February 2018 – L'ensemble du jour

February 22, 2018 – Midterm Misery (OOTD #231)

Published on February 28, 2018 by lensembledujour1 Comment

Up next on Meilin Explores the Art Building at Night: an art history seminar classroom!

The evening I did these photos, I was at work on a paper of application, so I popped in this empty classroom for some peace and quiet. To my delight, the room had this fun print hung on the wall, making it the perfect place for my OOTD photos.

If anyone actually knows what this piece is or what’s supposed to be going on, please tell me in the comments below. I feel like it’s probably something super metaphorical, but I can’t really even make out what’s supposed to be happening in the scene, let alone what everyone is supposed to represent.

Anyway, despite not having any idea what this piece is, it’s art, and that’s enough to satisfy me. It’s also a fairly colorless background, which I appreciate for the sake of the aesthetics of my Instagram – I like to have some more plain photos to intersperse with more colorful ones to maintain a sense of balance.

Midterms are in full-swing here at school, which is admittedly not making my existence very enjoyable. I’m pretty sure after I finished my photos and the homework I was doing for this post last Wednesday, I laid my coat out on the floor and took a nap. I say “pretty sure” because I’ve been falling asleep in strange places with increasing frequency these last few days, and it’s getting difficult to distinguish between one late night and another.

It goes without saying that I’m excited for spring break to just chill and relax and catch up on my sleep. I’m just going home, which sounds unexciting, but that’s what I’m grateful for. How do the college kids who go out partying at Panama Beach or Tijuana or wherever do it? At the risk of sounding dorky, I can barely manage to occasionally drag myself out of my room to go out one night over the weekend. I can’t imagine going somewhere and partying for an entire week, and then immediately returning to schoolwork. When do you rest?

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: thrifted

Undershirt: ASOS

Pants: J. Crew (thrifted)

February 21, 2018 – Yellow Bellied (OOTD #230)

Published on February 27, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Get it? Because my shirt is yellow and I’m about to go into a post about how midterms are scary?

Okay, so maybe “scared” isn’t really the word to describe my mental state right now, but certainly “anxious.”

Midterms are next week, and I am very much not in support of it. How on earth did I manage all oft his stress and work last semester? Did I even manage it at all, or did I just just self-combust way back in October and now I’m living in a state of imaginary limbo?

For real though, I always hear complaints about finals week, how that’s the true bane of a college student’s existence, but I’d contest that midterms are worse. You have all the stress of big, important tests with the added pressure of having to continue attending classes and going to meetings. Finals are truly that – final, so there’s something almost comforting about their decisive conclusiveness that midterms do not offer.

If I ever become the president of a school, I think I would treat midterms much like finals – cancel classes for that week and then even offer a reading day or two before they begin.

On a more positive note, I believe that part of my stress has to do with attending fun events and doing things with my friends more often than I did last semester. I’ve been to a few concerts, I ran (and was elected) as the Student Union Board representative for my dorm, and I’ve applied for some study abroad and internship opportunities for the summer. It’s been a good busy.

What’s been a bad busy is that I just realized I have an essay due in two days that I didn’t even realize was due, and I haven’t slept properly in…a while. What’s been a bad busy is that I’m writing this blog in the margins of my notes while listening to my professor lecture because I don’t know if I’ll have time to write at any other point today.

Two more weeks until spring break.

Shirt: Thrifted

Dress: American Eagle

February 20, 2018 – Low Light (OOTD #229)

Published on February 26, 2018February 27, 2018 by lensembledujour7 Comments

I made this a caption for one of my posts on Instagram recently, but I’ll say it again – I think stairwells may just bit the new doorways.

A little context – I’ve said, many, many times on this blog that doorways are pretty much the only structures I get in the backgrounds of my fashion photography. For one, the shape of a door usually just makes for a very nice way to frame the subject in general (that subject being me). Additionally, Notre Dame just has a lot of really pretty doors throughout campus (there are some exceptions – I think Riley’s doorway and LaFun’s doorway are pretty average), and I like to show them off. Maybe one of these days I’lll to a list of the top 10 best doorways at Notre Dame.

Anyway, I’ve been getting tired of constantly standing in front of doors, so I’ve been trying to shake it up a little by exploring the various buildings of ND when they empty out at night for good photography locations. Thankfully, now that I’ve discovered the remote camera feature that allows me to balance my phone somewhere but then actually take the photo on my watch, it’s been easier for me to get pictures done since I don’t have to rely on having someone to be my photographer.

As you’ll see here, when I posed in a stairwell in the campus ministry building, stairwells can make for good substitutes for doors, especially if that stairwell has a window that will let some natural light in.

Unfortunately, when tried to replicate that here in these photos in a different set of stairs in a different building, I didn’t have quite as much luck, as it was too dark out to get much natural light. Instead, I got a (kind of dingy) overhead light.

While I wouldn’t say these shots are particularly glamorous, they are moody, and there are a few in here that, when I put them on the B/W filter, give off some film noir detective vibes.

Will I be returning to this set of stairs for anymore photos? Probably not, especially if it’s dark out. Like I said, I do like some of the things I got here though, so it was still worth it to me.

Jacket: Ralph Lauren

Top: Free People

February 19, 2018 – Green Thumb (OOTD #228)

Published on February 25, 2018March 6, 2018 by lensembledujour8 Comments

So I thought I would give you guys a little tour of my studio apartment today, beginning with my collection of hanging plants!

Ha, just kidding. I wish this were a part of my studio apartment, with its high ceilings, spacious painting space, and hanging plant collection. Alas, it’s just the painting studio within the art building (which is getting more and more features in this blog). If you really wanna see my dorm room (or like…one wall of it), you can check out this blog post here.

At this point though, I’m practically living in the art building, perhaps even spending more time in there than my residence hall. It’s big, and quiet, and it doesn’t smell like mold like my residence hall – so if you exclude the fact that it’s probably haunted, it’s the perfect place to stay.

I particularly love these plants in the painting studio. My roommate, Mariana, featured occasionally in photos on here, is a huge plant nerd, and I think it’s rubbing off on me. She keeps a lot of plants around, and as a result, I’ve begun wanting more.

I have this cactus here, which I’m very proud of myself for having managed to keep alive all this time. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a plant go so long without dying before. I mean, it is just a cactus – not exactly the most difficult thing to care for – but it’s a mark of progress. I hope that by springtime, I can go out to a plant shop one day and maybe buy some more cacti and succulents to decorate my space with.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll just hang out at in the painting studio (which I really have no particular business being in otherwise – I have no painting class) and take dramatic pictures with their plants. It beats taking pictures with whatever random still lives and installations that are up in the drawing studio.

Pants: The LOFT

Shirt: Abercrombie

Necklace: Forever21 (fun fact: I’ve had this super cheap necklace since about 8th grade, so over 5 years. Surprisingly, it hasn’t yet broken, and has even survived falling off my neck on the way to class and being returned hours later by a kind stranger who picked it up)

SaveSave

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Generally Lacking In Musings and Coffee

Published on February 24, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

I’ve barely had the time to muse on anything or drink coffee today.

Midterms are slowly but surely making its way towards me, and with them, all of the work that they entail.

With my liberal arts concentration, I, luckily, don’t have many actual exams to sit for – just one in my required science course. Instead, I’m saddled with a ton of papers and projects, which, for better or worse, means I have to begin working on them well before actual midterms week when they’re due.

Thus, instead of a “midterms week” I have something more like “midterms weeks” or even “midterms month.” It’s particularly lousy because, unlike finals week, we’re required to continue attending classes while the exams are all going on. With finals week, classes end a few days before exams even begin, meaning it’s actually a significantly less stressful experience.

Anyway, as you might notice from my planner, I’ve got a lot of things to do, which I like to distract myself from doing by writing blog posts and making my planner look pretty.

I’ve been hanging out in the library for a good portion of the day today, which I really only do when I have legitimate work to do. In terms of study spaces on campus, the library is one of my least favorite because it’s cold and quite ugly on some of the upper floors (though there is an excellent view if you can snatch a window seat) , but it has white tables, which makes it excellent for flatlay photography like this.

I should probably get back to work, so I’m going to cut this short here. Pray for me that I’ll get everything done, would you?

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

February 16, 2018 – Oversleeping The New Year (OOTD #227)

Published on February 23, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

Hey, you know how yesterday’s blog post was all about how I had to hang out in the art room super late at night in order to do my pictures?

Yeah, well, that ended up being a regrettable decision the next morning. I was up so late, I ended up totally crashing when I finally made it home. I was so exhausted that I forgot to set an alarm for myself, and none of the usual backups that might wake me up in the case of an alarm failure – like my roommates getting up, the construction going on in the next building – worked wither because I was so knocked.

Ironically, the class I ended up missing that morning was the one I was up so late working for in the first place – Drawing, I woke up at 11:30, and class began at 10:30, so it really wasn’t worth it to walk into studio an hour late.

Instead, I cut my losses. I emailed my professor, asking her what I missed, made myself some coffee, and spent a relaxing morning getting ready for my 12:50 class. What was done was done, you know? Obviously, I understood that I had made a mistake and I shouldn’t let it happen again, but no reason to feel badly about it all day when there was nothing more I could do.

Thankfully, my professor was super chill about it. I didn’t tell her that I overslept, but she didn’t ask any questions and just told me I could do a small group makeup critique with some other students that missed class that Friday.

Friday was also, interestingly Chinese New Year, so maybe I was just blessed with some good luck there by my ancestors.

I mentioned this in the Saturday Musings + Coffee post I did the day after, but I was kind of disappointed with the lack of Chinese New Year programming at my school, even within the Asian American Association or similar cultural groups. Obviously, I don’t expect the whole school to celebrate – in fact, as it was a Friday during Lenten season, there wasn’t even any Kung Pao chicken in the dining hall like usual – but I thought maybe there’d be something.

I’m exaggerating a little – I believe there was some kind of cultural performing arts show the Thursday before, but that cost money to get into and I don’t have that, and then on Sunday, there was a very small event in the student center ballroom with some egg rolls and fried rice. Better than nothing, of course, but I definitely felt that my school that celebrated something as seemingly minor as the Feast of St. Francis with animal-shaped cookies could have had a little more going on for such an important Asian holiday.

To make myself feel better about not getting to celebrate CNY, I wore this oriental-inspired skirt I got back in London as well as my Chinese dragon ring. It’s no qipao, but it’s something, right?

Skirt: River Island

Sweater: Forever21

February 15, 2018 – What A Waste Of Lovely Night (OOTD #228)

Published on February 22, 2018September 11, 2018 by lensembledujour13 Comments

Meilin Scanish, back at it again with the late night art building photos.

This time, I’m in an empty classroom with my camera balanced atop a stack of chairs. I find just keep getting more and more creative as I get more desperate for photos for this blog.

Ideally, one of these days, I’m going to have a professional photographer friend who knows my routine for taking photos every day, and I won’t have to feel awkward about asking people every day to indulge my narcissistic hobby. Maybe it’ll be someone I pay after I become rich and famous, maybe it’ll just a friend who understands and supports this little project of mine.

Maybe it’ll just be my dad after I fail out of college and move into my parents’ basement for the rest of eternity.

I’m kidding of course, but it is kind of getting obnoxious having to go to the art building, Riley, every other night to stake out an empty classroom or studio so I can take my own pictures. I mean, I’m grateful that I’ve found Riley and have managed to set up a system for myself for how to still get pictures if my scheduled lunchtime photographer friend falls through, but you know – it’s not ideal.

Now that I’ve found my watch’s remote camera feature, I’ve been playing around a lot more with doing my own photos in more unique locations than the outsides of the same buildings I tend to feature over and over here. I won’t spoil any of these new locations – not that there’s really anything super dramatic – but I’m still really excited to get to show off something other than doors in the next few posts I’ve got planned here.

In other news, I’ve been pulling a lot of late nights these last few days as midterms season grows closer and closer, so I apologize if some of these blogs have been posted at late or unusual times. As much as I love this little project of mine, school and its various responsibilities have to come first.

Dress: Pitaya

Tights: Hot Topic

February 14, 2018 – Ash Valentines (OOTD #227)

Published on February 21, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

Valentine’s Day this year felt more like Ash Wednesday than Valentine’s Day.

Maybe that’s because it was Ash Wednesday as well – a fact that I normally would not have paid much attention to at all, seeing as I’m not Catholic. But, seeing as I now go to Catholic school and everything here is so deep in its own Catholicism that there’s a crucifix in every classroom, it was hard to miss.

Perhaps the most prominent sign of the start of Lent season here, other than the kids walking around with ashes on their foreheads, was that the dining hall was completely meat-free on Wednesday, and will be meat-free every Friday now until the end of Lent.

The Friday bit doesn’t so much annoy me (okay, it does sort of annoy me, but not too strongly), but the general lack of any Valentines-themed food at the dining hall on actual Valentines Day was kind of strange, especially considering this is a place that went all-out with themed desserts for holidays like Halloween, the feast of St. Francis (is that a holiday?), and pretty much any home football game last season.

The overall vibe of campus was also definitely more somber than usually, which I guess was a result of the Ash Wednesday thing. Like I said, I’m not Catholic, but I can appreciate some of the traditions. Still, it was weird that people weren’t more celebratory about Valentine’s Day here, and I’m not sure if that was as a result of it being Ash Wednesday or if that’s just not a thing college kids care about.

Personally, it’s a holiday I really enjoy, even if I don’t really do anything to celebrate it anymore. I like seeing couples together, and I like to see the lengths that people will go to to show their love for one another. I guess I’ve just bought into the commercial aspect of it all, but I think that can still be fun.

Shirt: H&M

Skirt: Forever21

February 13, 2018 – Fat Tuesday (OOTD #226)

Published on February 19, 2018February 19, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I have never once lived somewhere where Mardi Gras was a big deal.

I wish I could say I have though — it seems like such a cool holiday, at least from what I see on television and in movies like The Princess and the Frog. I have a friend who’s at LSU who went into New Orleans for the parade, and from what I saw on her Snap stories from that holiday weekend, it looked like a ton of fun.

I did go into New Orleans once a long time ago, when I was a little kid. I think my family and I were ultimately going into Florida, but we decided to stop in New Orleans for a few days to look around. I don’t remember much of what we did on that trip, as I was still on the younger side, but a few things sick out in my memory.

I think the most memorable things were the voodoo shops peppered around the city because they absolutely terrified me. I couldn’t even look at their window displays. I think it was more the visuals, like little shrunken head trinkets, that scared me more so than the actual concept of voodoo magic.

Unfortunately, as fear is such a strong emotion, that’s mainly what I remember about New Orleans. Voodoo shops, of course, were not the only things we saw there – I remember a pretty cool Mardi Gras museum with a lot of pretty dresses from the various Mardi Gras queens, I remember getting alligator jerky somewhere in a park near water, and I remember eating some really bomb cajun food on our first night there.

Like I said, one of the days, I would really love to go into New Orleans for Mardi Gras and experience it again now that I’m adult. If anything, I’m sure the voodoo shops will fascinate me even more than ever now that I’ve developed a greater appreciation for the macabre. In the meantime, I can at least sport my purple hair with a green shirt on Mardi Gras and pretend I’m festive while stuck here in South Bend.

Jacket: The LOFT

Shirt: Banana Republic

Skirt: Zara

February 12, 2018 – Playing With Proportions (OOTD #225)

Published on February 18, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

I really feel like a Project Runway contestant in this one.

You know, the “edgy” “artsy” drama queen who uses really pretentious words and consistently dresses in dark colors? I feel like that was me in this outfit.

I really wish Notre Dame had a fashion design class, and that I had the time to take it (assuming it existed), because I would love to learn to make clothes. I can do some basic sewing, buttons and the like, but nothing beyond that.

As a kid, I loved making clothes for my American Girl and Barbie dolls, and I think in some alternate reality, I might have taken that interest and turned it into a real career. I think I’m too far down the road now to really to get into real fashion design, but I like to think that I would have been good at it if I had ever seriously tried it. Maybe when I’m retired (or, alternatively, when I become so fabulously rich that I never have to work a day in my life), I’ll have the opportunity to take some sewing classes.

Anyway, I just really enjoy the way proportions are balanced in this outfit. It’s hardly uncommon to see a collared shirt paired with a sweater, but I think the fact that both the shirt and the sweater are oversized, and the way that the shirt’s left unbuttoned at the bottom makes this a little more unusual than average.