Undergraduate

There's one episode of Gilmore Girls where my favorite mother-daughter team takes a road trip to Harvard, and Lorelai, mistaken for a student, is invited to a frat party. Last night, while visiting my cousin Natalie at RMU, her roommate's friend asked what college I went to, and I felt a strange sense of Lorelai-like pride. To be fair, most of the excitement may have been a result of her, even after finding out I was not only old, but just the kind of person to hand out essay assignments, complimenting my outfit, especially my shoes. The outfit, I admit, may have been a bit of pandering to the I'm-in-college-and-listen-to-indie-music-in-coffeeshops crowd.
I bought this dress at Target, thinking it would seamlessly fit into my wardrobe, but it's been a bit of a challenge. I think it's working here, so I suppose that I really just need to work the 90s vibe to truly highlight its Courtney Love, babydoll dress merits. The plaid and the Doc Martens, to me, are sort of the easy way out for looking both casual and cool.
Since the outfit already felt pretty fun, I added two more of my favorite quirky accessories: my Xena warrior princess belt and hodge-podge Anthropologie necklace.
Dress: Target

Shirt: Giveaway, Forever 21

Belt: Thrifted, Value Village, Vancouver

Shoes: Gifted, Mom and Dad, Doc Marten's

Neckace: Anthropologie

Photos: Julie

Thanks for being such a good host, Natalie, and good luck with the rest of Greek Week! xoxo Anna Rae

Hey, Mickey.

This week, my mom is at an accountant's conference in Florida. Okay, to be completely honest, she's at a controller's conference, but every time I say that, people either think I'm making a snide remark about her personality or that I've misheard her when she says comptroller. But, there she is anyway, minutes from Disney, surrounded by a lot of other people who are also really into calculations and budgets and organizations and file folders full of excel spreadsheets. Apart from learning valuable lessons like, there is nothing quite as bad as accountants singing karaoke, I'm not quite sure what she's doing with her time because she certainly isn't going to the parks, as she keeps reminding me. Still, there being so much discussion about Disney and all, and since I'm so happy with the general accounting profession today -- Why? you ask. Well, today, an accounting student filed my taxes for me and now I can wait patiently for the Canadian government to send me some cash, take that US, who instead asked for two whole dollars of my money -- I've decided to dress in honor of my favorite accountant, Momma Karen.Let's just be clear that my mom would never wear anything like this, nor would she actually like this outfit. Still, if you look closely at the shirt worn under the jean dress, there's the beloved Mickey Mouse, in all of his unofficially reproduced glory.

But let's talk about the dress - another baby doll dress with Doc Marten's. If I could recommend one piece of clothing for anyone to also have in their wardrobe, it would be a jean dress that they really love. I wear this to school, to the bar, to brunch, to the mall, to shows -- it's really lovely in its versatility and ability to look great with any pair of colored or textured tights.
Erin, on one of our first day's of outdoor photographs, wanted to take a picture by the totem pole, but I wanted to wait until my outfit seemed appropriate. Today, with my color scheme, especially the green tights, I thought I finally had an outfit worthy. I hope you agree.

Also, while on the subject of Erin, the adorable bow earrings were another score in her bag of giveaways. I love that I have so many new and new-to-me pieces to work with these days!
And, yes, you've noticed correctly that there is a scarf tied as a bow on the top of my head. It really is one of my go-to looks when I don't want to bother with my hair, like this morning when the power went off in my basement suite sometime in between when I went to bed and when my alarm should have woken me up. Originally inspired by the Marc Jacobs Spring collection that was inspired from the 1940s use of the head kerchief, it's really now inspired by its quick and easy solution to not so pretty hair.

Dress: Old Navy

Shirt: Street vendor in Thailand

Scarf as bow: Gifted, AlyWebb

Tights: We Love Colors

Shoes: Doc Martens, gifted by Mom and Dad

Earrings: Gifted by Erin (giveaway)

Have a lovely night (day) and think good thoughts about accountants. xoxo Anna Rae

And it's back to the basement

Although another rainy day prohibited any outside pictures, I did try very hard to take pictures in the Reading Room, instead of my poorly-lit apartment. But, in typical and classy me fashion, one of the buttons on my dress was undone. So it's back to the basement. You might think I'm wearing sunglasses because I half-washed the make-up off of my face and the remaining mascara and eye-liner have created a rough-and-tumble black-eye look that doesn't really match my outfit, as I am dressed like someone who would say rough-and-tumble, someone who would certainly never get a black eye (unless, of course, she got said black eye from running into someone's elbow in gym class or from opening a door into her face...). Well, you may only be half right. I may be actually be wearing these sunglasses because I've been weeping tears of joy for the 3rd grader inside of me whose mom never let her have Doc Martens and a babydoll dress when they were in style the first time around. That's right, I'm wearing my Docs with a babydoll dress! And, oh hey, messy unmade bed and coat tossed carelessly onto the chair. Good to see you again. This dress is new, another purchase from the States shopping extravaganza. The cardigan, also new, was bought to wear with my (also new) Easter dress, but I thought it went well with the sweet, feminine, and youthful feel of the dress. I knew that if I wanted to wear my Docs (which I always do), I needed to funk up the outfit a little, so I opted for the green tights, which I should have saved for tomorrow apparently, because it's St. Patrick's Day and who doesn't love a dress-up theme?
Aren't they beautiful? My mom bought them for me when she and Dad visited this summer, and they are the best footwear for the rain imaginable. To be fair to Mark and Karen, Doc Martens are a big investment for an 8-year-old whose feet are still growing, especially if she attends Catholic grade school where uniforms and not Doc Martens are part of the strict dress code. Also, I know I appreciate them so much more now than I would have then, as I would have worn them over those awful stirrup pants that Karen had no qualms about buying me.
Because the dress and cardigan were so feminine in an almost dated way, I back-combed my hair and wore my clip-on earrings to add to the slightly retro feel.

And, you know, you're right. Those sunglasses look so ridiculous. xoxo Anna Rae

Dress: Charlotte Russe (another middle school favorite!)

Cardigan: Old Navy

Tights: We Love Colors

Shoes: Gifted Doc Martens

Earrings: Costume Jewelry I found in my childhood jewelry box

Sunglasses: 3 Vets Ltd, Army Surplus Store