Late Summer Love Dress

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I know it is not really “late summer” yet. I would say we are smack dab in the middle of summer as far as time plotting goes. However, Late Summer Love is the name of this dress and since I spent hours minutes staring at these outfit pictures trying to come up with a title and nothing came to me. Well, we went with the name of the dress. And when I say “we”, I mean “I”. Just like when I say “late summer” I mean “middle summer”. Unless I actually mean late summer but at that point I would probably call it early fall.

We are a walking contradiction.

For instance, sometimes I will have to layer something underneath a short dress or I feel naked. Other times, I will leave the house in a dress my husband mistook for a shirt.

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I do not know why some pieces of clothing garner different rules than others. It is a conundrum.

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This is off topic (if we were ever really on one), but my son calls this pose my chicken pose. That makes me laugh. Or rather squawk.

We took these pictures the other day at my daddy’s apiary. In the second picture above this one, you can see some old hives. I grew up wandering these paths.

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I love this picture. It is probably my favorite outfit picture my husband has ever taken. I am not sure why. But it is such a candid shot, because I did not know my husband had started shooting. I like that I am fixing my gnome. It reminds me of being a little girl on that very road.

Although my mother never would have let me wear a dress that short.

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My husband agrees with her.

I will pair this dress with leggings, tights and maybe even jeans in the wintertime.

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Back to my son’s earlier observation: What would happen if I made it to the other side of this road?

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Whatever the answer, I hope I could get there without flashing anybody.

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I love the lilac tones in this dress mixed with the yellow. I purchased this dress with my birthday discount and a gift card while it is on sale.

And although it is short, it has really cool sleeves.

That is important.

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‘Cause when you’re marching to your own beat, it’s nice to be able to do it with a little flare, regardless of the name of the season or the stance of your pose.

Do you have odd rules about clothes? Do you ever contradict yourself?

I do not know why I do. Squawk!

Embroidered Doll Dress

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I have something I want to say.

“I LOVE THIS DRESS!!!”

Sorry, that was slightly unnecessary. But it is true.

I do.

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In, fact, I cannot seem to stop staring at the gorgeous embroidery. As demonstrated in my accidental pose above. It just makes me so happy. I had patiently waited for a sale on the Embroidered Peasant Doll Dress, and when it reached more than 60% off, I asked for it for my birthday.

It is short.

In fact, when my husband took these pictures, he exclaimed, “that dress is RE-E-E-A-A-ALLY short!”

This is coming from the guy that never notices if the entire back of my dress is unbuttoned. I knew it had to be a little too short if he was making a proclamation. I tried not to flashback to all of the bending and reaching I did at the grocery store in the dress, the day before. All of this to say, from this point on I will now be wearing a slip under this dress.

Modesty: it’s a virtue a necessity at my age exercise level.

Anyway, I wish I had gotten a close up shot of the neckline. It has little red stitching with the blue.

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In the last two photos, I have a hidden little gnome on my person.

It happens.

However, on the ride home, my husband informed me that my gnome bore an uncanny resemblance to my nemesis…

Elf On The Shelf.

And now he is back in my house. And he is surrounded by his multitude of brothers, because he came in a pack.

And I am trying to not freak the freak out.

Maybe I need to go look at this dress again.

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Ahhhhh, here we go. Isn’t that embroidery lovely? It definitely does not in any way remind me of creepy little dudes in red.

And that Scalloped Monogram Bracelet is now on sale at Anthropologie. I own one with my initial and one with my husband’s.

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Don’t worry.

I’m simply spinning.

I am not running away in terror.

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But I will be watching my back… Just in case.

What do you do about dresses that are too short? Do you wear them anyway? Or do you pair them with pants or a slip? I think this will be cute with tights in the winter, but what color should I wear?

*these photos were edited using the App Afterlife’s Meadow Filter.

P.S. * I shared this on The Pleated Poppy!

Orange and White Mini

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I bought this dress a year ago. It is one of my favorites. It is one of my husband’s leasts. Or, rather, it was last year. It has grown on him and the day I wore this, he proclaimed that he liked it.

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I love the vintage feel of this dress. I found some similar vintage options on Etsy here and here.

The dress is by Tracy Reese. It was called, “At Sea Mini Dress” (slightly similar Tracy Reese Dress here and Urban Outfitter’s similar fit here). I have no idea why. Well, actually I do. Did you see my creative title for this post? This dress is impossible to name. I kept trying to think of a title, “Orange… Orange… Orange?” Nothin’. So, I can see why it got a random name at production that has nothing whatsoever to do with the dress. It’s actually kinda genius and I shall be doing it more often.

Oh, that old thing? Oh, that was called. Hmmm. Let’s see, ah, yes, I remember. “See Ants Run Dress.”

Like I said. It’s fool hardy proof.

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I layered the star necklace my husband had gifted me for Christmas (blue version here) with the Moon Necklace from the Etsy shop, Lunahoo.

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What do you think this dress should have been called?

In writing this post, I have thought of a new one, “Orange Clover Dress.”

Isn’t that clover clever?

No? Well, how about, “Lucky Dress”?

Hear me out. It has a clover pattern and you have to be very lucky not to drop somethin’ on the day you wear this. ‘Cause bending over… It’s not an option. Plus, with the necklaces shown here, you could even exclaim, “Thank my lucky stars!” if someone catches the item you dropped for you.

Have you ever wanted something more just because of its name? I have. Many times. Modcloth does the best job with its naming. Although, Anthropologie had me with Frangipani.

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I Learned Something New

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I went on a date night with my husband a bit ago and I learned something new. Not about him, of course. Although, there are still moments when I do and those are pieces of information I savor. No, I learned about a new species.

I went on a date night and discovered a new species!

How and when does that ever happen?

Perhaps my great to the trillionth grandfather was Christopher Columbus. Or perhaps I need to get out more. Or read more. Or…

Let’s just skip the possibilities, they are too endless.

We’ll get to what I discovered, but first and much more importantly, what did I wear?

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I wore jeans. I wanted to get dressed up, but I didn’t have it in me that night. So, I just wore what I had worn all day. The dress is the Free People Mamounia Dress. I purchased mine from Nordstrom Rack for $50 (the link goes to a different store). I broke my rule for one piece of jewelry by piling on a bunch of bracelets and necklaces. I was exhausted on this day and nothing keeps one awake quite like the jingling of jewelry on one’s wrists.

Or gives one quite as big of a headache.

I ate a granola bar before we left. ‘Cause I was starving. I knew I would turn into a beast if I did not eat something before we left.

The Jenni Beast was not the new species I discovered. Besides, she was discovered long ago. You can tame her with food. Compliments. And clothes. This is important information to have if you ever see her in the wild. She is quite destructive.

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We went to my favorite restaurant. It is outdoors and has beautiful views. The price is right (we split a bottle of wine, an appetizer, a pizza and two desserts for $63 before tip). There was live music playing in the restaurant. The food is fabulous. My favorite in town.

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We ordered our beloved fries for an appetizer. They take the chef three days to make in a secret recipe.

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We sat in the garden. On the beautiful landscaped slope next to me, a poppy plant was being tugged on by its roots. It scared me at first, but then it was comical as we realized it was probably a gopher having dinner. It must have been a rebel gopher, because it is illegal here in California to hurt the state flower. We can’t pick it. I assume you probably can’t eat it either. But could the gopher have gotten high from the roots? Would it be like opium? These were the questions we asked each other over dinner.

Okay, those are the questions I asked my husband. To which he replied, “No.”

Darn. I had imagined a happy, plump little gopher in his hole kicking back and deciphering the patterns of the dirt in his tunnel.

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He took pictures of me happy after wine.

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And contemplating a gopher high on drugs.

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I did not take a picture of our barbecue chicken pizza, but it was yummy. My husband and I had a handshake over our deal when we both discovered we hate red onions on our pizza. So we shook on never ordering them on it again.

And it was heavenly.

But we did get pictures of our two pretty desserts we ordered.

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Here is where I introduce a new species. You thought it was a Druggie Gopher, didn’t you?

Nope. It was indeed a Hummingbird Moth!

A Hummingbird Moth!

Now, when I took these pictures, I assumed this was a baby hummingbird. At first I thought it was some kind of bee, but it moved too fast and was not shaped like one. We determined it was the smallest hummingbird we had ever seen. Even the masculine guy at the table next to me locked eyes with me and made a pinching motion with his two fingers to indicate how tiny and adorable the cute little hummingbird was.

Or he wanted to crush my head with his fingertips. One can never be sure.

Our side of the restaurant was enthralled with the little guy. He zipped by my head and hovered in front of me for the briefest second.

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As we were leaving, we saw a colony of what we thought were miniature hummingbirds flitting in and out of the flowers. They were adorable. I even got a picture of one.

It turns out hummingbirds do not like to gather nectar together. Hummingbird Moths do. I discovered these little facts here and here after I searched for “Tiny Hummingbird” on the internet. It turns out if you think you see the tiniest hummingbird you have ever seen or even a baby hummingbird (baby hummingbirds cannot fly), you are actually observing a Hummingbird Moth. There are twelve hundred varieties of the Hummingbird Moth and they live all over the world! The one in the Western half of the United States (and the one I saw) is the Snowberry Clearwing (isn’t that a lovely name?) and the Eastern side of the United Stares typically hosts the Hummingbird Clearwing. The Hummingbird Moth is also less skittish than the hummingbird and will let you get close to it.

What a cool, fascinating little creature.

I never knew these existed. Did you?

Also, I am curious. Where did you go on your last date night? Do you dress up? Or do you wear jeans?

Outfit Source List: Free People Mamounia Dress, Anthropologie Pilcro Flares (old), Bracelets from H & M (old, similar here), Anthropologie layering necklaces (old, similar here), and Lucky Brand Emmie Silver Flats.