Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale

I'm warning you, you're in for a very long post.

Today I wore this:

Stats:

Hat: Thrifted from AAArdvarks in Pasadena (I told you I'd figure out a way to wear it to work)

Shirt: Old Navy

Skirt: old pair of jeans I "fixed"

Bag: Target (two years ago when they had this purse I told my dad I would never be happy again if I didn't receive it for Christmas. I must have been pretty convincing, since I got it.)

Shoes: Pinupgirlclothing.com

Jess thought it would be funny to jump in my picture.

I've been seeing alot of Sailor inspired outfits on the blogosphere and am quite in love. I've always loved nautical thingies, so when I saw this authentic sailor cap at AAArdvarks on Sunday I grabbed it right away. It was only five bucks! So then I went through my wardrobe trying desperately to find something that would look nautical enough. This was the end result. I like the overall effect, but I hate this skirt. On my current list of items to find is a red skirt like this one from SallyJane Vintage's Etsy Shop. I love it, and think that the counter directional stripes would look kind cool together. As much as I love this hat I felt like a complete weirdo wearing it to work. I don't think I'd have felt so weird if I had wore this out and about doing whatever, but for some strange reason I always feel weird wearing anything other than a knit cap to work. I have a serious love of hats (I even have a hat wall that is currently under construction (i.e. I'm trying to afford buying hooks from Anthropologie)), but I always feel stupid in them. So lately I've been throwing off my cowardice and telling myself I HAVE to wear them. So far this is only the second time I've made it out of the house with a non knit hat on. Clearly I'm doing really well with this. But I do have plans for another one tomorrow. My almost four-year-old sister Grace loves this hat. She keeps putting it on and walking around my bedroom singing "I'm a little Sailor Ghoul!" at the top of her lungs. She doesn't actually intend to say ghoul, but she cannot pronounce the word girl for the life of her. It's actually quite charming. This morning as I was running late (note to self: dreaming about clothing is not conducive to getting up on time), and as I poured myself a cup of coffee and swallowed two strips of bacon Grace came up from the kitchen table and said "hey!" and I turned and asked her what, and she gave me the once over, then grinned and said "yup you look okay. You steeled my sailor hat." Normally I'd have argued with her that it was MY hat, but like I said I was running late so I just laughed and ran out the door. So what do you think? Is it a bust? Should I even attempt to wear hats outside the confines of my bedroom? Oh goody. The office douche bag just walked by and coughed "Gilligan" under his breath. I think I'm probably going to punch him today. Never mind I just insulted him and it felt good. He was shaking a thing of jelly beans obnoxiously trying to get my attention and my dad asked me what I was doing, and I told him that it wasn't me, just "Larocca trying to be as musical as he'll ever be." To which Larocca replied, "I was just shaking the jelly beans. trying to get a red one. geeze." Seriously dude, you are going to get beat up one of these days.

Other things I should mention about this outfit: Best red lipstick ever. It's L'orel's "Target Red" for Target. I love it. Also, and I promise not to get TMI-ish with this, but let me tell you about this bra I'm wearing. It's from the '60's. It is a bullet bra. I want to be buried in this bra. I love it. I hate modern bras and always have, now that I've tried vintage ones, I'll never go back. Not only does it place my boobs where they're supposed to be, but it gives so much support, and is so dang comfortable. TopShop has some reproduction ones that I'm thinking of getting because let me tell you, I've never been this excited over a bra before. I tried on all my dresses and shirts and kept jumping up and down with glee and squealing because of how well things suddenly fit me. If you have not tried a vintage bra, you really should. They are the bee's knees. This one I got from AAArdvarks also on Sunday. It was 8$, so it's even cheaper than modern bras. And last but not least, all week I've been doing these pseudo-victory rolls in my hair. Mostly because it takes me 45 mins to pin curl my hair vs. the two and a half seconds this takes me to do. When I was in the bathroom this morning doing it Grace walked in (she spent the whole morning following me around) and said she really liked my hair because it looked shiny. She kept asking me if I'd put "make it shiny stuff" in my hair, like Non does (she calls Bri, Non). I told her no, and she hurumphed. "well Non puts shiny stuff in her hair. But you look cute too." I think I need to stop taking fashion advice from a three year old. By the by, here's the bra.

Love it.

For Mother's Day we went down to Pasadena to do some shopping and exploring. My mom has always wanted to and we never had, so we went down and shopped. AAArdvarks was the only thrift store amid the designer and pseudo designer shops, and actually yielded some good finds. After we finished shopping, we went to cheesecake factory for dinner. Cheesecake is disgusting. Cheesecake Factory is amazing. Here's our adventure (in somewhat of a backwards order)

I was messing around with the settings on the camera and thought this ended up looking kinda cool.

Nice dad. And yes Chelsea does often attack Delaney.

I made Chel try on and buy this dress. Cutest thing ever.


Grace is obsessed with looking like a model in all her pictures so I've been trying to get candids. Chelsea on the other hand thinks all photos of her need to be ridiculous.

Better pictures to come, but this is the swimsuit I got at AArdvarks. This picture is really horrible.

This is what I wore
Stats:
Hat: rummage sale a million years ago
Dress: Target
Bag: Target
Shoes: Buffalo Exchange (Portland, Or.)

Grace, "being like a doggy"

Delaney has an Alice Cullen complex

The dress Chelsea did not buy. It was super cute, but way too big for her.

These are the results of the "Super Secret Mother's Day Project." All seven of us had our pictures taken and painted our own frames and gave them to my mom to hang somewhere. She's always saying that she doesn't have any pictures of us hanging so we solved her problem. We each painted our own frames, which are very telling of our personalities. The only pictures I didn't take are my own and the one of Bri and Michael. Theirs is from the shoot they did for their engagement photos.

Ashley, Age 21 (the orange dots were supposed to be silver, but for some reason the glaze urned them orange)

Michael and Bri, ages 22, and 19

Chelsea, Age 16


Delaney, Age 14

Eric, Age 12 (his was painted to match my parent's bedding and his photo was printed incorrectly, so I have to take them in this week and re-print them)

Fraser, Age 9 (Fraser's was printed wrong as well)

Grace, Age 3 (the blobs of paint are actually objects that Grace asked Bri to draw. They include a road in the sky, a rain cloud that isn't raining, a duck, and Grace with wings)

Sorry for how long this post is. I was going to post everything from Mother's Day yesterday but all the photos were on my work computer and I was off yesterday.

In really quick exciting news I just got a call from the place that was fixing my computer and IT'S DONE! I'm going to pick it up today! Yay!

Oh and guess where I will be the week of July 6th-10th?

.....

.....

.....

SAN FRANSISCO!

Be jealous. I cannot wait!