my little corner of the world

Every morning I wake up in my bedroom I am reminded of how extremely lucky I am. I by no means have a lot of money, yet I still can wake up surrounded by things I love (which mostly includes my cats and boyfriend, but the shoes don't hurt). I spent a lot of time cultivating the right look for my bedroom. This included a lot of patience from Brian and my parents. My mom (the smart thinker that she is) bought me a lot of furniture in high school that would still be useful to me when I moved away. I took good care of it and still use each piece everyday (my vanity, dresser, and window seat). She also enlarged and framed my favorite prints of Pity Puppy and Pity Kitty (not pictured).
She has done so much for me and I am so thankful to have her. She gives and gives even when she shouldn't. She's really helped me love the space I live in (and enables my addiction by buying me beautiful pieces of clothing like that amazing Missoni lips dress). I hope I can give her back as much as she's given me someday.

I try to make the most of every piece of furniture I have. My apartment does not have a lot of storage space. My TV stand doubles are a place to store my favorite purses and my shoe shelf holds all my hats on top. I also like to hang my new/fancy dresses in the corner of the room. My sunglasses hanging from a piece of twine is a new thing. I saw it on the wonderful blog Fancy Fine.  I'm seriously envious of Ashley's home - the girl lives in a vintage dream.

Overall, I am grateful. I have a boyfriend who understands my love of shoes, a mother who supports me through everything, and two adorable cats who follow me around like puppies. What more could I ask for?

makeover

Sorry I didn't get to post yesterday, I was busy with a little home project (sorry for the bad iPhone shots in advance).

Before:


After:

(My cat is not amused with this change.)

As you can see, I got a major upgrade. I went to go look at the bookshelf and the guy said I could take it for free. That was awesome.
Now I can look at my pretty shoes all the time. It also helps that I can see everything I have. Now nothing will get neglected! Yay.
Next step: a cool small dresser. I really need one. I'm making over my apartment one piece of furniture at a time. Hurrah to nice apartments!

Hope you're having a great week. I'm deliriously exhausted and have a ton of work to do. Hang in there.

inside my closet

Living in a small apartment, I would say that my closet is of decent size. Being an evil girl, I've banished my boyfriend to folding his shirts on the closet floor. If you can believe it, all my clothing used to hang on one side. By Brian giving me the green light to take over the other side, it just enabled me into buying enough clothes to fill it up. (Joking, that totally would have happened anyway.)

I keep things pretty crazy organized, but it's due for another straightening session. It's something that I do occasionally. It's pretty nuts and OCD. My shoes being perfectly straight is one of the craziest. Obviously, I have way too many pairs of shoes. I don't wear a lot of them and those are the pairs banished to the back.

Honestly, I love my closet and I hope you've enjoyed taking a peek behind the doors.

tweaked

Missoni for Target chemise, thrifted sweater, thrifted Nine West sandals, and Kohl's elephant necklace.

Wearing THIS outfit that I tweaked slightly.

There is nothing better on an unseasonably warm day than bare legs and sandals. There is also nothing better than tweaking one of your favorite outfits.

Snap Shots

1- My Schwinn Delmar beach cruiser.

2- My favorite sandals for lazy summer days.

3- A poplar tree that I love. It's so close to my balcony.

4- Almost done reading this.

5- My cat's favorite thing to do.

6- Sunglasses I wear too much. They are sitting on a table I found by my dumpster.

7- My awfully 90's neon Bugle Boy tank.

I have been trying to enjoy this lovely summer while I can. Today I lounged on my balcony reading a book. Then took a nice bike ride and spent some quality time with my cats. All in all a good day. I'm in a style slump, and have been living in every pair of denim shorts I own. I feel like this would be extremely boring to post about, so I haven't shared my outfits. I've also been only wearing sandals and it's very liberating to have my toes be free!

I'm going to head out. I'll have something concrete to post about soon; for now I'm going to have a lovely dinner outside.

Enjoy your evening! xoxoxo

Heat Wave

Forever 21 floral mary janes.

It's been too hot for me to wear anything remotely put together. So, since I have no outfit post for you, I thought I'd share my lovely new shoes I talked about a few posts back. I normally don't buy shoes from Forever 21 due to quality issues, but when I saw these I fell in love. Unfortunately, even back in February they were sold out. I am so crazy that I stalked them on ebay until now and won! It also didn't help that most people were selling them for ridiculous amounts of money, way more than they're worth. I scored them for their original retail price $25.

They are surprisingly well made, and honestly one of the only floral pieces in my closet. I can't wait to pair them with unconventional pieces.

Lights in the Sky

H&M polka dot halter, Charlotte Russe shorts and thrifted vintage mary janes.

Red, white, and blue have always been one of my favorite color combinations to wear. I own four pairs of navy shorts, countless red and white tops, and I won't even start on the dresses. Naturally, I find the first week of July to be the best time to give my red, white and blue tendencies free realm. This year I was so excited I wore the three colors all weekend.

This outfit I wore on our beautiful Independence Day, and it was so fun. This halter is one of my all time favorite shirts, so I love any chance to wear it. Also, I don't think these mary janes have left my feet all weekend. Hands down some of the comfiest shoes I own, and to think they were abandoned to a thrift store for me to find. I believe I got them for $1. It doesn't get better than that.

I hope everyone who celebrates our Independence Day had a wonderful time! I certainly did, with a parade and fireworks!

The Passage of Time

Rogan for Target silk shift.

Time has been passing way too quickly lately and I have had no time to take any outfit posts. Plus on my downtime this weekend the weather was too terrible to take any good photos. Monday is my day off yet it's not my boyfriend's, so I had to take these photos all by my lonesome. Also I don't have any shoes on, so sorry readers. This is the kind of outfit I feel like frolicking barefoot in my yard in. Shift dresses just make me feel that way, especially ones made of silk.

I don't want to fall behind again and since I work with my mom who is a photographer I will be trying to take some outfit posts at work.

Until then I hope you're enjoying your first week of summer!

xoxo

Tortoise

I like to preface this post by saying thank you to my Dad. On Father's Day I'm the one who should be giving him gifts, but he ended up giving me two pairs of amazing sunglasses. He brought out his collection which he mostly acquired from his father (my grandfather). In the bag were two pairs of vintage Ray-Bans, one being an original Wayfarer from the fifties! I was so excited I just had to share them with you all.

The second pair are Ray-Ban Olympian's made in the mid sixties. They're different from any other sunglasses I've seen. I also found out today that Ray-Ban's were invented in my hometown and current residence; Rochester, NY. I never knew!

Well, I'm sure you'll be seeing these babies all over my blog now that I've got my hands on them!

xoxo