Hot Hot Hot!

Just in case you missed all of my recent complaints about the unbearable summer weather, let me alert you to an important fact: it is hot in Chicago. Disgustingly, humidly, sweat-through-your-clothes-immediately HOT. For reasons that now seem incredibly silly, I decided to tough it out this summer and go without air-conditioning. Those reasons included the following:

1) We don't own an A/C;
2) It would cost a fortune;
3) We'd have to call our building manager to install an A/C
4) We have lots of fans!
5) We survived unbearable heat last summer.

This is clearly not how next summer will go. When it's this hot, I don't want to do anything, even things I typically love. Cook dinner? You've got to be kidding me! Take a walk? Um, maybe in October. Wear my favorite dresses? Absolutely not -- I don't want them to get sweaty, and I don't want to be uncomfortable, either. This last one has led me to finally embrace a major trend in the retro-style world: wearing my dresses as skirts!

Wishlist Wednesday #14

In the past couple of months, I haven't had nearly as much time to window-shop online, which is good for my bank account but not so good for my Wishlist Wednesday series. However, I'm making up for it this week: a ton of gorgeous new things have hit my favorite online shops, and I'm rounding them all up for your viewing pleasure!

$25 and Under

This red obi belt from Trashy Diva *might* fall into my shopping cart the next time I need to hit the free shipping threshold…

Birthday Shenanigans 2016

Summer birthdays are a mixed bag. On one hand, I've never had to go to school or take an exam on my birthday, which is a significant plus, and I share my birthday with one of my favorite historical events. On the other hand, it is always approximately eight thousand degrees on my birthday, and generally pretty humid to boot.

This year's birthday was no exception to the rule. It was too hot to dress to the nines (i.e. in a full skirt with epic petticoat underneath, and properly styled hair), but on the bright side, it didn't thunder or rain on me! I'm calling that a win.

The Lilac Atomic Age

After Wednesday's epic-length ode to Apollo 11, you might've thought I had run out of words, but never fear: I've got an infinite supply of things to say! 

I've been on a total Trashy Diva kick lately, but as I said in my review of the previous collection, it's because they've been absolutely stellar lately. I chose the word 'stellar' on purpose, as today I'm reviewing the new Lilac Atomic Trixie Dress, with its awesome space-age print. I wore this dress out and about for an afternoon of fun with Jeff, so I had a built-in photographer to take advantage of all the amazing backdrops Chicago has to offer. This was more exciting than you might think!

Today in Space Race History: The Eagle Has Landed

Today is one of my very favorite days of the year: not because it's my birthday (though I do enjoy being the birthday girl!), but because it's the anniversary of the first time human beings ever set foot on another heavenly body. 47 years ago tonight, the Command Module of Apollo 11, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, touched down on the surface of the Moon.

In honor of this momentous anniversary in American spaceflight, I'm debuting yet another space-themed outfit on my blog,  starring my Maois in Space skirt from the Oblong Box Shop and a fabulous atomic-rocket brooch from Atomic Lucite!

Harley Quinn

Red dresses are definitely the new Little Black Dress, at least for me. I have approximately one zillion red dresses, but when Pinup Girl Clothing announced that they'd be releasing their Harley dress in a perfect true red, I knew that number would jump to a zillion and one.

Rainbow Row

It's been hot as blazes in Chicago for the past couple of weeks, so I've been a bit hesitant to break out the petticoats and go full-on cupcake. I am the world's biggest baby when it comes to tolerating extreme temperatures. More accurately, there's an approximately five-degree band in which I am happy and comfortable. If the temperature dips below about 65, I shiver and complain. If the temperature goes above 70 (75 with no humidity, max), I melt, complain bitterly, and refuse to do anything useful. Of the two extremes, though, I'd pick the dead of winter over the dog days of summer every single time. (Yes, even a Chicago winter.)

This is why there's been such a dearth of poofiness in my outfits lately. Instead, I've been wearing skirts and dresses that look cute sans petticoat.

Ellie Cupquake Photoshoot

In my ongoing quest to write about the exciting parts of my recent existence, today's post takes us back to the end of May, when I met one of my pinup-style idols and did my first-ever photoshoot!

A Taste of Chicago

Well, I still have a *slight* backlog of potential posts in both the Restorative Recipes and Stuff We Did categories. In case you couldn't tell, I'm not the world's most linear person, so I'm not necessarily going to post these things in the order they happened. Honestly, this is mostly because I'm trying to convince Jeff to release me from the no-photos-of-him-on-the-blog promise for a post on our wedding, but it's also because I'm a little spontaneous when it comes to deciding what to write about.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying 'don't worry that today's post is all about the most recent fun thing I did, because I haven't forgotten about all the other stuff!'

Review: Trashy Diva Red Fans Anne

Trashy Diva is seriously on a roll in recent months. First, the Ruffled Feathers collection marked a glorious return to TD's storied novelty-print tradition and launched a thousand hilarious hashtags (most of which were NFSW.) Then they released the Mahjong print in an Annette style and I lost my everloving mind over it. After that, I thought they were done for a while, but not even a month later, they announced the newest collection, Red Fans, and previewed it on Instagram. So of course, I lost my mind again. How could I not? The print is red, people! I also have a slightly embarrassing weakness for Japanese prints, for which I blame my time in Nagasaki, so this collection was a guaranteed hit for me.

But the real kicker was the new style they introduced with this print: the Anne. It's based on an Annette, with that unique dip inwards where the straps meet the bodice and the lovely higher neckline, but rather than a gathered skirt, it features a circle skirt. A circle skirt with pockets! That is basically my style Kryptonite.

#BlackLivesMatter

This will not be a post about style. It was intended to be about a gorgeous dress, but I feel like I can't pretend that nothing has happened in the world and retreat into fun things that make me feel personally fulfilled, because a cavalcade of absolutely horrific crimes against humanity have occurred in the past few days and I will not be silent when silence entails complicity. I try to keep my politics off of my blog, but in this case, I feel compelled to speak.

Trashy Diva Mahjong Annette

After a week of pre-wedding whirlwind action and another week of honeymoon food-stravaganza-ing, I have an enormous backlog of Things I/We Did to blog about! Today, I'm going with a dress that's been on my to-do list for weeks: my new Trashy Diva Annette in Mahjong. Spoiler alert: I'm obsessed. Bonus: these photos were taken after my wedding hair trial!

May the Fourth (of July!) Be With You

I'm not the world's most overtly patriotic person: I happen to think that the best way to serve one's compatriots is by acting as a constructive critic, a Socratic gadfly, if you will. Heaven knows that there's plenty to criticize during this particular election year!

However, there are a few things that truly move me when I think about American doings: NASA in the 1960s is probably the most reliable at inspiring ecstasies of patriotism. I also have a surprisingly deep and abiding love of the National Anthem, which is most likely due to 1) its amazing countermelody, and 2) over a decade in school band. And as you might know by now, I'll never pass up an opportunity to deploy a themed outfit!

One Piece Three Ways: Mary Blair Umbrella Skirt

It's hard to express how happy skirts with pockets make me. And a skirt with pockets that twirls well, in an adorable print? Um, you had me at hello!

For the longest time, I honestly wasn't crazy about the Mary Blair Umbrella skirt from Pinup Girl Clothing. Sure, it looked super cute on literally everyone I saw wearing it, but it wasn't a must-have for me the way it was for so many others. But then it was restocked right when the orange-border skirt hit the site. Now, I'm one of those people who would rather spend a lot more money buying something to get my order over the free-shipping threshold than spend a couple of bucks on shipping. I debated for a few minutes, and then threw the umbrellas skirt in my cart.

Every so often, my impulsive decisions work out a zillion times better than I could've hoped, and thankfully, this was one of those times! This skirt is glorious and so easy to style, and now it also comes in yellow! There are lots of colors in this skirt (red, blue, lime green, black, and white), which make it super easy to style, and the pockets are big enough to fit the Kingslayer's golden hand! In my book, that adds up to a major win.