so long, sweet summer

according to my trusted sources, summer is over. this cataclysmic tragedy can only be tempered by two things: pumpkin flavored beverages, and fall fashion.

one of my best purchases lately has to be this h&m blazer in navy blue. long, boyish-but-feminine, and in an versatile neutral.

i'm excited to pair it with some of my flashier accessories. summer may be over, but you'll have to pry the neon from my cold, dead hands.

navy also pairs really well with coral and rose gold, two of my favorite summer-fall transition colors.

i am also really into this flowing, over-sized blouse trend. i paired this shirt (or a shirt like it that was cheaper and from nordstrom rack) with a pair of black flat-front shorts yesterday and accessorized with a bold gold necklace:

nordstrom.com

as for bottoms...i can't yet give up my neon matchstick ankle jeans, or my patterned shorts, or my skirts, or my white capris (yes, i'm still wearing white - didn't you hear? people finally don't care about when you wear white clothes). new distressed jeans, though, may ease the separation anxiety...

lastly, i'm a little in love with this new fragrance from marc jacobs. like everything else here, it's a little bit summer and a little bit fall - the perfect balance between floral, feminine, and classic. plus, it's packaging is inspired by an insect! i can't splurge for the whole bottle right now (slash until i have a real job) so i've been content with the samples the ladies at nordstrom give me.

refinery29.com

so in conclusion, so long sweet summer. thanks for the beach trips, the summer camps, the hiking, the cliff-jumping, the barbeques, the opportunity to drive around with the windows down blasting call me maybe (or when that got old, we are never ever getting back together). i will welcome you again with open arms in nine months.

welcome to the world, autumn. you've got a lot to live up to!

the best reasons to bid electronic calendars "adieu"

when it comes to calendars and planners, i'm a purist. google calendar, my smart phone calendar, ical...none of these really do it for me. ever since i was a wee middle schooler, i've been hopelessly devoted to the paper-based planner. every year, it's a source of excitement and agony, choosing the perfect new planner for the new year. what will serve my purposes best? what size? what style? august-august or january-december?  let's look at the myriad options...

first, we need to decide on style. i'm just going to ignore all the month-by-month planners because that's a little useless, in my opinion. we are interested only in week-by-week or day-by-day. these are the ones that give you the best venue for keeping track of appointments, projects, assignments, and plans. ecosystem life has kindly offered graphics for your viewing pleasure:

 week-by-week:

day-by-day:

personally, i'm partial to the week-by-week. i find that i don't necessarily do assignments and projects on certain days, so i like to have a running list of things i need to do on one side, and a place for appointments/classes on the other.

knowing that, i've gone through a few options:

ecosystem life planner

the first is the ecosystem life planner. i liked this planner a lot for it's "green" sourcing (you could even enter the special code for your planner and see where all the materials came from) and it's pretty colors. i have heard a little rumor, though, that this planner has been discontinued...but it's still a good one.

then there's the uncalendar. i love this planner so much i can't handle it. it's a little overwhelming, because everything is left blank and personalizable. i love it. but i don't always get it because sometimes i feel like it's a little too much.

uncalendar lifestyle

it's also ugly as sin, so i have to make my own collage-style cover for it. the other downside to uncalendars is that they're a little hard to find. but not impossible.

then there's the tried and true, beautiful, luxurious, and coveted moleskine. my basic pattern is to get a moleskine every other year. they're expensive, but hold together like a champ.

the classic is always a winner:

i'm really, really intrigued by this special evernote moleskine - this looks like some super high-tech stuff. it doesn't seem to have a planner version yet, but the notebook seems rad.

but my deal was done when i saw this yesterday at the PSU bookstore:

your eyes do not deceive you - that is indeed a limited edition le petit prince moleskine. it's a week-by-week (there is a beautiful yellow day-by-day one too, but it's humongous) with color illustrations from LPP on the insides of the covers. it comes with a bitty LPP themed desk calendar and address book. AND IT IS PERFECT.

i can't believe i just wrote that much about planners, but clearly this is a really important matter, so i guess it's warranted. 

bisoux!

holden caulfield goes back to school and so can you

true confessions of charlotte doyle: going back to school hasn't been exciting for me since the days of supply lists and target shopping sprees. i miss choosing my binder (canvas or zip? five star or mead?), picking out my folders (where the where do you find yellow trapper keepers anyway?), selecting my elaborate collection of lisa frank pens, pencils, pouches, and erasers. no matter how i try to recreate this experience, it's never the same as coming home with bags full of goodies and meticulously writing your name on every school supply you own (we all did that, right?).

but i will admit, i am pretty excited about my favorite back-to-school trend this year: updated takes on the schoolboy satchel.

this is the look i'm trying to emulate this year:

so profesh.

there are so many enticing options. the billykirk schoolboy satchel is marketed to men, but i think it would be stunning for anyone:

jcrew.com

my ultimate favorite satchel is from the cambridge satchel company - i'm specifically obsessed with the fluoro collection. 

since i lack, however, a ridiculous amount of disposable income, i have landed on this satchel to satisfy my lust for bright pink british-inspired goodness:

steve madden

it's about $100 less than the cambridge bags (with the nordstrom sale) and it's the perfect size for my netbook or ipad, planner, wallet, and phone. my default school bag will always be my timbuk2, but for those days when i'm just going to the office and need just a few things, this will be perfect.

so that's my satchel story. i'm pretty excited about this trend and would love to hear what you think. are there schoolboy satchels (or other derivative styles) in your back-to-school/work future?

back to school

in spite of the fact that i'm the worst blogger in the world, i've decided to start with no mea culpas this time, guys, just a "i'm glad to be back" and an "i hope that i get to post often this coming fall." both of which are true.

speaking of this fall, a lot is changing for me. although i'm still at the george washington university, now it's as a phd student, which means that now i have students, which means that now i have to dress like a grown-up. priority one? ditching my backpack (which is mostly held together by staples anyway. fact) for a cute messenger bag. i'm hopefully going to start saving for this one from moop, but in the meantime, i quite like this one from target, which is 14% of the price. target for the win!

also, we're moving to a 380 squre foot apartment in dc. i'm hoping to put together a green living/living in a tiny apartment post soon.

i hope your summer was lovely, and that your fall is full of adventures and pretty things. cheers, loves.

1. this stripey dress 
2. my trusty new york public library student planner (note: this is the only planner i will ever use for the rest of my life)
3. this mossimo bag 
4. the tempest (for the shakespeare and film class i'm ta-ing)
5. this ikea lamp (to make my office suck a little less)
6. this rabbit notebook
7. these fake glasses, because i can't help myself

laser cut earrings!

warning: this is going to be the worst how-to ever because i'm going to share with you a really cool and exciting thing, and you probably won't be able to copy it because it requires the use of a $18,000 piece of equipment. now you know. i apologize in advance.

you're probably heard a little bit about a project i've been involved with, sparktruck.well, sparktruck came to portland this week and before they left we took advantage of the amazing equipment to make some new jewelry.

step one: design the jewelry! i used adobe illustrator, but this is a picture of zoe designing her earrings on adobe ideas, on the ipad.

next, we made the designs laser-cutter friendly on illustrator. this is a mix of magic and computer nerdery. 

next, we pressed the little green button and let the laser cutter do it's job! this is an action shot of the laser-cutter etching the ginkgo leaves. 

then, voila!! we popped the designs out of the wood and punched out the in-between parts. this is how they looked! this was an extremely exciting moment.

after being cut out, it was time to snazz things up...i used copper wire to string the wood onto earring backs. then, i used watercolors to paint them pretty colors! i went a little overboard on the bubbles pair, so i need to deal with that somehow. these turned out well though!

needless to say, i'm pretty proud of these. they're also super light, so even though they're big, they don't weigh down my ears. if you have access to a laser cutter, you should definitely try this out. if i had more dependable access to one, i may never do anything else ever again. but in the absence of your own laser cutter, you can just admire my creations. so cool!

your new favorite thing

so i am compiling a large number of crafty posts, but in the meantime, i want to bring your attention to my new favorite thing. somehow this hasn't blown up all over beauty blogs, as far as i can tell. that probably means i'm a trendsetter.

overall, i love my hair. it's heavy, but it has great volume. it's coarse, but it curls and straightens with equal ease. it can't hold hair color, but my natural color is dynamic and deep. my only real complaint is that my hair is dull. it's lack of shiny brightness has been the drain of many of my dollars, sunk into various serums, gels, and pomades.

recently, my mom purchased moroccan argan oil and IT'S AMAZING. i put a dime-sized amount through my hair and when i dry it, voila! shiny shine. and softness! so much softness. it's fabulous. also, i read in wikipedia (so you know it's true) that argan oil is produced by women's cooperatives from tribes in morocco that split the profits. i'm pretty sure that's a good thing.

i've been using the organix argan oil. organix has a whole line of argan oil shampoos, oils, etc. i may try out the other stuff eventually, but i'm really liking just the straight up oil.

now my hair is perfect. yay!

my cherry week

oh HEY.
so...oops, i guess it's been like three months since either haylie or i wrote an entry. desole!! to make up for it, i'm going to write an entry every day this week. so awesome of me!

today's entry is about nail decals!

this blog makes it look like i'm a little obsessed with my nails, which i (a little bit) am. my life is a constant war of wanting to bite my nails because it's calming and wanting beautiful perfect nails and to not look like a crazy person who gnaws on her nails all the time.

today at target i picked up some nail decals - i was intrigued by a) the instant drying-ness, b) the pretty patterns, and c) the clearance price.


i did not get the cheetah print, in case you're wondering. i got white with black polka dots.

the box makes this process look ridiculously simple. all you do (ostensibly) is peel off the little strip, put it on your nail, and marvel at how awesome you look. let me assure you that this was not my experience, exactly.

the strips come in a variety of sizes for your different fingernails. i started with the thumb first, which is apparently the opposite of what you're supposed to do, according to the directions. oops. anyway, instead of giving you the play-by-play, i'll just cut to the chase.

the pros:
- the nail strips break easily, and you can use one nail strip for two nails if your nails are embarrassingly short, like mine.
- they look pretty if you don't look too close

the cons:
- it's really hard to get a secure fit around your nails. i still have some unwanted bits and weird folds where i don't want them.
- sometimes when trying to remove the excess, i almost removed the whole decal. problematic.
- it somehow took me 45 minutes to do this, which might be as long as it would take me to paint my nails white and add little black dots.

the bottom line:

it's possible that i would try this again, it kind of depends on how long it lasts. i had to frankenstein some pieces together at the end for some nails that looked a little disastrous, so we'll see if that makes a difference. i would also add the disclaimer that i am historically bad at these kinds of precision tasks, so if others are more adept at things like this, they may have more successful results.

c'est ca!
bisoux!