You're My Medicine

Details: Dress-Reformed by the Reformation via Urban Outfitters, Sweater-Nasty Gal, Boots-Aldo

Whew, it's been such a busy week for me! I had Tuesday off for Veteran's day but I ended up spending 70% of the day working on homework in my favorite cafe.  I had a lot of stuff to catch up on after not really doing any schoolwork this weekend, so that free day was certainly welcome. Anyways, today was a pretty busy day since I have the most hours of class on Wednesday. I also attended a protest that one of my friends helped put on to raise awareness about rape culture, so that was just a super Berkeley thing I added to my schedule for today. Thankfully the weekend is in sight! Also, the weather has been lovely here lately (and by that I mean that it's feeling a little cold), so I had to put on some layers today. I wore this dress a few posts back in the summer and I commented on how I never really know how to wear it since the top part is a bit impractical. Well, I finally found my solution! It goes really well with a sweater, and the leg slits worked perfectly with my new pair of over-the-knee boots! Speaking of, I'm so excited about these boots! I had been searching for a pair of super tall boots but it was really hard for me to find a pair that fit over my calves, but these actually zip up all the way. I got them at Aldo and they were pretty reasonably priced. They have a lot of styles of tall boots too, so definitely check them out if you have bigger calves.

Today's song is a good one; it's the 1975's new single, "Medicine". I have NO IDEA why I didn't know about this sooner (I'm only like a week and a half late), but I'm glad that I've realized it's existence now. It's so beautiful, almost as beautiful as "Me", which is their most beautiful song in my opinion. And I really do mean beautiful - not cool, good, or anything else, but genuinely beautiful. I'm in love. 

Have a great week

Karis the baybonnet

Seattle on my Mind

Details: Dress-Free People, Jacket-UNIF, Shoes-Docs

Hey, hi, hello, wow, what a weekend. As you may have noticed, I dyed my hair! It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I finally told myself that this is really the only time I can do it. Soon I'll be applying for jobs for the summer and (hopefully) be constantly networking if I get into business school next year. Thus my dreams of having pixie hair needed to be fulfilled right now at this exact moment in life, so I went for it. My roommate Mackenzie did the actual dying and I must say that she is a pro. The ombre actually turned out really nice and the break between the purple and blonde isn't harsh at all.  The mixture was more conditioner than dye and it's already started fading so it should probably be gone in about a month, but I'm happy to have it while it lasts.

Anyways, this weekend I went to Seattle to visit one of my best friends from high school, Jack. It was a really special trip for me because besides missing my friend, I also really the city. I started going to Seattle about twice a year to visit my dad when I was 12 and instantly fell in love with the city and surrounding areas. The trees were vibrantly green and orange, the weather was gloomy in the most wonderful way, and the city was a perfect mix of urban and natural. I spent my high school years wanting to go to UW, and I toured the campus more than a few times. Then one summer I brought Jack along for one of my many campus tours and he fell in love like I knew he would. And just like that he ended up a Husky, but I chose to be a Berkeley Bear (a choice that I don't regret for a second, but I really do wish I could spend every day in Seattle if I could). Sadly my dad moved away from Washington earlier this year, but thanks to Jack I still have an excuse to visit! My trip was brief, but I had a lot of fun meeting Jack's lovely friends, going to Pike's Market (my favorite place in the city despite going there countless times), being a Husky for a day at the UW vs UCLA football game, hitting up my favorite vintage shops on the Ave, and taking a walk to Gasworks Park to look out over Lake Union at the city skyline. I even had fun at the airport! I went to the Sub Pop records store and spent about 15 minutes contemplating which grunge-related book to purchase. Then I had a really awesome conversation with the store clerk who complimented my Smashing Pumpkins shirt and went on to talk about how he was from Aberdeen and had the same art teacher as Kurt Cobain in high school (a small reward for living in Aberdeen I suppose).

 Seattle is a truly beautiful place with an amazing history and culture, and I encourage anyone who has not been to pack their bags right now! It really is my dream to live there after graduation, so for now I've gotta get back on my grind and do everything I need to in order to get myself there! I'll end this post with some pictures from my weekend, and I hope everyone has a wonderful week and a relaxing Veteran's Day if you are off school or work!

The Seattle skyline as seen from the Ferris Wheel on the coast of the Sound

Jack and I at the UW game. I'm wearing a hat that my dad got me a few years back that Jack then inherited when I decided to come to Berkeley.

The brand new Husky Stadium! Just look at that sky; so much purple!

The city as seen from Gasworks Park

Til next time!

Karis the Baybonnet

Pull Me Out in Your Flood

Details: Jacket-Nasty Gal, Sweater-Urban Outfitters, Jeans-American Apparel, Shoes-Doc Martens

Happy Halloween! Today was a rainy day and it was awesome. I've been waiting to wear this anorak I got from Nasty Gal for the longest time so I was thankful for the opportunity. It's also finally starting to feel like fall! It's been rather warm lately, but the past two days have been a bit more on the chilly side which makes me very happy because I'm getting a little tired of showing up to class drenched in sweat after a long, probably uphill, trek. Sadly I'm still getting used to bay area weather and the importance of layering. Back home in Texas people complained about "crazy Texas weather" because the temperature could change quite drastically from one day to the next. Here the temperature changes quite drastically from one hour to the next. I like to joke that you can always tell how early a person's classes are by how warmly they're dressed. As a person on that 8 am grind for 4/5 days of the week, I find myself walking home at 11am in jeans, boots, and a sweater, feeling and looking like an idiot among the swarms of those in shorts and tees just arriving on campus. I really need to step up my layering game so I think my next clothing purchases will definitely be in the light-medium sweater category. 

Choosing a song to fit with today's gloomy mood was rather difficult seeing as most of the music I like could easily fit the theme. Since my last post included some serious grunge glorification I decided to hold out on the obvious music choice for this Seattlesque weather and go instead for something by one of my favorite bands, DIIV (fun note-they actually got their name from the Nirvana song "Dive" that was included on my 90s playlist from last week!) DIIV songs always take me back to last fall when I started listening to them during my first few weeks at Cal. I then had the joy of going to see them in concert at a tiny venue in San Francisco in May. I was literally 5 feet from Cole Smith and it was truly amazing. While all their songs are great, there's not a whole lot since they only have one album (still waiting on that second one guys, c'mon, I know you have like 100 songs you've made so please shave them down into an album already k thnx) I've chosen "Oshin" for today because it's definitely one of my favorites and also mentions rain and water and stuff so it's fitting I guess? But seriously if you've never heard any of their stuff, go download their entire album (it's called Oshin) and give it a listen!

Have a safe and spoopy Halloween!

Karis the Baybonnet

PS- Expect a Halloween post sometime this weekend; I'll be talking about my costume and all my spoopy shenanigans! 

PSS- Spooy is not a typo. It's just a far superior word to "spooky"

An Ode to the 90s

Details: Shirt-Omighty, Choker-Urban Outfitters, Jeans-Urban Outfitters, Shoes-Docs

Today I'm here to talk about my favorite decade: the 90s. I know, I know, we see 90s stuff everywhere nowadays. Chokers, flannels, slip dresses, and combat boots have become a part of modern, popular fashion. People want to look like they have the "90s style". And I'm all about it. I mean I love being able to walk into a store a buy a band shirt for a band that I actually know, love, and listen to. But, it can be annoying seeing people with no knowledge of the music wearing a Nirvana shirt, for example, which is why I fell in love with this shirt from Omighty the second I saw it. I feel like a hypocrite though because I get annoyed personally when I'm wearing a shirt by a band that I like and people start to question me about it, so it does show that you really can't judge a book by it's cover. Just yesterday I was wearing a Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream shirt and a guy waiting for the bus with me started asking me about the band and it turns out that I knew more about them than he did, so I ended up giving him some song suggestions! 

90s alt rock holds such a special place in my heart and my iTunes. It's what I was raised on. Growing up, I would listen to Soundgarden's "Superunknown" with my dad on the weekends and Gin Blossoms' "New Miserable Experience" on trips to see the family with my mom.  I literally did not know who NSYNC was until maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. And it's not just the music of my parents; it became my music as well, which is why I'm sharing it with you today.

Instead of choosing just one song to define how I feel about my favorite decade, I've created this huge playlist of 27 of my favorite 90s jams by some of my favorite 90s artists (I've limited it to one song by each artist and believe me it was literally painful at times to decide which song to put on here). I think it's a pretty good mix of different sounds from the decade, from the heavier "Would" by Alice in Chains to the more poppy "Meet Virginia" by Train to everything in between like the upbeat but actually disturbingly dark "Semi Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind.  I painstakingly ordered them chronologically because I think it's interesting to see how the music changed over the course of the decade and how certain elements stayed the same; specifically I wanted to isolate the "grunge" artists from their later descendants.   I love the so-called "grunge" genre and the bands associated with it, but it's completely incorrect to say that the music from the 90s was all grunge. There were so many other alternative music movements and subgenres that I enjoy just as much.  

I feel a lot of emotion listening to each of these songs. The alt rock that came out of this decade, for the most part, was rather dark, and while some might say that its "a bummer" to listen to, I enjoy digesting every lyric. I'm not saying that music today is emotionless and empty - many of my favorite songs and bands came out of this more recent decade - I just think that there really is something special about the grittiness of the 90s that shows through even in the more upbeat-sounding songs. Maybe I'm just making this up, so I'll let you all decide for yourselves. 

On this thing of beauty, you will find:

1 - Hey by the Pixies (1989)

2 - Dive by Nirvana (1990)

3 - Outshined by Soundgarden (1991)

4 - Black by Pearl Jam (1991)

5 - Would by Alice in Chains (1992)

6 - Hey Jealousy by Gin Blossoms (1993)

7 - Low by Cracker (1993)

8 - Soul to Squeeze by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1993)

9 - Unglued by Stone Temple Pilots (1994)

10 - Undone- The Sweater Song by Weezer (1994)

11 - Possum Kingdom by the Toadies (1994)

12 - Reptile by Nine Inch Nails (1994)

13 - Everything Zen by Bush (1994)

14 - Zero by Smashing Pumpkins (1995)
15 - Everlong by the Foo Fighters (1995)

16 - Only Happy When it Rains by Garbage (1995)

17 - Lump by the Presidents of the USA (1995)

18 - Meet Virginia by Train (1996)

19 - Nude as the News by Cat Power (1996)

20 - The Freshmen by the Verve Pipe (1996)

21 - Wind Below by Rage Against the Machine (1996)

22 - Semi Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind (1997)

23 - Song 2 by Blur (1997)

24 - Brick by Ben Folds Five (1997)

25 - Black Balloon by Goo Goo Dolls (1998)

26 - Shimmer by Fuel (1998)

27 - Everything in its Right Place by Radiohead (2000)


Have a wonderful week my 90s beauties!

Karis the baybonnet

All of These Things Will Change

Details: Boots-Dolce Vita, Tights-Urban Outfitters, Dress-BDBG, Flannel-Thrifted, Necklaces-Nasty Gal and Bufalo Exchange

So it's been forever since I blogged, and that makes me sad, but hey I'm here so that's cool. Anyways, today I just want to give a shout out to my favorite month, October (now that we're like halfway through it). Fall itself is my favorite season; the changing leaves, the cool weather, the darker style that becomes more commonplace, starting new classes and meeting new people. Despite the fact that I've never been a PSL fan (I'm all about chai lattes 100% of the time), there is really something special about this season of change. I always feel like I have the chance to become a new, better version of myself. October itself is the perfect month within fall because I've had time to get into the swing of school and life, but there's still this chance of wonderful changes and surprises ahead. Also Halloween and all the spoopiness leading up to it is pretty great.  I've finally decided what I'm going to be this year and I'm super excited, but it will have to be a surprise until I make a Halloween post.

Today's song is this beautiful jam by Banks, who I got really into about a month ago (I just haven't been able to talk about it here seeing as I haven't posted in a while). Change was the first song I heard by her and I instantly fell in love with it. Everything about the song is beautiful: the lyrics, the beat, that awesome little guitar lick at the very beginning and end of the chorus (the way I feel about this lick is very similar to my feeling towards the guitar part during the verses of Sweater Weather-gfsgfjhlk). It's a melancholy song but it's also so sensual and beautiful, plus it really struck a chord with my personal life at the time that I heard it. I think it's a wonderful song to accompany my feelings about fall; not only is it literally a song about change, but it is somehow the exact feeling of curling up in a warm blanket with a hot beverage as the leaves fall put into song.

Til next time,

Karis the Baybonnet

Home Sweet Home

My necklace collection - on the wall by my bed

The only three books that I really love - on my bedside table

DIY plaque

So, I've been meaning to make a post about my apartment for a while now, but I was waiting til we cleaned the kitchen and made it all pretty and stuff. I am just now realizing that our kitchen will likely never be pretty and we're okay with that. So, I'm just posting the pictures of my side of the room that I share with my friend. The apartment has two rooms, one big (that I share), and one small (that my third roommate lives in) and they're joined by our kitchen (that is always messy due to a lack of cabinet space). It's a pretty nice place though and it's super close to campus. Honestly, we are so lucky and thankful that we found this amazing place! Also I just love my room! Most of the posters are the same ones I had on the wall in my dorm (except for my new nbhd one that I got this summer),  and I also made a cute little sparkly motivational and sassy plaque that's on the right side of my main wall, so I'm pretty proud of that crafting endeavor. I also like that I have a mix of bedding. I had the purple tye-dye tapestry from last year and also the super soft light blue throw blanket usually ends up being the only thing I actually sleep under, so I chose to get a black and white comforter so that nothing got super clashy. Oh, and I love my hanging rack (it's on the very right of the top picture). The previous owners left it and the wooden hangers that are on it, and I love it because it makes me feel like a real fashion blogger who hangs all their favorite things of the moment on these nice fancy hangers for everyone to see (even though I literally just put my dresses on there because they were to long for the top part of the wardrobe closet thing). 

I'm really excited about my first space and all the memories I'll create here with my friends- the ones I live with and the ones I don't. We've already had "dinner parties" (my roommate cooks pasta...and I goof off as she does so).  I'm also pretty excited about my classes and all the other exciting things that lie ahead of me this semester. I'm going into the year with an uncharacteristically optimistic outlook- who knows, maybe this is the first step of me changing my pessimistic ways entirely! It should be a good time. 

Karis the baybonnet

It Takes a Bit More Than You

Details: Dress-free people, Bralette-free people, Shirt-Urban Outfitters, Socks-Urban Outfitters, Shoes-Doc Martens

Hello! Today I bring you iPhone photos taken in front of the kinda dirty door to my apartment complex (there's like 6 units, I don't even know if we can call it a complex). I'm finally getting back into the swing of that school life. Today I missed the bus and had to fast walk up endless hills to get to my media studies class so that was good. Shin splints ensued. Anyways, here is my outfit from yesterday. It's a pretty busy outfit for me, meaning that I packed on a lot of my favorite things all at once (whereas today I'm just in boyfriend jeans, a baggy gray tee, and Birkenstocks looking like a true Berkeley student/possibly an actual male). I'm in love with this new bralette from free people though. I've really been into interesting layering techniques lately, and free people has a ton of awesome strappy bralettes right now that are only feeding my addiction.  There's also some subtle pattern mixing going on here with the polka dots on the dress and the plaid shirt (I say subtle because the polka dots are hardly noticeable on the slip. I usually really don't like polka dots so I probably wouldn't be as in love with this item as I am if they were super noticeable). I'm also not usually one for pattern mixing, but I'm slowly becoming more accustomed to it and welcoming it into my wardrobe. Gotta branch out sometimes, ya know? That's kinda been my motto in my life lately- that and just letting things happen as the universe intends, which is entirely new to me seeing as I'm a total control freak.

The song for today is "you" by the 1975. I've been obsessed with this song and with the 1975 for a while now, and while I've been listening to a lot of the 1975 in general lately, this song has been a definite go-to jam for me. I think it fits with my letting things happen vibe because it's a very relaxing song I feel, and the lyrics are pretty much about not letting people's flaws and past experiences get in the way of how you think of them. 

Anyways, I hope you are all having a lovely end of the summer, soak up that sun while you can! 

Karis the baybonnet

Alive in the Superunknown

Details: Dress/Tunic(?)-Free People, Shoes-Nordstrom Rack, Black Lace Shorts-Urban Outfitters

So, it's been a while since my last post, and for that I am quite sad. I've just been super busy getting settled into my new apartment and preparing for the start of school. I'm so in love with my apartment and the wonderful people I am sharing it with. I will probably post pictures soon, but it's honestly kinda in a state of horrible mess that we've been too busy/lazy to deal with yet. But hopefully, for all of our sakes, we will tidy up soon and I'll be able to take some pictures of it. 

It seems odd having been in Berkeley for so long and just now posting these pictures that Jack took just before I left Dallas. Regardless, Jack is amazing and I miss him so much already (and also missin his photography skills), so I had to put these up! We headed to Kyle Warren park downtown to shoot these, so I really had to buck up and face my fear of awkwardly shooting in public. It's a really beautiful park full of all sorts of fun little areas though, so it was definitely worth it!

Since coming out here, I've spent quite a bit of time in San Fran (definitely more than I did last semester). I went and did some more touristy things with my mom right after arriving here, and then I went to the 20th street block party in the Mission District with some friends and saw this really cool band Cayucas a few days later. Then, a few days ago, I went to the Mission again for some serious food tourism (no really, we literally went there to hit up a bunch of restaurants). Overall, it's been awesome getting readjusted to Berekely life. There truly is no place else I would rather be, and I'm looking forward to an amazing year in this city and at this school!

After seeing Soundgarden a little over a week ago, I've really been jamming out to them. Superunknown in particular is a song I've really identified with because I'm living pretty much on my own for the first time in my life. There's so much to look forward to, and I am very much alive in the superunknown.

Karis the baybonnet

The City Sees us All Like Babes

Details: Dress-Reformed by the Reformation, Necklace-Forever 21, Shoes-LF, Sunglasses-Cotton On, Purse-Urban Outfitters

What a beautiful day it was today in downtown Dallas! It was my mom's birthday so I took her to the Zodiac Restaurant at the flagship Neiman's. It was really nice to spend some one-on-one time with her before I jet off to Berkeley on Thursday. I can't believe it's happening so soon! All summer I thought "wow this couldn't be going by any slower, I'm so ready to get back!" but now that it's happening, I'm frantically spending my last moments with my friends here and also frantically packing because I've completely neglected to do that up until this moment. Anyways, I was really happy to finally have an occasion to wear this dress! I had my eyes on it for a while and finally bought it during a 50% of sale sale when I worked at Urban last summer (I got a good deal, no big). I had literally worn it once to work and then just kinda had it in my closet waiting for the perfect outing to wear it to, and I finally found one! 

My last days of summer have been pretty great though. I saw Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails with my step-dad on Sunday night and that was awesome! I'm pretty sure I was one of maybe 10 females under 27 (all the others were in father-daughter pairs too), and needless to say people watching was great (die-hard NIN fans...wow).  Soundgarden was amazing and Chris Cornell's voice is still actual perfection. I really don't know how he does it, but I'm not going to question it and just keep enjoying it's existence on this earth. 

Despite recent grunge and industrial metal happenings, Interpol released their second single off El Pintor TODAY, so naturally that has to be the song of the day. It's called Ancient Ways and it's pretty great if I do say so myself. I'm so excited for El Pintor to come out on September 9th AND for me to go see them on September 20th! So many things happening in September, its sure to be a great month! 

Karis the baybonnet

On Why I Cut My Hair

Details: Shorts-Urban Outfitters, Shirt-Madewell, Bra-Free People, Shoes (not pictured)-Converse

Let me preface this by saying that the second picture of me is just the worst. But, it's the only good one that my mom got of my whole outfit (even though this post is obvi about my hair). I'm literally about to move from cute smile to talking-my mom has a really special talent of snapping pictures of me the exact moment that I make a weird transition face because I THINK she's already taken the picture. But hey, isn't that what moms are for? (Thanks mom for taking these awkward pictures of me because Jack is on vacation-love ya)

I digress. MY HAIR!! While pretty much everyone and their grandma was swooning over my short locks today at the office, I feel like a lot of people that I know personally want to know "WHY?!". My long hair kinda became a part of my identity throughout high school. After I chopped off all my hair right before freshman year, I vowed to never cut it again. I mean, it was bad. It was at this weird length and kicked out at the end and oh I had these horrid bangs the covered my whole face. Not cute. So, I let it grow and grow until it became a security blanket to me. I would tell myself "well at least my hair looks pretty" whenever I was feeling down about myself. "At least I don't look like the loser I was when I was 15" I would think. But, no more! I find that a lot of people I know are actually lobbing their hair off right now, and I think I know why. I've just finished my freshman year of college; I've survived a lot of self-discovery and I've learned that I don't need a security blanket of hair to make me feel confident about who I am. I'm at a really exciting point in my life where I have my whole life ahead of me and I know that many exciting and potentially difficult changes are ahead of me, but at the same time, I've been through a lot and I have learned A TON about who I am, what I like, what I dislike, how I deal with emotions, and how I can make myself feel confident about who I am no matter the situation or setting that I'm in. So, what better time to make a huge change to a part of me that's defined who I am for the past three years of my life? And I am SO excited about my hair and the exciting year it has ahead of it.

Anyways, here's my favorite song of the moment, Cardiac Arrest by Bad Suns. It's kinda become the Sweater Weather of this summer in that I can't go a day without listening to it (don't get me wrong though-this fact still applies to Sweater Weather)

Karis the Baybonnet

That's How it Starts

Details: Dress-ASOS, Bra-Urban Outfitters, Belt-Buffalo Exchange, Shoes-Doc Martens

Hello Interwebs! I can't believe that summer is almost over for me! It's finally starting to feel like the end; I have just over a week left at my job, band camp for the little high school kiddos has started up, it's hot as the seventh circle of Dante's Inferno outside...anyways, I digress. Not a whole lot to say about my outfit other than it's incredibly typical for me. I think I wear this dress more than anything else in my closet. However, I only recently realized that I could wear it backwards and make it into a (kinda) new dress! Since the front neckline is cut higher than the back, simply flipping it around gives more room to accessorize my décolletage (wow that sounds fancy). I just cut the tag off so it wouldn't pop up and make people think I'm a crazy lady who puts her clothes on backwards (even though they would be 100% right).

It took me a while to decide what my song should be today. I have an extensive summer playlist I've just been adding to all summer and it's kinda getting to the point where I want to post like 10 songs at once because I love them all so much, but I like trying to find ones that somewhat emulate the mood I'm feeling/wearing. I've always felt an emotional connection to the music I listen to- not in a cheesy "ah yes this reminds me of the time I did that thing and it makes me sad/happy/whatever" way, but in what is probably, upon further reflection, an even weirder way. Bear with me here, but whenever I hear a song, I imagine a little scene with it as if I were making a movie and deciding what part of the movie to put the song in.  So each song invokes some kind of emotion, but not necessarily an emotion that I can relate to personally. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone nor do I know why I am going on about it, but anyways, here is "all my friends" by LCD Soundsystem- an oldie but a goodie. I feel like this song, along with pretty much any song by LCD Soundsystem, belongs in some long montage that builds up to an important thing. It makes me hopeful and nostalgic at the same time, which is exactly how I'm feeling as the summer wraps up and I reflect on my first year of college as I head into my second. I also realize that is maybe the cheesiest thing I have ever put into writing and I now feel like I should say something actually insightful to even everything out, but I have nothing.

til the next time,

Karis the baybonnet

All The Rage Back Home

Details: Dress-Free People, Shirt-Urban Outfitters, Boots-Buffalo Exchange

So, I'm literally in love with these pictures Jack took of me last week (this is the last of them, looks like I'll have to drag him out and about again).  The original purpose here was to go to some Trinity River levies, but once we got onto the hill of this kinda-abandoned-maybe-construction-site, the Dallas skyline in the back was perfect. Also, as much as I love the third picture, can we note that I was trying to do a "graceful spin"? Don't really know how well that turned out. 

Looking at these pictures, I realize how much I really do love Dallas.  I'm always saying that it's not a "big city" because it's not sprawling for miles and miles like San Francisco or New York, but it does have a lot to offer. I was talking with my coworker the other day and he asked "why would you ever live downtown if you didn't work there?" and I thought "man, I would live downtown even if it meant commuting out here to Plano everyday" (which I already do and it's not that bad).  I recently went and explored the Bishops Arts District and I fell in love! It reminded me of being in Berkeley, and I'm definitely going to spend my last few weeks here in the Big D getting out and exploring as much as I can. I just wish I had embraced this city more while I had the chance to instead of sitting around complaining about how boring and slow it was.

Now that I've got the culture club out of the way, can I just rant about tee shirts for a second? Like, what is it about plain tee shirts that makes me want to go spend my whole paycheck at urban outfitters and buy all the soft, oversized, destroyed tee shirts that exist? Urban's whole mood right now is just killing me because it's completely on-par with my style. I mean, I used to work there, and I'll be the first to say that I didn't really "vibe" with half their stuff at the time. BUT NOW, I think I would buy the whole store if I could. It's all tee shirts, slip dresses, tee dresses, heavy jewelry, lace, and chunky knits. I mean, really, sign me up (and also please subsidize my purchases because I can't afford to buy 10 $40 tee shirts. C'mon.)

Today's song is Interpol's newest, All The Rage Back Home. I REAAALLLY like it, and I'm excited to hear all of El Pintor because their last album was kinda weak in my opinion. On another note, I got pre-sale tickets to their show in Oakland in September and I wake up a happier person every day because of it. I thought this song would be appropriate for today since this post is all about my hometown of Dallas (and tee shirts and my love hate relationship with them), and I feel like I'm in love with it half the time (also with tee shirts though; wow this song just got more relevant). 

Karis the Baybonnet

I Went Running From the Troubles

Details: Literally everything is from Urban Outfitters and I just realized that and this is sad.

Here is another post of pictures that my lovely friend Jack took the other day. We were walking around outside downtown when we saw this little pond and decided to stop by. Of course, we didn't stay for long because it's 100 degrees out here in Dallas. I'm wearing a schmorgesborg of items I've acquired from Urban Outfitters (the shorts and hat were from my days working there, but I got the shirt and necklace earlier this summer). It shouldn't be surprising that I'm wearing all black, seeing as this is nothing new, but I have noticed that I've really been drawn to tunic tops lately. By this I mean tops that are kinda awkwardly long and look a little weird with most shorts but also really can't be worn as a dress. Here is a perfect example. These black lace and chiffon shorts have really been a life saver because I've been wearing them with pretty much all my newly purchased tunics, and I'm now on the hunt for another pair of black shorts so I can lessen the burden on these. I've also been really into silver statement jewelry lately, and I'm really in love with the ones from Isabella Rae Jewelry. Sadly, they're rather pricy, so I've been on the lookout for similar pieces all summer. I really like this one that I got from Urban, and I believe it was around $25 (which is still more than I wanted to spend). Maybe I'll save up my intern earning and invest in a nice silver necklace at the end of the summer. 

Here are my favorite silver Isabella Rae pieces at the moment:

The Priestess Collar Necklace - $45

Gypset Silver Necklace - $65

Black Onyx Silver Gypsy Traveller Necklace - $58

Today's theme song is "Undertow" by Warpaint. I usually don't like female vocalists (I don't know why), but I really like these girls. Their music is really interesting and beautiful and they bring some serious girl power. They remind me of Cat Power mixed with a bit of Radiohead, and there's a part of this song that really brings to mind "Polly" by Nirvana. Maybe you'll notice it or maybe it's just me. I've also been loving their songs Disco//Very and Keep it Healthy. So check it out and have a lovely day!

Karis the Baybonnet

The Comeback Kid

Details: Top-Urban Outfitters, Shorts-Arc&Co, Body Chain-DIY, Shoes-Steve Madden

Guess who's back!

That's right, after a 4 month hiatus, I've decided to crawl out of hiding and resurface to the face of the internet. I'm really hoping to update more as I get over my fear of asking people to take pictures of me/my fear of posing in public and having people watch me. It's really awkward, believe me (and when I took these pictures with Jack it was actually kinda potentially dangerous seeing as we kept being approached by random homeless people asking for food). Anyways, I've been kept busy this summer with my internship at AT&T. It's fun most of the time, but it's also pretty stressful. I wanted to get back into my blog, however, to stay in touch with the fashion side of me (as opposed to the business side). As many of you know, it's my dream to work in the industry, not as a designer, but as a buyer or a brand representative. Keeping my blog going helps me tie the business I do allll ddaaaayyy in with my passion for fashion (ugh I hate that those words rhyme; it just makes it sound so trivial, am I right?!) Keeping my blog may or may not also help keep me sane in the month leading up to my glorious return to the Bay. I love it here in Dallas, and I know that I'm going to miss my friends here like crazy when I leave, but I'm ready to see my Berkeley friends and move into my apartment! I'll definitely make a decor post when that happens (not that my room will be a whole lot more than a mattress and a wall littered with posters, but I try). 

Anyways, I digress. It me. I back.