Mail Call

Though I got packages both Monday and today (six in total, whew) most of the stuff I got Monday was stuff that you've already seen just being shipped to me from my mom. Today though, I got some new and exciting goodies.

The Liberty of London stuff, especially the housewares all sold out really quickly online. Add to that the fact that I live in a heavily populated area and I knew there wouldn't be anything left by the time I got home for spring break. I did end up getting some clothes, but the highly coveted teapot and mugs were gone. Luckily my sister lives in a place where the Targets don't get quite as picked over when there's a designer collaboration so she promised to look for me. Today in the mail, I received two boxes from her. One was three books for a class I'm taking that she already owned (hurray for saving some money!) and the other was...mysterious.

Inside I found...

The Liberty of London teapot and two mugs! I know I've said this before, but I have the Best Sister Ever. Seriously.

I had one more very large box to open on top of the ones from my sister. It was big, but light and I hadn't been expecting anything for another few days. It turned out to be my tote bag that I ordered from Gilt. I was surprised since I only got the email letting me know it had been shipped yesterday. They work fast I guess.

I love that I have a new bag for my school books (and I need one since I have some heavy books this quarter). I also love the inside of the Gilt box.

Seriously, how awesome is that?
If you'll excuse me, I have to go contemplate tea.

Wash and Dry

Ah, being back in class. It's really a treat. Or wait, that's not correct. I suppose class was nice today, though it would have been nicer if I hadn't gotten up to do all of my laundry. On the plus side, I have lots and lots of clean clothes, on the minus side, I don't have enough room for said clothes and I was exhausted by the time I went to class. Oh well.

Shirt: Banana Republic, skirt: Target, socks: Target, purple shoes: Target, moccasins: Minnetonka

Yes, I did switch shoes in the middle of the day from these

To my moccasins

The purple shoes still need more breaking in and I didn't want to do that on the way to class. I dressed very simply today, but I felt very put together. It's hard to go wrong with a white button down and a skirt. I just realized that I didn't do Music Monday for two weeks in a row. I swear that once I get back into the swing of things I'll be back at the top of my game.

Peep Show

Every year as we close in on Easter, all the candy associated with the holiday starts appearing. Chocolate bunnies and eggs are abundant as well as, of course, marshmallow peeps. This year, the Washington Post held their fourth annual Peeps Diorama Contest, which I have loved for the past three years and continue to love. People put their time, energy and massive amounts of creativity into making amazing dioramas featuring those brightly colored sugary confections. This year, the winner was a diorama depicting a scene from "Up."

I highly recommend going to the slideshow on the Post's website to see all of the dioramas. One year I'll have the time to make my own I hope. It seems like so much fun.
Pictures from The Washington Post

Back to the Grind

Today I had to get back into the swing of things, since I had my first class of the spring quarter this morning at 10. It was a little hard to jump right back in, especially since I had a spread out day with classes intermittently from 10 until 5. And then I had a meeting at 9 pm as well. Luckily tomorrow will be a bit easier, since I have class starting at 2:30.

Shirt: Tulle, Dress (worn as skirt): Forever 21, socks: Target, shoes: Gap

I know I wore this blouse right before break but it just looked so appealing when I was picking out my clothes this morning. The weather today was still a little brisk - only in the 40s - so I worried a little bit about wearing just knee socks. My legs don't really get cold thanks to years of playing field hockey into November and lacrosse starting in February (in the snow) but those stiff winds that blow up your skirt get to me. So I borrowed an item of clothing that came in handy during my kilt-wearing sports years and layered a pair of compression shorts under my dress. It worked perfectly and I went from really cold to just a tad chilly.

Remember The Alamo

Part II of my vacation shots: The Alamo. On our way down through Texas we stopped in Austin and San Antonio and of course in the latter city we had to go see the famous Alamo.
The first thing we saw was this massive memorial to those who fought at the Alamo. It was pretty impressive.

The Alamo itself was smaller than I would have thought, but it was very pretty inside.

(That's me and my friends in front of the Alamo in that third picture. I wore my vintage dress that day. You can see just how short I am, though for comparison, the boy to my right is 6'7")
The plants and flowers at the Alamo were stunning. I wish spring would come already so that we could have flowers blooming here, but I got my fix at the Alamo.

Back to Basics

I went for extremely comfortable clothing on my flight today, though that didn't really help me when I got to Chicago and it was, ahem, a tad bit colder than I was expecting.

Sweater: Polo Ralph Lauren, Skirt: Urban Outfitters, socks: Target, shoes: Urban Outfitters

Tomorrow I'll dress more appropriately for the weather (and the first day of class, sadly). Luckily, the weather is supposed to get nice and hopefully I won't have too much withdrawal from warm and sunny Texas.

Well I'm back in class, falling out of your past

I'm back in the dorm today much to my chagrin. Spring break is always too short, but this time it feels especially abbreviated. Perhaps because our few days at the beach had to be immediately followed by two days of travel. Over the next few days I'll be sharing some pictures of my vacation, as well as finally getting back on the whole daily outfit photo train.
Spring Break Part I: The Drive to South Padre

There was a lot of open road involved in our journey. The trip down to South Padre took about 13 hours with our stops. We saw quite a bit of Texas.

Texas has some varied landscapes, but for the most part what we saw was very flat. In some places it felt like we could see forever, which was stunning and overwhelming at the same time.

Being on the road for such a long time, we saw a lot of interesting signs. We all liked this one because of the spelling of sandwich. Apparently that's how "country boys" spell it.

We got to know the highways of Texas very well. Or, as well as you can get to know something when moving at 75 mph.

One thing we saw a lot of was churches. There were churches all over the place. Some had vaguely threatening signs while some were just impressive to look at.

In the latter parts of our journey, we saw a lot of fields filled with wildflowers, especially Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas. It's a common myth that bluebonnets are illegal to pick, but we decided that if everyone in Texas thinks it's illegal, someone will probably shoot you for picking them even though it's not technically against the law.

In Southern Texas we encountered some fields of dusty dirt which in the wind created some very mysterious scenery. The only time we couldn't see far away was when the dust picked up and we could barely see twenty feet.