Tag: September

September 6, 2017 – Topknots and Tan (OOTD #105)

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I owe this hairstyle to my dear friend, Jane.

A long, long time ago, when I was just a little 13 year-old who could use a flat iron but couldn’t French braid her hair to save her life, Jane taught me the way of the topknot.

I don’t even know exactly where Jane learned to do the hairstyle – given the time period, it was probably a copy of Seventeen borrowed from the local library, or maybe a YouTube video from macbarbie07. At any rate, she learned it – the way you twist your hair onto your head, leaving a tuft of it poofed around your crown for volume, then pin it in place with as many bobby pins as possible – and then she taught the ancient art to me.

Since then, the topknot has always been in rotation in my hairstyle catalogue. In particular, I find it useful for days when my hair is a few days old – too dirty to be left down but not dirty enough to warrant a shower. The only time it doesn’t work is when my roots have grown in several inches…but nothing really works with my hair then.

But what about the other part of this blog’s title – the “tan?” Actually, I probably wouldn’t have even called it “tan” but for the need for alliteration; personally, I consider it more of a camel.

A while back, I wrote a blog post dedicated solely to my love of camel – especially when paired with black – likening the color combination to a luxury sedan. My thoughts have not changed since then. Camel and black is still probably my favorite color palette – though I may have to rethink my use of it now that I’m here at Notre Dame, where I think just about every building is the same golden beige color.

Too much of a good thing isn’t good, right?

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: Hollister

Sweater: Forever21

September 5, 2017 – Now Accepting Donations For A Tripod (OOTD #104)

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I’m totally kidding about that title, by the way – unless my parents are reading this. I will gladly take money from you guys 🙂

But for real, I guess it’s time for me to finally shell out the money (and by “shell out the money,” I mean “pay the whole $20 for something cheap from Amazon because no way am I spending the money for an actually nice $100+ item”) for a tripod.

On Tuesday evening, I found myself coming home late again. But unlike last time when something similar happened, when I was able to ask a friend who was also coming home late to help me out, this time, it was so late that I didn’t feel like I could ask anyone to do my pictures for me. Regardless, it was already plenty dark out anyway, so the photos wouldn’t have even been that great.

What to do?

I could have just skipped out on doing photos for that day at all. And I almost did – I figured could always just wear the same outfit again some other day, pretend it was the first time I’d worn those green pants with that top, and then actually have decent photos to share. The issue with that, though, is that it kind-of takes away from the whole purpose of this blog for me, which is to document each unique outfit I wear.

With that philosophy in mind, I decided it was better to have terrible photos taken using my camera sitting on top of some books in the 2nd floor study lounge. Fabulous, right?

I did my best to edit the lighting so the color wasn’t so distorted, but there’s only so much you can do with fluorescents in a 100 year-old building. That’s why I was thinking a tripod might be a good idea – at least then, I could do some outdoor photos using my camera’s timer. Anything but indoor lighting.

It’s too bad, because this shirt is really quite exquisite and deserves better treatment than these orange-toned photos. I got it for only 10 pounds in a little boutique in Waltham Abbey in London because it’s missing a button in the back, but I absolutely love it regardless. The green pants really accent the rainbow pompoms nicely without upstaging them.

Ah well, I guess that’s just how the ball bounces. The rainbow pom-pom shirt will get a chance to shine in some nice photos in another nice outfit one of these days.

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: Some little boutique in Waltham Abbey

Pants: The LOFT

Terrible orange lighting: Howard Hall

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

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Gooooo Irish! Beat Georgia!

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How to get the 8th floor of the library for yourself: go the morning of a football game.

In fact, I got the gym to myself this morning too. Seems like Notre Dame kids like their football game days so much, they don’t really do anything else those days. No homework, no working out – not even eating in the dining hall.  Tailgate –> game –> candlelight dinner –> party.

Do the students still party even if we lose? I’ve only been here for one game, so I don’t actually know. I wouldn’t be surprised though; people seem to like to party, regardless of the occasion.

St. Patrick’s Day ought to be interesting to spend here.

I don’t mind though. It gives me some time to myself, and that’s rather scarce here. My dorm room is a quad, so there’s pretty much always someone there, the dining halls are always crowded, and even the upper floors of the library tend to have one or two nerds studying there late into the night.

I’ll head to the game later this evening (maybe even drop by a tailgate or two if one of my friends has family there), but for now, I’m just happy to hang out up here on the 8th floor by myself. I haven’t even done much work or been productive…something I’ll probably regret tomorrow when I have to spend all Sunday doing homework.

Anyway, that’s it for today! Still gotta go back to my dorm and change into my gameday attire. Never did wash the Shirt…guess that means I ought to spray it with some perfume or something. Whoops.

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.

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

September 1, 2017 – Is It Fall Yet? (OOTD #101)

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Shoot, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I haven’t posted anything here since last Sunday – in other words, it’s been four days since my last blog post. I think that’s still a little shorter of a hiatus than the one I took when I was in London…but yeah, it’s been too long.

College has been treating me well enough. That said, it hasn’t exactly been easy either – for example, I spend more time than I would like hanging out in the upper floors of the library writing papers, and less time than I would like writing blog posts. Still, I enjoy the freedom, the fewer hours spent in classes, and the exercise I get walking around campus.

It’s interesting: now that I’m living on a college campus, where there are so many people moving from place to place 24/7, I’m not sure when it’s appropriate for me to change out of my “school clothes” and into my “lazy clothes.” In high school, I wore nice clothes during the school day, and when I got home, I changed into comfy clothes (which sometimes just meant pajamas). But now, I’m pretty much always at school because my home is school. So when do I get to stop being fashionable and start looking lazy?

Speaking of fashion, this coat has quickly become one of my favorite articles in my wardrobe. Why? Because it’s one of the only coats I bothered to bring here, and Lord knows the September weather here in South Bend necessities it.

But why didn’t I bring more coats? Because in Kentucky, at this time of the year, it still feels like summer. It’s not unusual to have weather that’s still in the 80s and upper 70s – in other words, nothing that would ever require a coat. In fact, I probably don’t break out my jackets until mid to late October because I’m still able to wear shorts and t-shirts.

Not here – here, it’s been chilly and rainy in the mornings just about every day since the start of classes two weeks ago. I’m not complaining; I much prefer this to the heat we had in Kentucky (anyone who’s been following this blog since the summer can attest to that). Still, I left all of my sweaters and coats at home, and I’m really missing them right now.

In fact, I’m missing all of my clothes I left at home. I wound up having more room in my wardrobe than I thought I was going to have, so at fall break, I’m definitely going to bring some more pieces. My clothes are kind of like my children; I miss them when I’m apart from them.

Anyway, I’ve got to scoot off to Astronomy, which begins in 20 minutes, so that’s all for today! 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!

Coat: Vintage

Pants: The LOFT

Shirt: Forever21

Saturday Musings + Coffee – First ND Home Game

Published on by lensembledujour4 Comments

Yeah, I know it’s not Saturday at the time of publication – calm down.

Usually, when I do a Saturday Musings post, I like to publish it on Saturday – otherwise, the name kind of loses its relevance, you feel? But for this post, it unfortunately just has to be that way. I feel like my excuse is pretty decent though.

Saturday, the day I drank my coffee and took my photos of it, was my first home football game at Notre Dame. Football, of course, is a huge deal at Notre Dame, so when my parents told me that they had purchased season tickets for me, I was more than grateful.

But here’s the thing – I’m not a football connoisseur. I like football, don’t get me wrong – I grew up cheering for the Philadelphia Eagles – but I know nothing about the culture and the I’ve only ever been to one college game in my life, and that was for the University of Kentucky – not exactly a very good team. I went to a lot of high school football games, but then, that was for the social aspect of attending, not actually to watch the game. No offense to my high school, but we kind of sucked.

At Notre Dame though, it seems that football games are huge both for the socialization aspect and the actual game. People tailgate for hours beforehand and then party afterwards….it’s insane.

It was a lot of fun though! I’m definitely glad I had the coffee before the day started though, because the day didn’t end until way too late for my taste. I’ll have to tell you more about it later though when I do a full blog about Saturday’s OOTD – have to save some details for that post!

Anyway, I think that’s about it for the day for me. I have an obscene amount of homework I’m in denial about their due dates, and I probably ought to do some of it. Whoops.