Purr-fect weather for photos!

It's probably because we shop together so often, but Van and I own so many of the same clothing items. I think we could match every single day for an entire month if we wanted to. To add to our endless collection of the same clothes, Van found these awesome cat tee shirts (an inside joke between the three of us) at a store called Five Below. We decided to take the same plain tee shirt and dress it up according to our own personal style. Here's a quick OOTD! :)

Van's Outfit:

Tweed Blazer from Zara

Cat T-shirt from Five & Below

Annie's Outfit:

Blazer from Zara

Skirt from F21

Boots from Cathy Jean

Come hang out with us!

I find it hard to believe that we're already approaching the end of 2013. It's been a very eventful year for me. A year that I'll remember even more vividly thanks to the magic of photographs. With all the technology that we have, people often fail to appreciate how wonderful it is and lucky we are to be able to capture everything that we do. These days, I wonder if people still keep photo albums. And no, I'm not talking about photo albums on facebook, but real and tangible photo albums. It's always so nostalgic for me to open up my old photo albums and remember everything that I've done and everything that I've seen. Life is too beautiful to not capture.

Van's outfit:

Nude pumps from Aldos

Watch from Michael Korr

Red Clutch from Zipia 

Circle skit from F21

Annie's outfit:

Burgundy maxi from F21

Black Dress (worn as a top) from Marshalls

Combat boots from Cathy Jean

Friend's Outfit:

Sleeveless Trench from TJ Maxx

Red Dress from F21
Purse from Rioni

 We also filmed a video but it will come soon in a different post. Goodbye for now! :)  

First Video

We decided to be a bit more experimental today. Rather than our usual photos for outfit of the day, we chose to film instead. This video shows two ways in which we would style our combat boots. Personally, I love pairing combat boots with girlier outfits and prints (i.e polka dots). I think its a great way to make your outfit more masculine. Both outfits, however, are quite casual but early fall appropriate. You can easily transition these two outfits in late fall or winter by adding a jacket or blazer. And if it's even colder where you live, then throw on additional accessories such as beanies and scarfs. This is the first time we've actually filmed on my DSLR, so the shots are rather shaky and rough but I think that we can improve with some more practice. These 42 seconds took us literally an hour or two to film and edit. Filming is definitely much trickier than it seems. Mad props to people who do this on a day to day basis.

Annie's outfit:

Top and skirt from F21

Combat boots from Cathy Jeans

Van's outfit:

White blouse from Last Chance ($2.50!)

Jeans from Zara

Combat boots from Aldos

 Unfortunately, this was the only photo that we ended up taking today. :(

Why do I blog?

Ever since I was young I've always kept some sort of documentation of my memories. Today, I still have stacks and stacks of my journals from when I was younger. I've yet to re-read any of them, but I think that one day it will be fun to sit down and read them all and think to myself, "I was such a child back then." One day of these days this blog will also serve that purpose. Ultimately, blogging/writing is a way for me to communicate with a younger version of myself. It's a way for me to look back into my childhood thoughts. It's a way for me to remember what made me so happy at that moment... at that instance.. at that period of my youth. Time may be fleeting, but your memories don't have to disappear with it. 

Just some photos we've taken within the past year or so. :)

Transitioning into fall

One of my favorite places to find fashion inspiration... is my mom's closet! I like to think of it as thrifting without really spending any money. Isn't free always the best price? We styled my mom's plaid shirt with a gold collar necklace  to make the outfit look a bit less casual. Because the shirt is rather ill fitted, we  rolled up the sleeves and tucked it into a tweed skirt. You might not be able to see from the photos but my washing machine ate my skirt and pulled a lot of the threads out. I still like it though, because I think it has more personality now. Since the weather is a bit chillier now, (okay, not really. It's still quite warm outside) I brought back my favorite felt hat. I will be wearing this hat to death this winter because I love the way it looks.

 If you haven't already noticed Van clearly has a bit of a stripe obbession. :) The red clutch adds a nice pop of color to both our outfits. 

 

Annie's outfit:

Felt Hat and Necklace from Charming Charlie

Plaid button down from Mom's closet

Black Tweed Skirt from Marshalls

Black Combat boots from Cathy Jeans

 Van's Outfit:

Striped black and white sweater from F21

Dark Wash jeans from Zara

Red Clutch from Zipia

Brown leather boots from Aldos

Coffee Saturday

We started our Saturday grabbing some lunch at Dan Moo Ji and some coffee  at Starbucks. I had the Chai Tea Latte (which I didn't enjoy that much) and Van had the pumpkin spice latte. Afterwards we spent the rest of day writing and grading papers with our friend at Barnes and Noble. It was a nice relaxing day despite the heavy rain. We should totally make coffee Saturday an official thing.

I decided to play with some of the new filters that snap seed offers. It's quite nostalgic of the days when we use to Photoshop and make Fanfic posters. I remember when we would spend hours adding cool textures and patterns to our posters. Now a days, those things can be easily done with a tap of a button using apps such as SnapSeed. Oh the things we take for granted these days.

Annie's outfit:

Sweater from T.J. Maxx

Jeans from Express

Combat boots from Cathy Jeans

Van's Outfit:

Blouse and Grey jeans from Zara

Brown Leather Boots From Steve Madden

We ended the day with some delicious Korean BBQ. My stomach has never been happier :)

Outfit of the day

The weather was so beautiful today that we thought it was appropriate to do an outfit of the day. I noticed that my hat collection has grown quite a bit in the past couple of months. I suppose that it is partially a result of working in an accessory store. However, I've come to the conclusion that a hat can really transform your outfit. A simple outfit can suddenly look a lot more polished when paired with a nice hat. In the past, the only hats that wore were baseball caps and they were reserved for the days in which I wanted to just roll out of the bed in sweat pants and a hoodie. Of course, I still love my baseball caps (those bad boys are a life saver during bad hair days), but I also appreciate how versatile and fun hats can be. 

Annie's Outfit:

Combat Boots from Cathy Jeans

Purple Lace dress from Marshalls

Colorblocking bag from TJmaxx

Hat from Charming Charlie 

Van's Outfit: 

Denim Jeans from Zara

Blue Plaid shirt from F21

Red Clutch from Zipia 

White blouse from A&F

Brown Boots from Aldos

 As we were finishing up our photos, we saw a wedding couple get out of their limousine with their photographers.Wedding and engagement photos can be a bit cheesy sometimes, but I still think they're super adorable. Congrats to the happy couple!!

To the elevators!

Perhaps the tendency to play "dress up" is innate within us. From our earliest days, we began rummaging through out mother's closet and makeup collection. We dressed up our Barbie Dolls and braided their hair. And if we had siblings, we were never hesitant to dress them up as well.  It is no surprise to me that even as adults we just want to get "dolled up" every now and then. During our cruise we spent the majority of our time (hours and hour of it) doing hair and makeup in our room. And while many may find that a waste of time, I found it rather reminiscent of my childhood.

Now for some photos of the beautifying process: