wishful spring-ing

It seemed very spring-y yesterday so I went with a very spring-y outfit to match! Although I guess all of my outfits look at least slightly spring-y anyway since I still wear colorful outfits in the winter? Anyway, it felt fresh, bright, and floral.

If you've been following me for a while you know that I've flirted with going back to school like twenty times already, and I was at it again this week. I had considered going to school for visual merchandising when I was a teenager (basically I just really wanted to design store windows and in-store displays) and I came back to that idea recently. I was looking at a program in NYC and you need your high school transcripts, SAT results, and a letter from a teacher or advisor to apply. And I left high school in 2003. I don't think I realized before how difficult it must be for older students to return to college until now. It would be a nightmare getting my high school records, let alone for students who are in their 50's or 60's! I feel like there should be some alternate application process for returning students.

I don't think I'm determined enough to embark on an "unearthing Kate's records from 15 years ago!" expedition, so I'll probably pass on the application. I just think I'd be really good at window design. It's a weird thing to have as a calling, but I think I have a knack for it. Maybe I just related a little too much to Rhoda from Mary Tyler Moore as a kid, lol!

It's so weird to be 31 and still like "hmm.. what should I be when I grow up?" but that is definitely my life. I hope some of you guys out there feel the same way and maybe can relate a bit. I know personally it seems like everybody I know, even people way younger than me, totally have it together already, while I'm still trying to figure everything out.

dress - c/o sheinside (super old) | blouse - vintage from soft future

shoes - bait footwear | wig - keke wigs

le tote et moi

A couple weeks ago I saw an ad on Facebook for this subscription service called Le Tote where you get 4 clothing items that you rent, wear them as much as you want, then send them back for 4 different items. It was marketed as a solution to the problem of buying a ton of clothes that you never wear and saving money each month on clothes. I thought I'd give it a whirl for a month, and when the first box arrived I decided to do a little unboxing video!



After I was done filming (eek!) I tried everything on. The yellow dress was way too big and the Yumi dress was too snug on the hips (sad face!!) The mint green one fit well and it looked pretty cute. I LOVE the blue sweater (I'm wearing it in the photo above) and when I sent back my tote I decided to keep it.

I already paid for a whole month of the service so I'm going to order stuff, see if I like it, possibly wear it, and send it back as many times as possible before the month is up, and then I'll cancel. The selection isn't very extensive so it's harder for me to find enough stuff to fill up multiple boxes. Most of the clothes are very neutral, business-casual, and traditional. In other words, not really my style. I think if there was a fun Modcloth/ASOS/Unique Vintage version of this box I would be ALL IN. But for someone who doesn't really find much to love in most regular retail shops, the pickings in Le Tote are slim. I picked out four more items for the tote that's in the mail on its way to me now, but honestly unless they add more between now and the next time I'd be ordering another tote, there wasn't really anything left on the site that I'd want to try out.

Aside from the selection though, I do think this is a good idea and I'm glad I gave it a try. The package came in the mail really fast, and they send your new tote once the return is scanned in at the post office... they don't even wait until they receive it. So the time between totes is minimal.

My only real complaints are the selection (which shouldn't be an issue if you like the style they offer!) and that you can't view their catalog until you sign up for a paid account. Honestly my curiosity got the best of me and I paid the monthly fee before I even saw what they had to offer. If I had seen it first I definitely wouldn't have signed up.

I guess the real moral of the story here is that I'm horribly susceptible to facebook advertisements.

sweater - cece | pink pants - asos | shoes - bait footwear | wig - keke wigs

purple hearts

I feel like I've *mostly* mastered the controls on my DSLR so I can take semi-good quality photos even when the lighting is really crummy. It's a dreary rainy mess here right now (it's supposed to keep raining yesterday through Sunday!) but I don't think you can tell in the photo! Yay! I can't quite say the same about my handiness with recording video lol. It might partially be because I edit video in imovie whereas the photos are edited in Photoshop, but the lighting in my videos leaves a lot to be desired. I don't know if anyone is actually even watching them but if anyone out there is, I promise I'm working on improving the quality! :)

I actually recorded a video yesterday where I *speak* and it's so awkward lol. (And the lighting is even worse than the one below since I was in an even darker area of my house!) I'll be posting it on Monday I think, but I'm just going to put it out there and never rewatch it. I was so insanely nervous. It's not actually my voice that I'm self conscious about, I just make such exaggerated faces while I'm talking and I never realize I'm doing it until I see myself on video lol! Now that I pointed it out it's probably going to stand out even more if you watch it so I should just stop talking ;p I think it's just one of those things where we mention our own flaws because we want to beat someone else to it, you know? Anyway, here's a video where I'm blissfully silent and hugging cute little Arrietty:

dress - modcloth (old) | cardigan - amazon | tights - amazon

shoes - bait footwear | brooch set - my shop | wig - keke wigs

sheer madness

Putting aside the fact that I 100% wore the wrong bra with this outfit (hello, uniboob!) this is one of my favorite outfits of all time. I am OBSESSED with this dress. Bell sleeves? CHECK. Sheer polka dots? CHECK. Dramatic gigantic bow tie in the back? (you can see it in the video below) CHECK. It came with a black cami dress to wear underneath, but I felt like it diminished the overall polka dot effect a bit, so I paired it with a light pink cami dress instead. And I added this giant black bow belt because sometimes one enormous bow on a dress just is not enough.

Yesterday morning my computer froze when I tried to open photoshop, and I couldn't even force quit, so I had to power it off directly from the power button. It turned out that I did that exactly while some important system file was saving in the background, and subsequently my computer would not turn back on again. It would "ding" and then -- nothing. I made an emergency trip to the Apple store, toting my mac around like a little sick pet, and after the technician ran some diagnostics he was able to restore whatever file had gone missing when I shut it down. I got a little tiny lecture about having way too many apps open (he asked if I *really* needed all of the things open in my dock and I REALLY DO) and suggested that I turn off the computer once a week just to make sure things run smoothly. I also invested in a 4TB hard drive that I'm going to use for Time Machine now. Nothing like almost losing everything on your computer to make you want to seriously back up everything on your computer, haha!

I have no idea why I felt the need to share all of that, lol, but anyway. Maybe if you're someone who hasn't backed things up in a while you'll take my close-call as a sign to hit save and make sure your important files are all on external hard drives :)

Now onto the video! --

dress - asos | cami dress - forever 21 | belt - h&m (old)

shoes - vintage | wig - keke wigs