Tag: saturday musings

Saturday Musings + Coffee – That iPhone Depth Effect

Published on by lensembledujour1 Comment

Look, I’m no photographer, but I like to think that my new phone makes me look something like one.

No, this isn’t a sponsored post – though hey, Apple, if you’d like to share some of your massive wealth with me, that’d be neat – I just really legitimately enjoy the camera feature on my iPhone X.

Granted, I never had the iPhone 7, so the jump in technology from 6 to X was more dramatic, but I think regardless I would have noticed the shift in quality. This phone just takes some nice photos – and notice how I said the phone takes nice photos, not me. I know it’s not my artistic vision or technical skill that made these shots look neat.

I’ve actually switched my OOTD photos for this blog from all on my old Canon camera to my new phone, and honestly, I think my new phone does a better job.

I brought it along with me to some concerts I’ve attended recently at my school, including The Wombats (who were truly fantastic, and whom I didn’t realize how much I appreciated until I saw them live) and Max Schneider (whom I didn’t know of before the show but whom I am now interested in), and I’ve managed to capture some fun videos for my Snapchat story. I’d add them here but like…I don’t think you care to see my shaky cam 10 second video clips of college kids screaming what, if you concentrate, sounds like lyrics.

I love a good concert – my summer shenanigans seeing Train, Cage the Elephant, and All Time Low are testaments to that. I’m hoping to see Fall Out Boy next fall, maybe the Wombats again this summer, and maybe hit up Warped Tour for its final run depending on who they get to perform. I’ve been getting spoiled with all of these free shows on campus; I’m going to hope I get a better summer job than Home Depot again if I expect to pay for all of this.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Basic Invite Stationery Review

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

A long time ago, back before I had my own laptop (and actually, probably before my family even had a home computer – just my mother’s work laptop that she would bring home on the weekends sometimes) I was really into writing.

Okay, that was a lousy way of wording things – I’m still into writing, it’s not like that’s changed. I mean, what am I doing here other than writing (though maybe not very well, as evidenced by that last confusing sentence)? But back then, I was into…handwriting? Or rather, writing things out by hand?

I don’t know if this is true for kids today, since it seems like they’ve all got their first iPhone by 6 and are on Instagram by 7, but way back when (and by that I mean like 10 years ago), typing was a rarity for an elementary school kid. I remember having to take typing lessons in the computer lab to learn how to position my fingers correctly and get my WPM up, but that was about all we ever did. There were few typed assignments, and we rarely had computers in class.

Handwriting was the only kind of writing a kid did – and I remember really loving it. I think it probably had to do with that it was a relatively novel thing to me, having only learned to write at all a few grades ago, after all. I had really lousy handwriting – my third grade teacher, if I remember, rated it as “poor” once on a report card – but that didn’t matter to me.

I like to think my handwriting’s gotten better since then, even though I don’t do it as much as I used to, especially since I’ve entered college and just about all my assignments are typed in my computer.

But I want to do it more. Noticing this recent decrease in handwritten writing, I decided to order some cute stationery samples – some thank you cards, stickers, notes – to test the waters and see if maybe by getting supplies, I’ll convince myself to write more. I figure if my writing supplies are nice, maybe I’ll be more motivated to write, you know?

The website I went through was called Basic Invite, and I must say, I’m very satisfied with my experience. What’s great about this particular brand was the sheer about of options there were – options for different kids of stationery (wedding invitations, children’s party invitations, thank you cards, etc.), different kinds of paper, colors, you name it. Along with the vast customization features that allow you to create invitations that are perfectly tailored to your needs, I was equally impressed with the service I was provided. I was emailed when my order was completed, when my samples were queued for print, when they were being shipped out, and when they had a delivery date estimation for me. Everything arrived neatly packaged, undamaged, and ready for use.

Will these new supplies actually encourage me to write more? We’ll see. One of my professors has already specifically stated she doesn’t allow computers to be used in her class, so that’ll be a good motivation for me to work on that. I’ll have all my different colored pens, my stickers, my stationery – I’ll be so organized I may even forget to pay attention to the lecture.

Basic Invite is currently running a promotion for 15% off with coupon code 15FF51, so I would definitely recommend giving them a look if you’ve got any stationery needs. Or, if you’re like me, and you don’t really know if you have stationery needs or not, but want to order some samples to test them out, Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation so they can see exactly how it will print as well as the paper quality before placing their final order!

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!

Disclaimer: This post includes products that were sent complimentary to review and affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Compose Yourself

Published on by lensembledujour3 Comments

Have I ranted about how difficult flatlays are yet?

What? I have? And they’re not actually that difficult, considering all it takes is for me to gather up a bunch of knick knacks and then photograph them in a pretty composition on top of a white bedsheet, so I should probably stop complaining about stupid, meaningless problems?

Sometimes I feel like these blog posts, especially on days when I haven’t really done anything and thus have nothing to talk about, are just me coming up with a problem to rant about for a few paragraphs before pointing out to myself that that’s not really much of a problem.

That’s kind of the downside of doing blog posts every day isn’t it? There are only so many mildly interesting things for me to talk about.

As mildly interesting things go, I’m headed back to school tomorrow, and I’m actually kind of excited. All through high school, returning to school after winter break just meant dread and angst, but after having a month off, I think it’ll be good to go back to having work to do.

I mean, I’ll be complaining about all the work I have to do within a few days of being back, but for now, I’m optimistic!

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!

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Fickle Flatlays

Published on by lensembledujour3 Comments

Flatlays are hard to make.

I do them both for these posts and for the sake of having something other than just pictures of my face for my Instagram. I do find that they’re worth the effort, though they don’t get nearly as many likes as my outfit posts – it would just be boring to have a feed filled with nothing of pictures of me, so the flatlays break up the monotony.

They also look very nice on my Instagram page in terms of aesthetics, which, to me, is very important. I know there are some fashion bloggers out there who can do well with nothing but posting pictures of their outfits, and good for them, but I feel like maintaining an aesthetically pleasing feed is just as important.

You’ve got to be able to scroll on someone’s Instagram page and be struck with how pretty the colors and patterns all work together without giving each post more than a half-second glance. I mean, sometimes that’s all you get on Instagram – a half-second of someone’s time – so everything needs to look beautiful from a glimpse.

So flatlays are significantly less “authentic” snapshots of my life than my outfit posts – I mean, I do wear all of those outfits, but for flatlays, I usually just set them out, take pictures of them, and then put them away.

Because let’s be honest – I never have this many pretty things laid out prettily on a pretty background at once. I’ve never even used some of those things – the Blick Art materials book is only there because I liked the mint color, and the Christmas cactus is actually my mom’s and not mine. I’m significantly less organized than my flatlays would have a person believe, but what else is new?

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!

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Merry Christmas Eve Eve

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

Happy almost-Christmas!

It’s two days until Christmas, and things are finally beginning to look like it at my household. I’ve baked some cookies, a cake, we put up our tree, my dad and I put up our outdoor lights – we’ve got just about all of the traditional Christmas stuff done.

I’ve still got quite a bit of wrapping to do, and even a few more gifts to buy, but I’m not too concerned. The gifts I need to buy aren’t due until after Christmas, and the wrapping can be done later tonight while I watch some Christmas specials on television.

It’s weird not being in school – I at once seem to have so much to do and nothing to do at all. For example, I stayed in bed until like 1PM today, like a proper lazy teenager, but after I finally got up, my dad and I managed to get some legitimate work done on the outdoor decorations. I’ll probably stay up late again tonight – I’ve got some Christmas cards to sign and address, the wrapping to do, and maybe even some blogging – and then wake up late tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to make it through the most recent Harry Potter book – The Cursed Child. I don’t know, does it even count as a book? Is it even officially canon? I actually bought it like, a year ago, but I only made it about halfway through the first act before I gave up on how contrived and corny the plot seemed.

I’m coming across much of the same issue now, trying to read it again – the plot does seem a little silly, and the characters are, for lack of a better term, out-of-character. Maybe it would’ve been better had I seen the actual stage play.

Have any of you read Cursed Child yet? What do you think? Feel free to leave me a comment below.

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!

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Snow Joke

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Get it? Because it’s a pun on “no joke” which is in itself a joke about snow…?

I really, really should not be allowed on the Internet to make terrible jokes like this – I’m just going to end up embarrassing my grandkids when they look back on the Internet archives to see what their grandmother was doing when she was a young adult.

Anyway, we here in northern Indiana, like a large chunk of the US, got a nice helping of snow last night! While not technically the first snowfall (that was actually Thursday), this is the first time we’ve had enough snow to actually do anything with, you know?

And what anything did I do with the snow? This morning, my friends and I took advantage of the fresh wintery coating to head outside and build a little snowman on South Quad. Here he is, sporting my gloves, scarf, and hat. Honestly, he wears them better than I do – I should probably just give up this blog and let him run it from now on.

After that, I sat in my dorm, drank some coffee, and did pretty much nothing for the rest of the day. I’ve got an essay to write, three finals to study for, and a concert tonight, and I have pretty much made no progress on any of these things! In fairness, I was pretty productive yesterday night…so that makes up for it, right?

I really do think it’s this wonderful snowy atmosphere that’s got me so easily distracted. I mean, sure, I can be easily distracted on any day, regardless of the weather, but today’s been especially bad. I just want to stand by a window, watch the snow fall, and listen to Christmas music, yo. This studying nonsense is cramping my style.

And with that cringey statement, I’m going to go before I embarrass myself further. Wish me luck on my work!

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!

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Festive Feelings

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Look at these Christmas festivities – look at them!

I love Christmas decorations, but, going to public school for 13 years, I didn’t get to see them much in a classroom setting. I guess maybe in elementary school, I had some teachers who would decorate their rooms and let us do Christmas-themed crafts, but the Christmas festivities decreased significantly as I got older.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t even know what Christmas was in high school; I didn’t get to see it at all, so how could it possibly exist?

But no longer – I go to a Catholic university, so Christmas is a pretty big deal. It’s like…it’s the basis for the religion practiced here, or something.

Pretty much all of the class buildings have Christmas trees in them, and many have Christmas lights outside. My favorite has to be O’Shag, one of the Arts and Letters buildings, which has some really beautiful garland and a wreath at the entrance.

South Dining Hall also has some really nice decorations, but maybe that’s just because SDH is a beautiful building to begin with. There are lights lining the entire main dining area, and there’s a nice big Christmas tree right where you walk in. If you’ve seen the Great Hall Christmas feast scene from the first Harry Potter film, it basically looks like that.

It’s all especially nice because finals are coming up, and anything sweet and beautiful like Christmas decorations are appreciated as I stare into my textbooks and pray that I remember any information in them.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Philadelphia Feelings

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

I like…have no legitimate reason for that blog title…it just kind of came into my head to the tune of Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” (fun song, by the way), and I thought I’d go for it.

I didn’t even intend originally for this blog to have a Philadelphia Eagles mug in it – I had wanted to go with my dad’s Notre Dame mug, in recognition of ND’s final regular season game tonight against Stanford. But that mug was dirty – I guess he used it this morning – so I thought I’d go for another one of my favorite football teams.

The Eagles are a team I’ve grown up rooting for, although it’s not one I have any particular connection to myself. I’ve never lived in Philly, I don’t know any of the players – all I know is that my parents like them, and so I do too.

In fairness, I never grew up in a place that cared much for professional football, so the only way it was ever a part of my life was through my parents – thus, it makes sense that I would root for the same team as they do. Kentucky is much more interested in college sports, and so I’ve developed an interest in those (have you seen how many times I talk about Notre Dame on this blog?), but as it comes to professional sports, all I know is the Eagles.

And until I move to a city and make friends who are all interested in professional sports, I think that’s the way it’ll stay. Which, for now, given the Eagles’ record as the best in the nation, is a great thing! Maybe I’ll finally see them in the Super Bowl.

Anyway, here’s a picture of my dog. That has nothing to do with coffee, or Saturdays, or the Eagles, but I like her and I thought I’d include her at the end here.

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Cold, Rainy Game Day

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Maybe this weather is a metaphor for Notre Dame’s playoff chances.

See, we started off the year with gorgeous weather and sunshine. It was late summer in northern Indiana, meaning that being outside and standing for hours in the stadium actually wasn’t bad. Then, as fall came around, the weather cooled, but in a really genuinely nice way.

And now it’s nearly winter – our last several games have been either freezing, raining, or some combination of both, and it’s getting harder and harder to will myself to stay for the entirety of the game. Not to mention, morale is low, and our playoff aspirations are as good as dead.

It should still be fun anyway. And if it’s not, I don’t really feel any obligation to stick around past halftime, especially since I can use the excuse of having a headache from falling the other day.

I guess I never posted about that here! Yeah, so the other day,  I fainted while washing my hands in my dorm’s bathroom, and I hit my head pretty hard against the wall on the way down. I woke up on the ground feeling pretty lousy, but I managed to get back up and walk back to my room. After laying down for a little, I felt much better and was even able to go to class about a half an hour later.

I never went to the clinic to get myself checked out, though I probably ought to have, but I haven’t felt that way since and the only lasting issue I’ve had is a headache from hitting my head.

Anyway, I’ve got to get dressed in some sort of Notre Dame-themed outfit and get ready for the game, which starts in a little over an hour. Maybe this time, I’ll actually be able to make a blog post out of my outfit, instead of losing the photo files like I did last time. Go Irish!

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!

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Desk Tour

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I’m sitting in my room watching the ND game right now, and let me just say – it’s not off to a good start.

It’s presently 2 minutes until half, and Miami is winning, 20-0. I’m hoping, of course, that things turn around, but right now, it’s not looking so hot.

So, since I’m so sad watching the events of this game unfold, I figured it would be good time to do a blog. And since I was sitting here at my desk alone, I thought – why not offer a little peak of my desk space?

Now, truth be told, I don’t spend a ton of time working at my desk. If you’ve seen my Saturday Musings posts, which often feature photos of my planner, laptop – you know, work supplies – you’ll notice that I like to go all around campus to do my homework. The library, the student lounges, outside – I’ll go anywhere.

And anywhere does include simply my room, sometimes. Today, which was chilly, cloudy, and dark, seemed like the perfect day to simply rest at home.

The top shelf of my desk has my cactus (which I haven’t killed yet! Go me), my books, and a portrait of myself that I did last year in high school. The second shelf has some keepsakes – my teddy bear BoBear, a painting I bought when I went to New York, my camera (where pretty much all of my L’ensemble du Jour photos are taken), and some pumpkins I keep for decoration.

The actual surface of my desk has variable objects strewn across it, depending on the day and what I’ve been up to. Since I was taking photos of my desk space and trying to show off to you guys how nice and neat and “organized I am,” I cleaned off the dirty socks and candy wrappers until I was left with only have the essentials – my laptop, the book I’m using for a paper, my planner, my makeup, and about a dozen drinking vessels (two mugs, a thermos, and a water bottle to be exact). I’ve also got a nice little pin board, but I hardly ever use it for anything relevant. Mostly it’s just ticket stubs and random pieces of paper that I thought looked pretty.

I mean, that’s pretty much all my Pinterest is though, so…

Oh, and look – it’s halftime and we’re losing by 27 now. Bama is losing, Georgia just lost…clearly the world is ending. I’d better go back to watching the game – I don’t want to miss our epic second half comeback!

Assuming it’s coming…hopefully…