Friday, April 27, 2012

neon this, sparkle that


EARRING. ENVY.

It's raining outside today, so blogging about something bright & shiny is keeping my cheery state of mind.

I wrote a post a while ago about updating my jewelry collection. While it's coming along quite well, there is one aspect of accessorizing I can't quite grasp.

Earrings. 

Why you ask? To make a long story short, I was a rebellious five year old ginger child and once tried to rip an earring out of my ear. Since then, my left earlobe is ripped. I can't wear any of the big earrings without the fear of the weight tearing through my ear. Five year old me should have really been thinking about the future fashionista she was going to become.

The pair that inspired this whole post are the neon yellow, orange, and green ASOS earrings in the top left corner. Love Obsessed with them. I don't know if it's the break-up or the nearing vacation but I have spend a lot of time browsing online, and I'm actually making a list of items to look out for while I'm thrifting in Florida. I'm that excited.

I managed to pick a few larger earring styles I love, but also, threw in a few studs that are right up my alley. 

Skulls + hearts are a guilty pleasure, always

Thursday, April 26, 2012

OFFICIAL VACATION PREPARATION

VACA TIME


Today, I got up enough courage to try on my swimsuits. Amidst the throws of a break-up (& break-up diet), I figured now would be a good starting point to observe what I should work on before I hit the beach. And by "hit the beach" I mean slathering on SPF 6000, wearing a giant hat, huge sunglasses, under an umbrella, and barely getting into the water. 

Being a redhead is fun, except for when you want to go outside. 

Now, I am have generally had the same swim suit for the past 5 years? 1950s style cut, navy blue with white polka dots. SO CUTE but it's faded and doesn't look nearly as good as it did when I was 18. Luckily for me, my addiction to shopping has granted me a lovely mix of swimwear. Stripes, ruffles, polka dots, buttons, neon. Yes, please.



I can't deny, if swimsuits were purely for fashion purposes, I would definitely be wearing a one piece or high waisted suit in a heartbeat. However, I do slightly care about giving my skin a little bit of exposure to the sun, I gain more freckles that way. Need. Beach. Now.

Basically, I am will be of no use to anyone for the next 11 days.
I have sun, sand, and shopping on the brain. 

Friday, April 20, 2012

FRAMES: UPDATE

My new glasses have arrived!

Just a quick update so I can show them off:


I love them!
And the best part is I can see, again!

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

FRAMES

tortoise shell frames & the argyle

It's official. I'm obsessed. This past winter really took it's toll on my sunglasses collection and I somehow managed to go from 15 pairs to 5. Amazing yet sad, right? I'm officially on a mission to find durable, fashionable, & unique replacements. I recently just ordered a new pair of glasses, tortoise shell frame and since then, I can't stop! My personal faves are the bottom pair. That may go hand in hand with my current cat eye fascination.

I'm going on vacation in less than 3 weeks.

Hopefully, the perfect tortoise shell/cat eye sunglasses are waiting for me in a thrift store somewhere in Florida.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

lighter notes

dreamy

dreamy by redheaddrive featuring emilio pucci sunglasses

I never thought I would be one to pull off a maxi skirt. I happen to think that maxi dresses look terrible on me! I'm only 5'5 so unless I'm wearing some major heels, I just look like a stump. However, this maxi skirt trend is something I can really get behind. I have yet to find the perfect asymmetrical skirt, not for lack of trying, but I have managed to snag a basic black maxi skirt. I love it, however I don't live in the most fashion forward town so I thought now would a good a time as ever to pop in this little anecdote:


I wore said skirt to a party not even 2 weeks ago. I thought I was lookin' good in my black maxi skirt, red platform heels, white collared button up & black + gold cross necklace. I'm mingling, sipping my cheap beer from a can, when suddenly I hear someone ask me, "Are you a Mennonite?" Speechless. As you can expect, a little piece of my fashionista heart died.

With that being said, I promptly exclaimed, "Um, no," and walked away. Offended, but obviously so. Maybe not obvious to anyone else there, but to me and my best friend, it was a verbal assault. Now that this traumatizing event is behind me, I'm on the look out for a more upbeat and flowy maxi skirt (see above)

I also threw in a beautiful platform with each maxi dress, like I said, I look stunted without them. I wanted to mix it up and show the variety of accessories you can use around your face rather than jewelry. I have such a love/hate relationship with jewelry sometimes so I like to mix it up with fun sunglasses & hats. I mean, did you see those Emilio Pucci sunglasses?

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

trendy witch fusion

trendy witch

trendy witch by redheaddrive featuring leopard jewelry

Some sort of nasty virus as infiltrated my body so for the next few days I will be blogging from my sick cave AKA laying on the couch with all the lights off, tissues, and a water bottle.  Since I will be taking it easy for the next few days, I've decided to focus my post on fusing together my favorite trends. On days where I'm feeling a little tough (or I want to look like a badass) I tend to go for black, skulls, leather, crosses, as you can tell from the last post. However, polka dots are my immediate go to when I am feeling light and bubbly. They are, essentially, my happy print.

In my weakened and cold medicine induced haze, I've been playing on Polyvore and I decided to convert the happy, light hearted print TO THE DARK SIDE. Yes, I know that most of the color combinations are pink & black. Yes, that is the classic color combination of angsty 16 year old girls. But those are easy factors to overlook. There are a few things I'd like to point out, specifically:

1. THOSE GOLD ALEXANDER WANG SUNGLASSES. Um, hello? Why are these not on my face at all times?

2. Naturally when I am looking for pieces incorporating skulls, Alexander McQueen and Ironfist are a must have!

3. I am LIVING for gold and black right now.

4. I have never been a fan of animal print (think what you will of me), but leopard print is winning me over. Especially in subtle ways, like the watch.

5. I find the best way to creep out someone, especially in small town, Virginia, is to wear a cross while looking like a demon.


What trends do you like mixing? It's the ultimate way to personalize your style so show me your style, followers!

Friday, April 13, 2012

fashion zombie

I wish I could say the reason I haven't posted lately was because I've been super busy, but that's only half true. In reality, I've been medium busy and incredibly obsessed with The Walking Dead graphic novels. Seriously, my roommate and I have barely talked about anything other than zombies for the past week. Actually, it seems very fitting to be posting this on Friday the 13th.

I've been updating my jewelry collection, and since I've been in this zombie obsessed mood lately, my newest jewelry additions have reflected that. Gold, black, crosses, studs, tassels...I can't get enough! I'm taking looking like a weird goth girl on my casual days to a whole new level.


Looks like girls from the Craft will be my style inspiration for a while, or at least tonight! I'll be going on a thrifting adventure tomorrow and will (hopefully) have some new finds to post!

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Vacation Preparation

It's been just about a year since I've gone on a real vacation. Last June, I went camping in Myrtle Beach for a week and it was awesome, but since then, my life hasn't slowed down too much. Luckily for me, my best friend Mary's sister moved to Florida and we are driving down to visit her next month! I'm really excited to get out of Virginia and put my feet in the sand, but once the reality of packing set in, my feelings changed.

I'm so excited to go thrifting in Florida. From what I've been told by Mary's sister, the thrift stores are great! So not only do I have to consider what I am going to buy, but also what I'm realistically going to pack. Now as a chronic over-packer, I have a hard time putting together outfits in preparation for the week. I typically just like to wake up and go with the flow of what I want to wear for that day, not have it already picked out. Aside from those OCD tendencies I have, I need to be practical....and also, buy a suitcase.

What are the best packing tips? I rarely pack for anything other than a big move.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Happy Humpday!

If you follow my twitter, you know I am not ashamed to say my style, when casual, goes toward the grungy side. Maybe it's the angsty teenage girl inside me, but I can't seem to give up my ripped tights and combat boots. On the lovely shopping trip I took for my birthday, I ran into a girl at H&M who was wearing the most awesome combat boots I've ever seen! Mine are typical boring, black combat boots, like these:

Dollhouse Combat Boots
shop.dollhouse.com
And although I feel like a complete badass when I wear them, they paled in comparison to the bright orange vinyl combat boots this girl was wearing. So in typical Jessica fashion, I gave credit where credit was due and told her I loved her boots. Then, we had a fashionista moment.

"Thank you! Do you know want to know where I got them?" she said, and obviously I had to know. 
"Wal-Mart. Can you believe it?"

 Honestly, I couldn't. From that moment, I have been on the quest for said Wal-Mart combat boots but to no avail. That was, until yesterday, when the boot gods blessed me with these.

Yes, I know the picture quality is terrible but I can't find the USB cord to my camera!
shopgoodwill.com

I knew some retail therapy would do me well yesterday, but I had no idea it would be this good! They were also brand new with the tags attached! Only $4.95 at my local Goodwill. This is just the kind of kick in the ass I needed to get back on my thrifting game so I will be posting more of my lucky finds soon!


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

wedding attire woe

As I mentioned in my last post, I am in the middle of a closet meltdown. I failed to mention, however, another issue I am having. I am going to a wedding in November of this year. My best friend, Jordan, is getting married and our flock (matching feathers tattoos blah blah blah BFFZ FOREVER) are in the wedding. She lives in California while the rest of us are East Coasters, so that is an added struggle because we don't have the opportunity to go shopping with her. The color is silver. That's all I've got. I'm at a total loss. I've never been to a wedding before, well, not since I was 5. Plus, Jordan is the first one of my friends to get married, and a wedding, in general, is a big deal.

Not to mention, I have a hard time with "appropriate." Here are a few options for styles I've found but none are in the color I want.


 

All of these lovely dresses are courtesy of Modcloth.com. Apparently when I think wedding, I think ruffles and bows. Is that the right direction? I'm so lost. I can barely dress myself on the day to day basis right now, how am I supposed to plan something for an important event?

Monday, April 2, 2012

POLYVORE

in like a lamb, out like a lion

I cannot even being to tell you how glad I am the month of March is over. From the very first day, I knew it would be a whirlwind of a month. That is an extreme understatement. I would, or could, make an attempt to list all of the insane things (mostly bad, but a few good ones!) that transpired over the month but that makes my head spin. I'm going with the thought that March was just a month long April Fool's Day joke and now on April 2nd, I'm accepting it and moving on.

On a different note, the change in month did not bring me any more new luck in my wardrobe/fashion crisis I've been having over the past 2 weeks. What is wrong, you ask? EVERYTHING. Half of my bedroom is a closet and I wake up every day and have to spend 30 minutes trying to pick out what to wear, because I just can't find anything. In a frantic attempt to fix my problem, I weeded out and sold some clothes I hadn't worn in a while. This seemed like this could be the answer. Remove the bullshit, keep the good stuff, and go from there. I was wrong. So wrong. So now, here I am, looking online at tons of clothes to get inspiration for new pieces. Also, I'm so in need of a good thrift day, it's sickening. Or it's sickening how badly I need to shop.

I will most likely be spending the next few hours browsing the internet, Lookbook.nu, and laying on my bedroom floor in the dark, crying over my broken wardrobe. Wish me luck! For now, some serious shoe vibes have been present in my life, check these babies out!

Tardy Platform
Jeffrey Campbell
$198
Brooklyn Platform
$68
nastygal.com


Night Lita Platform
Jeffrey Campbell
$205
Gallista Platform
$155


Obviously, I'm a sucker for a platform ALWAYS. Any other shoe trends I could be checking out? Comment away!