guest post at north country girl!

You can find today's post over at North Country Girl, the inimitable and charming blog of Michal. Her casual-but-refined style mixes vintage and contemporary to great effect. Not only is she super stylish, she's also a talented musician and an avid reader. She was one of the first people to take an interest in my blog, and over the months, we've become friends and, recently, penpals! Her support still means so much to me. I hope someday soon I get to actually meet her in person :)

My post for her today features a look inspired by my favorite book, If on a winter's night a traveler. Go check it out!

dressed like that, you must be living in a different world

shirt: thrift -- cardigan: thrift -- shorts: thrift -- shoes: thrift -- sunnies: small town county fair -- earrings: random vendor outside my school's bookstore (her business model is everything is $2. Geeeeenius.)


I spent the afternoon with Alex today, which was lovely! We went for a drive around San Jose, and he pulled over at this great sixties-built church for some photo-taking. It reminded me a lot of the pictures I've seen of Palm Springs architecture, and it seemed like the perfect SoCal-esque backdrop for our SoCal-esque weather.



Everything I'm wearing in this outfit was all purchased from different 50% off thrift store sales. I think that makes the grand total $9, $15 with the sunglasses and earrings. Take that, Urban Outfitters! (Or, as Alex calls it, "the store for people who haven't discovered thrift stores." That said, he buys his Levi's there and I sometimes buy stuff on sale. Ok, and I bought some Levi's there recently, too. Hypocrisy!)


My legs are SO pale. It's like I have on white tights.


Alex descends into the picnic gazebo thing in one of our favorite city parks.


We don't kid around. Wait, all we do is kid around...



One of the best things about this park is that it's adjacent to this teeny random thrift store that's part of a Catholic school/church. It's open for about four hours a day, so actually making it inside is always an event. They were having an "everything's a dollar" sale, so I picked up a really cool sixties beach cover up/dress thing and a really cool sixties blouse/tunic/thing.


My haircut is in exactly a week, and I can't wait. It's way, way too long/fluffy right now. Gonna get a Jean Seberg pixie!


It will be the baldest I have ever been since I was a baby!

A couple of you asked about photo-taking in my last post. Well, the answer to that is somewhat complex. Since starting this blog in late August, I've posted outfit photos from at least six different cameras. I have a little point-and-shoot, which is what I usually use. If I have a DSLR checked out from my school, I like to use that. If I mention that Alex took the photos, he took them on his DSLR, usually.  Alex can't take my photos most of the time since we live about 30 minutes away from each other and really only hang out on weekends. Most of the time, I just use self-timer and a tripod, no remote.

Today's title comes from The Undertones -- Get Over You, a super fun punk/new wave gem.

i don't mind dressing in green if i thought that you'd understand what i mean

Spent a beautiful afternoon taking photos with Alex in the park. It was CRAZY warm today. 65 degrees warm. What a treat! One more reason to love the South Bay.










I love when everything is green! The hills all turn brown in the sun by May, normally, so there's a very brief window where things are all bucolic and verdant like this.




On me: skirt: thrift -- top: thrift -- jacket: thrift -- shoes: Jeffrey Campbell / On Alex: cords: Levi's -- sweater: thrift -- shoes: thrift -- hat: Scala -- jacket: Vintage Members Only, thrifted







Today's title comes from The Soft Boys -- There's Nobody Like You. The Soft Boys are a really amazing, influential, and sadly under-appreciated group from the seventies. I strongly recommend their album Underwater Moonlight to any fans of post-punk and 80s alternative!

swinging down the street so fancy free

Just a reminder that today (Tuesday) is the last day to enter the cardigan and purse giveaway!

Alex took these shots of me in downtown Los Altos, a little suburban town that borders my own little (less-charming) suburban town. It was a beautiful sunny winter day. We had fun wandering around and stopping into a few shops as we went. Everything there is quite old-timey feeling. Very Main Street, USA.


skirt: thrift -- bodysuit: thrift -- shoes: thrift -- bag: thrift -- coat: vintage, present from my sister like six years ago -- earrings: Target, present from Alex

This skirt is actually my sister Molly's, technically. We were once at Goodwill together like five years ago, and I walked in, saw this on the rack, and then got distracted by something else before I picked it up. In the intervening minute, Molly also saw it and picked it up. So I just stole it out of her closet last year...which she will now realize when she reads this! Sorry! You can have it back if you want :)







I don't often wear this skirt because I find that it's quite hard to style. Is it black? is it white? floral? graphic? I know not! I gave up on trying to do something that followed my usual matching instincts and just threw in some plaid checks and hoped that would work out okay. I like it! I think it's kinda funky but also classic.






Can't get enough of these shoes!

And now a photo from today showcasing the super rad shirt I bought Alex for Christmas!


I wish it were some cool vintage thing, but it's actually just from Out of Print, a company that makes shirts with cool early-edition book covers on them. The shirt is of great quality and is perfectly weathered. I'd recommend it to anyone! They also donate one book for each shirt sold to Books for Africa so you can feel good about your consumerism ;)

As it happens, that's the same cover my edition of Slaughterhouse-Five has!


Made all cool and vintage-looking to compensate for the horrible flash photo on my point and shoot.

Tomorrow, the de Young museum with my grandmother! We're going to see the Impressionists exhibit featuring paintings from the d'Orsay, which should be great.

Today's title comes from The Seekers -- Georgy Girl. Fun fact! The lyrics to that song were written by Jim Dale, the guy who does the seriously amazing audiobooks for Harry Potter. Random, eh?

the angels wanna wear my red shoes

Alex and I woke up to sunshine coming through my window, so we decided to eat our breakfast outside. We had oatmeal, toast, and tea :) Delight in my still-wet hair and makeup-less face!


sweater: thrift (Alex came across this one in the store <3) -- skirt: thrift -- boots: thrift -- tights: Marshall's


Hippo orgy Taylor & Ng mug my mom gave me! I use this thing like five times a day. I'm obsessed with tea.


This is Alex's "Sophi, I've been up for half an hour, get that camera out of my face" expression.


Alex and I finally managed to take a halfway decent photo of us. We have a tendency to be the ones taking photos at parties, so even when we aren't by ourselves, there never ends up being any photos of us. Bah!

I went to go see Harry Potter (again, even better this time!) with my family and our family friends. Afterwards we had the best Indian meal I've had in my life. And you're talking to a girl who has had a lot of Indian food.

Here is a photo of me and my sisters! This is quite an event, you see. One of my sisters lives in Mexico, the other lives in Massachusetts, and I live here in the Bay Area. There were two cameras out, which means that we're looking in different, weird directions in all the photos. Oops. I liked how this one turned out, even though we're not looking at the right camera :P


Rachel (oldest), Molly (middle), and me (youngest). This looks like a Starbucks ad.

I hope you're all having a lovely, festive time! I think I won't post again until Boxing Day, so all my warmest holiday wishes your way :)

Today's title comes from Elvis Costello -- The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes.

And a little shoutout to remind you to enter my sweater and purse giveaway!

postcards from pigeon point

Here are the promised photos from Alex and my trip to Pescadero and Pigeon Point! It was a really relaxing, easygoing little getaway :) I wore my kneesocks+shorts look again since I figure that it's only getting colder at this point, and I might as well take advantage of the weather while I can.


The Pigeon Point Lighthouse to the left and the hostel to the right! It was quite a gloomy-looking afternoon, as you can see... Definitely that moody, cloudy coastal thing.


When we first got to Pescadero, Alex and I practiced our intense faces...


...and poked around the little thrift shop


They had a lot of Christmas stuff. The store was quite small, but I found a folding table that's just the right size for me to use in front of my couch in my room at school (I don't have a desk there).


Everywhere we went had lots of quaint, coastal charm. Peeling paint, rust...


Alex looking out at the moody ocean in the late afternoon.


This was the view off of the cliff the hostel and Lighthouse are on. At night, Alex and I partook in the hostel's hot tub (pretty cool hostel, eh?), which is on the edge of the cliff and looks out onto this very view. Sooo pretty.


At the beach! It was really dark so it was hard to take good photos :\


Alex was quite pleased with this photo that he took, so I thought I'd post it on here :) There was a pay phone because cell phones don't work out there. The parking lot is currently under construction, hence the caution tape and the orange mesh.


This was the view out of our room's window. Even though it's a hostel, we were able to book a private room, which was quite nice. Pescadero is definitely a small town. There were literally two places we could have dinner, and one of them had closed early. That was okay though because we ended up eating awesome food at the taqueria/convenience store/gas station.

Yesterday evening, we headed over to Ashley of Fancy Fine's holiday pop-up vintage store party! I got to meet all kinds of stylish bloggers and their friends and partners. It was such a wonderful time! I really enjoyed myself. I took some photos there on my film camera, but I haven't finished the roll yet. I'll be sure to post 'em up here when I have them processed. Ashely put some photos up on her blog today, if you want to take a look.

Don't forget to enter the sweater and purse giveaway!

we're all about each other

So, I spent the entire day today and late into the night yesterday working on a paper, so I'm pretty intellectually wiped and disinclined to write. Photo Friday is going to be Photo Saturday this week. I am bad at this whole weekly feature thing; damn my busy lifestyle! I think I'll stockpile some Photo Friday posts over break.

In the mean time, look at what I woke up to find on my Facebook this morning! Alex made it :D Be prepared for pukeworthy cuteness. It's from a day we spent in Monterey in February.



I think I'm going to get that haircut again, I just love it! Anyway, isn't he the best?

The song in the video and the post title is Peter, Bjorn & John -- Paris 2004.

And I am so sorry I haven't read like any blog posts this week. I'm seriously so busy. I've got a pretty relaxing weekend, though, so I'll do my best!

What are you up to this weekend?

because it's bound to be less boring than today

I have on a pretty boring outfit today since I'm about to go off to traffic court :( to see if I can get a reduction on my $500 red light camera ticket for running the light by .16 seconds. Anyway, since I'm boringly dressed, I thought I'd share some pictures Alex and I took over the weekend when I had on a much cooler outfit. He took the ones of me, I took the ones of him!


jeans: thrift, altered by me, $4 -- top: thrift, $4 -- scarf: made with some fabric my Grandmother gave me -- jacket: vintage, $19 -- boots: thrift, $7 -- belt: thrift, $2






Alex has on all thrift/vintage except his beanie, which is from the flea market. The top and jeans are Levi's.


Could he be any more adorable?



This is my last week of school before the Thanksgiving break, but it's definitely going to be a busy one. All kinds of things to do and places to go! Can't wait to get in some R&R :)

Today's title is from Belle & Sebastian -- "If You're Feeling Sinister."