Flashback and forward

t-shirt: The Limited
maxi skirt: Target
sandals: BCBG via TJ Maxx
necklace: Cassiopeia by Corinne on Etsy
Howdy hey, folks! It looks like things might finally be slowing down for me. After eight photo shoots, two weddings, a few Halloween festivities, some much-appreciated family time and a killer cough that I'm still trying to recover from, I'm finally trying to get back into the blogging routine.

Fortunately, I've been making a point to shoot a couple of outfit photos here and there during my hiatus; this one is from early September, back when the weather was warm and sunny. I miss you already, summer. Buuuuut the past few days have been a little warmer, so I thought it wouldn't be too bizarre to post this before it's too late.

This necklace, by the way? My friend Corinne made it. I'm loving it lately and have been wearing it a lot...it just goes so well with everything! You should definitely check out Corinne's Etsy shop if you're looking for a cute, vintage-y new necklace or other jewelry.

Phew. I feel like getting back into the swing of just knocking out a post off the top of my head might be harder than I thought. Ah, well. Looks like you guys are stuck with some awkward banter for a while :) #storyofmylife

Autumn is coming

shirt: secondhand
sleeveless button-down: New York & Company
khaki skinnies: Old Navy
shoes: Target
necklace: The Limited via Discount Fashion Warehouse
I have very mixed feelings about autumn.

For the most part, I'm a summer girl. I love the heat (though not always the humidity). I love sun and golden skin and massive thunderstorms and ice cream and pools and beaches and breezy dresses and fireflies and sunsets after 9 p.m.

But autumn is kind of special, too. It brings crisp mornings and leaving the windows open all day and especially all night. It brings football and two of my favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Hot toddies are acceptable again and sweaters are so cozy. I've also felt for the last several years that fall can mark the end of a bad era. I like to take time in the fall to find everything that's been weighing me down over the last year and shed it to crunch underfoot with the leaves.

But.

But autumn is so brief and temperamental in Ohio. It seems like you just blink and suddenly it's all shitty half-hearted snow and gross grey slush and feeling so cold that each inhale freezes your lungs. And because I have SAD, winter is especially difficult. Watching the sun set from my office window is heartbreaking. There are days when I feel like I'll never see the sun again.

Fortunately, it's early in the season. There's still time to enjoy cute boots and pumpkin-flavored everything before things really get tough. And I feel a little more optimistic than usual about winter this year. I joined a new climbing gym, and I'm going to go back to vitamin D therapy via tanning beds (with proper sunscreen on, of course). Plus I found a therapist I really like who I can return to if things get really out of hand, so that's a comfort.

How do you feel about autumn? Are you heralding its imminent arrival with three daily Starbucks PSL runs? Or are you already holed up in your hibernation nest, counting off the days until spring arrives again?

Engagement photo outfit #1

Technically this was the third outfit of the day, but it was the only one we shot some solo blog pics of so I'm featuring it first. I'll show some of the other shots later, when I eventually get around to editing them. All photos in this post were shot by my friend and bridesmaid Emily and edited by me.








shirt: TJ Maxx
capris: Michael Kors via TJ Maxx
sandals: BCBG via TJ Maxx
necklace: gifted
Kudos to Meghan, who totally called this outfit combo in my last Budgeting Bloggers post. You win...my awe at your sartorial psychic powers! (And to the rest of you guys, she's totally working with a few other bloggers to give away a Kindle Paperwhite for the next few days...check it out at the link!)

And because it was Emily shooting me, I did all sorts of silly things in addition to actually, you know, posing. Stuff like this:






That look on Matt's face? That's probably him wondering why he ever decided to marry me. Or maybe he's contemplating how boring life would be without me. Who knows.

Anyway, I was excited to shoot with an actual person instead of a tripod, and one of my FAVORITE persons at that, and in a new location (downtown Columbus)! I've since renewed my campaign to get Emily to move to Columbus and become my full-time blog photographer. I think I've almost got her...

Lady in a blue dress

dress: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
sandals: Target
necklace: The Limited
So yesterdayI got these photos and another set all ready to post today and (gasp!) tomorrow. And then I realized that today is the last Friday in the month, which means a Fiscal Fridays post about my clothes budget for the month. That'll be up later today, for any of you who enjoy such things :) Spoiler alert: It ain't pretty. But until then, here's an outfit

I've had "cute shirtdress" on my list of closet essentials for quite some time. So imagine my excitement when I came across this during my big shopping spree over Labor Day weekend!

I realized after taking all these photos that this dress is hanging weird in most of them, so please use your imagination and pretend that I don't look like Lumpy Space Princess in a blue dress. (Ten points to whoever guesses that reference! Love that show.)

Feeling more scatterbrained than usual this morning...oh well. Be back later today with my embarrassing September clothes budget reveal ;)

That's a wrap!

t-shirt: Old Navy
capris: Target
belt: came with the capris
sandals: Walmart
necklace: gifted
Well, these are the last of my outfit photos shot at the new house. I used the alley between our garage and our neighbor's as a backdrop. I've used it before, but only rarely. We were really close to a heavily trafficked road and I had this dumb (but given the events of the summer, totally understandable) fear of my camera being snatched while I was shooting.

All in all, these shots didn't even turn out 100% as great as I had hoped. The t-shirt isn't plain white; it's speckled with tiny, bright neon splotches. (You can see a close-up of it here.) I avoided the neon trend for a long, loooong time, but I've finally jumped on the bandwagon, albeit in a tiny way. I'm way more comfortable with small accents like flat shoes or a skinny belt than I am with big, flashy pieces.

So tomorrow I have to go in to work an hour early, meaning I'll be out my front door before 7 a.m. I'll try to have a post ready, and I want to post a little before-and-after of how the new house is coming along this weekend...but life, as usual, may have other plans. Gotta love deadlines and taking on more projects than really is wise, right? Story of my life.

Photo tricks and an outfit

shirt: Old Navy
shorts: thrifted
sandals: Target
Hi folks. So I'm thinking that at least for the time being, you can expect a little photo-speak to accompany my outfit posts. Because half the time, I find the technique behind shooting an outfit more interesting than the outfit itself. Sorrynotsorry.

So I had Matt snap these for me quickly before we left for...uh...somewhere. For the life of me, I can't remember where I wore this. Oh well. Not important. I just turned the camera to auto and he clicked away. I love how even the auto-setting photos on this camera turn out so awesome!

The below shot is one I took just moments before we headed outside for the real photos. I had just gotten my remote and was going a little click-happy. I remember I didn't have time to set up my tripod and do a proper shoot, but I wanted to test the remote regardless, so I plopped the camera on my mantle and took a few snaps. This one turned out kind of cool, so I decided to post it. Dem collarbones. Girrrrrl...


So this is where the cool photography part comes in. I noticed when I uploaded this photo that if I corrected the exposure to my face/clothes, the windows were completely blown out. But if I didn't adjust the exposure, I was too dark. I remembered reading this tip for fixing the problem, and used that as a guideline for doing my own version of a fix.

Basically, I made two copies of this photo. On the first, I adjusted the exposure to properly display my face/body. On the second, I adjusted the exposure the other way, underexposing everything to bring out the details of the blinds. Then I just used the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop to select the blinds and copied them to a new layer. I dragged the new layer to the correctly-exposed photo, lined it up over the blown-out windows, and adjusted the opacity down of the blinds-only layer to about 80 percent so it would look more natural. Looking back, I could probably have under-exposed the blinds even more in my initial steps, but for a first shot I say this isn't too bad!


Top photo: Correctly exposed subject with blown-out windows
Bottom photo: Better-exposed windows with under-exposed subject.
So here's my question for you all: Would you be interested in reading tutorials on stuff like this? Or do you find that process a little dull and would rather read what I have to say about the styles/trends themselves? Or do you find both interesting?

I know how to change a tire

sleeveless button-down: New York & Company
maxi dress: secondhand
shoes, belt, sunnies: Target
When I was a teenager, I was a...let's say...not so awesome driver. So yeah, I learned how to change a flat tire pretty darn quick. So when I got to Lowe's last night to pick up some spray paint (for a keep-me-busy-while-Matt's-gone project), and discovered I had a flat, I was annoyed but not panicked. Yeah, it sucked that I bumped a curb and blew out the wall of my tire beyond repair (I guess that says I prob needed new ones anyway). But I had a spare in the trunk and the knowledge to fix it. What I lacked, however, was a jack and a tire iron to get the lug nuts off.

A really nice guy in the parking lot let me use his jack, but unfortunately his tire iron didn't fit my lug nuts (what?!). So I sloooooowly drove my car over to the NTB next door, where they promptly told me it would be 20 for them to change my tire. I asked to just borrow their equipment, but they said no.

Long story, short, my car insurance has roadside assistance. Instead of the 60+ minutes that it usually takes to get help, someone showed up in about 15 and got me all set up. For free. Of course, by that point it had started raining. So when I finally got home, I went straight to the fridge, popped open a bottle of wine, and went to work.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I didn't post last night because a bottle of green apple Riesling and a few episodes of Modern Family just seemed like a better idea :)

Nostalgia

Because I like to keep a cache of outfit photos, the outfits I post here are rarely the outfits I wear on a given day. (Exception: When I forget about EBEW or BDIB and wear the theme the day of. Then I have to get up earlier to shoot, edit and post the photos all at once.) Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that because of this cache, I often wind up with an incongruity between the day's weather and the outfit that I post that day.

For example, if I were actually wearing this outfit today, my toes would be the color of my shirt. This was taken during our freak heat wave last month, when temps were hitting record-breaking numbers in the 80s. And today? It's currently just above freezing, and not scheduled to get too much warmer in the afternoon. Boo.







shirt: secondhand
pants: New York & Company
sandals: Target
tie-worn-as-a-belt: thrifted
In high school, I used to wear ties with T-shirts in an attempt to be somewhat punk. I still maintain that it didn't actually look too bad. So when I saw this tie at Goodwill a while back, I got far too nostalgic and bought it. It's actually pretty cute, and I'm tempted to wear it as an actual tie at some point...I just have to figure out how to make it look not like teenage-me and not like the man-version of me. You gotta love a good challenge!

What about you? Any trends from younger-you days that you want to re-create, but are hesitating on?

Gross shoes and awesome bags

So I've got about five more outfits that I shot at the old apartment, and I want to get those all posted before I start putting up photos from my new place. Don't want to be all flip-flopping on my locations...for some reason, consistency seems important. Hm.






shirt: The Limited
collared shirt & shorts: New York & Company
shoes: Target
ring: American Eagle, about five years ago
bag: street vendor in NYC
I got this bag on Canal Street in NYC last month. I've been carrying it pretty much every day...it's basically the perfect bag. Great size, lots of interior pockets, high quality material (I think). The lady who sold it to me slapped a Michael Kors charm on it, but it looks cheap and I think I'm going to take it off. Except, it makes a great zipper pull, so maybe I'll leave it and be one of those awful people who contributes to the counterfeit fashion fiasco. Oops.

Speaking of NYC, the city pretty much ruined these shoes. Seriously, they are so dirty. I want to take a Magic Eraser to them, but I'm not sure how the faux-leather material will take it. But check this out: The color of the underside of the strap is the shoe's original color. Gross.


The really gross part? I haven't stopped wearing them.

Monday Blahs

We all know it: Mondays are just plain disappointing. After a weekend of being alternatively productive and lazy (Saturday I got tons of stuff done; Sunday I did nothing but watch TV and make a grocery list), I feel like Monday is just intruding on my not-quite-over-yet weekend. I'm officially campaigning for a four-day work week. Who's with me?!

Meh. I'm just grumpy because over the weekend I developed a cold. Who gets a cold in August? Seriously?

shirt: thrifted
jeans: Silver via Macy's
shoes: Target
bracelet/necklace: don't remember
earrings: Claire's?

These photos are from a few weeks ago that I just found floating in my "unposted outfits" folder. I have a confession: I love nautical influences. I think it's because the whole nautical thing is so heavy on horizontal stripes, and about half of my closet is horizontal stripes. Well, not really, but they do make up a disproportionate amount. They're just so classic, and so easy to remix. What's not to love?

Also, don't worry...I'm not going bald. My hair just likes to pretend I have bald spots sometimes. Hey, we all have our little hair quirks. It's not like I'm the only one, right? Right??

Internal debate

I don't often post weekend-wear, simply because on the weekends I'm usually found wearing sweats/workout shorts and an old show t-shirt from my high school days as a thespian. Not really blog-worthy. In fact, I'm not even sure where I wore this last week...might have been at a cookout/drinks to celebrate a friend's birthday. But I suppose the "where" doesn't matter as much as the "wear." (See what I did there? My cleverness astounds me sometimes.)

lacy tank and top tank: Old Navy (?)
shorts: DIY'ed from an old pair of jeans
shoes: Target
bracelet: don't remember
earrings: Leslie's Baubles

So lately I've been thinking a lot about posting frequency. The recent 30x30 challenge (I swear, I'll stop talking about it someday) had me posting every single day, including many weekend days. Before that, I was posting 3-5 times a week.

Now, I'm in the habit posting every single weekday, and I worry that it's too much. Too much time on my part (because I don't already have enough on my plate), and too much of me forcing my photos into your RSS feeds every day. I know a lot of bloggers post every single day, but they also have far better style and photo quality than I do.

So, I turn to you, readers. After all, this is just as much for you as it is for me. What do you think? Should I cut back on the post frequency? Or do you like my random babble every day? (Be honest. I won't be offended, I promise.)

The little things

Sorry for the poor photo quality today guys...it's raining/thunderstorming outside, and it's supposed to carry on all day, so no dice on outdoor photos. Oh, well. This outfit isn't anything spectacular, anyway ;)

On the bright side, I got to lie in bed and listen to thunderstorms all morning. I really do love that. It's the little things.

items: 6, 15, 28
necklace: Banana Republic...I think the latter
bangles: H&M

Man, I need to make a trip to F21 and H&M as soon as this challenge is over. And the thrift store. The thing is, my 30 items are about 1/3 of my closet, and they're some of the items I wear most often anyway. So I definitely feel like I need a little wardrobe refresh. Just a few things here and there.

Speaking of "the little things" (well, I was earlier anyway), I had a great one yesterday too. See, most of this week has been one disappointment or annoyance after another, and I've been really, really stressed out. So after work yesterday, Matt and I met up with a friend from OU (the same one from "guy time" yesterday, haha) and we went down to the climbing wall at the Scioto Audubon park. I love that park more than any other place in the city, I think. So I got a good route in, then I decided to be really gutsy and try lead climbing for the first time ever.

For those who are rusty on your climbing terminology, lead climbing is far more difficult from top-rope climbing. In top-rope, your rope is looped through an anchor at the top of the route, so it goes from your harness, up to the anchor, then down to the person who is belaying you. (The belayer is the one who keeps the rope taut so if you fall, you don't fall far.) In lead climbing, there is no top anchor. Instead, the rope goes from your harness straight to the belayer. You climb up the wall and hook into several bolts that are placed on the face of the wall itself as you go. This means, if you fall, you will probably fall much farther, and harder. Lead climbing forces you to rely on your skill alone, instead of relying on the rope to hold you up.

It's terrifying.

But it's also incredibly rewarding. There were several points where I honestly didn't think I'd make it to the top. And I even took a fall (albeit a small one--just a few feet). But somehow, I made it. Every muscle in my arms and my legs was kind of twitching by the time I got lowered to the ground, haha. But it was an amazing feeling to know that even if I think I can't do something, I can somehow find the strength to push on. And that doesn't have to be physical; it can be a mental strength as well.

Sorry for the rant. I am just super excited about my climb. And about the boost it gave me :) Do you have anything that gets you pumped up like that?

Everything's coming up roses

Ah, long weekends. They are pretty bomb, if you ask me. My boss let us leave work a little early today, so I popped over to the Park of Roses to give my new tripod I whirl. It worked really well! I felt kind of silly, sneaking furtively around the park to find locales where people wouldn't see me. First photo shoot in public, you know.

items: 8, 15, 28
cami: Target?
necklace: gift from my grandma

I also took a few nice photos of the roses themselves. I love that my camera has a macro setting for closeups like these. It's the next best thing to having a big-girl camera, if you ask me.

Well, I'm off to finish laundry/eat dinner/head out for some Fourth of July weekend festivities. Monday's going to be the real party, though. Matt's boss has a house with a perfect view of the Clintonville fireworks, so we're going over there for drinks, dinner and slip'n'slide. Yup. We're doing slip'n'slides :)