march – Page 4 – L'ensemble du jour

March 20, 2018 – Happy Easter (OOTD #250)

Published on April 1, 2018 by lensembledujour5 Comments

What? You mean to tell me that Easter didn’t fall on March 20 this year?

Yeah — so I’ve discussed this before, but I have my daily blogs on a bit of a delay, so as to never wind up having nothing to post just in case I decide not to take OOTD photos one day or in case I don’t get to take photos until late in the day. The issue with that, of course, is that when holidays roll around, I’m never able to post the blog from that particular holiday on the actual day of the holiday.

I guess I could plan my outfits in a way that it looks like I’m celebrating the holiday earlier in the week, and then posting that blog on the actual holiday, but to be honest, that’s too much work for something I don’t really think is worth it.

Anyway, so today (the day I’m posting this blog) is Easter, but the outfit I’m posting is from March. Luckily, this outfit looks pretty festive and spring-like, so I guess it works for an Easter outfit.

The building I’m standing next to is the law school building, which I have interestingly never been into, even though I’m thinking of maybe one day trying to go into law (though I’m not really sure why — talking in front of people is scary). It’s just one of those places where I don’t really feel like I belong in, since I have no classes or anything there, y’know?

It’s my goal to make it into all of Notre Dame’s buildings at some point by the time I’m done here, including the dorms. I’m not really sure how I’m going to manage that, considering I never go to parties and have few friends outside of my dorm. I’m going to figure it out somehow…probably. Maybe.

Anyway, happy Easter! I hope you get to spend the day celebrating somehow with friends and family, and if you’re at The Most Catholic School On Earth ™ like me, I hope you enjoy eating meat and breaking the Lenten fasting thing, even if, like me, you haven’t really kept it anyway. I did swear off dining hall french fries, though, which has done well for my weight. Good for me, I guess?

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!

Sweater: Altar’d State

Shirt: Forever21

Skirt: Rue21

Tights: The LOFT

March 13, 2018 — #Skooled (OOTD #244)

Published on March 25, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

As much as I resent losing sleep during spring daylight savings, I am a fan of having more hours of daylight in the evenings.

It’s particularly useful for doing photos after dinnertime. It used be, especially in January/February, that I would have to get my OOTD shots done before about 6:00pm or else it was too dark to get natural light at all. Now, I’m good until at least 7:30, which takes a lot of pressure off of me.

When I’m home, like I was in these photos, I like to make my outfits out of articles of clothing that I know I will not have with me while at school, like this coat, sweater, boots, and scarf. I feel badly when my clothes aren’t worn, and I miss the pieces I can’t bring with me to my little wardrobe in my dorm at Notre Dame.

Breaks are a time for me to capitalize on my sleep and free time so I am very appreciative of them.

Though, to be honest, I might actually prefer going to school year-round if it meant my workload was significantly lightened. I’d sacrifice a few weekends and breaks to get rid of homework. It’s been a nuisance since literally kindergarten, and it’s only gotten worse as I’ve gotten older.

I heard one of my friends talking the other day about how she enjoyed exams, how they were like puzzles for her to figure out — and I couldn’t agree less. What kind of person likes exams? Even if you know every answer, and make 100% — which probably hasn’t happened to me since middle school — what’s there to like about the actual process of sitting down and writing out answers so someone else can offer you validation?

As much as I appreciate the education I’ve received so far in my life, I still don’t think I’m really the type of person who likes school. I do alright grades-wise, but I can’t imagine becoming a teacher or a professor and remaining in this system for the rest of my life. I mean, I can’t necessarily say there’s anything better out there in the workforce, since I haven’t gotten there yet, but looking back, I think the most enjoyable moments of my life have happened separate from my education experience.

You never stop learning, of course, but I hope I do get to stop schooling at some point, haha.

Sweater: American Eagle

Boots: Target

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Art Rat

Published on March 24, 2018March 24, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Fun fact: I’ve been in Subway since noon today. It is now 6PM.

Honestly, I don’t even mind. It smells like bread, it doesn’t feel isolating like the library does, and I’ve gotten some good work done. I mean, I haven’t made nearly the dent in my work I probably should have, but I also didn’t totally waste my existence, so I call it a win.

I’m on my second iced coffee now, and I can feel it. I’ve gone to the bathroom way too many times in the last six hours, and my fingers are a little jittery even as I’m typing here. It’s probably time to lay off.

I’ve spend a lot of my afternoon working on my sketches for my next art project in my Drawing class. This is so far my favorite one. The project calls us to draw inspiration from another artist, so I chose James Jean, the guy who designed the cover art for my favorite album, My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade. That’s probably the most emo reason I’ve ever decided to do an art project, which is saying something because a lot of my high school art looked pretty emo.

In the meantime, some of my other homework has kind of fallen by the wayside, as I accidentally ended up paying way more attention to my art than the other things I should have been doing. Oh well. That’s what Sundays are for.

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!

March 8, 2018 – Purple Paucity (OOTD #241)

Published on March 20, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

Recently, I’ve been trying to incorporate more purple into my wardrobe.

I’ve been trying to be more purposeful with my Instagram post order, making it a little less haphazard and more visually appealing for someone scrolling through my feed. In order to achieve this effect, I’ve been posting photos in blocks of six that all follow a particular monochromatic color scheme, ordering these blocks by rainbow sequence.

So far, I’ve been pretty satisfied with the results, but my issue’s been that I’ve realized that I’ve worn and photographed very few purple outfits to make up the purple/pink block on my feed that goes in between the red and blue blocks.

While out over spring break with my parents, I actually purposefully searched for more purple clothes, but for some reason, I found very little. Is purple just not in this season? And if that’s so, why? I would’ve thought purple, especially in its lavender variation, would be particularly trendy due to the fact that it’s nearly spring.

Speaking of nearly spring, I’ve been seeing some buds around campus recently. I’m hoping perhaps that means I’ll be able to start bringing some more color into the backgrounds here, maybe even some purple in the form of purple flowers. We’ll see I guess; I’ve never been on campus at springtime, so I don’t actually know what kinds of plants they’ve got around.

Sweater: The LOFT

Tank: H&M

Pants: The LOFT

March 7, 2018 – Like A Lion (OOTD #240)

Published on March 19, 2018March 19, 2018 by lensembledujour6 Comments

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, right?

Welp, it’s definitely still leaning more on the lion side right now here in South Bend.

About a week before spring break, we got a few inches of snow, which I was not at all feeling given it was midterms week and I was already miserable. It was just the time when I could have used some sun, but of course, we got more snow.

South Bend has not yet squashed my love of snow, but I’m regardless very ready to be down with it now this season. The winter has overstayed its welcome, and the spring can come anytime now.

Come to think of it, I don’t usually have any complaints to make about springtime. Summer is too hot, winter is too cold, and fall is too short (or too long if you’re hoping for snow come Christmastime), but I generally like the spring. It’s not my favorite season — that honor ironically enough goes to winter — but I do rather appreciate it.

With spring typically comes horse racing season, but I don’t know if I’m going to at all be able to experience that this year since I’m no longer in Kentucky, Both the Keeneland spring meet in Lexington and Derby season in Louisville occur while I’m at school and end before I get back.

Not that I’ve ever been rich enough to really go out to the race track and do anything but look at the horses — but it was always nice to go and pretend you were cultured. Here, the most cultured thing I do is spend the extra quarter for the super cycle in the laundry room, haha.

Sweater: Hollister (thrifted)

Turtleneck: Forever21

Pants: Abercrombie (thrifted)

Saturday Musings + Coffee – It’s Not Saturday and There’s No Coffee

Published on March 18, 2018March 19, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Happy Sunday from me and my empty coffee mug!

You know, I do rather like to do these Saturday Musings blogs because they keep things interesting and more diverse than if I just did OOTD posts (plus that would be a lot of OOTDs to do), but sometimes, I don’t actually drink any coffee on Saturdays.

For example, yesterday, I swear I was so busy packing and going grocery shopping with my parents and then going to dinner with my friends, I don’t think I had time to really sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee. I didn’t even time to post this blog on Saturday like I was supposed to, haha.

Anyway, 24 hours, and it’s back to school again.

These breaks seem to go by so quickly — to be cliché, I swear it was just yesterday that I was flying home from Midway (after having sat in the airport for three hours, of course).

My spring break wasn’t the most dynamic experience I’ve ever had, but it was pretty relaxing, and think that’s what I needed. I got some good sleep (including sleeping for nearly an entire day on Monday!) and ate some food that wasn’t from the dining hall, and I was pretty satisfied with that. Going to the beach might’ve been fun, but that also would’ve been exhausting, and I was already pretty exhausted come midterms week.

Plus, I don’t much like the sand. It’s coarse…and it gets everywhere.

Anyway, looks like my flight back to Chicago is about to board, so I ought to go. Can you believe that I actually got here at a normal time and only had to wait a very reasonable one hour at the airport this time around? Wild.

March 6, 2018 – The Most Glamorous Location in the World (OOTD #239)

Published on March 16, 2018 by lensembledujour7 Comments

You know something I’ve noticed? My poses become significantly more dynamic when I take my photos by myself.

It makes sense, of course – it’s awkward to try out new, dramatic poses when someone else is looking at you from behind the camera. You don’t want to look stupid, flailing around your arms or gazing dramatically into the distance when someone else can see you, right? It’s better to test out new poses when you don’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself.

So where better to go to prevent embarrassing myself than the privacy of the bathroom in the bookstore?

Yep, you heard it here — I’m actually standing in the bathroom in the bookstore for these photos. Admittedly not a very glamorous location shot, but I really liked the pale yellow wallpaper they had.

I set up my camera against the sink, and, keeping an eye on the door the whole time to make sure no one walked in on me while I was posing…for my fashion blog…in a public bathroom…that sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it?

It just goes to show how much improvisation goes on in these fashion posts I do — I hardly ever plan out where I’m going to do my photos, I just pray that I eventually find some place I can do them.

And sometimes, the place to do them is a bathroom with pale yellow wallpapered walls.

Jacket: Forever21

Shirt: thrifted

March 5, 2018 – No Capes (OOTD #238)

Published on March 15, 2018 by lensembledujour5 Comments

This outfit/background combo makes me feel way classier than I actually am.

The residence hall behind me, Dillon (or maybe it’s Duncan?), has this wonderful little Harry Potter-esque courtyard that makes for a really dramatic, castle-like background. I don’t use it as much as I should.

The whole aesthetic reminds me of something out of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” video — something about the theatrical outfit paired with the rich manor behind me. Or, alternatively, as one of my friends passing me in the dining hall said, “it looks like something Rowena Ravenclaw would wear.”

With an already dramatic outfit and dramatic background, it just makes sense that we would also get a dramatic and well-timed gust of wind to get my cape to blow out behind me as well!

I wasn’t counting on the breeze, but I’m glad I got it! Why wear a cape if it doesn’t catch in the wind, am I right?

Actually, the cape-in-the-wind thing was mostly just a nuisance all day trying to walk around to class. I finally ended up tucking it into my backpack — which probably wasn’t a very fashionable look. There’s a reason it’s not pictured here.

As Edna Mode from The Incredibles would say:

Cape: H&M

Shirt: Banana Republic

Skirt: Abercrombie

March 3, 2018 – Farmers’ Market Fashion (OOTD #237)

Published on March 14, 2018October 6, 2019 by lensembledujour5 Comments

Oops…so it’s been a while.

Ironically, in my last blog post (well…not the last — but the second-to-last) , I said something along the lines of, “don’t worry, I’ll have a nice long blog post for you tomorrow!” And then, not only did I not have a long blog post, but I didn’t post a blog at all!

For three days.

I don’t typically have long periods of time between blog posts, so I guess three days isn’t the worst. I’m usually pretty good at posting consistently here, so here’s to hoping that I’m able to keep up my schedule for the rest of the year?

The other day, about a week before I left for spring break (so, a week before this blog was posted) some people in my section from my dorm all went on an outing to the South Bend Farmers’ Market. I don’t believe I’ve ever gone to a farmers’ market, but after what I saw on Saturday, I would 100% go again.

Maybe I was just really excited to see things that were for sale for money other than Flex Points or Domer Dollars, but it seemed like a nice little market they had set up. If I were rich enough to buy my produce locally every week, I could definitely see myself going with some friends on a Saturday morning, picking up our groceries, and then stopping somewhere for brunch.

Like I said, if I were rich. As it is, I bought one pound of grapes and that about wiped out my bank account, so I’m going to have to stick to every once in a while for now.

It was fun to get off campus, though. I think I’d been stuck at Notre Dame for about eight straight weeks when I finally got out for this little field trip, and I was definitely craving it.

We came across this little tea and spices shop, and the colors were just so delightful I couldn’t help but ask to get some pictures with it. I love a good background, so even on days where I don’t usually do OOTDs, like Saturdays, I’ll make an exception if I see a colorful, well-lit environnement. Lord knows I don’t always get those at school.

Top: Zara

Jeans: Abercrombie

Scarf: American Eagle

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Ready For Takeoff

Published on March 10, 2018March 10, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

This is like, my third time flying home through Midway airport from Notre Dame, and every time, I forget that there’s a one hour time difference between South Bend and Chicago.

My flight’s at 1:45, and so, not realizing the time difference, I figured I’d get the 8AM bus from campus, get to the airport around 11AM, and have plenty of time to make it through security and find my gate.

Welp, I do have plenty of time, because I actually arrived at the airport at 10AM local time, and then realized I had pretty much three hours to kill before I would even need to think about boarding.

Better early than late though, I guess. I hate the process of getting through security and all of that, but once I’m actually in the airport, I find it fine. Midway’s not my favorite ammenties-wise, but it’s significantly better than that one time I flew through Atlanta, got stuck for nearly two days, and had a battle with a cockroach in the bathroom at midnight.

Anyway, I’ve been chilling here for a while, trying to muster up the energy to write this blog — or better yet, get caught up on some reading for class. Traveling kind of sucks the motivation to do productive things out of me, though, so mostly I’ve just been sitting at the gate and looking at baby animal GIFs on Reddit.

I’ve almost made it — a few more hours and I’ll be back in Louisville, which isn’t quite home but it’s close enough. Assuming my plane doesn’t get delayed and I don’t do anything stupid, it should be smooth sailing (flying?) from here.