Red

Problem: Drive back home for the holidays with only dirty laundry and nothing to wear on Christmas.

Solution: Raid Mom's closet and restyle her favorite printed blouse from the 80s. (It's amazing how far a little half-tuck can go...)

Next Steps: Silently slip it into your backpack before you drive back to LA and never mention it again. If anyone asks, it's your favorite vintage blouse that you've had for ages.

P.S. Thanks Mom ♥

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Outfit Details:

Vintage Red Floral Blouse

Madewell Black Skinny Jeans

Clinique Lipstick in Merlot

Etsy Gold Wishbone Necklace

GUESS Gold Watch

Vintage Bally Quilted Tote

Seychelles Black Leather Mules

Stop Light

This is one of my favorite intersections in DTLA. It's right in front of the Ace Hotel and the other side of Broadway has a row of colorful old theaters all down the road. Kind of weird that the last time I took blog photos here was back in April, because it honestly feels like yesterday.

Now, I'm really really tempted to use this street corner setting to go off on a wonderfully metaphoric tangent about stop lights and life and transitions, and that feeling where change is happening all around you whether you like it (or not, definitely not) but you're kind of stuck in autopilot and don't know which way is up let alone which direction is right, correct or a direction that will push your twenty-two-year-old self out of your comfort zone just enough to give you that rush of change—good change—but not enough to leave you paralyzed...standing on a street corner.

So...where was I? Important thoughts on velvet? Apparently it's back in style and I can conveniently recycle this funky piece another year.

Happy Monday :)

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Outfit Details:

Gypsy Junkies Velvet Jacket

Nordstrom BP Infinity Scarf

Madewell White Tank Top

Nars Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella

Nixon Kensington Leather Watch

Madewell Skinny Skinny Jeans

Fossil Brown Explorer Tote

Seychelles Nude Mules

The Theory Of Somethings

{image via 40 Days Of Dating—grab a bottle of wine and read the entire blog in one sitting, you won't regret it}

I just saw The Theory of Everything (alone I might add—it's a new thing for me and I really like it) and it got me thinking about well, everything. But namely...love. A taboo word I've somehow avoided on this blog, except while in a happy relationship. Yet, funnily enough, I think my reflection on love now—as an outsider looking in—might be all the more interesting than a post singing its praises by someone wrapped up in the midst of it.

What first sparked my reflection was a discussion I had with my best friend after she saw the film a week prior. Her critique was that the love story was uninspiring and painted a negative picture of marriage. While I agree that it isn't successful marriage propaganda, its realistic portrayal of the struggles of life and marriage is what I found most, well...inspiring.

This was a love story whose happy ending lay on the other side of that love. A story that feels (and is) real, because so much happiness can be found on the other side of a romance. Sometimes that happiness may come with new love, or other times, it can come with an acceptance that the person was right for you at one point, but that phase of your life has come and gone. And so rarely do films showcase this very real truth. I think that's what's so captivating about it.

I often feel that finding love is looked at as a linear process. You search (and by search...I mean linger in bars, make questionable decisions and....swipe right) and search, you date, until finally one day you get it right. We've learned to expect a fairly simple process, haven't we?

But what about every love story in between? Like the love you truly thought would never end, but did. Or the one you knew would never last, but made you ignore all logic for an embarrassing amount of time. I'm beginning to think that there may not be one right person for you, but instead a right person for you during certain periods (however short or long) in your life.

I suppose the key, the ideal, is to find someone to span all those phases of life with you. Or at least every phase of life from the moment you meet them onwards. But that isn't always the case. And don't get me wrong—I'm not about to let go of the ideal just yet—but I am looking at it through a much different lens than before.

Anyway, the real point is: if you haven't already done so, see the film. It's two hours well spent.

Winter Break

These photos pretty much sum up winter in LA. In what other city would I be wearing a light sweater and drinking a smoothie in the middle of December? But, despite it not being much of a season, I'm still trying to wear more cold-weather pieces like this oversized turtleneck that I picked up on sale over Black Friday. (It fits my pajama-in-public criteria, which is v.v. important to me right now). Also, I've also been liking this black denim + black boot combo lately. I've found you can throw any chunky sweater on top and run out the door looking fairly put together.

Anyway, I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I didn't expect it, but "winter break" is definitely still a thing in the working world. There's this unspoken countdown to the holidays around the office. Five more days, five more days...

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Outfit Details:

Topshop Turtleneck

Madewell Black Skinny Jeans

TOMS Bellini Sunglasses

GUESS Gold Watch

Fossil Explorer Tote

Madewell Black Ankle Boots

Mood Lighting

In my last photography class, we practiced light painting—a technique I had heard of but never tried myself. Surprisingly, it was not as difficult as I thought it would be! I love the different moods that the colors in each of these photos evoke. Who knew that all it takes to create images like these is a colorful light and basic knowledge of shutter speed? 

Every photo felt like an intentional, happy accident.

Postgrad Holiday

These photos were taken at the Old Town Orange Circle while I was back home for Thanksgiving. My mom and I spent the day there for Small Business Saturday and had fun browsing all the thrift stores and little specialty shops. Since it was sunny all weekend, I decided to wear one of my favorite floral dresses. I found this dress at Crossroads Trading Co. this past spring and even though it's originally from Anthropologie, the retro silhouette gives it a vintage feel.

In other news, I'm finally starting to get really excited about the holidays. It's my first Christmas living on my own (aka not in college, which doesn't really count) and since I don't get a wonderful monthlong winter break, I'll be at my apartment up until right before Christmas. So, I'm planning on getting some festive decorations to make my place feel more like home home. (But, also keep in mind I'm semi-broke...so my place might look more Dollar General than Anthro-esque.) Is it weird that decorating my own apartment for the holidays somehow makes me feel way more adult than paying bills, working full-time, etc?

Go figure.

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Outfit Details:

Anthropologie Brassica Dress

GUESS Denim Jacket

TOMS Bellini Sunglasses

GUESS Gold Watch

Fossil Brown Explorer Tote

Seychelles Nude Mules

Morning Quiet

I took this shot in the early morning before work for one of my photography class assignments on still life. At first it wasn't one of my favorite selects, but the more I've reviewed it, the more I think the flowers and lighting manage to capture a special morning quality that is hard to put into words.

Every AM while I'm making my coffee, I usually keep all the lights off and allow for the cool natural light to fill my apartment. Even though I am not a morning person and struggle on a daily basis to wake up at 6am...there's a certain relaxing nature to this early routine that I appreciate. 

A little morning quiet is often exactly what I need to start the day. (That, and caffeine.)

Off-Season

It was no surprise that I was able to wear this off-season dress for Thanksgiving. It's been an endless summer and the winter "chill" (aka below 70 degrees) is just setting in this week. In an effort to make this summery slip look a little more seasonal, I decided to pair it with my black faux leather jacket and other dark accessories. I often like to offset one style with another—feminine with tomboy, vintage with modern, summer with winter(ish). I think it makes pulling together outfits a bit more fun. Plus, it allows me to get away with wearing a summer dress in the middle of November. I can honestly say I don't think I'd ever survive a real winter.

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Outfit Details:

Target Faux Leather Jacket

Joie Plaid Slip Dress

TOMS Bellini Sunglasses

Etsy Wishbone Necklace

Vintage Coach Black Leather Bag

GUESS Gold Watch

Seychelles Black Propaganda Heels

Wine Country

Finally getting around to posting photos from the mini-winery tour my friends and I took a couple weeks ago while we were in the bay. After studying abroad, I already considered myself a bit of a wine connoisseur (ohhh, don't we all?), but can now officially speak to it with some validity. We went to a couple wineries near Sonoma and the estates were beautiful this time of year. It was the perfect #fall (hashtag very necessary in this case) adventure and I honestly couldn't have asked for a better weekend trip.

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Outfit Details:

Target Faux Leather Jacket

Anthropologie Brushed Lace Dress

TOMS Bellini Sunglasses

Nixon Kensington Leather Watch

Buttoned Up

You can only wear a button-up so many ways, but I think I've maximized the number of ways to style this Equipment blouse that I got on major discount at their on-site store a couple weeks ago. I don't know if I actively make an effort to not wear form fitting clothes, but the button-up + dress combo is the perfect way to create the illusion of a shift dress with two pieces. I've also found that I can create the illusion of being "fancy" by simply buttoning the top button on said blouse. I briefly considered belting my "fancy" combo but actually prefer the loose, flowy look instead. My days of belting anything and everything are long gone. Replaced with the notion that everything I wear can and should feel (but, hopefully not look) like pajamas. 

I will definitely be recreating a similarly comfy look like this for Thanksgiving dinner. Also, not to sound like a broken record/girl without a calendar but WHEN did it become the end of November? I'm tragically unprepared for the holidays and still haven't dry cleaned my party dresses from 2013 (wish I was kidding.)

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Outfit Details:

Silk Plaid Blouse—Equipment

Black Dress—ASOS

Cameo Necklace—Vintage

Sunglasses—TOMS

Gold Watch—GUESS

Explorer Tote—Fossil

Lace Ankle Boots—GUESS

Looking Up

In the midst of my postgrad funk (which I very well could still be in the middle of, but things are definitely looking up), I decided to sign up for a photography class downtown. Ever since I got my DSLR a few years ago, I've managed to teach myself some of the basics but have generally avoided the big scary "M" setting on my camera. M = Manual—pretty obvious, but figured I'd add that in to avoid any confusion. Signing up for the class was kind of a big deal for me. When you're working full time, it's very easy to constantly make the excuse that you're "too busy" or "too tired" to pursue other hobbies outside of work. I can't tell you how tempting it is to come home every night after a long commute, eat dinner, and veg on the couch watching SATC reruns while drinking wine and speed-Tindering until I'm 100% sure I accidentally swiped 3-5 future soulmates left due to careless error. (I know my life sounds pretty glamorous right now, but please hold all judgements until the end of this post slash don't ask me how I managed to go from photography class to Tinder...)

Anyway, I'm really enjoying the class so far and already feel like I'm using twice as many settings on my camera than I have in the past two years. Our first class assignment was to take photos that represent one of the 5 elements of photography (composition, light, color, the moment, and atmosphere), so it was fairly open ended. I wound up with a bunch of night photos taken during my last class session and after work. I wouldn't call them any sort of series, but I do like how light plays into each of them in a different way.

P.S. prepare for more photography posts like this each week :)