Arty Abstract Jumpsuit

 

If you are familiar with Orange County in Southern California, than you probably know about Costa Mesa. What you might not know about Costa Mesa is that it's called the city of the arts, largely due to the philanthropic contributions of Henry Segerstrom. (It's also home to a fantastic mall called South Coast plaza that you can also thank Henry Segerstrom for!) Well, a few weeks ago we discovered some of the hidden artistic gems located in Costa Mesa including the Noguchi Sculpture Garden and the OCMA or Orange County Museum of Art. Since it was a day filled with art adventures, I thought it was only fitting to wear my new arty abstract jumpsuit, which was a perfect match for the art at the museum and the abstract shapes in the print also matched those found in the sculpture garden!

 

If you know me, you will know that I very seldomly wear black and white. On the rare occasion when I do wear black and white, I like to add pops of color. Due to the fact that one of my favorite color combinations is pink and green I went with these green flat sandals and pink bag to accessorize this jumpsuit. As Oscar Wilde famously said, "One should either be a work of art, or wear I work of art" but I say that you can be both... especially when visiting a museum!

 

Jumpsuit: ASOS here

Sandals: Target here

Bag: Chanel similar pink quilted bag here

Sunglasses: Prada

 

Shop the Post

Never Fully Dressed but Always Overdressed!

If you're puzzled by the title of my post, let me explain. The first half of the title comes from the designer of my colorful spotted dress, which is Never Fully Dressed. In my opinion, the brand's name perfectly captures what went on with most people's wardrobe during the pandemic! While I can't speak for everyone, I spent most of the my quarantine life never fully dressed and wearing mostly pajamas, only getting dressed up for a video conference (trying to look good from the waist up!) or the occasional blog post. Well, truth be told, I actually like to be overdressed when I go out of the house! Luckily for me, despite its name, the brand Never Fully Dressed makes some amazingly colorful dresses that will definitely have you stepping out of the house in style if you are lucky enough to have somewhere to go!

The idea of having somewhere to go brings me to my next point regarding the dress. While, thankfully, many places are opening up here in California, I still feel like I have nowhere to go and, thus, getting dressed up won't really be a part of my daily routine for a while. While it is exciting that we are now free to dine in at some restaurants or shop at some stores, I definitely have mixed feelings about jumping back into my old routine. At this point, my plan for the summer is to ease into life as it used to be by visiting some interesting outdoor places (and hopefully chronicling my adventures here on my blog or on Instagram) and then maybe working up to other activities, depending on what unfolds. There are just so many uncertainties right now that it's hard to say what will happen or what life will be like over the next few months. One thing I do know is that when things do get back to normal, I'll be dressed (and most likely overdressed) for the occasion!

Dress: Never Fully Dressed here
Shoes: J. Crew similar blue pumps here
Bag: Mansur Gavriel here
Sunglasses: Celine similar white sunglasses here

Shop the Post

Be a Work of Art

Last weekend, my husband and I went to see a play and I thought I would get a little dressed up by donning a tulle skirt and this new colorful top from Nordstrom. As it turns out, most people don't get very dressed up these days to go to the theater but I was happy to look a little special in tulle for the occasion. Dressing up a little was especially important to me because the play we saw was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and, as you may know, Oscar Wilde was a big fan of dressing flamboyantly and looking like a dandy. Those are two things that I can most certainly get behind! Well, I guess you could say I was paying homage to Wilde though my wardrobe, which seemed extravagant compared to what most others were wearing at the theater!

Tulle is definitely not something I would wear on a regular basis but it's fun for special occasions, weekends, or seeing plays by Oscar Wilde! This tulle skirt always makes me feel like a ballerina in one of Edgar Degas' paintings, especially because, in many of his paintings, the dancers' tutus had sort of a greenish tint like the skirt I am wearing in this post. So, between trying to be a "work of art" though my colorful ensemble and enjoying the art of Oscar Wilde, it was a terrific day with a lot of aesthetic appeal!

Shirt: Nordstrom/Halogen here
Skirt: ASOS similar here, here
Shoes: Nine West
Bag: J. Crew
Sunglasses: Celine

Shop the Post

A Holiday Favorite: Buffalo Check

This is my first post for December and I couldn't be more excited because I can finally start breaking out some of my holiday favorites! For example, I totally love buffalo check patterns around the holidays. It's a little more versatile than some plaid fabrics that scream "It's Christmas time!", yet it's still festive. This is why I was so excited when I found this buffalo check top from SheIn! My favorite aspect of the top, aside from the print, is that it features a cute bow sash. Also, like most everything on the SheIn website, it's a super bargain at only $15, so you really can't go wrong!

Because the bow wasn't enough in the detail department for me, I added even more visual interest with this great brooch I got last year at Banana Republic. While it's no longer available, Banana Republic does have a great selection of brooches again this year for the holiday season and I've linked to some of my favorite options below.

I wore this outfit to go to a fun holiday "open house" at an Italian specialty grocery store and restaurant. They had free samples of cheese, homemade bread, olives, desserts, and, best of all, wine! Between wearing my festive buffalo check blouse and tasting some holiday treats, it was a great way to get in the mood for Christmas. Now on to getting and decorating a tree next week!

Top: c/o SheIn c/o here
Pants: J. Crew similar slim black pants here
Shoes: ASOS similar here
Bag: Clare V. fold over leopard clutch here
Brooch: Banana Republic similar brooch here, here, here
Sunglasses: Prada "Baroque" here

Happiness Is...

Charles Schultz once wrote that "happiness is a warm puppy". For anyone who loves dogs as much as I do, this quote clearly conveys the joy that our four-legged furry friends bring us. But I also think this quote can be interpreted to mean that it's the simple things in life that bring us the most pleasure. For example, something as simple as discovering a colorful wall or exploring a place, which is what I did the day these photos were taken, brings me a lot of happiness, albeit not as much happiness as my puppy William brings me.

What else brings me happiness? Well, the little details in my wardrobe bring me happiness. A great pair of earrings, for example, such as these blue ombre tassel earrings from the Happiness Boutique, definitely help me complete my look! The Happiness Boutique has a great selection of jewelry in both trendy and classic styles, including an amazing selection of earrings from which to choose. To top it off, the Happiness Boutique offers free shipping and has a great rewards program for repeat customers. I also received the cute pink boho earrings pictured above from them! As you can see, I am really loving the tassel trend! Luckily, the prices at the Happiness Boutique are very reasonable, so you don't have to feel guilty indulging in your jewelry obsession! Speaking of which, my readers can save 10% on orders over 19 Euros from now to December 2nd with code: hellokatiegirlblog, so please check them out!

One last thing that brings me happiness are polka dots, especially multi-colored polka dots! This polka dot dress from ASOS is super cute, although if you're on the taller side like myself, you might find it a bit short and consider wearing it as a shirt instead. Originally, I wanted to take these photos against the backdrop of the famous polka dot covered wall by The Most Famous Artist, which is located in the Arts District of Los Angeles. (If you haven't seen it, it pretty much looks exactly like my dress!) Unfortunately, the wall is no more, as not only is it blocked off but it is also completely painted over! That does not bring me happiness! But, in keeping with the theme of this post, I am going to focus on the positive rather than dwell on the negative, and this new wall and this outfit both bring me happiness!

Dress: ASOS here
Jacket: Old Navy here
Earrings: c/o The Happiness Boutique here
Sneakers: Walmart similar pink sneaker here
Bag: Coach similar pink bag here
Sunglasses: Celine here

Sickeningly Sweet: The Museum of Ice Cream

I'm sure that by now some of you might be sick of seeing pictures of the Museum of Ice Cream—the images of bloggers standing next to giant popsicles or a sea of bananas have been omnipresent on Instagram lately—but if not, here are some more! I must admit that I had mixed feelings about the Museum of Ice Cream. On the one hand, I wanted to scoff at something that is not really a museum but, rather, simply a maze of rooms designed for cool pictures for one's Instagram feed. On the other hand, it is super colorful, there's ice cream, and did I mention that you can get some really cool pictures to fill your Instagram feed for months? As you can see, I definitely have two warring sides of my personality and, in this case, the latter won out. So allow me be your Virgil and guide you through the odyssey that is the Museum of Ice Cream!

Your ice cream journey will begin outside with you taking the oath of ice cream. Yes, you take an oath of ice cream! Mostly the oath consists of you vowing not to touch the popsicles and bananas. (Come to think of it, that sounds pretty phallic!) You are then ushered into a pink antechamber filled with pink phones where you wait for them to let you out into the museum proper. The nice thing about the museum (and how I got my husband to sign on for the adventure!) is that they give you plenty of sweets along your journey! The sweet treats commence with a small taste of Dove chocolate to give you the much needed sugar rush to propel you through the rest of the museum. The sugar high continues throughout the museum as you sample ice cream (of course!), mint mochi, gummy bears, licorice, malt balls, and candied fruit. And the experience concludes with...more ice cream, of course!

After you get into the museum, there are about ten or so crazy and strange rooms that each have a specific theme. The room featured above with head the Apollo Belvedere taking an ice cream cone to the eyeball was designed by an actual artist, although I'm not sure of his or her name. While the room is interesting, I'm not sure what the point is other than to have something that's visually shocking and strange.

One of the most difficult things about the Museum of Ice Cream was coming up with different ways to pose and interact with the environment if you want to get really artsy about it. Ironically, my husband of all people encouraged me to amp up the "cheese" factor. By the end of museum, I kind of ran out of fun faces and poses to make! You are also competing with a lot of other people, all trying to get a clean shot of themselves, so it becomes kind of cut throat! If I was a celebrity like Gwen Steffani, I would probably just rent out the space for an hour to take pictures! Gwen really should check out the banana room too, because of the chorus in her song "Hollaback Girl"!

In the above gummy bear room they hand out gummy bears but there's a catch: you have to do the gummy bear jiggle in order to get the candy and they insist on recording you doing it! My husband, who really, really wanted gummy bears went along with it, which is a testament to the lengths he will go to for gummy bears! Suffice it to say, the video of us doing the gummy bear jiggle will never see the light of day due to the fact the my husband is vehemently opposed to appearing on or engaging with social media in any form! I did get a bit of his shoe in one of my pics for my Instagram Story, so that's the most you'll ever see of him!

Last, but not least, is the infamous sprinkle pool! I'm sorry to say that I don't have any pictures of this because in order to go in you have to take off your shoes, which is completely understandable, but I just didn't feel like being in a pool of sprinkles that a million other people had been in. Plus, the sprinkles were stuck everywhere on people and I didn't want to dirty my outfit! I'm pretty sure that if I went in I would have gotten sprinkles in places where there should not be sprinkles! Besides, it was just as much fun hanging out on the outskirts of the pool watching the "swimmers"! You can shop my sprinkle free ensemble below:

So, in conclusion, as much as I might have mocked the experience of visiting the Museum of Ice Cream, it was actually a lot of fun. Truth be told, I think my husband secretly enjoyed it too. If you want to go to the Museum of Ice Cream in Los Angeles, they are releasing more tickets that go on sale on Wednesday, October 18th. They claim this is their final extension, but much like the Rolling Stones that keep saying it's their farewell tour or final album, they'll probably be back for more! Also, if you are near San Fransisco, there is a Museum of Ice Cream currently open there too! Perhaps my husband and I should make a pilgrimage there and continue our ice cream odyssey?