think once they've seen my blog, but initially I was put off by the title of The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown. I thought it might be one of those comedies that was a little silly, a little fluffy, but not really funny. Boy, am I glad I decided to watch it anyway. For several reasons --

The movie is actually hilarious, heartwarming and really cute. Jane Russell plays an over-the-top movie star/sex symbol who gets kidnapped on the night of a big premiere. Her kidnappers don't seem to know what the heck they're doing, so Jane Russell helps them out. At the beginning it seems like an obvious spoof on the big-name blonde stars of the era, but her performance becomes much more down-to-earth as the movie wears on. Even 60 years ago people still needed reminding that film stars are humans, just like us.

Jane Russell's costar in the movie is Ralph Meeker. His name rang a bell because a couple years ago, Millie went through a crazy Ralph Meeker phase and I'd been meaning to (with obviously little determination) see one of his movies ever since. And now I get it. I absolutely, totally, 100% get why she went bananas over this guy. He's kind of like a rougher version of Frank Sinatra, without the singing. He was ridiculously perfect playing the slightly inept, but well-meaning kidnapper. After The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown I kind of binge-watched every Ralph Meeker movie I could get my hands on this week. Me and Millie watched Kiss Me Deadly on Wednesday and it's mind-blowingly awesome, kind of confusing, and absolutely riveting. I'd write a review of that one too (because, really, you need to watch it) but Millie already wrote the best one ever right here.

But back to the movie. In addition to Jane Russell and Ralph Meeker (sigh.) it had a fantastic supporting cast, snappy dialogue and (spoiler!) with the exception of one of the last lines in the movie, Jane Russell's character was a headstrong, iron-willed (and fisted!) gal. So watch it for the laughs, the romance, the story, or Ralph Meeker's smile (mostly that last one.) but just watch it. It's on Netflix here!

I heart you

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12

13 // 14 // 15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23

I love how easily accessible heart covered clothing and, well, basically everything, is to find around Valentine's Day. I love it to death so I always end up stocking up -- because I never get tired of heart-print clothing and accessories, even when February 14th is long gone. Luckily for me (and you, if you're as smitten with the motif as I am!) all of the items in this post are available this very moment. No need to wait until Target rolls out their holiday line eight months from now ;)

my favorite photo editing apps

I have a *real* camera but I use my iphone for almost all of my photos anyway. It's just easier - it's always with me, and since my cats tend to be my subject 90% of the time (okay, 99%) it's most convenient to grab my phone and quickly shoot whatever adorable thing they're doing. For blog photos I usually end up lightening them up in photoshop on my computer, but for instagram I like to edit right on my phone. I have an arsenal of (what I think are) pretty awesome photo editing apps that help make my pictures bright, sunny and beautiful! Here are my favorites --



Afterlight has been my go-to for the last year or more. It has controls for adjusting things like saturation, contrast, exposure, shadows, fill light, etc. The ones that I tend to fiddle with the most are brightness and exposure, and then I'll usually bring down the contrast a bit, too. This also has tools for straightening crooked pictures, adding white bars to non-square pictures so they'll fit in instagram and tons of really pretty filters (with opacity adjustment, yay.)



One of the first photo editing apps I ever downloaded was Photoshop Express and.. it kind of stunk. I was expecting it to be the best one ever because, well, Photoshop! A couple weeks ago I decided to try it out again and they've definitely updated the app. The exposure control on is KILLER. It comes with some nice filters, too, but you can't adjust opacity so I think that makes them kind of useless. For me this app is totally all about the exposure. I swear it brightens SO well without washing out colors, something I sometimes have a problem with in Afterlight (and even real Photoshop!)



Genius is my outfit posting buddy. I open the Genius app and stick it on self timer with a ten second repeat. It beeps to count down the seconds, and then takes a picture every ten seconds & saves it to the camera roll. Sometimes I use a camera remote but this is usually a lot easier and I'm just used to it now. It has other timed settings (you don't have to choose 10 seconds) and some other nifty features too but it's, by far, the best self timer app I've tried.



A Beautiful Mess is the only app I use for adding things like borders, images or text. In Afterlight you can add white bars to the sides of non-square photos, but I don't like posting them to Instagram that way. I need color! So whenever I have a picture that's formatted like that, I add a pink scalloped border with this app (example). I love that every embellishment has a bunch of color options and the ability to resize, change opacity and rotate. Plus the app designers are sweet and kind of super awesome.



For collage purposes, Diptic is definitely my favoite. I actually use this a lot for personal photos, just to compare pictures -- like if I try on a couple outfits for a trip I'll take photos & put them all in a Diptic to see them at a glance & decide which ones I like best. My favorite feature about this app is that you can delete the borders, so your entire image is just filled with photos. You can also keep the borders if you want, and resize them to be thick or thin. I think you can even change the color, but I love when they're borderless myself. And there are SO many layout options. Like a crazy amount.



Last but not least is Retouch. I can't count how many times one of my cats has done something SO cute but there's a bobby pin laying on the floor right next to their head. Or a picture of my workspace is done-in by a pencil smear on my table. Little details like that might not be noticeable to everyone else but YOU see them and can't see anything else, you know? Anyway, I get rid of tiny imperfections with Retouch. It's kind of like the content aware function in Photoshop except honestly I think it works even better.

And that's it! If you want to see my iphone-edited-photos you can always take a peek at my instagram ;)

peachy keen

I've been saying this a lot lately but this is one of my absolute favorite outfits. It just feels so spring-y! I love the peachy orange and light blue color combination and all the little details - the heart pocket on the skirt, the double petal collar on the blouse and my daisy collar chain. The skirt was handmade by Mallory, from her new shop, and I can't even tell you how beautiful & well-constructed it is. And you order it by selecting your waist size, not a S-M-L kind of thing that can be totally hit or miss, so it fits like a glove! I'm super happy with it & I really hope her shop is a runaway success! :D

This afternoon me and my mom are off to see Maleficent and I'm pretty excited about it. With the exception of the TCM Film Festival (oops, I still need to finish those posts!!) I haven't been to the movies since Frozen left theaters. There are actually a bunch of movies that I'm interested in seeing at the moment though, so hopefully I'll be making regular visits to the multiplex this summer!

skirt - mallory | blouse - asos | shoes - bait footwear

cardigan - forever 21 | collar clips - handmade