dress: borrowed // yellow dress/skirt: forever 21 // tights/ring: thrifted // shoes: target // photos by William
Well look who's back in Alaska! It's spring break for Lauren, and I'm excited for a bit of rest and relaxation, though I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of adventuring this week. I managed to come home with only a carry on (part of my packing skills ... still can't believe how many clothes I fit into my little bag/how many clothes I wore on the plane, haha. My own mother couldn't even believe I packed everything into one carry on.), so this week will be a "week of remixing"! These are all the clothes I brought for the week and will consequently be remixing, so it will be interesting to see all the combinations that are possible. (Though I might not wear the pants since I brought them mostly to wear underneath my snowsuit ... can't really go sledding or hiking in a dress!)
It's really nice to be back amongst the snow and mountains, especially since it hardly ever snowed while I was back for my winter break. Spring has redeemed the good ol' last frontier by bringing a bunch of constant snowfall this first day back. We were scheduled to have a blizzard warning, but the visibility has been pretty good and there's practically no wind. It's the perfect winter day, snuggling up with kitty cats and eating freshly baked cookies.
And no, it wasn't too cold taking these photos, though I certainly don't suggest walking around in short sleeves at this time of year. It's nice when you're ten steps away from the front door so you can run in whenever your fingers start to get numb. Plus the first day of taking outfit pictures in the snow after being away from it is probably the best day, since I was really excited for pretty snowfall photos. A big thanks to my brother William for taking these for me, since my tripod recently broke and I won't be able to purchase a new one until Monday.
Other things I did today? Thrifted a little bit--I got that little ring for a dollar as well as a scarf I'm going to use as a prop for a photo. Then my mom and I went to the mall to grab some lunch. Other than that I haven't done very much, just a lot of relaxing and planning for the week. I will be working on an art project this week that involves me driving to some of my favorite places in Alaska, so like I said before, there will be a lot of adventuring and I'm so excited for it!
Have a great day!
dress/belt: thrifted // tights: target // boots: forever 21 // earrings: diy
Man, this was such a crazy, fun outfit to wear! I love the loud, obnoxious outfits that I feel confident in, and this was definitely one of them. I can't wait for the summer months when I can turn this dress into a shirt and wear it with shorts, or even just without tights. Here in Oregon we are starting to get a couple really hot days (okay, those days are only like 65 degrees, but to me they're hot), so I'm crossing my fingers that we will get a lot of sun!
It's the last week of school before spring break, and I'm feeling that final stretch of anticipation before a break. It's only Monday and I've already written two papers? What is this nonsense! And I have four more I have to write this week. Oh my goodness. But hopefully I'll actually stay on top of my work for once and get things done before unknown hours of the night. We shall see. Come on spring break, hurry up! I'll be going home for the week, so it will be back to snow and cold and I'm hoping it will be all pretty so I can take just a few more snow pictures before it all melts. A couple days ago my mom posted a picture on facebook with all the snow and I'm praying that it will still be there in a week! Just one more week.
Well now I'm off to write yet another paper. Hope you have a really awesome week!
dress: urban outfitters // tights/cardigan: forever 21 // hat: borrowed // boots: target
This past weekend the sun decided to grace us with her presence, so everyone (including a Lauren who was on the tail end of her week long cold) ran outside to soak up as much vitamin D as possible. It's so funny how everyone just flocks to the light after being cooped up inside for weeks while it rains. I love the rain as much as the next person (and let's face it, maybe a little bit more), but man, I do love me some sun!
If you are a new or old reader, you'll know to some extent or another that I have a passion for introverts, and more specifically, the introvert-extrovert relationship. My friends and I got into a big discussion about it after taking personality tests online (I'm INFJ), and while I knew about the different personalities in regards to introversion and extroversion, I had no idea of things like thinking versus feeling type of people. For me, I'm very much a feeling person. My emotions play into a big part of how I make decisions, and I see emotions as necessary for life. I live off of my emotions and they are what motivate me to help people, to create things, to do well in school, etc. But for other people (i.e. some of my friends), they are very much thinking people. The only emotion they really feel is anger, and in situations, they look at facts and logistics. They don't see the point of emotions and think the world would be just fine without them. And it's weird because I understand what they are saying, but I can't understand it at the same time because that's not how I see the world. And that's okay.
When we were first talking, I was completely blown away by how they said they viewed the world. They understand that things like art and literature have a point, but they don't see the point of it. When they help people, they do practical things to fix the physical. Whereas someone like me would just want to fix the emotion. At first, I thought it was completely crazy how different people actually are and how I was so blind to if for my whole life. I had been living in a world of egocentrism--I thought everyone thought the same way as me because I had never heard otherwise. But also while we were talking, we discovered how similar we are despite our differences. We don't deal well with other people's emotions and like to hide our own, we love puzzles and mind games, we love being with each other. I love how they are the planners and can deal with all the problems people give to them (they are awesome at advice); I love how when any situation arises, they are right there, ready to fix it. We make a great team, with the logical people and emotional people combined, they deal with a lot of the physical needs of our group, and I and the other emotionals deal with the emotional, nonphysical parts of the group.
At first I was kind of sad at how vastly different we were, but really, we still aren't that different from each other. I love the fact that no matter the differences between people, there's always something in common. And my friends are seriously the best friends I've ever had. They love me for who I am, and even if they don't always understand my way of seeing things (or understand why I must do crazy things for photos), they are still willing to help me (model, be my photo assistants, etc.) because they love me. That's seriously the greatest thing in the world.
Cheers to our differences, and cheers to how we are not really that different at all.
Today I'm blogging over at Kate's blog, Scathingly Brilliant, so you should go check it out and give her some love! I love her sweet style and personality, so be sure to follow her blog if you're so inclined.
Have an awesome day everyone!
dress: asos // shirt: thrifted // leggings: forever 21 // shoes: target
A few days ago was the first sunny day in a while and everyone flocked outdoors. I personally thought I was going to die from the heat, but sitting outside in the shade being serenaded by people was really relaxing. Now of course it's been raining all day and I'm itching for some sun. I'm starting to become bored with my tights and leggings (gasp! I never thought I'd say that!) and I just want to wear shorts. Alas, I fear it will still be several more weeks before these legs see the light of day.
I've been photographing my outfits less and less, and I don't know if that's a good thing or not. It is certainly nice to not always have to make time to take pictures of myself, but then at the end of the day I feel so bad for not getting around to it. I always have to remind myself that it's okay to not blog about everything and it's okay if I miss a day in taking pictures of my outfit. I love blogging and taking photos for it, but man, I'm making it sound like work. Which (and I know I'm about to go off on a rabbit trail here), work shouldn't have such a negative connotation to it. I mean, were humans meant to laze around all day? I don't think so. We were meant to work! And work shouldn't be not fun (ignore that poor grammar, just roll with it). In my schoolwork specifically, I always try to make it the best that it can be as a kind of game between myself and my professor. If it's in a class I don't like or a class that's really hard, I try to do my best just to spite the thoughts that I won't do good on it, and if it's in a class I do like, then I try to see if I can outdo my expectations. The hardest part for me though is just finding the motivation to start!
What do you guys think about work? What gets you motivated? As always, I hope you have a great day!
+ chocolate festival
sweater/dress: borrowed // shirt: garage sale // tights: thrifted // shoes: target
Yesterday was my nineteenth birthday! On top of a million facebook messages, dorm decorations, and hugs, Ivy and Amy took me to the chocolate festival in Portland! It was super fun to be able to hang out with them in such a beautiful city, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny and not too cold, which made walking around downtown that much more enjoyable, especially when we wanted to burn off all the chocolate we ate.
Ivy; she took the pictures of me.
Amy!
I don't think I've ever tasted such delicious chocolate. My favorites were the dark chocolate with bacon, actually. It was such an interesting and awesome flavor--just enough crispiness and bitter chocolatyness to make me want to eat it all! The salted chocolates were also fantastic, as well as the fudge and chocolate covered almonds. Mmm! So many of the companies were organic and fair trade and advertised healthier chocolates, which was also fantastic. I love learning about companies that are passionate about things like that, especially when those companies hand out free samples!
By the end of the day, we were all so stuffed from free samples that we could hardly move. I never knew there could be so many different flavors and combinations of chocolates. On top of the bacon filled ones, there were also jalapenos, dried blueberries and other fruits, alcohol (too bad we couldn't taste those, haha), and so many other things. By the end of the festival we all had chocolate hangovers, but it was totally worth it. Towards the end, vendors were trying to get rid of their last bit of goods, so we even got a couple free chocolate bars! I know what I'll be eating tomorrow.
All in all, my birthday was definitely a blast. It's crazy to think that I'm now in my last year of being a teenager and basically a fourth of my life is over with. I'm old! ;) I can't wait to see what this year holds and what memories are about to be made.
Hope you all have a super awesome day.
