Wednesday, July 27, 2011

July 27, 2011: Black, Brown, Floral

Jumpsuit: Thrifted ($2)
Sandals: H&M sale ($7)
Bag: Thrifted ($10)
Belt: AA
Necklace: Black Sparrow (gift)

Quiz: What do you wear when you wake up and feel like every muscle in your body hates you? Answer: This. OK, so I may have been out a bit late last night, did you know the Swapaholics made Stuff Magazine's Hot 100? That's worth celebrating! I know a wide leg, floral jumpsuit is a fashion risk, but I think it's a risk worth taking, especially for $2. I went thrift shopping with my mom this past weekend, and found the 90's jackpot near where she lives in Maine. I love thrifting outside of the city, some of my most favorite items have come from charity shops and church basements. I also love that this entire outfit cost less than $20 (excluding the necklace which was gifted and the belt which was from an old job), it always feels really good to refresh my closet at a really low cost.

I wish I had more to say today, but I haven't had my coffee yet. So here's a question: what's the biggest fashion or style risk you've taken lately?

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

July 26, 2011: Chartreuse, Navy, Creme, Brown

Tank: J.Crew sale ($10)
Skirt: Madewell sale ($65)
Sandals: H&M sale ($7)
Bag: Thrifted ($10)
Belt: J.Crew outlet (gift)
Necklace: Black Sparrow (gift)
Barcelets: Vintage & Swapped

This is definitely one of my favorite and most comfortable outfits, possibly ever. I wore this last week to work, after two and a half days of being confined to my apartment with a terrible cold, I was happy to finally get dressed and look nice. Long flowy skirts feel incredible when they brush against your legs in the breeze, which is one of the reasons I love them. This Madewell skirt is one of my favorites, when I can easily envision incorporating an item into three seasons worth of outfits, I know it's a keeper. I can't wait to style this for fall, I think a nubby sweater is just the thing for it. For summer though, I added some cheap-o sandals from H&M and a navy tank.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Hey New England!

Calling all New England shopaholics, Swapaholics, bloggers, and fashionistas: Do you have your tickets for next week's Swap Uncapped? Join The Swapaholics for a celebration of summer and sustainable style with vitaminwater® and special guest Jessica Quirk, author of What I Wore, who will be on hand to sign copies of her freshly published book.

Quench your thirst before the swap madness begins at the vitaminwater® hydration bars, and cool down with sweet free samples from Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt. Everything left over at the end of the swap goes to support our friends at Goodwill Boston.

Are you excited yet? This is an event not to be missed! Plus it gets even better: Enter the code ORCHIDGREY at checkout to receive 25% off your tickets! What are you waiting for?

Go get your tickets!

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A few more discount codes you may have missed:

Receive 15% off your order from Blowfish Shoes with the code BFORCHID15

Through the end of July receive 20% off your order from Bearcat Vintage with the code ORCHID

Receive 10% off your order from Mitu Vintage with the code ORCHID10

Receive 10% off your order from Pulp Vintage with the code 10TO200

Free shipping through Monday on all Le Mode Accessories orders with the code PACKED

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Ships Ahoy!




Dress: ModCloth
Bracelet c/o ModCloth
Spyglass Necklace: Essex Shipbuilding Museum
Belt: J.Crew
Shoes: F21
I am so excited to be sharing this dress with you today! ModCloth has collaborated with Dear Creatures to bring you some of their and Modcloth's favorite and best selling silhouettes back into production in new and exclusive colors for fall. If the design receives enough votes through ModCloth's Be the Buyer Program, it will be put into production and sold exclusively on ModCloth.com! Isn't that awesome? I was so flattered when ModCloth asked me to style this sweet dress, it's super comfy and would be perfect for late summer and early fall. Plus, I'm a sucker for anything nautically inspired, maybe it's my New England roots.

So if you like this little number as much as I do, cast your vote now! Right now it's the only one of it's kind, and I would love to see it go to production!




Tuesday, July 19, 2011

July 19, 2011: Denim, Linen, Leather, Canvas

Shirt: Thrifted ($5)
Shoes: Thrifted ($10)
Silver bracelet: vintage (old)
Wood bracelet: Swapped
Bag: Thrifted Coach ($15)
Well, it turns out all that sleepy-headed-ness of last week was just me being slowly and persistently stalked by my annual summer cold. This happens every year, and as much as it sucks to be sick in the middle of July, at least it's not the middle of August (wedding times). Blah. I've been laid up for two days at home, I'm getting antsy!

At any rate, this is what I wore on Friday, pre-sick. I'm glad I coerced Chris into taking these photos or else I would have nothing for you. Friday was a day spent running errands, but I wanted to look nice since I've mostly been rocking my cafe uniform 24/7 (cut-offs and tank tops), and I worry Chris may be forgetting that I have the ability to look nice.
I'm a little bit obsessed with this denim top, five bucks goes a long way: I can wear it alone or atop dresses to completely change the outfit. I'm thinking I may need a few more like it.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Photo-Boothed


These are some photobooth pics we took at our usual place during our engagement shoot with Spring. The pictures we've taken at this booth are some of my most treasured possessions, we've been going there since we started dating and I love looking back on them to see how much we've both changed. Even though the photos are so tiny, I can remember what happened on each day. Last summer when I announced our engagement, I posted almost all of them.

I feel like I've been so freaking scatterbrained lately, does this happen when people plan weddings? Unfortunately I believe the answer to that question is a resounding YES. Today Chris and I are taking it easy, we need to drop off his suit for alterations, pick up a few odds and ends, and choose our music. And I am determined to go on a date tonight- a date where we don't discuss wedding stuff, It's pretty sad that I can't remember the last time we went to a movie or something.

What are your weekend plans?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

July 14, 2011: Melon, Denim, Leopard, Navy

Denim top: Thrifted ($5)
Linen skirt: Thrifted ($6)
Belt: Thrifted (came with dress)
Shoes: Thrifted ($10)
Bracelet c/o ModCloth
If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you may know that I hit thrift gold yesterday with a vintage 60s bridesmaid dress (here's a photo). I haven't had good luck thrifting in a few months, maybe it was because we were transitioning into summer, I don't know, but yesterday Savers finally delivered. Along with the dress (which I think I'll wear to our wedding reception), I found a bunch of dessert stands (good for our dessert table), this denim top, and this pretty melon colored skirt. As soon as I got home, I knew exactly how I wanted to style it, I love oranges and blues together so naturally I just paired the two and added a leopard print belt. I broke out my favorite pair of espadrilles for the first time this year as well.

We finally got some rain last night, and it must have cooled down by 15 degrees, it feels great outside! I'm feeling about 100x better than yesterday after finally getting a good nights sleep. It's funny because the cats have been so peppy, they're finally getting their energy back too after those hot hot days. Well, I'm off to get my car inspected and drop that pretty dress of at the cleaners, have a great day! xo

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

July 13, 2011: Chambray, Aubergine, Creme

Top: American Apparel
Necklace: Spotted Moth ($34)

Can you tell I'm on day five of half-sleep? It's hard to believe 85 degrees could be refreshing, but this morning it feels so good. The weather has been 90+ degrees the past few days, making it nearly impossible to get a good nights sleep. I love summer, but I love sleep more, and I'm starting to go crazy. Maybe it's the combination of our wedding coming up in less than 6 weeks? Probably! A few people have requested details of our wedding planning, and I am promising a big recap post-wedding. I wish I was the type of organized person who would be able to give updates as I go along, but we're flying by the seats of our pants here and piecing this thing together as we go along. We're doing everything but the food and music ourselves. Plus, I kind of like the surprise of the whole thing. We had our engagement shoot on Monday with my friend Spring of Spring Smith Studios, I am SO EXCITED to share them with you guys! Spring did an amazing job, and it was great to work with such a talented photographer that I know and feel comfortable with.

I know this is kind of a tangent, but my mind has seriously been this scattered lately. Chris and I have had a lot going on! How have you been lately? Busy? Enjoying a relaxing summer? let's hear it!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Guest Post on Morgan and Lua!

(Photo from last summer)
I'm guest posting today for Morgan while she take a much needed vacation. Head on over to Morgan and Lua to check out my summer resolutions!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Mini Spotlight: ModCloth, Ruche, Blowfish, & Mitu Vintage!


This week's Swap DC has had me thinking of swap style. With the advent of another swap comes the inevitable "but what do I wear?" question. A veteran swapper myself, I have been to enough clothing swaps to tell you this: wear something comfortable that you can move in! Sure, you'll be socializing with other bloggers and you want to look cute, but what are you really there for? The clothes! So when those doors open and you rush in and start swapping, you want to make sure your cute outfit also has staying power:

DC will be hot! Start with a breezy tank like The treasured Moments Top from ModCloth, this won't bunch or ride up and it's thin enough to try stuff on over it. Next, add some statement shorts like the Pep in Your Step Shorts, also from ModCloth, donning shorts insures you won't have to worry about flashing people as you would in a skirt or dress. No one wants squished toes, so make sure you wear some easy to walk in loafers like the Nexi from Blowfish. Opt for simple jewelry, like this vintage chinese lion necklace from Mitu Vintage. And For those post-swap drinks you'll definitely be needing, throw on a light blazer like the Make Me Blush Blazer from Ruche.

Have fun DC'rs! and remember you can receive 25% off your tickets with the code ORCHIDGREY!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Join the Swapaholics in DC!


Calling all District of Columbia swappers: The Swapaholics are coming your way on July 14th! Always wanted to attend a Swapaholics clothing swap? Now is your chance! Go here for tickets and be sure to enter the code ORCHIDGREY to receive 25% off!

Have you checked out the Swapaholics blog lately? I have some great interviews up with some of the lovely bloggers who attended Swap Lulu's San Francisco!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

July 8, 2011: Cerise, White, Bronze

Belt: J.Crew ($5.99 sale)
Vintage Shoes c/o Haberdash
Necklace: Spotted Moth ($32)
worn beneath: Sweet Ceylon Shorts c/o Ruche
I am in love with this outfit. This is what I wore to Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood on Saturday night, and it turned out to be the perfect thing. Summer has finally arrived, so light fabric is a must, I grabbed this dress last week during ModCloth's So Haute sale and I'm so glad I got it! It's light and breezy and extremely versatile. I knew I'd need sensible shoes, so I added my favorites from Punky and replaced the self tie belt that came with the dress, with a matching one from J.Crew. Then I threw on some bronze accessories and I was ready! So easy!

I've definitely been trying to add some brights to my closet, there is a lot of blue and white in there! I love this summer's color blocking trend, and it has certainly made finding bright clothes easier. I've also found these shorts (which are back in stock, BTW) to be the perfect pair to wear under a dress for modesty. I live about 1/4 mile from the ocean, so our town is extremely windy all the time, making short dresses rather scandalous. Wearing a cute pair of shorts underneath is the perfect solution, and this particular pair adds very little extra bulk.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

4th of July Fun

(all photos via Adam Towner)

The 4th of July is probably my favorite holiday, more so than Christmas and Thanksgiving. What other holiday can you wear over the top red, white, and blue outfits, eat tons of good food, hang out in the summer sun with friends and family, and finish the day with fireworks? I love it! This year we had one of the busiest 4th of July weekend's ever, driving over 700 miles total! Monday was the perfect end to a great weekend, we headed over to Adam's and did what we do best- eat food, drink beer, and take ridiculous photo-booth photos until we've laughed ourselves sick. These are the less embarrassing ones.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Over The Weekend

(last two photos from Punky)
Did you have a nice weekend? Mine was busy, which I completely appreciated. I snuggled some cats, saw Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood with one of my favorite people (which was pretty awesome), went to Cape Cod for a family party, made cupcakes, and had a fantastic cookout with some more fantastic people. After everything that happened last week, it was refreshing to be busy non-stop and have fun.

July 4, 2011: Patriotic!

Dress: Swapped!
Belt: Thrifted ($3)
Bracelet: Vintage ($5)
Necklace: Spotted Moth ($34)
Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell ($70)
I've been saving this dress for months just for the 4th of July, it's perfect! When I found it at the last Worcester swap, I scooped it up, and fell in love. To add some volume beneath the skirt, I added a light full skirt that was slightly shorter so it wouldn't show. To round out the patriotic color scheme, I added a red bracelet and and red belt with my favorite party-time necklace. Red, white, and blue is one of my favorite color combinations, it's so simple and I think the contrast is so striking.

I wore this yesterday to a barbeque at Punky's, I love summer barbeque's! I'll be posting some instagram photos of my weekend highlights later today. It was great to have a busy and distracting weekend. How was yours?