Tag: 2018

August 17, 2018 – Club Hes (OOTD #349)

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Up next in Meilin’s collection of glamorous photo shoot locations: the thirteenth floor of Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library!

Now that my parents are gone and they’ve stranded me in the middle of a Northern Indiana cornfield (gotta love South Bend), my photo locations are more limited. Gone are the days of going to downtown everyday for lunch — even though I only got to do it for two days while my parents were here helping me to move in, I’m going to miss it.

I’ve not quite gotten into the habit of asking my friends to take pictures for me, and besides, a lot of them haven’t moved in yet or otherwise are busy with Welcome Weekend activities or band camp. Since I was on my own, I figured I’d go off to the library and do some work and take some pictures.

I have a mixed relationship with the library. I have some fond memories of going my first semester last year and finding some much-needed solitude and quiet in the upper floors, but I also have some downright miserable memories of feeling isolated and alone late at night. One of the weirdest things is taking a desk somewhere in the upper floors where you can’t see a window, and then emerging in the evening to find that the sun has gone down and everyone’s gone to bed. Time kind of stops from floors seven and up.

Very rarely do I ever get the entire floor of the library to myself. Typically, if I’m in Hesburgh Library — also known as Club Hes — and I’m by myself, it means that it’s some inhumanely late hour of the night, and I may or may not only be there so late because I accidentally took a nap at my desk at some point. But since very few people had moved in yet, and because even those who have had no reason to be studying in the library, I got a coveted window seat all to myself.

So naturally, I put it to good use — as a perfect location for some well-lit selfies.

I think I got some actual work done as well, but it was mostly just photography. That’s work too, right? Sort-of?

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Top: thrifted

Pants: American Eagle

Scarf: American Eagle

August 16, 2018 – Stereotypical College Partygoer (OOTD #348)

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Welp, I caved and I did it: I bought a denim skirt.

While I don’t know if I can link you to a specific example, I know I have written about my disdain for the denim skirt trend before. It’s nothing against the denim skirt as a concept — in fact, I love the look of a denim miniskirt, and the first few times I saw someone wear one last year when the trend had just picked up steam, I was a huge fan. But that’s the problem — the trend picked up steam, and a lot of it. Too much of it.

It could also be the fact that I live on a college campus, and I’m surrounded by a bunch of 20-somehting females who want something cute (read: sexy) but simple to wear when they’re going out to parties. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; people can do what they want while wearing what they want. I just get tired of seeing the same outfits over and over again.

Here’s how to make an outfit for going out in if you’re a Notre Dame girl: combine a denim skirt, an off-the-shoulder top (a tube top if you’re feeling spicy), a lot of highlighter, and mix with a few Mike’s Hard Lemonades. As a standalone concept, that’s not bad — but every single ND girl seems to wear a similar thing every Friday/Saturday night.

Anyway, I finally caved though and bought myself a denim skirt. While I kind-of resent its overuse as a party staple, like I said, I do like it as a standalone piece. I found it at a local Salvation Army, and for the price, I couldn’t resist. My hope is that I’ll be able to wear it in a more creative way than just with an Urban Outfitters tube top…but we’ll see. No promises — I am a Notre Dame girl after all, and the peer pressure may be too much to resist.

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Skirt: Thrifted

Top: H&M

Jacket: Hollister (fun fact: I got this on Black Friday all the way back when I was in middle school, and it still fits!)

August 15, 2018 – A Bit Chilli (OOTD #347)

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My South Bend adventures continue.

My stuff is pretty much all moved in now, which is a relief. Several of my roommates have yet to finish moving in though, which means there’s still stuff strewn about everywhere. Something tells me that that shall be the perpetual state of the room. I guess that’s what happens when you force six college-aged students to live together in a small space.

I’ve been doing really well with making my bed in the morning, though, so I consider myself well-accomplished.

To salute my final dinner with my parents until they visit in September, we ate at the fine establishment, Chili’s. Maybe it’s something about its romanticization in The Office, or something about how I ate at one in the Detroit airport before being bumped to first class on my flight to London, but Chili’s is my favorite of the sit-down restaurant chains. In a battle of Chili’s, Olive Garden, TGI Friday’s, and Applebee’s, Chili’s will always have my business. #notsponsored.

As it turns out, Chili’s also had a decent color scheme that goes along with my outfit. My hope, of course, is that you didn’t recognize the red and green brick as related to Chili’s until I said something, but I guess a lot of my readers are pretty used to me using restaurants as backgrounds for fashion photography. And empty classrooms, and libraries, and bathrooms…

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Top: a boutique in Nepal

Skirt: Zara

August 14, 2018 – Back in the Bend (OOTD #346)

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It’s as the title says: I’m back in South Bend!

Being honest, I don’t know if I’d really say I’ve missed it. The Notre Dame-South Bend relationship has probably been one of my least favorite things about studying at Notre Dame, and as much as I love Notre Dame, that’s one complaint I really can’t ignore.

Notre Dame is very much isolated from the South Bend community, and South Bend, honestly, feels rather isolated from the rest of the world. South Bend’s one of those Rust Belt cities that peaked about 50 years ago and has been on a decline ever since, and while you can definitely see some fruits of the attempts to revitalize it, it’s going to be quite a long time until it’s back to its former glory — if it ever gets there.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, is quite the opposite — modern, growing, and, well, very wealthy. The disconnect between the social conditions at ND and in South Bend make it such that I feel like the students have a hard time comprehending the struggles of  the people of South Bend, and the people of South Bend tend to see Notre Dame students as nothing but rich white kids who will leave in four years having done little to contribute to the local community. In fact, Notre Dame, being such a large campus, technically has its own postal code separate from South Bend — which I believe perfectly sums up the dynamic between Notre Dame and South Bend.

Anyway, the Notre Dame-South Bend relationship aside, I have missed a lot of other things about being on campus — my friends, the Starbucks in LaFun, the creepy classrooms of the Riley art building at night. I’m not sure how I feel about classes and the schoolwork bit yet, though. I’m not sure I’m ready to go back to homework.

But I have a few days before I have to start worrying about that, so the next week I can concern myself with getting settled and moved in. And part of that “getting settled” experience, I have decided, should be exploring South Bend a bit — because I don’t want to be one of those Notre Dame kids who leaves in four years with their stupidly expensive diploma without acknowledging the community outside of the Notre Dame bubble.

So after arriving in South Bend in the afternoon, my parents and I did some shopping, got dinner, and walked around the path next to the St. Joseph River. It’s not much, but it’s still more than I did for most of my whole freshman year in South Bend. It’s a start.

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Top: A boutique in Louisville

Shorts:  Francesca’s

August 13, 2018 – Indie GoGo (OOTD #345)

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Cities! They’re my weakness.

I suppose it has something to do with the way I’ve never truly lived in a big city — Louisville and Lexington are small to medium-sized cities in their own right, and they have their unique charms, but no one would really describe them as big cities. And that’s okay. But for me, a big city — your New Yorks, your Londons — that’s where it’s at.

So whenever I have an opportunity to visit a new city, get a sense for its character and personality, I take it. The major cities are my favorite, but the secondary cities are cool too. Indianapolis was no different.

This was my first time visiting Indy that I remember properly. I’m certain I’ve driven through it many times, especially on my way up to Notre Dame in  northern Indiana, and I believe I visited the Indy 500 museum once when I was a kid, but I’ve never been there long enough to actually get a feel for it.

And granted, I guess I still haven’t been there long enough to actually get a feel for it —  I was only there for a day trip. I couldn’t tell you what the people of Indianapolis are like, what the city is proud of, or what makes it ugly. I got to see some restaurants and neighborhoods and shops though, and that’s something.

The highlight of the day was easily the Cake Bake Shop in the Broad Ripple neighborhood. My lemonade and my cookie were overpriced (nope, didn’t order cake — it was like, $15), but I suppose it was worth it for the experience inside the restaurant. It’s sort of like Disney World — the rides aren’t worth the cost of admission, but maybe the atmosphere and cute decorations are.

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we faired well

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The lowlight of the day was the Indiana State Fair, because it absolutely stole my money. It was $13 for admission, and once we got in, we realized there was nothing to do without spending more money. In an attempt to justify the $13 we paid to get in, we spent another $5 to ride the ferris wheel for two minutes. Our attempts failed.

If something good came out of it, though, I got some cute carnival photos. At least Instagram will think I had more fun than I did. Between you and me, though, you can see the regret of $18 wasted in my eyes.

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Top: Thrifted

Jacket: Thrifted

Shorts: Hollister

August 5, 2018 – That Was Rewarding (OOTD #342)

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After a long hard day of cleaning the house, my family decided to go out and reward ourselves with a bit of ice cream!

You know, I’m admittedly not even a huge ice cream person, but I just love the concept of it. I think it has something to do with this Arthur book I had as a kid where Arthur goes out and treats DW to ice cream after she proves to him how good she is at spelling. Isn’t it funny how dumb little things like that can permanently change your worldviews?

For example, I don’t really enjoy ice cream in cones. I find them messy, unnecessary, and just generally add on calories that I don’t need when I could enjoy the ice cream just as much out of a bowl. But I’m a sucker for the aesthetic of ice cream in a cone — an aesthetic that I first came to know thanks to that Arthur book.

I’m also a sucker for the cute photos I can get with ice cream in a cone that I just can’t get with ice cream in a bowl. I’m one hundred percent one of those people who will research the most Instagrammable restaurants in a city I’m visiting just so I can get something cute for my feed. Call me shallow.

If you’re wondering, the flavor of the ice cream here is Kentucky Blackberry Buttermilk, and it’s one of my favorite flavors of all time. I don’t get tired of it; I order it every time I come to this particular local ice cream shop. Rather than being super sweet like a lot of ice creams, its flavor comes from its creaminess. 10/10 would recommend.

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Top: boutique at a flea market

Shorts: PacSun

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Back At It and August 2018 Bullet Journal Spread

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Hoo boy, it’s been a long time since I’ve written one of these!

It’s not that these Saturday Musings posts are that hard to write, but the photography for them is a little more challenging, admittedly, than an OOTD post. I don’t want my flatlays to get repetitive, so I don’t want to keep using the same objects and backgrounds over and over again. But I only have so many objects that I can sit atop a white sheet and make them look cute, you know?

I do have new spread in my bullet journal to show off though, so I figured that was some solid content deserving of a post.

It took me a ridiculous number of hours to get this month’s spread looking like it does. Why did August take so much longer than usual? Well…because I never finished July.

A solid chunk of July for me was spent in Nepal, which meant a solid chunk of July was spent doing things like talking about religion and modernity and finding ancient temples and not doodling in my journal. I’m committed enough to my bullet journal that I want it to be pretty and complete, but not committed enough that I want to designate time necessarily every day in order to write in it so it can be pretty and complete. As a result, I often wind up having to fill in days and events that have already passed, which I guess you could argue defeats the purpose of even using it as a planner.

Okay, so maybe my bullet journal is more of a log of past events than a planner of future ones. Whatever, I’m going to make it look cute and aesthetic either way.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one. 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!

July 23, 2018 – Meilin The Tomato (OOTD #335)

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For whatever reason, I feel like this outfit looks particularly tomato-like.

I definitely get a ketchup impression from the jacket, with perhaps more like vine-ripened tomato vibes from the blouse, especially when paired with the greenery behind me.

Or perhaps I’m simply hungry — I guess that could influence how I see the the outfit. I am rather craving some pizza.

The transition back into work life has been easier than I expected. I guess since I was still actively taking classes and working in Nepal, it wasn’t too bad getting back into a regular 9-5 schedule. Still, packing boxes and doing inventory in the haunted basement of the Kentucky Capitol building is significantly less exciting than you know, wandering about Dhulikhel and stumbling upon ancient temples.

While my work life at home is certainly inferior to what I had going for me in Nepal, I do appreciate some things about being back home — being able to trust that tap water won’t make me sick, eating American food, walking the dog with my mother in the evenings. I am also glad to be able to go outside without being attacked by mosquitoes; I’m still trying to recover from the bug bites and the resulting scars I got in Nepal.

In fact, the other day, I had a dentist appointment, and the first thing the technician said when I sat down was not “have you been brushing?” or even “have you been having any problems with your teeth lately?” but instead “wow, what happened to your legs?” Even she thought I looked like I had some kind of horrible skin condition — and it wasn’t even her job to examine my skin!

It’s fine, I’ll be back in dry, bug-less South Bend soon enough, and there will be plenty of time for my mosquito scars to heal over. Maybe if I’m lucky, they’ll be gone in time for next summer, so I can move back to Kentucky and get even more all over again!

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 home in Kentucky. 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!

Jacket: Yellowcake Shop

Top: Altar’d State

Jeans: Hollister

July 22, 2018 – Fore! (OOTD #334)

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I…I don’t actually know what “fore” means.

So my home town had the pleasure of hosting a PGA golf tournament a little bit ago, and my father and I had the pleasure of going. I don’t know a lot about golf, and while he’s definitely more knowledgeable than me, I’m not sure he’d call himself a huge fan either. We had a friend who offered us his tickets though, so why not go?

Here’s why not to go — when we showed up at the parking lot to take the shuttle over to the course, we were told that due to thunderstorms in the area, play had been postponed.

We waited around for a while, but after a brief fakeout, where we were actually allowed onto the shuttle, and made it all the way to the course before being told play had been suspended again and that we had to go back, we gave up.

Clearly, based on these photos though, we did make it — four hours after we had originally intended upon getting there. Eventually though, the thunderstorms stopped long enough for my dad and I to get to the course and watch a little golf.

Like I said though, I don’t know a lot about golf — don’t even really know what “fore” means, that is, beyond the four hours it took for my dad and I to get to the course. I do know that all of the times I’ve played mini golf, I have never hit a golf ball as hard as some of those professional golfers did.

It was a shame about all the rain, really. It scared most of the spectators away, so we never got to see the tournament in full swing, with all the fans walking around and yelling ”get it in the hole” and whatever it is golf fans do.

I did get to walk around a muddy golf course for a few hours, so that’s something. It was hardly a day to be “fore”-gotten.

Dress: a boutique in Nepal

July 20, 2018 – Stateside (OOTD #333)

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Here I am, back in the USA!

Yep, after three weeks in Nepal, I’m back home stateside — good ol’ Lex Vegas.

After the 30+ hour trip back home, involving one traumatic experience trying to navigate the Kathmandu airport, one $15 smoothie accidentally purchased in Abu Dhabi because I didn’t check the exchange rates, and one day trip to Bucktown, Chicago, I finally got to crash in my own bed on Wednesday night. I took a few days off of work to recuperate, and then I went back to work on Friday.

So far, the only thing that has been an issue trying to get used to again are the pedestrian traffic laws. In Nepal, you just walk whenever it’s clear — there are no street lights or crosswalks to help you, you just go. And sometimes, you go even if it’s not clear, and you pray no one hits you. I have definitely walked in front of a few cars and jaywalked a few times since I’ve been home.

Otherwise, it’s not been so bad. I missed some of the amenities of Western society, that’s for sure — the outlets in public places, the air conditioning, the lack of mosquitos literally everywhere. I do rather miss getting to go for afternoon adventures into the city — I don’t get those here in Suburbia.

But you know what I do get? My dad to take ugly pictures of me! Like this.