style – Page 39 – L'ensemble du jour

March 14, 2018 – Sunlit Suburban Stroll (OOTD #245)

Published on March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

You’d think that with a name like “spring break” I could actually get some spring weather at home.

Instead, the literal day after I arrived back in Kentucky, we got about eight inches of snow. I don’t even think there was that much snow at Notre Dame when I departed Chicago.

I guess I can’t really complain too much – winter is still my favorite season, and snow is still my favorite weather condition. The winter is getting a little old for me at this point in the year, and I’m fairly read for spring to come, but that doesn’t change the fact that I still get excited whenever it snows.

As I mentioned, we had about eight inches of snow on Monday — so why are the roads totally clear in these shots from Wednesday?

One of the craziest things to me when I moved north for school was just how long the snow hangs around. You can get snow that falls one day and stays for two more weeks afterwards.In Kentucky, the snow, when it actually sticks (which only happens a few times a year) usually only stays around for a day or two.

So here, on Wednesday, all that snow had pretty much already melted, owing to some sunshine and temperatures during the daytime hanging around 40 degrees (not warm, but warm enough to melt the snow).

I wouldn’t be sad if this were the last snow I got until late November, though. As evidenced by my bare legs and skirt here, I’m in the mood for warmer temperatures.

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!

Jacket: Adidas (thrifted)

Shirt: Altar’d State

Skirt: H&M

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 11, 2018 – Shocking Pink (OOTD #243)

Published on March 22, 2018February 23, 2019 by lensembledujour3 Comments

Now how’s that for pink and purple?

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do you have this in pink?

A post shared by Meilin || L'ensemble du jour (@lensembledujour) on Aug 24, 2018 at 6:00am PDT

Like I mentioned a few blogs ago, I’ve been trying to get more pink and purple color palettes in my OOTD posts for the sake of creating an appealing rainbow order Instagram feed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bif8A7Mlj3B/

So when I came across this bright pink wall at a Mexican restaurant, I knew I had to use it as a background for these photos. I thought at first the vibrant pink would be too much, but I think it meshed well with my more deep-toned jacket and pants.

On Saturday, the first day of my spring break, my family went out to celebrate my mother’s birthday with lunch and an outing in Shelbyville, Kentucky. We saw a distillery tour and went to some antique shops — it was, on the whole, a very Scanish family day.

By that I mean I feel that eating and shopping around little local place in Kentucky is basically what my family does every time we have something to celebrate. Just look at what we did when my uncle came or visit last summer or when we wanted something to do together before I went back to school after winter break — it was basically the exact same thing.

The remarkable bit is that I don’t think we ever get tired of it. When I was a kid, I absolutely hated going to antique malls because there was rarely anything for me to look at, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to like antiques more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg3tT5iH-F_/

Could it be because I’m becoming more and more like an antique each day? I’m practically an old lady at this point.

Jacket: thrift

Sweater: Forever21

Jeans: Hollister

March 9, 2018 – Feed Me and Call Me Pretty – (OOTD #242)

Published on March 21, 2018March 22, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Home is where the heart is, and the way to my heart is through my stomach.

The first meal after leaving university for break is my favorite.

I admit, Notre Dame has a pretty good dining hall. I’ve heard my friends at over universities talk about the food they’re served, and on the whole, I think I’ve got it good, excluding maybe meatless Fridays during Lent.

However, no matter how passably edible (and occasionally legitimately tasty) the food is at school, it almost never matches up to real food from home or a restaurant. That’s why on the hour and a half long drive from the Louisville to Lexington, I relish the opportunity to eat some real, freshly cooked food that hasn’t been sitting under a heat lamp for hours.

As it turned out, the Saturday I went home, my dad and I passed a popular chain restaurant while traveling back after he’d picked me up from the airport, and we agreed to stop in for dinner. Interestingly, The OOTD shots I got outside of the restaurant are very reminiscent of the shots outside of a different restaurant I got on the drive back to Lexington for fall break. Thankfully, my hair looks a lot better here.

To be honest, the mashed potatoes and chicken I ordered there were far from the best things I’d ever eaten – but they sure tasted like it after eight weeks of the same menu over and over again. In a way, I’m glad campus is so isolated because that way, I’m not tempted much to ever go out and spend money on food, because Lord knows I would.

Jacket: Forever21

Shirt: ASOS

Pants: The LOFT

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.