rain, rain, go away

a few days ago, i left the mild weather in palo alto and returned in the middle of a blustery and near monsoonal storm here in portland. it actually doesn't bother me, because it's not cold - and i will take rain over cold ANY day. i've heard from some people (ahem, my parents), though, that constant rain can be a bit of a downer. so for any of you who need a little sunshine in your spirits, let me share with you some things that make me happy when skies are gray:

first off, these little pill/trinket boxes from urban outfitters are divine. it's no secret that i love macarons, so it shouldn't be a surprise that i love these. the colors, the style, the gold embellishments - so cute and parisian!

urbanoutfitters.com

i was trolling fab.com the other day looking for christmas presents when i stumbled upon these beauties from Retro Love. something about these simple photographs is stunning to me - maybe it's the pale but bright colors, maybe it's the text-image juxtaposition, maybe it's because i just plain like this style. a lot of these photos also come in iphone cases, so when i get my iphone, i will for sure be purchasing a case from this lady...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RetroLovePhotography?ref=top_trail

although i love my dependable and chic hunters, sometimes i want something a little flashier to put a spring in my step on a rainy day. i've gotten tons of compliments walking down the streets in portland wearing these wellies from sakroots. they're gorgeous AND i got them at costco!

sakroots.com

so i'm trying really hard not to become a crazy cat lady, but i'll tell you - cats are not making this easy. don't get me wrong, i love all animals, but cats are just SO CUTE. today, my friend matt had to force me to change the background of my phone away from a picture of a cat that's not even mine. but backing away from a life of feline-ridden spinsterhood is a gradual process, so give me some allowances along the way - like this little ring from madewell.

madewell.com

and there you have it! things that make me happy when the sky is crying. what about you? what brightens your rainy day?

the season of wishlists is upon us

allow me to interrupt your endless refreshing of 538 for just a minute to share with you some of my new favorite things.

with halloween soundly (and sadly) behind us, it's now time to focus on the fact that love actually season is just a moment away. i'll probably be doing a lot of entries centered on gift ideas (particularly useful if you're buying a gift for me) because gift giving is both an art and a challenge. i don't want to pull you away from looking at instagrammed pictures of peoples' ballots for too long, though, so here are some of my favorite things right now:

first off, i have to draw attention to the beautiful jewelry of abacus row. each piece is hand-made by my dear friend, christine. her designs are simple, elegant, and eye-catching. this blue bracelet is one of my favorites.

glamour.com

second, kate spade has partnered with keds to release a new line of completely amazing (and comfortable) canvas flats. these won't be coming out in time for christmas (they're due out in february), but i'm obsessed already.

beardowear.ca

speaking of obsessed, i must have these. i'm usually pretty impartial to moustache-themed things, but this is genius and i love it.

wearableplanter.com

and last but not least, i am highly intrigued by this new wearable greenery trend. i like the idea of a lapel pin better than a necklace or earrings, which i feel like would swing around too much. but how great is this? it's a little tiny planter. my only question - hypothetically speaking, say i have the opposite of a green thumb and can pretty much kill plants just by looking at them wrong. how quickly will my lapel plants die? because while wearing live plants is adorable, wearing dead plants is weird and creepy.

okay - i am going back to ignoring facebook and trying to do actual work and not think about the election. bisoux!

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!