The black and white of things.

Now that I have a job that will require me to work full days (8am to 4pm) at the end of the week, I see the necessity of blog-post scheduling and taking outfit pictures when I have spare minutes, because I haven’t had a second to take outfit pictures. Instead, you get to look at two of my favorite non-outfit pictures I took a couple of weeks ago with Mr. Owl’s fancy camera. And I have to admit, most of the pictures in this batch were of Mr. Owl’s face.

Like I said, I just have an obsession.

Anyway. Back to telling you about work, which was what I meant to do before I got distracted by Mr. Owl and his face…

My first day was absolutely overwhelming, because I was given a huge overview of pretty much anything and everything that could happen –which was too much information– and I have to admit that I woke up the next morning thinking “If today is going to be like yesterday, I’m going to hate it.” And then I cried, and then I told myself to stop overreacting and crying like a  girl, and that everything would be much less scary than I thought it was.

I was right. Now, I quite like my job. Yesterday, I spent at least two hours organizing at least 500 receipts by store name and then purchase date… and I thought it was fun. There is a lot of organizing to be done in the office, which is nice… plus I’m learning how to do the most important things– filling out forms and such– and I like the typing and the organizing and the answering phones and filing. And everything else.

It’s not something I’ll ever love as much as I loved being a barista, but it’s nice. There are always things to do, my coworker is absolutely awesome (and also hilarious), and it is just a good place to work. I am not fond of eight-hour days– this is the first job I’ve ever had to work a shift more than 6 hours (except for emergencies at my old one)– but all things considered… I’ll get used to it.

Especially considering that I never have to work on the weekends or get up at 2:45 in the morning.

Alas, I have to stop my updating here and leave for work.

On a quick side note, I NEED–yes, the all-caps and italics are necessary– to make these rainbow cakes in jars. Seriously. Best thing I’ve seen all week. I need them.

One last thing: along with scheduling outfit posts, I may try to make up a nice little posting schedule of non-outfit things. I’d like to get back to posting five days a week, and I’d like to add a little variation to my blog. I’d love to do a post filled with links to things I’ve seen during the week that I love– like those rainbow cakes– or perhaps style-inspiration posts, and definitely at least one post a week that is like this one, just updating you all with pretty pictures and life in general.

So things might change up a little bit. Hopefully for the better.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend!

Working Girl

I got a job!

For which I have to leave in about fifteen minutes, so I can’t say much other than it’s one of my secret dream-jobs… as a receptionist. Given… it’s at a construction office, where the dress code is nonexistent and everyone wears jeans (except me, ha!), but it should be a good job. It’s part time, and I’m most excited about the facts that a) it’s where my daddy works, and b) I will never have to work on the weekends. And also, no more getting up at 2:45am to go to work.

I don’t have time to put the pricing in my pictures, either, but my tights, watch, cardigan, and shoes were from Target, and my skirt and belt were thrifted.

I hope you all have a beautiful Tuesday!

Nature

I’m taking a little break from fashion posts to share a few pictures I’ve taken with Mr. Owl’s super-fancy camera. Mostly because it’s almost eleven and I’m not even dressed yet… but also because I have extreme camera-jealousy, and I’ve decided that all of my outfit pictures should be taken with Mr. Owl’s camera.

Which means… I have to steal it.

This day, we had an adventure in the deep woods, and it was glorious! I took a lot of pictures of mushrooms.  I also discovered that I am just allergic to the world, and it wants to kill me.

Learning to take pictures on a real camera (with manual focus, adjustable lighting settings, etc…), and not one like mine (which is autofocus, preset lighting settings) is fantastic. I love how much more I can do with the lighting (if I had a camera like this, my whites would never be washed out again!) and the focus (manual focusing things is not as scary as I thought it would be), and the quality of the pictures is so much better.

I definitely need to steal his camera.

That’s all I have for now, but you can expect many more random pretty pictures (most of them might be of Mr. Owl. Just warning you. I have an obsession with his face. ) in the future, whenever I can steal his camera away from him to take my own snapshots of life.

I hope you all have a beautiful Thursday!

Be Mine.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This, as I said yesterday, is the first Valentine’s day that I’ve had a special someone to share it with, and I wanted to wear something that was definitely Valentine’s-Day-esque… but the dress I was going to wear didn’t work out. Nor did any of the other inspiration ideas I had. They didn’t quite feel right. So I ended up with this– one of my favorite skirts, my favorite shoes, and a sweater that I love but rarely wear.

Of course, being me, and seeing as this skirt is twirly… I spent most of the pictures twirling.

What can I say? It’s all about love today, and I love twirly skirts.

And I was going to have my Valentine be in pictures with me for today’s post, until I realized that he won’t get here for a few more hours and I never write very good blog posts when he’s here.

Also, it’s raining. And I’m pretty sure he’d protest taking pictures in the rain by my fence. So there’s that.

Today, we plan to watch a very, very romantic show called… *ahem* The Walking Dead. It’s about zombies.

I know, I know. We’re too mushy for our own good.

I have decided that I should do this hair more often. Other than the fact that my hair is generally a little crazy  no matter what I do to it– crazy in the “I will do whatever I want to do no matter how many times you try to tame me” kind of way– so I have a few random flyaways and pieces that want to stick straight up… I quite like it. It’s a good style right now, since my hair is starting to go into that awkward phase again while I grow it out. Plus, it was easy. I did some pin-curls, slept on it, pulled out the pins, brushed it a bit… and voila! One or two hairpins, and this is where it goes.

Two things: I’ve created pinterest-board archives for my outfits, since I no longer have the outfit-archive blog page. So, to see all of the outfits I wore in 2011, click here. There are a few missing that I probably only posted on Chictopia, but those are all of the blog post outfits that I did from 2011… and it took SO much longer than I thought it would. But it was worth it. I’m fascinated by the transformation from my first 2011 outfit post– which was SO not me– into my outfit posts today. I look so different. I’m much more confident. And I’ve found my style, finally.

And for the outfit archives of 2012, click here.

I’ll be making little sidebar texts for both of them soon.

I hope you all have a beautiful Valentine’s day, whether you have someone to share it with or not. Remember, Valentine’s day doesn’t have to be about a significant other. Find someone you love, be it a family member, a best friend, or your cat, and show them that you love them.

And also, eat lots of chocolate. Because that’s what this day is really about.

Valentine’s day outfit inspiration.

I’m still feeling pretty sick, and I have been ordered both by my mother and by Mr. Owl to rest and get well all day. Which means no getting up to put on pretty clothes and do outfit pictures. So instead, I was looking through my old outfits to find some inspiration for what to wear tomorrow… and thought I’d share the inspiration with you.

This look has no pink in it, but I think it would work well for Valentine’s day. It’s girly, there are polkadots galore, and the curly hair (which I might do) tops it off as very romantic-looking. Besides, I’ve always been rebellious and gone with non-holiday themed outfits for holidays.

Then again, it’s the first time I’ve had a man on Valentine’s day (or ever…), so I should go all-out and paint myself pink. Right?

This one doesn’t feel very Valentine-y to me, but it IS very floral. And very striped. And very pink. And ultimately girly. Which works.

Suffice it to say… I felt overtly feminine on this day– I even painted my fingernails, which only happens like twice a year!– and it would work very well for Valentine’s day. There’s pink, purple, painted nails, shiny things, fabulous shoes… it’s becoming one of my favorite old outfits.

This dress is a strong possibility for me. Pair it with red tights, some heart earrings, and keep the red lipstick… and I’m sold. I have only ever worn this dress once, which is a very sad thing to say.

And lastly, a dress I’ve never worn on the blog OR in real life, despite having owned it for at least a year. I may be selling this dress, simply because I could never style it to my liking until now, when I finally bought some red tights and also have those maroon shoes that would work marvelously well with the colors in this dress.

I just can’t quite bear to part with it. It’s so delicate and pretty.

So what do you all think? What will you be wearing for Valentine’s day? Do you like the holiday? I personally have always loved Valentine’s day even though I’ve never had someone until now (squee!) to celebrate it with. I mean, seriously… people give me chocolate galore on this day. How could I not love it?

 I will hopefully be posting my Valentine’s day outfit tomorrow… with my Valentine, if I can convince him to do a photoshoot with me (which isn’t hard. He likes doing them), but still… I wish you all a beautiful Valentine’s day full of chocolate and loved ones.