polka pants

shirt - target, pants - macy's, boots - modcloth

I'm sorry guys, but these pants and boots are a sign things are about to get really boring around here on the What Rachel Wore side of things. I know, I know, it doesn't seem like polka dot pants and bright green suede boots could possibly be boring, but they are when you wear them nearly every day as I have for the last two weeks. It's awful but I just can't take them off. They make me too happy and it's too easy to make an interesting outfit when two major pieces are already totally cray-cray. I can put literally anything on my top half and it will look cool. I promise you.

I obviously really dig the pattern mixing possibilities with these pants, as this is the very first way I wore them. No easing into crazy patterned pants for me, thank you very much. I went shopping with J because while I was housesitting I discovered that my last pair of work appropriate pants had developed an unfortunate hole on the inner thigh, rendering them...less appropriate. I picked up a pair of very sensible black Levi's that fit rather well but had an itchy tag that had to be taken out with a seam ripper but these were my prize. I am so completely loving them, especially with these crazy boots from Modcloth. I'm still thinking about getting them in red...

new shades, new polish

I know I've been awfully MIA lately, but I just moved! To a house! In Seattle! With some great people! Can you tell I'm excited? It's a cute, pretty big house and I have three roommates, a cat, and a dog. My room is rather small, but has potential. It's currently a mess of boxes and junk, but I've been staying since Friday night and just gradually getting stuff organized. I still have masses of things to deal with back home in Duvall, but I'm taking it slowly and not getting stressed. I have grand plans for my little space, and can't wait to show you pictures, but I don't want you to see anything until it's finished. Maybe a shot of my nicely organized closet?

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you my new green sunnies from Target and my new glitter nailpolish. The color is "Popular" by Revlon (totally loving their polishes lately) and I love that kind of murky quality of a colored base with glitter. I think this shot is pretty accurate. It's an extremely soft pink with big and small silver glitter. I really enjoyed the contrast of super girly nails with my beat to shit denim jacket. Unfortunately, since I took that photo I had to work at the warehouse and now my nails look as raggedy as the jacket. I broke about half of them and chipped the rest, so we're going short for awhile. 

I've really been into doing my nails lately. It's so weird, but I think Pinterest and the too many nail blogs I read are to blame. I want all the polishes! I recently looked at holo and magnetic polishes at Ulta, and I think they're SO COOL but also kind of ugly? I dunno, the colors might work better in fall.

4-eyes

Stopped by Half Price Books after work today to pick up a couple a books and ended up buying a ton of tapes. I think like 20 or so? Weird stuff mainly, and bad stuff. Thought my bag-less carry technique was kind of funny looking so I snapped a picture as I got into my car. Which is not the one behind me. My car is not that shiny. It is dented and has green stuff growing on it.

pie guy (aka my new husband)

shirt - alternative apparel, skirt - urban outfitters, scarf - gift, tights - target, cardigan - urban outfitters, boots - thrifted, bag - vintage dooney & burke

Dudes, you can get pie delivered until 3am Friday and Saturday nights in Seattle. Via bike. By a cute boy who makes and delivers all the pies himself. I am so in love. After seeing the Normies play in the CD with my new coworker (she just moved here and is pretty cool), we went back to Amanda's apartment to order a whole fucking peanut butter and chocolate pie. God, it was incredible. Actually, Justina, Amanda, and Tony went back and ordered the pie while coworker and I got burgers at Dick's. I'm introducing her to as much Seattle stuff as possible. Tonight she saw the neighborhoods of Wallingford, Capitol Hill, and the Central District, drank Ranier, and ate at Dick's. I think I'm a pretty good tour guide. But guys, the Piecycle is AMAZING. So damn incredible. He's only been doing this for a month but the pies are INSANELY GOOD. I'm shouting I'm so excited about this pie situation. Oh my lord, not only are the fillings crazy good, but his crust is the flakiest and most delicious I have ever tasted.

So I got this vintage purse at VV the other day, where I scored BIG on purses. Three really nice Dooney & Burkes (kind of becoming a favorite brand?) for less than $20. Plus a wool skirt and a tweed shift dress, which I'll have to show you soon. I've worn both already but just haven't blogged them. Anyways, love the kind of doctor bag vibe with this purse but the interior pocket situation is abysmal. There's a lot of them, but they're way too thin to jam anything into. So all night I'm rooting around in there trying to find my phone, or lighter, or camera and just totally dumping cigarettes and change all over. I kept losing my keys 5 seconds after putting them in there. I THINK, though, that it is cute enough to justify keeping it despite the annoyance. It has shorter handles which I removed because they are awkward with the long strap but it's really cute with those, so I'll have to use them next time. Other than that, I just found my favorite (only) ridiculous acid washed tee so I totally wore that and this floral silk skirt. And my black boots, of course, since last week at the same house I wore heels and had a bottle broken over my fucking FOOT which was not pleasant. A friend also poured his entire beer over the same foot the same night. Unfortunately, foot and shoe mishaps are still happening as this house seems to have a mysterious gold paint leak somewhere and for the second time in two weeks I discovered gold paint on my clothes when I got home. While last week it was just a tiny smudge on my (brand new, dammit) tights, this week I had not only several small and one large spots on my tights, but also huge drips and smears all over my boots. Not sure what to use to clean them, but hopefully I'll be able to get it off.

new stuff

I'm trying to get some more recent photos (instead of all these ones from months ago, ugh) but I'm kind of out of the habit. I've taken a few photos recently but in the meantime, here's a picture of some recent purchases. CCords from J.Crew and The Gap, shirt from Aritzia, vintage cardigan from Etsy, bathing suit from J.Crew, and thrifted purse.

repetition

tank - gap, jacket - cotton on (australia), jeans - urban outfitters, shoes - converse

I love housesitting, but only when it's somewhere great like my aunt and uncle's beautiful house in Seattle, with a view of Greenlake. I get paid to watch cable, eat their food, and hang out in the city? Um, best job EVER.

This is a super simple outfit, in fact I wore it another time recently, with my new Talonalia necklaces and some different shoes. I love these necklaces. I've gotten all sorts of comments on them. Most people think they're amazing but my boss said they were creepy. Usually I don't post outfits I've worn before, but I like these pictures, and in real life, I do repeat outfits. I do that a lot less since I started this blog, but it's silly to think you can wear something totally original every single day. I've always loved just throwing on something tried and true, something I know fits, is comfortable, and I look good and feel confident in.

tank - gap, jeans - urban outfitters, jacket - cotton on (australia), shoes - thrifted, necklaces - talonalia

thriftscoring an easter dress

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. My celebrations were limited to omelets for breakfast and wearing a pretty dress. Since I am not religious and have grown out of Easter egg hunts and dying eggs with food coloring (or have I? I think next year that needs to come back), Easter is barely a holiday. I did have the day off work, which was nice, and went to dinner with J and L.

I've been thrifting like crazy lately. About once a week I go after work and have buy at least a few things. Value Village has been kicking ass when it comes to vintage dresses. This particular one is a rather awful polyester fabric and appears to be handmade. It may look like something a grandma less hip than my own would wear but I quite like it. I do think it needs to be shortened though. Just above the knee? I have a lot of dresses that need to be hemmed but I can't decide on how short. Several of them I think would look best quite short but then I wouldn't be able to wear them to work. And I need more clothes that I can wear at work. Quite a dilemma.

dress - thrifted, purse - thrifted coach, coat - old navy, tights - dkny from garage sale, shoes - jeffrey campbell

Ok, these shoes. Love them. I got them months ago but haven't actually gotten around to wearing them yet. I can't wear them at work and my life has pretty much been work or home these days so I had no reason to. Finally decided, fuck it, I like them and want to wear them. I don't need a reason. Besides, I liked how they're kind of intense and it contrasts with the pastel floral dress. They will definitely be worn lots more. They're even really comfortable!

And the bag, oh man was I stoked to find this. I swear, it was probably never used. Perfect condition basic black Coach bag. The shoulder strap will be great for the summer (for some reason I hate bags that need to be held during the summer) and it's a bit bigger than my brown one which means I don't have to desperately cram all my essentials into a far too small to hold them bag. So yeah, thrift stores have been rocking my socks off lately.*

*I will be talking more about thrift and vintage stores in a later post but I had to mention that I just heard about a great sounding one in the U District. A friend of my dad's owns it and it's called Valley of Roses. Haven't checked been in yet (it was closed when we went by on our way to dinner tonight) but it looks great.

thrifted velvet and a plaid coat

So I wore this outfit for no special reason. I'd been rather a slob the last couple days and felt like dressing up. I also picked up a bunch of dresses and some other stuff at the thrift store and decided to wear this velvet dress. Which I totally love. It's a little big for me, so I might try to take it in, but it's lined and that makes tailoring a bit harder. I also decided to put my hair in pincurls. It kinds of reminds of the pictures of silent film stars Rhiannon sometimes posts. I had a bit of time before work, so I went out to the woods behind my house to take some photos. I also love the giant hood on this coat. It's kind of fairytale. It's funny dressing up for no reason though. A bunch of coworkers asked me if I had a date or was going to a party after work. I felt silly telling them that no, I was bored and curled my hair, and I just bought the dress so I felt like wearing it. I'll have to post some of the other stuff I got at the thriftstore soon too.

coat - silence & noise, dress - thrifted, shirt - target, tights - target, shoes - target

ice cream, walks on the beach, used record stores

These are all things that make an excellent day for me. They are also things I did with my two favorite people on Saturday.

shirt - vintage depeche mode, cutoffs - thrifted/diy, tights - dkny, shoes - converse, purse - vintage coach, sunglasses - found/stolen in oly

We got gelato first and were attempting to take a group picture by resting the camera on the car when a stranger came out of his house and offered to take one for us. So nice! It was kind of awkward, and we felt a little silly, but it was really sweet. And look how cute Justina and Amanda look too. Amanda's hair is pretty much my favorite ever (although she always has rocking hair) and her bag is really cool too (it converts from a satchel to a backpack). I love Justina's hat (she wears hats really well) and sweatshirt (I have the same one in grey). The perfect kind of slouchy outfit.

After gelato, we headed to Ballard and wandered around on the beach and pier. There were SO many people out: playing in the sand, flying kites, barbecuing, playing frisbee, in sailboats, and just walking like us. I'm not surprised. I think in Seattle we truly take advantage of nice weather because we have so many dreary, grey days. A nice day, especially on a Saturday and one of the first of the year, means parks and beaches will be packed. I love it though, it makes me happy to see so many people out and enjoying themselves. This girl, for instance, was just sitting on the rocks right next to the water reading by herself. And of COURSE there were kids building dams, since it's like the funnest thing ever, right?

Even though it is still winter and I needed a coat by the water, the sun felt SO good. I really notice how much light and weather affects my mood. In the winter, when I hardly get any light (daylight savings does NOT help), I get much more depressed, and in the summer I am usually much happier.



After hanging out at the beach, we hung out in Ballard for awhile. There's a really good used record store there called Jive Time and I picked up a few records and a bunch of tapes. The guy that works there (I think he's the owner, he's the only person working there everytime I've been in the store) is this really sweet older guy. Really soft spoken but you can tell he really loves music and knows a ton about it. I had a long-ish conversation with him about Kraftwerk while I bought a Kraftwerk tape the first time I was there. After that we went to an antique mall, where I didn't find anything and Amanda tried on some funny glasses and then we ate at Jai Thai.