shirt/leggings: borrowed // polka dot shirt: thrifted // shorts: forever 21 // shoes/socks: target // scarf: ASOS
// photos taken by Bekah
It's now legal to start celebrating Christmas! There was a time in my childhood when the holiday season was the greatest season of them all. And it seems that my love of the holidays has only grown with age, because I am extremely excited for Christmas this year. Yesterday a couple of my friends and I went to Portland for the parade, and ended up spending the entire day exploring the city. I hadn't planned on doing it, but I ended up doing a lot of Christmas shopping thanks to the Little Box event put on by several local businesses. It was so much fun being able to go from store to store, looking at all the lovely handmade items, getting free food and drinks, entering tons of raffles, and getting to support local vendors. That's my kind of black friday shopping. It's so great and satisfying to not only be able to get some unique presents that I know my loved ones will love, but also to be able to support the community here in Oregon. All the companies participating in Little Boxes are filled with wonderful people. The event is still going on tomorrow, and after you visit your first "Little Box" participant, you automatically get 10% off all the other places you go to. Then there are raffle drawings at each of the places, and a grand prize drawing for all who submit their "passport" to facebook. So if you're in the Portland area today, I highly suggest you check out this wonderful little community!
I love being able to wander the streets and stores, people-watching and pretending we live in the cute little apartments and overhearing conversations and making some conversations of our own, all while drinking warm coffee and listening to people along the streets playing guitars or cellos or accordions. Portland is seriously one of the most beautiful places. I also finally got to eat my first Voodoo doughnut, and it did not disappoint! I got the Butterfingering, and the Peanut one is still sitting in the box waiting to be devoured. There's also Chinese food in the fridge from Chinatown, many photos stored on my phone from adventures in the MAX, cool store finds in my possession, and hilarious encounters saved to my memory. It was a beautiful day filled with beautiful people.
Have a wonderful day!
dress/shirt: borrowed // tights: forever 21 // shoes: target
Sometimes it seems like I can never get ahead in life. Shoots don't work out, I don't get any new clients for months, the rare one I do get backs out, galleries say no, on and on the list goes. One begins to wonder, "Am I good enough? What am I doing wrong? What do I have to do better? Will I ever do anything right?"
I finally broke down a couple nights ago, feeling pretty low and stressed out. Sometimes life is just hard, you know? Things don't always go the way we plan, situations change, people disappoint you. These kinds of things aren't always fun to write about, but the bad things are just as necessary to life as the good things. Sometimes it's okay to cry. And honestly, it's really freeing once you do. It reminds me of my favorite short story, "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. It's a story about a girl on her eleventh birthday and is really contemplative and a different look at our age and how people grow up. When you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and so on and so forth. So sometimes five year old you has to come out and cry a little bit. And that's okay. It's good to let go and just cry. But then it's also good to afterwards try to improve. Everything, even the bad things in life, fall into place and provide you with ways of growing as a human being.
For me, I'm trying hard to see that failure is a good thing, and is an opportunity to hone in craft and become a better person all around.
As for my outfit, I wore this several days ago, back when it was bearable to wear short sleeves for an extended period of time. (Now though? Not so much.) I wanted to focus on color and pattern, rather than shape, as it's hard for me to wear loose fitting pieces such as this shirt. It was the perfect lazy day outfit that didn't look too lazy, so I was happy. You know those days. Where you just want to walk around in a blanket? Just wear oversized shirts and you're good to go.
Have a great day!
dress/tights: forever 21 // shirt/cardigan/shoes: thrifted // jacket: from a friend // glasses: firmoo.com
The purple hair is back! Thank goodness too. I didn't realize how much I missed it until my hair became purple again. It may be absolutely ridiculous to have purple hair, but I think it's fun and just my style, and what better time to do it in life than in college? (Though, who's to say I can't have it when I'm older?) I've worn an outfit similar to this one in the past, but I love the way the blue in the shirt sort of matches my hair, and the yellow contrasts it nicely. It's fun to see how clothes look with purple hair as opposed to brown hair. Though I am a firm believer that nearly all colors go together, some go better than others and I like awesome color combinations with purple. Yellow seems to be working pretty good here!
I also really wanted to match with my surroundings, so I found some yellow trees and took these photos. Of course, being right next to a fairly active street isn't very fun. I actually had one guy honk his horn while his buddy waved to me as they drove by. Kind of creepy, and in my shock I did nothing but wave back. The scene in my head, of Lauren with fear in her eyes just waving in front of the camera, is really funny now, but man was it weird when it happened. Oh the things we do for a good background.
Well, I hope you have a really wonderful day! Despite the title of this post, there's a ton of rain scheduled, but I'm gonna make the most of it. It's gonna be a good day.
