May 2018 – L'ensemble du jour

May 15, 2018 – Throwing Shade (OOTD #283)

Published on May 30, 2018 by lensembledujour1 Comment

We’re getting pretty close to three hundred outfits of the day, aren’t we?

I surpassed my blog’s one year anniversary a month ago, but it still astounds me that this thing is still tooting along nearly three hundred outfit posts later. That of course doesn’t count Saturday Musings + Coffee or review posts, so in truth, I’m probably a little over three hundred posts already. Thanks for the continued support that keeps me motivated to continue writing.

Anyway, now that summer has begun (basically, at least — I guess the summer solstice isn’t for another month, but it’s basically hot enough here in Kentucky for me to consider it summer), I can feel justified wearing sunglasses again like 24/7!

I love sunglasses — it means I can put less effort into my face makeup. Since they cover my eyes and sometimes, my eyebrows, if I know I’m going to be in a place where I can just leave my shades on, I can do minimal or no makeup. And since I’m lazy and usually don’t have time to do a full face of makeup even if I wanted to, I am happy to take any opportunity to go minimal.

This outfit has a sunhat too — which means no hair to worry about either! Not that that’s really a problem for me anymore with my short hair, since there’s not really enough of it there to have a “bad hair day.”

Still, even ignoring their hair covering functionality, I rather like hats. They make me feel classy.

That’s about it for today. 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, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Dress: Forever21

Jacket: thrifted

May 12, 2018 – Chicagoing (OOTD #282)

Published on May 29, 2018 by lensembledujour1 Comment

I finally made it into the city!

Actually, this is my second time making it in since the beginning of the school year — my first time was a few weeks ago with the Taiwanese Student Association on a field trip to Chinatown. Chinatown’s sort of on the outskirts of the city though, so this was my first time making it into the heart of things.

I’ve been to Chicago a few times before as a kid, but it’s been a really long time, and honestly all I remember about my previous trips is that I popped my ears on the elevator up to the Sears Tower, which ended up aggravating an ear infection that I didn’t know I had.

This time, though, I got to see some of the touristy things I’ve been wanting to see for the whole year I’ve been at Notre Dame, an hour and a half away — the Bean, the Art Institute, Navy Pier, and basically just the city in general.

I love cities, and I wish Notre Dame could be moved just a little further north so that we could have easier access to Chicago. As it is though, I’m a two hour train ride away from anything, which makes going into the city not really worth it most of the time. To be honest, though, a ten minute Uber drive into South Bend isn’t really worth it either.

As this was my first time in Chicago for a long time, it was in many ways, kind of like my first time. I had something of an idea of what it’d be like, since I know what cities are like, but each city has its own unique identity and feeling when you’re there. My personal favorite is New York, though I rather like Philadelphia as well.

I don’t know, I didn’t love Chicago. I loved the Art Institute, and the Bean was very cool (and I appreciate the sense of humor of Chicagoans to be able to turn the Bean into a meme), but I didn’t love the atmosphere in the same way I love the atmosphere of New York. Don’t get me wrong, Chicago is cool, but I don’t think I could see myself being one of those people who live in the suburbs and identify themselves to other Chicagoans by what neighborhood they’re from.

Besides, I heard way too many nasally Chicago accents at Notre Dame. I almost adopted one myself there for a while. I don’t think I could handle being surrounded by them 24/7 — no offense to you people with Chicago accents out there.

Top: Akira

Jacket: The art classroom after it had been sitting there unclaimed all semester

Jeans: Hollister

May 11, 2018 – Love Thee, Notre Dame (OOTD #281)

Published on May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

That’s it! I’m done with this year of school!

It was overall, a good year. I made friends, I got decent grades, I wasn’t consumed by some kind of illness, and that’s honestly all I could ask for. I hesitate to call it “the best year of my life,” or anything ridiculously positive like that, but I think I could definitely say freshman year of college was way better than any year of high school.

I wasn’t sure if I was really going to like it at Notre Dame — whether the classes would be too difficult, whether I’d be able to find my way around, whether I’d end up failing out and coming home after my first semester — but I did like it. I didn’t like all of it — I didn’t like all of my professors, and I didn’t like having to be vegetarian on Fridays during Lent — but on the whole, everything was mostly good.

On Friday, my last day, pretty much all I had to do was hand in my final Philosophy paper and pack up and get out. I did have a few loose ends to tie up though as well.

I baked some vegan cookies and gave them out to all of my friends who’d done pictures for me at some time during the year as a means of thanking them for always being willing to help me out. I went to Starbucks and spent the last of my Flex Dollars on some mugs. I went to the bookstore and returned my rental textbooks. Basically, anything I should have done a week previously but didn’t because I was stressing out about my finals, I did on the last day.

Packing was no fun, but at least I had my parents to come help. I got a portion of it finished up on Thursday night, but I still had the majority to finish up on Saturday. The car was very full when we were done, but we did manage to get everything secured in there — including my plants! They all came home with me, and are doing just fine.

Oh! And I did my photos in the hall of the Main Building. That’s not a place I ever really am during a normal day, so it’s never a place I have the opportunity to do pictures. Since my parents were there, I was able to ask them to come in for the special location, since they wanted to see around campus anyway and I knew I wasn’t inconveniencing them.

But that’s it for Notre Dame posts until August! It was a good year, and I’m very glad I was still able to keep up my blog even with school. I hope you enjoyed reading about my life as much as I enjoyed writing about it. I’m glad to get a break, though. Having a chill(ish) summer at home will be good for me.

Shirt: thrifted

Jeans: Hot Topic (thrifted)

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Used Car Style

Published on May 26, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Writing this from the office of a car sales lot, so that’s new for these blogs.

I’m with my dad, who’s buying a new car on account of me wrecking one last summer. Long story short, the car was totaled, but even though it was my dad’s, my mom was the one who ended up getting a new car. My dad got the old car, which I’m pretty sure he was never entirely satisfied with.

Fast forward a year later, and now my dad wants a new car. I would also appreciate the new one so I can see a little better, so it’s great for everyone.

So I’ve been here for a few hours today, and I’ll probably be here for a few more. Thankfully, I brought a cute mug along, and the salesman who’s been helping us has a nice-enough looking desk, so I was able to get some flatlay photography done.

I ended up missing out on a baby shower for a friend today in order to hang out with my dad while he buys this car, but hopefully, that’s all I’ll miss. I’m planning on going out this evening if I can to hang out with some old high school friends, so I’d rather not be here too late this evening.

In other news, I’ve started listening to more French music lately in an attempt to improve my listening skills. You’d think with 4+ years of French education and a blog with a French title (not even a good one, actually — apparently “l’ensemble du jour” isn’t really the best translation of “outfit of the day,” it works, but it’s not perfect).

Anyway, I’m particularly liking Stromae, KYO, and BB Brunes. If you have a hankering (sorry, can’t really come up with a better word) for good French music, I would definitely check them out.

Looks like that’s it for today! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.

May 8, 2018 – Not Oscar de la Renta, Sadly (OOTD #280)

Published on May 25, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Get it? Because Oscar de la Renta is an expensive designer and my shirt says “Oscar?”

In my last post about this shirt about a year ago, I talked about its origins and the reasons why I owned a work shirt that labeled me as Oscar of S.B Cox Demolition and Construction Services, even though I don’t know anyone named Oscar and I am (obviously) not Oscar myself. If you’d like to read more about that, definitely go check that out.

These photos were, believe it or not, taken at 3:50AM in the morning. I think I look quite decent for so early, though.

The story here is that I was working on a paper late at night in the library after having had a late start that morning (or rather…a late start in the afternoon. Pretty sure I didn’t start doing anything productive until like 3PM ). As often happens with me, I fell asleep while working, and only woke up from my uncomfortable slumber at a 9th floor library desk at 3:00AM.

I’ve done this a few times before, and it’s really not my favorite. I have nothing against working late at the library, but sleeping at the desks is awful. It’s definitely not something I ever do intentionally.

Normally, I would have taken waking up with a back ache on the ninth floor of the library in the middle of the night as a cue to head home, but I still looked cute from the day, so I decided to stop by the art building and do some pictures really quickly first.

I was pretty tired at the point, so I didn’t hang around any longer like I usually do. It was cold, I was sleepy, and I had an exam the next morning (don’t worry — it was an easy one, so staying up late didn’t hurt me much). Hooray for good study habits!

Shirt and skirt: thrifted

May 7, 2018 – On The First Day of Finals (OOTD #280)

Published on May 24, 2018November 18, 2019 by lensembledujour5 Comments

My university gave to me…a week full of anxiety!

I hope I haven’t used that as an opening/blog title before. I know I definitely used it as a caption last year around Christmastime at winter finals, but I don’t think I’ve used it in a real blog. Apologies if I have.

Anyway, these shots are from the first day of finals week for spring semester, and I must say — this set was definitely worse than last. Last semester, I had a nice balance of papers and exams, and the only major term paper I had was due before finals even began, so I had plenty of time to prepare and even relax a little before dipping for the semester.

Not so much this time — I had plenty of stuff due before finals week, and then even more due during finals week. It was no fun.

I may look sunny and cheery here, but I definitely was not on that Monday. I had nothing due that day, and no exams to sit for, but an obscene amount of work to do. I spent all day in the basement of the student center, which is about as soul sucking as any location at ND is.

Add on the fact that everyone there was also preparing for finals, and it was even more soul sucking than usual.

I ended up hanging out in the basement for 9 hours. I am never doing that again. I was with a friend, so I kind of felt pressured to sit there in that booth for hour after hour, but like I said, it was awful. I like to move around a lot while I work and take breaks to stretch my legs, but I pretty much just sat there the whole time. I got some good work done, but it honestly wasn’t worth the headache.

#neveragain

jacket: Ralph Lauren

Top: H&M

Shorts: H&M

May 6, 2018 – Notre Dome (OOTD #279)

Published on May 23, 2018August 14, 2019 by lensembledujour5 Comments

More Dome pics!

What’s Notre Dame without the Dome, anyway? Are you even a Notre Dame student if you don’t take an obscene amount of photos in front of Main Building?

I think just about every ND student gets these same shots of their friends and them in front of the Golden Dome at some point. It’s a pretty standard shot; I’m pretty sure a month (maybe even a week) doesn’t go by where I don’t come across some Dome pictures on my feed from some friend or some friend of a friend.

For as many pretty buildings as there are on Notre Dame’s campus, you’d think people would get a little more creative with their cute friend Instagram pics — but they don’t. It’s the Dome or nothing.

I guess my friends and I are no different then — so here are my Dome pics (well, the second set). Call me generic.

I did get some fun shots inside of the math building though in front of this globe, which I
never knew existed because I never went into the math building once because I never had to take a math class (hooray for getting a 5 on AP Calculus!).

Apparently I should have gone into the math building though, because it has this super cool globe room (I have no idea what the architectural term would be for this room — like, a big open foyer with a tall ceiling but in the middle of the building? Is there a word for that?). Apparently all of my friends had seen it already (because they had classes in the math building and so they passed a lot), but like I said, I’d never seen it before.

I got excited to see something new, at any rate, which made me think — how many other cool rooms are there throughout campus that I just haven’t seen because I haven’t had a reason to go into them? I guess that’s a mystery to solve over my next three years.

In the meantime, though, it’s good to be at the end of the school year. Those unseen buildings and rooms shall have to be explored another time.

Anyway, that’s about it for today. 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, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Shirt: Zara

Dress: American Eagle

May 2, 2018 – Suddenly Spring (OOTD #278)

Published on May 21, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I had expressed back in mid April when the temperatures in South Bend were still hitting freezing (freezing! In April!) that I was afraid I might completely miss the spring flowers at Notre Dame, but thankfully, I was wrong!

I’ve never seen foliage come back to life so quickly! Back in Kentucky, the coming of spring is a slow process — first, you have a couple of warm days in early March to get you excited; then, the first trees begin showing buds; then, finally, the home/garden stores start opening up their greenhouse sections and you know that spring is in full swing. The whole process takes about a month.

In South Bend, though, spring came in about a week. One week, it was cold, rainy, and freezing; the next, the flowers were blooming and we were hitting 60 consistently.

It’s been a jarring transition, but one I don’t wholly mind making. I loved winter in South Bend, even with the cold and the snow, but I’m glad it’s still over. I want my winter to end in mid-March (you know, the whole “in like a lion” proverb), not mid-April.

To celebrate the start of spring (and the last full day of classes!), I wore my springiest outfit. It reminded me of something Southern and preppy, like what I might wear back in Kentucky. There’s not a lot of Southern prep going on at Notre Dame, for better or for worse. While it’s not my favorite style ever, I don’t mind it every now and again.

Dress: Lilly Pulitzer

Shirt: Altar’d State

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Lex Vegas

Published on May 20, 2018May 20, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

It’s pretty sure I’ve only heard anyone refer to Lexington, KY as “Lex Vegas” like once total in my time living here, but I like it and I’ve been using it ever since.

This was my first full weekend here back home, since I spent the weekend after I moved out visiting Chicago. It was fairly quiet, though not boring — just how I like it.

I spent the Saturday morning visiting some local yard sales with my mother, which is something that never fails to amuse me. I don’t have to buy anything at all to have fun; I just like the hunt. It’s the same way with thrift stores. There’s something really enjoyable about picking through other people’s junk and feeling like you need to wash your hands after examining some dusty old appliances.

This time though, I did find some nice things to buy. I got a parsley plant (yay more plants!), some pots, and a few band shirts. Not that those were anything that I actually needed, and not that they would’ve been expensive to buy new, but getting them used meant it was only like $3 total.

In the afternoon, I got to see Amanda, whom I hadn’t seen since spring break in March. We got lunch, got some cute photos (stay tuned for those in the upcoming days!), got coffee, walked around the park, and in the evening, watched a movie in and ordered Chinese.

Again, it was quiet, but not boring. It was wild not having any homework to distract me from enjoying myself. During the school year, it’s not like I don’t ever go out and do fun things, but I do always have responsibilities (namely homework) to worry about the whole time I’m out. No summer homework = no homework stress, and that’s something I can definitely appreciate.

May 1, 2018 – Pop Punkish (OOTD #277)

Published on May 18, 2018May 18, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

One of these days, I’m going to accidentally miscount these OOTD numbers and I’ll never notice because I never check.

I love fashion because I can go from feminine and soft one day to punkish the next. I don’t really have any claim to the title of a real punk person, but I like the aesthetic.

I’m pop punk, if you will — an easily digestible and more mainstream version of the real culture.

For as much as I like my punkish fashion and my pop punk music, I’ve never really gotten into a real punk scene. Maybe it’s because there really wasn’t one in Kentucky — and there certainly isn’t one at Catholic School ™. If I was ever to shave my half of my head and participate properly in the punk renewal of the 2010s, I’d probably have to move to London where I’d feel less alone about it.

Besides, I have no tattoos. Can you really be punk without tattoos covering at least one of your appendages?

I can’t imagine having a sleeve of tattoos at Notre Dame. Not that it’s against a dress code or anything — there is none — but I would certainly be alone in that fashion statement. I’ve complained about this before, but Notre Dame students are about as vanilla as it gets, which is interesting, given how much money a lot of their families have. If they wanted to dress more interestingly, they certainly have the resources to do so, but you don’t really see anyone flaunting it in that way.

High school fashion is, in my opinion, still where it’s at. You get a nice mix of neon-haired emo kids along with the Lilly Pulitzer-wearing preps (did I just say “prep” to designate a culture? Is this 2006 MySpace?). It’s a good, diverse environment for creative expression.

Of course, most people still just wear yoga pants and sweaters everyday…but I can’t blame them. The diversity of cultures in public school (at least in mine) was nice, but that was about it. My school was also freezing 99% of the time, and you never knew which teachers were going to be sticklers about dress code, so dressing up wasn’t always the most practical option.

Top: River Island

Pink top: Forever21

Skirt:

Boots: Doc Marten