TheMilkCo Vintage Purse Giveaway!

Photo Friday is on hiatus this week to make room for the giveaway :)

I"m so excited to share with you all my friend Jasiel's awesome Etsy shop, TheMilkCo! Her shop has unique but still easy-to-wear pieces at affordable prices. I made a collage with some of my personal favorites for fall :)



She's offering this awesome 80s purse for one lucky reader! Its rich, deep colors will match all kinds of different fall and winter outfits, and  the cute patchwork detailing really stands out from the crowd.



To enter...
1) Visit TheMilkCo and report back with a link to your favorite item
2) Tell me how you're following my blog--Google Friend Connect/Blogger, Bloglovin', or Facebook
3) Leave an email address so I can contact you if you win!

No international shipping, I'm afraid :(

The deadline to enter is Friday, November 26.

Good luck!

all the dreams were just early plans

Jin took this for me cause she's a photo goddess.

Here I am at the gallery opening! It was kind of sparsely attended since it was on a Wednesday night and there were two gallery openings last night, haha, but I didn't really mind. The work is up in a very high-traffic building, which, although it makes me nervous, means that hundreds of people will see my work every day! I've even already had a random Facebook message from a stranger about my work! So cool :D

I also didn't mind that it was under-attended because it meant that I got to eat lots of cheese. Bleu, Parmesan, goat cheese with cranberries, and, my all-time cheese fave, Brie!

The best thing about the evening, though, was that I randomly ran into two of my favorite teachers from high school! I guess they're both in the same Continuing Studies class that happens to meet in the building whose lobby the gallery occupies. Anyway, it was wonderful to be able to show them my artwork. I didn't really exhibit much art in high school. I was always too busy taking theatre and English classes to take art classes. I've since stopped doing theatre, but I'm still taking about as many humanities classes as a lady can handle! I love art because it allows me to use a different part of my brain and engage with my ideas on a non-literal level.

If you wanna take a look at the work without the ridiculous reflections, check it out here!


An innocent bystander takin' a look at my work.

Well, things are sort of winding down in terms of being busy. I feel confident that I can make all this stuff happen! As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to do some history reading and then get (gasp) A Solid Eight Hours of Sleep. I used to be so good at this, but I've really fallen off the wagon this year.

Here's a photo of me pretending to be a woman on a brochure about corporate benefits or something. It took us like five tries to get this picture without us all cracking up. Which is to say that corporate benefits brochure was the look I was going for. I'm a pretty silly person.


Didn't get a head-to-toe shot, but I just had on these shoes with my dress.


Today's title comes from The Olivia Tremor Control -- "Holiday Surprise." Weird band name, but seriously some of the greatest neo-Psychedelic music the 90s had to offer.

HARRY POTTER TOMORROW NIGHT!

I love all of your comments so much, and I promise to be a much better blogger and reader next week!

mais peut-être après tout n'aimez-vous pas la littérature

Somehow, my life has managed to get even busier than it's been! Jeez. Spending time on my outfits has been pretty difficult, and that's only been compounded by the fact that I don't have access to almost all of the shoes I've been wearing lately plus a lot of my clothes. And the fact that I haven't been getting enough sleep. So I don't even really like my outfit today much--it was just me making do with what I had, really.

Anyway, I had to take my pictures in a rush today, and they didn't turn out to my normal standards :(

I am making pretty much the weirdest face ever in this photo.

blazer: thrift, $15 -- jeans: BDG, gift from Alex, $20 -- shoes: Forever 21, $20 -- sweater: Gap, $14 -- scarf: thrift, $2 -- earrings: Urban Outfitters, gift from Daisy

Only two thrifted pieces on today! That's unusual. I almost never wear this sweater anymore, but it's the comfiest thing ever. It's that amazing cotton-cashmere blend. So soft!

I can't get enough of this scarf. It's one of my all-time favorites. These earrings make me so happy, too! And there's my locket from Alex <3


Ridiculously tall shoes that made me at least feel kinda glamorous even if my outfit is boring. They've got this weird fuzzy stuff to simulate wood, which you can tell in this photo but not from the distance between others' eyes and my feet :P

Here's a snippet from an email I sent to one of my TAs asking for an extension that speaks to how ridiculous my life is at present.

I mentioned that my week is "hellish," but I suppose that's sort of vague. More specifically: yesterday I had to go to traffic court for three hours, go to work for four hours, and then spend two hours working on a group project; today the class I teach is having its final, and I have to attend to a lot of administrative tasks to that end; on Wednesday I have a morning appointment and then have to both cook dinner (2+ hours) for my co-op house and attend a 2 hour gallery opening for some art that I'm exhibiting...and drop off my car at the mechanic after that; and on Thursday, I have to work on that group project for four hours. All of this is, of course, in addition to all of the usual class, reading, and homework I have to do.


On a happier note, I got my traffic fine reduced by $100 bucks. Hooray!

Today's title comes from Brigitte Fontaine -- Comme Rimbaud. It's a really clever song, I wish I spoke French so I could understand it without having to get some ridiculously stilted Google translation. The title phrase translates to, I think, "but maybe you just don't like literature."

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."

Photo Friday: Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard, 1929-1972, sounds like a very normal guy on paper. WWII veteran, Midwestern, happily married, three children. He was even born in a town called Normal, Illinois. But once you take a look at his photographs, you realize just how exceptional he really was.

Unlike his relatively glamorous contemporaries on either American coast, Meatyard never earned his living as a photographer. He spent his entire adult life working as an optician in Lexington, Kentucky. On weekends, he, his wife, and their children would go out to abandoned houses and buildings where Meatyard would arrange complex scenes and capture them on film.

There's a wonderful article about him here that you should check out!


Many of Meatyard's are sort of simultaneous reflections of  and projections onto the immediate surroundings. The peeling paint becomes wings because we see the movement of the boy's arms, and the boy's arms become wings when we see the feathered peeling paint.




I love how the light in this photograph almost seems external to it even as it dictates the boys' placement in the room.


This one always seems to stick out a little to me. It's as close to tenderness as he gets, I think.







I love the way that Meatyard's work is so conceptual without being pretentious or alienating.







Sources
http://oberlinphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/ralph-eugene-meatyard.html
http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/meatyard_ralph_eugene.php
http://azalolaza.blogspot.com/2007/05/meatyard.html

i'll come running to tie your shoes

jacket: B.P., $189 -- jeans: Urban Outfitters, $20 -- shirt: thrift, $4 -- shoes: thrift, $11 -- belt: thrift, $2

Keepin' it casual in light of the fact I only got 4 hours of sleep. Oh, 9 a.m. lecture... Anyway, this leather jacket is the most expensive piece of clothing I own. It was my high school graduation present to myself. I think I've bought literally four pieces of clothing that cost more than $50, and this is definitely the only one that was over $100. Even my prom dress was $8. I've only ever bought two pairs of shoes over $50.

Anyway, I love this jacket ever so much, and it was totally worth it. I especially love how over the months I've owned it, the leather has become supple and almost molded to my body. And I've never met anybody else with a grey moto jacket :)



I'm really sorry if I haven't returned the favor if you left me a comment recently! I've been super-swamped. I promise that I will make it up to you in spades very soon, and I really appreciate your readership :)

Today's totally random title comes from Brian Eno -- "I'll Come Running."

the weapon we have is love

top: thrift, $1.50 -- sweater: thrift, $4 -- skirt: thrift, $1 -- shoes: thrift, $6 -- tights: Urban Outfitters, $10 -- belt: thrift, $2

So I was originally going to wear this outfit on Tuesday, but being sick got in the way. It actually was pretty nice though because it meant I didn't have to spend ages agonizing over what to wear the way that I usually do.

I'm up way past my bedtime at the moment because I'm working on a paper that's due today. I've actually never done this before. Ever. Not in middle school, not in high school, and not in college. I've finished plenty of papers the morning of the day they were due, but never late into the night before. I'm not much of a night owl, you see. I like my sleep, and, provided I get enough of that, I like mornings, too.

I went to a very moving event tonight before I started working on my paper. It was a talk by Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who founded a really amazing NGO that provides shelter, empowerment, and education to girls who are victims of sexual slavery and sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. Somaly Mam herself was a victim of sexual slavery. Her NGO is also working with governments to increase legal penalties for brothel owners and johns while abolishing legal penalties for underaged sex workers. (Did you know that even in many states within the US, if a 14 year old girl were arrested for prostitution, she would be treated as a criminal and not a victim?)

Check out the Somaly Mam Foundation and spread the word to raise awareness.

Somaly Mam brought with her several adolescent girls who are survivors of sexual slavery rescued from brothels and rehabilitated by the foundation. When they introduced themselves, they all reminded us in the audience just how lucky we are, not just to be getting a university education but also to simply be loved and cared for by our parents, families, and friends. It's so easy to forget how lucky I am sometimes. But I really and truly am, and I am so grateful to have access to all the resources I do and, most importantly, to give and receive so much love.

Oh, and... it feels incredibly shallow after all of that, but a couple more outfit photos...





Today's title comes from a really silly but nevertheless poignant song called "The Weapon" by... Harry and the Potters. They're a band that sings about Harry Potter, and they founded a genre of music called wizard rock. I never really got into it myself, but my sister Molly was really into it a few years ago and even had a very successful act herself. I went with her to a couple Harry and the Potters shows. I'm a pretty big Harry Potter fan even if I'm not much of one for wizard rock, and one of the things that I most appreciate about the series is that the driving, healing, unifying force is love. Pure and simple. "The Weapon" isn't a really a weapon at all. Love is generative, not destructive. Anyway. I just thought of this song when trying to come up with a good title for today's post.

Time to haul my dorky self to bed!