tee sea be

brass whistle necklace - vintage via etsy / striped shirt - thrifted / belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade from a dress, Old Navy (tutorial here!) / sandals - Stockholm tourist shop

After a long night of uploading trouble, template snafus, and the usual last-minute-before-a-deadline frustrations, my stinkin' portfolio is done! Nothing to do but wait for it to be printed and delivered. Now, let us never speak of this again.

Yesterday's outfit was entirely made up of the tried-and-true - I'm still loving my new black floral skirt and my Hasbeens-esque sandals from Sweden, and just added a recently thrifted shirt to the mix. I never met a striped, bateau-neck, 3/4 sleeve shirt I didn't like, and I'm reasonably certain one can never have too many of them. (My boyfriend might contest this last claim.) Now if you'll excuse me, I have a little celebratory breakfast-and-thrifting to do.

chopped

purse - Athens tourist shop / chambray shirt - Banana Republic, thrifted / belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - altered from a dress, Old Navy / clog sandals - Stockholm tourist shop

This skirt used to be dress; I bought it on clearance years ago because I loved the airy, printed cotton and the fact that it had pockets, but the fit just never worked for me as a dress. It had an always-on-the-verge-of-wardrobe-malfunction surplice bodice and an un-beltable empire waist, and it wasn't long until I found myself folding in the top half and just wearing it as a skirt every time. I unpacked it over the weekend and started wearing it that way on Saturday morning, but by lunchtime I was so fed up with fussing with my improvised skirt that I finally cut the top half off and put in a proper waistband. I can tell I'm going to get a lot more wear out of it now - in fact, I've already worn it three times since chopping it! I even remembered to take the time to photograph the transformation (a rare feat when I get the instant gratification sewing itch!), so I'll be posting a simple dress-to-skirt sewing tutorial later this week.

pattern play

necklace - vintage, great grandmother's / striped sweater - H&M / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade from vintage fabric / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / ring - Amsterdam shop / woven flats - UO

Happy Pattern-Mixing Day! Today's edition of EBEW feels like it might as well be an official blogger holiday. I've happily dabbled in some pattern mixing myself, and this floral (well, herbal) printed skirt has been the basis for a lot of my favorite looks incorporating mixed prints - I recently wore it with navy and white stripes, and paired it with a fun cat-print blouse a few months ago. I think the subtlety of the white-on-yellow print makes this an ideal piece for pairing with more graphic prints like stripes (or cats), and since pink and yellow has been a favorite color combination of mine for some time, I was surprised to realize I hadn't worn this skirt and sweater together yet. Finished with a white belt and a few gold accessories, this outfit was perfect for a breezy day-trip to historic Kutná Hora, home of the Sedlec Ossuary - a chapel decorated by Cistercian monks with the bones of over 40,000 people!


And home to some pretty sweet skeletal pattern-mixing, if you ask me!

To see a few more of my favorite pattern-mixing looks, click here, here or here, and be sure to head over to Everybody Everywear today to see how other bloggers styled up their favorite mixed prints!



Also, in a bit of blog housekeeping, I've recently installed a widget for Google Friend Connect, so if you'd like to follow the other emily through GFC, you can now find it in the right sidebar! And as always, you can also subscribe to posts via Bloglovin', Google Reader, RSS feed or email.

formulaic

earrings - handmade by Carie of Pretty Little Mountains, won in giveaway / striped dress (worn as a top) - Old Navy / tote - Forever 21 / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade from vintage fabric / watch - Arkonaplatz flea market, Berlin / woven flats - UO

I think this pretty much sums up a standard formula for an outfit I'll like:

{ ( stripes + bright colors ) x ( cognac + gold accessories ) } ^ ( print-mixing ) = perfect

Honestly, it's a formula I come back to again and again (and again and again), and it never fails to make me feel great. When in doubt, I know I can always reach for some combination of these items and come away feeling put together.

I wore this a few days ago for a meet-up with super-sweet reader and fellow blogger Anja of A Heart and Soul Story - it was great spending an afternoon getting to know her better, and it was a lovely reminder of why I enjoy blogging so much. I have met (and, er, 'met') so many incredibly smart, funny, beautiful and stylish women through the blogging community, and I am consistently amazed that I have so many awesome, thoroughly engaging readers sweet enough to stop by, see what I'm up to, and even say hi once in a while - so thank you. I don't want to get too mushy here, but it really does mean a lot to me.

jumping the gun

necklace - Anthropologie / silk shell - vintage, thrifted / belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade from vintage fabric / tights - Target / brogues - Primark 

A confession: I may have been so excited that this month's Everybody Everywear theme is yellow that I jumped the gun a bit and wore mine a week early. Between the fact that I haven't had the last two months' EBEW items and that yellow is my favorite color (and a close second favorite to wear, right after pink), I admit that I am especially excited to participate this time around - and that I might have done a small happy dance when the winning theme was announced. Not to worry though, despite my early start with this skirt, I still have plenty of yellow in my bag for next week!

Tomorrow is yet another moving day - packing up my suitcase on a weekly basis is really starting to wear me down! Fortunately we'll be in our next place for a month, so we'll get a little more time to settle in (not to mention a proper kitchen, woohoo!). I'm really looking forward to this next one - it's one of my all-time favorite cities, and Chris has never been, so I get to show him around. I'll have a scheduled post up tomorrow (featuring some actual hot weather - finally!), but I'll be sharing pictures from our amazing new home on Thursday.

hero worship

earrings - Anthropologie / purse - Athens tourist shop / cardigan - Ann Taylor / henley tank - Target / wide-leg jeans - Gap / ring - Amsterdam shop / shoes - Target  

Yesterday was another long, rainy (why are they always rainy?) moving day, complete with tram strikes in Amsterdam, delays due to hail-damaged train tracks, and exploring a whole new bizarrely-stocked apartment kitchen ('Ooh, this time our only knife is... a cheese knife! And we only have dessert-sized plates! Awesome!'), but after all that, we're now all moved in to our new home for the week - Cologne!

Our first order of business today was to pay a visit to the Kolumba Museum, an art museum built by Peter Zumthor (my absolute favorite architect) on the archeological site and ruins of a Roman house turned medieval church. The new museum building manages to incorporate those ruins (and a 1950s chapel) into a single, elegant brick volume. The gallery interiors are incredibly spare, but a close look reveals numerous bespoke details that give Zumthor's minimalism its characteristic richness. (Have I mentioned how bummed I am that we probably won't be making it to Vals on this trip?)

Unfortunately, while Zumthor's building managed to bring a multitude of disparate elements into a single, cohesive whole (I mean, just look at that second photo - dude can pattern-mix!), I can't say I quite managed to do the same with this outfit. This is sort of what happens when I wake up with something to wear in mind, then look at the weather forecast and second-guess that first instinct - I wind up in something a little odd and undercooked. I love the print of this sweater, and the way it looks with the olive color of this tank, but I think the proportion of the cardigan looks a bit off paired with these wide leg jeans. Of course, in retrospect I now know exactly what I wish I'd worn to visit my first Zumthor project in person (mixed patterns in neutral monochrome, all the way), but I suppose you can't plan everything.

red hot

sunglasses - Nasty Gal / dress - vintage, thrifted / belt - vintage, thrifted / shoes - Target

The title of this post isn't a reference to the delicious cinnamon candy, it's simply declarative - this dress is red, and today, it was hot. So hot, in fact, that not only could I not stand to wear a single piece of jewelry, I couldn't even manage to wear my sunglasses for more than a few minutes before my whole face felt ready to slide off in a sweaty puddle. Gross. Supposedly the mercury hit 102 yesterday, but I can assure you, as we dragged our bags through the rush-hour crowds on the Metro yesterday afternoon, it felt much, much hotter.

I owe many of you a belated thanks for your Hasbeen-esque shoe recommendations from a few weeks ago - I wound up picking up these cute platforms from Target, and although they probably won't come with us for our next traveling stint (they're pretty comfortable, but they're not that comfortable) I am planning to wear and enjoy them every day until we leave.