Laundry Day and a New Do

Coin Necklace: Gift
Shirt: Thrifted J Crew
Skirt: Anthropologie Sale
Straw Hat: Hand-Me-Down
Sandals: Italian vacation purchase

Summer Inspiration: Toast

I've been a bit disconnected from my computer all weekend, so I don't know if lots of other people have already posted about this....but, I just got the new Toast Spring II Catalog e-mail and can't get over the warm-weather looks they've featured for the upcoming seasons. This is what I want to wear for the next six months -- pops of color, feathers, cute heels, hats, big necklaces, sandals and simple silhouettes. Basically, nothing too fussy, just care free and pretty. Its almost too wonderful for words. Now all I need is for this darned cold rain to stop falling and the sun to come out. Soon enough, I keep telling myself. Soon enough.

Luckily, I've been thrifting some items that are pretty similar so I should be all set for our upcoming summer vacation. Now for deciding on a new hair cut...if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them:)

I'm sorry that I haven't responded to comments or visited many blogs over the past few days. I needed a blog break and took advantage of a rainy working weekend to spend some time away. I hope everyone had a great or at least good Monday!

Shop Update

I've added three more dresses to my Etsy shop.

Its funny, I started to get really stressed out about the shop...and then I realized that this is something I'm doing for fun; for me. No pressure unless I apply it. After that, I felt much better. So I'll just be adding a few items at a time for now, probably once a week.

Goodnight everyone!

The Complete Truth

I've been working on a shop update most of the day today, but it won't be ready until tomorrow. I'm still getting the hang of it:) In the meantime, I wanted pass along a wonderful blog to you all.

If anyone hasn't been to The Complete Truth, I highly recommend it. Its full of the most beautiful photographs, all taken by the creator of the blog, Olof Grind. I don't know much about him, but I always look forward to his posts and instantly click upon the link in my blog roll when they appear. He's been in Casablanca and Marrakech for the past few weeks. Check it out if you have a chance.

Until tomorrow,

Kelley Anne

p.s. Thank you for all of the responses to my poetry post yesterday! Many of you recommended poets that I've never read and I'm so excited to go to the library and check out their work. I'm thinking about doing a regular poetry post, so I just might start off with some of your suggestions. Thanks everyone!

One of My Favorites

A comment that I received the other day from Mila reminded me of something: I love words, in particular, I love poetry. I love poetry so much that even the fiction that I love is often written by authors who are also poets. One of my favorite poets is e. e. cummings. When I was a senior in high school, my A.P. English teacher gave us one of his poems to discuss. I went out and bought a volume of his work. There's something of the intangible, the indescribable in them...his choice of words, punctuation and arrangement get at the tingle that I feel shoot up my spine whenever I catch my husband looking at me with love in his eyes or I take his hand in mine. It was everything I hoped to feel long before I met him and very accurately captures my feelings for him now. Even if you don't like poetry, please give it a chance...you might realize that you do like some poetry:)

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
-the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

- e. e. cummings

Night Time Checkers

I wasn't planning on taking outfit photos tonight, but when I came home from work Dan looked at me and said "Are you ready to go out and take some pictures?" I just couldn't turn him down. He was so excited that you all liked the ones he took yesterday and checked the comments throughout the day. Tonight he played around with some night photos and had some definite opinions about them. He even tried to convince me to change my jacket because I wore it yesterday and he found it visually uninspiring. So apparently, I have a new photographer contributing to my blog:)

I felt like playing around with patterns today, so I decided to wear the jacket again and paired it with this blue and white dress (worn as a blouse). I was also really inspired by all of the Swedish Hasbeens that I've been seeing on various blogs and decided to do my own take on the look with these black tights and light brown sandals.

Dan and I both really liked the way that the photos turned out, I hope you all do too.

Bracelets: Thrifted and F21
Dress as Blouse: Thrifted
Purse: Thrifted Vintage
Necklace: Mall ??
Jacket: Vintage
Tights: Target
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Clarks
Earrings: Gift
Skirt: Thrifted

P. S. We're watching Pulp Fiction while I'm editing the photos and writing this post. I'd forgotten how great it is. I hope everyone has a great night or day depending on where you are!

Churches, Trees and Swing Coats...Oh My!

Well, the title is an exaggeration, really there is only one church, one featured tree, and one swing coat in this post. I hope you're not too disappointed:)

Dan has been training for a marathon for the past few months. Each morning he maps out his run and sets off, much of the time covering new ground and seeing new parts of our neighborhood and beyond. To my delight, when he returned yesterday he told me about a place that he wanted to bring me to take some outfit photos. I normally take all of my own photographs for the blog with a timer and a tripod, which I enjoy, but it is fun sometimes to let him do the shooting...and its a good excuse for us to take a walk together and for him to practice with my camera.

The place that we visited was very interesting. We weren't sure if it was an old playground or parking lot...really it could have been either. There's also an abandoned church next door where we took a few more photographs. It was a fun way to spend an hour this afternoon and a good way for me to get out of the basement for my outfit photos.

Dress: Thrifted 70's Vintage
Tights: Hue, Anthro Sale
Tie: Thrifted Dress Tie
Jacket: Vintage
Shoes: Clarks

(He took LOTS of pictures, the rest of which are posted on my Flickr page if anyone is interested.)

The outfit was fun to put together. The forecast said that it would be in the high 50's here today and I got very excited and thought about pulling out some of my pastel dresses. But instead I was really drawn to this sweet little black dress with its lacy peter pan collar. (When I thrifted it, I was reminded of the post about Minna Hepburn over at Sally Jane Vintage). Its ribbed down the front to the waist and has a matching tie for the waist, but I really just wanted to wear it sort of loosie-goosie today with a hint of red and my short checked swing jacket. I've had the jacket for three years, but never know how to wear it. It felt perfect today though, not too heavy, not too light and very comfortable.