Jean Jacket Joy

My WONDERFUL dad got me a gift card to the gap for my birthday.  I was overjoyed, and I picked up a jean jacket last week (when they luckily had 30% off).  I was pretty hesitant to do so, because  it reminded me of when I was a little girl (I had a jean jacket... from the gap... that I wore... ALL THE TIME) and almost seemed a little juvenile since my childhood is what I associate with jean jackets.  Well, it's about 10 years later, and I'm about to do the same thing all over again: wear my gap jean jacket... ALL THE TIME.  It's so comfortable because the denim fabric is so soft, and it does not feel stiff or constraining at all.  I've been wearing it non-stop ever since; mostly with casual tees, leggings and boots/flats.

I created this little gem of a collage on polyvore, and it essentially sums up what I want to look like this summer: casual, comfortable, stylish, expressive. 

Revolving around my Jean Jacket by juliialove featuring bamboo jewelry

The jean jacket pictured above is not the same as the one I purchased, but it's quite similar.  I need to get my hands on an emerald maxi-dress, because I love the color sooo much (reminds me of Angelina Jolie for some reason), I don't have enough jewel tones in my wardrobe, and maxi-dresses are just so comfortable.

You may notice that there's some hip-hop-esque jewelry in the collage, particularly the fish-bone earrings circa 2005 (I think I had about five pairs of these and wore them all the time).  I love jewelry, maybe because it's the one thing that I can buy anywhere and not have to worry about the fit.  I usually like to wear simpler pieces of clothing with louder and more expressive accessories, and I feel like an outfit involving the above would achieve that.

Those ray-ban wayfarers are making me drool on my laptop right now.  Seriously, holding onto tissues so I can absorb the drool.

I also included that printed white scarf because it would look frikken adorable with that dress and the earrings on their own.   And those sandals and the clutch are just so funky.

That's all for today folks, I was hoping to do a post with me wearing the new jean jacket, but it snowed today for the first time in about a week, and it was needlessly cold.  This weather is supposed to continue, but hopefully it won't.  Fingers crossed!

<3

A Tattoo Story

Hello!  Yesterday I got a new tattoo.  It's my seventh, and probably my last (except for touch-ups).  When I was a teenager, I went through quite a tattoo phase... and the one I got yesterday just added to a previous one I had on my arm.  I love all of my tattoos, they all have a special meaning to me.  So I figured I'd make a post about all my tattoos, and write about their meaning.  Perhaps this will give any of you readers some insight on the tattoo subject, but everyone is different and everyone has their own reasons for getting them.


1.  "Aaron"

I first inked myself when I was 16, and I figured it would have been my only one.  The tattoo says "Aaron", as you can see.  It is my cousin's signature; he passed away when he was 15 (a little over a month away from being 16) due to leukemia, in 2004.  He left behind my two cousins, one my age and one a year younger, and his two parents, my aunt and uncle.  He was very poetic and an amazing writer; he had many poems that were wise beyond his chronological age. The rainbow is there because as you could probably guess, he loved rainbows.  Rainbows are beautiful, how could you not love them.  But nothing in this world could ever be as beautiful as his soul was, and still remains.  His immediate family (my cousins and aunt and uncle) have the same tattoo also, and a cousin on the opposite side of the family has it on her neck (she was the first to get it).  Even my grandfather has it : )  It's an amazing reminder of someone who meant so much to all of us.

2.  "Shiver"

Excuse my awkward-looking foot.  It was hard to take a nice picture of the tattoo and one of my foot at the same time, as I was positioned in an awkward way.  I got this tattoo in my last year of high school, so when I was around 18.  It's my favorite song by Coldplay (click the word "song" to have a listen).  Coldplay was all I listened to in high school, and this song gives me goosebumps when I listen to it (especially the line: "And it's you I see, but you don't see me. And it's you I hear, so loud and so clear").  It's still a favorite, and whenever I look at this tattoo it reminds me of my happy memories of my high school days.

3.  "4 - 2 - 6"

I got this tattoo in my first year of university, when I was 18 or 19 (can't remember exactly). It's kindof hard to tell where it is in location of my body, but it's right underneath the crease of my elbow on my right fore-arm. This is somewhat embarrassing, but I love the way this turned out, and I'm glad of what happened with the tattoo.  This was supposed to be the date of my sister's birthday in roman numerals.  Once I decided to get it done, I made the appointment, didn't tell my sister about it (I wanted it to be a surprise) and within a week I had it inked on my arm.  When I showed my sister, she asked if it was a joke.  Why?  Because her birthday is May 26th... May... as in the 5th month... not the 4th.  After debating on getting it removed,  I decided it was something I could definitely work with it, which leads me to my next tattoo!

4. "5 - 1 - 5"

Like the previous tattoo, this is also underneath the crease of my elbow, but on my left fore-arm.  I got this pretty soon after my last one.  Realizing that I liked the roman numerals and didn't want to cover them up on my right arm, or pay copious amounts of money to remove the tattoo all-together, I figured I would do the same on my left.  By the same, I mean mix up another birthday: my mother's.  Her birthday is April 15th, which is the 4th month (not the 5th).  So, on my right arm, I have my mom's birth month and my sister's birth date, and on my left, I have my sister's birth month and my mom's birth date.  It also turns out that by doing this, the tattoos are symmetrical on both arms.  They're pretty old so I need to get them fixed up; they both changed over time (not in the same way).  But I still love them.  But this is a good reason to always double check spelling, dates, and anything else on your tattoos before getting them!  With the excitement of getting a tattoo, sometimes you are just too pre-occupied with getting it, and you may mess it up yourself.  I'm fortunate because it turned out nicely and I like it this way, but others are not as fortunate!

5. "R"

This tattoo is on the right side of my wrist on my right arm.  You can see the creases of the underneath area of my hand below the tattoo.  Like my previous ones, it's a little faded (to be expected) and sooner or later I'll have to touch it up.  This was a very spontaneous tattoo; I was in Toronto to see Coldplay in the summer of 2009 with my friends Dave and Taryn, and Dave dared me to get a tattoo to kill some time before the concert.  Me, in the moment, took the dare and got this precious little R.  Although spontaneous, I love this tattoo.  My last name starts with R, and so does my mother's maiden name, so it pretty much encompasses all-things-family for me.  I love the fade inside of the R, it adds a little oomph to the letter. 

6. My Girly Flowers

This was my second spur of the moment tattoo.  You can see that #3 tattoo is above it on my arm.  I got this in the fall of 2009 when I was 19.  I had originally made an appointment to get a tattoo on my finger, but the tattoo artist said it would have to be re-touched much more often.  I was so determined to get a tattoo, and I was not planning on leaving the shop until I had a new one.  So after about a half an hour (wayyy too little time) of brain-storming, I decided to go with flowers.  If you know my personality, you would know that I'm kind-of like a guy, and I'm not very girly what-so-ever.  So this was my little way of saying "look, I can be girly, too!".  It's a beautiful tattoo, but it didn't mean as much to me as my other ones, and it just looked like a stamp on my arm.  It was out of place in respect to my other tattoos, and I didn't like the "flow" of it all.  I went to a medical office to inquire about laser removal, and even got a test-spot done to see if I could handle the pain (which I barely could).  So about a year ago, I came up with the idea for the tattoo that I got yesterday.  I drew it on paper, I photoshopped it, I drew it on my arm, and after a year of thought, I decided I wanted it done.  Which leads to number 7!

7. "för mig själv, jag håller inga preferenser bland blommor, så länge de är vilda, fria, spontana"

This is my newest, and I am so happy with how it turned out.  As you can see, the beautiful flowers still remain, and are still quite visible.  But over it, is my favorite quote: For myself, I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.  I'm pretty lucky because the quote has to do with flowers, so it ties in quite nicely.  However, as you can tell, it's in a different language: swedish.    My farmor (pronounced "fa-more", which is grandma in swedish) was born in sweden, as was my father.  She passed away two summers ago, and I miss her dearly.  She was one of the most beautiful women I'll ever have the privilege of knowing, and I know she'd appreciate the swedish language on my arm.  My father, who is not very keen on my tattoos, also likes the idea; he knew I wasn't happy with the flowers (I've gotten a few "I told you so!" statements from him over that, haha) and he graciously helped me with the translation of this quote, and he loves it as-well. 

So that's my tattoo story!  Hopefully this helps you on future tattoo endeavors. They're not for everybody, and you always have to think about the one common rule: Will I regret this when I'm old?

I also hope this post helped you get to know me a little more (it's pretty personal), but like I said, I want to be honest.

What's your tattoo story?

<3

Panda Party

Questionable post title... no?

Well, the past weekend was my birthday and my birthday party.  It was once supposed to be a surprise party, but it got lost in translation*.  I was, however, surprised by the decor and the attire of my friends who were in attendance; everything was black and white.  This was not your typical black & white party, because it was themed as a panda party.  My loving hubby nicknamed me panda (feel free to grab your barf bag), and it's kind of a running joke amongst my friends.  So, they jumped at the opportunity to make the party a panda party, and to incorporate a little bit of my hubby at the party (he is gone away for work).  There were home-made black bottom cupcakes (courtesy of my good friend Skanes who hosted the party), mini oreos, black and white cups, and an oreo blizzard cake.  The room was also filled with helium balloons which make a birthday party, in my opinion.  A couple of my friends, Amy and Alex, also got me panda presents: a panda necklace, a card with a panda, panda coin purse, and a wine panda carrier.  I was pleasantly surprised by it all.

Luckily for me, this was the night where I wore my vibrant red dress from Sears mentioned in this post.  So, I stood out against all my loving pandas.

dress: sears. opaque tights & leopard belt: penningtons. bracelet: forever 21. necklace: claire's. clutch: american apparel

I love this dress.  It was so comfortable and vibrant, and easy to incorporate a few spring trends with it.  The first trend I tried to tackle was mixing prints in terms of my accessories, specifically the floral pattern on the necklace and the leopard print of the belt.  I also incorporated color blocking, with the bright red dress and the pink clutch.  I just wish I straightened out that bracelet before taking the pictures... but oh well!

I tried to keep my hair simple, with a little pop of color on my face.  I saw a post on the beauty department instructing how to pair a purple lid with red lips.  I jumped at the opportunity and figured my birthday party would be a good time to do so.  Plus, if it looked bad, then no one could critique since everyone has to be nice to me on my birthday : )  I also donned some pointy-ish purple nails for the party, and I've been getting compliments on them ever since!

Aren't my chubby fingers cute?  And my pretty promise ring from hubby? : )

As you can see from the above photo of my face, it doesn't really show the purple lid.  But I think I pulled it off!  The lipstick is the matte line from revlon, and I loved how it stayed on my lips.  I don't really like shiny lipstick, I feel it looks like whoever is wearing it has drool all over their lips.  

Myself and Skanes, one of my pandas

Myself and Meghan, who you've seen here before!

And now I'm off, and hopefully I'll have another outfit post for you soon!  Who cares if I don't have a high-quality camera (although Meghan took the pictures for this post with her own digital, and they weren't with my i-Phone for once), I enjoy posting outfits too much.  

<3

*A friend made an error in judgement and invited my cat over facebook who has an account, and I'm (being the weird person I am to create an account for said cat) is the only person who checks the notifications.  However, it was still an amazing time.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Hello all!  I must apologize about my lack of posting, but it's because of one thing: the hubbie came home!  He works in western Labrador, which is not geographically far away, but he works 28 days straight, meaning we can't visit each other while he's away.  We've had an amazing time while he was home, and it almost makes it worth it when he leaves. Note: ALMOST. Today he has to go back for another 28 days. That's why I'm posting; I need something to distract me from the gloom of today.  He'll be missing my 22nd birthday (which is in less than a week)... but he always spoils me whenever he's home so he more than makes up for it.

Last Friday night a few of our friends came to the house, where we had a few drinks then headed downtown to George Street.  For those of you who don't know what George Street is, I advise you to take a look here or here.  It's definitely a place that should be experienced by everyone; if not for the bars, then for the character.  When I head out, I like to be comfortable.  In order to be comfortable, I usually dress casual.  One thing that is hard to do while dressing casually is to ensure that you're also looking fashionable; I often just get caught up in feeling too comfortable and forgetting fashion and style all together.  However, last Friday night I tried to marry the two (fashionable & casual), and this is what I came up with:

top: forever 21+. pants: old navy. clutch: american apparel. shoes: aldo. necklace: forever 21.  bracelet: forever 21.

Excuse the backdrop and the poor lighting/focus/overall picture, for it was taking with my i-Phone.  Yes they take good pictures, but it embarrasses me when I see it like this. OH WELL.  I purchased this top in the fall, it's two sizes too big, but I like the bagginess of it.  The pants (if you can't tell in the picture) are an orange rusty color.  The clutch is grey with a gold zipper detail.  The necklace is the same one I wore in this post, and it's gold with beige pearls strung along as well.

Here is a picture of me just being myself... No, this is not the infamous "duck face", it is just me being me (I'm a self-proclaimed "G"):

I kept my make-up very minimal, with loose curls and a braided headband made of my own hair.  No one believed me when I said it was my own hair, I guess because I braided it too tightly, so for next time I'll try gathering more hair and making it more messy.

I also wanted to add a few pictures with my friends, who I am pretty sure consist of most (if not all) of my readers for the moment. 

Me and the ever-so-amazing & hilarious Taylor (her hair is naturally that blonde... so lucky!)

Myself and Meghan, my modelesque friend who took most of the pictures for me

Taylor, me, Meghan and Sam (ain't she a beaut!)

That's all for today, folks! Adrian (the hubby) just finished packing so we'll be watching some tv and cuddling on the couch until his flight leaves later today... After that, I intend on stuffing my face at dinner with Miss Blondie herself, Taylor.  Peace out!

<3