'SHOPPING TRIP' OR SOME OTHER INANE TITLE

Today I felt inspired... to make an outfit post!  I recently bought these jeans and they're just so amazing all around and I felt so great in them that I decided it was about time I made one.  It was a quick photo sesh with me, myself, and my camera (hence the awkward nose scratch photo below which I'm not entirely sure why I included, but oh well).

EXPLORING MIAMI

The rest of Miami is coming to you now in one ginormous post.  I wanted to split it up between our visits to the Wynwood art district and the rest of our Miami explorations, but the Wynwood aspect greatly outnumbered the rest of my material, so here it is - one massive load of Miami-ness.

DAY TWO IN NEW YORK

Our second day in NYC was the only full day we had, in terms of not being on a plane at any point that day - short trip, I know.  We knew we had to make the most of it, and one of the most important things we wanted to do whilst in New York was see the 9/11 memorial.  When I was there last, it was still being built, so it was a first for all of us.  But of course, we also needed to hit up as many food spots as possible, so that's what we started with.

VALENTINE THOUGHTS

I think that Valentine's Day is inaptly named for what it actually means to represent.  The term "Valentine" is derived from Saint Valentine, who most people associate with love in a relationship with a significant other.  While yeah, of course V-Day is a day for appreciating that special someone, it's also a day to appreciate the love shared with your family, friends, pets, etc.  I think that Valentine's Day ought to be called Love Appreciation Day in order to more accurately reflect the day's meaning.

TARTAN AND EMBELLISHMENT (or for a less descriptive and formal title, OMG AN OUTFIT POST)

This post could also be titled "LIVING UP TO MY BLOG'S NAME FINALLY BECAUSE WHERE THE HELL IS THE WHOLE STYLE ASPECT, MELANIE???"  Basically I got dressed today and then decided to put on lipstick, and immediately felt super fancy, so I was like "Hey Suze (sister), let's take a couple outfit pictures before we head out because I feel like I look as though I actually made some effort!"  In reality, I don't know if you could call it effort because all I did was add red lipstick, and I mean, that's a surefire way to make anything somewhat posh.  Oh god, I actually just used the word posh.  Even when I was in England, I didn't really use that word at all.

EXCITING NEWS!!!

Jacket: New Look / Top: Zara / Jeans: Delias / Shoes: Converse

I'm leaving for London again on June 3rd to intern at Shakespeare's Globe theatre this summer!!!!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to be able to announce this!  It's been killing me.  But I got the formal invite to join them this morning and immediately started jumping up and down and squealing with excitement because a process that has been in the works for two months is finally confirmed and I'm moving back to London!!

I can't even type out how excited I am about this!!  I'll be interning in the Department of Music as a sort of managerial intern for them.  I can't wait, guys!!  In a month, I'll be in London!!!  AHHHHHH.

Also, on top of that, we got our grades today and somehow I managed to maintain a 3.9 GPA on top of stage managing two shows, work, and an internship.  I have no idea how I managed to do that, but yay!!!  :D

THE LAST WEEK

Top: Topshop for Nordstrom / Jeans: Delias / Booties: Shoedazzle / Belt: Target

This is my last week of actual college classes.  In fact, I only have one more actual class tomorrow morning, and that's all.  Then next week is finals, and BAM.  I'm done.  Done, done.  Forever.  (Besides maybe grad school, but that's not for a while, and it's not the same.)   I wanna say it's been a weird week, but really, it hasn't felt much different.  Maybe this realization just hasn't kicked in yet?  Or maybe, I'm just so ready to graduate that it's not going to be weird until next year when I don't go back to school.  Yeah, that's probably what will happen.

Last night was the Senior Banquet for the theatre department, which was nice, and a little awkward.  Kind of like that thing at high school graduation where they show pictures of you when you were little and then pictures of you now.  Yeah.  Nice intentions and a good time, but awkward when it's for you.  I dunno, is that just me?  Anyway.

College is almost over.... wow.

By the way, I wanted to do a post on Pericles now that we've had tech and actually started performing for audiences, but since it's a professional production, there's all sorts of copyright stuff and I'm not allowed to take pictures of our show.  :/

JUST KEEP WAITING, JUST KEEP WAITING

Coat: Delias / Jacket: Nordstrom Rack / Dress: Ooh La Loft / Booties: Shoedazzle / Scarf: Camden market (London)

You know when you're waiting on an email, or text even, and can't really plan things past a certain point until you get it?  Well, that's been my life for the past two weeks.  I have a potential internship for the summer and am waiting on the email to tell me for sure if I got it, and when I would start.  Could be it's as early as the end of May, which means I can't plan anything past graduation until I know, and because this internship opportunity is AWESOME (I mean really really amazing - you have no idea, and no I'm not going to say what it is because I don't want to jinx it), I'm really anxious/excited to hear back.

So the next six weeks are going to be jam packed with work, class, my current internship, finals, and prepping for graduation.  After May 19, as of right now, I have no idea.  I don't even know what city, or country even, I'll be in.  It's an open abyss of possibilities, which is both exciting and scary as hell.  So here's hoping I get my email, and take on the opportunity of a lifetime.  Fingers crossed please!

P.S.  Did you all hear there's going to be a Finding Nemo sequel??  Finding Dory!!  With Ellen as Dory, of course.  SO excited!

I'VE DECIDED TO CHANGE MY MAJOR TO ESKIMO STUDIES AND TRY MY HAND AT PRACTICING MAGIC IN ANTARCTICA AMONG THE PENGUINS AFTER GRADUATION

Dress: Primark / Flats: Nordstrom / Belt: H&M / Dog: photobomber

   Oh, and I'm going to get boob and bum implants to help keep warm.

If you took any of that seriously, I'll remind you to look at a calendar and take notice that it's April Fool's.  Then I'll ask you if you want to re-evaluate any other news you may have received today.  Obviously, I'm not going to study eskimos and practice magic with penguins.  And I'm definitely not getting a boob job.  I mean, really now...

I'm currently sitting on my sofa with every intention of going down to the gym sometime soon.  That's false.  Totally April fools as well.  I went yesterday and used the elliptical for a whole hour and now I can't lift my legs.  I literally have to use my hands to pick my leg up and cross it over the other.  When I got off the elliptical yesterday, I FELL.  Yes.  I fell off the elliptical.  So, to make myself feel better I'm eating the bum of my chocolate Easter bunny.

In other news, these are still Florida pictures I have left over.  It's not quite warm enough for dresses here yet, but it's getting there!  All our complaining must have paid off because the sun is finally making an effort.  Or maybe it's also just happy it's April.  I feel like I talk about the weather a lot.  How mundane.  I swear my life is more interesting than weather.

STRIPES MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A FRENCH MIME

Top: ZARA / Jeans: Delias / Booties: Shoedazzle

This past week has been quite a rollercoaster.  Super busy juggling work, school, and my internship, as well as trying to use the gym on a semi-regular basis to prep for summer (because I am going to be bikini ready this year, goddamnit), and have some semblance, however pitiful it may be, of a social life.  After all that, we can forget about basic human needs like food, sleep, hygiene (don't even get me started on laundry).  UGH.  But, the plus side is that the snow has finally melted away and the days have been getting a little bit sunnier, so hopefully spring is actually close by.  And only five more weeks of school, then I'm done!  Done, done, done.  For good.  Or at least, until grad school.  But I can't look that far ahead or I may explode.

If you are interested in keeping up with me to see if I do or do not explode in the future (or whatever other reasons, I dunno, maybe you think I'm ridiculous and have a laugh whenever you reach this page, in which case, glad I could help exercise your kidneyd), make sure to follow the blog on Bloglovin'.  As you may have heard, Google Friend Connect (GFC) is shutting down, so you'll have to resort to other means to follow your favorite blogs.  I use Bloglovin', and love it.  They have a free app for your phone and everything, so it's more convenient than is probably healthy.

This post is a part of the Bloggers Do It Better link-up over on Pretty Shiny Sparkly.

THE ANNOYING, AND THE AWESOME!

Top: H&M / Shorts: Nordstrom / Boots: Steve Madden / Bag: AE / Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren / Necklace: thrifted

 Don't be fooled - this is definitely not the weather in Boston right now.  These are a couple pics from my trip to Florida that I figured I may as well put up, then pine over how much I wish Boston did not have snow in its forecast.  Yeah, that's right.  More snow.  It is almost April, right?  We're not all off a month?  Because I'm sure finding it hard to believe that it's actually spring.

On the plus side, my friend Kelly is coming to Boston today!  I've mentioned her before - she's a friend I met in London who took all of my outfit pics over there.  She's an incredible photographer and awesome person all around!  So cheerio, chaps, we're gonna go take Boston by storm today.

THE RANDOM THINGS MY BRAIN THINKS ABOUT

 Dress: 2020Ave / Flats: Nordstrom / Necklace: thrifted / Ring: gift / Lipstick: MAC "Vegas Volt"

You know when you show a text conversation to someone and they ask which side of the screen you are, or if you're the white text bubbles or the blue/green bubbles?  Yeah, I've always thought that was kind of pointless.  Because aren't all text conversations the same in that way?  Your messages are on the right, and the person you're texting on the left.  And yet, whenever we're shown a text conversation, we always ask what side is who (I'm guilty of this too, even though I know perfectly well in retrospect).

Another thing I wonder about that is even more silly is the word "grey".  I spell grey with an "e", but it can also be spelled with an "a" and will still be spelled correctly.  WHY ARE THERE TWO SPELLINGS FOR THE SAME WORD?  It drives me absolutely crazy.  I mean, it's one thing for the a word to sound the same, but have different spellings according to its meaning, but the word "grey/gray" means the same thing either way you spell it.  How did that come about?  Did people just go around spelling it any way they liked and whoever knew the correct spelling was too lazy to correct it?  Or was everyone so ignorant that absolutely nobody knew what the correct one was?  It's also possible that one is the English spelling and America decided to spell it different during their whole revolutionary phase when they said screw the Brits (which, BTW, way to go America - spell a word differently, that's how you show 'em you're independent! *eye roll*).  So which is it - laziness, stupidity, or rebellion fit for a teenager?

That started to get quite loaded with contempt there, which wasn't the intent.  Anyone have little things like this that they wonder about, or that seems pointless?

This post is a part of Marion's Trend of the Month - lace!

Make sure to check out all the other awesome bloggers linking up this month!

cara delevigne is awesome if you didn't know

Jacket: New Look / Button-up: J.Crew / Jeans: Delias / Hat: Nordstrom / Watch: Windsor / Shoes: Vince Camuto / Necklace: Nordstrom

I'm taking advantage of these few days where I get to sleep in, so rolling out of bed for class this morning, I wanted very much to be casual but still not in my sweatpants or leggings, since that's basically my uniform for mornings that I work.  I was scrolling through my Instagram news feed and came across this photo of Cara Delvigne (love her!) and was inspired by her casual look land layering, so I kind of tried to make due with what I could scrape together from my closet.  I was comfy, that's for sure.

Also, I'll have you know that really, the biggest draw was the hat, as it's hiding my gross, needs-to-be-washed hair.

I'm off to go work on lights for a show tonight put on by a student organization for my school.  I'm never gone from the theatre for too long, that's apparent.

I promise I'm not actually touching my boobs

Sweatshirt: Colonial Williamsburg / Chambray: J.Crew / Pants: AE / Boots: Enzo Angiolini

That awkward moment when you're pointing at the logo on your chest and it looks like you're touching your chest.... Yeah.  Story of my life right there.

You can tell if I've had to work in the morning if I'm wearing 1) these black jeggings, 2) some form of sweat material, 3) my hair is in an unstyled bun or ponytail, 4) I'm wearing absolutely no makeup, or 5) any combination of the above.  Today, it's all of the above.

Avenue Q is done and now I'm stepping headfirst into tech week and performances for the second show I'm working on - a song cycle performance for the theatre department.  Here's to another busy week, and even more, to the nice relaxing two weeks after this one!

floating heads and the epitome of laziness

Jacket: New Look / Dress: Ooh La Loft / Shoes: Shoedazzle / Scarf: handmade gift / Lipstick: MAC Russian Red

 So this face is what laziness looks like.  I started to put on a little makeup (lipstick), then I said screw it and went bare faced because I don't really care that much.  Honestly, the days I don't wear makeup outnumber the days I do lately.  And I kinda like it.

Also, this scarf was knitted and given to me by my friend, Carmen, who has some major skills.  It has saved me many a time this semester from the blasted (literally) Boston wind.  Boy, how I did not miss that sucker.  My favorite feature of the scarf would be the ability to make my head appear as though it is floating about unattached to my body.  Magic, I say.

Shocker of all shocking things, I'm off to another tech rehearsal for Avenue Q.  Post on that coming at the end of this week, I promise.  Cross my heart, pinky swear, and all the good stuff.

This post brought to you by Marion's Trend of the Month: black and white edition!  (Though I cheated a little and put on red lipstick because sometimes a girl just needs to be a little fancy for no apparent reason.  Also, I like color too much.  So sue me.)

these are the final pieces of the puzzle, and holy batman, the puzzle is gonna be amazeballs

Dress: Nordstrom / Shoes: Shoedazzle / Ring: H&M / Lipstick: Estée Lauder "Abstract Violet"

First of all, it's been a week since the last post and I'm sitting here all "where did the time go?!"... I'll tell you where.  Tech week has begun ladies and gents.  All these past few days I've been removed from the outside world, practically living in the same theatre building with the same 30 people.  I love it.  It means our show is really starting to stand on it's own two feet and be something we can show others and be really proud of.  This part of the process is my favorite for a reason - there's nothing quite like seeing all the various aspects of something that you've been working on individually for a month come together to suddenly be something really awesome.  Like putting together all the pieces of a puzzle, and the near complete removal from the rest of society is totally worth the end result.

I have pictures coming up at the end of the week, but for now, this is what I wore Saturday for the first proper night out I've had all semester, and the last one I'll have for a couple more weeks.  Let me tell y'all, as much as I love my job, it was wonderful to go out and have fun and not have to worry about anything else for just one night.