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

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

The Marina

As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite parts of traveling involves running off on my own to take photos. On our second day in the city, we headed down to the Marina for a massive crafts fair in one of the port buildings (not sure what else to call them, I could use the google-machine but am too lazy/on a blogging roll). The crafts fair was pretty much my dream. Overpriced chachkies everywhere. But crafts aside, the view of the Marina was too good to pass up so I spent most of my time walking around outside snapping photos. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves and SF really knows how to make a killer sunset.

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Outfit Details:

Floral Midi Dress—Marc by Marc Jacobs

Chambray Shirt—GUESS

Black Scarf—Forever 21

Explorer Tote—Fossil

Leather Ankle Boots—Madewell

Routine

I thought I'd strayed away from the feminine-lace look but something about this dress caught my eye. Aside from it being the comfiest "fancy" dress in my closet, its fit and cut made it feel more sophisticated than some of my other lace pieces. Even though I've been gravitating more towards simple shift dresses and solid colors lately, I'll always have a thing for girly dresses like this.

In other news, I've taken up a new hobby—reading. Good old fashioned literacy. I've started with this gem and I'm loving every second of it. I've got a new Saturday morning routine that I'm becoming very attached to: wake up embarrassingly late, make eggs and coffee regardless of the time of morning (or usually, afternoon) and read. This may not sound life-changing or even blog-worthy, but I've always found a sense of contentment in routine.

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Outfit Details:

Lace Dress—Anthropologie

Denim Jacket—Anthropologie

Leather Belt—Vintage

Gold Watch—GUESS

Nude Flats—J. Crew

Golden

I've got a couple more weeks of this Daylight Savings golden light and I'm going to take full advantage of it. I've always liked playing with light in my photographs and I'm actually planning on taking a photography class on it soon (key to getting out of ruts = hobbies). I loved how the warm colors in my outfit played off the evening light.

Maybe it's the change in season, but I've been feeling a lot more stylistically inspired lately. Nothing better than pulling out some of my fall favorites and pretending they are brand new. Aaaand buying things that are actually brand new is fun too. I may have gone on a slight online shopping binge after a 6+ month shopping fast. I know I've said this before, but I live for the drama of online shopping. Coming home to a package and having things fit perfectly is another one of those "little things" that makes me happy.

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Outfit Details:

T-Shirt Dress—Madewell

Paisley Scarf—London flea market

Sunglasses—Ray Ban

Leather Watch—Nixon

Brown Ankle Boots—Madewell

Soapbox

I don't know whether it was my new dress or something else in the air, but I just felt like blogging. And it's a feeling I've been waiting on for quite some time. I've fallen in and out of ruts, but thankfully inspiration has always managed to find its way back to me. However, I must say that waiting for it when it's missing is an uncomfortable and downright painful process. There's nothing particularly special about this outfit, but it made me feel like a cool-girl rocking a paper bag and has enough edge to potentially intimidate a stranger upon first glance. SO, it felt blog worthy. This dress was one of those purchases (like many that I make at Madewell) that I had to sort of force myself to buy. But I've quickly become obsessed/plan to never take it off. Seriously: sleeping, eating, plus-ing or minus-ing 15 pounds—this shift can and will withstand anything. The last recorded case of this kind of obsession involves my grey sweatshirt dress which will likely come back in heavy rotation once it starts to cool down in LA.

I can already feel it...this post is going to be long and wordy and much more information than you probably want in an outfit post. I get it—you came here for outfits and suggestive shopping links—I'm the same way. But, I've salvaged my little old internet soapbox, if only for a moment, so I'm going to ramble as long as my html and attention span will let me.

Lately, I've been caught up in everything except myself and as silly as that sounds, it's true. I think sometimes we (and by we, I mean me) lose ourselves in relationships, work, and anything in between. When one part of my life falls out of whack, it takes a while for me to find my center. And when more than one thing is off-balance, well...that's when I don't blog for five months and only pop in to write a few lengthy and wonderfully vague posts about "life, etc." However, I can feel myself gradually bouncing back and I think a lot of it has to do with my active attempt at building a schedule, finding contentment in routine, and pushing myself to just go through the motions until something feels different. Best post-grad advice I've been given. Thanks Mom.

So here's to a long overdue outfit post. And hoping this isn't just a momentary spark of style blogging brilliance. And by brilliance, I really just mean attendance.

I'm here—present & dressed, clothed & caffeinated. Happy fall.

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Outfit Details:

Shift Dress—Madewell
Cameo Necklace—Vintage
Gold Watch—GUESS
Black Crossbody—Vintage Coach
Brown Ankle Boots—Madewell

Homebody

Get the look:

If I'm going to be completely honest, I only ventured out of my house a few times over Thanksgiving break...mainly to shop and eat. (Oh, and that one time I felt like exercising.) That's the funny thing about holiday breaks back home. The longer I've been in college, the more LA feels like home to me, rather than my actual hometown. While it will of course always be home, it's just not quite the same anymore. Everything feels a little different, and my chances of running into people I know has dramatically decreased (thank goodness—sorry the introvert in me needed to say it).

I wore this outfit on a quick shopping trip I took with my mom. I snagged this plaid shirt on sale at J.Crew on Black Friday and decided to pair it with my new destroyed jeans for a simple, casual look. I've found myself reaching for button-down shirts a ton lately, so I'm sure I'll be wearing this combo (or one just like it) a lot more this season.

P.S. Happy December! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat a chocolate (or 10) from my TJ's Advent calendar—AKA the best part of December.

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Outfit Details:

Plaid Shirt—J.Crew (shop)

Watch—GUESS (shop)

Jeans—GUESS (shop)

Ankle Boots—Madewell (shop)