Un-Monday

Guess what guess what guess what?

Today was officially my last day of work!  I had a 6 month internship with a state agency, and while I really enjoyed my co-workers and made some great contacts, the job itself just wasn't my cup of tea.  Lets just say there was a lot of down time.  And someone like me, someone who drinks at least 16oz of coffee a day, someone who fidgets incessantly during even her favorite movie, well someone like me doesn't like down time.

To celebrate, I wore my favorite (though proving difficult to style) skirt.

I'm also the type of person who worries a lot.  Usually about money, so the whole "woo hoo not working thing" would normally FREAK ME OUT.  And it is, don't get me wrong.  But this particular state agency sets up its payroll so that on the first working day of the month, you get paid for the last month.  Thus, I get paid tomorrow for all of February.  So really, my income for March is steady so I don't need to start freaking out about money until a couple of weeks from now.  (And I have a prospect for a new job.  A really, really strong prospect.)

I'm no lush, though, no sir, and I plan to do a lot of cutting back this month.  Remember the whole no-spend month I had in January?  Well, it went super well.  I even ended up putting a couple hundred bucks in savings, which I do approximately never.

February?  Well, February I went a bit thrift store and coffee shop crazy.  March, though, I'm reeling myself back in.  Leaving my debit and credit cards at home, making my own coffee, and only buying a few key pieces of clothing that I need would like for spring (mostly shorts and a pair of shoes), which I will certainly be buying second hand.

For my free time, I just checked out Freedom by Jonathan Franzen because I loved The Corrections and that book received a lot of hullabaloo.   Unemployment should be fun!  At least for a week or two.

Skirt: Tulle, via Shop Ruche

Sweater: thrifted

Belt: H&M

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Bare-legs: c/o 75 degrees in central Texas

Something lighter

Whew, after that last post I need a drink.

Or at least to talk about clothes for a sec, right?  Let's do it.

I wore this last week sometime.  If I've said it once I've said it a million times: I love vests.  So chic! So easy! It always turns my mood (and dull outfits) around.

 

The wide leg pants give it a late 70s vibe, but what do I care?

Working for a government agency, its hard to know how to dress.  I wouldn't necessarily say I'm underdressed, but I'm certainly not the most professionally dressed.  Most women wear suits, or khaki trousers and heels.  I'm just not that kind of lady.  I stick to what's cool and comfortable.  I even get comments now and then from co-workers telling me they wished they could "pull that off."  Pants and a vest, what's not to pull off?

Of course, why bother with a vest that doesn't have a cool lining?

Vest and shirt: thrifted via Savers

Trousers: department store, I can't remember which

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Belt: approximately 1 million years old, probably Target

Easy-breeziness: Vestitude

Feeling better

I wanted to take a break from all my HTMLing and CSSing (oh Web design class, you never disappoint) to talk about a few things on my mind--and fair warning, the follow contains my political leanings.  Consider yourselves warned.

There is a lot of shit going on in the country (and world) right now.  Whatever your stance on abortion, defunding Planned Parenthood is absurd.  PP provides a wide range of health and educational services for (mostly poor and rural) women across the country.  Taking away their funding just at a time when people are relying on the most because of a tiny percentage of one LEGAL service they provide is infuriating and heart-breaking.  This is an attack on women's health.

Underfunding public education--including, of course, public libraries--is irresponsible and is very telling of how completely and totally backwards our country's priorities are.  If we can't educate our communities, there is absolutely no hope of ever turning this around.

To the protesters in Wisconsin: GO YOU.  I don't know much about the struggle, admittedly, but whatever side I happen to fall on, any well-organized, respectful and peaceful protest is a victory in my book. 

Politics get me more riled than they should; I legitimately worry about my country and my generation's future, sometimes to the point of not being able to sleep (I've been there this week, several times).  During the 2008 election season, my anxiety over the election and the uncertainty of (and having no control over)  the outcome sent me to therapy.  Yeah, I often carry the weight of the world on my back and its something that I'm working on.  In these moments, I have to focus on what I have control over.

Today, I'm happy to be busy with school work and household chores.  I'm happy to have an apartment filled mostly with luxuries, that I share with a person I love.  I'm happy we both have jobs, can pay our bills, and have family that is willing to support us if we can't.  I'm happy the sun is shining and I had to take off my light sweater outside in February.  I'm happy to live simply and surround myself with nourishing things.

What do you do to lighten the mood when you find yourself cursing at your newsfeed all day?

Shifting focus

Hello, again.  Thanks for bearing with me.

I was having a bit of a "I hate my blog" crisis.  I'm over-worked with school, facing unemployment (Monday is my last day, oh godddd), and am generally stretched too thin.  My blog used to be a source of inspiration, but lately its been more of a chore.  I find myself worrying--legitimately worrying!--about wearing an outfit because "I already wore it on my blog!" or "It's not cute enough to put on my blog!"  There was also the "No one is reading this and I suck" factor.

Um, hello.  It's a blog.  Get over yourself.

And over myself I now am.  Though I'm changing focus a bit.  Yes, I'll still post outfit pictures when I'm particularly inspired, but I'll also be posting other sources of inspiration or outlets of creativity I occupy: meals I make, movies I watch, designs I covet, books I read (coming spring 2012 when I graduate, that is). 

As my blog title suggests, I prefer to be nomadic.  I have a phobia of settling down and growing roots; but no matter where I am, I want to surround myself with nourishing, beautiful, creative things.  So what's been inspiring me lately?  I'm glad you asked!

A downside to being uncomfortably settled is that my living space can always be packed up in a day.  I've done a lot of moving, I anticipate a lot of moving, so we never really "settle" in.  Don't get me wrong, we have art on the walls and books on the shelves, but it doesn't really feel like ours.  I can't wait till Ed and I slow it down a little, rent a house, and decorate the SHIT out of it.  This totally sums up my design aesthetic:

Image from Design*Sponge

 

 

 

 

 

Earth tones with splashes of color, lush rugs and lots of seating.  Something like this?

Image from Design*Sponge

  In art school, Ed made this cool painting on wood and while we lived in Ann Arbor, we used it as a headboard.  Unfortunately, the stud spacing on our bedroom wall here won't allow it, but I have some artwork planned for that space in the coming month.

I'm a total sucker for libraries.  I want an enormous study in our future house with an entire wall of books.  Ideally, I'll have an old school card catalog to keep track of them all.  Nevertheless, wall o' books:

image via the best Tumblr page ever

Finally, simple prints are the best way to decorate a work space.  I don't know about you, but my office is cluttered enough as it is; I need simple colors and shapes to decorate the space.  I've had my eye on this one for quite some time:

via The Big Harumph Etsy shop

A Radiohead quote and a reminder to keep myself tidy?  After my own heart, it is.

Out of whack

Forgive my lack of posting.  This weekend (and the week, for that matter) threw me for a loop.  The weather was cold, and then all the sudden warm again.  I ate more cupcakes than vegetables.  I exercised more on the Wii than at the gym.  I drank more coffee and soda than water.  I did more anything-but-sleeping-and-doing-homework than sleeping or doing homework.  In other words, I'm out of sorts.

Here are some pictures from when the world (and my schedule and the weather) made a little more sense.

 

Skirt: Urban Outfitters

Top: second hand, from a garage sale

Vest: second hand from Elizabeth

Tights: TJ Maxx

Shoes: unknown, thrifted

Calm look: rest, exercise, water, and completed homework

Additionally, I'm second-guessing myself.  I don't know about this blog here.  Some days I'm discouraged by my lack of followers; I'm bored with the "style blog" thing; I'm concerned I don't have anything else to say. 

In the meantime:

Stealing

Y'all, I stole this look from Kendi.  Funny story, though, it is.

A week ago, Texas experienced something crazy. Something no one in the state had ever dreamed of before.  Something for which Texas was totally unprepared: cold weather.  The weather was so cold in fact, that electricity around the state was shut off periodically because so many people were warming their houses that there just wasn't enough to go around.

I had planned to wear this skirt differently, with a different top entirely.  But I hadn't tried it out the night before (which I usually do with a brand-new outfit).  So the morning of COLD WEATHER found me in the shower, without power.  Because it was totally dark, I didn't want to try something new without even being able to see how it looked.  I remembered this outfit of Kendi's and stole it last minute.

Kendi, I'm sorry.  Texas made me do it.

Also, you only get one photo because it was too cold for outdoor pictures and the lighting in my apartment is abysmal.

Skirt: Gap with gift card

Sweater: thrifted

Button down: Brooks Brothers, thrifted

Tights: UO

Boots: via DSW

Scarf: boutique in Ann Arbor, MI

The dress story

For some reason, my eyes were closed in all my pictures this morning.  Maybe it's a Monday thing?  Maybe the sun was in my eyes.  Yes, the sun.  Anyway, because of the squinty pictures and my brain being totally fried from my web design homework, you only get these two pictures and a funny boring story about this dress.

So I bought this dress in July of 2007 for the sole purpose of wearing it on Ed and mine's first date.  It was on mega-sale at Urban Outfitters, but it didn't fit quite right (it's a little too big around my middle).  Because it bunched weird around my waist when I belted it, combined with the material being very thin and my fear that my very sweaty July body would sweat right through it on a FIRST DATE, I didn't end up wearing it.

Because I bought it specifically for the (otherwise successful) date, I returned it.  A few weeks later I'm again shopping at Urban Outfitters and still, this dress is sitting on the sale rack.  It still doesn't fit quite right but for whatever reason, I decide to buy it again.

Besides a few "I'm going to wear this dress if it kills me" days over the years, it hasn't seen the light of day until today, under a sweater, where it doesn't matter that its (still) a little too big around the middle.  Welcome, dress, to the world!

I'm glad my relationship with Ed didn't turn out so love/hate as my relationship with this stupid thing.

Dress: Urban Outfitters
Sweater: unknown, thrifted

Tights: I don't know, probably F21

Boots: via DSW

Belt: H&M

Squinty eyes: I blame it on my photographer

Snow day

This is how much snow it takes for the entire city of Austin to shut down:

View from my front door, about 9am.

Yeah, that's about half an inch.  It was totally melted by 2pm.  Texans are so cute.

In any event, Ed and I took advantage of our mutual day off (which NEVER happens, seriously) and stayed in our pajamas and watched movies all day.  'Twas bliss.

Does this make up for the 4 straight months of 100+ degree days?  We'll see.

Egg on my face

Remember that whole "ha ha ha, 70 degree days, ha ha ha, no snow" thing I had going on over the weekend?

Yeah, about that.  While Austin hasn't been hit with snow, shit's been cold.  Real cold, too, not Texas cold.  When I leave in the morning it's in the teens and it probably only warms up a few degrees over the day.  And Texas is windy, y'all.

This is not what I've been wearing.  No no, I wore this a week ago or so when the temperature dropped to "chilly."  I didn't wear a jacket.  This is as warm as I thought I'd ever need to be.

 I usually wear these pants with skimmers or ballet flats.  But no, this day I had to wear boots!  How chilly it must've been!

 And a scarf!  Oh man, I probably had goose bumps all day.

My side glance is my way of telling Ed "let's hurry up, the wind is mildly uncomfortable."

How foolish I was!  Anyway, I haven't been able to look very cute except one day this week when I said "screw it" and wore tights.  'Twas a mistake.  I had to take that picture indoors and because my lighting is so terrible, I need to edit it more than I usually do.  So you get these back-up pictures instead.

Hope everyone is staying warm (and how in the hell do you all manage to be so cute?!)

Sweater: Urban Outfitters

Pants: Gap, thrifted

Boots: Aldo

Scarf: boutique in Ann Arbor
Beautiful, mild winter day: c/o Austin, TX