Friday, July 30, 2010

Seeing Spots

Thank you all so much for the kind words regarding our engagement, I truly have the most amazing readers! Chris and I are so excited, and I admit to already buying Martha Stewart Weddings to get some inspiration! I'll definitely be sharing photos of the ring too, as soon as I can take some good ones!
Crop Top: Persephone Vintage ($20? old)
Shorts: Spotted and Noted Shorts c/o ModCloth
Shoes: Thrifted ($5)
Bracelet: Baracus Bracelet c/o ModCloth
Necklace: c/o Noble Town Vintage
I'm definitely breaking out of my comfort zone with this outfit today, I do not usually bare my midriff. This is a repeat of what I wore on Wednesday, unfortunately I didn't count on spending the whole day in different hospitals around Massachusetts trying to get Chris help for his hand, so I didn't get any shots of it then. Next time I'm stuck in a hospital for six hours, I'll wear something a little more modest, I admit that I felt a little exposed. It was however, super comfortable! These shorts are amazing, I was expecting them to come up a little higher and I'm a little disappointed that i can't wear a belt with them, but how comfortable they are totally makes up for that fact! I've had this little crop top for over a year, yet still hadn't worn it until now. I love how the buttons play off the polka dotted shorts. This is what is think of for the perfect summer outfit.
This week has definitely not gone as planned, life has just been unbelievably crazy. Along with Chris breaking (more like shattering) his hand, and our happy news, on Thursday my brother and his girlfriend started their trek out to Colorado, where they'll be living while he goes to school...
I'm so unbelievably proud of him, for a kid who has lived in the same town all his life, I think he's pretty brave for packing up his car and moving across the country. As of 10 AM this morning, they had already made it to Ohio, so they'll be there pretty quick. Chris and I are already making our own road trip plans to go out and visit!
So, quite a week, yes? I'm pretty excited for the weekend, and hopefully being able to relax!

Have a great weekend!

Tomorrow! Canal District Clothing Swap!

We are bringing back Worcesters largest Clothes Swap. If you thought swapping was fun, imagine swapping and shopping for antiques, art, designer clothing and vintage items all in the same neighborhood.

To reach the polite demands of our Swappers we are now adding a section for Baby, Kids and Maternity Clothes!

Canal District Clothes Swap

Saturday, July 31st, 10:00am – 2:00pm

Where: 138 Green Street/ Crompton Place

$5 with clothes to Swap, $10 Without

Drop-off 10am-12pm
* Bring a bag of clothing, accessories or shoes you’re ready
to part with, making sure they’re in excellent condition (think quality not quantity).

Canal District Self Guided Map Tour 10am-1pm
*We will provide you with a map of the new boutiques and restaurants
in the Canal District offering special deals for swappers.

Swap from 1pm-2 pm
* Swapping starts @ 1:00pm Sharp !!
* The good stuff goes FAST people, so be please be on time
* If you didn’t bring a bag of clothes but want to participate in the swap, you can buy a reusable bag from us and fill it up for $10

* All remaining clothes will be donated to a local charity.

RSVP here!


Info and photo courtesy of Punky

Thursday, July 29, 2010

6 Years in the Making...

we're gettin' hitched!
Chris actually popped the question in the car in the rain on Saturday night, not in a photo-booth, but we thought this would be a cute way of announcing our huge news considering we've been visiting this particular photo-booth since the beginning of our relationship. He had more romantic plans, but unfortunately they were dashed by a trip to the emergency room on Friday night after he tripped and fell in Boston and shattered his right hand. It's been quite a week! We've both had such a hard time holding this back from blogging and Facebook, but wanted to at least contact the majority of our families first (I still haven't gotten in touch with my step-mom who is out at sea- she's a Merchant Marine). I'm so ridiculously excited! The ring he gave me is perfect, he picked it out himself but brought along my mom and two of his closet friends for second opinions, it's art deco style from the 1930's and completely beautiful. Every time I think of him going with my Mom and his friends, I tear up a little, it kills me.
These are all the photos that we've taken over our six years together at the same photo-booth. Chris and I met in high school, but didn't start dating until the end of my Sophomore year of college. We've certainly had our ups and downs, including two difficult years of long-distance-love, but we helped each other through it all. Words really can not describe how much I love him, and how excited I am to be his wife.

So this is my big news! I was hoping to be able to post it yesterday, but we literally spent the entire day from 10 am to 9:30 pm in different hospitals trying to get his hand fixed. It was a compound fracture, where the bone breaks the skin, yeah it's disgusting and I hated seeing him in that much pain. Hopefully he'll be able to get it completely fixed by next week!

So, I'm sorry for getting all mushy on here, I know I don't talk about my relationship that much on this blog, and I promise that this isn't going to turn into wedding central, but I wanted to share this with you all!

Have a great night!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bottled Violets

My mother is going to tell me I need an iron...sorry mom!
Dress: Forever 21 ($19)
Belt: Thrifted by mom
Necklace: c/o Noble Town Vintage
Sometimes, outfit shots just don't come out. Today was one of those days, which was a bummer. However, I was really happy with the detail shots of my shoes (below) which is why I'm posting. These shoes are amazing and I cannot WAIT to wear them this fall! To be honest, this summer has been kind of rough, not working full time has put me in a bit of a style rut and I'm finding myself pining for cooler weather so I can layer. I always do this this time of year, wish summer away, and I hate to do it, but when it's 90 degrees F outside and even hotter in my apartment, I really can't help it!
See, aren't they incredible? Like a 60's dream, I can't wait to wear them with little mod mini dresses and skirts come Autumn. I need to lay off the shoes, I'm running out of space in my closet. I'll be posting shoes this week to Shop Orchid's Closet, in order to free up some much needed space.

I'm keeping things short and sweet today, I've got some work to do and I'm afraid that if i keep typing I'll share the REALLY EXCITING NEWS that I can't wait to share with all of you this week! It's killing me to keep this a secret! Gahhh!

...How was your weekend?

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Shop Closet Update!

After a brief hiatus, I just spent the greater half of the afternoon adding tons of stuff to Shop Orchid's Closet! Lots of skirts, vintage, and like-new pieces! Check it out!

Now that I have a printer at home, I'll be posting stuff regularly. including a bunch of shoes next week, so definitely check back.

I'm off to try and enjoy the remainder of the evening hopefully outdoors!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Woodbine

Dress: Thrifted ($4)
Vest: Mom's Vintage
Bag: Vintage Dooney & Bourke thrifted ($10)
Bracelets: Vintage/Old
Ring: Forever 21 ($3)
Oh my gosh was it hot out today! We were treated to a mid-afternoon thunderstorm which I hoped would cool things off a bit, but no dice the humidity just skyrocketed! I spent the majority of the day indoors with no AC so I needed something breezy. I've had this dress hanging on my wall forever, and this afternoon hacked off about a foot and a half off the bottom. It's one of those dowdy thrift store dresses that you see all the time in Salvation Army. I loved the colors and print so I just cut it to a length I liked. To add some texture I threw on my lace vest over the top and added a bunch of silver bracelets. Instead of sandals I opted for these cute, green, vintage moccasins send over by the lovely Lisa Zain: Vintage Shoe Love. What struck me about these shoes when I first saw them was the color, I love that they're green! To even out the dark color on the bottom, I added a vintage dark green and brown D&B cross body.
So far, I have spent the better part of this week cleaning my apartment in the most unbearable heat ever. It was something I told myself I would do weeks ago, planning to perform the exorcism right after my last day at the college. Unfortunately my talent for procrastination reared it's ugly head, and I'm just now getting to it. Having a clean place makes such am enormous difference in my psyche though, in getting rid of so much I'm also emotionally cleansed. On Monday I attacked the living-room, on Tuesday and today I cleaned the bedroom (I also had some meetings which is why it took two days) and now all I have left to do is the kitchen, I can't wait for it to be done and be clean and organized!

Goodnight!

Lisa Zain: Vintage Shoe Love is a sponsor of Orchid Grey

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

New York, American Woman, and the LOFT Holiday Preview

Last week I enjoyed a mini road-trip out to upstate New York, invited by Jen to come and visit and to attend the LOFT Holiday Preview with her. I'm so excited for Jen's little baby to arrive- only six more weeks!- but I'll admit that I'm glad we were able to spend some time together before the little one gets here. Jen is one of my favorite people that I've met through blogging, and JenLovesKev was actually one of the blogs that inspired me to start Orchid Grey. She and Kev are such kind and genuine people. Anyways, in my head I imagined us hitting the town, going to vintage stores and having the city at our fingertips, but the weather gods had another idea for us: torrential downpours! Luckily when we got off the train at Grand Central, we had just enough time to hop a subway and meet Jessica at the MET before the rain started. We started our day by exploring the MET's exhibit American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.
Photo: Jen
I was really excited for this exhibit, aside from my love of vintage fashion I am also really interested in women's studies and was curious to see how the show would address both. While I loved the backgrounds and the clothes were beautiful, I was disappointed that the exhibit ended at the 1940's and didn't even get into World War II. How can you have an exhibit on costume and women's lib without addressing WWII? Unfortunately they didn't allow pictures, but I found this video of the exhibit on the website. As you can see in the video, the exhibit ended with the unfortunate video room that grouped the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's together in a video montage. Six very different decades is a little too much to just cram into a loud room with Lenny Kravitz blaring in the background (the very cliche but appropriate American Woman). But that's just me. Anyways, my favorite pieces in the collection were the 1920's sporting uniforms.

After the MET, we made an unsuccessful escape attempt by purchasing the stupidest $25 umbrellas ever (yes, still bitter) and making a run for it. Unfortunately, the rain was just too much for us and we ended up taking a u-turn on the steps of the MET and running back inside! After about an hour of wandering around the museum, the rain finally let up enough for us to find a diner and some lunch. With only a couple of hours until the preview, we spend some time wandering Broadway, I met a reader in TopShop (Hi Liz!) and Jen was smart enough to purchase some comfy post-travel clothes from Old Navy (I was not smart enough). We eventually made our way over to the location of the preview: an immaculate white loft just down the street.
Photo: Jen
This was really my first experience with LOFT, and I have to say I walked away from the event coveting more than one item from the line. Seeing beautiful winter/holiday clothes always makes me anxious for colder weather, I can't wait to layer!
Center photo: Jen
I'm completely in love with the grey moto sweatshirt on the left and the herringbone cape on the right, I can so easily see those fitting seamlessly into my current cold-weather wardrobe!
Photo: Jen
The faux fur hat on the right was another favorite. I actually had a hat like that for about five minutes when I was a kid: my dad brought it home from Russia. Sadly, the dog promptly mistook it for a rabbit and tore it to shreds!
Another favorite was the shrunken wool striped blazer in the background of the image on the right. I would pair it with dark blue skinny jeans and demure flats.
I wore my Spotted Moth Sonnet Dress (Friday's outfit was a repeat of this), which ended up being the perfect thing to wear. Dresses allow for so much movement, essential for running around the city all day. Unfortunately the combination of rain and sock-less feet led to some pretty gnarly blisters from my new shoes, but at least the top half of my outfit felt good! Jen and I were both all too happy to get back to her place and relax with a little Arrested Development!
Dress: Sonnet Dress c/o Spotted Moth
Belt: Thrifted (old)
Shoes: Thrifted ($5)
Necklace: Franklin Necklace c/o Jess LC
I ended up being so thankful that I wore my hair up for the day, 85 degree heat and humidity would have done a number on it. Sleek ponytails save the day!

All in all it was a really great trip, I love getting into the city and can't wait to go back for Fashion Week in September!


Monday, July 19, 2010

Over the Weekend...

Tshirt: J.Crew Outlet ($6 sale)
Jeans: H&M (old)
Belt: Vintage (gift)
Sandals: c/o PacSun
Hat: Brixton ($28)
Photos: Chris
A pretty basic outfit for a freaking awesome afternoon. Sunday was good, hung out with friends in a backyard (a rare find in our fair city), ate tacos and found Mexican Coca-Cola made with real sugar, and finished the day by heading down to the park to watch Arachnophobia. Despite the steamy temperature, I chose to wear a rare pair of jeans with my new classic white t-shirt. I felt very all-american with my straw hat, rolled jeans, and Coke. I ended up being very glad I wore the jeans too, it gets buggy at the park after dark and the movie didn't finish until 10. Did you know Arachnophobia was the first scary movie I saw in the theatre? Yeah, it scarred me for life! Growing up we always had huge spiders in the barn, and watching this movie as a child really did not help my fear of them. But this time around I was able to appreciate the kitsch factor a little more, John Goodman is amazing in it, and by amazing I mean completely ridiculous. In that second photo you can see the half-shell they project the movie into.
Do you know that you can occasionally find Coca-Cola made with real sugar or cane sugar? It's most available during Jewish holidays and at authentic taco stands, and it is amazing. It tastes totally different. Classic Coca-Cola and Cherry Coke are my kryptonite, second only to gummy candy as one of my vices. Despite all my healthy eating and exercising, I can not give it up (though I do only partake once or twice a month for moderation's sake).
On the left is my Coke and on the right is Chris's "Coke"
(can wraps are awesome)

Do you have a favorite candy or drink that you simply can't give up?

Edit: A big thank you to Abby who left this info in the comments: "Coke uses real sugar only during the Jewish holiday of Passover - it's because during Passover, Jews can't eat anything that is leavened (i.e. bread, grains, etc.). Corn is included in this do-not-eat-list, so the usual corn syrup in Coke is omitted and replaced with real sugar."

Friday, July 16, 2010

Sweet Darlin'

Belt: Thrifted (? very old)
Shoes: Thrifted ($5)
Necklace: Custom Made (anniversary gift from Chris)
Sunnies (in hand): Betsy Johnson via TjMaxx ($15)
Photos: Chris
Please excuse the amount of photos today, but I just love how they came out. On Fridays and the weekend I like to have Chris take my pictures- it's just quicker- and he's really become quite good at recognizing good light and nice backgrounds. Today we were running all over town doing errands- like finally going grocery shopping- but I still wanted to look nice. This is actually the same outfit I wore to NYC on Tuesday, but I just loved it so much I wore it again! I've been on the hunt for the perfect striped dress forever, and I think I've found it! The sweet ladies at Spotted Moth were kind enough to send it over, and I have to say I'm obsessed. I love the sweetheart neckline and the buttons up the back, but the best part is that the stripes are grey enough to pass for black or blue, making it that much more versatile. I went for blue today, pairing it with a blue belt and my new-to-me blue and white wing-tips.
Anyways, the day became ungodly hot so after our grocery shopping we headed down to the park to sit seaside and enjoy each other's company. This park is one of the nicest places in town, and when we showed up we discovered they were performing Twelfth Night in the rose garden!

Well, I'm keeping things short and sweet tonight, it's about 90 degrees in my kitchen (where my computer is), I'm going to con Chris into taking a walk!

I'll have an NYC re-cap next week!

Goodnight!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Our House

Hat: Brixton Castor ($28 w/discount)
Top: Thrifted in Maine ($2)
Shorts: Thrifted in MA ($5)
Belt: Vintage (very old gift from Mom)
Necklace: Forever 21 ($9)
Sandals: c/o PacSun
I have been living in various forms of this outfit for days. I first wore it roller-skating this past weekend (check out the terrible, dazed and confused image at the bottom of this post for proof), which incidentally is my new favorite hobby. I may or may not have worn it again on Sunday. Then I wore it to drive out to Jen's in NY on Monday afternoon. Aaaaaaand now I'm wearing it again today. It's a good "hang around" outfit: casual but still "dressed". And as I told you in yesterday's post, I probably will be wearing this hat for the rest of the summer. I love the print of this top, and can't wait until fall to pair it with my black suede skirt. It seems like these prints have been everywhere lately, which is definitely something I am not complaining about, they go with practically everything.

On the subject of my belt, I actually think I have posted about it before, but this is one of the oldest pieces of true vintage I own. The belt is hand tooled leather and brass from the mid sixties and was given to me by my mother when I was in 7th grade. My mom is probably the main reason why I am such an appreciator of vintage clothes, I was brought up thrift shopping for necessity and was wearing her clothes from the seventies as a middle-schooler (she was a very tiny lady). At the time I was definitely envious of my richer peers whose families could afford extravagant wardrobes from the Gap, Express, and Limited (cool brands at the time), but looking back I'm proud of my weirdness, I think the experience of not being popular and not being one of the cool kids helped shape me into the person I am today.
See? Told you. I love roller-skating.
I also just want to take a second to welcome the newest members of the Delightful Dozen, Maria from Lulu Letty and Jessica from Vintage Virgin! Sadly, Krystal and Jess had to resign because they've been so busy and while I'm sad to see them go, I'm really excited to see what these two ladies have to offer in terms of inspiration and styling! Remember, you can also become fans of the Delightful Dozen and Orchid Grey on Facebook!

Oh! and one more thing! Jessica of What I Wore is a finalist in the "Fall in Love in Iceland" honeymoon contest, it would be really cool if you could take a minute to vote for her here (Jessica Schroeder). As an unmarried, and therefore unhoneymooned girl myself, I can only imagine the thrill of winning an amazing honeymoon, especially an Icelandic honeymoon! let's help a fellow blogger out!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Over the Weekend Part 1: Portland

pre-post note: I've started linking to items I've bought that are available online, it won't be a lot because most of what I wear is second-hand, but maybe you'll find it helpful?!
Dress: thrifted ($4)
Belt: vintage gift
Bag: thrifted ($10)
Sandals: c/o PacSun spring break crew
Necklace: c/o Dolly and Boy
outfit photos: chris
These photos are actually from Friday, when my weekend started. Chris has Fridays off, and we've been enjoying having the day together since I haven't been working full-time. We decided to take a day trip up to Portland, ME, which is only about an hour from us (and a 45 minute drive from where I grew up) and one of my all-time favorite cities. Since I knew it would be another summer scorcher, I opted for a breezy linen dress, easy sandals, and a frizz concealing straw hat. This hat is seriously my favorite thing ever, don't be surprised if you see it in a lot of upcoming posts. It had been sitting on a shelf at the skate-shop where Chris works for ages so I decided to finally make it mine after trying it on every single time I went in. I have been looking for a straw hat for a long time, but had very specific requirements, mainly I wanted one that was flipped up all the way around. I love Brixton hats anyways, Chris has a few that have held up so well over the past few years.
Anyways, we origionally intended to catch a ferry out to one the islands in the bay but got there too late, so instead we spent the day wandering around the Old Port, eating grilled lobster sandwiches and sipping beer at a pub overlooking Casco Bay, and lounging around the waterfront. I know this will probably sound really gross to a lot of you, but I love the smell of low tide, fresh fish, the docks, and seaweed, downtown Portland possesses all of these smells. Chris and I would move there in a heartbeat if we could find jobs, I love it so much. I think that has been one of the most difficult aspects of post-college life so far: reconciling the necessity of being in or near a large city for career purposes, but really feeling much more of a connection and pull with a place that has more of a small-town aesthetic but does not support the kind of career I want. Life! Anyways...
After traipsing around downtown for a couple of hours, we met up with some friends in Scarborough and headed to the best-worst-place-in-Maine: Old Orchard Beach. No local in their right mind ventures down to OOB, it's trashy, loud, and frankly, kind of gross. It's the butt of many jokes, most of which are too inappropriate to post on this blog. It's the home of "Palace Playland" and an unspectacular boardwalk, along with a host of the kind of shops that will sell you a Bud Light string bikini and by-the-dozen shot glasses. Somehow it manages to be both a dream and a nightmare, the people watching is phenomenal! We wandered some more, ate terrible/wonderful food (mile long franks and fries), and tried to avoid the hoards of pre-teens out on group dates.

I feel like the past few days have been so crazy, I have SO much catching up to do!