This dress is orange.

I wore this outfit yesterday for my weekly volunteer shift at the art museum downtown. I love the floral print on this dress! It is so pretty and delicate.

Sometimes my eyes play tricks on me and I think this dress is red, but it's actually orange.

I styled it with leggings, white flats, and a blue and white polka dot scarf. The scarf adds a fun element of pattern mixing. I think the mismatched patterns really work well here because a) it's subtle and b) I'm using the same colors that are found in the dress.

The only downfall of the dress is the material. It's made of 100% polyester. Usually I am a huge polyester fan. I don't care what anyone says, polyester rocks. (Let's just hope I never catch on fire!) This must be some really cheap polyester though. It's very lightweight but also very irritating against my skin. It feels more like rayon, which I absolutely loathe! I cannot stand the look of rayon or the way it feels against my skin! Ick!!!! Along with the fabric itself, the seams on the dress are ALWAYS fraying! It's so annoying.

I love the style, colors, and print too much to get rid of it though, so I just deal.

I tried to do a fun little photo shoot in my dining room:


























As you can see I've gone back to using the vignette design and the antique editing feature. It gives my photos the look I love with the beautiful golden light. I was using this at first in earlier photos last year, but sort of dropped it as it doesn't show the true color of the garments. It's something I'm always fighting with myself over: to edit or not to edit. I've come to the decision (for now) that I'm going to stick to editing, but I'll do my best to show at least one unedited shot to display the true colors of the clothes I'm wearing.



The Breakdown:

Outfit:
Dress: Akira, Gift
Leggings: Moda
Flats: r2

Accessories:
Glasses: Anna Sui
Scarf: Thrifted



P.S. Guess what? The 4th of July is coming up and I could not be more excited! It's the first day that Jon and I ever went on a date. (Well...it wasn't an official date, but it was the first time we hung out outside of work.) After we got married we discussed whether or not we were still going to celebrate our date day. We decided to still do it because without that day we might not have had a wedding anniversary to celebrate later on. So it is very important to us and something I am really looking forward to.

I'll give you the full story on Sunday (or Monday depending on how late we're out.)

Vintage Wednesdays #2

I have been looking forward to my next Vintage Wednesdays post since last week! This week's feature is a look at the super cool vintage clothing store: Lost & Found Vintage.








Lost & Found Vintage is a little gem in the heart of Royal Oak's booming downtown area. For those who are local readers, it's located at: 510 S Washington Ave (Washington & 5th Street). The store has been around since 2003, but moved to their current location in 2006.

The faded coloring on the sign and charming window displays draw you into this unique shop. When you first walk in you'll see all of the lovely shiny things make our hearts beat rapidly. Colorful bangles and intricate necklaces adorn these display cases. After ogling the jewelry you are left with a decision of going upstairs for women's clothes or downstairs for menswear. I only looked through the ladies section, but looking back I wish I'd checked out the men's clothing as well. I'm always on the hunt for cool 'new' clothes for Jon.








So, I'll focus on the ladies section. It was breathtaking! I spent a lot of time looking through all of the lovely vintage treasures. Everything was organized really well and for the most part the garments were very clean and in excellent condition. The pricing was fair. It could have been better, but it wasn't too bad. The average dress was about $25. I could have found similar pieces in Chicago at Ragstock or Hollywood Mirror for about $15 though. Also there were a few garments with minor stains that they were still asking full price for. (Maybe you can talk them down at the register though? I didn't try, so I'm not sure.)

The amount and overall quality of the clothing was quite impressive though. I didn't find one garment that I wouldn't have bought had I the money. There were flirty frocks, bowed baby doll's, metallic mini's, and groovy geometric dresses. There was a good variety of types of clothing too from dresses to skirts, shirts, pants, and even lingerie. It looked like most of the stuff spanned the 50's-80's.

Some of the accessories though looked like they may have been from the 20's-40's. Surrounding the clothing you'll find the prettiest purses, shoes, hats, and scarves that will make you shriek with absolute joy. I was eyeing a pair of red chunky heeled oxfords, but unfortunately they were not my size. (Curse you feet!!)

I did manage to walk away with this lovely new addition to my purse collection though:








It's made of a quilted material, so the fabric is kind of thick. I love the handles so much and the print and color palette are really my style. It also has a lot of pockets which is extremely important to me when considering buying a purse.

Last but not least the staff was really friendly and helpful. I asked to look at a bracelet and when I said I couldn't afford it ($32 - too much for something I could thrift!) they didn't make me feel embarrassed. They were also very thorough when I asked about their petticoats (between $30-$40 - can be special ordered.) So again, very helpful and nice.

Really it is a great place and if you love vintage clothing and live in or are visiting metro Detroit I'd definitely recommend them.

Check out their website at: http://www.lostandfoundvintage.com/

They do have an online shop through etsy, but they only have a few items listed.



I hope you've enjoyed this addition of Vintage Wednesdays. Check back next Wednesday for more!

Walk Along the Tracks

I'm keeping it short and sweet tonight as Jon is bugging me for the computer back.


The Breakdown:

Outfit:
Button-up Shirt: Express, Resale Shop
Skirt: Wet Seal
Shoes: Payless


***Edit: I did an experiment to make my pictures bigger. Unfortunately this caused a huge loss in image quality. Grrrr.***

Chairs on Mah Dress

I wore this beauty strolling around Royal Oak before work today. I usually do not go for drop waisted dresses as they look awful on me, but a) this was a gift b) it's Anna Sui and c) it's f****** adorable. So, I just couldn't resist. The little antique chair pattern is so amazing! And the collar?!? The buttons?!? If it were a baby doll dress it would be complete perfection. However, it's not...so I'll have to settle for 90% perfect.


Happy Saturday/Sunday!


The Breakdown:

Outfit:
Dress: Anna Sui, Gift
Socks: Target
Shoes: Payless

Accessories:
Bow: Claire's
Purple Bracelet: H&M
Black & White Bracelet: Claire's
Silver Bracelet: Giftt\