Tag: 2017

November 23, 2017 – Thanksgiving Thriving (OOTD #166)

Published on by lensembledujour1 Comment

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh wait, you mean to tell me that Thanksgiving’s passed?

Yes, as I’ve discussed before, my blogs are on a few days’ delay (the delay varies quite a bit depending on if I’ve kept up with posting and if I’ve photographed my outfit every day or if I’ve skipped a few), which is all fine and dandy until a holiday rolls around and I don’t have an appropriate holiday-themed outfit to post on said holiday.

So here’s my Thanksgiving outfit, even though Thanksgiving was nearly a week ago and I have not relevant Thanksgiving-related things to say since I discussed my Thanksgiving thoughts on actual Thanksgiving.

It’s funny – the day before Thanksgiving, I stayed up fairly late hanging out with some friends, so on the morning of Thanksgiving, I slept in pretty late, like, until noon. I missed both the parade and the dog show, which was a little bit unfortunate, but I don’t usually watch those closely anyway so it wasn’t a big deal. Anyway, I woke up at noon to my dad telling that I needed to get downstairs because my grandmother was already in and everyone was getting ready for dinner, so I had very little time to pick out an appropriate festive outfit.

But despite these tremendous obstacles, I think I still managed to put together a pretty decent Thanksgiving-ready outfit. The skirt is reminiscent of both fall and Christmas, with a nondescript pattern of what might be fall leaves or Christmas poinsettia petals, and the sweater is just loose enough that I could eat basically whatever I wanted without feeling uncomfortable.

I think I’ll use this anecdote the next time an interviewer asks me about overcoming adversity.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

Sweater: Unknown (thrifted)

Skirt: Vintage: (thrifted)

(Huh…my entire outfit was thrifted here. I didn’t even realize that until just now when I wrote where they were from. Interesting)

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Philadelphia Feelings

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

I like…have no legitimate reason for that blog title…it just kind of came into my head to the tune of Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” (fun song, by the way), and I thought I’d go for it.

I didn’t even intend originally for this blog to have a Philadelphia Eagles mug in it – I had wanted to go with my dad’s Notre Dame mug, in recognition of ND’s final regular season game tonight against Stanford. But that mug was dirty – I guess he used it this morning – so I thought I’d go for another one of my favorite football teams.

The Eagles are a team I’ve grown up rooting for, although it’s not one I have any particular connection to myself. I’ve never lived in Philly, I don’t know any of the players – all I know is that my parents like them, and so I do too.

In fairness, I never grew up in a place that cared much for professional football, so the only way it was ever a part of my life was through my parents – thus, it makes sense that I would root for the same team as they do. Kentucky is much more interested in college sports, and so I’ve developed an interest in those (have you seen how many times I talk about Notre Dame on this blog?), but as it comes to professional sports, all I know is the Eagles.

And until I move to a city and make friends who are all interested in professional sports, I think that’s the way it’ll stay. Which, for now, given the Eagles’ record as the best in the nation, is a great thing! Maybe I’ll finally see them in the Super Bowl.

Anyway, here’s a picture of my dog. That has nothing to do with coffee, or Saturdays, or the Eagles, but I like her and I thought I’d include her at the end here.

November 18, 2017 – Here Comes the Freezing Rain (OOTD #163)

Published on by lensembledujour3 Comments

Why on earth can there not be a Notre Dame home game with decent weather?

Seriously – South Bend doesn’t necessarily have bad weather all the time. Maybe that’s the stereotype, and maybe I personally tend to complain about South Bend’s weather more than I ought, but in reality, it can be quite nice up here sometimes. In fact, I’m pretty sure the day just prior to November 18 was absolutely beautiful – high in the 50s or something like that – but of course, November 18 itself was horrid.

I don’t think you can fully understand how horrid it was. I mean, if you were just to walk outside for a few moments to go from one building to another or from your car to a building you would’ve been fine. It wasn’t even that cold – 40s maybe. But it was the wind, and the rain, and the 40 degree temperatures, and the fact that I forgot gloves, and the fact that I had to stand in one place not moving and totally exposed to the elements for hours that made the game day experience less than optimal.

Thankfully, I know there will be plenty more game day experiences in my future as a Notre Dame student, so I didn’t really feel badly about leaving after the halftime show, even though it was the last home game of the season. If I were a senior, maybe I would’ve stayed – no, I definitely would’ve stayed – but seeing as it was just a mediocre game, and it wasn’t even that big of a milestone experience for me, it was alright to leave.

I was a little sad that I didn’t get to wear a more exciting outfit for my final Notre Dame home game of this year – I mean, I’ve got a gorgeous blue and black plaid cape that I was really hoping I would get to wear before the season ended – but with the weather, it was just more practical to go for something that I wouldn’t freeze and die in.

I mean, I ended up kind of freezing and dying anyway, but it was all in good fun.

Afterwards, I went back to the dorm and changed into warm, dry pajamas and had a cup of cocoa, which was pretty much the best feeling ever.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

Coat: The North Face

Blazer: Forever21

Sweater: Forever21

November 17, 2017 – Thanksgiving Aesthetic (OOTD #162)

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

Just kidding, this outfit couldn’t possibly be a Thanksgiving outfit – this dress is way too fitted for any of the hardcore eating I do on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is such a weird holiday in terms of clothes – you want to look nice because you’re seeing all of your family, but you also want something big and comfy so no one can see your inevitable food baby.

That’s alright, though – I can still dress nicely in anticipation of Thanksgiving while still dressing in pajamas and lazing around the house on actual Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a truly spectacular holiday. I mean, the significance of the event is pretty nice – you know, the whole Native Americans and Pilgrims getting along for a day to feast, and to be thankful for what they have – but mainly, I just really like the eating part.

How many other holidays are so focused upon eating? I mean, Christmas and Easter and the Super Bowl tend to involve lots of cooking and feasts, but they don’t revolve around food like Thanksgiving. I mean, obviously, Thanksgiving also revolves around being thankful – which is important, don’t get me wrong – but second most important to its celebration is the food.

At my family’s Thanksgivings, we tend to have turkey and cheesy mashed potatoes and pecan pie, which are all lovely things that I don’t eat very often and that I adore to have for Thanksgiving. If I’m lucky, my mother will also do garlic green beans, some kind of rolls, and maybe an appetizer.

My point? I really like Thanksgiving. You could say I’m thankful for it.

(Just like I’m thankful for Internet platforms like WordPress where I can share my stupid word plays like that and no one cans stop me)

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

Dress: The LOFT

Jacket: Forever21

November 15, 2017 – Notre Rain (OOTD #160)

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

You know, my photographer made a very valid point as she was taking these photos – this is a very discordant outfit.

I’ve got the rainbow raincoat and yellow rain boots, but also a plaid scarf, and sunglasses. What am I dressed for? The rain, the cold, or the sun?

The rain and the cold are actually completely accurate answers – it was very rainy and drizzly that day. But in late November in South Bend, IN, what day isn’t rainy and drizzly? Who can escape the permacloud of the Northern Midwest?

In fairness, the sunglasses are only there to conceal the fact that I’m not wearing any eye makeup here. Let’s just say it’s quite obvious without sunglasses how much of a sleep-deprived college student I am.

Not to mention, I’ve got my short grey hair, which I’ve already discussed looks kind of strange with preppier pieces, like rainbow raincoats and plaid blanket scarf. I also wore my black gauge-like earrings, just to confuse people even more.

I like to keep people guessing with my outfit, but I don’t necessarily want them to be scratching their heads either. I personally feel like this outfit’s a little closer to that “head-scratching” territory than I would’ve liked, but you know – you win some, and you lose some. I do really like the colors going on here, regardless.

Just because the sky and the weather is going to be dreary and grey, that doesn’t mean my outfit has to be as well. I mean, part of it, sure – my hair, my earrings, and my personality will always be there to bring the melancholy – but some part of me gets to be cheery. Or at the very least, look that way.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

Coat: Target

Pants: The LOFT

Scarf: Chinatown

Sweater: Kohl’s

November 14, 2017 – Cherry Blossoms (OOTD #159)

Published on by lensembledujour3 Comments

Happy 8PM on a Sunday night, I’m presently standing in the basement of a building I didn’t know existed, typing this blog on my phone because I forgot to do it earlier, and waiting in line for food.

It’s pretty nice, actually – my residence hall has a “Friendsgiving” event, where all the residents, freshmen through seniors, come together with dishes they’ve prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving.

What’s not as nice is that, as a freshman, I get last pick of the food.

I mean, I can’t really complain, because I know I’ll eventually be a senior and get first pick, but I’m pretty hungry and lines are not the friend of a hungry Meilin. I hope there’s still plenty of food left by the time I make it up there – there’s a shrimp dish that looks particularly good, and I’d be a little more than hurt if I didn’t at least get to taste some of it.

Since coming to college, I’ve gotten really spoiled with being able to eat pretty much whenever I want to without waiting, assuming I go to the dining hall at a decent time (there are certain periods that are busy where’s you do have to wait in lines). The whole “waiting for food to cook” notion isn’t something I’ve come across for a while.

Regardless of how long into the afternoon I’ll have to wait before dinner is served, I’m still very excited for Thanksgiving! The food they’ve got for us for Howard Friendsgiving looks good, but it’s nothing compared to my mother’s cooking.

For that matter, it’s nothing compared to my or my grandmother’s cooking, as we both contribute pretty fairly to the Thanksgiving meal. My dad on the other hand…he does a nice job setting the table and turning on the grill.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Cold, Rainy Game Day

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Maybe this weather is a metaphor for Notre Dame’s playoff chances.

See, we started off the year with gorgeous weather and sunshine. It was late summer in northern Indiana, meaning that being outside and standing for hours in the stadium actually wasn’t bad. Then, as fall came around, the weather cooled, but in a really genuinely nice way.

And now it’s nearly winter – our last several games have been either freezing, raining, or some combination of both, and it’s getting harder and harder to will myself to stay for the entirety of the game. Not to mention, morale is low, and our playoff aspirations are as good as dead.

It should still be fun anyway. And if it’s not, I don’t really feel any obligation to stick around past halftime, especially since I can use the excuse of having a headache from falling the other day.

I guess I never posted about that here! Yeah, so the other day,  I fainted while washing my hands in my dorm’s bathroom, and I hit my head pretty hard against the wall on the way down. I woke up on the ground feeling pretty lousy, but I managed to get back up and walk back to my room. After laying down for a little, I felt much better and was even able to go to class about a half an hour later.

I never went to the clinic to get myself checked out, though I probably ought to have, but I haven’t felt that way since and the only lasting issue I’ve had is a headache from hitting my head.

Anyway, I’ve got to get dressed in some sort of Notre Dame-themed outfit and get ready for the game, which starts in a little over an hour. Maybe this time, I’ll actually be able to make a blog post out of my outfit, instead of losing the photo files like I did last time. Go Irish!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

November 13, 2017 – Citrusy (OOTD #158)

Published on by lensembledujour6 Comments

Sorry for the late blog today; I’ve been kind of distracted watching an animal documentary about robotic animals that were used to film wildlife social interactions up close.

It’s really fascinating, actually  – both for the sake of the technology that must have had to go into these robots to make them realistic enough to blend in in wildlife, and for the sake of the relationships that they’re able to film. I’d highly recommend you check it out, at least the first episode – it’s just the right amount of cute and informative to be wholesome without being sappy.

I remember as a kid, when the first Planet Earth films came out. My dad asked for the box set for Christmas, and I distinctly remember, because of how novel the concept of Internet shopping was to me back then, that my mother had to order it online for him. We sat down that Christmas night to watch the first episode – one that I got to select actually, “Caves,” – and we were all pretty impressed with what we saw. I was a kid and didn’t really care about or understand the years of filming and editing that had to have gone into the making of that series, but I remember enjoying it anyway. The music was a bit loud though.

And I still do. I haven’t gotten around to watching the sequel yet, Planet Earth 2, but I really want to. Maybe I should order the boxed DVD set on the brand new and completely novel concept of the Internet.

Admittedly, nature documentaries have little to do with today’s outfit blog, unless you’d like to think of this blog as something of a nature documentary – it is, after all, a bunch of photographs of a human going about her daily life and engaging in social interactions. Now that would be a clever transition from discussing Planet Earth to discussing fashion, wouldn’t it?

Actually, there’s not a lot to say about Monday’s outfit, other than that I thought the colors were tropical and citrusy, like that of a mango. Not that the weather in South Bend is anything tropical right now – it’s already getting down into the 30s and feelings like winter.

There is some nice color in the trees though. If you forget the cold and look at a tree while squinting your eyes, you can pretend you’re on a tropical island looking at the sunset.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

Coat: Vintage (thrifted)

Sweater: Forever21 (thrifted)

November 10, 2017 – Oops, I Did It Again (OOTD #157)

Published on by lensembledujour5 Comments

No, that blog title does not have anything to do with the fact that I’m wearing denim on denim, like something out of a music video with 90s Britney Spears in it.

(Besides, if I were ever to title a blog “Oops, I did it again” with the purpose of referencing 90s Britney Spears fashion, I’d have to be wearing all red or something)

No, my reference has to do more with the concept of making a mistake, rather than anything fashion-related! You see, I posted the outfit from Sunday, November 12, in which I looked like a dementor yesterday, not realizing that I had neglected to post about November 10!

So once more, my blog’s continuity is interrupted in a brief blip in the chronological timeline – this time, though, without me even realizing it until after the fact. In my defense, I usually decide which blog to post based on the photos I have stored on my phone, as, even with the photos I take on my camera, I can just upload them to my computer and then Airdrop them to my phone. So, yesterday, when I sat down to write my blog and I checked my photo albums on my phone, my Sunday November 12 photos popped up, as I had taken them with my camera phone, while my Friday November 10 photos did not, as they were still stored on my camera.

That’s not really a good excuse, but are there any of those?

Anyway, I haven’t really got a lot to say about this outfit at all: just that I really wish I had rolled up my pant legs one more time so that my boyfriend jeans didn’t just swallow up my boots and make it look like I have tree trunks for legs. Also kinda wish the exposure wasn’t so bad in some of these photos, that I hadn’t messed up the order of my blogs, and that I had started working on my history paper earlier this week, but such is the nature of mistakes.

For example, the Meilin of November 10 made the mistake of believing that Notre Dame was going to the playoffs, and she turned out to be proved horrifically wrong just the next day.

Top: Target

Jeans: American Eagle

November 12, 2017 – Dementor Style (OOTD #156)

Published on by lensembledujour4 Comments

Alternative title: fashion for mourning Notre Dame’s playoff hopes and dreams.

You know how I wrote a blog yesterday about enjoying switching up my style from day to day, going from goth teenager to preppy Cher Horowitz wannabe – yeah, I went back to the goth teenager phase.

I’ve always wanted to look like an impending vaporous phantom of dark soul-sucking depression, and on Sunday, I did!

For real though, that Saturday game against Miami was an unfortunate display. I made it to the third quarter before I gave up and curled into a ball sobbing – I didn’t even do any  homework that night, just fell asleep feeling sorry I ever hoped we could win another National Championship.

Granted, I often neglect to do my homework, regardless of Notre Dame’s winning-losing history. Like right now, when I’m watching YouTube videos and writing a blog instead of writing my history paper or memorizing the work of Arius or Athanasius.

It’s a hard life, getting distracted so easily and then leaving all of your work to the last second, but I make do. It’s nearly Thanksgiving break, meaning if I can manage to wing it for another week, I can reward myself by eating copious amounts of turkey and mashed potatoes.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here 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!

Shawl: Unknown (thrifted)

Turtleneck: The LOFT (thrifted)