March 20, 2019 – LinkedIn Headshots (OOTD #476)

These didn’t actually turning my LinkedIn profile pictures, but they really could, couldn’t they?

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coming soon to a linkedin profile near you

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My only concern is that my dark, grown-out roots would look too unprofessional. I actually rather like them like this, but I’m still not sure they’re the image I want for myself on a website like LinkedIn.

Not that I use LinkedIn that much or that I’m some kind of expert in how to appear employable. Notre Dame has a Career Development Center, which I’ve visited a few times for help with my resume and cover letter, but I’m very much still a rookie at the whole thing. Less so than some of my peers, though, who’ve never even had a lousy service industry job in high school — so I do pride myself on that.

I love this part of the math building for pictures. I’ve used it before (many, many, times) as a background in my fashion pics because it’s such a lovely hallway with excellent lighting, especially in the afternoon. I just swing by around 4 or 5pm after the bulk of classes have let out (so it’s not too busy while I’m trying to get pictures) and I’m always satisfied with the results.

Who would have that that the math building would become one of my most-frequented buildings on campus this semester? For a person who has no math classes — and hasn’t had one since high school —  I tend to hang out there a lot. It’s practically become my new Riley art building — which I have barely visited at all this semester, sadly. They took away my 24 hour card access, and so now I have no easy way to get in if I want to study late at night (the only time I ever study).

No worries, though — I’m not going to become a math major anytime soon. Hanging out in the art building couldn’t turn me into a studio art major, and I actually like art.

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 PinterestInstagramFacebookBloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!


Jacket: Ann Taylor (thrifted)

Blouse: Unknown (some boutique in London)

Trousers: Banana Republic Sloan

February 21, 2019 — Solid Ground (OOTD #460)

The snow is finally beginning to melt, which is actually a really big deal here.

The snow literally lasts months. It comes in December, which is great because it’s new and white and Christmas-y, but then it sticks around until April, which is not okay.

That’s not to say it snows every day from December to April. We’ll get a few inches every day for several days in a row, until it’s piled up and you can’t walk anywhere except where it’s been plowed. Then, it stays.

For weeks and weeks.

Since it doesn’t get warm enough (and the sun doesn’t come out from behind the clouds for weeks at a time) the snow never melts. It melts slightly, then it freezes, then it melts, then it freezes again, then new snow comes on top of it, then it melts, and the cycle repeats. The worst part is that because of how long the snow lasts, it normally gets brown and dirty. Then the dirt freezes too, and you learn to resent the snow.

Thankfully, though, I think it’s about to all be over. The snow has melted, revealing the brown, nearly-dead grass underneath. I’m sure we’ll get flurries for the next few weeks still (at least until mid-April), but my hope is that the real snow is done now.

I even got to wear a skirt with only sheer (sheer!) tights underneath for this outfit, if that gives you an indication of how warm it’s getting. By warm, of course, I mean thirty degrees instead of three — but after it’s been three degrees for three months straight, below freezing at thirty is a welcome temperature.

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, BloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!


Top: The LOFT (thrifted)

Skirt: Forever21 (thrifted)

February 20, 2019 – Complementary Colors (OOTD #459)

I can’t remember if I’ve said this before, but blue and orange is my favorite complementary color combination.

I mean, it’s not that hard of a decision to make, if you ask me — red and green look too much like Christmas, and purple and yellow look too much like a jester. That leaves you with blue and orange — the color of a sunset. What’s there not to like?

I’ve taken to wearing this turquoise jacket a lot recently (though I think this may be its appearance on my blog). It’s bright, spring-like, and looks professional without being boring.

After spending a decent portion of my high school years wearing only neutrals (thanks emo phase), I’ve been trying to incorporate more color into my wardrobe, especially as spring comes. I don’t think you’ll ever catch me making a full preppy Lilly Pulitzer transition (though I have gone for that look many times before — including in my very first blog post here!), but I would like to be a little more adventurous with my color palette.

Spring still hasn’t come in South Bend yet, despite the fact that it’s come to other parts of the United States. I’m just a little bit bitter. I just want the flowers to come out so that I can take cute pictures with them and stop haunting the hallways of the math building. I would also like the giant pile of brown snow that’s leftover from January in the parking lot at work to finally melt. Is that too much to ask?

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, BloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!


Jacket: Banana Republic

Top: Forever21

Trousers: Banana Republic

February 10, 2019 – Excuse Me, Professor (OOTD #454)

These are new glasses, in case you didn’t notice.

You probably didn’t notice because they look almost exactly like the pair of old glasses in my last post. I personally think these new glasses are way more flattering than the old glasses (hence buying new glasses), but I know, it’s hard to tell.

On the top half of this outfit, with the green blazer and glasses, I look like a professor. Not like, a real professor — like, a person who has a PhD and gets paid to do research and corrupt students or whatever — but a professor from a mystery novel. Basically, I look like Professor Plum from CLUE if he wore green. Professor Granny Smith?

On the bottom half, however, with the jeans and the hiking boots, I look more like a mountain man or a lumberjack. I wasn’t really aiming to mix the two aesthetics, but it happened, mainly because it had snowed and I needed to wear the boots in order to not break my ankle as I walked around campus. It’s like people who mix pastel and grunge  and wear tutus with leather jackets.

Will professor/lumberjack be the next big mixed aesthetic fashion trend in 2019? Stay tuned to find out.

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, BloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!


Jacket: Thrifted (Goodwill I think? Or maybe Salvation Army)

Jeans: Abercrombie

Boots: LL Bean

January 29, 2019 – Reiterations (OOTD #445)

Does this outfit look familiar to you?

It does to me. It looks very familiar. It looks like something I’ve already worn before.

Here’s a fun fact — as much as I can, I try not to repeat outfits, where “outfits” are loosely defined as ensembles that I put time and effort into constructing (in other words, not lazy days where I throw on a sweater and leggings and walk out the door). That means even if I really love an outfit (for example, this guy here or this guy here) I won’t wear it again — ever.

Or at least, I won’t wear it again and then blog about it. We’ll see if I ever end up going back on that self-imposed rule, but for now, I’m doing my best to stick to it.

So this outfit isn’t a total violation of the rule, since it’s not actually a repeat of an outfit I’d worn before. It is, however, very reminiscent of another outfit. I added a pair of tights, a scarf, and different shoes, but it’s fundamentally still very similar — my carpetbag skirt  and a form-fitting, tan-ish sweater.

I’m sure I’m just being overly-critical, just like I’m sure that no one out there but me actually remembered the similar outfit from October 23, 2017 that I referenced earlier. It’s okay — someone has to do the job of being overly-critical and remembering all of my outfits from the past two years. It’s a good thing I’m here to do the job.


Sweater: Forever21

Skirt: Forever21

January 23, 2019 – A Sense of Direction (OOTD #443)

How come the math building has become my favorite place to take pictures?

This time last year, you couldn’t drag me away from the art building. I would stay there for hours at night in the empty classrooms to do work, steal plants, and take pictures next to whatever random works of art struck my fancy.

This year, however, my 24 hour card access to the art building was revoked since I’m not in a studio art class anymore, so I almost never find myself going over there. If I set up camp before about 5pm in the evening and I don’t leave, I can stay — but I can’t open the door to get in if I want to go there late at night anymore, which is sad.

Since I’ve been forced to find another place to haunt, I’ve been trying to branch out and spend more time in other ND buildings that I wouldn’t otherwise hang out much in — like, for example, the math building. I’ve never had a math class at Notre Dame (shoutout to Mrs. Brooks and Mr. Young for helping me get a 5 on AP Calculus), and so it was never a building where I ventured. My first time I visited was actually last spring, when I went to take some pictures with my friends.

I actually do have a class in the math building this year (it’s a history class, though, interestingly), and so I’ve found myself in here a little more often. As it’s turned out, there are some really great places to get pictures.

These maps are in the same room as the big globe, which I’ve featured as a background on this blog before. I thought they were colorful and pretty and would make for a nice backdrop to my outfit, and since I’d used the globe before, I wanted to try something different. As the maps (and globe) also situated in a rather central location in the building, I had to be careful about not getting caught posing for pictures by anyone walking by (not that it’s like, illegal to take pictures of yourself for your fashion blog — but it is a little weird) , but otherwise, it was an easy place to use for pictures. Maybe I’ll feature these maps 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 Notre Dame. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, BloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!


Jacket: Anthropologie

Sweater: The LOFT

Pants: Abercrombie (thrifted, yard sale)

December 11, 2018 – The Best Time to Wear a Christmas Sweater (OOTD #421)

…is all the time!

This is one of my favorite sweaters in my wardrobe, and yet I only get to wear it a few times a year!

That’s the sad thing about Christmas sweaters. They’re so fun to have around for the month of December, and then they’re basically useless the rest of the year. Leave it to capitalism to force us to buy stuff that we only need once or twice a year. Gotta love it.

In truth though, Christmas sweaters are one commercial aspect of Christmas I can definitely buy into (get it?) I mean, the really authentic ones you need to buy secondhand anyway, so it’s not that awful for the environment, or for your wallet. I’m happy to reuse other people’s old crap in the name of the Christmas spirit.

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i think yule like this one

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These photos were taken shortly after I took my very first final about two weeks ago. It doesn’t feel like two weeks ago. It was the hardest one I had — Russian literature — and afterwards, I was just about dead. I actually had one more to go in the afternoon, but it was one that I was significantly less worried for. After I finished up my Russian lit final, I dragged myself to the math building to do pictures. I looked too cute to just let the outfit pass without Internet recognition, you know?

I’m a firm believer in the “dress well, test well” principle, unless I’m exhausted and I wind up sprinting to my exam in my pajamas. Those are the two testing modes I have — completely put together, made-up, and refreshed, or stumbling, sleep-deprived mess. At any rate, for this first final at least, I managed to keep it together. Sort of — I still made an A- on the stupid thing, and in the class. RIP my 4.0, 2017-2018. She will be missed.

My exam location wasn’t far from the math building, so after I finished up, I strolled over to get some stairwell photos. I had gotten some pics in the math building earlier in the month, so I knew there were some cool locations, and I was not disappointed by this staircase and its fabulous lighting. Might be my favorite one on campus now — even beating out this one, which I’ve used many, many times.

Unfortunately, though, I think I’ve just about exhausted my photo locations in the math building — I’ve done the hallways, the foyer, the stairwell, and the secret garden now, and I’m running out of pretty places. Onto bigger and better buildings, I guess?

Anyway, it’s 10PM right now in Doha, Qatar as I write this, and Christmas Day is just now drawing to a close. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you guys reading this, wherever you are and whatever time it is. Thanks for another great year with this silly little blog of mine.

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 PinterestInstagramFacebookBloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!


Sweater: Thrifted (Goodwill)

August 18, 2018 – Not Quite An Ivy League (OOTD #350)

Day 374: the locals are getting suspicious. I believe they’re beginning to realize that i am not, in fact, a piece of ivy.

There’s nothing like sitting yourself down in a patch of ivy in the math building’s courtyard for the sake of your fashion blog. Thankfully, there were no classes going on, so I was at little risk of getting “caught” taking photos by myself, but it was still a little awkward, nonetheless.

If there’s anything this blog has taught me, it’s how to ignore how awkward it feels taking pictures in public. Here’s my secret: I just don’t think about it.

I know, that’s horrible advice — just don’t be nervous, and you won’t have anxiety! Just don’t be sad, and you won’t have depression! In this case, though, and probably this case only, it works for me. If I can ignore how uncomfortable I feel by focusing on acting like I’m confident and self-assured taking photos in public, I find that my actual anxiety lowers as a result.

But in general, what I like best is taking photos away from the curious (sometimes judgmental) glances of strangers. That’s why this ivy garden worked so well. It was just me and the plants, and as you know, I love me some plants. 

In an ideal world, humanity would have somehow developed a technology to make plants sentient, and I’d just have the plants take pictures for me instead of people. I guess if the plants were sentient then they could still be judgmental…I guess this plan’s a bit flawed.

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, BloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Sweater: thrifted

Top: thrifted

Shorts: Forever21

May 6, 2018 – Notre Dome (OOTD #279)

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, BloglovinTwitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Shirt: Zara

Dress: American Eagle