sick day

Hey, long time no see! I'm currently getting over a nasty cold, and I remembered this post from 2011 when I was SO determined to share five outfit posts per week (PER WEEK) that I took sick-day outfit pictures from my bed. My god, I can barely muster five outfit posts per year now.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to recreate the photo and I'm so happy with how it turned out! I'm wearing a wig that I picked up on Hollywood Blvd. when I was in California a couple weeks ago, and a vintage robe that I got on etsy a few years back. That 2011 outfit post has always been one of my favorites but, dare I say, I actually like this new one even better. I guess it just fits my current aesthetic more.

I know I'm always promising to do more posts and then disappearing for weeks (months?) but I really do intend to pick up the outfit posts again shortly :)

holiday dreaming

I'm still having a hard time shaking off this cold, blergh! I don't know about you but whenever I get sick in the summer I get really disoriented about what season it is. Colds just feel like winter. You take up a steady diet of tea and soup, bundle yourself in bed with a hundred blankets and watch feel-good movies in between coughing fits. You're stuck inside so as far as your body knows, it's snowing and the temperature is hovering just above zero.

So maybe that's why when I saw this ASOS holiday preview on Refinery29 I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Or maybe it was just the sudafed taking effect. Either way, some of these pieces are so pretty I really can't wait until they're available. The one in the top left corner looks like one of those rare seems-like-vintage-but-is-actually-new dresses, and the one in the right corner is a dream come true -- an all-over photographic print dress that *isn't* bodycon. Hooray!

I beg of you not to look at me directly

Well, I think I caught something on vacation because I am super sick at the moment :\ I hate that day right before you're full-blown sick when you just KNOW what's coming. We went down the shore Friday night and the whole day I could feel it brewing, so I tried really hard to enjoy my last night of moderate wellness before all heck broke loose the next day. It's just a stubborn head cold but man, I still hate it.

It's been a while since I did a sick day outfit post (this is my all-time favorite) For a while I was thinking about doing a pajama outfit post every Sunday (hopefully I wouldn't be sick every Sunday, haha, just wearing pjs!) and I think I might finally follow through. Maybe combined with a revived slumber party sunday sort of thing? We'll see.

By the way, the title is a quote from Bones, does anyone else watch it? I'm so hooked! I plowed through six seasons pretty fast, but when my favorite character, Vincent Nigel-Murray, left the show (I'm not saying how, because spoilers) my interest waned a bit. I love him so much! I've been re-watching his episodes... he has so many good lines, a perfect British accent, his inflection and mannerisms are adorable, and he's just ridiculously cute.

pajama pants - old navy | sweatshirt - forever 21 

bat your eyelashes

Guess what genius forgot to get her flu shot this year? Yes, that would be me. I woke up yesterday feeling pretty sick and now I'm just praying to the gods of sickness that it's just a cold and not the flu. I'm bargaining "I promise I'll get my flu shot as soon as I feel better, I PROMISE!!" and hoping they'll let me go. I basically spend October-March every year living in fear of coming down with the flu (I know, you'd think someone as petrified of sickness as me would have gotten her shot, but no, I forgot. Of course.)

Not that having a totally stuffed nose and sore throat is a walk in the park but I'll take it over the flu any day. I just really hate being one of those people who is sick on and off through winter. My mom NEVER gets sick, it's ridiculous. I seem to have inherited most health-related genes from my dad (scoliosis, high cholesterol, a weird nerve issue in our feet.. thanks, dad!) so it stands to reason that I would have gotten his weak immune system, too. Phooey!

On a less germy note, how cute are these shoes? I love inanimate objects with human features, so shoes with eyelashes are pretty awesome in my book. I also love the trompe l'oeil loafer outline, too! So adorable!!

dress - forever 21 | cardigan - old navy | shoes - c/o loly in the sky

wig- minty mix | hat - forever 21 | tights - target

sickly dedication

I kind of miss the good old days when I was so dedicated to blogging I even did an outfit post when I was sick. Right now I've been wearing the same sweater and pajama pants for two days and I wouldn't put on a dress and pose for pictures if you paid me a hundred dollars. I'm not sure what changed.. I still love blogging but I guess I've gotten so used to it and have a very blasé "eh, nobody will notice if I don't post for a week" sort of attitude that when I'm under the weather I just let it go. But I miss how every single day of my life was documented in 2011 (and most of 2012)... I think I might add "put more effort into my blog" to the long list of resolutions that are mounting for 2014. Although, honestly, as a very scatterbrained, disorganized person I'm pretty pleased with myself for having maintained my blog -- even if it's no longer updated on such a strict schedule -- for almost four years.

I'm definitely under the weather because I actually just wrote (and promptly deleted) this huge long post about diseases, the black death, funneling technology investments into curing all human ailments, and my general frustration with how many illnesses still have no cures or treatments in 2013. When I get sick I can be a little dramatic. I just hate not feeling good -- I know, who doesn't? I just don't handle it well. As much as I kind of hate my body right now (does anyone else ever feel that way, like as if it's totally separate from your brain? I think it's the sick talking again, sorry) I'm going to pamper the heck out of it and hope this goes away by Christmas. Fingers crossed!!

In the mean time I actually did take some pictures of my workspace for the first part of my apartment tour so I'll edit those tomorrow and post them :) The glamourous sick-day outfit posts, however, are probably a thing of the past lol ;)

things

Still sick.

Last Monday I went to a walk-in health center since my doctor was booked, and they gave me some medicine, did some tests and sent me home. I've just been getting worse ever since. Now I have this dry cough and tight chest that's so bad I gave up talking yesterday morning, partially because it made me start coughing uncontrollably and partially because nobody could understand what I was trying to say anyway. I think I bruised a rib or pulled a muscle from coughing so much. The only time I feel ok is when I'm sleeping so I've been trying to do that as much as possible.

Normally when I'm sick I still try to stay on top of things but this time I honestly don't care. I obviously have an obligation to answer my etsy messages and send out orders, and I'm doing that (with help from my fantastic brother & mom) but I'm just letting everything else go this time. Ironically, my etsy shop is actually having the worst month in over a year so there isn't actually that much work to do (of course the downside to this is that it's making it harder to pay for the medical bills I'm slowly racking up. this week I am really wishing I had a regular job where I could call in sick and still have a reliable income to pay for prescriptions and tests and doctor co-pays.)

Sorry I'm being so mopey... I'm just so sick of being sick. And I had so many fun projects to work on and exciting things to share here that have to be put on the back burner for now. And my Disney trip is coming up in less than a month... I'm so worried I won't be back to normal by then. I have a history of things that seem like colds turning into huge medical ordeals that last for months, so I'm just nervous this is going in that direction...

Anyway. I have an appointment with my regular doctor tomorrow afternoon so hopefully she'll give me some good news and I'll be on the road to recovery lickety split. I'm not going to post here until I'm feeling ship-shape again, but hopefully that will be very soon. xo

ps. I'm going to extend all the current sponsor spots by one week, since I don't really think it's fair to pay for ad space while I'm either absent or just moaning about being sick..

sea green and periwinkle

dress - c/o modcloth
shoes - c/o bait footwear
belt - from a vintage dress
cardigan - old navy

One week of being sick and I'm *finally* starting to feel better. Hooray! I had to venture out to Staples and the grocery store on Saturday and I think it set me back a bit, so I've been taking it easy and generally loafing around ever since. Today is the first day I've gotten dressed all week, actually!

I'm so happy mint is in style right now! I don't know about you, but I think all of my favorite colors can be traced back to the Crayola crayons I favored as a kid. Sea green and periwinkle were my most frequently used crayons and I definitely gravitate towards those colors as a grown-up too! What were your favorite crayon colors? :)

My top four favorite: things about being sick

Being sick stinks. I'm not fantastic at handling the discomfort, so I get all whiny and dramatic and generally drive my family crazy. So as I was sitting here wallowing in my stuffy-nosed misery, I decided I'd try to look on the bright side and come up with my top five favorite things about being sick. I could only come up with four, but considering how generally terrible the whole illness experience is, I think four is kind of a lot ;p

1. Watching my favorite movies from my childhood. It seems like The Brave Little Toaster and The Land Before Time only make an appearance when my temperature is hovering around 100'. They bring back happy memories and remind me of the days when being sick meant getting to stay home from school. Aka, the days when I was happy to get sick.

2. Sick comfort food. I don't think I have ever had Lipton noodle soup unless I was huddled under the covers on the couch sipping Juicy Juice and Nyquil. The funny thing is I LOVE this soup, but I only eat it when I'm under the weather.

3. Not giving a darn what I look like, and wearing my most comfy pajamas. Not only is it kind of nice to forgo the makeup for a couple days and give the tights and belts a rest, but it makes getting dressed again when I'm feeling back to normal that much more fun! I think I feel my most healthy, pretty and happy after I've just gotten over a nagging cold. There's nothing like going from a deathly pallor and sweatpants to eyeliner and posh frocks to make me feel spiffy!

4. Random bursts of fever-induced creativity. You know how your best ideas usually come when you're in the shower or JUST getting ready to fall asleep? Mine also appear whenever I'm in a sick stupor. For some reason, nothing does more for my muse than a stuffy nose and a wheezing cough!

ivy league

dress and belt - h&m
shirt - forever 21
shoes - target

This is the outfit post I was taking in the photos I posted yesterday :) I really love the way shirts look layered under dresses but I always forget it's an option. I seem to continually grab a dress and a cardigan and forget that any other form of layering exists.

Right now I'm as far removed from how I look in this picture as you can possibly get. I got knocked down by a super annoying virus yesterday morning and I've been miserably moping on the couch ever since. My doctor has me hopped up on sudafed and mucinex while the virus runs its SEVEN TO TEN DAY course. Argh! On the bright side, I see time for an entire re-watch of The Office in my future...

my first thrifting find!

skirt - thrifted!
shirt - h&m
shrug - forever 21
belt - from my grandmom
shoes - kling

So many bloggers I love always find the most amazing things at thrift stores, so I've been going more often to try to find some of my own treasures, too. And I always fail miserably. I don't know if I'm just missing the "amazing thrift find" radar, or if all of the stores in my area have a consistently hideous selection, but I've always come up dry on all of my trips. Until now! I went to Goodwill with my dad a couple weeks ago and found this fantastic 70's skirt. I love the thin, soft denim fabric and the pretty white embroidery at the bottom. But what I love even more? The $2 price tag! woo hoo! I think it was worth all the unsuccessful trips to find something unique and wonderful at such a stupendously low price :)

I have to see some dinosaurs like, right now

dress worn as a top - c/o emerging thoughts

belt - from another dress

shoes - c/o blowfish

skirt - h&m

We ended up rescheduling our post office appointment yesterday because I woke up with an insanely bad fever and felt absolutely miserable :( Luckily after a day on the couch and lots of cat naps I'm doing much better, but gee whiz did I feel rotten! I was 99% positive I had the flu, so I'm really relieved whatever it was went away, and I'm just hoping it doesn't come back.

I'm especially glad it seems to have been a one-day sort of thing because I actually have plans this weekend (shocker!) I'm having a girls day with my mom & grandmom at IKEA on Saturday, then I'm taking my family to the natural history museum on Sunday. There's this scene in How I Met Your Mother where drunk Ted says "I have to see some penguins like, right now!" ... well lately I've been feeling that way about dinosaur bones, only sober.

almost there

I'm on the mend but still not in 'getting dressed and putting on makeup' mode yet, so here's another pajama picture! I actually lost my balance when I was taking the photo, but somehow it ended up looking like I was standing that way on purpose, lol!

Also, this is my lazy braids hair. I do this a lot around the house -- it's pretty much milkmaid braids, except that once I get them criss-crossed on top of my head I just secure them with big pink claw clips instead of inconspicuous bobby pins. I usually do this right after I wash my hair, too... I'll just blow dry my bangs and clip the rest up in loose braids so it can air dry!

ps. Lilly suggested in the comments on my last post that I should do pajama outfit photos to go with my slumber party sunday posts (which I promise are going to be coming back really soon!) and I LOVE that idea! I'm definitely doing it! :D

sick day.

Wednesday night I got hit with some sort of bug and I've been feeling absolutely miserable ever since :( Hypatia has a head cold too, the poor thing, so we've both been laying in bed under the covers sniffling and sneezing. Her vet & my doctor basically prescribed the same medicine -- antibiotics, hot broth (low sodium for Hypatia) and lots of rest. I've also been breezing through Lost on netflix, but it's been creeping into my dreams a lot, which is freaking me out a bit. Recurring dreams about being stuck on an island where people are trying to kill you doesn't exactly help with a peaceful night's rest lol.

Anyway. I'm never sure what to post here when I'm sick... I'm obviously not dolled up for normal outfit photos and I'm usually way too exhausted to come up with anything else that requires the least bit of energy. But I still want to keep blogging... so I thought, why not take outfit photos in my pajamas? It's probably silly, but it's easy and I do have some pretty cool pjs, if I do say so myself!

Hopefully I'll feel better soon but if not expect to see some more of my amazing flannel pajama collection this week ;p

sniffles

dress/sweater - h&m

shoes - target/DIY cat faces

I'm feeling majorly under the weather this week, so I'm trying desperately to get work done while also spending lots of time laying in bed watching netflix and eating soup. Speaking of netflix, I just discovered How I Met Your Mother and I'm totally hooked! Is anyone else a fan of the show? Who are your favorites? I really like Marshall and Lily!

slow motion

dress - modcloth

cardigan - old navy

tights - h&m

shoes - c/o blowfish

hair bow - hive & honey

belt - forever 21

Most of the time I love being self-employed, but when I start feeling under the weather I absolutely loathe it. I want to call in sick, but that's not really possible. So instead I'm just working in slow motion. What would normally take me one hour takes me four. What seems to prolong things the most is the constant put sweater on-take sweater off-put sweater on-take sweater off dance that goes with a fever. ugh!

On the bright side, I took outfit photos the last two weeks even on days when I wasn't blogging them (like when I did my room tour or the giveaway last week) so I have a little extra supply to keep me going the next few days that I'll inevitably be spending in sweatpants and hoodies! The sniffles definitely aren't fun, but they do come with lots of soup and tea, which is fantastic. Oh, and extra time spent cuddling with cats. It's not all bad :)

ps. Modcloth is having their end-of-summer sale starting today! I'm hoping soooo badly that some of my favorite wishlist items are marked down! I haven't bought any dresses from them in a while because I've had trouble justifying the prices, but if they're seriously reduced I don't think I'll be able to resist! And seeing the package on my doorstep is sure to make me feel better, right? ;)

vegan mac & cheese

( via bishopart on etsy )

I've been wanting to try this recipe from my cooking bible, Vegan Comfort Food, for ages but only finally got around to making it last weekend. The original recipe called for baking the macaroni and sauce with bread crumbs sprinkled on top, but I had another plan. I used to LOVE Kraft macaroni & cheese when I was a kid, especially the ones that came in characters (they tasted better than the spirals & elbows, I swear!) so I tried to mimic that instead. I bought a box of Kraft, discarded the cheese powder packet, and cooked it according to the directions. While that was on the stove, I made the sauce. This recipe made WAY too much sauce, so I recommend cutting it in 1/2, if not more, unless you're feeding an army..

You'll need:

2 medium potatoes, peeled & cubed

1 medium carrot, peeled & diced

1 medium onion, diced

2/3 c. cashews

2 tsp salt

2.5 c. water

1/4 tsp. ground mustard

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2/3 c. oil (I used olive oil, canola is probably better)

Combine the potatoes, carrot, onion and water in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until the water boils. Then turn the heat down to simmer, cover and cook until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Then mix the veggies, the water they were cooked in, cashews, salt, mustard, garlic and oil in a blender and process until creamy!

For a real Kraft look you could add some food coloring or tumeric to give it more of an intense orangey-yellow color. Mine was more of a light yellow, which come to think of it, is probably better if you're going the classy mac & cheese route, not the 99 cent boxed mac and cheese route.

Now, I haven't tasted real cheese in almost 10 years, but I think it tasted exactly like the real thing! For some reason, even when I used to eat dairy cheese (albeit only on pizza & in the Kraft mac & cheese) it always kind of grossed me out. So this was really nice to have the same flavor and consistency, but know that it was only veggies & nuts! That's one of the things that I love about cooking from scratch. When you see all of the ingredients that go into a meal, you're more at ease eating the food. If I know exactly what's in the food I'm eating, I'm less hesitant to take the first bite of something new! :)

ps. don't forget to enter my $50 modcloth giveaway! :)

posh frock friday

dress - modcloth

sweater - forever 21

eye mask - fred flare

tissues & medicine - grocery store

tigger socks (out of view) - gift

Still incredibly under the weather, so this was the best I could muster for posh frock friday. I wasn't about to let PFF pass without getting dressed up! Unfortunately, my determination can only take me so far. Put on a dress? Sure. Hair, makeup and heels? Not quite. Trying to look remotely healthy? Impossible.

Hopefully some of you have much more glamourous Posh Frock Friday pictures this week! If you do, you can leave the links below! :)

now, how to amuse them today?

dress - modcloth

cardigan - f21

belt - old navy

tights - urban outfitters

shoes - aldo

bag - urban outfitters

hair tutorial

I'm feeling much better today, still not 100% but better. I hate being sick, but I do like that it's an excuse to flop in bed and watch tv without feeling guilty that you're not getting any work done..

One of my favorite books that my dad used to read to me as a kid was Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne. And my favorite story in the book was Sneezles. To this day when me and my brother are sick we still say we have the wheezles and sneezles :-)

Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles,
They bundled him into his bed.
They gave him what goes with a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold in the head.
They wondered if wheezles
Could turn into measles,
If sneezles would turn into mumps;
They examined his chest for a rash,
And the rest of his body for swellings and lumps.
They sent for some doctors in sneezles
And wheezles to tell them what ought to be done.
All sorts and conditions of famous physicians
Came hurrying round at a run.
They all made a note of the state of his throat,
They asked if he suffered from thirst;
They asked if the sneezles came after the wheezles,
Or if the first sneezle came first.
They said, "If you teazle a sneezle or wheezle,
A measle may easily grow.
But humour or pleazle the wheezle or sneezle,
The measle will certainly go."
They expounded the reazles for sneezles
And wheezles, the manner of measles when new.
They said "If he freezles in draughts and in breezles,
Then PHTHEEZLES may even ensue."

Christopher Robin got up in the morning,
The sneezles had vanished away.
And the look in his eye
Seemed to say to the sky,
"Now, how to amuse them to-day?"

you look familiar

dress - modcloth

coat - forever 21

boots - alloy

belt - old navy

faux collar - bb dakota

As you can probably tell by the fact that I have my posts show up around 5am each morning, my outfit pictures aren't taken on the same exact day that I post them.. usually the day before, or if I'm feeling very much like playing dress-up, I'll take a whole week's worth on Monday. But yesterday I was stuck in bed wearing a pilling sweater and plaid pajama bottoms reserved for family eyes only. Even if I had felt like getting dressed, my hair even looked sick (Is that just me? Whenever I'm sick my hair just looks so flat and dull) and I had second day eyeliner smeared from my eyebrows down to my nose. Not very pretty.

So this is sort of a repeat. I took the photos a few weeks ago, then decided not to post them. Then I noticed Hypatia being hilarious in the background of one of them, so I posted it last week. And today I just posted the whole kit and caboodle since it's the only extra outfit photo I had on my computer and I didn't think anyone would be interested in yet another gushy post about my newfound tv love, Eureka. Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better now so hopefully this will be the last time you see this outfit...

adventures in embroidery

I've been pretty sick the last few days, so in order to keep my mind off how terrible I feel, my mom taught me how to embroider! I never thought I'd get the hang of it as quickly as I did, but now I'm really hooked! This is the last one I made yesterday, after I'd really gotten the hang of it.

My mom only had one color of embroidery floss, and I'm too sick to leave the house, so I had to send my dad on an emergency run to the craft store. As evidence that I frequent the craft store a little too much, I drew him an in-depth floor plan of the store so that he'd know where to find the embroidery floss.

Well, back to the embroidery, tissues, cough drops and movies for me. Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!