Doing the Batty Bat

Last weekend, I made what was either a massive tactical error or an accidental genius move: I went to Target to buy two specific things. Needless to say, I left with a trunkful of stuff, including all the baby things ever and some key components of my Halloween capsule wardrobe.

A Modest Proposal for Body-Positive Sizing

It's amazing (in a horrifying way) how much that tiny number or letter on the tag of your clothing can affect your entire sense of self. In the past week or so, I've seen some folks really struggling with body image, and it seems like whenever the matter of body acceptance comes up, the issue of clothing size isn't far behind.

Review: Lola Von Rose

Ever since I picked up my first wicker bag last year, I've had a massive thing for more structured purses. Let me tell you, it took a truly impressive amount of self-control to keep myself from taking any cute lucite purses home at May's Vintage Garage, but happily, this lovely little Lola Von Rose number was dangling off my wrist, reminding me that my white-lucite-bag needs are totally fulfilled.

One Top Three Ways: Lavender Vamp Top

Sometimes my sister and I speak in TV-Tropes shorthand to each other, which confuses anyone we happen to be around. (If you've never visited TV Tropes…make sure you have a couple of hours to kill before you check it out! It's an endless link-clicking, new-tab-opening wormhole of Wikipedia-level  proportions.) The Vamp top from Pinup Girl Clothing, like its close relative the Vamp dress, is a prime sartorial example of Exactly What It Says on the Tin: putting the shirt on turns the wearer into Jessica Rabbit.

As someone who's only embraced pastels recently, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to work this lovely lavender hue into my wardrobe, so I figured I'd give it the ol' One Piece, Three Ways treatment and see how it went. As it turns out, this shirt is super versatile!

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.

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!

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.

One Skirt Three Ways: Pinup Girl Clothing Paris Jenny

If you're a fan of Pinup Girl Clothing (PUG), the odds are very good that you already know about the Paris print. It was a highly sought-after discontinued print for what felt like ages, until it was finally rereleased this past spring. For those who, like me, discovered PUG after this skirt had already sold out, it was a godsend when they announced that they'd be bringing the print back with pockets. It's been all over my Instagram/Facebook feeds ever since, and I've seen some outfits people have put together that make me want to own a lime green top for the first time since I was probably six or so.

In case you were wondering, this, like the tiki print, is another one of those prints that fully lives up to the hype. I was a little surprised when my skirt (…and dress… I went a little crazy, because FOMO is a powerful thing indeed) arrived, because the background is a lovely pale pink, and not white as I'd assumed, but after about 0.0001 seconds of head-scratching, I concluded that this made it even better! There are so many vibrant colors in the skirt, which made it super easy to come up with three fun outfits for this post. I've seen lots of ladies wearing this skirt with tops from PUG and while they look beyond incredible, I tried to go a bit off the beaten retro-reproduction path with my three looks. (Well, that and I don't have a Voodoo Vixen or Vamp top…yet!)

Toile and the Deathly Hallows

When I was still teaching, I had two reliable first-day-of-class icebreaker questions. The first was "if you had to choose a song that would play every time you walked into a room, what would it be?" (Mine is the Imperial March, a.k.a. Darth Vader's theme, now and forever!) The second was a bit more relevant to the subject matter of my political science classes: "What is your earliest political memory?"

Today is June 4^th, and those of you who obsessively track anniversaries of auspicious dates might have guessed where I'm going with this one. My earliest political memory is seeing the footage of the tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square on the television in my living room, twenty-seven years ago today. I remember feeling so confused, and a little frightened of the tanks, which was eminently reasonable. Since then, I've been to Tiananmen Square and learned a lot about Chinese politics, and it's still hard to wrap my mind around the events of June 4, 1989.

In other, happier news, here's my newest Bernie Dexter dress, along with my new Atomic Lucite necklace!

Wishlist Wednesday Update: Effie's Heart Lemons

The theme of today is 'when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.' I've had another pretty rough day of travel and a full day of work after waking at 4:45am. This delightful marathon culminated in a surprise thunderstorm, a mad dash across Museum Campus to my bus (during which time I got absolutely drenched), and a longer-than-usual bus ride in which rain dripped onto me inside the bus. Oh, and a clogged drain in the bathroom sink, which may or may not get fixed tomorrow. Le sigh. However, this makes me appreciate my cozy apartment more than usual, and now that I'm dry, I'm just hoping that Jeff gets home soon, because I'm excited to see him after my weekend in New York!

Way back in the early days of this blog, I went nuts over fruit prints for the first (but not the last!) time. I already own two other Effie's Heart dresses in the exact same cut as this lemon print dress, and since I love them both, I felt confident that I needed another. Well, after waiting a couple of months, I'm happy to update you all on the status of my fruit-printed dress collection! I ordered it in one of Modcloth's sitewide sales, and this was definitely worth it. Don't you just love it when something completely lives up to your fanciful expectations?

Black in Black (Spanish Fans, That Is)

As you might've gleaned from previous posts, I'm a major creature of habit. In fact, right before I started writing this post, I was reminded of that fact. Jeff and I were debating whether to watch a movie, and while I've had The Sting on my 'movies to see' list for literally years, when it actually came to the point of possibly watching a movie I'd never seen, I hemmed and hawed and finally said I'd rather watch Star Wars.

The weird thing about it, though, is that I'm generally glad I watched a new movie/listened to a new album/read a new book after the fact. Take, for example, my embrace of all things colorful after about a decade of monochromatic clothing. I wore nothing but black dresses for years, yet now when I look in my closet, I just don't gravitate toward them. The exception is this fantastic, new-to-me Heidi dress from Pinup Girl Clothing.

One Skirt, Three Ways: Tiki Jenny Skirt (!!!)

Warning: I consumed a great deal of caffeine shortly before sitting down to write this post, and this was my ultimate Pinup Girl Clothing holy-grail skirt, so this post may contain even more exclamation points than usual.

For many fans of pinup style, the Tiki Jenny is the big kahuna. (Yeah, I did that on purpose. No shame.) It was at the tippy-top of my wishlist for ages, and one magical day, lightning struck! The brilliant Jessica of Warning: Curves Ahead and Fortuna Femme spotted one on the swap group on Facebook, tagged me, claimed it in my name, and even offered to lay out the cash to the seller so that I could have it! When I saw all of that, I actually had too many feelings to function! I was just so excited and touched by her thoughtfulness and kindness. 

Purple Floral Heidi Dress

The weather is finally starting to turn into a consistent approximation of spring, and I'm chuffed as chips! I don't think I've ever appreciated a 70-degree day more than I do right now, after surviving a totally mild Chicago winter. For one thing, it's much more pleasant to take blog photos when going outside doesn't require a coat. For another, five-ish months of covering my head with a hat all the time has left an odd stripe in my hair.

Jeez, am I really talking about the weather?!? Enough of that; let's cut to the chase, shall we?

A Bevy of Brooches, Part 1

Brooches are pretty much my favorite accessory. They take up much less room than a purse, making them easier to store in a cramped apartment closet. Also, unlike purses, you don't need to worry about making sure your entire life is transferred from the one you wore the day before into the one you want to wear next. I wear the same necklace, bracelets, and ring every single day, so along with earrings, brooches are my best shot to add a little pizzaz to my outfits. 

The best thing about brooches, though, is the sheer variety that you can find. Oh, and the fact that many of them are sparkly! My collection has been growing steadily since I moved to Chicago, and today I'm going to share it with you, and tell you a bit about the various places I've gotten them.

Every brooch I own in one super-duper collage.