Tag: the loft

April 16, 2018 – Indiana Jones and the Empty Classrooms (OOTD #267)

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Get it? Because I live in Indiana and because I spend half of the time I’m not doing homework wandering around empty classrooms?

Empty classrooms are so underrated — why study in the stuffy library or the crowded student center(s) when you could stake out your own private classroom? It’s a particularly useful strategy when you can find said empty classroom in a 24 hour building, which, at Notre Dame, means basically any of the arts buildings.

I did once accidentally fall asleep in an empty classroom and didn’t wake up until 7AM when a cleaning lady came in to get ready before 8AM classes, which probably would not have happened had I been in a more public place. At the same time, I’ve never had someone vomit in the seat right next to me like happened to me the other day in the student center, so, you know — pros and cons.

Speaking of pros and cons, my schedule turned out much better than I expected it would! I didn’t quite make it into every class I wanted, but I got into the majority of them, and those that I didn’t, I still found alternatives that hit about the same requirements. I saw one girl running across south quad holding her laptop and crying this morning, so clearly, I didn’t have it bad at all.

As it turns out, it doesn’t look like I will have any art classes next semester, but I think a break will be good. I wasn’t a huge fan of my drawing class this semester, despite all of the complaining I did the semester before about missing art classes. Will I ever find a balance between wanting to do art and not wanting to be stressed out about it? The world may never know.

Most of my classes will work towards my history major and some university requirements, but I did pick up French for fun, even though that doesn’t fulfill any requirements for me. I’m also hoping to get into a one-credit course about local plants, but it closed hours before my registration time began, so fingers crossed I can email the professor and get in.

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: Forever21

Sweater: The LOFT

Pants: The LOFT

April 11, 2018 – Amethyst Ardor (OOTD #264)

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Oh boy, is my current Instagram color scheme going to love this.

I’ve mentioned several times recently that I’ve been trying to create more color scheme-centric outfits in order to fit in with my attempt to make my Instagram feed more cohesive. This means that I’ve been putting more thought into making my outfits and backgrounds coordinate, which means they have both been more on the monochromatic side.

This then, is the perfect Instagram-friendly purple composition.

My mother would be so proud of me — purple is her favorite color. I think my purple hair color has been one of her favorites of the last two years of hair color changes. 

Purple theme aside, I’m a fan of this outfit just on its structure. It’s very feminine, in a 40’s librarian kind of a way. And if there’s anything I like in terms of fashion aesthetics, it’s quirky vintage-inspired and narrative-friendly vibe. 

Sometimes I fear my outfits lean a little too much on the narrative side, sometimes heading in the direction of costume, but it’s that line that I toe that makes fashion interesting to me. How do you create dramatic and eclectic styles without going gimmicky? How do you remain artistic while still following the trends?

In general, I’ve found that the best way to keep from going too far is to keep the accessories and styling contemporary and conservative, while going more quirky on the clothes themselves. In that way, I keep a pretty decent balance of the bold and the conservative. 

My purple hair, however, is anything but conservative, which sometimes makes it hard for me to look like anything but an adventurous hipster. I have nothing against being an adventurous hipster, but it’s not always the best look for say, a job interview, you know? In general, though, it seems people are starting to fear unconventional hair dye a little less now. You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell that on Notre Dame’s campus, where I’m actually one of the only people to have an unnatural hair color, but the whole of the US seems to be heading that way.

On a side note, today (the day of posting, April 19 — not the outfit featured here, April 11) is the one year anniversary of L’ensemble du jour! I’m going to be doing a more involved special edition post for the April 19 OOTD blog commemorating the anniversary, but for now, let me just say thank you to anyone who’s bothered to stick around reading this blog for an entire year! And also to thank anyone who just started reading or has been reading any amount of time at all really — it means a lot, as a relatively small presence in the ocean of the Internet, that anyone would stop by and pay attention to me.

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: The LOFT

Turtleneck: Forever21

Skirt: Vintage

April 10, 2018 – Little Red Riding Hood (OOTD #263)

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Plot twist: this cape has no hood.

Anyone else getting intense Catholic cardinal vibes from this outfit?

Just give me a little red hat, and I could fit right in at the Vatican. Well, except for being a woman of course. Okay, maybe not the Vatican, so how about the Volturi? I think immortality and vampirism might look good on me.

(Side note — man, I love an outdated Twilight reference. Do the kids these days even remember the Edward vs Jacob controversy? 2011 was a terrifying time to be alive)

Anyway, by a series of fortunate circumstances, I only had one class last Tuesday.

Two classes ,for completely independent reasons, were canceled, which meant I had most of the day, save for a short one-credit 9:30 class that ended up being cut a half an hour short anyway, free.

Or at least, it should’ve been free. I ended up actually being very busy, with two interviews and two meetings keeping me from relaxing. Honestly, I think I was just as busy as if I had had class.

I only have two weeks left of class though (as of writing this on April 18), so I’m looking forward to the end of everything and finally getting to go home. On the other hand, I’m not looking forward to going home and being jobless — that’s not going to be any fun.

Maybe I really should look into becoming a cardinal. Being a leader of the Catholic church surely has to pay something, right? I’m sure once I flash my Notre Dame student ID they’ll let me bypass being a normal priest and a bishop and an archbishop and then just promote me straight to cardinal — I mean, I already have the red cape, so what else is there to do?

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!

Cape: thrifted

Sweater: thrifted

Leggings: The LOFT

April 6, 2018 – Winter Wrap Up (OOTD #260)

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If you’d like to hear the delightful My Little Pony song that inspired the title of this blog, have a look here.

For a 19 year-old adult, I probably care more for cartoons than I should, but I have to admit, my childhood obsessions like My Little Pony, the Disney Princess films, and the Powerpuff Girls still hold up pretty well today. They’re good to put on while I’m on the elliptical in the morning because they’re so sweet and innocent — the perfect way to clear my head from anything that’s stressing me out.

But anyway, just like the ponies of the Winter Wrap Up song, it looks like spring is finally getting ready to show itself here in South Bend. I almost wondered if it would never come, what with some of the snow showers we continued to get even into early and mid-April, but once we get through these next few days of chilly rain, it looks like the warmer weather is finally here to stay. At least, that’s what the Weather Channel app says for now.

Fingers crossed it stays that way!

I got some cute pieces over spring break that I’ve been excited to finally show off, so maybe, with the spring weather due to come soon, I’ll be motivated enough to wear them.

I don’t know if this is a common thing, but do you ever feel like you have to wait for a special occasion to wear new clothes? Like, even if you didn’t buy them for a special cause, and even if they’re seasonable for the current weather, it seems like new clothes deserve a special unveiling event. Maybe I just like my clothes too much.

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: H&M

Top: Free People

Pants: The LOFT

March 22, 2018 – Untitled (OOTD #252)

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I allllllllmost didn’t post this outfit as a blog.

I only have four photos, and one isn’t even very good, so it almost didn’t really feel worth it to post it as a full blog, you know?

I decided to go for it anyway though, because I really like this jacket. It reminds me of the most expensive item in my wardrobe, a similarly architectural jacket, except that I doubt this one is worth hundreds of dollars. Interestingly, though, I bought it at the same thrift shop from back home as I bought the super expensive one — coincidence?

I wore this jacket specifically for an interview I had at 9AM, and, considering I was accepted into the program I was interviewing for, I guess it worked out! While it’s not a paid job (that I’m still searching for), it is a almost-entirely grant-funded trip to Nepal to observe and aid in a research project, so I’m super excited.

You can bet that I’ll be posting a lot about my adventures in Nepal (assuming I have time), so stay tuned for that. Maybe I’ll actually be able to keep up with a regular schedule, unlike what happened to me in London, where one week in, I stopped posting at all.

Speaking of London, can you believe it’s been almost one whole year since I started L’ensemble du jour? I need to check my stats for the exact date, but I’m pretty sure I began this whole project sometime in mid-to-late April of 2017. I should do something special for the one year-anniversary. Any ideas? Leave me a comment below!

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: thrifted

Shirt: Free People

Pants: The LOFT

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

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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.

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: Forever21

Shirt: ASOS

Pants: The LOFT

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

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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.

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: The LOFT

Tank: H&M

Pants: The LOFT

March 2, 2018 – Bookstore Blues (OOTD #236)

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School is hard.

I’m down to one project and two papers before the end of midterms week, and I actually cannot wait for it all to be over. Hopefully, that will only make spring break all the more rewarding though.

I’ve started spending a lot of time in the bookstore lately, as it’s close to one of the buildings where I end class on Tuesday/Thursdays, and it feels significantly less soulless than the library.

Since I’m here so much, I figured I might as well do my photos here, right?

I wasn’t expecting much out of this location, but I actually really like all of the colors the books provide in the background. I’ve been making an effort to get more variety in my locations for my photos so I’m not just showing off the same five buildings on campus, and this is part of that effort.

Speaking of efforts, I really need to get back to studying. Sorry to make this such a short blog, but this is honestly all I have time for today. Tomorrow, after my work is finally all over, I’ll do a nice long blog, alright?

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 & Pants: The LOFT

Boots: Doc

March 1, 2018 – Hopeless Romantic or Romantically Hopeless? (OOTD #235)

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I’m a little bitter — there’s a really lovely print on my shirt here, but it’s not visible in these shots.

It’s a really fascinating abstract line drawing of a face that’s placed around the left side of my ribcage, and the reason why I bought this shirt in the first place. Luckily though, I find the architectural design of the shirt artistic and interesting too, so all is not lost.

This is probably one of my favorite outfits I’ve worn for awhile. With the structural top and swingy, flowy skirt, it’s very romantic and feminine. Not that I’m really using my femininity for any romantic purpose at the moment, but I like to pretend.

Midterms are about halfway over at this point, and while it’s not time to celebrate yet, it’s getting pretty close. I’ve got two papers and a project (which still has hours and hours of development yet to go — yike) still to do, and two more days to get them done. I’m basically living for 1:40PM on Friday when my spring break begins. That is, arguably, not a very good life philosophy, but it’s what’s keeping me going while making less than six hours of sleep every night for the last week, so I’ll take it.

As Billy Joel puts it in “Vienna,” (which is my favorite song of his, by the way) – it’s romantic on the borderline.

I mean, the point of the song is that you’re supposed to slow down and not work yourself to death — which is probably advice I could use to listen to at the moment — but since that’s not an option for me for a few days, I guess I’ve got to hang out here on the borderline and make the best of it.

Welp, that took a much more introspective turn than I expected (that’s what I get for drafting this blog during my Philo class I guess). Anyway, wish me luck on my midterms, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

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!

Top: H&M

Skirt: The LOFT

February 19, 2018 – Green Thumb (OOTD #228)

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So I thought I would give you guys a little tour of my studio apartment today, beginning with my collection of hanging plants!

Ha, just kidding. I wish this were a part of my studio apartment, with its high ceilings, spacious painting space, and hanging plant collection. Alas, it’s just the painting studio within the art building (which is getting more and more features in this blog). If you really wanna see my dorm room (or like…one wall of it), you can check out this blog post here.

At this point though, I’m practically living in the art building, perhaps even spending more time in there than my residence hall. It’s big, and quiet, and it doesn’t smell like mold like my residence hall – so if you exclude the fact that it’s probably haunted, it’s the perfect place to stay.

I particularly love these plants in the painting studio. My roommate, Mariana, featured occasionally in photos on here, is a huge plant nerd, and I think it’s rubbing off on me. She keeps a lot of plants around, and as a result, I’ve begun wanting more.

I have this cactus here, which I’m very proud of myself for having managed to keep alive all this time. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a plant go so long without dying before. I mean, it is just a cactus – not exactly the most difficult thing to care for – but it’s a mark of progress. I hope that by springtime, I can go out to a plant shop one day and maybe buy some more cacti and succulents to decorate my space with.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll just hang out at in the painting studio (which I really have no particular business being in otherwise – I have no painting class) and take dramatic pictures with their plants. It beats taking pictures with whatever random still lives and installations that are up in the drawing studio.

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!

Pants: The LOFT

Shirt: Abercrombie

Necklace: Forever21 (fun fact: I’ve had this super cheap necklace since about 8th grade, so over 5 years. Surprisingly, it hasn’t yet broken, and has even survived falling off my neck on the way to class and being returned hours later by a kind stranger who picked it up)

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