2018 – Page 9 – L'ensemble du jour

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.

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: 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 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.

April 28, 2018 – Chi-Town Chinatown (OOTD #275)

Published on May 6, 2018May 6, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Guys look! I finally made it into Chicago!

I can’t believe I’ve been at Notre Dame all year, basically an hour and a half away from the third largest city in the US, and it’s taken me eight months to finally go.

There’s a train station about fifteen minutes away from campus that could get me into the city easily, but getting off of campus is a huge hassle without a car. Heck, it would probably even be a hassle with a car. The Notre Dame bubble has not diminished at all since I’ve been here.

I actually had an opportunity to go to Chicago way back in December with a friend of mine who was going to see the Nutcracker with her Russian literature class. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I didn’t feel like I could take the time out of my day to go at the time (which I know now is a dumb excuse — there’s always time to go do fun things and ignore your responsibilities), so I missed out.

This time, though, when I heard that the Taiwanese Student Association was planning a Chinatown trip, I made sure I had room in my schedule to go. I lost a little extra sleep that weekend doing homework at late hours, but it was totally worth it.

What surprised me most about the Chicago Chinatown was how different it was from the New York version — while New York’s Chinatown is pretty much a gimmicky tourist destination, Chicago’s is a real diaspora neighborhood. The stores sold real Chinese food and products and not just the knockoff Rolexes you see in New York. It felt so much more welcoming and so much less sinister.

It was also fun because I got to interact with some people I never had before. None of my friends were able to go, so I ended up hanging out with some juniors and seniors, who were pretty cool and didn’t at all seem to mind that I was just a freshman. They were some of the first upperclassmen I’ve been able to interact with beyond surface level all year, so that was neat.

My favorite part of the whole trip was probably getting to purchase this money plant tree. As you probably know by now, I love plants, so getting new ones is fun. She actually sadly toppled over just today after a strong gust of wind from an open window pushed her off the window sill, causing several of her branches to break. I used a chopstick as a makeshift splint, so hopefully the branches will scar over and heal.

Oh well. For now, enjoy these photos of me and my pre-topple plant.

Since we all had work to do back home, we decided to make the hour and a half long drive back in time for dinner. I’d actually stayed up pretty late the night before, so I ended up napping almost all of the way back, which was great. By six when we arrived on campus, I was refreshed and ready to pull an all-nighter making up for all the work I had neglected due to being gone all day.

All night I worked though, I didn’t regret my decision to go. It was some of the best fun I’ve had all year, definitely worth the lost sleep and sanity.

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!

Jacket: thrifted

Turtleneck: thrifted

Leggings: The LOFT (

Saturday Musings + Plants – Derby Day

Published on May 5, 2018 by lensembledujour1 Comment

It seems that people outside of Kentucky don’t really do anything for the Derby.

At least, no one really does anything at Notre Dame. I think I saw that there was one Derby-themed darty somewhere, but I was in class, and darties aren’t really my scene anyway. I have heard of a few people who were traveling into Louisville to actually attend, but I can’t imagine that it’s many.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting — I mean, Kentucky people hardly do anything for the Derby, so it’s not like Indiana people were going to do any more. I’m just sitting here by myself streaming it on my laptop in the student center while I work on some essays. Or at least pretend to work on some essays.

For the record, I’m rooting for Firenze Fire, mostly just because he shares the name of a Harry Potter character. He’s almost certainly going to lose — but that’s okay, because I’m not putting any money on it.

Anyway, here’s a little update on my plant collection! My roommate and I have a little jungle growing in our dorm. I won’t go through every single plant here, especially since you saw a lot of them the last time I went on a plant photoshoot spree, but here are a few new ones:

First up is this money plant I got in Chinatown in Chicago. I was between buying her, a bonsai tree, or a bamboo plant in the little tourist shop, but I went for the money plant because it looked like it was in the best health for the cost. I’m a little sad it’s not a Pilea peperomioides, the kind of money plant with sand dollar shaped leaves, but I’m happy with this Pachira aquatica instead. If it brings me money like it’s supposed to, I’ll be satisfied.

This tiger’s jaw succulent is also a new one. I got him from an event my dorm was holding where everyone got to take and pot a succulent. Definitely the best dorm event all year. I wish they’d had even more succulents so I could’ve taken more — inevitably, a lot of the people who took succulents are going to kill them or otherwise neglect them, which is unfortunate because I would love to take them in and care for them. Oh well.

Speaking of neglecting plants. here are some four o’ clocks I grew from seeds I got for free at a “sustainability fair” some club was putting on. I didn’t expect them all to germinate, and so quickly, so I planted the seeds in way too small a pot. Once the seedlings are a little more mature, I’ll give some away so that the ones I have can thrive.

The rest of these plants are old, but have made important new developments. My African violets sprouted flowers, my baby saguaro cactus has grown hairy, and my sunflowers seedlings have gotten taller!

On a more somber note, whatever kind of plants were growing alongside my saguaro seedling are pretty much all dead. I’m just disappointed that none of them will ever get big enough for me to figure out what these little guys were supposed to be. They started growing around the same time as the saguaro did, making me think they sprouted from the cactus seed mix I planted, but they sure don’t look like cacti. No idea what they are.

I love being a plant mom. It’s like having being a real mom, but you don’t have to talk to your kids.

April 27, 2018 – Equestrian Kentuckian (OOTD #273)

Published on May 2, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

For a person who hasn’t seen a horse in months and who won’t even be in Kentucky in time for the Derby, I sure look like I’m going to go out and work with horses in this outfit.

Horses were always something I took for granted for years — they’re all over Kentucky, probably one of the most common sights in the entire state. Here, at Notre Dame, though the most common sights are white boys in Vineyard Vines in the business school building and giant squirrels. There are no horses here, since the Four Horsemen don’t count.

Not seeing horses everywhere was pretty easy to get used to though, considering I’ve never really been a horse person and can only kind-of sort-of ride. I can do trail rides, but so can pretty much anyone with a little training.

I’m a sad excuse for a Kentuckian.

I do like to pretend I’m an equestrian-minded Kentuckian girl, at least, through my fashion choices. Have these riding boots ever once been used for riding? Nope. But they look like they might, and that’s what counts for me.

Meanwhile, I still haven’t found my missing black shoes , which is absolutely baffling to me, since there’s really no where they should be other than my dorm room. And yet I’ve searched around my dorm room repeatedly to no avail — it seems like, unless they pop up sometime in the next few days, I shall be going home without them. Sad lad. That would mean that I’ve gone through two pairs of black booties during my year here at school, which, while kind of understandable given the fact that they’re my go-to shoes for everyday wear, is still kind of dumb.

Speaking of dumb — that’s what I am for not doing any work so far today, and for spending hours looking at plant blogs instead of anything productive. Guess I should start on my history paper now that it’s 11pm and I need to be up at 6 tomorrow.

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: Evan Picone (thrifted)

Turtleneck: Free People

Jeans: Hollister (a new, better-fitting pair of white jeans than my old Abercrombie ones!)

April 26, 2018 – Turn to Page Three Hundred Ninety Four (OOTD #272)

Published on May 1, 2018 by lensembledujour7 Comments

I’m getting some serious Severus Snape vibes from this coat, no?

I’m pretty sure a friend of mine whom I passed in the hall even described it as a “cloak” when she told me she liked it. I’m not sure a cloak is really the best fashion statement to be making in spring-almost-summer 2018, but I’ll make an exception for this one.

On the plus side, I fit right in with the priests and nuns wearing long robes who wander around campus.

I’m still not used to seeing these clergy people walking around in their 13th century robes. I’m sure people who are used to Catholic schools think there’s nothing weird about it at all, but for me, a person who went to public school and contemporary hipster churches all her life, it’s still kind of strange seeing a guy go by in a long black dress with a white collar.

Ironically, my actual coat is from AMIClubwear, which is probably not where the priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross are buying their clothes. I could be wrong, and I’m sure priests can buy clothes wherever they want when they’re off duty (is that what it’s called? Do priests go off duty?), but I’d be surprised.

I’m down to only one day of class left, and while I’m excited to not have to go to class anymore, I’m not excited for all the work I’m going to have to do before all of my final papers and projects are done. I have about 25 pages still to go (which is wayyyyyy down from the 62 or so pages I was looking at a few weeks ago), but I’m not in the clear yet.