t-shirt: secondhand
capris: Target
sneaks: Converse via Famous Footwear
necklace, bracelet: Etsy
watch: secondhand Coach
You guys, I've only done two style posts since the beginning of June. TWO! I have no real excuse for June or July, but I will say that it can be a bit difficult to do outfit photos when you have a puppy running around the backyard, so that's my excuse for August, September and October. Actually, these photos are, in fact, from June...I just never got around to posting them. But we've had a pretty warm November so far, so maybe we can just pretend I wore this semi-recently?
Actually, if we're being honest, I kind of lived in outfits like this over the summer. A casual tee, a nice pair of denim and some comfy Converses...what more could you want?
I haven't taken any great outfit photos since July, really, partially because I've gotten into a groove (NOT a rut!) in my wardrobe and as a result, I'm not wearing a whole lot of "new" outfits. And partially because of aforementioned puppy running around-ness. Not sure if I'll keep up with outfit photos, especially in the winter when taking them indoors with a backdrop is even harder than taking them outside, but who knows. This blog has been a little outfit-heavy in the past few years, mostly because those were the easiest posts for me to do. But I really want to bring the "mélange" back into Verbal Mélange, so expect more variety in content moving forward :)
Similarly, I'm going through a lot of other changes in my day-to-day lately, which is to blame for my lack of posting frequency. Not 100% ready to announce anything yet, but I stay tuned! (And no, Matt and I are not expecting a baby. Just gonna clear that one up right away, haha.)
How about you guys? Anything new and noteworthy going on, or are you all (like me) hunkering down and bracing for winter?
shirt: secondhand
sleeveless button-down: New York & Company
maxi skirt: Target
d'orsay flats: Forever 21
necklace: giveaway win
watch: secondhand Coach
Oh hi June, when did you get here? Funny, seems like mid-May was just here. No? You've been sneaking up for a while now? Huh. Imagine that.
It's been nearly a month since the wedding and frankly, I still feel like it just happened last week. As much as I try, I've had the hardest time getting back into any semblance of a routine. This week, Matt and I only just got in our first climb since...oh, since these pictures were taken, maybe? And these pictures are two months old.
Not that you'd ever know it, of course. It's been so unseasonably chilly the past few weeks; I haven't even packed my sweaters away yet. And I've been wearing a lot of my business-ultra-casual outfits, like this one, lately. It's the best of both worlds, really! I look pulled together but the soft and flowy fabrics are ridiculously cozy. Slap on a sparkly necklace and your'e good to go!
I'm sure soon things will start to feel normal again...right? Right?!
It's official: If I'm not at work or working on an assignment, I am in full-on hibernation mode. I had yesterday off for President's Day, but took today off as well thanks to either a stomach bug or something I ate yesterday. And with the frigid temps outside, all I want is to hide under 18 thousand layers of blankets and sleep until it's spring. Heck, I'd take temps in the 30s if I could get 'em; it's 17 right now (4 with the wind chill) and we're not supposed to see anything above freezing until the weekend...when we're supposed to get another dump of snow before the temps plummet down to highs in the 20s again. I don't know if this is winter's last dying gasps or if things are gonna stay this crappy until after Daylight Savings kicks back in, but I sure hope it's the first.
But enough about how much I hate the cold and the snow.
t-shirt: H&M
cardi: Forever 21
jeans and flats: Target
necklace: Jane.com
I'm fairly sure I've blogged an outfit like this before, but I have this lovely new, unshrunk mustard cardigan and I went to a trusty ol' standby for styling it. Honestly, I've been doing a lot of repeats lately; this weather just saps all the energy out of me and makes it hard to style an outfit creatively. But I said I was done complaining about the weather, right?
I guess it could be worse. Now I have an excuse to stay in and work on projects in the evenings and on weekends; I don't feel like such a recluse for spending my Friday nights with a hot glue gun when everyone else I know is doing the same with Netflix or what have you. And the central Ohio area has been spared a lot; we've received nothing compared to the feet of snow that's been dumped on New England this year. Still, I find myself daydreaming more and more about the Mexican beach where Matt and I will be spending our honeymoon. We're inside the three-month mark now, and I couldn't be more excited!
For constantly being sick, apparently. Or at least, that seems to be the case for me lately.
t-shirt: Old Navy
cardigan: thrifted
skinnies: The Limited via Discount Fashion Warehouse
boots: Target
necklace: Express via DFWh
I wound up leaving work after just a couple of hours today; I developed a nasty cold at the end of last week that left me with what feels like a face full of cotton. Congestion and stopped-up ears, hurrah! I thought an ear infection was settling in too, but apparently it's not quite that bad yet. Just in case, I've been wrapped up on my couch all day with Star Trek and some wedding crafts to keep me company.
I always feel like my posts have too much blabbering about random stuff and not enough about the actual outfits I'm posting. This outfit was an unusual choice for me; I don't usually like to layer like colors, like I did with this top and cardigan. But I think I like it here; it's hard to see, but the darker stripes in the t-shirt almost perfectly match the cardi, without being too overt.
Welp, I'm also using today to catch up on start my Christmas shopping. Usually I'm pretty on top of it, but this year I've gotten an unfortunately late start. All I can say is, thank god for Amazon Prime, amiright?
t-shirt: Old Navy
jacket/blazer: thrifted
skinnies: Forever 21
flats: Target
necklace: gifted Kate Spade
That's right; the weather outside certainly is frightful. We got our first real snow of the season last night; now there's an inch or two of icy/slushy/powdery mix on the ground. Delightful (not). Get ready for these wonderfully lit outdoor alley shots (from last month) to disappear; it's time for me to make the switch to shooting indoors. Womp womppppp.
Also frightful this weekend was my intense anxiety level. I had probably the worst shopping experience of my life on Saturday, when I tried to buy a corset for under my wedding dress. Seriously guys, if you need a quick fix for hating yourself and your body, I highly recommend corset shopping for two hours. I apparently have weird proportions, so everything that fit around my stomach wound up giving me awkward and heartbreaking armpit fat, which apparently is a real thing. And everything that avoided the apparently-a-thing armpit fat was way too big in the stomach. I wound up buying a strapless bra and a stomach-only corset piece thing (kind of like this, only it goes from your bra line down to your hips, not from your waist down past your hips). They were way more than I wanted to spend, but I'll at least be able to wear both of them under other outfits. Plus, I now get to go up to my grandma's house and try on the dress again (I have to make sure the undergarments work, of course!) so it's not a total loss.
Then Saturday night, I had a host of wedding nightmares. Awful stress dreams about not having a dress at all (I walked down the aisle in a gray maxi dress and a cardigan), about being in the wrong venue, about the music not playing right during the ceremony...basically, everything was just wrong. Then I got a text from my sister; a fire on campus at our alma mater had destroyed the apartment I lived in my junior year. It was an attic studio apartment above a flower shop, and the entire attic just collapsed into the apartment below it. I was devastated; I had a lot of great memories in that apartment. Obviously the situation is so much worse for the students who are living there now; they lost everything they own. I'll be donating to the university's fund for them; if you have some extra cash lying around and want to do a little good with it, you can do the same here. Just select the "Ohio Parents and Family Endowment."
So between bad shopping experiences and dreams and sad news, my Sunday was shaping up to be a huge sulk-fest. But then I went to a meeting for a new project I'm working on and it honestly turned my entire day around. I left feeling excited, optimistic and refreshed. I don't want to go into too much detail on the project, because I'm honestly a little terrified that my contribution will be terrible, but if all goes well I'll divulge more in the spring.
Aaaaand that was my weekend. Here's hoping yours had more high points than low ones!
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
Okay, yesterday things got a bit heavy and I was/am dealing with some triggers. I'd be lying if I said I'm feeling back to 100% normal, but my motto is "fake it till ya make it" so I'm just gonna do that. We now return to your regularly scheduled frivolity.
t-shirt: thrifted
jeans, flats: Target
belt: H&M
necklace: Jane
In other news, I am so so relieved to finally be showing some fairly sharp pics again on the blog. I think I've finally figured out the weirdness I was experiencing, namely that I had changed my focus area settings without realizing it and was messing around with pre-focusing my camera on a stationary object instead of letting the remote focus for me because apparently my cheapo remote does that. That noise you hear is me cheering, obvs. And okay, maybe these still aren't totally perfect but they're such a vast improvement from the entirely-out-of-focus-crap I've been shooting that I don't even care.
I don't usually tuck my t-shirts into my jeans because hello, nerd alert but honestly, the pearls kind of give it more of a ladylike vibe than a dorky one, I think. Plus, leopard print. Speaking of, this is an H&M belt so obviously it is falling apart after like a year of ownership, so I am in desperate need of a replacement. Never thought I'd be saying that about something with leopard print on it, but there you go. So, a call-out: Has anyone seen something like this belt recently, at a reasonable price?
T-shirt: Old Navy
skirt: JCPenney
heels: Target
necklace: Jane.com
Guys, can we just talk a second about how awesome T-shirts are? Seriously though. They're comfortable, versatile and basically the first item on every "closet staples" list ever made. I love T-shirts; I have more than I could count. A lot are stuffed in drawers--those are the shapeless participation shirts from races, the concert tees that cost $40 but somehow seem worth it, the annual show tops from my marching band and theatre and Greek life days. (Don't get any ideas; I wasn't in a sorority but I did join a couple co-ed scholastic fraternities in college.) Those tees are great, and I love them, but they're usually more sentimental than stylish and are worn more often as PJs or workout tops than as blog-worthy outfits. (Though one has made a couple of appearances around these parts; also, you're welcome for the linkback to the hilariously bad three-year-old post from the very early days of VM.)
But where the shapeless, unflattering T-shirts tend to flop, a nice fitted tee almost never fails. I have many 10 or 15 such tops in various colors and basic patterns, and of course I'm always snapping up "just one more." I think my favorite way to wear them is dressed up for work. It feels like of like cheating the dress code, while still looking professional. But seriously...comfort AND classy attire? Ultimate win.
The key to dressing up a tee for work, I think, is to make sure the rest of your outfit is ultra-polished. Find bottoms that you can tuck the tee into and that compliment the form-fitting-ness of the tee. If I were wearing this outfit with pants, I'd go for a wider leg or maybe some dress capris. If you can add a coordinating belt, you're good to go. (I didn't have any such belt for this outfit, unfortunately, but I think it works nonetheless.) Of course, heels and pearls or another classy statement necklace always lend a sophisticated air to an otherwise casual piece.
How do you like to style your T-shirts?
t-shirt: Old Navy
capris: Target (belt came with them)
flats/boat shoes: Famous Footwear
necklace: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
Guys, our house was without internet for the entire weekend! I don't know how that would really affect you, but I seriously just typed "Guys, our internet was without internet." Suffice to say I experienced some serious withdrawal. And of course, no internet means no Netflix/Hulu, and I had a whole weekend of Matt-working-so-I'm-home-alone to fill. Fortunately, the lovely Ally serendipitously came to the rescue! She recently finished watching Wonderfalls, a 2004 show that was cancelled before its time, and thought I'd enjoy it as well. So she sent me the DVD box set! It arrived late last week, just in time to entertain me through this difficult time. I blasted through all 13 episodes in three days. Thank goodness for good friends, amiright?
I also got a lot of wedding crafting done this weekend. I'm handmaking all the flowers for the ceremony reception--that's my bouquet and tossing bouquet; eight bridesmaid bouquets; nine boutineers for Matt/his groomsmen; various corsages/boutineers for parents, grandparents, readers and ushers; plus approximately 30-or-so bouquets for the centerpieces. I'm not gonna lie, the whole thing was really overwhelming and kind of had me in cold sweats at first, but I've since narrowed down the styles of flowers I'm making (some are on my Pinterest board, others I learned from my cousin, who did the same thing for her wedding next month) and the materials I'm using. I'll probably do a full tutorial on each of the bud styles I'm using and how I stemmed/arranged them once I'm done.
I've also been using the string-and-fire method (a la this) to cut the tops off of wine bottles to make vases. I've ruined several of my first attempts, but after a little trial and error I think I have the process almost down. Which means I just have to keep drinking lots and lots of wine, I guess. Tutorial to come on that one as well, though the video I linked is pretty entertaining in its own right.
Oof, I didn't mean for this whole post to go wedding-centric, but lately I can't help myself. We'll be at the 11-month mark as of Monday, which is unreal, and I'm going dress shopping this weekend, so my brain is on semi-permanent wedding mode for the time being. Sorrynotsorry. Here's a pic of me making a weird face to make it up to you.
Forgive the pun, but I wanted to give a little shoutout to my sister, Ellen, who graduated from Bowling Green State University yesterday! I'm crazyproud of her; she busted her butt for four years to graduate summa cum laude, working the entire time she wasn't student teaching to pay her own way as much as possible. Whatever elementary school that manages to snag her will be a lucky school indeed. I went up to BG with my parents and (most of) my siblings to watch her get her diploma and enjoy a celebratory dinner. (I didn't think to bring my nice camera, so forgive the iPhone snaps.)
The gang, minus Abby (who was home in South Carolina) and David (who was at prom with his girlfriend).
I also managed to snag a quick outfit shot with my sister, who was dressed to kill on a budget that wouldn't. Seriously, her entire outfit was from H&M, with the exception of her Target shoes. Girl knows how to dress on a dime.
on me:
shirt: The Limited
sleeveless button-up: New York & Company
skinnies: Forever 21
flats: Target
necklace: giveaway win (Nordstrom)
Our youngest sister, Audrey, didn't want to miss out on the photoshoot...though I have no idea where her outfit is from. Probably Target/Old Navy?
As for today, I was a total mixture of lazy and productive. I cleaned the bathroom and did a load of laundry, went on a mini Hulu spree, switched out my winter/summer clothes (finally!), then jumped on the scooter to donate the too-small stuff from last year and do a little closet-gap-filling shopping. Did pretty dang well on that part :)
Now Matt and I are off to swing by his parents' house to wish his mom a happy Mother's Day, then it's back home for some much-needed relaxation for both of us :)
What about you guys? Anything exciting to report this weekend? Graduations, siblings' proms, Mother's Day escapades?
Sometimes, I sit down to write a blog post and feel like I have literally nothing to say. Maybe it seems like this happens frequently, because I often blather on about nothing in particular around these parts, but most of the time my blathering is semi-planned or constructed. Days like today, though, the blinking cursor just kind of mocks me.
It's times like this that I wonder whether Verbal Mélange has a shelf life, an expiration date. My three-year bloggiversary came and went with little fanfare, and while on one hand it seems like an accomplishment (three years of committing to a thing!), it also kind of seems like a pretty weird thing to celebrate (three years of talking about and posting pictures of myself!). The reason behind the lack of fanfare--because if there's anything I love, it's making a big deal out of things--is that April is triple anniversary month for me, and two of the three (my start date with my current job and more importantly, Matt's and my dating-anniversary) land at the end of the month. So I tend to mentally lump the blog anniversary at the end too, even though it's really in the beginning.
Anyway, where I was going before that tangent about anniversaries: I've been doing a lot of thinking about VM and what it is now vs. what I originally envisioned it to be vs. what it's evolving into. But that's a post for another day, I think.
So much for said "writer's block," I suppose. Funny how that works.
And just to give your eyeballs a little visual stimulation, here's a fairly nondescript representation of what I've been wearing a lot lately: plain tee, cardi, slacks, flats. Warm weather, where art thou?
t-shirt: Old Navy
cardi, flats: Target
slacks: thrifted
necklace: Jane.com
Man, girls have it so easy for business casual wear, it isn't even funny. "Business casual" for dudes means ties and Oxfords, but I can wear a t-shirt as long as I dress it up with layers and a statement necklace. I kind of love it. (And to guys who may be tempted to complain about the unfairness of this double standard, I have two phrases for you: "gender pay gap" and "glass ceiling.")
sweater: thrifted
t-shirt: The Limited
skinnies: Forever 21
boots: Target
Er. Mah. Gerd you guys. This weekend was so ridiculously crazy and wonderful. Matt and I went to Pittsburgh for my friend Hayley's wedding, in which I was a bridesmaid. In a true break of my usual character, I put my phone down and actually took in every moment instead of snapping pics constantly. (Except for the rehearsal dinner and the morning of, because there was no professional photographer, so Hayley asked me to step in.) But for the most part, I wasn't really snapping away. I'll try to dig up some pics from Facebook and scan in the photobooth shots to share, though. All in all, it was crazy-fun. Congrats, Hayley and Ernie :)
I wound up with a four-day weekend, since I had to be there early on Friday (Matt met me in town on Saturday) and yesterday was Veterans Day. So in between the crazy partying Saturday, the doing-nothing-and-recovering Sunday and the chore-filled Monday, this weekend was pretty jam-packed.
I always feel like it's rough going back to work after a long weekend, but this morning has been a particular struggle thanks to the first real snowfall of the season. It's only two inches, but it's slowly crushing my spirit. So here's an outfit from slightly warmer, significantly less snowy days. I'm almost certain it's a near- (or exact) repeat of an outfit from last year, but eh. Who's keeping track, right? (Also, I've only just noticed that my necklace was inside my sweater for every single shot that day. Wompwomp.)
Did you guys have exciting weekends?
t-shirt: Old Navy
button-down: New York & Company
slacks: thrifted
flats: Target
necklace: Stella & Dot giveaway win
bracelet: H&M
Let's talk about this outfit for a sec. I don't know why, but I kind of love it. It's so simple and classic, but with fun accents that keep it from being boring. I won the necklace in a giveaway hosted by Jess over at Here & Now. I never win giveaways, so it was pretty exciting! I love how she styled it with a bold shirt, but for my first time I wanted to keep it fairly simple and let the necklace speak for itself.
When I was putting this outfit together, my mind flashed to Fran's post about how to wear a button-down under another shirt without all the bunching and weirdness. At the time, my sleepy brain thought, "Nah, you're good girl. No need to take off that tee, find a cami, put it on, then put the tee back on. Let's goooo!" But looking at these photos, I'm thinking I should have done it. Note to self: Morning brain is kinda cray.
Like this morning, when I woke up and for some inexplicable reason, was overcome by energy and the intense desire to clean everything in my house. Well, I guess only the energy was inexplicable. The cleaning bug probably was because the house is a *tad* overdue. So I tidied my closet and wiped down the kitchen counters and stove instead of writing a post this morning. Cause I can write a post on my lunch break, but I sure can't clean my kitchen, amiright?
I'm just hoping I can keep that energy/desire to clean this evening. It's my off night at the gym and I don't have any immediate deadlines to work toward, so instead of vegging out on the couch for an Adventure Time marathon, I want to try to catch up on house stuff. Including a couple projects for Phase 2 of house decorating :) It might be a coffee-in-the-afternoon type of day...I also find that music is a great motivator for me. So I'm trying to think up a good "getting shiz done" playlist for this evening. Any suggestions?
I feel like I'm saying that pretty much every Monday morning. I never seem to get everything done on my to-do list for any given weekend. We were busy these past two days, to be sure. Matt and I helped friends move, went to an overnight football-watching/camping/fishing trip at our friend's dad's house, set up a new wireless router and sold my old iPhone on Craigslist. I also dyed my hair and got it cut. But I wanted to work on some house projects and clean and figure out why our printer isn't working, and I didn't get to any of that. Le sigh.
So anyway, these photos. For some reason, I had a really hard time getting them to focus properly. It was the first time I ever had a problem like that, and I was getting really frustrated. I managed to clean up some of the least-out-of-focus ones using the methods I described in this post, but they're still a tad blurry:
shirt: really, really old Alloy from high school (hahaha yeah you read that right)
blazer: thrifted
skinnies: Forever 21
booties: Walmart
necklace: InPink (giveaway win)
But they got really good after I convinced Matt to step outside and be my "mark" for focusing the camera:
Since then, I've figured out that I can use my spare tripod as a mark. And ever since, my photos have been coming out crystal clear! (With the slight exception of tomorrow's outfit, because that trick hadn't quite dawned on me when I took those. Oops!)
