School Daze

In the midst of a crazy few weeks of end of term marking madness and PhD application stress, feeling awake enough to put on a nice outfit and keeping it on long enough (read as: not immediately taking a nap as soon as I come home from teaching) to pose for pictures felt like great successes in my book this week. Not wanting to stray too far from the academic interests that are dominating my life, I chose a scholarly setting for the photos.

Don't you love this desk? When the Catholic schools in the area merged, they auctioned off the pieces they no longer needed, and my parents bought me this desk and a few others to play school with. It's so adorable that they stained it and now use it for decoration, even though I'm still clearly using it to play school.

I love this mixed pattern! The shirt is something that I rarely go to on its own, but paired with this skirt, I like it so much more. The creams and golds work so perfectly in both pieces, and I really like the idea of pairing a big print with a big stripe. Navy tights because, unlike fellow blogger Erin, I've been really, really loving Navy these past two winters (or maybe Erin only doesn't like navy with jeans. Either way, her love affair with black and white is much stronger than mine; I've always preferred browns and navys).
You may think, with my love of pattern mixing, that the bold print paired with the stripes would be my favorite part of the outfit. Well, dear readers, you thought wrong. My favorite part is the way the flower, on the tank top layered underneath the shirt, adds a small, feminine detail to the loud, large print. I love the pairing of the two. I also really like the idea of wearing cream in winter, and it was nice to keep that color consistent with the three pieces.
Skirt: Thrifted, Value Village, Vancouver

Shirt: Gifted, Elana, Target

Tank top: Old Navy

Tights: Kohl's, worn inside out

Shoes: Thrifted, Alabaster's Attic, Greensburg

I had to wear boots to school because the parking lot was snowy, but since I was taking the pictures inside, I thought why not wear the platform Mary Janes that are over loved and under used. xoxo Anna Rae