Easter Tuesday.

Here's the outfit I wore to go to Mother's (mmm) with the lovely Katy and also to spend Easter with my family in San Antonio. I played Pokemon cards for the first time in a DECADE. Also, Easter marked the end of my contact celibacy. My mom brought me more contacts so I no longer have to wear outfits that only compliment my very flamboyant purple glasses. YEAH!

• shirt: Buffalo Exchange $10
• skirt: Target $12
• necklace: gift from Dayna
• shoes: Payless $15

I might just one day migrate from my trusty fire escape stair case. But then again, I don't know. It's cozy. :]

A cute little bird necklace my sister made for me! Plus, a close up of the print on my shirt.

Here are the flats I customized when I was 15 a la Miranda July in "Me & You & Everyone We Know". They survived many years of rain storms, teen angst, and sockless days. Can't you tell?

Now with bigger outfit photos!

Now that I have this spiffy new wide three column layout, I have more room to make my outfit photos a little bigger. Woo! 

Here goes it: 

Dress: Thrifttown $10

Tights: American Apparel Flea Market $5

Shoes: Target $17

Belt: Thrifttown $3.50

This is sort of an outdated outfit, back from the last day of SXSW. I'm a naughty blogger! Maybe just busy. Anyway, voila! 

What I've Been Up To/Why this Outfit Post is Ridiculously Late

- Working on applying to internships! One is to work in a contemporary art museum on the interactive program and the second is to edit footage of humanitarian aid testimonials

- SCHOOL. Cliche right? I have two tests this week (government and nutrition) and a paper about Citizen Kane and it's historical influence due 

- Creating my Humanities contract. It's this honors program at UT where you get to create your own degree, but you have to comb the course catalog, write letters of appeal, visit advisers, yadda yadda yadda.  I'm centering mine around art and culture's social and political influence.

- Having office hours/dinner with amazing professors. Laura Dixon is my young, nerdy-cool Film Narrative teacher. She and I had a long conversation about Miranda July and living in NYC and other cool things. Dr. Barbara Harlow was my Humanitarian Aid professor last semester. 2 other students and myself had dinner with Dr. Harlow on Thursday and I'm feeling really inspired to use art and media for social change. 

- Going to wicked concerts. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists and Julia Nunes. Be jealous.

Drinking black coffee at JCL

I'm messing with the layout again.

I know, it's getting sort of old how much I mess with this.


Conclusion:

I want to use this blog as my own little personal space and blog about whatever I like. Even if it may turn out somewhat sloppy and or random. I have too many other regimented things in my life to make this one crazy controlled too.


Is that okay?

Okay ;]

Yes. I do ocassionally play Neopets. No, I am not 13.

As a  somewhat fashion blogger, I should know that purple corduroy, orange tie dye, and green felt should never be combined in one outfit. Especially when accompanied by a large, tacky beaded necklace.

However, would you really put it past me?

I am the queen of kitsch and odd combinations.

I departed from my usual location of the safe, private fire escape stairwell in exchange for the courtyard bcause it was such a beautiful day outside yesterday!

However, with my luck, I did run into an acquaintance and had to do the whole awkward "yes-I'm-taking-pictures-of-myself-for-a-blog" conversation.

Shirt - homemade, maybe $7?
Skirts - Savers $6
Shoes - Urban Outfitters $10
Necklace - Vintage from Grandma


And for those of you who are still not believers in the orange-purple color combination ....

This chia will kick yo' ass.

10 things I love

I was tagged by Rach at Walls are Imagined, and with all the Southby frenzy I never got around to posting this! Here goes:


10 things I love (in no particular order)

1. Reading journals from high school I did this last night in order to dig up some of my old poetry to begin reworking it. It was a bittersweet experience. Most refreshing was the ability to laugh at my old angst. Its true that everything is temporary! I also felt sort of nostalgic, especially in terms of the theatre department and the really amazing people I had met through the years of growing up in The (North Richland) Hills.
2. Watching (and playing along) with Jeopardy This was a regular feature of my daily routine over winter break. I am very happy to say that I can hold my own in a Jeopardy tournament and will be appearing on your television set sometime in the next two decades. (That's my career plan. Make a bunch of money of Jeopardy and then live the New Media Bohemian life.)
3. Cranberry orange scones dipped in coffee I am pleased that this one just happened to turn out to be the orange one, seeing as I color coded them after the fact. SUCCESS.
4. Watching and creating stop-motion animation videos! HUZZAH
5. Sleeping in braids so my hair is really wavy in the morning The lazy girl's crimping iron, and an elementary school staple.
6. Comfortable shoes that are also cute Think what you may about Urban Outfitters, but I love buying their Keds knock-off sneakers in a variety of colors once they go on clearance for only $10 a pop. I am currently wearing my mini golf turf-green ones. They're fuzzy.
7. Spending time with my family. I know it's super cliche, but I find myself musing wistfully everyday about how cool it would be if everyone just came and lived in Austin, or if we could all move to Florida, or maybe set up camp in Kansas City. I don't think I realized just how close I was to my parents until I got to UT and compared my relationship to those of my peers.
8. Whole Foods' dessert bar THEY HAVE LIKE 34 DIFFERENT KINDS OF BREAD PUDDING
9. Talking in a fake British, Australian, or Russian accent (in public of course) This happened quite often during SXSW. Michelle didn't even bat an eye at it. I think I was so enamored by all the global flare from the tourists that I wanted to get in on it. I especially loved calling people "wankers".
10.  Clean fingernails Because I hate it so much when they are dirty.

Here's a stop motion video I found yesterday that I especially loved. It's by this artist, PES, who's pretty much the rock star of the stop-motion world right now and one of my idols and inspirations in my own  work.

Enjoy!

The dog days are over

I have that song stuck in my head since watching the trailer for "Eat, Pray, Love". I read that book in October and couldn't put it down until I had finished it!

Today's been a lazy/productive day in that I've remained with my behind firmly planted in a chair in a conference room for the majority of the day, however, I've been pitter pattering away at my keyboard trying to establish a little bit of organization and growth of my online persona, including work on a creative portfolio. Hmm.

Here's an outfit post!

Necklace - Vintage from Grandma!
Pants - Delias (you can't tell but they're CORDUROY c:) $25
Shoes - A little random store in an outlet mall in Grapevine, TX $12
Top - Forever 21 $14

And in case you are one of the only people in the blogosphere who has not yet seen the EPL trailer, here goes:

Not-so-uniform uniform

My daily fashion hasn't been too exciting this past week, seeing as I'd be volunteering at SXSW for the first four days of the week. However, although all the volunteers were required to wear their SXSW Staff t-shirts, I enjoyed making mine a little personal.


I know my legs look like they are all sort of blending together, my apologies. I'm really wearing navy shorts, grey leggings, and black boots. Speaking of which

I NEED NEW CUSHY BLACK BOOKS!

I bought these at F21 sophomore or junior year in high school and they have served me well. They are quite lovely, comfortable, and flattering. However they've been in various stages of falling apart since about 6 months after I bought them. It's a wonder they've held on this long!

Shirt - SXSW (free!)
Necklace - you can't see it very well but it's a tiny little orange Texas with a star on Austin. Very cute. Free from the New Media Fashion brunch swag bag ;]
Headscarf - SXSW (free!)
Shorts - Forever 21 $12.80
Leggings - Wal-Mart $5
Boots - Forever 21 $24

And while I'm on the topic of SXSW let me just say I had an absolute blast. Seriously. I realize that's pretty much the general consensus for anyone who went, but this was my first time and it's been so great. I loved volunteering, meeting new people, sitting in on interactive and film panels, hearing bands I've never heard, watching great movies, exploring Austin, eating lots of yummy food, and becoming generally inspired about my future. Wunderbar!

More detailed Southby post to follow including a SXSW photo haul.

SXSW New Media Fashion Brunch - part DEUX

Okay so in my last post about the brunch, I did the obligatory "here-is-what-we-did-and-here-are-some-pics-to-show-you" post. Nice, but inadequate. So let's talk. Feelings about the New Media Fashion Brunch?

It was ...
overwhelmingfunamazinginterestingexcitingintimidatinghelpfulAWESOME

Several times throughout the day I looked around and thought: "How the hell did I get here?"
These times were likely when:

• I found myself in a fancy private room of an even fancier downtown condo building eating a food-porn worthy brunch with a gaggle of ultra-glam femme fatales.
• I was given free refreshments and exquisite attention at some of Austin's nicest boutiques, places I'd never even dared to step within 100 feet of before that day.
• I sat in a swanky wine bar drinking champagne and eating chocolate strawberries au gratuit with a select group of really successful, beautiful women.

I said to someone while we were eating brunch:

"This is like a grown-up girls' tea party!"

And it was. Oh, how it was. If I had been a girlier little girl, I bet that this would have been my ultimate childhood dream.

I want to touch on a particular conversation I had with Diya while walking to the shops on South Congress. I was talking about my film aesthetic as an artist and Diya said: "You know, I can totally see that in the way you dress." And she was so right. I had just never noticed it before! I admitted how I had felt a little out of place with my kelly green vintage floral, pink plastic pig earrings, and knock-off grey Keds sneakers amidst the high heels, high glamour, and high fashion of the women around me. But Diya helped me to remember: Fashion is another form of creative expression, and its fitting that whimsy and colors just happen to be mine!


So, combined with this (rather obvious) epiphany and a boatload of advice and consultation from Indiana and the fellow fashion bloggers (thank yooou!), I think some changes will come into play:

1. I'm considering moving all fashion related posts and daily outfits to another blogspot blog in order to narrow the focus and be more organized. I envision a blog that sort of capitalizes on the whimsical kitschy anti-fashion sort of look I wear and thus, doesn't take itself too seriously.
2. With this new blog, I can sort of cater more to the fashion blog audience/sponsors/etc in hopes of making something really successful.
3. I'll keep Austin Etc. around to continue to write about all the fun stuff I encounter in this amazing city and all the little quirky things about Austin I love to write about.
4. I'm going to try and launch a personal web portfolio this summer with information about my film work and other creative ventures, staying in touch with this personal style I'm working on establishing.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?

For those of you who DO read this, thanks for all the patience with the changes throughout the past 3 months since I've created this blog. It's a really intensive learning process that can only be mastered through experience, but I'm loving this blogging lesson every step of the way! Watch this space for any info on changes!

Revenge of the Amish dress

"Duuude --- the dress got pocks."So says my face in this picture.

Got this dress for a steal at Buffalo. It's obviously an older piece, probably an Amish school teacher dress with scissors taken to it. I was super psyched to wear it and put non-Amish friendly things in my Amish-friendly pockets. Think blackberry cell phones. Yesssss

However, the Amish dress took its revenge on my Rumspringa and when I retrieved it from the wash it had frayed and unravelled to an absurd degree because it had not been hemmed when the previous owner cut the length. And I naively thought it would be fine.

Le sigh.

Quick blog post, more posting later. I'm off to work out and chill by the pool with some hep cats.

I must get better at this whole thing.

Consistency, that is.

I've been a bad blogger, but I'm still learning. I'm really good at collecting content every day, but I'm not so great at posting that content every day. It really makes no sense why I don't just put in the hour of work or so to compose a blog post. It must stem with my Writer's Block-inducing fears of taking words out of my head and putting them on a page! (Maybe that's why I am most productive late at night ... I'm too tired to feel inhibited.)

This was Wednesday's outfit. Wednesday was a beautiful day. No work AND no classes! All morning UT classes were pre-emptively canceled due to ice fears. HA! Wednesday was a beautiful, sunny, spring day. Oh Texas ...

I spent my free day down around 2nd street with Michelle as she applied for jobs. I visited the Cafe de Crepe (more on that later) while I waited.

Top: Savers -- $5
Belt: Birdville High School Costume Closet!
Shorts: Wal-Mart -- $12
Necklace: Hand me down?
Tights: Target -- $3 on sale!
Boots: Forever 21 -- $21.80

She wore a raspberry beret

The kind that you find in the second hand store
Raspberry beret
And when it was warm, she didn't wear much more


I've come to realize that The Universe will not excuse my procrastination. I took an outfit photo in winter wear about 48 hours ago and now it's spring (again?) in Austin. It looks kinda silly posting a picture of my snow outfit when I wore a sundress today!

Beret: Scarborough Faire! - $25
Jumper: Wet Seal - $12
Shirt: Target - $5
Tights: Forever 21 - $4.80
Rainboots: Forever 21 - $27.80
Necklace: Forever 21 - $7.80
Belt: Savers - $4

Tuesday was free pancake day at IHOP. Becky and I took the children (Travis, Debo, and Michael) to get pancakes down at the Cesar Chavez location. I gotta say -- free pancake day is probably the only time I'd ever go to an IHOP in Austin. There's just too many better breakfast establishments around here to visit instead! Although free pancakes aren't actually free after tip, and a donation to the children's hospital -- it's still fun to know that your dollars are going to a good cause instead of lining some pancake president's pocket. (huzzah, hows THAT for alliteration??)

Oh and the host at IHOP? Totally greeted me by singing "Raspberry Beret."

YES!

I was sort of hoping all day that someone would think of the song when they saw me. And when they called my party? "Raspberry -- table of five."

DOUBLE YES!


And when we returned back to MHD after the flapjacks?


This little tiny snowman was all that remained of the spontaneous snowstorm.

busy bee.

Hmm. It's going to be a busy week. Lots of assignments, applications, and essays to do. I need to come up with something fun to do this weekend to reward myself for surviving. We'll see.

I went to Savers for the first time yesterday with Kelly and Ariel! So great. I found some pretty amazing finds that you'll see over the next few weeks. I got: a groovy silverware set, this mustard sweater, two ugly-pretty tunic shirts, two belts (including the best freakin' belt ever!), a purple courduroy skirt with buttons down the front, a weird sort of 50's shirt with cute buttons, and red pants. For $45. Huzzah huzzah.

We should have taken a picture of the pile of our loot. Thought about it. Forgot about it.




Sweater - Savers $5
Dress - Target $25
Flats - Target $17 (I wore these shoes to prom!)
Belt - Target $14
Necklace - Hand me down from Grandma


I've been going sans-makeup lately to appease the nagging of my friend, Travis. He says that girls look better without it. I'm not sure. But, I like the exercise in becoming more comfortable with my appearance without a painted face, and it's nice to believe that maybe there's a breed of man out there who prefers this look? Hmm. Any thoughts on this?

Savers is located at 5222 Burnet Road

Coony love.

Fellow blogger (and bestie!) Kelly and I took outfit pictures together yesterday before going to Becky's birthday party!



Dress: Wal-Mart ($12 on sale!)
Sparrow necklace: Wet Seal ($3 on sale!)
Tights: Target ($3.50 on sale!)
Boots: Forever 21 ($22.80)

Kelly Love!

Yesterday my parents came down to give me my social security card and my brought a GIANT GROCERY BAG OF TIGHTS! Spanning every color of the rainbow from lemon chiffon to gradient green to sparkly turquoise and everything in between. Kelly dubbed it "like an orgasm in a bag". INDEED COONY. INDEED!

(picture of tights soon!)

I accidentally sprayed mace indoors

Oh dang. I thought it was a pocket flashlight! Instead, I fumigated Becky's teeny tiny dorm room. I'm sorry, Bex. It was pretty funny though. We evacuated and screamed and squealed and giggled and generally acted exactly as stereotypically 18 year old girls would act. Fitting since tomorrow Becky will be 19! Epic Birthday party planned for tomorrow.

As for today -- pretty busy day. Classes, rain, honors program info session, Which Wich, networking, editing, party shopping, stressing out, eating food, now I'm gonna go to Swegler's and bake!

Here's the outfit, hope you like it! It's one of my new ModCloth dresses!

detail of print on dress

Dress: Mod Cloth ($15 on sale!)
Belt: Wal-Mart ($5)
Leggings: Forever 21? ($6.80)
Shoes: Delias ($25)
Necklace: Vintage from my Grandma

total: $54.80

Coming soon ... more street style fashion, a review of the Creative Research Lab on E. MLK, discussion about the Nobelity project, editorials, and more.

Orange sherbet + vanilla ice cream = so good

Not too exciting of an outfit, only wore it to class. Tuesdays are my really loooong class days; I wouldn't have time to do anything else even if I wanted to! I really like purple, can't you tell?

T shirt : Target ($10)
Shorts: Dayna gave them to me
Leggings: Wal-mart ($12)
Sweater: Wal-mart ($10)
Boots: Delias ($25)

I should probably be embarrassed because of the amount of Wal-Mart in this outfit. Meh. It's cheap and I think it looks cute. When I'm a famous performance and multimedia artist a la Miranda July, I'll shop at classier venues.

Published fashion writer???

Dress: Wet Seal $17
Tights: Target $5
Flats: Burlington Coat Factory $13
Scarf: Target $5
Total: $40

(Sorry for the gross picture. I hadn't applied make-up until after I took this picture! gah!)

Today was a huge learning experience in the realm of fashion and fashion writing. I've probably spent more time today and last night on my blackberry and email then I have all semester. I've been in correspondence with The Daily Texan, the student newspaper on campus, because I'm writing a spring style predictions piece as a try out to become a staffer. The world of journalism is intense! I had a different phone call or voicemail every 10 minutes offering a new bit of information or instruction on the piece, with a deadline of less than 24 hours.

I made phone calls to resale shops while sitting at the Which Wich patio, camped outside vintage stores waiting for them to open so I could interview employees, typed up my article at a picnic table and finished just 15 minutes before the deadline. It's crazy!

I think I work best under pressure though. It inspires me to work my ass off. I like the chaos.


Part of all that collaboration included getting together with a Daily Texan photographer, (the amazingly talented Mari Kang), and taking our model, Zephyr, to back alley record shops, little pastel houses, octopi grafitti, and parking garage with amazing shadows for the photo shoot.

It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the company of those two classy, artsy ladies. We talked music (hipster slowdance! ha!), the importance of personal style, and our love for Austin.

Later, I got a phone call from the Life and Arts editor, Ben, asking me to come to the office. We went over edits together. He was pleased and had little he wanted to change -- only structural and style stuff (journalism-y things I never knew of before!) Honestly, I learned more about journalism and fashion writing in that 30 minutes than I ever have in my life. So cool.

Ben was just so chill about everything, I was almost convinced I mis heard him when he said he was going to run my piece in the DOM SPOT. See, you're probably wondering what the dom spot is. I did too until he showed me. We're talking front page, center. Woot woot! Not sure if that will actually happen, but I guess tomorrow when I wake up I'll just have to check the news kiosk myself and see.

I hope to get permission from Mari to post some of the pics of Zephyr up here so you can see her beautiful work and how we spent the day. It was really amazing.


But on a tangent: As I'm gaining writing experience and personal confidence, I wanted to make an even greater effort to make this blog successful! It's only been 2 weeks or so since I've really started working on Austin Etc, and it makes me feel really good and creatively stimulated in a way I feel like I've been missing for a while. Please be patient as I, little Bambi, try to stand up on this slippery ice. Give me some time and I'll make this something you can wait to get your little paws on and comment, subscribe, interact, and ENJOY. Optimism!

Duct Tape Masquerade

Friday was Alejandra's 22nd Birthday Party! She cooked a delicious meal (baked chicken, stuffed tomatoes, french green beans, acorn squash risotto and a 3 tiered funfetti cake in the shape of a heart with pink strawberry icing!) for all of us and we ate, drank, and were merry. It was masquerade theme, and being a broke, crafty college kid -- I made my own mask out of a piece of cardboard, markers, a knitting needle and duct tape. It was classy. I wore my vintage green frock from Cream vintage in 2007 for the first time! I've had it for a while but never had the guts to wear it. I got a lot of compliments and had an amazing time. Afterward some of us went to Spiderhouse and played cards.

Close up of the epic eye shadow

Dress: $18 - Cream Vintage
Shoes: $25 - Delias
Necklace: Vintage from my Grandmother
Belt: Stolen from the Birdville Costume Shop!

Keeping Up With the Kar-TRASH-ians.

Really hate that show. It irks me that people who are born into a life of privilege waste the opportunities that money can provide. Despite my distaste for it, this show is playing in the background right now courtesy of my room mate. *sigh*

To be fair, I'm sure I am equally annoying with my folky music and my tendency to wake up before ten and hit the linoleum running.

Tonight is Halcyon night! Woo!


T shirt - Ben Folds concert 2008 ($20)
Shorts - Forever 21 (on clearance! $4.80)
Leggings - Wet Seal ($8)
Boots - Forever 21 ($21.80)
Glasses - Eye Masters (Insurance? They're my real, rx strength glasses! haha)
Total: $54.60

Story about this shot: While taking pictures in this back staircase, the friendly cleaning lady I walked in. Twas awkward. I looked like a goober.

Have a great day!

Why does this Dream Theatre song sound like Dream Girls?

Second-first day of school. I woke up this morning for my 8 am and it was DARK outside. Do you *know* how long its been since I've woken up when it was still dark? I've certainly stayed up to see the sunrise since coming to UT but it was nice to awake to it through my poolside window. I was suprisingly not too tired -- I made it to the second row of my Intro to Nutrition class wide-eyed(ish) and bushy tailed(ish). I'm really excited for this class, which I suppose is a good thing because I may not even end up using the science credit that inspired me to sign up for the class in the first place.

Welp. Here's the outfit post. The setting is this nice little piece of foresty land between Moore-Hill and the alumni center where all the raccoons and albino squirrels hang. Concrete staircase made a good tripod.

Berry-colored sweater - Wal-Mart ($5)
Navy and lime striped shirt - Kohl's ($10)
Beads - Wet Seal ($7.80)
J. Crew Jeans - Ross ($13)
Brown sneakers - Urban Outiftters ($10)
Total: $45.80

Close ups of the shoes and necklace ...



Oh, and the song in question from the post title? "Through Her Eyes" by Dream Theatre. Hmm. Not sure where they were going with that one.

We stole 18 pieces of fruit from the dining hall

Today is the first day of classes of the Spring semester. I'm pleased with my schedule, it should be fairly interesting (dare I say fun?). I'm taking Nutrition, Government (American Presidency), Development of the Motion Picture, Narrative Film Strategies, Reading Poetry, and Practice in Spoken French. It's wet and gray outside -- my favorite.



Although its definitely not intentional, nor guaranteed, it's safe to say that the daily outfit photos on ATXETC will be of the frugal fashionista variety. Mainly because I'm a student, and a currently unemployed one at that. Enjoy!

Dress: Forever 21 (found at Campus Garage sale!)
Belt: Thrifted
Necklace: Import One
Leggings: Wal-Mart
Shoes: Trends Too
Outfit total: $16