There's no place like home

Hello from the West Coast! I'm having so much fun with Ashley on this trip. On Friday, we did some shopping (which resulted in a new dress and adorable vintage hat box/purse for me) and I had dinner with a friend from home. We spent a whopping 12 hours in Disneyland on Saturday (and had lunch with Elana!), and yesterday we went to the Gentle Barn to meet some rescued farm animals with Erica! It's been wonderful to finally meet these wonderful girls; I feel as if I've known them for a long time, despite never having seen them in person before this past week. Although I've been known to gripe about technology and the internet in general, I'm grateful and amazed to have been able to connect with such great people from across the country.

Although I've been enjoying my time here in California so very much, I always like coming back to Rochester again. Sometimes it takes a little time away to remember how nice it is to be home. This adorable midcentury house skirt from Unique Vintage reminds me of that too. (It also makes me want to have my own place to decorate!) I actually wore this skirt on the plane here, and it was the perfect choice because it's lightweight and doesn't wrinkle easily. Plus, I got a ton of compliments on it! Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of separates in general, but I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of this skirt; it's comfortable, runs true to the size chart, and who can resist that print? It's found its way into my home – and my heart! Be sure to swing by Unique Vintage for lots more retro clothing.

Outfit Details

Midcentury House Swing Skirt: c/o Unique Vintage

Lily Top in Black: c/o Heart of Haute

Keiko frames in Lily White: Bonlook

Pettiskirt: Amazon

Shoes: Amazon

Today's my last day in California, and I think Ashley and I are headed to Santa Monica (our one touristy excursion). 

I hope you have a great start to your week!

Painting the roses red

I think this dress from Unique Vintage has the best rose print I've ever seen. It's so romantic, and I love the classic silhouette. It'd make a perfect Valentine's Day dress, but since there are still some roses in bloom, I decided to take a trip to the Maplewood Rose Garden here in Rochester. It's sort of a strange place for a rose garden (it's surrounded by department stores and located near an iffy area of the city), but it does provide a sense of serenity and escape. Weirdly, I've seen at least four other bloggers who had the same rose garden post idea around the same time... but since I had a backlog of outfits, I've been sitting on these photos for about a week.

I'm in complete denial that July is nearly over. What happened to summer?? I'm determined to get as much out of this last month as I possibly can. I have a couple of little trips planned (you'll hear more about those soon), and I still have to cram in some other things on my summer to-do list, like going to the beach, an amusement park, and the Renaissance Faire! I did manage cross one big thing off my to-do list this week – we did a big overhaul of my room and did some redecorating, with which I'm very pleased. I'm hoping that now it'll look nice enough to use as a photo backdrop for the colder months. 

Outfit Details

Heart of Haute Rose Garden Dress: c/o Unique Vintage (on sale!!)

B.A.I.T. Footwear Spectators: available here

Pettislip: Amazon

Do you have any plans for the rest of the summer?

Peach Blossom || One Dress, Four Ways

One of the many things I love about being a part of the blogging community is having the opportunity to gain inspiration from other fashion-inclined ladies. I'm constantly amazed by the creativity of other bloggers, and I really enjoy seeing how they see the world a little bit differently and express themselves through the lens of their own personal style. When Unique Vintage contacted me to see if I'd like to be a part of their "One Dress, Four Ways" concept, I responded with an emphatic "yes!" – not only because I got the chance to wear this gorgeous peach dream of a dress, but I'll get to see how three other wonderful bloggers wore it as well! For now, read on to see how I've styled this pretty + peachy piece.

I don't think I'm always the best at coming up with innovative ways to wear a garment – many times, I let the piece to speak for itself – but I do love thinking of ways to style it into a complete ensemble. I've mentioned before that I love versatility in a dress, so I really appreciate that this one has detachable straps (which I opted to wear here). This light peach color is so lovely for summer, and though it'd look fantastic with heels for a more formal event, I dressed it down a bit with flats and gave it a more Southern twist with my parasol and hair flower. As far as the fit goes, I'm in between sizes on this dress – unfortunately, the size large was just too small in the bust, and while sizing up fixed that problem, it's a little too loose in the waist – so I see a quick trip to the tailor in my future. Despite the slight sizing issue, this is a dress that'll be staying in my closet for a long time to come; it's so pretty that I'll have to host a garden party so I can wear it more often! Unique Vintage has so many beautiful vintage dresses – make sure to check out their whole collection!

Outfit Details

Iconic Sweet As Peach Pie Dress: c/o Unique Vintage

Name necklace: c/o oNecklace

Parasol: gift (similar)

Hair flower: ASOS

Flats: similar

I can't wait to see how the other three girls have put their own spin on this peachy keen beauty! How would you style this lovely dress?

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Gingham girl

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice weekend. Mine was filled with performances, all of which went really well. People seem to be really liking the show (we've been fortunate to have awesome audiences thus far), which is always a nice feeling. I'm exhausted and very grateful I have the night off tonight, and then we gear up for 6 shows straight – which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but this is such a high-energy, jam-packed show that it really takes a lot out of you. It's such a blast though, and I'm going to be sad for this one to end.

Now, about this lovely dress: like many retro-inclined girls, I love wearing gingham in the summertime! This Hell Bunny dress from Unique Vintage is a great piece because even though it's a lightweight piece, it could potentially be worn for a lot of different occasions. I'm really into off-the-shoulder necklines lately, and I think this dress has a great balance; because it shows a bit of skin on top, the hemline is a bit longer, so it's both sweet and a little sexy. I probably could've worn this dress with a fuller petticoat, but I wanted something a little breezier in this heat, so I added a boater, belt and ballet flats and called it a day. For more retro clothing, be sure to take a peek at Unique Vintage's fantastic selection!

Outfit Details

Hell Bunny dress: c/o Unique Vintage

Jessica Simpson flats: Amazon

Boater hat: similar

Pettislip: Amazon

Belt: similar

Have a great start to your week!

Retro Swim Picks || Unique Vintage Style Society

It's finally getting to be swimsuit weather around here, so I'm sharing my vintage-inspired swim picks (and talking about why I love this style of suit so much) over on the Unique Vintage blog today! Unique Vintage carries a huge selection of retro swimwear, and there are so many suits on my current radar! If you love these modest-yet-sexy suits as much as I do, follow me over to UV to read more! <3

Strawberry Patch || Unique Vintage Style Society

I hadn't been strawberry picking since I was a little girl (the farm we used to go to stopped offering pick-your-own strawberries years ago), but when I received this amazing strawberry print dress from Unique Vintage, I knew I'd have to find a new place to go picking! A lot of farms weren't offering picking this season – it's apparently been a particularly bad year for strawberries – but we decided to visit Gro-Moore Farms, which is about a half hour away, and we got a TON of beautiful berries... which we later enjoyed over frozen custard. ;)

I'd been wanting this delicious dress by UK brand Collectif ever since I saw it on their site, but because I've had bad sizing luck when ordering directly from them in the past, I was delighted when I saw it at Unique Vintage. One of the things I love about UV is that they have exact size charts for every garment they sell, which is incredibly helpful when certain brands don't run true to size. For instance, Collectif is a brand that tends to run very large (for reference, another dress I own of theirs is a size small  – with room to spare – and I'm never a size small!), so I was very grateful for the size chart Unique Vintage provided. I probably could've sized down to a small in this dress as well, given the fact that the elasticized back provides a lot of stretch, but the medium works just fine. The coolest thing about this dress is that it can also be worn multiple ways! You can wear the bust wings down like I did, or wear them up for a full print dress; the straps are convertible and can be worn halter style or in a criss-cross fashion, or you can remove them completely to make a strapless dress! I think this dress needs a fuller petticoat, but that wasn't exactly a practical option for traipsing through a field, so I'm going to wear it a completely different way next time. I love pieces with built-in versatility! For more vintage dresses, check out Unique Vintage's website!

Outfit Details

Strawberry dress: c/o Unique Vintage

Necklace: Sourpuss Clothing (available here)

Flats: Urban Outfitters (similar)

Pettiskirt: Amazon (similar)

Have a sweet start to your week!