thrifted shirt, hand-me-down sweater, vintage skirt from Tunnel Vision, Spotted Moth tooth ring, self-made necklace, Illamasqua lipstick.
This purple lipstick from Illamasqua is the best makeup investment of my life. It can make a relatively boring outfit look so much more special. Same goes for this necklace, which I fashioned out of an old hair extension and some thrift store ribbon. Is it gross to keep my old hair extensions for crafting purposes? What about wisdom teeth? I'm disgusting oh well
It seems like I can only take blog pictures after midnight anymore. It's finals week for me, so of course I'm spending my time taking selfies. My best friend is coming to visit later today, then a few days later I leave for winter break. When I get back to school I'm moving into a house full of feminist ladies (and possibly one dude?), so that's cool. I hope everyone is feeling the holiday spirit (read: eating yummy food) and having a lovely winter so far!
The wall above my desk with prints from Laurence Philomene and a collage-thing I made with a photo by Petra Collins.
above my dresser
creepy shrine on my windowsill
gratuitous leg hair photo
My most recent manicure: alchemical symbols and matte black polish. Inspired partially by Gravity Falls, the best children's show on TV right now/possibly ever. Tooth ring from Spotted Moth.
I took these photos late last night in a sudden burst of creativity. I deleted my tumblr recently in hopes that I would spend my time more productively. It hasn't completely worked, but I'm slowly starting to spend more time on my creative pursuits. I'm trying to teach myself guitar, improve my embroidery, and experiment with photography. Then again, I'm also spending more time tweeting and trolling etsy. Baby steps, I guess.
Everything vintage, thrifted, or hand-me-down except ouija pin from here.
I've been sitting on these photos since mid-october and I'm not sure why I haven't posted them yet. This outfit was inspired by my teen witch craze that happens every october, but also by the short story The Sisterhood of Night by Steven Millhauser. It's about teenage girls in a secret society (so of course I'm obsessed with it), but it's also about a lot of other things. I highly recommend reading it if you can get your hands on a copy of the book it's published in, The Knife Thrower and Other Stories.
I know I'm kind of late jumping on this bandwagon, but I'm really drawn to the music and videos of First Aid Kit. They capture the melancholy of fall really well. I'm so fascinated by the forests and nature imagery in their videos and their chilling acoustic songs.
I guess the running theme in this post is mystery. I'm so fascinated by mysterious things, like dark forests and secret societies and teenagers. Maybe that has to do with the season, or the uncertainty that I'm experiencing right now. Either way, I want to swath myself in gauzy black fabric and paint my face with purple lipstick and be a mysterious witch woman. I'll end with this perfect quote I found on Celia's blog around halloween sometime.
“I think that all women are witches, in the sense that a witch is a magical being. And a wizard, which is a male version of a witch, is kind of revered, and people respect wizards. But a witch, my god, we have to burn them. It’s the male chauvinistic society that we’re living in for the longest time, 3,000 years or whatever. And so I just wanted to point out the fact that men and women are magical beings. We are very blessed that way, so I’m just bringing that out. Don’t be scared of witches, because we are good witches, and you should appreciate our magical power.”
My costume this year is satanist cheerleader! I'm pretty proud of it. It hits all three requirements for a good costume: spooky, funny, and cute. It's hard to see in the pictures but the skirt is a little pleated kilt from the thrift store that I absolutely love.
I was inspired by this shoot on Rookie and by Molly Soda's black cheerleader outfit (I can't find any pictures, but I swear she had one? If anyone has a picture of it I'd love a link! It was rly cute etc).
Happy halloween! Time to overuse the word spooky and eat candy till we puke!
P.S. I hope all you east-coasters out there are doing okay! I'm sending love and safety vibes.
P.P.S. I started watching Honey Boo Boo and it's the best and I'm not the least bit ashamed.
I found this crushed velvet dress for $2 at a local thrift shop. It's clearly a crappy halloween costume, but the moment I saw it I knew it had to be mine. I didn't intend on wearing it in its original state, but I had to take a picture in it to capture the ridiculousness of it.
Then I took off the hood and trimmed the sleeves and hem, and behold! The perfect little witch minidress! I've been looking for a dress pretty much exactly like this one, so to find it at a thrift store for $2 was a dream come true.
(Sorry for the bad photo quality, I'm still trying to figure out how to best take pictures in my room. I'm pretty useless at photography, especially indoors.)
I've been wearing my hair in braids a lot recently. I bought some 25 cent ribbon from the thrift store and it's perfect for creepy little girl bows to tie off my braids. I'm still totally swept up in halloween fever! Tonight I'm going to my school's production of the Rocky Horror Picture show. I can't wait to throw toast in the air and yell at the screen and see people writhe around in their underwear and soak up all the good spooky vibes!
Here's my favorite feel-good song in case you need a pick-me-up. Have a great week, doods.
I just got back from fall break! I visited my best bud at his school in Indiana, then went home to hang out with my family for the rest of the week. I had to endure a lot of long bus rides, but it was completely worth it. Here are some of my favorite pictures I took while I was away and since I got back.
Some of my recent purchases. Yellow lace curtain, Hello Kitty soda, Hello Kitty hot chocolate mix (it makes pink hot chocolate!!!!), Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block (the Weetzie Bat books), ouija board mints (!), ouija pin from AnOldSchoolGhoulon etsy, embroidery supplies.
A pile of sparkly stuff on my bed. I'm such a magpie, I can't resist anything glittery.
My first attempt at embroidery. This is part of a larger diy project I'm working on. Get excited! (Just kidding, it's not that exciting unless you're me.)
My contact solution spilled in my makeup bag and made my black lipstick tube look like this. I have no idea how it turned pink tie-dye, but it looks pretty cool. (This is the brand, by the way. Highly recommended.)
And finally, my super spoooOOOoOOooky manicure. I used this tutorial and covergirl nail polish in crushed berries, which looks exactly like blood when you use one coat.
(Where the post title comes from. Also a really good song.)
I've gotten really caught up in spooky halloween vibes recently. I must own everything involving ghosts, witches, bats, black cats, graveyards, spiderwebs, and skulls. Also candy. Lots of candy. Here are some inspirational images compiled from tumblr (I tried to add sources wherever I could, but feel free to leave me a comment if I missed something)!
Hey guys! Remember me? I've been a little overwhelmed in the past month or so adjusting to life as a college student. I'm glad I can finally get back to blogging, though. I've missed it.
Thrifted sweater, skirt, and polo, walmart tights, my usual shoes
A little eye that I doodled on my hand during class. I kind of want to get it tattooed on, but I think I would regret it. I've been really fascinated by tattoos recently. And technically I'm old enough to get them now! I'm going to wait a year and if I still like the designs I have in mind, I'll get them. Also note my sweet glitter manicure.
College has been really cool so far! I'm taking interesting classes, meeting interesting people, and generally getting used to being on my own. I've also explored the thrift and vintage stores in the area with varying success. Those of you who follow me on twitter and tumblr had the misfortune of seeing all my whiny feels posts from my first few weeks, but I'm doing a lot better now and am glad to be here!
Also, I bought a new camera! It's the first major purchase I've ever made on my own. I like it a lot! These pictures may not be the best quality, but I think that's mostly because I was being lazy. The camera is a canon powershot, in case anyone's interested. Not the fanciest, but good enough for what I do and for my minimum wage college student budget.
I'm working on decorating my room, and it's slowly becoming habitable and pretty. Once I get a few more things put up I'm going to make a big fabulous post about my room. It'll be great. Until then, I'll keep doing the outfit post thang and try to keep updating consistently.
I'll leave you with this song that I've been listening to on repeat while I write this. I've finally accepted that I like sugary pop music and will blast my Carly Rae down the dorm hall with pride.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who left comments during my hiatus! They made me feel warm and fuzzy etc. Also, Beyoncé bless all the people who followed me in the past month. Hi, welcome! I usually post more than once a month, I promise!
Hello, possums! I have some exciting news for you guys: I'm at college! Those of you who follow my tumblr already know first two days were terrifying (sorry for my whiny blogging), but I think I'm starting to get used to this new chapter of my life. I wish I could take a million pictures of my dorm room for you guys, but I don't have a camera yet so this blog will have to go on a brief hiatus until I get around to buying one.
Until then, I have a picture that I never posted of the outfit I wore on my birthday. I turned 18, so I guess I'm a legal adult now. I celebrated by making a cake, watching Project Runway, and eating delicious Tibetan/Indian food. This is what I wore for the festivities:
Thrifted top, thrifted DIY dyed shorts, target socks, thrifted necklace, DIY daisy crown, new Kate Spade frames!
I may not have mentioned it on this blog before, but I have pretty bad vision. I usually wear contact lenses, but I recently got some glasses that are attractive enough to wear in public. This outfit, or some variation on it, has been my uniform this summer: dorky polo, shorts or miniskirt, knee socks. Now that I'm at school I've been gravitating towards midi and maxi skirts with collared shirts because I am boring. I also invested in some girlmonster-y black lipstick, so my style will still be far from collegiate! I can't wait until I can take some pictures of the lovely campus and cool things I brought with me.
I hope everyone is doing well even though summer's almost over :'( I wish you all best of luck at school or whatever plans you have for the fall!
So I know my posts have been few and far between lately. Mostly it's because I've been in a rut style-wise and I want to only put things on this blog that I think are really worth posting. I don't want to just slap something together for the sake of having a post, you know? But now I have some things to show you guys that I feel good about.
First order of business: I went to my favorite thrift store the other day and discovered that there is a treasure trove of fabrics in the 'material' section. There was some adorable vintage fabric with a hippo print, a fleece with wolf faces on it that my sister bought, and something that looked like an old bedsheet with surfer dudes on it. The best thing by far, though, was this amazeballs microfleece blanket with angels and vomity pastel colors.
Look at those colors! And the little angels with their fluffy wings and Rookie-style flower crowns! Plus it's really soft. Best purchase I've made in a long time. It is everything I love.
On the same shopping trip I ran across this floaty little pajama thing. I'm not sure if it's a top or a really short nightgown, but either way it's the cutest piece of sleepwear I've ever owned.
I took these in my sister's room because the lighting was perfect. Also my room is really messy, and not in an aesthetically pleasing teenager-y way.
And lastly, my daisy manicure that I'm really proud of.
Everything in this post is really girly. I've been gravitating towards very feminine, even girlish things recently. It may have something to do with thesetwo girls on tumblr, who post beautiful femme pictures and talk about reclaiming their girlhood and live together in a pretty pastel apartment. I've also been introduced to the idea of reclaiming femininity and using girly things to feel powerful. Looking feminine is a way to challenge the idea that to be powerful and successful, you need to take on masculine traits. Femme people are looked down on and are told that frilly clothes, pastel colors, exaggerated makeup, and other feminine things are frivolous and unimportant, but at the same time are told that they should be ladylike and put effort into their appearance (at least in the case of cis women). By dressing femme, I'm taking control of my gender expression and being "ladylike" on my own terms.
When I was shopping for dorm furnishings for my upcoming year at college, I gravitated toward baby-pink sheets, floral prints, bunny figurines. I hesitated more than a few times and wondered if I should get some more refined things in basic black or white. I eventually realized that my love for girly things doesn't make me any less intelligent, powerful, or interesting than anyone else. If someone can't take me seriously because of my pastel cardigans and ukulele, that's their problem. I won't apologize for my femininity, because even though western culture places a higher value on traditionally masculine traits, I believe there is just as much value in feminine traits and it's time we speak up about it.
Hello, friends! So much has happened since my last post! I've been a busy bee, and hence a bad blogger. I have an extra long post today in an attempt to make up for it. I'll start with my long-overdue recap of the Chicago Rookie meet up. I didn't take any pictures at the actual event because I suck, but I have some other related images.
As soon as I walked into the record store where the meet up was held, I knew I was among my people. This is the group photo from the Rookie tumblr. Just look at all these cuties! I'm in the pink tshirt with the pentacle, standing towards the left.
I met Meagan from Naturally Dapper and this girl, who knew me from tumblr. She was really nice and cool and was wearing the cutest outfit (she's the one with the blue hair and flower crown behind me in the photo). I also chatted briefly with Tavi, Petra, and Hazel, and they rule. They are all so friendly, smart, funny, and just as cool as you would expect them to be from their internet endeavors.
This was the thing I made to go in the giant Rookie shrine, but it kind of fell apart and I never got a chance to give it to Tavi and co. I thought about mailing it to them, but I kind of got attached to it. Oops. It's an empty hair dye jar coated in glitter on the inside with lace and fake flowers glued to the lid. I thought it was a good symbol of my teenage-hood because it encapsulates green hair, glitter, flowers, lace, and ridiculous homemade crafts. I also added a sticker that my friend Genny gave me in a care package earlier in the year that was inspired by a Rookie article! I thought it would be good to include a little Rookie-induced girl love on my shrine item.
This is the zine that I made in the zine workshop. I didn't write a title on it, but if I had it would have been "Things Allison Likes". The top photo also includes my daisy crown that I wore and a flier for Rookie Yearbook One, which comes out in September!
I also have an outfit for you guys! I wore this to a Beirut concert with my friend Ben the other day. The band was amazing and the lead singer is a dreamboat. Like, seriously, listen to his voice.
Vintage dress, homemade flower crown, old Urban Outfitters sunglasses from before my boycott
I was agonizing over whether to buy this dress for a while, but eventually I decided I had to get it. It was a lovely surprise to see that it had been marked down from $42 to $19! I guess the shop was closing down and they were having the mother of all sales. It fits perfectly, makes me feel like a 70's goddess, and you can do this with the sleeves:
I drew freckles on my face, but I chickened out and wiped them off before going to the show. I also left the flower crown at home in fear that I would lose it.
I'm really happy with these photos. They really feel like summer to me. I wish I had freckles in real life.
What do you guys wear when you want to feel extra-fabulous?
P.S. I've had a twitter for a while, but I've only just started tweeting regularly. You can follow me here if you want. I still don't tweet that much, but whatever.
