..a girl can dream..

Okay, okay, I can absolutely not complain at all.  I had my dream wedding on September 20, 2008, which my Mom and I planned and did so very thriftily, I might add.  However, I still love the idea of weddings, and how beautiful they can be.  So, when I came across a Nordstrom challenge on Polyvore a while back, I could not resist.  The challenge was to make a bridesmaid feel beautiful too.  In my opinion, the collection I put together would be equally if not more suited for the bride, but I really liked this dress the most out of all of the options.  I found myself being inspired by the color pallet in a set of bangles in this set.  I can just picture a lovely wedding in some exotic eastern location, on a lantern-lit patio at dusk, surrounded by lush plantlife.   

 

..like candy..

I have been putting off doing any additions to the shop lately.  I get really aggravated trying to take photos lately.  The combo of working with the self timer, trying to adjust the settings, and trying to balance the the camera at a decent angle (I don't have a good tripod) gets a bit tedious.  I did finally reshoot the purple suede skirt that was one of the first items I listed on etsy.  And, continuing to think about tattoos, I did a little doodling on my arm to see how I would feel about having one that I would actually see.  It kept on growing after this shoot, and I seem to actually like catching a glimpse of it from time to time.  I really like the placement, though possibly a bit more to the inside of my arm would be ideal.  And I finally got to shoot one of the shirts that I have been living in this summer.  I love this red stripped vintage shirt.  It is so comfy and cool in this hot weather.

*shirt- thrifted vintage

*skirt- thrifted vintage (buy it here)

*shoes- target

*earrings- thrifted

..under the needle & knife..

Though I have just recently spent some time under knife in a negative sort of way, I never find myself deterred from wanting to find myself back under the needle.  I have one tattoo.  It took four, five hour sessions to get finished.  It was quite an undertaking.  I am not financially anywhere near putting any cash toward something so frivolous, but I think that it is best to really mull over what I might want anyway, so my wheels are always turning.  In the meantime I love finding inspiration among others who have been beautifully inked.

All very inspiring! Images via weheartit.

..on the mend..

I had a rather eventful weekend.  I had planned on having a nice three day weekend, but instead I spent the three days in the hospital!  I was having some very painful problems with ovarian cysts, which led to me having laparoscopic surgery and finding out that I had endometriosis and some internal bleeding. Luckily I have an amazing family that has seen me through my first ever hospital stay.

I am back home now and am on the mend, slowly but surely.  I likely won't have a lot of posts coming up in the next week, so here is your heads up and an outfit post intended for last week that will have to hold you over for a while. Until I am feeling better, happy blogging :)

..traveling in style..

Though financially, I am no where near being able to travel overseas to any of the amazing places that I have on my every growing to do list, I still get the travel bug from time to time.  I feel the need to research imaginary vacations and dream of hassle free visits and perfect weather conditions.  Well, it may be a while before any of those plans come to fruition, but when I was posed with the challenge of styling this lovely dress from Modcloth for a Clothes Horse blog giveaway, I just couldn't resist the urge to work it into a European vacation filled with lots of sight seeing on rainy days.  The website we were asked to use to style for the giveaway is called Polyvore.  It has been quite a while since I have been to Polyvore to put together a set.  If you have never been there it is pretty fun.  You get to build your own outfit or really any kind of collage from a huge selection of pictures, accessories, clothes, music, and decor from lots of different stores. Here is what I came up with.....

..A Beautiful Day for a Picnic..

I made my first Etsy Treasury today.  I have been daydreaming of nice weather and picnics a lot lately. Just wanted to share :)

..breach of 100..

      The temperature here has been getting up over 100 degrees for the past several days.  Today it got up to about 106!  This heat has absolutely been draining my energy.  All I want to do is lounge on my couch in the AC. And, yeah that is a lot of what I have been doing.  However, I did voluntarily brave the heat this weekend a bit, and I have the pictures to prove it.  Sunday was my Grandpa's and cousin's combined birthday party, so we headed over to the grandparents' house for some pizza and cake.  As the evening drug on and we were about to embark on our journey back home, my brother started getting ready to go down the road to a new dirt bike track to ride.  My brother used to race regularly when we were younger, so I spent a lot of time at tracks growing up.  So, Mike and I headed over to watch him ride before we headed home.  Unfortunately, the water truck was broken.  It felt like we were in the dust bowl.  And in that heat we were pretty sweaty.  Needless to say we didn't stay too long and we hit he showers as soon as we got home.

I pulled out a vintage vest that I have been sitting on for a while and stuck with simple and minimal for the day so I wouldn't get to horribly uncomfortable.  Hope everyone is staying cool!