tweedy

scarf - import shop in Copenhagen / tweed wool blazer - vintage, mom's / striped shirt - thrifted / overdyed skinnies - Zara / purse - custom, valhallabrooklyn via etsy / woven flats - UO

Just a few photos from a lovely fall walk in our new neighborhood. We got the keys to our new place just over three weeks ago, and since then we have been working on it non-stop - from fixing broken doors to caulking windows, replacing our refrigerator, painting our six (six! seven if you count the vestibule! but of course, they're all tiny) rooms to putting up shelves and negotiating turn-of-the-century closets that aren't even deep enough to put a hanger in straight. I haven't bothered with nail polish or makeup in weeks, and it isn't unusual these days for me to find paint on my elbows in the middle of the workday.

Still, it's been fun rediscovering some old favorites as I slooooowly unpack my clothes. Case in point, this herringbone tweed blazer, definitely one of the nicest vintage pieces I own. It was part of a suit my Mom wore as she was just beginning her professional career, and I now love pairing it with more casual outfits to give them some classic texture and shape. It's also been the perfect outer layer for the fabulous weather we've been having lately, and I've been trying to get out and enjoy it as much as I can in between our many home improvement projects.

rained out

sweater - H&M / t-shirt - Target / jeans - UO / ring - H&M / shoes - Target

...or in, I should say. Those of you familiar with Berlin will immediately recognize that this is not Berlin. Today was a thoroughly enjoyable rainy, indoors, laundromat-going, chili-making, documentary-watching (NOVA & History Channel specials on Venice) and book-reading (finally finished Eating Animals, started Atonement) kind of day, and in all that we completely failed to take any outfit pictures. Fortunately, I'd worn the exact same thing (save swapping the gray tee for a pink one and the ring for my watch) a little over a month ago on a day trip to Ghent, so my rainy day outfit needn't go wholly undocumented. I love this sweater for days like this, it's perfectly soft and cozy, and I can skip any kind of makeup or accessories and just let my sequins do the work.

fact vs. romance

brass whistle necklace - vintage via etsy / gray v-neck - Target / belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - J.Crew, thrifted / sandals - Target, thrifted  

There are two possible narratives for these photos - I'll let you be judge of which one seems more plausible.

Romance: Sultry summer weather calls for simple pieces in classic silhouettes.
Fact: When it's hot and sticky, grab whatever is on top of my rapidly dwindling pile of clean laundry and call it an outfit. (Bonus points if it successfully covers all the rude bits.) Accessorize with whatever necklace was left sitting on the kitchen table from the other day. No makeup.

Romance: A quiet, residential street in Prenzlauerberg makes for a lovely backdrop.
Fact: We took these on our street, on the way to the grocery store. Scenic! (But isn't that motorcycle bitchin'?)

Romance: A sweetly feminine updo is the perfect complement to a classic t-shirt.
Fact: I am really itching for a haircut. My bangs are way too long, and I'm pretty tired of the bun-everyday routine.

Romance: Sometimes it's better to be brief - brevity is the soul of wit.
Fact: I had a raging headache, the sun was in my eyes, and everybody was a little cranky today. We did not take very many photos, and of those we did take, I am making an awful goober face in 80%. Six hours later, I still have that headache.

stripes & stripes

earrings - Berber handcraft, gift from Tunisia / dress - Topshop / belt - vintage, thrifted / striped espadrilles - Old Navy

Double stripes! Triple if you count the odd blonde streak I have at the back of my neck (which my mother still refers to as my 'skunk stripe').

Along with my weird trip-anticipation desire to 'save' the things I'm planning to pack, lately I've had an urgent sense that I should be trying to make the most of those clothes I'm not planning to bring. When we headed up to Massachusetts, I imagined I'd spend our entire visit frolicking in the host of summery dresses and wedges I'd planned to unearth from my boxes in the attic. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans, and the majority of our visit was far too cool for airy dresses. (Of course, now that we're headed back to VA and the temperature tomorrow will be pushing 100, I didn't really have room to bring back anything I'm not planning to take on the trip. Sigh.) When it did finally start warming back up yesterday, I jumped at the opportunity to break out this striped dress and wedge combo, both favorite pieces of mine over the last few years, but ones I'd never yet thought to pair together. I love the mix of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal stripes found in the bodice of this dress, and the wider stripes and neutral colors of these espadrilles felt like the perfect complement.

on the road

necklace - UO / jacket - H&M / tank - Target / belt - vintage, thrifted / jeans - Forever 21 / flats - UO

Yesterday I decided I needed a break from taking all our photos in the backyard, so we took a little walk down the road from Chris's family's house. Unfortunately they don't really live walking distance from any photogenic painted brick walls, so we decided to just use the road as our photo backdrop. We definitely confused more than a few passing drivers!

Posting these photos tonight feels particularly appropos, as we are on the road once again! Tonight we came in to Boston to spend the evening with Chris's brother (or to hit the North End for cannolis, depending on who you ask), tomorrow we'll take a bus to NYC, and then Thursday we'll take another bus (whew!) to DC - and then it's just five short days until we leave the US once again! I am definitely starting to get nervous about getting ready to travel again (there might have been a mini-meltdown yesterday over what shoes to take...), but at the same time I am definitely getting excited to get going again.

confessions

compass necklace - vintage, Grand Bazaar in Istanbul / gray v-neck - Target / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade / espadrilles - thrifted

Confession: While it's not the most inventive outfit I've ever worn, I might have worn this three times in as many days. Once for a thrifting expedition (with flat sandals), once for a low-key day at home, and once for a long morning dog-walk (again with flat sandals). This is numero dos.

Confession: I did not wash my fabric before assembling this skirt - hence the permanent wrinkling in the hem, which no amount of ironing will remove. Always wash your fabric - especially if it's seersucker. Lesson learned.

Confession: I have not told my family about this here blog, as I can't tell if they'll think it is cool or just an incredibly strange and inexplicable hobby. I fear the latter. This adds an entirely new level of weirdness to taking outfit photos, as it feels like we're sneaking around. "Where are you guys off to?" "Oh, uh, nowhere. Just.... out. With the camera. For ten minutes or so."

Confession: I'm posting super late, this week is speeding by me, and I'm grossly behind on replying to comments and emails (To say nothing of reading and commenting on other blogs. My Google Reader has enough starred "Come back to this!" posts to qualify me for an all-digital-media episode of Hoarders.) They say the first step is admitting you have a problem...

new look

earrings - Berber handcraft, gift from Tunisia / purse - Athens tourist shop / dress (worn as top) - H&M / bracelet - Berber handcraft, gift from Tunisia / watch - La Mer / wide leg jeans - Banana Republic / shoes - Toms

I know Saturday night seems a rather inauspicious time to be blogging, but I'm afraid it can't be helped. I missed my regular post yesterday, because I was busy working hard.... redesigning my blog! That's right, pop on over from your RSS readers and check it out, because things are looking awfully fancy around here. (And then promptly pop back to your RSS readers and forget all about it, I know I would.) I've been wanting to redesign my layout for some time now - while I liked the minimalism of my old layout, it started to seem a bit dry to me (and, dare I say it, stale?), and didn't offer the kind of simple functionality I wanted. I pushed up my sleeves, found a base template I liked, and started working; I designed a header, custom buttons, modified my CSS, and got everything looking just stellar. And then I tried to install my Disqus commenting system, and things got real ugly. I fretted, I tweaked, and I Googled 'til I was blue in the face, but there was nothing to be done - I had to either give up on Disqus, or give up on my pretty, pretty layout.

So I scrapped it, and made a better one! And I am really happy with it - while it's certainly nothing fancy code-wise, I love the new look and think it will give me a lot of flexibility. There are a lot of new features you guys should check out, but my favorite is definitely my new on the map page - it shows everywhere we've been so far in our travels, along with handy links to my posts from each country. And, like my in the bag page, I'll be updating the map periodically as we keep visiting new places.

These photos are from the crazy 48 hours last week when Chris and I got Museum Passes - on our second day, we visited Sainte Chapelle, climbed (and, er, fell down) the towers at Notre Dame, stopped by the Insitut du Monde Arabe, and spent a few hours at the Centre Pompidou. Suffice to say, by the end of the day we were beat - particularly those of us who'd slid down some stairs that morning. Since I knew I'd be spending the entire day on my feet, I went for the always comfortable Toms and wide leg jeans combo, and decided to try wearing my new printed tunic dress tucked in as a top. I ended up quite liking the blousy silhouette - but it turns out it is way harder to neatly tuck in a dress in a public restroom stall than it is in front of the mirror in your apartment!

cookie salvation

gold paillette necklace - Anthropologie / trench - H&M / black scoopneck tee - UO / peach geode ring - H&M / wide leg jeans - Banana Republic / shoes - Toms

In my still-nascent career as an international lady of leisure/style blogger, I've had to accept the hard fact that not every outfit, or every outing, is going to be a home run. Sometimes they are just singles - totally respectable, and they get the job done, but not particularly spectacular. That's how this outfit felt to me; while I always love the simple top - wide leg jeans - trench formula, I will admit to having some doubts over this look's 'blog-worthiness.' It was comfortable, I felt fairly chic and all my bits were covered, but there just wasn't a whole lot of 'there' there, you know?

Enter the cookie ring. Those who've checked out my Pinterest lately are already well aware of my current obsession with over-the-top cocktail rings, so it should come as no surprise that I couldn't resist this peachy faux-geode on my recent H&M binge. While I definitely don't have a future as a hand model (how other people manage to take non-weird/creepy hand pictures totally baffles me), this ring is so much fun to wear, and inspires otherwise aloof strangers on the street to grab my hand in wonder. And I can tell even Chris likes it, because he says it looks like a cookie.

P.S. I know I talk about Pinterest an awful lot, but it's probably my favorite new website in years. As always, just send me your email address if you'd like an invite!
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the purple

purple paisley scarf - vintage, thrifted / tote - forever 21 / trench - H&M / brass whistle necklace - vintage via etsy / watch - La Mer / white tee - forever 21 / wide leg jeans - Banana Republic / shoes - Toms

While the cliche that Italian women only wear black certainly seems to hold true as much as any stereotype, it is (in my experience) surprisingly and emphatically untrue of Italian men. I saw tons of men in Italy sporting bold colors, both as accent pieces and in full-on color-blocked ensembles - my favorite was the man in Venice wearing a coral polo shirt, salmon sweater, and mustard corduroys - but by far the most popular color worn by these Italian gents was the purple. Not just any purple, the purple was a very specific true purple shade, closer to lilac than eggplant, and in fact, identical to the wisteria blossoms hanging luxuriously from walls and terraces everywhere.

I've never really worn a lot of purple (much less the purple), but after days of admiring the bold style of Italian men, I thought this purple print scarf might be an appropriate way to spice up an otherwise basic jeans-and-tee-shirt outfit. And appropos of nothing, I accessorized with gelato.


Mmmm, mango and strawberry.
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