Practical / Not Practical

You might remember last summer, when I wrote a post about making a decision between 2 pieces of clothing - one practical (a blazer), the other not so practical (a peplum top). In that case, the not so practical won out. I have another story like that to share here, this time between a dress and a sweatshirt. This happened around the same time as the previous post, but I am just now getting around to wearing what I decided on (pregnancy and all). Let's see, shall we?

Since this was from last year, these items are now sold out (sorry). Anthropologie carried the "Gemme Dress" by Essentiel Antwerp. It's hand drawn, cartoon like gem print really had me since I am such a lover of costume jewelry.

Also, some of the designs were butterflies and bees and I was immediately taken back to the early 90's when these jeweled hair clips were so in! Does anyone else remember them? The original designer of the hair decorations was Tarina Tarintino, but of course you could find them all over the place after a while. It seemed you could not turn on any TV show at the time and NOT see several of these critters in the actresses hair.

So, I ordered the dress. And when it arrived, the fabric was so stiff and uncomfortable. Also, it was a bit too short for my liking. I sadly returned it. But then, in my usual fashion, I started looking up what else the designer offered in this print. I found this sweatshirt - I think on Shopbop - and ordered it at a very nice discount. This was the more practical choice and I knew I would get more wear out of it. 

My intention was to make a necklace to wear with the top out of all of my bug barrettes. But, I haven't gotten around to it yet. So instead, I wore the rhinestone necklace that I painted with nail polish (shown below - link here). Another fun project I thought of with these beauties, is a twist on a typical "bug collection". I may take one of my divided trays and display one in each section with a little label about it. Hang it on the wall for a glammed up science project! We'll see.... so much to do and so little time!

In other news, how do you like the fun wallpaper I decorated these pics with? Since I get so frustrated with weather or location working in my favor, I decided to take matters into my own hands and experimented this week with taking pictures against a plain wall in my house, and then putting a "texture" over them. The site I use for photo editing is PicMonkey. Then, you just erase the texture off of yourself and this is what you get. You can use preloaded textures on their site, download free ones you find, or else just take your own picture and use it. So for this I took a picture of my sweatshirt. Here's the thing though - I can promise you I will never photoshop myself. What you see is what you get. I know that is hard to come by in the world we live in today which creates unrealistic expectations. I always want this blog to represent the real me and the clothes I wear. Of course I will still continue to seek out cool locations, but this is a nice backup plan for when I can't. My current drive to daycare and work is filled with beautiful weathered barns, dilapidated buildings, and vast fields. There are so many places I want to stop but of course I don't want to be trespassing!

Outfit Breakdown:

Essentiel Antwerp Sweatshirt - Shopbop

Necklace - H & M, painted by me

Apt 9 Flared Jeans - Kohl's (had forever)

Black Boots - ???

I wore this to work on Friday for jean day. A co-worked asked where I shop since she noticed I always have unique things. That is the best compliment since unique is what I strive for! Yep, the office is just getting used to The Peacock Fairy...... LOL!