Not naked 3.6.10

“Duuude — the dress got pocks.”

… so says my face in this picture.

Got this dress for a steal at Buffalo. It’s obviously an older piece, probably an Amish school teacher dress with scissors taken to it. I was super psyched to wear it and put non-Amish friendly things in my Amish-friendly pockets. Think blackberry cell phones. Yesssss

However, the Amish dress took its revenge on my Rumspringa and when I retrieved it from the wash it had frayed and unravelled to an absurd degree because it had not been hemmed when the previous owner cut the length. And I naively thought it would be fine.

Le sigh.

Quick blog post, more posting later. I’m off to work out and chill by the pool with some hep cats.

Not naked 2.27.10

I’ve been a bad blogger, but I’m still learning. I’m really good at collecting content every day, but I’m not so great at posting that content every day. It really makes no sense why I don’t just put in the hour of work or so to compose a blog post. It must stem with my Writer’s Block-inducing fears of taking words out of my head and putting them on a page! (Maybe that’s why I am most productive late at night … I’m too tired to feel inhibited.)

This was Wednesday’s outfit. Wednesday was a beautiful day. No work AND no classes! All morning UT classes were pre-emptively canceled due to ice fears. HA! Wednesday was a beautiful, sunny, spring day. Oh Texas …

I spent my free day down around 2nd street with Michelle as she applied for jobs. I visited the Cafe de Crepe (more on that later) while I waited.

Top: Savers — $5
Belt: Birdville High School Costume Closet!
Shorts: Wal-Mart — $12
Necklace: Hand me down?
Tights: Target — $3 on sale!
Boots: Forever 21 — $21.80

Not naked on 2.25.10

She wore a raspberry beret
Kind that you find in the secondhand store
Raspberry beret
And when it was warm, she didn’t wear much more

I’ve come to realize that The Universe will not excuse my procrastination. I took an outfit photo in winter wear about 48 hours ago and now it’s spring (again?) in Austin. It looks kinda silly posting a picture of my snow outfit when I wore a sundress today!

Beret: Scarborough Faire! – $25
Jumper: Wet Seal – $12
Shirt: Target – $5
Tights: Forever 21 – $4.80
Rainboots: Forever 21 – $27.80
Necklace: Forever 21 – $7.80
Belt: Savers – $4

Tuesday was free pancake day at IHOP. Becky and I took the children (Travis, Debo, and Michael) to get pancakes down at the Cesar Chavez location. I gotta say — free pancake day is probably the only time I’d ever go to an IHOP in Austin. There’s just too many better breakfast establishments around here to visit instead! Although free pancakes aren’t actually free after tip, and a donation to the children’s hospital — it’s still fun to know that your dollars are going to a good cause instead of lining some pancake president’s pocket. (huzzah, hows THAT for alliteration??)

Oh and the host at IHOP? Totally greeted me by singing “Raspberry Beret.”

YES!

I was sort of hoping all day that someone would think of the song when they saw me. And when they called my party? “Raspberry — table of five.”

DOUBLE YES!

And when we returned back to MHD after the flapjacks?

This little tiny snowman was all that remained of the spontaneous snowstorm.

Not naked on 2.22.10

Hmm. It’s going to be a busy week. Lots of assignments, applications, and essays to do. I need to come up with something fun to do this weekend to reward myself for surviving. We’ll see.

I went to Savers for the first time yesterday with Kelly and Ariel! So great. I found some pretty amazing finds that you’ll see over the next few weeks. I got: a groovy silverware set, this mustard sweater, two ugly-pretty tunic shirts, two belts (including the best freakin’ belt ever!), a purple courduroy skirt with buttons down the front, a weird sort of 50’s shirt with cute buttons, and red pants. For $45. Huzzah huzzah.

We should have taken a picture of the pile of our loot. Thought about it. Forgot about it.

Sweater – Savers $5
Dress – Target $25
Flats – Target $17 (I wore these shoes to prom!)
Belt – Target $14
Necklace – Hand me down from Grandma

I’ve been going sans-makeup lately to appease the nagging of my friend, Travis. He says that girls look better without it. I’m not sure. But, I like the exercise in becoming more comfortable with my appearance without a painted face, and it’s nice to believe that maybe there’s a breed of man out there who prefers this look? Hmm. Any thoughts on this?

Savers is located at 5222 Burnet Road

Not naked 1.29.10

I accidentally sprayed mace indoors. Oh dang. I thought it was a pocket flashlight! Instead, I fumigated Becky’s teeny tiny dorm room. I’m sorry, Bex. It was pretty funny though. We evacuated and screamed and squealed and giggled and generally acted exactly as stereotypically 18 year old girls would act. Fitting since tomorrow Becky will be 19! Epic Birthday party planned for tomorrow.

As for today — pretty busy day. Classes, rain, honors program info session, Which Wich, networking, editing, party shopping, stressing out, eating food, now I’m gonna go to Swegler’s and bake!

Here’s the outfit, hope you like it! It’s one of my new ModCloth dresses!

detail of print on dress

Dress: Mod Cloth ($15 on sale!)
Belt: Wal-Mart ($5)
Leggings: Forever 21? ($6.80)
Shoes: Delias ($25)
Necklace: Vintage from my Grandma

total: $54.80

Not naked on 1.27.10

Not too exciting of an outfit, only wore it to class. Tuesdays are my really loooong class days; I wouldn’t have time to do anything else even if I wanted to! I really like purple, can’t you tell?

T shirt : Target ($10)
Shorts: Dayna gave them to me
Leggings: Wal-mart ($12)
Sweater: Wal-mart ($10)
Boots: Delias ($25)

I should probably be embarrassed because of the amount of Wal-Mart in this outfit. Meh. It’s cheap and I think it looks cute. When I’m a famous performance and multimedia artist a la Miranda July, I’ll shop at classier venues.

Not naked 1.25.10

Dress: Wet Seal $17
Tights: Target $5
Flats: Burlington Coat Factory $13
Scarf: Target $5
Total: $40

(Sorry for the gross picture. I hadn’t applied make-up until after I took this picture! gah!)

Today was a huge learning experience in the realm of fashion and fashion writing. I’ve probably spent more time today and last night on my blackberry and email then I have all semester. I’ve been in correspondence with The Daily Texan, the student newspaper on campus, because I’m writing a spring style predictions piece as a try out to become a staffer. The world of journalism is intense! I had a different phone call or voicemail every 10 minutes offering a new bit of information or instruction on the piece, with a deadline of less than 24 hours.

I made phone calls to resale shops while sitting at the Which Wich patio, camped outside vintage stores waiting for them to open so I could interview employees, typed up my article at a picnic table and finished just 15 minutes before the deadline. It’s crazy!

I think I work best under pressure though. It inspires me to work my ass off. I like the chaos.

Part of all that collaboration included getting together with a Daily Texan photographer, (the amazingly talented Mari Kang), and taking our model, Zephyr, to back alley record shops, little pastel houses, octopi grafitti, and parking garage with amazing shadows for the photo shoot.

It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the company of those two classy, artsy ladies. We talked music (hipster slowdance! ha!), the importance of personal style, and our love for Austin.

Later, I got a phone call from the Life and Arts editor, Ben, asking me to come to the office. We went over edits together. He was pleased and had little he wanted to change — only structural and style stuff (journalism-y things I never knew of before!) Honestly, I learned more about journalism and fashion writing in that 30 minutes than I ever have in my life. So cool.

Ben was just so chill about everything, I was almost convinced I mis heard him when he said he was going to run my piece in the DOM SPOT. See, you’re probably wondering what the dom spot is. I did too until he showed me. We’re talking front page, center. Woot woot! Not sure if that will actually happen, but I guess tomorrow when I wake up I’ll just have to check the news kiosk myself and see.

I hope to get permission from Mari to post some of the pics of Zephyr up here so you can see her beautiful work and how we spent the day. It was really amazing.

But on a tangent: As I’m gaining writing experience and personal confidence, I wanted to make an even greater effort to make this blog successful! It’s only been 2 weeks or so since I’ve really started working on Austin Etc, and it makes me feel really good and creatively stimulated in a way I feel like I’ve been missing for a while. Please be patient as I, little Bambi, try to stand up on this slippery ice. Give me some time and I’ll make this something you can wait to get your little paws on and comment, subscribe, interact, and ENJOY. Optimism!

Not naked on 1.23.10

Friday was Alejandra’s 22nd Birthday Party! She cooked a delicious meal (baked chicken, stuffed tomatoes, french green beans, acorn squash risotto and a 3 tiered funfetti cake in the shape of a heart with pink strawberry icing!) for all of us and we ate, drank, and were merry. It was masquerade theme, and being a broke, crafty college kid — I made my own mask out of a piece of cardboard, markers, a knitting needle and duct tape. It was classy. I wore my vintage green frock from Cream vintage in 2007 for the first time! I’ve had it for a while but never had the guts to wear it. I got a lot of compliments and had an amazing time. Afterward some of us went to Spiderhouse and played cards.

Close up of the epic eye shadow

Dress: $18 – Cream Vintage
Shoes: $25 – Delias
Necklace: Vintage from my Grandmother
Belt: Stolen from the Birdville Costume Shop!

Not naked on 1.22.10

Why does this Dream Theatre song sound like Dream Girls?

Second-first day of school. I woke up this morning for my 8 am and it was DARK outside. Do you *know* how long its been since I’ve woken up when it was still dark? I’ve certainly stayed up to see the sunrise since coming to UT but it was nice to awake to it through my poolside window. I was suprisingly not too tired — I made it to the second row of my Intro to Nutrition class wide-eyed(ish) and bushy tailed(ish). I’m really excited for this class, which I suppose is a good thing because I may not even end up using the science credit that inspired me to sign up for the class in the first place.

Welp. Here’s the outfit post. The setting is this nice little piece of foresty land between Moore-Hill and the alumni center where all the raccoons and albino squirrels hang. Concrete staircase made a good tripod.

Berry-colored sweater – Wal-Mart ($5)
Navy and lime striped shirt – Kohl’s ($10)
Beads – Wet Seal ($7.80)
J. Crew Jeans – Ross ($13)
Brown sneakers – Urban Outiftters ($10)
Total: $45.80

Close ups of the shoes and necklace …

Oh, and the song in question from the post title? “Through Her Eyes” by Dream Theatre. Hmm. Not sure where they were going with that one.

Not naked on 1.21.10

Or … Keeping up with the KarTRASHians.

Really hate that show. It irks me that people who are born into a life of privilege waste the opportunities that money can provide. Despite my distaste for it, this show is playing in the background right now courtesy of my room mate. *sigh*

To be fair, I’m sure I am equally annoying with my folky music and my tendency to wake up before ten and hit the linoleum running.

Tonight is Halcyon night! Woo!

T shirt – Ben Folds concert 2008 ($20)
Shorts – Forever 21 (on clearance! $4.80)
Leggings – Wet Seal ($8)
Boots – Forever 21 ($21.80)
Glasses – Eye Masters (Insurance? They’re my real, rx strength glasses! haha)
Total: $54.60

Story about this shot: While taking pictures in this back staircase, the friendly cleaning lady I walked in. Twas awkward. I looked like a goober.

Have a great day!