remix: horse print

Original posts left to right: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4

This silky horse print top was my first purchase from Modcloth. It was on sale for like $8, and I decided to take the plunge and buy it (along with this necklace and this dress). It was one of my first online purchases, before I became quite addicted to online shopping while living in Virginia.

I'm actually surprised how much I ended up liking this shirt. It's very silky, so I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first. I almost always end up wearing it tucked in to a skirt or underneath a dress. It layers really nicely. I think it's the print itself that I like the most. I'm such a sucker for animal prints, but this one is neutral enough to wear it often without too much repetition.

(See all of my remix posts).

polka dots downtown

I loved this photoshoot day downtown on Sunday!

We drove home from DC after a leisurely brunch at The Cheesecake Factory... one of those restaurants I totally took for granted until we moved to lynchburg and couldn't go there anymore!

Anytime we have a chance to eat there, we do. Avocado eggrolls! Yum.

Anyway: we went downtown to take some fun pictures, and ended up getting some outfit photos in front of the tracks right as the train whooshed by!

The same thing happened on our wedding day, actually. We did a first look before the ceremony, then the wedding party headed over to the train tracks. I was standing in the tracks, and the speed of the train on the tracks behind us nearly knocked me over in all my poofy dressy-ness!

It's one of the funniest memories of our photoshoot.
One of those, is that train coming this way? Naw, it's not even moving. Oh, ok, it's coming this way. No, it's alright, it's not going that fast. 

Dress (shop!): Ruche

I bought this dress for birthday festivities (I kind of had to, it was called "Birthday Polka Dot Dress"!), but it ended up being too hot on my actual birthday in DC! So I opted to wear it on Sunday, when we'd be spending the hottest part of the day in the car on the way home.
The cut-out in the back is venturing a bit out of my comfort zone, but I love the dress and think it was worth the nerve it took to wear it.

One of the things on my Virginia bucket list before we move back to Arizona next year was to take pictures at this cute LOVE sign downtown, so that was number one on our to-do list yesterday afternoon!

It was so fun to check something off our list with my best friend in town, because she got to participate too!

The sun was pretty bright, but I love these shots.

This is officially the post of the many photoshoots, because after we finished at the LOVE sign we decided to head over a few blocks to an enormous mural on the side of a building that I've seen several times as we've driven around downtown.
I always thought it would be a cool place to take pictures, so we decided to go for it!

Needless to say, Frocktober day 6 was a day for road trips, pictures and lots of color!

mixing prints: dress in a dress

This past week consisted of some pattern play in my outfit choices. I've been playing around with mixing different prints and trying out bold patterns.
For some reason I was feeling adventurous, and certain things were catching my eye as I perused my closet each morning.

I've tried to get back into the habit of setting out my clothes the night before - it makes getting ready in the morning so much easier! But I don't always think about it.

Floral Dress: Zulily (remixed here and here), Polka-Dot Dress: Primark in London
Shoes: Ruche/Poetic License (shop!), Ring: Ebay (similar), Earrings: Fossil

This outfit is actually a dress on top of a dress.
Completely foreign territory to me until now.
In theory, I think it works. This pairing was a chance encounter, as both these dresses were hanging on my closet door for different purposes and it suddenly dawned on me that I love floral and polka dots together.
This floral dress has become one of my most interesting remix pieces.

I think it depends entirely on the dresses you'd want to wear together, but I think I may try this idea again. Just like wearing a skirt over a dress, or a sweater/top over a dress, or a top under a dress, this layering technique can exponentially expand my dress-wearing. Which I'm always in favor of.

I've definitely mentioned before that I love cutesie things, which includes critters and cute prints.
This ring was no exception. I'm a sucker for foxes (still on the hunt for a perfect budget-friendly fox sweater) and kittens, so this ring kind of encompasses both. I found it on Ebay for 99 cents, so how can you go wrong?
These types of rings are all over the place, places like Ebay and Etsy.
I like looking through some of the more expensive options of cutesie rings, like this, but in all reality I'm more of a 99 cent ring girl than a $60 ring girl. Unless it's of the engagement/wedding persuasion.

I love our balcony, even though it stretches along the entire back side of our apartment complex, so it's a shared space. It still feels secluded and private, with the forest of trees and the lanterns that light up at night.
I'm planning on buying some bistro style patio furniture, hanging some twinkle lights, and spending a lot of quality time on this balcony this summer. I'm looking forward to taking on a lot of home improvement projects in the next few months.
It only took me a year and 8 months to actually be motivated to finish things up. :)
We have a little over a year left until my husband finishes law school and we move back to Arizona, so I'm planning on making it count.