Exciting Kickstarter Campaign!

Hello everyone!

I would like to apologize for my absence, but the semester has started with full force. Between classes, my thesis, and my social work internship at a hospital, I still am dressing up, but I just do not have the time to take pictures or do anything crafty. Plus, as it turns out, it is too dark to take high-quality Instagram photos at 6 in the morning, so my normal #ootd photos are unlikely to continue appearing fairly regularly like they did during the summer months.

With that being said, I am going to make this quick post before going back to reading an article for my advanced seminar class and writing a review of it for Tuesday, because THAT IS HOW EXCITED I AM! Really, guys, I have been looking forward to this Kickstarter for months. I cannot remember exactly how I first heard about Flimsymoon (I have done so much since then!), but I was reminded about Flimsymoon from "A Curious Fancy." I also follow the creator, Freyia Lilian, on Instagram (she is seriously adorable, with mermaid-colored hair and plenty of crowns) and have enjoyed seeing her updates and the beautiful creations she and others make to support the upcoming lingerie line.

Isn't this precious?!
By the way, this and all of the other images are not mine, they are from the Kickstarter page.

Honestly, I do not buy fancy lingerie (probably because I am a college student and Goodwill does not sell it). But, this could very well be the exception. Do you need some convincing? Well, here are some reasons I want Flimsymoon to get an awesome kick-start:

1. I mean, look at that! It is so delicate. I don't know about you, but I associate delicate with charming.

2. And isn't this collar whimsical and cheeky? If you have not gathered from all of the collared shirts that I wear, I am all for a great collar. When I can get my hands on a collar like this one, I will probably wear it a little too often in my day to day wear. Why? Because I can.

3. Don't you want more pretty things like this in the world? When everything tends to be so dark and gloomy, it is refreshing to see something light and airy. I already put forth some of my limited money towards the Kickstarter campaign. 

It is not often that I speak out for a specific company (besides Goodwill), and this is not a paid-endorsement in any way (I mean, if Freyia reads this and is suddenly like, "Here, have free pieces from the collection!" I would gladly accept them and I would let y'all know); I just really want this collection to exist. So, if you have some funds to spare and share, I would appreciate it if you considered helping to fund this beautiful lingerie line through Flimsymoon's Kickstarter Campaign, 

Have a wonderful week!

Rachel Cathleen

Life via Instragram Update

Goodness, gracious. Sometimes life gets so busy that it is difficult to keep up with the blog to fill you in on everything. I am trying to keep everyone up to date through Instagram, which more or less happens. So here is an update on my last couple of weeks as July went into August!

Here is a recent "How to Do Things." If you have not read it yet, you can check it out here.

For the last week in July, I went home to house-sit for my parents while they went to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in San Francisco. It was my opportunity to do everything I wanted to do this summer (and volunteer at VBS with some really awesome kids), but never had time for with summer classes and my thesis.

This is my family's cat (also pictured above). He may seem cute, but he is a mean fat fur ball. If you ever were to meet him, he would be sweet as can be towards you, that way you lower your guard, and then he will attack. I wish I were joking.

Here is an outfit I wore the day I went to spend the weekend with my grandma, who has not been feeling up to her vivacious norm lately. The shirt is actually my older brother's. It was a gift to him from my dad many years ago. I ended up borrowing it because I was terrible at packing for this trip. In fact, I borrowed clothes from everyone in my family's closets. I brought all of my blouses home for my mom to approve for my internship at a hospital this fall. With all of those shirts, I figured I would have plenty of clothes to wear. Except, I did not consider how stupid hot it is in Texas. In July. Really, what was I thinking? Blouses and oppressive heat do not mix well.

My boyfriend's independent video game company put out a new android game the last week of July. If you have an android device, you can get the app for free here (or, if ads are the bane of your existence, you can buy it for $.99).

I finished my class about addictions and how they affect families the last week in July. Here is a picture of my textbooks the evening before my final.

You might recognize this picture from this recent outfit post.

This is one of my new favorite outfits. It is just so cute and I feel like a girly princess while wearing it.

The shirt is from Target and my skirt is from Forever 21 that I bought years ago (you have seen it here, here, and all the way back in February here).

The pearl floral headband from Asos (Unfortunately, it another purchase from years ago; however, this one is similar, and I saw this headband and loved it immediately. Even if the latter is nothing like mine, I still wanted to share. I swear I am focused most of the time, but then I start working on the blog post as a break from class and my brain runs 90 miles an hour in 100 different directions any time I see something pretty. And now we have been in this mid-sentence parenthetical aside for so long, we probably have both forgotten where this sentence was going... C'est la vie.) is becoming a staple for me, because when I wear it I feel like Daisy from "The Great Gatsby" and like I am about to go to a wild party in the 1920s (or, you know, my Medieval French class).

My loafers are new for my internship from Marshall's (or Ross? There are two very close together in my home town, so I cannot recall which one my mom and I went to) and I wanted to break them in. I cannot imagine how awful it would be to get blisters my first day on the job. I loved my last pair of loafers to death (I will be honest, they appeared so many times on this blog, I am too lazy to look for all of the times they appeared). And though I cannot find my new pair exactly online, these loafers are silver.

So here are some antique fans that I bought recently from Whiskey & Honey (who just announced a giveaway a few hours ago). The picture of my family's cat under the table won me free shipping for them (just one of the many reasons Instagram is so great). I love these fans already and am thinking about framing them to hang on my bedroom wall to showcase them. If you have any other suggestions, I would love to read them!

Again, that Asos headband appears. The "POW!" tank top is from River Island last year, I purchased it while studying abroad (if you are in to crop tops, this one is similar in its comic book style. And here is a website that is apparently dedicated to printing shirts like this). The tank top underneath is from Old Navy (which, while super easy to find in the store because I bought it on tax-free weekend when the tank tops were on sale, it was surprisingly difficult to find online. Why? Because the website calls them tamis... it is almost like the person who named it that was not sure if it was a tank top or camisole so they named it after both). The shorts are from Goodwill (they are the same pair that you saw earlier this week right here). The flats are thrifted from Goodwill as well (here is the cheapest similar pair that I could find online).

And, last but not least, here is a picture from this week's outfit post. If you want to find out more about this outfit, I respectfully turn you to the link rather than typing it all out here.

I had a busy week, yet all in all a successful one. Between getting more participants scheduled for my thesis, becoming CPR certified, and only missing one point on my midterm, I have barely had the chance to catch my breath, but I would not have it any other way. How was your week?

Rachel Cathleen

How to Do Things: Wrap a DVF Wrap Dress

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of "How to Do Things"!

Recently, I was thrift shopping and I was about to give up hope on finding anything truly special. Suddenly, I saw what appeared to be a vintage wrap dress. I pulled it out of the racks and checked the label... it was a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress! For only $25! In my size! I could not believe my eyes! (I hope the exclamation points are giving you a hint of how excited I was and still am about this.) I never imagined that I would find a designer dress that I could afford, so I quickly bought it and brought it home. Unfortunately, there was one problem... I had no idea how to wrap it properly, especially once I saw a slit on the side that was clearly meant to be there (it was sewn in, not a rip). A quick search on Google brought me to this website. I found the tutorial to be helpful, but I wished that it had pictures, so I decided to take some of my own for you!

1. Put your arms through the armholes. (This is probably fairly obvious...) 

2. Find the slit that I mentioned earlier. (Here I am pointing to mine.)

3. Take the tie/sash thing on the opposite of the slit and...

4. ...put it behind your back (but still inside the dress). (Also, I am sorry about my clothes that I wore under the dress to show you how to wrap the dress. I did not even know this tank top had a hole until looking at the pictures later.)

5. Now, take that sash from inside the dress through the slit so it is now outside of the dress. You want to pull it tight enough that the dress is beginning to cling to your body, but not too tight.

6. This is a good time to grab the other tie/sash thing (the one that you did not bring through the slit).

7. Wrap that tie that you just grabbed around your body (outside of the dress; because it is a wrap dress). Both of your ties will be pointing the same direction because both of the ties wrapped in the same direction (mine both went to my left).

 

8. Now, you are going to cross both of the ties so they are facing different directions so one can go around the front and the other will wrap around your back. This is what it looks like in the back...

9. ...And this is what it looks like in the front.

10. You are now going to bring both of your ties to the side opposite of the slit. As previously mentioned one tie goes around your front and one goes around your back. Now you can tie the ties/sashes!

11. This final step is optional: If you notice, quite a bit of my tank top is still showing, because the dress is cut to be sexy/revealing. So, after I removed my clothing under the dress, I safety pinned the top so I could feel a little more comfortable and confident.

TA-DA!

If you have any questions or need any clarifications, please let me know! Also, if you have any awesome thrift finds, I would love it if you shared with me via Instagram!

I hope that you have a great weekend,

Rachel Cathleen

Floral Tank and Green Velveteen Shirt

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Today, I started my Old French class to finish off my Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor. I decided posting on the blog was a good way to take a quick break from studying some vocabulary. 

You might have noticed that this post has more pictures than normal, I decided you all deserve it since last week's post had so few photos. To get nearly 10 reasonable pictures, I had to take like 40... but, I like to believe that I am getting better at modeling, nonetheless. It would probably help if I had someone else to take the photos rather than me resetting the camera between every shot. But, what can you do? 

Have a fantastic week!

Rachel Cathleen

I am wearing: Green Button Up: Goodwill (You may recognize it from this post, this one, and this one; similar here and here); Tank Top: Top Shop (old- I thrifted it while studying abroad last year; this, this, this, and this are fairly similar); Shorts: Goodwill (You saw them last week and I recommended this pair and this pair as similar); Shoes: DSW (Are you tired of these, yet? You can buy this exact pair still).

Blue with Accents of Silver

You might be able to tell by the dark floor and the much darker blue wall that I am not at my place. I am at my parents' house for the week.

I am supposedly wearing the best nail polish (according to my mom who read it in Consumer Report). It should not chip. Except, it chipped almost right away. However, I still wanted to show you the ring I borrowed from my mom
.

What I am wearing: Shirt: from my mom's closet (I did not pack enough t-shirts for my trip home...here, here, and here are similar); Shorts: Goodwill (this is my absolute favorite pair and I wear them a little too often; here and here are similar); Shoes: Target (I got them on clearance for less than $20, but Target's website has them listed for over $25 currently, so here, here, here, and the cheapest one here are similar pairs); Jewelry: Flower Ring: Edinburgh (similar here, here, and here), Blue Droplet Ring: a drawer in my parents' bathroom (similar here, here, and here), Necklace: from my sorority (I got the diamond drop after initiation and the faux pearl is for getting a 4.0).

Have an awesome rest of your week! I cannot wait to eventually tell you all about the adventures I have been having in Texas this week!

Rachel Cathleen

How to Do Things: Making a Skirt Out of a Scarf

Being thrifty, I like to wear clothing articles in different ways and in as many unique outfits as possible, so I can get the most bang for my buck. Because of this, I was intrigued when I saw this pin, which you may have seen before:

Image via pinterest

Now, when I first saw it, I honestly doubted that it would work. I mean, come on, can the skirt even stay up?! And then the pintester tried it. As you can see here, the draped skirt did not really work for her. Suddenly, I was even more doubtful in the credibility of this pin.

Then in late May, another blog I read, "a pair & a spare" tried a very similar version of this skirt and she looked adorable in it. Here is her tutorial featured on another website and here is her wearing it on her blog. Oh, so you tie it and it stays! Ok, that seems reasonable. Immediately, I decided to try it. And now two months later, I am actually trying it. Sometimes life gets busy. And, sometimes it takes a storm to ruin your errands run and give you enough free time to try making a skirt out of a scarf and take photos for your blog.

1. Hold the scarf like a towel and you are about to dry yourself off. (If you were going to wear this out, you probably would not want to wear shorts under it, I just did not want the world to see my undergarments.)

1.5. You should not be exactly in the middle. Turns out, it works better if one side of the scarf reaches to the side of your hip and does not make it around to your bum. The other side of the scarf needs enough fabric to reach around as far as possible.

2. Wrap one side around. Preferably, there will not be so much extra fabric. Ideally, the edge of the scarf will hit between your front and your bum.

3. Take the other side of the scarf, bring it around the front and twist it a half turn (so the side that was facing towards your body before will now face out).

4. Cross the front around to the back and tuck it in. Or tie it. Mine was not long enough to tie.

5. If you cannot tie the scarf into a skirt, make sure you tuck all of the scarf edge into the back of the skirt. Or it will look like this, and it looks pretty silly. 

This is what the final product looks like. It does not look great and is fairly loose. Ironing would probably help. You may not be able to tell here (or you maybe you can), but where the skirt hits on my body also makes my stomach look larger than normal (that could just be me; I typically wear high-waisted bottoms so I am not used to how I look with a skirt on my hips). I decided to try again, making it as tight as possible and starting at my natural waist instead of my hips.

This is what it looks like when I redid it. (I'm sorry that this picture is so blurry.)

I decided to test the skirt's ability to not fall down. This is what it looks like after sitting and standing up again. As you can see, my shorts are noticeable at the bottom, which means the skirt rode up. 

I pulled the skirt back down and then tried walking up and then downstairs again. My shorts are sticking out a little. (And, apparently, my hands are permanently attached to my hips.)

All in all, yes, the scarf skirt stayed on my body, but I had to pull it down. I do not think that I am brave enough to try wearing it in public without shorts (or at all). Possibly, ironing would help prevent the skirt from riding up. Or maybe a different fabric? Maybe if it were wider or longer? If you have tried the draped scarf skirt (or you decide to give it a try now, or in several months like I did), how did it work for you? Let me know!

Have a great rest of your week, it is halfway over!

Rachel Cathleen