Big in Japan

By the time you read this, I will (hopefully) be in Cambridge, England, but for once in my life, I've tried planning this blog ahead, so I'm writing this when I really ought to be packing.

Believe it or not, this is not my first blog. Way back in the day, I had a Livejournal, in which I posted snippets of conversations, Pointedly Cryptic Thoughts, song lyrics, and a smattering of pretentious garbage. The other night, though, I remembered my other blog: the one I kept during my semester in Japan over a decade ago. On a whim, I decided to see whether it was still there, and miraculously, it was. Epic travels down Memory Lane ensued.

December 2005. Look at the size of that digital camera!

Review: Trashy Diva Venice Nights Day Dress

I have a confession to make: before I started typing this sentence, I was poring over the other styles available in this print on Trashy Diva's website. This dress is that good. Trashy Diva has been releasing amazing new prints nearly every two weeks for a couple of months now, and while I'm loving all my recent acquisitions (and, in fact, wearing one of my newer dresses right now!), the Venice Nights collection might just be my favorite of 2016.

On Living One's Life as a Work of Art

One consequence of adopting a more retro/vintage-inspired manner of dress is a serious uptick in the amount of attention your clothing attracts. Thus far, I've been lucky enough to avoid any unkind, unpleasant remarks from total strangers, but even positive attention can be a bit overwhelming if you're shy or just not interested in dealing with comments from the general public. While I don't much mind occasionally being stared at, for some, this attention is enough to put them off dressing as they'd like, which makes me terribly sad.

Behind the Scenes

I'm back in Chicago after a fabulous weekend with some of the people I love, and I've got something special in store for today's post. If you've ever caught yourself thinking "these style-related posts are fine and all, but how does she write them?," then today is your lucky day! I'm taking you behind the scenes to my all-time favorite spot to work. A wholly unscientific study* of my nine-month blogging career shows that approximately 75% of my posts have been written at the cafe around the corner, and further, 50% of my photos were taken within a 100-yard radius of my favorite table.

*e.g. me estimating off the top of my head.

The top-left table is my favorite! It gives me a perfect view of all the aesthetically-pleasing red chairs!

Sci Fi Rockets

It's been a truly epic month for unicorn hunting: I've gotten my hands on some pieces I never thought would ever be mine, including my top two Trashy Diva must-haves. A sweet friend of mine decided to let both her French Quarter skirt and her Sci-Fi Rockets Rockette dress go, and offered to sell them to me, so perhaps 'unicorn hunting' isn't really the right phrase to use. It was more like 'unicorn oh my god yes please I would love to buy these from you *keyboard smash of maximum excitement!*'

I don't even care that my hair is all wonky here, because this photo perfectly captured the way this dress makes me feel.

One Skirt Three Ways: Maois in Space

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if something is space-themed, I will eventually add it to my wardrobe. Such was the case with the Maois in Space skirt from the Oblong Box Shop. My friend Bristol decided to sell hers, and after holding out for quite a while, I decided to treat myself to a birthday present that perfectly fit the occasion.

This is my fourth Oblong Box Shop skirt and it's just as fun, well-made, and easy to wear with or without a petticoat as the rest. Unlike the others, though, this print has a lot of colors I don't often wear, so I had to think a bit harder to come up with outfits that do this fabulous skirt justice. I must say, it was a lot of fun!

Getting My Just Desserts

Today I am full of sunshine because I'm heading to New York for a wedding this weekend, so I'm sharing a new-to-me dress that fits my mood. The Just Desserts dresses from Pinup Girl Clothing are super highly-sought-after discontinued styles, so I had honestly never believed one would ever grace my wardrobe. Honestly, I'm always convinced that my secondhand dress-hunting luck is about to run out! A couple of weeks ago, though, a friend messaged me that she was ready to let hers go, and I almost fell off of my chair. (Then I messaged her a vaguely-coherent, all-caps YES PLEASE.)

On the Road

At this point, I probably don't even need to tell you how much I love the Kelly dress from Bernie Dexter. It may or may not be impossible for me to blog about this style without waxing poetic, but I'll try to keep a lid on my fulsome praise today, and instead focus on the important business: food!

Saturday Night Fever

While my heart belongs to the Kelly dress forever, I do recognize the value of expanding my Bernie Dexter horizons. The Saturday Night dress intrigued me for a long time before I finally took the plunge. I liked the neckline and the way that the straps balanced perfectly on Bernie's shoulders in all her photos, but underbust seams and I haven't historically gotten along, so I held off. When the McCall's print popped on Zulily a while back, though, I threw it in my cart alongside the Antonella.

Since I'm trying out a new style, I figured I'd also try out some new poses.

Review: Collectif Janie Dress

It's a little embarrassing to think about how long it took me to finally overcome my pathological objection to paying for shipping and order from Collectif. I follow a number of British gals on Instagram, and every time they post a lovely outfit from Collectif, I am overwhelmed by how perfect it is. When Collectif announced a massive end-of-summer sale, I knew that the time had finally come to take the plunge.

On the Prowl

We had about 30 seconds of fall-like weather last week, which means that I jumped at the opportunity to put together an outfit I've had in the back of my mind since May or so. Sadly, the temperature and humidity are both back in the 'too high to support Hallock life' range. While you're reading this, I'm probably either 1) thanking my lucky stars that the A/C at work is always set to Polar Freeze, or 2) lying on our ugly chairs in front of the fan with my tongue lolling out of my mouth, like some sort of miserable longhaired dachshund that's miraculously acquired the capacity to complain.

ANYWAY. Time to stop whining about the continued existence of summer. I'm a huge fan of leopard print, so when this Vivien of Holloway circle skirt popped up on the swap and sell Facebook group I'm in, I pounced. (Bad cat-related joke totally intended.) Circle skirts are basically the best thing known to humanity, at least if you like twirling madly about, and I was hugely impressed by my first Vivien of Holloway skirt.

If I'm not at work, I can usually be found doing this.

60 Things That Make Me Happy

Ever since I was about 11 or so, I've kept a journal. In addition to documenting the mundane, one of the things I've always liked to do is to make lists. I'd make lists of favorite names and words, or of things I wanted to do before I turned 30, or my particular favorite: lists of things that make me happy.

In the spirit of my pen-and-paper journal habits, I thought I'd list my top 50 things that make me happy at this moment, and share my top 10 happy outfits.

One Year in Chicago

One year ago today, Jeff and I arrived in Chicago. Over the past few days, I've spent quite a bit of time marveling over how much difference a year makes. When we left LA, I was terrified. All my earthly possessions (save the ones I jammed in Jeff's car) were on a truck, my parents had taken my car to New York to live with them indefinitely, I was moving to an entirely new city with no job and no firm plans, and after eight years on the academic track, I was preparing for a major career change. Seeing as I'm a major creature of habit, this move to the Midwest was a massive leap of faith.