Going Green

 

Dress: Urban Outfitters ($10!) / Sweater: H&M / Sandals: Gap / Bag: vintage Coach, via eBay / Necklace: bought in Italy / Blue ring: gift from the boyfriend / Green ring: Amrita Singh, via Hautelook ($12)

 

 
Things I'm really going to miss about LA:

-tacos, and great Mexican food in general

-amazing fresh and local produce, all year 'round

-being 15 minutes away from my family

-the pacific ocean and the LA skyline

-my dogs and cat

Things I will not miss about LA:

-traffic

-smog

-(more) traffic

-having to drive everywhere

-the amazing weather that lets me wear something like this for 85% of the year.

* * * * * * *

I swear this is my last short-blue-dress-and-green-sweater combination. It's out of my system (for now...). And, more importantly, I've finally ran out of short blue dresses.

Do you ever get set on a style and stick with it many days in a row? Sometimes, when it works, it works!

Green and Navy (pt 2)

 

Dress: Modcloth / Cardigan: H&M / Belt: Madewell / Sandals: Gap / Necklace: bought in Italy 

 

I am in love with this color combination right now. I'm not the biggest fan of the pale pastels of spring, but I will always get behind this bright kelly green, which feels so perfect for this season to me. See my other navy-and-green combo here.

* * * * * *

 On a personal note:

I love working with the kids at my school; they are, on the whole, charming, curious, intelligent, and absolutely hillarious children. It is not, however, always (or even often) perfect. Two weeks ago was particularly trying. The kids were testing, and had been for days (the amount of tests in LAUSD is staggering), so they were bored and annoyed and restless.

On Monday, the boys' bathroom was graced with the graffiti "Lauren is a b****" (well, they didn't use the stars, but you get the idea). On Wednesday, I intercepted a note, elaborating upon the sentiment, "Lauren is a b**** and a h** (points for proper spelling?).

I'm pretty sure both of the sentiments were in reaction to something I've tried to stick to: holding the kids to high expectations. Even if they don't have their homework 90% of the time, I will still ask them for it every single day, will still express my dissapointment that they don't have it, and will still follow through on the reprocussions that should follow.

The other week, by doing this, I definitely pissed off a few 10 year-olds. Maybe it had been bothering them for a while and was exacerbated by the days upon days of testing; maybe it had nothing to do with this at all. Maybe some of them just don't like me. But I realized then that holding the kids to high expectations--keeping them accountable, paying attention, following through, and making sure they know that I know they can do it--is infinitely more important than 100% of my classroom liking me, 100% of the time.

Or, as our Principal put it, "If they're not calling you names, you ain't doing your job!" :)

Happy weekend!

A Little Less

 

Dress: from a local boutique / Cardigan: Target / Sandals: Gap / Necklace: from a farmer's market / Bag: Gift, from Guatemala 

 

My car died this weekend, by which I mean the battery is fully and completely cooked. It's a Prius, so this may mean (if it's the fancy Prius battery) a nice chunk of change to get it replaced. Hot on the heels of having my first car totaled, this most recent adventure in grown-up car ownership got me thinking about how much I'd like to simply not have so many...things.

Of course, that may sound too simple. No car means no totaled vehicles, no paying for batteries, no batteries dieing in the first place, and no annoyance of what to do when the car's not there. (This is all presupposing a great public transportation system I could rely on, and is after, obviously, counting my blessings that I am able to have a car and pay for its fancy new battery in the first place.) But fewer things do, I think, mean less mental clutter and more breathing space in the long run.

This is something I've always want to do with my closet. Get it down to the few, perfect, timeless, beautiful pieces that I could wear anywhere, to do anything. I'd love to have everything match everything else so perfectly that putting looks together is a breeze. I'd love the paired-down simplicity of the one perfect cocktail dress, the one perfect blazer, the one perfect white shirt. But, in reality, I do buy with the trends (though I try to do it sparingly), I do like doubles and triples of things I wear often (skinny jeans, t-shirts, boots), I do buy silly impulse purchases, and I do think I "need" that cute new dress from H&M, when really I should save my money for the one perfect dress from a much more timeless store. This, I think, is what my wardrobe aspires to be, when it's all grown up. Simple, timeless, paired-down, and thoughtfully put together as opposed to bought on a whim. I'd like to think I'm getting there (with a few unnecessary purchases along the way), piece by piece by piece.

Inch by Inch, Row by Row

Top: LOFT / Cardigan: Target / Jeans: Gap 1969 Always Skinny / Scarf: bought at a book store of all places! / Sandals: Gap / Bag: vintage Coach (via ebay)

  

I spent both days this past weekend shoveling, hoeing, raking, planting, and watering my new garden. A few weeks ago, this baby was a jungle of weeds, as demonstrated here, by Won Ton, who is dreaming of his past life as a tiger:

...ya. Not so good. So, my roommates and I  decided to finally get our act act together and do something about it. Two trips to the garden store, many hours, and a few borrowed shovels later, we finally had a garden. I'm already emotionally attached to these little plants, and also kind of terrified about killing them. So far, though, so good! Wish me luck with my first attempt at this whole being-an-adult-with-a-real-backyard thing. :)

Massachusets Dreaming

 Top: Gap / Sweater: Target sz s / Jeans: Paige / Shoes: Rocket Dog / Bag: Fossil / Bracelets: bought in England

 

I think one of the keys to saving money on clothes is to keep things foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I have had these black flats for years, have put multiple pairs of drugstore-bought insoles in them to extend their life, have worn them into the ground, and (much to the Boyfriend's chagrin) am still wearing them.

That, my friends, is how you save money! :)

In other news, I spent all of Saturday sitting in a coffee shop and editing the heck out of my grad school applications, which are due in a few days (!!!). I thought I'd give myself a leg up by channeling my inner east coast grad school student through my outfit. I was hoping for a collared shirt/sweater effect a bit more like this one from i am Khatu, but it turns out I actually have zero necklaces of that length/weight (which really makes her outfit). Maybe I'll be able to buy one in April to congratulate myself on getting into grad school? Goodness, one can hope!