Wardrobe Remix: Lavender Vamp

After eight years in Los Angeles, land of year round perfect temperatures, it's taken me a while to readjust to the idea of seasonal wardrobes. And since we don't have a cedar closet like the one I grew up with for storing off-season clothes, I've mostly just pushed my sundresses to the back of my closet rather than packing them away entirely.

My Before-30 To Do List

Almost a decade ago, I wrote a list of things I wanted to do before I turned 30. Recently, I pulled out the journal I'd written it in and decided to have a cry-laugh over the goals I set at 21. I'm not sure whether to celebrate the successes, bemoan the failures, or feel ashamed over some of the items on that list. Since feeling ashamed of myself isn't really my thing, I decided to go with Secret Option D: Share List Publicly on My Blog, complete with annotations!

My 30th birthday was spent at a winery and the Nixon Presidential Library. You can probably guess where this photo was taken.

Review: Collectif Delphine Swing Dress

With every collection Collectif releases, I fall a little more in love with them. As soon as I saw the Autumn/Winter lookbook last fall, I knew I had to have the Delphine swing dress in mulled floral. I debated ordering it during Collectif's free shipping a few months back, but balked at paying full retail. When Collectif's massive Boxing Day/New Year's/clearance sale hit and the dress was suddenly half off, though, I finally went for it.

Top Ten: The First Year

Does anyone else enjoy looking back through old diaries? It's always been fun for me to look back on a snapshot in time, and think about how much has changed since I put those words to paper. When I think about it now, the decision to start this blog was a natural extension of how much I enjoy reminiscing about Stuff I've Done, combined with my lifelong journaling habit. Every so often, I'll go back and look over old blog posts, cringing over the photography and formatting where appropriate and making notes about things I need to wear/eat/cook again.

Weekend Update

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might've noticed that updates have been a bit thin on the ground for the past couple of weeks. What can I say? Life comes at you pretty fast sometimes, and truthfully, it's been a little hard to sit down and write a post about style when it feels like the entire planet is imploding.

Since I haven't wanted this blog to be a giant Debbie Downer, this means I have loads of half-written screeds against the Muslim Ban/non-intersectional feminism/anti-science people sitting on my computer, waiting till I find a way to frame them constructively. (I'm also sitting on one very silly story that feels a little too out-of-touch with reality to post, but I'm hoping I get there soon!).

So, rather than forcing myself to write something that doesn't feel right, I thought I'd give you a little update on what I've been doing since the New Year started.

Jenny January 2017

One year ago, I never would've dreamed that 1) I'd own so many gathered novelty-print skirts, and 2) Jenny January 2017 would be quite such a life-affirming week. ICYMI: #JennyJanuary is a week where all the gathered-skirt enthusiasts on social media bust out their favorite Jenny skirts/dresses from Pinup Girl Clothing and coordinate massive twinning days. Jenny January 2016 was a low-key affair for me: I was only able to participate in one day, and I didn't yet know very many people in the pinup community.

Oh, what a difference one year makes! While the two fabulous ladies I twinned in 2016 are still some of my favorite folks on the internet, I've met so many lovely friends over the past year, and I wanted to twin with as many of them as humanly possible. What's a thoroughly modern pinup to do? Well... in my case, the answer was 'make a spreadsheet, post daily in all my pinup groups, and rally as many folks as I could to the #twinup cause!'

So how did it go? Well, check it out...

Review: The Pretty Dress Company Hepburn

After I tried on my first Pretty Dress Company dress, I knew I'd be adding more to my wardrobe. Well, it didn't take long. I'd already been eyeing the Hepburn swing dress in forest green, especially since I'd heard it was a good style for shorter people, but the shipping is steep (we're talking over $30 to order directly from TPDC) and I wasn't sure exactly what shade of green it was. After Amelia Jetson of Junebugs and Georgia Peaches posted a closeup of the black floral version, though, I was obsessed. I honestly hadn't realized how pretty the colors in that print were until I saw that photo, and once I saw it, I couldn't stop thinking about that dress.

Well, we know how this kind of story ends for me.

Thoroughly Modern Emily Turns One Year Old!

O frabjous day! Today marks one full year since I first hit 'publish' on this blog, and my goodness, the time has flown by. [Sidebar: I've always wanted to use 'frabjous day' in context, and now I've crossed one more thing off my bucket list!] To mark the occasion, I'm wearing one of my favorite skirts and hosting my first-ever giveaway!

A Swingin' Vixen

Recently, I've realized that I have this tendency to approach shopping as if it's a game of Pokemon. When I find something I like, I immediately go into "gotta catch 'em all" mode, and before I know it, I've added a zillion things to my already-overstuffed wardrobe. (In retrospect, this is less a Grand Realization and more of a 'geez, Emily, that's so obvious!' moment.)

In 2016, I might've gone a tiny bit overboard in the shopping department, but I've resolved to rein myself in for 2017. Fortunately, I snuck a few purchases in under the wire from my latest obsession, Vixen by Micheline Pitt.

On Managing Anxiety in the Age of Tr*mp

It might surprise you a bit to learn that I've struggled with anxiety a fair amount in my life, and continue to do so. While I'd thought that I'd finally mastered the art of outwitting my brain after about five years of relative calm, the presidential election brought some of my old fears roaring back to life.

To be honest, I feel a little silly even typing that, but it's true. Tr*mp's election opened a Pandora's Box of things I had forced back into shadows reserved especially for extremely-low-probability, extinction-level threats to humanity, and I've struggled somewhat to regain my footing. (Yes, I've decided to treat the name of our incoming President *shudder* as the expletive it deserves to become.) I've been thinking about this quite a bit as the Obama era draws to a close. But I think I've finally started to sort out how I'll get through the next four years, and I want to talk about that a little bit today.