Patchwork

 Today seems like a good day to wear my favorite shirt of all time...

Shirt - thrifted vintage Army-issued
Watch - Billabong
Skirt - American Apparel
Sandals - Jessica Simpson

The awesome patchwork back:

Whooooooooooooooooooo! Spring break! Well, in a few hours, after I work with my disabled buddy, then - Whooooo! Spring break! I'm super excited to have 10 days off and I'm terribly sorry for all of you suckers who don't work at a school. It rocks!

Hill Billy

There's something very "Elly May Clampett" about this shirt... I was originally planning to wear this with a black pencil skirt to give the goofy shirt a bit of sophistication but it was waaaaay too cold this morning for bare legs and I refuse to go back to wearing tights (pasty white legs are here to stay!)  So I embraced the double denim and kept it accessory free, so the focus was on the crazy embroidered shirt.

Blouse - thrifted vintage Wrangler
Jeans - Gap
Wedges - Nicole

I wasn't too sure about the shirt when I first saw it in the thrift store, it's pretty busy and kinda juvenile with the embroidery. But once I tried it on, I loved it. It's funny how that happens a lot, which is why I try on many insane things, because you just never know what is going to work on you vs. the hanger...  unfortunately it works the other way too. There have been many times that I've been in love with a dress at a thrift store and then tried it on and it just looks terrible. Eh, it all works out in the end, I guess.

The hottest pink

It was freezing here this morning but it's supposed to be like 60 degrees later today, but with 50mph winds... so I wasn't quite sure how to dress for that. I may regret the big boots later.

Sweater - thrifted vintage Devon Original (previously worn 1, 2, 3)

Skirt - American Apparel

Boots - Rockport

Also, I'd like to nominate myself for "Aunt of the Year" for putting a local beer company hat on Henrik while babysitting... slightly inappropriate, maximum adorableness.

At 5 months, he is in a "drool everywhere, all of the time" phase right now and it would be gross if it wasn't so cute!

Fruit loops

Sorry to disappear for a few days, but I just needed to. The good news is everything is still going as well as can be expected with my brother. He had his third and final surgery on Friday, where they put a rod in his back. The doctor said it's a miracle he didn't damage his spinal cord when he broke a vertebrae all the way through. He's got a tough road to recovery ahead and he'll be using a walker for a while, but he is still very lucky! And he should be getting to go home today! Modern medicine is crazy, three major surgeries in five days and he's ready to go home only three days later.

Now that it's spring and the beginning of "wedding season," I'll start working at the photo booth more. I've worn this dress to work a lot, but I think it's my favorite dress I own and I love that I get to wear it more than just once in a while! Saturday night:

 Dress - Gryphon
Watch - Michael Kors
Sandals - DSW (no brand on shoe)

Today:

 Sweater - thrifted Isaac Mizrahi for Target
Necklaces - three are thrifted, one from Kohl's
Pants - thrifted Banana Republic, altered from flares by me
Shoes - Baker's

Spring-a-ling

Thanks so much for all the support, good vibes, and prayers for my brother. I almost didn't want to mention it and be all "woe is me" on the blog, but it's pretty much consumed my mind and something that will be a pretty defining event in his life, I imagine. So I felt like I should write about it so I don't forget the trying times, as well as the good. I'll throw some updates in as I know them. Right now it's a lot of waiting. Waiting for answers about if and when he needs different surgeries, etc. We do know for sure he's having his right leg pinned and plated back together this morning at 11:00. So at least there's some progress that's going to happen and my mom says he seems like himself, making jokes and things, which is a good sign for the brain injury.

On a happier note, it's the first day of spring, we got our first cool thunderstorm of the year last night, and I'm rocking a sleeveless top for the first time this year. Whoo, spring! In full force!

Blouse - Romeo & Juliet Couture
Watch - thrifted Star Trek
Skirt - thrifted Esprit
Wedges - Charles David

Knife pleats, stripes, and Star Trek, these are a few of my favorite things!

Toss and turn

This is what I look like when I've been up tossing and turning all night:

Jacket - thrifted Target, DIY back by me
Tank - little boys Fruit of the Loom
Belt - thrifted vintage
Skirt - American Apparel
Sandals - thrifted vintage Candie's

I found out at 10pm last night that my little brother, Tory, was in a motorcycle accident yesterday. His girlfriend was riding on the back and walked away with a few scratches. Tory has back injuries, broke his leg in two places, a broken nose, broken bones around his eye and brain trauma. He was helicoptered to Milwaukee, where they have traumatic brain injury specialists. The good news is he knows who/where he is and what happened, etc. He'll get surgery to close a big gash on his forehead today and surgery on his leg once the swelling goes down. It's gonna be a long road to recovery, but so far so good. It could have been much worse, but it's hard to be so far away and unable to help. Hopefully I'll be able to go visit him in a few days once he's had a few surgeries and recovered a bit. In the meantime, I'll be playing a fun little game called "try not to cry at my desk while at work"...

Safety orange

Right before Thanksgiving, Nate and I randomly woke up super early on a Saturday. I needed to buy a turkey so it could defrost by Thursday so we ran to the grocery store at like 6:30am. I bought a turkey and this hat, which was $2. Is this a MN thing? You can buy a safety orange (also called blaze orange, hunter orange, vivid orange or Omaha orange) hat everywhere, even the grocery store. For your last minute hunting needs.

Hat - from a grocery store
Jean jacket - thrifted Wax Jeans
Dress - Lauren Conrad
Watch - Billabong
Sandals - Nine West Vintage America Collection

Whenever I wear knit hats, I feel very 1990s. I tried to mix it up though, and wear a fancier dress and wedges instead of a babydoll dress and combat boots, but still keeping a bit of a '90s grunge vibe. What can I say? As someone who graduated high school in 1999, the '90s were kinda my formative years/glory days, so I'll always appreciate the aesthetic.

Time to Spring

Oxford - thrifted Koret of California
Belt - thrifted
Watch - from one of those toy bubble machines at the grocery store
Jeans - Gap
Sandals - thrifted Franco Barbieri

 

I've been cooking for Nate and I a lot more. We used to just go out to eat together mostly on weekends, but he's been coming over for dinner more and more. I love cooking but because I live alone, I'd often wind up eating the same leftovers for days and days or freezing the extras, so it's nice to have someone else to eat with. We made falafel the other day (my total fave) and yesterday we pulled the grill out of the garage now that the snow is gone and made fancy burgers. For some reason I was thinking about Caprese Salad all day so I made that too (kinda a random side for burgers but whatevs. The heart stomach wants what the heart stomach wants.) I never take pictures of food but this one was so pretty. Besides, if I'm gonna boil balsamic vinegar to make a balsamic reduction and cause my whole place to smell like boiled vinegar for hours, I better have something to show for it! 

Delicious to eat and stinky to make.

Green, green grass

Since I'll be hiding indoors (or at least away from all crowds) for St. Patrick's Day, which has been kidnapped and turned into the douchiest of all holidays, I figured I'd bust out the bright green a bit early today!

Glasses - thrifted vintage, lenses replaced
Jean jacket - thrifted Gap Kids, over-bleached by me
Dress - thrifted vintage handmade
Bangles - thrifted, garage sales, flea markets, etc
Shoes - thrifted Nine West

It's "Pi Day" (3.14) so I guess you're supposed to eat pie today to celebrate... Unfortunately I don't like pie. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but I am VERY particular about fruit. I love fruit, when it's fruit. Plain, raw fruit. I do not want you to bake it or puree it with sugar to make a jelly or jam or sauce or swirl it into ice cream. I never have, even as a kid I hated jelly and fruit Pop Tarts and pies. Even smoothies (which I make every weekday) are not allowed to have anything but fruit, juice, veggies, and ice. No yogurt or milk or whatever. Just fruit, veggies and ice. 

I don't know what it is, it's the one weird eating habit from childhood that I can't get over. If I'm at someone's house and they make a pie, I will eat it. I will hate it but I will eat it so that I'm not rude (except for my very best friends who know about my weird fruit thing and would never expect me to eat it). The only thing I like involving fruit, other than raw fruit is banana bread. No idea why. Anyone else have odd rules about fruit? Sorry, that was a helluva Pi Day tangent...

Sorry, Muppets

I suspect this fluffy vintage cardigan was made out of an old Muppet...  it actually looks like Rosita fur, but she's not an old enough character... can you tell I worked with special needs kids forever? Totally up on my Sesame Street.

Cardigan - thrifted vintage Premier Fluff
T-shirt - Target
Skirt - thrifted vintage (no tags)
Tights - Target
Heels - MIA

I will try to take some coat photos now that I'm not wearing the same winter coat all the time...

Jacket -  vintage via www.goodwiu.etsy.com

Speaking of crazy muppet things, I watched "Willow" with Nate last night and it had all sorts of crazy trolls and fairies and whatnot. He was all shocked that I hadn't seen it before. Guess I just missed out on that bit of '80s insanity, but I totally loved it. So ridiculous!

You're my boy, blue!

For some reason I feel like I've been wearing a lot of blue lately...

Blazer - thrifted little boys, brass safety pins added by me 

T-shirt - Bitten by SJP 

Jeans - Gap 

Sandals - Jessica Simpson 

I mean, navy and blue jeans are great neutrals so they're always gonna be around, but I've been wanting to wear a lot of head-to-toe blue lately. So I went back through the ol' archives and found out that maybe I've always worn a lot of blue and just never noticed before! Or maybe it's just because wearing monochrome blue isn't that memorable compared to say, head-to-toe orange or yellow. 

Unfortunately there are not blue skies today. It is very grey and rainy, though the weekend was just awesome! It was warm enough to sleep with the windows open, walk to DQ and get a Blizzard, and have a cocktail on a patio with Nate. Earliest spring ever!