Tag: aerie

March 25, 2019 – Twirly (OOTD #481)

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There’s no shortage of stained glass at Notre Dame — but there is a shortage of stained glass that’s in a place where I can take pictures of it.

For one, a lot of it is in high places, where I can’t reach to stand to take a picture with it. For another, it’s usually inside a church or chapel — and there seems to be something weird to me about taking a picture in a place of worship, even if it’s completely empty and I’m the only one there. I have used an ND chapel for pictures once before on this blog, but to be honest, I still don’t know how I feel about it.

I don’t, however, have any issue taking photos outside of churches or other places of worship — just check out this Buddhist temple in Nepal, this mosque in Qatar, or this church in England that have all been featured on my blog. The ND basilica has shown up here once or twice as well. The architecture of these places of worship is meant to be admired — and as long as I keep my fashion photography on the outside, where no table-flipping Jesus can get mad at me for turning a church into a marketplace, I feel okay with myself.

And so that’s where these photos come from — the outside of a chapel within one of Notre Dame’s buildings. It’s not the most stunning chapel on campus, nor is it the most stunning exterior architecture or stained glass, but you have to admit that it goes nicely with my outfit.

I even figured I’d give the dress a bit of a twirl, which I almost never do because of a) how difficult it can be to get a good shot and b) how ridiculous it looks to passers-by. I’m already stood outside of a chapel in a classroom building taking pictures of my outfit — I don’t need to look any sillier.

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: Francesca’s

Bralette: Aerie

September 4, 2018 – Finalities and Fatalities OOTD #365)

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Oh man, am I behind with the dates of these blogs.

One of these days, I’ll get caught up a reasonable amount on these blogs, and I’ll only have a week-long delay on them. One of these days, I’ll also have my life together enough to not post a blog at 11:30PM on a Thursday night, and instead post it at a reasonable time of the day.

As the kids say these days, “it be like that sometimes.”

My so-called “Hell Week” is finally over, and while my sleep schedule and general mental health definitely took a hit, I’m hoping that my GPA didn’t. Okay, I know it did but I’m hoping that the hit wasn’t too hard.

One of the most stressful aspects of a college course versus a high school one is that you often do not have any idea of what your grade will be until it’s posted after finals. With how much finals can be worth and with so few graded assessments over the course of a year, one failed exam can tank your grade for the whole semester. Which is lousy.

But I can’t do anything about the exams and papers I’ve handed now — they’re over, and all I can do is wait for my grades. If they’re bad, I’ll just have to try harder next time.

I got a nap for the first time in ages today, and it felt fabulous. Meanwhile, that means that I’ve got a lot of work to do now since I was unconscious all afternoon, but I think it was worth it. Typically, I’m of the belief that rest is for when the work is done, but it turns out that work is never done in college — so I guess I should either never rest, or come up with a new work-rest philosophy.

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 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!

Top: Forever21

Bralette: Aerie

Jeans: Hollister

August 31, 2018 – Living on a Prayer (OOTD #362)

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What, is this the third day in a row I’ve taken photos at Bond Hall?

I’m not really sure what’s up with that; it hasn’t exactly been intentional. Believe it or not, I actually do my best to get a variety of locations for this blog. It’s a little hard when I live on a college campus and never leave though, y’know? There are only so many gothic-style tan brick buildings here.

If it makes you feel better, I didn’t exclusively take photos at Bond, though — I also went out to the basilica! There’s some variety for you.

One of these days, I almost want to go inside the basilica and take pictures. I think that toes the line of disrespectful though…which is too bad, because it’s really lovely inside of there. It’s a beautiful, quiet space, and I wouldn’t want to disturb it with a photo shoot but…well, it would make for some lovely photos. Maybe the next time my parents come to visit campus, if we can find a time when no one else is inside, I can sneak a few pictures. I think God will forgive me.

Also contrary to the norm here at L’ensemble du jour, I didn’t take photos exclusively by myself. I’ve got friends today! Or maybe they’re just people I paid to model with me…

Just kidding, I don’t have the money to pay people to model for me. I hardly have the money to afford the photo storage on WordPress. Or like, my tuition.

All the more reason to go to the basilica, right? I’ll just pray for more money — as an educated intellectual who attends the most prestigious Catholic university in the world, I can say with certainty that that is how prayer works.

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 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!

Top: Zara

Bralette: Aerie

Jeans: Hollister

August 24, 2018 – Upon the Football Field (OOTD #357)

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Whoops, looks like I did that thing again where I accidentally posted my blogs out of order.

It’s a rare occurrence (sarcasm), but sometimes, I do make mistakes with this whole blogging thing — skipping posts, posting things out of order, not posting for days on end, etc. Thankfully, due to the fact that I am a 99.9% perfect creature, these mistakes are relatively rare. This just happens to be part of that .1% of times where I’m flawed.

Of course, I’m kidding — I make loads of mistakes with blogging. It’s a hobby of mine, not a profession, so I don’t feel the need to apply my normal perfectionistic eye to every post. My following is relatively small, so there’s no one there to see if I fail — which is just the right kind of low pressure environment that I love.

The tl;dr of it all — I posted August 26’s blog before August 24’s. Sue me.

August 24 was actually a pretty fun day. Classes had just begun, I wasn’t swimming in homework like I feel like I am now, and I could kind of just enjoy being on a college campus without the stress of actual college. It was the first Friday of the school year, and, as is tradition, there was a showing of the film Rudy on the football field.

I mostly just went for the opportunity to take photos on the football field. I mean, I’ve seen Rudy before — I even saw it last year as a part of the same Friday Flicks series. I can see Rudy whenever I want, but this is is the only time during the year where I’m actually able to walk out onto the football field. Honestly, maybe it’s just the rarity of the opportunity that makes it exciting for me. Otherwise, it’s just a football field.

Don’t let anyone know that I think it’s just a football field though — I don’t need the Notre Dame secret police catching me and getting me expelled. Rumor has it, Father Jenkins has ears everywhere.

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 at Potre Lame. 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: Target

Bralette: Aerie

Pants: American Eagle

August 4, 2018 – NuLu Life (OOTD #341)

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NuLu = New Louisville, and that’s your daily dose of Kentucky trivia.

I actually lived in Louisville as a kid, but I don’t remember the city itself very well. My family was in a suburban area, so we didn’t go downtown a lot, especially since I was pretty young. We would always go to Waterfront Park for the Thunder over Louisville fireworks show during Derby season, which was a highlight of my childhood, but otherwise, I don’t remember going into the city often.

So I can’t say if Louisville itself has changed, or if I simply don’t remember it well — but it seemed way cooler than it was back when I lived there. I  remember Louisville as a city with a lot of buildings and a lot of restaurants, but not much in terms of actual things to do. I’ve even gone back and visited Louisville a few times since moving to Lexington, but I guess I’d never really figured out the best neighborhoods to visit.

Anyway, the NuLu neighborhood was pretty sweet. I’d gone past it a few times, but this was my first time really walking around and exploring — going into shops, restaurants, etc. We went with the intent of visiting a particular outdoor flea market (my family’s very into markets, it seems), and we were not disappointed.

The highlight was probably a particular shop we went into that, surprisingly, made for some great photography. I often feel a little weird about taking pictures in a store (it seems unfair to take advantage of a cute store layout if I don’t really buy anything), but I couldn’t stop myself with this gorgeous garden setup. I did tag the store in my Instagram post, so I guess I was kind of justified?

What an influencer I am.

I don’t know if any of you other fashion bloggers out there have experienced the same thing, but I’ve started to judge my enjoyment of an event based on how much good photography I get. Is that shallow? And there’s nothing worse than going out to a cute location and not having a cute outfit — or the converse, having a cute outfit and not being able to find a good background. By these new standards, though, I’d say I had a particularly good day!

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: Zara

Bralette: Aerie

Skirt: Abercrombie

May 19, 2018 – Rooftop Adventures (OOTD #286)

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And I’m back at it again with the parking garage photos.

 

If you’ll remember, a few months back over my spring break, a friend and I attempted to find a particular building in downtown Lexington that had a pretty view of the city. We’d seen it several times in other people’s Instagram photos, so we knew the relative location, but try as we might, we never found it. Now that summer break’s begun, we thought we would have another shot at finding a nice rooftop for fashion photography.

And we were successful! Sort of.

This still isn’t the elusive parking garage rooftop that we saw in so many Instagram posts, but this is a different one that I believe still makes for some good photography. The big building behind us is the University of Kentucky’s library (much nicer than Notre Dame’s in my opinion, even though it doesn’t have a gigantic mural of Jesus on the side of it). It’s not quite the downtown scene we were looking for, but I still thought it was fun.

Once we were up there, I whipped out my handy dandy remote camera feature on my Apple Watch, and we were in business to take some photos of ourselves, even though there was no one there to take them for us. Amanda drove her Prius up to about two feet away from the ledge we stood on, I balanced my phone against my purse atop the roof, and we got these fun shots!

 

Don’t play on rooftops though, kids. It’s dangerous. Do as I say, not as I do.

In actuality, though, this was a much safer set up than the previous parking garage we tried. It was less a ledge and more of an entire platform, so as long as we were careful, we were perfectly fine. I wouldn’t do cartwheels, still, but I felt pretty comfortable.

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oh look, another parking garage

A post shared by Meilin || L'ensemble du jour (@lensembledujour) on

 

Plus, there was grass below us instead of concrete, so if we tripped and fell, at least our blood would splatter across the soft grass instead of the hard concrete.

 

As cool as these shots are, I’m still not quite satisfied. I mean, it’s just a library behind us — not the downtown city scene that I saw in so many people’s photos. I guess we shall have to keep searching.

 

It’s alright though. We do have the whole rest of the summer.

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!

Jacket: Tobi

Bralette: Aerie

Pants: American Eagle

October 13, 2017 – Friday the 13th (OOTD #135)

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**spOoKy vibes**

It’s not even a spooky outfit here – I left my glittery spider tights and my ghost socks at home – but it was a spooky day.

What made it spooky, you ask? I took a Greyhound from South Bend to Dayton, Ohio, and that was quite creepy. Not necessarily the worst experience of my life, but um…far from great.

I’m no stranger to public transport, but I’m no connoisseur either – I am, you’ll remember, from Kentucky, and we don’t exactly have any subways or trains here. Plenty of horses, but sadly, you can’t just hop onto one of those and ride off to the mall.

Thus, pretty much all of the transport you do in KY is by car, which, for me, a car-less individual who is a pretty lousy driver at any rate, is far from ideal. I do believe Lexington has a public bus system, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s actually used it.

The entirety of my experience riding public buses comes from the school bus, which I suffered on regularly from age 11 to age 17, a bus or two from North Jersey into NYC, and a tour bus in Beijing. A Greyhound was an entirely new experience for me – all I’d heard about them came from Billy Joel’s lyric “taking a Greyhound / on the Hudson River Line” in “New York State of Mind,” and the La La Land lyric “I left him at a Greyhound station / west of Santa Fe” from “Another Day of Sun.”

And how was the experience? Ehhhh…it might have been better if the driver weren’t the rudest person I’d met in my life (though I can’t blame him, a job as a Greyhound driver must suck), and if I’d not sat next to an extremely obese woman for the first leg of the journey (though I can’t blame her either, it’s not her fault I chose to sit next her), but all in all – it was alright. I napped. I watched Treehouse of Horror episodes. I looked at memes on Twitter. It was pretty dull and the only sketchy thing that happened was that one time that the bus driver threatened to kick this one guy off the bus for…reasons? I don’t really know actually; I was pretty engrossed in Treehouse of Horror VI.

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!

Jacket sweater shrug thing: Forever21

Top: H&M

Bralette: Aerie

Jeans; Abercrombie

October 9, 2017 – The Dress Dilemma (OOTD #131)

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This blog title sounds like the name of a book in a bad YA series about being a preteen girl.

You know those books, right? They’re about middle and high schoolers, but they’re aimed more towards elementary school kids. They’re usually pretty short, follow a similar formula in which a trivial problem is presented and then solved within 200 pages, and glamorize the lives of teenagers. Think Katie Kazoo, Dork Diaries, or How I Survived Middle School – if you were a little girl in the early 2000s like me, you probably ate those books up.

So what is the dress dilemma that I, the glamorous teenager, am going to solve in under 200 pages of text (far under 200 pages, as a matter of fact)?

It’s one that I have actually come across before on this blog. If you’ve been following me for a few months, you might remember that, back in mid-June, I wrote an extensive blog post about not knowing how to wear this dress. I believe I rather creatively called it “Tim-Gunning it,” as it was something of a “make it work moment.”

Here, we see another instance of me “Tim-Gunning it” – how was I supposed to wear this dress that was different from the way I wore it before? It’s oversized and drape-y, making it difficult to layer anything under it.

My solution? Layer underneath it!

Okay, so there admittedly isn’t anything super brilliant going on with this layering work – it’s just a bralette and some chokers (which, by the way, I haven’t been able to find since I wore those outfit on Monday) – in fact, I wore this bralette-choker combo a few months ago in the summer too.

But some attempt at creativity is better than nothing, and I’m pretty happy with this outfit regardless of if it’s nothing wildly transformative. The dress by itself it beautiful – I love the mixing of the complimentary colors of blue and orange as well as the mixing of the shimmery and soft textures. It’s just a nice design.

Anyway, that looks like it’s going to be it for today. 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!

Dress: Anthropologie

Bralette: Aerie

September 25, 2017 – I Have Pants On, I Promise (OOTD #119)

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When will I ever stop posting my Friday OOTDs late on account of taking too long of an afternoon nap?

This time, at least, I woke up early enough to still be able to go to the dining hall for dinner. Last time, I made the mistake of sleeping until 8pm…and the dining hall closes on 7 on weekends. There was a very sad, very hungry Meilin that night.

Actually, I had ramen that night for dinner, so it was pretty chill. I’m never sad when there’s ramen around. The whole “starving college student who can only afford ramen” stereotype doesn’t bother me in the least.

Upon waking about 15 minutes ago, I immediately got to work on this blog – only to realize about three paragraphs in that I was missing the photos I needed for this date. Why? On Saturday, September 23, I went out apple picking with from some people in my residence hall, and I did my photos while out there. That shouldn’t be a problem, of course – except that my photos were taken from someone else’s camera, and I haven’t been sent them yet.

So rather than miss out on a blogging day,  I figured I’d switch the dates, so that September 25 will come before September 23 in the order of release. I believe this happened some other time in the history of this blog (I can’t remember quite for what reason, though), so it’s a bit annoying, but not the end of the world.

Anyway, the outfit for September 25 – I swear I have pants on. See, you can tell if I lift up my arms so my jacket raises above the hemline of my shorts. I admittedly got a couple of second-glances today, likely on account of my pseudo pants-less outfit.

It wasn’t even my intent to look pants-less! I’ve actually done that look before, so I have no problem with it, but I found I was self-consciously pulling down at my shorts all day trying to make them look more in existence under my jacket. Eventually, I decided to just unbutton my coat so that my shorts were clearly visible, but of course,  I didn’t think to do that until after I’d done my photos.

This post has been a mess…kind-of like my life lately. Wish I could stay and organize it a little more, but I’m scooting out to a pep rally in a few minutes. and I’m already late. Whoops.

Guess I shouldn’t be taking Friday afternoon naps.

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!

Jacket: Forever21

Top: Aerie

Shorts: They’re from H&M…but why bother mentioning it? They’re barely featured in this post 😂<<<
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September 4, 2017 – All Beige Everything (OOTD #103)

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I’m not even wearing all beige in this outfit, lol.

Look, I love the buildings here at Notre Dame – they’re beautiful, architectural, and outright works of art – but my goodness, why are they all the same color?

I’m pretty sure everything here is this same golden beige tone. And it’s very pretty, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes, a girl just wants to pose next to something that looks like a unicorn vomited on it, you know? Something like what you’d find in Shoreditch or even in the Louisville Highlands – something that’s bright, vibrant, and not beige.

(Don’t think I’m ever going to stop comparing places to Shoreditch – that place was freaking amazing and unforgettable).

For real, I’m trying to think of any buildings that aren’t either golden beige, white, or brick-colored here, and I’m drawing a blank. I guess there’s the Golden Dome, which is at the very least shiny (though gold is still a neutral), but I have no idea how to get up there. Can you even get up there?

There are a lot of buildings that I don’t know how to access here, actually. I don’t even now how to get onto the roof of my own residence hall. I feel like that ought to be my goal for my four years here – figure out how on earth to navigate all of the buildings. In particular, I want to make it to the upper floors of the basilica (are there upper floors to the basilica? There have to be – look at how tall those spires are), the inside of the main building (though I’m going to have to find a way in other than the front stairs – otherwise, I won’t graduate in four years), and the fourth floor of LaFun (I know there is one because I’ve seen the staircase…but the directories all say that there are only three floors…)

Anyway, I’ve definitely still got plenty to learn. I haven’t even made it off campus into the “city” of South Bend. “City” in quotation marks because let’s be honest…South Bend isn’t a city. I used to complain about Lexington being small and boring. Lexington is New York City compared to South Bend.

But honestly, I’ll take anything that South Bend has to offer, especially if it’s not beige.

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: Forever21

Bralette: Aerie

Jeans: Abercrombie