leaving on a jet plane

Four days from now, I will be on a plane for London, England.

Dustin and I are taking a grand adventure to London and Paris, for a romantic getaway that will include shopping, snacking on crepes and baguettes, sight-seeing, fine cuisine and lots and lots of pictures!
I honestly can't wait to do an outfit photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower.

In planning for this trip, I'm realizing how much there is to see around Europe. It's absolutely daunting.
I have four days to pull myself together, finish packing, and figure out all the must-sees of our adventure!

Dress: Gifted, Top: J. Crew, Jacket: Gifted, 
Necklace: Cookie Lee (teal), Lia Sophia (gold), 
Shoes: Bought in Ireland

Testing myself for the overcast days overseas, I tried out some layering with my amazing leather jacket last week.
Unfortunately, I almost froze to death on this photo shoot, and quickly realized that my Arizona blood is still very much attuned to warm weather. I'm going to need much warmer clothing for the 40 and 50 degree rainy weather we'll be having!

I've been closely following (and getting advice from!) Melina from The Caffeinated Closet.
She took some very similar trips (check out her travel section on her blog), and even has a "creative layering" section that I've been using to take some notes for my suitcase. :)

If any of you have any further tips or outfit ideas, please feel free to comment!

And in the mean time, keep up with my Instagram for photo updates on our trip.
We'll be posting at least one photo per day of our experience, and I look forward to posting some outfit photos when we return!

Wish me luck with my packing endeavors!!

leopard is a lifestyle

Have you ever sat around and thought about which pattern would best describe you?

Mine would be leopard. Hands down.

Not because I'm wild or feisty or because I love the jungle... although I'm not sure I'm not those things.
Mostly it has to do with nostalgia.
I love how trends tend to recycle themselves. Trends like neon, and peter pan collars, and patterned or high-waisted pants.
They feel brand new to us, but definitely not to our parents. My dad can look at the short, fitted swim trunks trend and proudly know that he wore manly short-shorts first.

Dress: Ruche (similar), Cardigan: Banana Republic (similar), 
Tights: Target, Shoes: Thrifted, Necklace: Modcloth

Growing up, I think it's safe to say I had a leopard obsession.
And the saddest and best part of it all was that my mother let me dress myself, and I had absolutely no idea how.
Moderation, balance, accents, statement piece.
These words were like Spanish to me - I knew it was a language, I convinced myself I could kind of speak it, but then I proceeded to botch it up and/or say something really offensive to someone on accident.

Except instead of causing people to slightly gasp! before laughingly correcting the faux paus, I simply beat them over the head with it repeatedly.

Like that one time I wore a velvet leopard (yeah, that existed) long-sleeve shirt, with a leopard pencil skirt, with leopard Mary Jane shoes that were fuzzy like an actual leopard. 

It was bad, guys. Really bad.

I remember anxiously awaiting the boy I liked to see me, because I knew I was smokin'. 

He walked in, looked me up and down, and said, "Wow." 

My 11-year-old self took that to mean, "You are so beautiful, will you marry me?"

But looking back, I owe a heartfelt thanks to that poor boy who held back as much eye-bulging as he possibly could to give me a restrained and semi-sweet "wow".

I think the alternative would have crushed my little soul.

I was overjoyed when leopard came back in style, because I was much older and wiser and knew I might be able to handle it this time.
It isn't for the faint of heart...it's a lifestyle, and it's a fragile one.
I'm pretty confident that you can kill people with too much pattern. It's dangerous.

But I think in the end, it's totally worth it.

Even if you fail, pattern is too precious to live without. It's better to have patterned and been a disaster, then to never have patterned at all.
True story.

My first ever Modcloth purchase!
This necklace arrived in a box with my Valentine's Day dress,
and another cutesie print top - coming soon to the blog!

Weather has been bipolar, so we've had it all this week - freezing cold, warm sunshine, overcast and rain, and even snow. This morning we were blessed with a powdery snow left over from the night, nearly gone by the time we left for school/work. 

But I don't mind the rain. Because I get to wear my leopard umbrella. :)

Happy February, the month of love, and happy Friday!
Cait