long shadows

dress - vintage, thrifted & hemmed / belt - vintage, thrifted / shoes - Target

I hope you'll forgive me the slightly melancholy tone of this post; in many ways, these photos feel to me like a lament for the summer that's nearly past. While I'm sure the season of heat and humidity is far from well and truly over here on the East Coast, the days of simple dresses, sandals, and long shadows seem to be rapidly disappearing. Today there's very nearly a chill in the air, and with it the anticipation of change. We move to New York this weekend and begin in earnest the search for jobs and apartments, setting out on an entirely new chapter in our lives. While I am excited about these changes (and particularly about seeing the end of suitcase-living on the horizon), I will miss the last nine privileged months of wholly unstructured time.

bestriped

trench - H&M / striped shirt - H&M / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / red jeans - thrifted / brogues - Primark

Some photos from yesterday, offered (almost) without comment. I wore this for a rainy day of thrifting with Tania, who is completely awesome and has successfully made me just the teensiest bit sad that I'm leaving DC soon. (I mean, honestly, anyone who sends you home with amazing homemade cookies is a true friend.)

before the rain

earrings - Topshop / top - thrifted / wrap watch - La Mer / overdyed skinnies - Zara / woven flats - UO

My apologies for the crickets that have taken up residence around here this last week, taking and posting photos had to take a bit of a backseat to 'real life' for a few days. In that time we spent a long day on the bus to get my parents' house, had a whirlwind visit with some of my relatives from Texas, and have been chipping away at the miles-long to-do list that comes with trying to get jobs and move to a new city.

Unfortunately we had to hustle through these photos today, as a serious storm was brewing and the rain was just starting as we went outside. This outfit is dead simple, but it's exactly the kind of thing I'll miss once the weather gets cooler and I'm dressing for work. I love that a messy updo, bright top and statement earrings feel like just enough on these muggy summer days, and while I love layers (and boots! and tights!), getting dressed for fall (or an office) seems at the moment like an awful lot of work.

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.

technicolor

necklace - vintage, Brooklyn flea market / striped shirt - Gap / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / red jeans - thrifted / woven flats - UO

I mentioned on Friday that I'd had an incredibly fruitful thrifting trip. I went to two of my favorite thrifts, looking for colored jeans, an olive blazer, work-appropriate t-shirt alternatives, a mustard pencil skirt, a Fairisle sweater, the perfect jean jacket, and, of course, stripes of any kind - and I came away with these red jeans, an olive-y military blazer, two bright silk tops, a cobalt silk button-down, a cobalt wool pencil skirt, a navy breton-striped sweater, and a kilim and leather belt. I couldn't believe my luck! I was especially thrilled to find these bright, bright jeans; I love the colored denim trend, and I've already got at least a dozen different outfits in mind to wear them with. However, I just happened to be wearing this necklace, shirt, belt and shoes on my thrifting trip, and they went so well with these pants in the dressing room on Friday that I immediately reached for the exact same pieces this morning.

stressed

necklace - Forever 21 / tote - German convention freebie / t-shirt - UO / jeans - Gap / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / woven flats - UO

Oh, what a difference a few days can make - I've gone from totally relaxed and luxuriating in the present to a state of high anxiety about the future. As the end of our trip looms (just over two weeks! What happened??), some major decisions have been made and I now find myself with an enormous amount of preparatory work on my plate. We'll soon be heading back to visit with family again, to pull together portfolios, and if all goes well, find jobs and an apartment in one of the most competitive (and expensive) cities in the world - and in the meantime, we have only one more day here in Berlin before it's off to a new city (and a new country!), and I am feeling the familiar pressure to make the most of our dwindling time here. I am admittedly feeling a little overwhelmed, with obligations new and old pulling my attention in every direction, but I'm trying to just focus on one manageable task at a time (and to bear in mind that I have successfully done all of these things before).

In times of stress, I definitely fall back on simple outfits with a few favorite accessories to carry me through. Jeans and a t-shirt isn't a particularly creative combination, but I think the distinctive silhouettes of these particular pieces give them a little extra polish, and I'm reasonably certain this necklace can redeem even the most ho-hum of outfits. I'd like to make a whole arsenal of bright beaded statement pieces like this one in different colors when I have ready access to craft stores and some free time again - hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the latter!

white out

necklace - Forever 21 / silk blouse - mommed / tote - German convention freebie / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / jeans - UO / brogues - Primark  

I'm absolutely worn out from a long day of Major Life Decisions (MLD(tm)), checking out multiple art supply stores, and maybe (just maybe) staying up a little too late watching TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze (Best line? 'Babies! They're BABIES!'), so I'm afraid I don't have much to say about these photos.  After discovering to my surprise just how much I liked occasionally wearing my shirt untucked a couple of weeks ago, today I thought I'd try out the oh-so-casual half-tucked look; I don't hate it, but the results didn't really wow me. Hard to say if it's me, or just this particular blouse. I also started out wearing my white linen blazer with this outfit, but tucked it away in my tote bag after a particularly warm U-Bahn ride. I'll have to give that pairing another shot once the weather cools down a bit.

I'm also hideously behind on answering emails and comments from the last week or so - I'll be tackling those tomorrow, but in the meantime, my apologies if you've been waiting for a response from me!

untucked

necklace - Anthropologie / tank - Anthropologie / tote - German convention freebie / braided chain bracelet - homemade / watch - Arkonaplatz flea market, Berlin / skirt - Target / sandals - Target, thrifted

Like Tania, I have just a little bit of an obsession with belting things; sometime over the last few years, I decided that defining my waist was the most flattering way to dress my somewhat curvy figure, and now every time I put on a skirt, I just instinctively tuck in my top, throw on a belt, and call it done. So imagine my surprise when while getting dressed the other day I caught a glimpse of my as-yet-un-tucked shirt in the mirror and - gasp - actually liked the outfit better that way. There's something so perfectly unfussy about an untucked shirt, and it certainly didn't hurt that I felt like I was wearing classy pajamas all day.

We took these photos on a visit to the East Side Gallery, a 1 km section of the Berlin Wall that's been kept intact and painted by artists. Naturally I gravitated right to the mural that best matched my outfit, a giant black and hot pink face (my head only comes up to the mouth!) that was part of a huge stretch of colorful faces. Speaking of faces, I'm sorry for the recent overload of glamour shots of my new watch - I picked it up for a measly three euros at the flea market over the weekend, and I am completely enamored with it. I kind of want to get my initials engraved on the clasp, if only for the ridiculousness of paying more for the engraving than I did for the watch itself!