Review: Trashy Diva Carnival Annette

By my count, I am currently five collections behind in my ongoing question to geek out over everything Trashy Diva does. This is obviously shameful, and must be remedied immediately, so today I'm taking the first step with a review of the glorious green Carnival print!

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Every time I leave my apartment and see these tulips, they brighten my day immeasurably. I always point them out to Jeff, and insist that he express adequate appreciation of their glory before we continue on our way. (Usually it goes like this: "Jeff, aren't those the most beautiful flowers ever?!?" *silence* "Jeffffffff!" "Yes, they're fine.)

Can't Change My Spots!

Like many people, I consider myself a principled person. Many of my principles are things like 'black lives matter,' or 'feminism without intersectionality is bullshit,' or 'lying is morally impermissible,' or 'never fight a land war in Asia in the winter,' but some, of course, are style-related. Today's outfit conforms to two of my guiding style principles:

1) leopard is a neutral, and
2) red goes with EVERYTHING.

I'm Back

Hey, remember when I updated this blog like three times a week? Yeah, me too. I certainly didn't plan on taking a two-month hiatus from blogging, but 2017 hasn't exactly been kind to my family. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have some idea of what I'm talking about. Some of it isn't my story to tell, and truth be told, I'm not ready to get into the details that are mine to share. Suffice it to say that since my last post, I've either been sad, worried, or sick (or sometimes all three!), and just haven't felt up to photoshoots and upbeat posts.

The (Other) Love of My Life

I'll be honest with you: I'd envisioned my Valentine's Day post a bit differently. This time last year, I was enjoying the #7ShadesofRed challenge and plotting an epic feast involving large quantities of cheese. This year, I spent most of the past week in pajamas, propped up in my bed next to a large mug of tea. It doesn't do to dwell on what might have been, so let's just hope that next year, we'll see my planned post about ways to avoid the morass of cheap sentiment and commodified conceptions of love that plagues V-Day.

Instead, I'm going to tell you a bit about the love of my life that isn't Jeff, or dresses, or Star Wars.

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.