Blueberries For Sal

As you may have realized, I've been planning most of my summer excursions around fruit picking. It's one of my favorite things to do. I love supporting local farms and orchards (and having fresh produce is always a plus), but I mostly enjoy having any excuse to spend time outside. I'm not a religious person, nor do I really identify as spiritual... but communing with nature is the way I feel close to something more than myself and it's sort of my gratitude practice, in a way. I never really thought about it in those terms until I started to write this post, but it makes sense that I would do everything possible to make time for it – especially when these warm days are so precious here.

Fruit picking also gives me the chance to spend time with people I love (and to dress thematically!). My mom and I had the chance to go blueberry picking during evening hours, which was a nice change. The experience reminded me of the picture book Blueberries For Sal – my mom's name is Sally and I have fond memories of us doing things like this as a kid. Of course, I had to wear this blueberry print dress from Collectif for the occasion. You know I can't resist a fruity novelty print frock!

Outfit Details

Mainline Eliza Blueberries Swing Dress: Collectif (other style here)

Necklace: similar  ||  Flats: similar

On a separate note, thank you so much to everyone who reached out to express their support for my newest venture, Dear Blossom Studios. In case you missed the big announcement, you can read all about it here. And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram if you haven't already! You are all truly the best and I'm so excited about what's to come. Being able to focus on something new and creative has made all the difference these past few months. That's always been how I've gotten through heartbreak in the past and it feels apt that my newest project is all about blossoming and coming into one's own. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Easter Basket

Happy Monday! It's finally starting to feel spring-like here, but we had one last (I hope) snowy day on Friday. It's all melted now – it was actually melting on my head as I took these photos! – and I think it's supposed to be beautiful this week. And speaking of this week... it's time for both Passover and Easter! I don't have a matzoh dress (yet...), but luckily, Easter is the perfect holiday to show off all of my pastel pieces.

I was taken with this Collectif dress from the moment I saw it. Pastel candy-colored gingham is essentially the way to my heart. In all honesty, the fit isn't my favorite; it's a little odd in the bust, and I wish the skirt was a bit fuller. But it looks really cute with a cardigan (and my chocolate bunny brooch from Kate), and I'll most likely be wearing it to Easter brunch this year. Why wouldn't I want to match the pastel M&Ms in my Easter basket? :) What's your favorite kind of Easter candy? (Mine is Reese's eggs, followed by licorice jelly beans – yes, I know I'm the only one who likes them.)

Outfit Details

Collectif Chloe Candy Gingham Dress: A Classic Paradise (available here)

Tootsie Cropped Cardigan in Light Pink: Doll Me Up

Chocolate Easter Bunny Brooch: Kate Gabrielle

Shoes: B.A.I.T. Footwear

Have a great Monday!

Drive-ins + Diners

Gosh, I can scarcely believe it's already June! It definitely feels like summer, which makes me think about all the fun things I want to do over the next couple of months – including a trip to one of the drive-ins in the area. I think they mostly show modern movies, which is sort of a bummer, but I have to do some more research. Luckily, I'll have this adorable drive-in + diner print skirt to hold me over until I can get to one!

This outfit is on the loud side, even for me, but I kind of enjoy it. This skirt is the same style as the one I wore in this post last month – I like the red one a little bit more for its versatility, but I couldn't pass this one up either. I'll probably wear it with a more neutral top in the future, but since there are so many options for color pairings, I wanted to try it with this top from Collectif. I own a lot of the peasant tops from Pinup Girl Clothing, which are great quality but are often a little too revealing, so this Dolores top is a great alternative. (This colorway isn't available directly from Collectif anymore, but I tracked it down at Stars and Swallows in select sizes.) It's not as structured as the PUG top, but I feel more covered in it and I love the matching buttons! Both of these pieces will pair well with the subtler basics in my wardrobe, but it's nice to know they can be worn together when I'm feeling a bit adventurous.

Outfit Details

Collectif Dolores Top in Pink: Stars and Swallows

Banned Diner Skirt: ShopVDM

Pancake brooch: c/o Erstwilder

Kate Spade flats: 6pm

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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!

Hello, Little Girl

Outfit Details:

Favorite Fairy Teal Dress: ModCloth

For the Winnipeg Coat: ModCloth

Spectator pumps: BAIT Footwear

Red belt: Pinup Girl Clothing

Necklace: ASOS (old)

Hair bow: Loretta Jo's
Petticoat: eBay

Ahh, this dress.  I had lusted after this find from Collectif for the longest time, and it sold out on ModCloth for quite a while.  I had just about given up hope of it being restocked, and had almost purchased one directly from Collectif's warehouse (which surely would have been too big on me, since Collectif's dresses always run large -- I wear a small in this dress, for goodness sakes!), but it magically came back in stock at ModCloth in the nick of time!  My mama purchased this for me as a gift, and both the cut and fabric make it unbelievably darling.  I thought it'd work pretty well with my red coat from Hell Bunny, which is both retro and precious in its own right.  I meant to get a photo with the (red riding) hood up, but I forgot!  I also forgot to bring out one of my basket purses! Oops.

Maybe I should just go ahead and do a series of posts based off of fairytale characters.  It was totally unintentional to follow up my silly Tooth Fairy post with this Little Red Riding Hood-inspired one, but since I already own so many things that could work for a category like this, maybe it'd be something to think about.  Any thoughts?

Have a beautiful Saturday!

xox Sammi