Wearing Grey

Whoops! I forgot I had these pictures!

I took these after work, but I didn't wear the hotpants on the job. Wish I could, though! And bare my squishy thighs to the world! The weather here is starting to warm up - although it was a little chilly when I posed for these a week ago, it's annoyingly hot in my apartment bedroom right now. The AC doesn't work upstairs, which is one of the reasons I want to move.

Honestly, I'm itching to move more than just down the road. Hearing about my friends crossing state lines sounds much more exciting than my day to day life. It would be scary, but maybe fun too?

My knee is feeling a lot better, thanks for asking! (I'm not being sarcastic, I know many of you are sweehearts and would have asked!) A surprising amount of sales associates at stores I frequent noticed and asked, too, lol.

Top: Target, thrifted via work

Cardigan: thrifted via work

Shorts: UO

Shoes: Converse

Pencil Necklace: Kate Spade, thrifted via work

Color Schemes

Looks like I gravitated towards a similar color scheme again today! I've been really enjoying playing with colors in my art, stepping away from neutral skin and green grass and pairing things I wouldn't have done before like green and purple, and using more orange than I have before. Orange is an underappreciated color, imo. As usual, what I paint reflects the other aspects of my life, aesthetically and otherwise (or is it the other way around?) In an case, I've been wearing orange on more than just my lips :)

Since it's nice out again, and since my knee is starting to feel better, I hope to get outside and do more things soon. I've been watching an astounding amount of anime (on episode 320 of One Piece) and sitting in bed and painting. Which is great, but I also want to venture outside the apartment some soon, and hopefully take my camera along for documentation. This blog is, after all, somewhat of a diary for me.

Since I started working resale, my brand knowledge has gone through the roof. Last time I was at Goodwill I found myself looking at labels more than ever. I've become quite the snob about it too! Not like an "I only wear designer" snob, but now I recognize the old lady brands and the junior brands and turn up my lil nose at them! Anyway I spotted this top and was like. That's from Anthropologie. And I was right! It's super gratifying to know that you're wearing this second-hand thing that you definitely couldn't afford from a place like Anthro.

Top: Anthropologie, thrifted via Goodwill

Skirt: vintage, thrifted via Goodwill

Shoes: UO on clearance

Socks: Some Italian store, OVS I think!

Necklace: Modcloth

Pins: Kate Rowland and Me!

Glasses: Bonlook

Orange U Glad?!

Hey guys! I'm sure you've all missed my outfit posts for the past, idk, month!

 I'm very happy that the sun is out at 6 again. You won't hear me complain about losing an hour in Spring when it means more daylight for me! Tomorrow is my day off, and when I sit in the back taking photos at work, I fantasize about spending it painting a million things. Tbh I'm writing this post while waiting for the next episode of One Piece to buffer, so you see how my time off inevitably gets spent. Plus, interaction with customers on a busy Saturday is enough to suck the creative urges outta me! 

Tomorrow my Mom is coming up to hang out with me, and the added bonus is she might buy me some groceries! I ate spaghetti and a granola bar last night for dinner. Honestly I'm going hungry because I haven't been able to get to the store, not because we're destitute, as Travis has a job! (please don't let me writing this jinx it) Where he's getting scheduled actual hours! It's been a rough first year on that poor boy.

In other old-lady news, I stretched (I didn't even stretch that hard) and tore something (?) in my knee- now it's all swollen and I'm limping up and down the stairs for hot tea and ice packs... it's not conducive to my go-go-go lifestyle or my impatient nature :-/

These pants are thick, so I thought they might act as an ace bandage on my knee. That was a dumb thought, because I realized real quick that everything I own is tight on my thighs, not my knees, why would I even think that? My injury can't keep me down, though! Except for, well, physically.

Jeans: American Apparel

Lace Top: Kensie (via my work)

Cropped Cardigan: Free People (via my work)

Shoes: Wanted (via my work)

Hat: Forever 21 (via my work)

Necklace: Stella and Dot (via my work)

Bee Brooch: By me :)

Delicate Dresses

This is a dress I don't wear often. I got it at work, and it's Jason Wu (!!!) and made of a very thin swishy fabric. I'm scared I'm gonna rip it, and it's already starting to tear in a couple places. I wish I had a fancy event to wear it to!

As someone who usually wears short skirts as opposed to low cut shirts, I was kind of surprised to see cleavage in these shots. Who knew I was hiding that in there?!

Really I shouldn't let Pip anywhere near this thing. He's a pretty rambunctious little kitty... I wish he would just lay down and sleep sometimes, but he just attacks me and Travis all day! I don't wanna compare him to the cats on "My Cat From Hell," but. Normally on that show they just make you play with it for like 15 min a day. And he's nice sometimes... You guys have any experience with cats that like to hunt humans?

I'm loving my days off, especially when I get two in a row! <3 I went shopping with my sister today and got some booty shorts for summer. I can't wait for the sun!

Dress: Jason Wu via work

Necklace: Lucky Brand via work

Shoes: Swedish Hasbeens via Amazon

Lipstick is Mac in Morange

Art Lately: My Production Rate Slows

I haven't been producing nearly as much work lately. And I thought I was busy in college! I am trying to try new things with my work, like new color palettes, and lining with ink like in the one above, which is called "Coffee Shop Princess."

This last one is called "Home." For awhile there I wanted to make every piece about something, trying out being conceptual with my work. This one is about looking back, missing your home. The plants are all from the house I grey up in.

But then I decided that there's no shame in painting something just for the sake of a pretty picture, either.

Tumblr.Etsy.Facebook

Tie Dye Skirt

Time is getting away from me again!

I hope you guys had a good Valentines Day. Travis's birthday was the 15th, and our anniversary is the 16th, so we usually make a big deal of it all and buy presents and eat out. But we decided we couldn't afford it this year. It's ok, I think most people have a rough first year out of school. I did buy him another anime figurine, and we bought some clearance Valentines candy on Sunday. So pretty good weekend anyway! My Mom got me some Lush stuff, so I used my first bath bomb this week, too!

At work I've been enjoying managing our social media. My boss lets me get creative with it, which is really nice! I know I could be making more somewhere else, but I'm not confident I could find a job I enjoy as much. So that's not a bad place to be! What are your favorite stores as far as social media goes? I need to look up good facebooks and instagrams for ideas.

Most of my clothes these days are from work. Working at a resale store you really find out that you can wear a big variety of sizes! Working with different brands (or sucking it in to make it work) means I have a closet ranging from size 0-12 right now, lol!

Top: Loft, via work

Skirt: Anthropologie via work

Shoes: Madden Girl, via DSW

Vest: thrifted

Necklace: Stella and Dot via work

High Waist

I'm trying to take pictures whenever I can. I'm excited to show off my super high waisted jeans that my boyfriend and his mom got me for Christmas this year! Most "high waisted" things on the market don't come up as high as I want, so these are perfect. 

Work is fun right now because we've got a lot of exciting events coming up. My favorite days are my social media days because I get to be creative! Any tiny way I can use my major is chalked up as a success for me.

Most of my pictures have been in my living room lately. Right now this spot is covered in dirt, though, because my cat knocked over a plant.

Top: Boden

Necklace: Lucky

Jeans: American Apparel

Shoes: Boden

Valentines is coming up, I hope you all have a good one!

Orange Eyes

My camera battery finally got here! I thought it would be too dark for pictures after work, but I guess spring is on it's way! Thank god, I hate the dark. I've been pretty absent from here lately.

Being out of school is very disorienting and confusing. That's what everyone says, and it's really true. You spend all your life with this end goal of graduating and then you don't know what to do. Use your degree to make money? You wish. That being said, I'm not unhappy. Just kind of floating along, because going with the flow is all I feel I can do. But I want to be in control. 

Work is fine, I have friends there and I like clothes and doing social media. So far it has mostly been putting together outfits, taking pictures, and coming up with cheesy captions, and I like those things. I have been trying to expand my illustration shop to include brooches and stickers. What kind of things do you like to buy from artists?

Spring will be here soon to brighten up my world. I'll plant more flowers and we'll move to a cheaper (hopefully brighter) apartment before too long. It's been a mild winter, but I'm ready for change!

Top: Clearance at UO

Jacket: Thrifted, River Island

Skirt: Clearance at AE

Coat: Clearance at Dillards

Shoes: Thrifted from work, Wanted

Necklace: Handmade by me

Obsessions: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Contains some spoilers if ya care about that sort of thing!

I haven't posted in a million years because a) I haven't made time for it and b) I lost my camera battery. So here's the latest anime I've been binge watching: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure! 

Now this one may seem like an uncharacteristically masculine show for me to be obsessed with since I'm all girls in cute clothes holding knives, but JoJo is undeniably cool. Just watch the second arc's opening:

Like, if you don't like fabulous buff dudes in pseudo 80's clothing striking poses before they fight, I don't know what I can do for you. My boyfriend started watching it a couple months ago and I got interested after seeing the theme song, lol. It's based on a manga appearing in Shonen Jump that started in 1980 something, and follows the Joestars, or rather, one from every other generation (all nicknamed JoJo), on their epic adventures. Basic storyline: Evil guy named Dio becomes a vampire and JoJo has to kill him. Then his grandson has to beat up some supreme beings. Then his grandson has to kill Dio, back from the dead. They're releasing the third season weekly right now, actually, and the manga has like 8 arcs, so I'll be 40 by the time any of that shit comes out on crunchyroll. I hope I like the rest as much as the first three!

This show has awesome animation, and is known for it's wacky color schemes, which I really dig. I've been using screencaps as inspiration for my own work. Personal favorite so far is def Joseph Joestar from Battle Tendency, he's a mega babe. It's not everyday that girls get fanserviced to!

Warning though: I considered not gushing about it on my blog since it's a somewhat problematic fave of mine; there are no decent female characters. Don't let that chick in the video fool you, she's great at first but (spoiler alert) loses about two punches into her only major battle. In Stardust Crusaders I was super psyched when the main character's mom started developing magic powers, and I'm trying to ignore the fact that she's too weak to handle them and is spending the entire season comatose. It hurts to have something I love so much cut my entire gender out of it's storyline. I'll be patiently awaiting arc 5 and it's female main character.

Once you recognize that sort of glaring flaw in the story to this point, you can sit back and enjoy the good points of the show, which are many. It's definitely a fun watch, all the characters are charming, and in a word JoJo has style.