On the Stroke of Twelve

Co-ords: H&M | Shoes: Target 

PC: Mike! :)

Today I bring you part two of my nighttime LA photo adventures with my brother, and I must say that this is probably one of my favorite outfit posts on my blog! Big thanks/props to my brother for suggesting this location and for putting up with my derpy self at times...haha! :) 

This post features my very favorite set of co-ords (out of the two that I own)! I had first seen these co-ords on one of my faves/the queen, Taylor Swift, and I was curious as to where they were from. I had been expecting them to be designer pieces, but to my surprise they were from H&M! I quickly went to their website but had no luck finding them, and there aren't very many H&Ms near me. My friend, Natalie, was in New York at the time, and I messaged her asking if she could keep on the lookout for this set if she happened to browse an H&M there. She messaged me near the end of her trip saying she found it, and I was so excited! I probably squealed the first time I tried them on, ahaha a bit dorky, but whatevs! I've worn the set a few times now, and I just feel like I can take on the world when I'm wearing this outfit. Throw in a pair of caged Target heels that have also become a favorite of mine, and I really feel unstoppable! Nothing like wearing a look that just makes you feel good, am I right?! :)

(And now, back the photo adventure!)

After making our first stop at LACMA earlier in the night (link to previous post!), we decided to take a break between shoots to eat at Umami Burger (which I had been craving for the longest time...YUM). With our bellies full of some of the most delicious burgers and truffle fries ever (I was VERY happy!), we headed to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. I had seen a few pictures of the concert hall in the past, but I had never seen it in person. The architecture was amazing, and I loved the varied shapes/colors/textures of the different buildings in the surrounding area. They really made for some interesting backgrounds for the photos we took.

Scouting the location at the beginning of our shoot!

We had been experimenting with my camera settings for pretty much the whole night, and at one point my brother macgyvered a light source with his iPhone flashlight to see how some photos would turn out. The iPhone flashlight actually worked out pretty well as a light source, but most of the pictures turned out pretty well without the extra light. I'd like to think the partial darkness added to the urban feel of our shoot, hehe! 

Example of experimenting with the iPhone camera flashlight from above, which is why my brother held the camera up so high. Haha!

After exploring the area for a bit and getting some shots in some different places, we decided to call it a night and headed home. It was really fun spending some time with my brother and bonding over the blog, hehe. I'm so glad that he suggested the photo adventure, and I can't wait to have another one some time in the future! 

Outtake (had some fun with this one):

Coming for youuuu *insert ghost emoji*

Hahaha, 'til next time!

x Angelli

Bright Lights in the Big City

Dress: Urban Outfitters | Rucksack: Kate Sheridan | Sandals: Target

PC: Mike! :)

The day that these were taken, I had pretty much spent all day lounging around at my brother/sister-in-law's place because I had been so tired from the day before (which included taking a SoulCycle class with Elhaam, walking around Beverly Hills with Elhaam/my brother, walking around Santa Monica with Elhaam, and going on a jog with my sister-in-law). My brother actually suggested that we go on a photoshoot after he was done with work that day, and he suggested some shooting locations (this was the first of two locations, so stay tuned hehe!). 

Our first stop was LACMA for its famous "Urban Light" installation by Chris Burden. Walking around these lamp posts at night felt pretty magical, as it's such a beautiful art installation! We experimented with different settings on my camera as I'm still trying to learn how to use my camera at night...haha :P My brother helped with some creative direction (and reminders to not be a derp), and these shots were my favorites! A couple pictures were not taken by the lights, as on our way out we noticed another area at LACMA that had interesting spotlight-like lighting. It almost made it seem like a film set or something, haha. 

Darn that this came out blurry! 

So a bit about the outfit. I had been searching for a simple shift dress, and loved this one from Urban

Outfitters (although I wish the material was less prone to wrinkles). I wore my trusty Target sandals again, and was also excited to use this outfit as a chance to wear my Kate Sheridan rucksack. I first saw this rucksack when I went to London Fashion Weekend, and it was love at first sight. I didn't buy it that weekend, but later during my stay in London I saw that Kate Sheridan was having a sale, and I contacted her to see if I could by the rucksack in person instead of having to pay it to be shipped to California. So I actually went to her studio in London with my friend, Maren, to pick up this rucksack, which was pretty awesome. I just love how unique the rucksack is, and how it makes me think of some fond London memories! Sadly I don't use it as much as I should, possibly because I love it so much and don't want to ruin it. But hopefully that'll change and I'll wear it more often as it deserves to be showcased a bit more! :) 

Ooh and also in this post is a photo of possibly the prettiest manicure I've ever gotten! Two days before this shoot, I went with Teryn to Olive & June in Beverly Hills to get our nails done (it was a treat ourselves day I suppose, hahah!). This was the first manicure I have gotten in years since I prefer to just paint my nails myself (I have quite a nail polish stash as I used to be a serious collector), so I tried to find a nail design that I probably wouldn't attempt myself and that would be worth a paid manicure for. I ended up finding the design on my ring fingers on Pinterest, and the woman who painted my nails suggested a glitter accent nail. I was super happy with my manicure and couldn't stop looking at my nails during my trip, hehe!

Outtake of me utilizing my monkey arms to goof around with the lights:

'Til next time! 

x Angelli 

Lavender Honey

Dress: Target | Shoes: Target | Bag: Longchamp | Nail Polish: Essie "Perennial Chic" (current fave!)

PC: Natalieeee :)

OOTD #2 from LA is here! It's probably going to take me forever to post the rest of these because midterms are coming up soon (pray for me, please)...but they'll be up eventually (yours are next, Mike...sorryyyyy!). I feel like I'm always saying things are an old favorite of mine, but that's really the case here! I wore this dress a couple times while I was visiting because it's just so easy/comfy/cute without putting in that much effort (ah the beauty of dresses!). These sandals are a staple of mine since they're so versatile, and while I didn't really want to carry my Longchamp around, it's the only bag that my camera fits in haha (#thestruggz). 

Carmela was one of my favorite places that Natalie introduced me to, and it was there that I found a new favorite ice cream flavor: lavender honey. It's seriously one of the best ice cream flavors I've ever tried, and I'm kinda sad that I can't get some right now. If you're in LA, I highly recommend!! They also had a photo booth in the back of the shop, and Natalie and I took full advantage of that to take some hilarious/slightly embarrassing/fun photos:

Among these is an attempt to recreate The Parent Trap movie poster, do you see it?? Hahaha

After going to Carmela, Natalie and I browsed a few shops before meeting with our friends, Teryn and Jeremy, for dinner in Hollywood. Literally a minute after we got into our car, Natalie pointed out Christian Siriano to my right, WHO WAS WALKING ON THE SIDEWALK WE HAD JUST BEEN WALKING ON TO GET TO THE CAR. I couldn't get over the fact that we had just missed one of my favorite fashion designers by a hair *insert crying emoji* (Natalie saw my sad whining about this firsthand during that entire car ride...lolll). I may or may not be over it completely yet, ahaha oh the life of a dweller. But it's still pretty cool to say that I've seen him in person (from a distance...wah there I go again!)! 

Outtake:

It's not easy trying to look cute while eating...haha!

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed this post! 'Til next time!

x Angelli 

All of the Lights

Jacket: Free People | Dress: Free People | Flats: Madewell 

PC: Lizzi :) 

(if you're reading this Lizzi, thank you so much for all the pictures!)

Today I bring you the first of six OOTDs that I took while in LA during my spring break a few weeks ago! I spent my week and a half with some of my friends and family who I don't see very often, so it was great being able to spend some time catching up and exploring (aka them taking me to cool places since I didn't have a car with me...I am eternally grateful to you all!). The last time I properly visited LA (I say that because I technically was in LA for about half a day last year when I was heading home from London) was about two years ago, and so I was excited to head back there with my lovely roomie, Elhaam!

This was my first time visiting the Griffith Observatory, and it had such a stunning view! Natalie, Lizzi, and I walked around inside of the observatory building for a bit before going outside and taking in the twinkling view of the city. I had tried taking pictures with my camera, but since I'm still a DSLR noob (I still have yet to master taking pictures at night...and during the day, who am I kidding!) I only managed to take pictures like this: 

(I actually kind of like this photo, though. Such art, much abstract eh?)

Thank goodness Lizzi's camera was able to take nice pictures while we were out there. Lizzi has a fashion blog too, btw, and her blog is linked in the PC above! I especially love how the first photo in this post turned out, and that it was able to capture the beauty of the city lights :) I wish I had been less of a derp while taking outfit pictures, but I'll just blame my lack of posing inspiration on fatigue from sitting in the sun on the beach and exercising with Natalie earlier in the day (*insert side look*). 

Now for a quick blurb about my outfit: I've had this white dress for a little over three years now, and I still love its delicate lace pattern and simple silhouette. I added my trusty chevron-patterned jean jacket to bring back some texture mixing into my life (which is something that I was really digging around this time last year too, funnily enough!). Finally, I finished the look with some lovely but painful D'orsay flats (the back of my right foot looked like a zombie's foot for quite some time...and sadly that isn't an exaggeration). The pointy toe combined with the tan color sometimes reminds me of Aladdin, but meh I don't mind! 

Instead of an outtake from this OOTD, here's the snapchat story that Elhaamy and I made while on our drive down to LA....we definitely had a lot of fun making it, so enjoy! Hahaha! ;)

Side Note/Mini Life Rant: Now that I've been back at school for a little over a couple of weeks now, the stress is starting to kick back in again. Dealing with stress/anxiety is something I've been struggling with for a while now, and today was one of those days where I felt especially overwhelmed by a lot of different things. I'm quite a sensitive person in general, and things that bother me tend to affect me strongly. On days like this, I'm really glad that I have my little blog to go to and be somewhat creative with. I'm forever grateful that I was able to take a styling/journalism course while studying abroad last year, since that was the real push for me to finally start blogging.  I'm very thankful for everyone who has taken time out of their busy schedules to help me with my blog, since I definitely couldn't do this alone. And I'm also thankful for anyone who has taken the time to read my blog as well, so thank YOU! Basically, I'm just very happy that I have a place where I can express myself about something that I love and is a passion of mine. I hate that sometimes I feel embarrassed about loving fashion so much since I know there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. When I read my favorite fashion blogs and see their outfit posts, it never crosses my mind at all that what they are writing about is trivial. Sometimes I forget that at its core, fashion is simply a form of expression that allows you to showcase your personality or how you feel.  So hopefully I'll start getting over feeling awkward/self-conscious when I take pictures for my blog and just try to own it and be more confident. Of course those feelings stem from a few other things as well, but hey we'll see how this goes over time...(baby steps, right?)

*End of rant/heart-to-heart*

Didn't really plan on ending this post like this, but it felt good to write down a few of my thoughts. Stay tuned for more LA outfit posts (and maybe more life updates/random thoughts, who knows!), though it might take a little while.

'Til next time!

x Angelli 

"Long Hair (but not really), Slicked Back, White T-Shirt"

T-shirt: Topshop | Jeans: Abercrombie and Fitch | Shoes: Madewell | Bracelet: Willamy 

PC: Gina 

So I finished finals about two weeks ago and survived! I've taken quite the blog hiatus, and am hoping to get back to posting more regularly again until exams hit again. These photos were taken a little over a month ago, but I never had the chance to post them since I was too stressed out about school. On this particular day, I felt like keeping things simple with a white tee and jeans (which are my current favorite atm since they're so comfy) and hardly any accessories as per usual. To keep the look from being too simple, I added my favorite purple wrap bracelet. I've been wearing this bracelet a lot, especially whenever I'm wearing an outfit with a neutral color palette. 

I've been eyeing D'orsay-style flats for a while now, and when I saw these in Madewell the heart-eyed emoji just flashed in my mind. Unfortunately I have yet to break these in and each time I've worn them, the back of my heel gets a bit torn up ;( Fingers crossed that they break in sometime soon, merp. 

A few days ago I came back from LA, where I spent my spring break with some of my best friends and family who I hadn't seen in a while. I took a few ootd pictures while I was there, so stay tuned for those in the near future! :) 

This week's derpy outtake is:

(the constant struggle of figuring out how to pose gets me every single time)

'Til next time! 

x Angelli

P.S. Not sure if the title of this post infringes on copyright (which is why I included the quotes...ahaha I'm paranoid about this stuff)...but it was inspired by my brother's comment on an Instagram I posted of this outfit. All rights to the queen, Tswift!