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