Tag: friends

October 2, 2017 – OCTOBER (OOTD #126)

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OCTOBER. THAT IS ALL.

Can I just end the blog here? I’ll still show you all the photos at the bottom, but I think I just summarized all of my feelings about this month in those four words.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? October is a great time. It’s the start of the Holy Trinity of holiday-centered months – October, with Halloween, November, with Thanksgiving, and December, with Christmas. You can’t help but feel festive for the entirety of these 90 or so days. From pre-Halloween to post-Christmas, everything just feels more exciting.

For me, October is a particularly lovely month because it means the end of September, which, as I mentioned in a previous blog, is my least favorite month. By October, I’m usually in an established pattern with my classes, and the uncertainty and nervousness that I associate with September has passed.

Plus, the weather in October is arguably the best we get all year in the…Midwest? I guess I’m in the Midwest now – I forget that I’m not in the South anymore sometimes. Anyway, the air gets cooler, the leaves are turning beautiful colors, the nights get longer…yada, yada, everything cliché about October that you’ve already heard and already know.

Since it’s October, I felt justified in breaking out the spooky all-black clothes. Not that I don’t wear all-black in other months and seasons – even mid-summer – but I definitely wear it more often in the cooler months.

The highlight of this day though – even more so than getting to wear all-black – was that my friend Wendy asked me to help her with a photography project she’d been assigned. She had some portraits to do, and since she’d been kind of enough to take some of my OOTD photos after our Astronomy class let out on Tuesday/Thursdays, she knew I was comfortable with having my picture taken.

I met her in the photography studio in the art building, and we got to work. Or rather, she got to work. I just sat there and did what I was told. And I’m glad I did, because look at these results! I know it’s my face, and so it’s weird for me to praise pictures of my own dumb face, but still – these pictures look pretty nice. If not because I’m in them, then at least because it was a really nice camera that could capture excellent details.

Anyway, I’m going to go back to brewing potions, sleeping in graveyards, and doing October stuff. 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!

Top: Unknown (thrifted)

Skirt: Zara

September 29, 2017 – Feeling Witchy (OOTD #124)

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Wow, okay, I love this dress.

If I remember correctly, I purchased it from Altar’d State  in one of their after-Christmas-Thanksgiving-Independence Day sales. Actually, I think I found it in a lone size medium first, misplaced in the size small section. I really liked it, but I knew it wouldn’t fit, so I sadly put it back – only to find the same dress in a size small misplaced in the size medium section. Isn’t it nice how life turns out sometimes?

My only complaint is that it’s not the most versatile dress in my wardrobe – I can really only wear it by itself. Sure, I can add accessories – different shoes, different jewelry, etc. – but due to its billowy structure, I can’t really layer it under or over any shirts or jackets. This makes making outfits out of it very simple, but at the same time, kind-of boring.

Not to repeat myself for the 3432nd time, but I really like layering. 

Though it’s not the most versatile in its wearability, I do find it very versatile for different seasons and styles. In the summer and spring, it makes for a nice boho gypsy look, with tousled hair and tons of jewelry. In the fall and winter, it can lean for a more witchy, boho goth look, with boots and tights.

In this styling, I didn’t fully commit to either the summer or the fall version of this dress – kind of like how the weather here hasn’t committed to summer or fall yet. The hair screams summer music festival; the boots scream fall festival.

A more snobbish fashion devotee may call that inconsistency; I call it versatility.

You know what else I love? This photo location outside of SDH with nice red flowers. I’ve used it once before, so I’m trying not to overuse it, but it’s just such a lovely backdrop. The plants both frame the photo nicely and add a pop of color against the plain brick, and I wish there were more photo locations like this on campus.

I’ll close this blog with a picture of some of my friends and me at an Applebee’s off campus. One of my friend’s parents were visiting for a football game, so they offered to take us all out for a meal. Better than the food itself and even the company I ate with was getting off campus – ND is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and unless you have a car, you’re kind-of stranded on campus. It was nice to remember that there’s a world outside of here.

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: Altar’d State

September 23, 2017 – How Do You Like Them Apples? (OOTD #120)

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You know…I have absolutely no idea what that references.

Obviously, I’m sitting here in front of a computer, so I could totally look it up and solve the mystery (well, the mystery to me anyway), but I don’t really feel like it. It kind of spoils the magic of the thing. Ignorance is bliss, as they say…though I’m pretty sure that’s not how that saying usually is usually meant…

Anyway, I’m back with the photos that I wasn’t able to post on Friday! For a more detailed description of the conundrum, you can read my post from a few days ago, but the short version is that I had to post my outfit from September 25 before my outfit from September 23 because I hadn’t received the Sept 23 photos from the photographer yet. That’s all behind us now, though – on to the description of my apple-picking adventures.

As I mentioned in the Saturday Musings + Coffee post from September 23, I went out with a group of girls from my residence hall to pick apples at a local farm. And you know what? It was absolutely heavenly.

Okay…well…maybe it not. It was swelteringly hot, and that kind of ruined the “heavenly” effect, but it was still a lot of fun, especially considering that September 23 was actually the second day of fall. And what better place to spend the beginning of fall than a farm?

Maybe a farm with air conditioning, but that’s beside the point.

It wasn’t a huge farm, not like the kinds I’m used to in Kentucky, but it was charming anyway. As far as I could tell, they had a couple of rows of apple trees, some grape vines, and maybe some other fruits that weren’t currently in season. No pumpkin patch, corn maze, or hay rides, unfortunately. Guess I’ll have to wait for fall break when I’m back in Lexington for that.

But what they did have in abundance were good photo-taking opportunities, and you can bet that I took advantage of as many of those as possible. My roommate, Mariana (in the orange dress next to me in the second photo below) had her DSLR camera with her, meaning I was bothering her every three minutes to take pictures of me. I think she was perhaps more interested in taking pictures of the scenery and the plants…but she was still willing to indulge my narcissism every once in a while, and for that I’m grateful.

I’ll be sure to get her a nice Christmas present or something.

I wish we could have spent longer there, but sadly, the sun was getting higher in the sky and it was getting hotter with every passing minute. Honestly, you can probably even see the beads of sweat on my face in some of these photos. It’s okay though – it just makes me all the more excited for fall weather and for the chance to go home and do even more fall weather things.

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: Lilly Pulitzer

Top: ASOS

Shorts: PacSun

Photo creds: Mariana and her lovely DSLR camera

September 9, 2017 – One Point (OOTD #108)

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Since these blogs are on like, a week delay, I guess you already know – we lost to Georgia by one point.

It’s fine, like, I don’t even mind. I hadn’t even necessarily expected us to win. It hurt I guess, since we were winning there, up until the final quarter…but it’s fine. I don’t get invested in football.

It was a little unfortunate, though, because I have a friend at UGA, and I told her with conviction that the Irish were going to win. Of course, when that didn’t happen, she took every opportunity to rub it in my face….but it’s fine.

Anyway! My outfit: I didn’t crawl out of my my cave until about 5:00 in the evening because I had so much work to do, so I didn’t have a ton of time to get ready. In the end, I went for m’y ND football jersey (which I’ve worn on two separate occasions already during the time I’ve had this blog), and my new ND baseball hat. And if you’re wondering, yes, I did have pants on – they were running shorts that were covered by the jersey.

In the end, I didn’t have much time for tailgating, but I didn’t mind. I had tried the whole tailgating scene the last home game, and it just wasn’t my style. Maybe it was because I don’t have any family who tailgates here, but mostly, “tailgating” for me just involved walking around and looking at the people tailgating.

As for the homework I was doing that took so long, I didn’t even have that much work, actually – I was just really enjoying having the entire 7th floor of the library to myself. I spread out all my crap over the table, opened a bag of potato chips without being embarrassed, and sneezed loudly and as frequently as I wanted. It was heaven.

The game on the other hand, was not heaven. It was a lot of fun, yes, but of course, we lost. Not even the cheeseburger I ate afterwards could make me feel better.And now, we have a few weeks until the next game. Personally, I’m grateful – I’ve had quite enough of Notre Dame’s football culture for a while. My last few weekends have been absolutely exhausting, and I’m looking forward to actually being able to relax for once on Saturday.

Ah, who am I kidding? I never get to relax. What college student ever relaxes?

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!

Shirt: Notre Dame bookstore

September 2, 2017 – Irish Intrigue (OOTD #102)

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Funny – these photos come from last Saturday, during my experience at my first home football game at Notre Dame, and at the time of me writing this, I’m preparing for my second home football game.

No lie – I can even hear the band practicing from outside my dorm room window right now. They’re playing the fight song, of all things.

Anyway, last Saturday was my first ND football game experience – as well as my first tailgating experience (bar that one time I went with a friend to a UK football game), my first midnight drummer’s circle experience, my first crowd pushups experience, as well as a whole slew of other Notre Dame football tradition experiences.

It was also my first time with the Shirt. What’s “the Shirt?” What makes it so special that it gets its own capital S? I’m still figuring that out myself. The Shirt, from, from what I can gather, is a tradition for the Notre Dame student section for their home football games. We all buy this same shirt that we’re supposed to wear on football days. Most – but not all – students wore it, making for a pretty cool sense of unity for us all. Even I, a freshman with pretty much no ties to Notre Dame other than I’ve been going here for a few weeks now, felt like I was a part of some huge many-faced beast. But like…a nice beast. As long as you’re a part of it.

Some of my reading said that we’re not supposed to wear the Shirt outside of football games (at least until the end of the football season), but I’ve seen plenty of kids wearing the Shirt on regular weekdays. Does that mean those kids are just idiot freshmen who don’t know what they’re doing, or was my writing wrong? I dunno. I myself am an idiot freshman.

Since this post is being written a week after the game took place, it should come as no surprise to you that ND won. In fact, there wasn’t really even much of a doubt that we would win during the game itself – I don’t think we ever lost our lead against Temple. It was actually kind of a boring game, looking at it as just a game. As an experience though, as a fan in the stands for the first time, it was a ton of fun! I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow’s game against Georgia.

Maybe not looking forward to wearing The Shirt again though – I don’t think I’ve done laundry since last week. Lol.

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!

Shirt: ND Bookstore

Skirt: Forever21

Choker: Madewell

August 25, 2017 – Lazy College Student Aesthetic (OOTD #95)

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I’ve been in college for a whole four days and I’m already getting lazy with my clothes.

For real, today I woke up, gazed into my tiny closet, and came to the conclusion that none of the nice outfits I had come up with before I came to Notre Dame were right. I don’t know, it was Friday, I was feeling lazy, and I just wasn’t the mood to wear a skirt (and for some reason, it seemed like all the outfits I had come up with prior to starting school involved skirts).

So instead, I came up with a lazy day outfit with shorts, a baseball tee, and an Adidas windbreaker. I don’t know if it really counts as full “lazy college student style” – I think that requires sweatpants and a greasy topknot at the very least – but I definitely looked less put-together than I had for the past few days.

My hair was definitely pulling off that lazy college student aesthetic though. It’s been a while since it’s been washed, and it’s seen better days.

So far, I’ve had enough motivation to get myself out of bed at 7:30 every morning to go running, giving me about an hour to get dressed and get ready before classes begin at 9:30. It’s been pretty nice. We’ll see how much longer I manage to keep up this motivation – I know that in my senior year of high school, I slacked off on the running quite a bit by spring semester – but for now, I’m liking my routine.

At the end of the day, I headed over to the football field for a showing of Rudy. I’ve actually never seen that film before, so it was pretty cool to see it for the first time on the actual Notre Dame football field. It was particularly weird seeing all of these campus locations that I pass everyday as backgrounds and settings in the movie, though, haha.

Also, did you know that the dude who plays the titular character in Rudy also plays Sam in the LOTR films? I didn’t realize it until after the film was over, when I was looking it up on IMDb (because that’s what I do), and I saw the cast list.

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!

Top: Zumiez

Jacket: Adidas (thrifted)

Shorts: H&M

August 21, 2017 – Total Eclipse of the Heart (OOTD #91)

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Once upon a time there was light in my life…now there’s only light in the dark…

Fun fact – I actually became familiar with this song through Glee. It’s one of the only songs where I believe the Glee version is better than the original (no offense Bonnie Tyler – it’s just a little too 80s for me), and I probably know more of the lyrics than I would care to admit.

So Monday was eclipse day! Here in South Bend, I think we wound up getting about 89% totality, which, unfortunately, was a little less impressive than the 98% that I believe Lexington was supposed to get. Guess I should have stayed at home, huh?

Honestly, the eclipse as I experienced it was a little…how do I put this – lackluster? Disappointing? Sad? I’m not sure if I expected the heavens to open up and the angels to begin singing, but I did sort of expect a little darkness, maybe? I think it normally gets darker when a cloud covers the sun than when this eclipse happened though, lol.

I brought along my eclipse glasses that I purchased the glorious Home Depot before I left Lexington and sat out on the lawn with some girls from my dorm, munching on grapes, watching the people, and preparing myself for some kind of epic, earth shattering experience.

Unfortunately, it never came. At the point closest to totality, it did get a little shadowy-er over the quad, but honestly, if you had not told me that there was an eclipse going on, I might not have known.

But that’s okay! I got to hang out with some friends and chill, so that was pretty dope. For whatever reason, no one bothered to tell me that I didn’t need to be wearing my eclipse glasses in this photo though, so…maybe not that dope.

Overall, it was just a really relaxed day. Okay, perhaps I should rephrase that – it was really relaxed in comparison to the other Welcome Weekend days. I had some actual free time today to sit around and do homework, and I haven’t had any moments like that yet. Dare I say doing homework was almost nice?

Yeah…I don’t dare. Homework is never nice – it would be blasphemy to say so. 😏

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!

Vest: Altar’d State

Shirt: H&M

Shorts: PacSun

August 15, 2017 – See You Kentucky, It’s Been Weird (OOTD #87)

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But it’s been a good weird…I think?

It’s hard to believe it, but before long, I’ll be beginning classes at Notre Dame. By August 18, I’ll be in South Bend, IN, by August 19, I’ll be moved into my dorm, and by August 22,  I’ll be starting my first class.

Not to be cliché (but I am being cliché, and that’s totally fine with me here), but I feel like the time between the start of senior year and now has just flown by. How does that work – time seeming to move so quickly in retrospect but pass so slowly as it’s happening?

It’s hard to imagine myself as a college student, living in a dorm room with 3 other people, sharing a bathroom with like 15, and a campus with 10,000. So I’m not going to – not yet. There will be time for me to worry about my classes and my rooming situation and making friends, but now is the time for denial.

So nope, I’m not really leaving Kentucky, and these balloons aren’t really for my going away, and I didn’t wear this outfit because I wanted to look nice for going out to get ice cream with Amanda and Zach for the last time. It’s just a normal summer day in Lexington – hanging out with friends, being a little festive, and being extra fashionable.

For real though, I do rather like this outfit – I think the delicate white lace top looks particularly nice with the white wrap skirt and my white hair. Maybe I’m biased, being both the creator and the wearer of the outfit, but I like to think I’m honest with myself regarding how I look. I know when an ensemble looks good, and I know when it doesn’t, and I try not to act like things are any different.

The balloons, of course, add a nice touch. My mother brought them home “for me” – actually, she got them for a picnic she’s having at work, but I decided to pretend they were mine. Surprisingly, it’s not easy posing with balloons in photos, as any even slight breeze means they’re floating in front of your face or off in some other awkward location. I’m glad they were there though – added a nice pop of color to the shots.

Welp, guess that’s it for today! I’ll see you in the next blog post, when I’ll definitely still be living in Lexington, and I’ll definitely still be with all my friends, and I’ll definitely still be enjoying a lazy summer! Nothing out of the ordinary going on here!

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!

Top: Altar’d State

Skirt: Pitaya

 

August 14, 2017 – Walgreens Photos (OOTD #86)

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There are two relevancies of the title “Walgreens photos” to this blog post – 1) I had some photos to print at Walgreens for a little project that I’ll show off a little later, and 2) I literally took my OOTD photos outside of Walgreens.

Is Walgreens a glamorous photo location? Well, no. It’s no Shoreditch or abandoned school building, and you’re more likely than at Shoreditch or an abandoned school building to good weird glances from people who don’t know why you’re posing for photos in front of a drugstore.

But what does Walgreens have? Well, a pretty dope two-toned wall that complemented my sweater well and a praying mantis.

Here’s the thing about taking photos for a fashion blog – you don’t want your background to overwhelm your outfit. That’s really the important part here; cool backgrounds are neat and all but you can’t let them distract from the “fashion” bit of your fashion blog. The best backgrounds make your outfit pop, such as the red in the Walgreens wall that pulls from the orange in my sweater, and aren’t so busy that they overwhelm you. Grass and trees tend to do this, especially if you’re wearing a cool color like green.

Am I saying that I should be the center of attention for my photos?

Well…yeah? I guess.

But not all the time! I often like to include pictures of my friends here – like this praying mantis I found chilling on the wall next to me. This dude was absolutely huge, probably the size of my fist. He didn’t seem to mind me standing near him, and even posed for a photo or two.

Speaking of friends, the reason why I went to Walgreens in the first place was to have some photos of my friends printed for a little photo board I wanted to put together for my dorm room. I put a photo below – I think it turned out really well! My hope is that I’ll be able to add more photos of my new friends that I make in college.So I guess that’s it for today! 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: Unknown (thrifted)

Sweater: Target

August 11, 2017 – Team Edward FTW (OOTD #85)

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Finally got my scraggly bleach-damaged ends snipped off.

I love getting my hair cut – I really ought to have it done more often. It’s amazing what a difference it can make, lightening up the weight of your hair and making it look more healthy, even when it’s in as sad of a state as mine.

Today’s outfit was rather simple: just a blazer, a shirt and a pair of leggings. It’s made more interesting though by the billowy sleeves of the shirt, which pop out from under the jacket and add some extra drama. It was a lazy day for me in terms of fashion, since I had to go to work early in the morning I opted for comfort over style, but I found that I was still able to add a little detail like that to keep from being too boring.

After work, I had to rush home to entertain some friends for the evening. I arrived at 5:00 to begin cooking and told them to arrive to arrive at 5:30, banking on the fact that they’d arrive around 5:45 since they’re teenagers and we’re a perpetually late bunch (I know I am).

And thankfully, they were! I mean, normally tardiness is a little annoying, but I knew I was going to be late with cooking dinner anyway, so it was better that they were late too. Yay for poor time management skills?

We’d selected three movies for the evening – School of Rock, Twilight, and The Brave Little Toaster – and we made it through all but the last. It was particularly amusing because Zach had never seen Twilight while Amanda apparently used to watch it once a week as a kid, making for an interesting experience of Zach looking confused and Amanda spouting out random trivia about each scene.

In the end though, we all agreed – Team Edward FTW. Not that it really matters anymore, since the Twilight phenomenon is thankfully a thing of the past, but Jacob’s character is just so much less developed, especially in the first move. Edward’s hardly Mr. Personality either, but he’s a superpowered vampire with My Chemical Romance levels of self-hatred, so that earns him some points. Plus, Robert Pattinson’s cuter.

Wait…why am I even going on about Twilight in 2017?

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!

Jacket: Forever21

Shirt: The LOFT