Velvety Sheen

 

1970s velour jumpsuit from Twitch Vintage, Forever 21 necklace, thrifted shoes, old random cami

I haven't been this excited about an outfit in a really long time! This jumpsuit has quickly become one of my most prized possessions. I was originally drawn to it because it reminded me of Florence Welch and I'm a shameless fangirl. It was my first ebay purchase, which was a decidedly positive experience. I stalked it all evening, and seriously got a bit of an adrenaline rush when I won it. There may have been a victory dance involved. I was a little nervous about buying vintage online because I wasn't sure if it would fit, but it turned out to fit perfectly! It's so shiny and dreamy and drapey and nice. For vintage enthusiasts on a budget, I recommend Twitch Vintage. They have gorgeous clothes, they were a pleasure to shop from, and you get the added bonus of feeling like a mighty hunter stalking your sartorial prey. Or maybe that's just me.

As a side note, I've realized that I've been wearing lots of green accessories since I dyed my hair. Today my shoes, nails, and necklace were color coordinated with my bun. Things like that make me oddly happy.

What are some of the small pleasures that keep you going?

P.S. Frightened Rabbit is the best. They affirm my theory that Scottish accents make everything better.

Velvet and Crochet

 

Thrifted sweater and necklace, Miracle Eye leggings, homemade choker

I discovered that I really like the combination of this crochet sweater and velvet leggings. I've repeated this outfit several times with slight changes in accessories. It's cozy, simple, and just interesting enough. Plus I still haven't gotten over how much this sweater even though I bought it last summer. It's so perfectly 70's!

I'm also excited about this choker I made! I go to found out that JoAnn fabrics has a bunch of trim that you're supposed to sew on the edges of garments, but make really great chokers and headbands as well. It's really cheap to buy just a yard or however much you need, and it's super easy to make stuff with! I just hemmed the ends to keep it from fraying and then sewed on a clasp. Easy peasy! I also made a headband with a different trim, which I'll show you guys soon.

Also, you know what is awesome? Wye Oak. I flippin' love these songs. So dreamy and beautiful and a little sad, my favorite kind of music.

Some Things I Love

Hello, possums! I know I've been a bad blogger for the past few weeks. My absence can be explained by a number of things, most of which are boring. Now I'm back to my regularly scheduled internet narcissism! Yay! To start, I've made you a list of some of the silly things that I enjoy right now.

1: Polyvore
I've seen tons of bloggers make polyvore sets before, but I never tried it myself until very recently. It's ridiculously fun and strangely satisfying and it makes me want to cry when I think about how much time I've spent on it. It's also an excellent way to get out of an inspiration rut, because you have literally all the clothes on the internet at your disposal. You can make any outfit you want. It's magical. Here are the sets I've made so far.

2: Joanna Newsom
 I dig this harp-playing squeaky-voiced maiden. I dig her a lot. When I first heard her voice I was turned off by it, but for whatever reason I was compelled to keep listening and soon I was hooked. She is a fantastic musician and lyricist with a unique voice that really grew on me. Her sound is so sweet and ethereal! Additionally, she is beautiful and has great style.

 

Also: add "harp" to the list of instruments I want to play.It's probably the most beautiful instrument ever.

3: Spirit Bears 

I read an article in National Geographic last summer about these bears that live in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia and immediately became obsessed. They're a species of black bear that for some reason have a recessive gene that makes some of them white. I think they're the most beautiful creatures ever! I recently did a project on them that made me fall in love all over again. I could just stare at these pictures forever! The fact that they live in a deep green moss-covered rainforest just makes the pictures all the more beautiful. I want to go live there and make some bear friends.

4: Tacky unicorns

I stumbled across the site unicornlady.net the other day, and it rules. It's as sketchy as it is hilarious. Beware, music automatically starts playing when you click the link. I personally think it adds to the experience. The awesome part is that it has a gallery of unicorn pictures to be used as wallpapers for your desktop. I love them. Behold:

 

As much as I laugh at the source, I have a completely non-ironic love of kitschy unicorn pictures. Especially the first one.

5: Excessive flowers
It's no secret that I love flowery things, since I wear them in pretty much every outfit.These are some of my favorite flower-filled images from my tumblr.

 

Yay pretty flowers!

6: Velvet

Velvet things are totally my jam right now. I recently bought two velvet things and plan to get at least to more. It's the perfect winter fabric; luxurious and pretty, but still soft and comfortable.

 

 Beautiful dress from ModCloth.

How dreamy are those leggings? I'm buying them as soon as possible.

And as if I didn't have enough reason to love Dr. Martens already, they make the most perfect boots ever.

Anyway, this has been my post about how much I love flowers and unicorns. I'll return soon with some pictures of my face and stuff. Until then, fare thee well!

Some warm wishes

It's the 25th! Merry Christmas, lovely readers! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then a happy holiday season to you! To celebrate the season, I made a video of myself playing my ukulele and singing one of my favorite holiday songs. Unfortunately most of my head is cut off in the video, so you can't see my beautiful face. I figured you get enough of that on this blog anyway.

But enough of my rambling. I hope you have a wonderful day full of cookies, loved ones, and/or Chinese food! I wuv you guys!

Accordion to me (HA)

Something that my newer readers may not know is that I'm an avid recreational musician. I have a special passion for collecting unconventional instruments, including a dulcimer and two ukuleles. For my IB music class, I'm lucky enough to get to experiment with a ton of different instruments, the latest being this badass accordion!

 We're playing the song "A Pair of Brown Eyes" by the Pogues and I jumped at the chance to pick up the accordion for it! It turns out that my history teacher's mom had an accordion lying around that she was willing to let me use, so she carted it off to school and now it's temporarily living at my house. Apparently, she used to carry it three miles across Chicago to get lessons. This is rather impressive, considering that it weighs about a million pounds and she was only 10 at the time. Aside from being a beautiful instrument with an interesting history, it has a beautiful sound and is really fun to play!

The case is also pretty cool. When I put my coat on in the morning my dad told me I looked like I was running away from home in the 1920s, which I took as a complement.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about this thing and thought I would broadcast it to the internet. Are any of you readers musicians? I'd love to hear if any of you share my love of weird instruments!

A long, rambly post about some Minnesota music (and my clothes)

Target Belt and socks, everything else thrifted from Savers.

I'm really proud of my ability to wear an outfit entirely composed of thrift store clothes and not look too much like a hobo. Not that looking like a hobo is necessarily a bad thing, I suppose.

This fringy-jackety-thing might be the most beautiful piece of clothing I own. I think I have magical fringe-locating powers, because I left the store the other day with not one, but two fringey articles of clothing. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I stared hyperventilating when I saw this on the rack. It was fake hyperventilating, but still! I think it adds a lot to the crazy combination of textures in this outfit.

The occasion for this gypsy/hipster-esque ensemble was a concert yesterday by Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles and Jeremy Messersmith. Both are musicians from the Twin Cities, and both are absolutely incredible! Lucy Michelle is pretty much your average five-piece band: guitar, drums, ukulele, cello, and accordion/glockenspiel. Awesome, right? They are all amazing musicians who make really original and fantastic music. Also, they all happen to be really attractive and have great style. Behold:

They are all so cute! The two girls make me want to go out and buy vintage dresses and an accordion. And they are so nice! My friends and I got to talk to some of them after the show, and they all rule! You can listen to a few of their songs on their facebook page. I highly recommend it. They are honestly one of my favorite bands ever.

I mainly went to the concert to see Lucy and the Lapelles, but I had heard some good things about Jeremy Messersmith as well. Apparently he's pretty well known in the Minnesota music scene. It turns out that he is an amazing songwriter, singer, guitar player, and bass player. Seriously, he was completely shreddin' on his bass. He was backed up by drums, a guitar, a keyboard, and a frickin' string quartet. His voice is really sweet and soft, which makes it all the better when you realize he's singing about some pretty morbid subjects.

 I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but my camera died at the worst possible moment. This one doesn't capture how massively adorable this guy is. He has huge glasses and a little pompadour and a bowtie and is just really, really cute! He seems so nice, too. I just want to put him in my pocket so I can look at him and listen to him sing about death whenever I want. You can listen to/download all of his music here. One of my favorite songs was one he hasn't recorded yet about being in love with a merch girl for another band. Adorbz!

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention that the whole thing took place IN A GRAVEYARD! The whole affair was probably the hippest event of my life. Aside from the concert, I got some (probably) authentic Mexican food with my BFF and watched Buffy with my family, so I'm still basking in the glow of a pretty much perfect day.

Much love to all you guys! I hope your weekends are all going as fantastically as mine!

Keep my love alive

Here's what's tickling my musical fancy right now.

Like candy for your eardrums

 

 

I love music from the '70s. These are two of my favorite songs of all time. Sorry, no fashion today! This is just a quick post because I wanted to share these. I love how Carly Simon looks so in love in the first video.