fashion / the hotel barclay

oh how i miss having a model to play dress up for me and do my fashion posts. and having another sister. syd is almost half way done with her mission in costa rica and has been killing it out there. i don't know how she does it (or any missionary for that matter- props to all of you rm's!). i miss her all the time and am so sad she won't get to see my baby for his first 9 months. i'm sure she will make up for it when she gets back though- i have no doubt that she will be his best aunt! (sorry andie, audrey and hannah:).

this is the last fashion post that i have stock-piled of syd. it is from our day we spent in la in february. i have been hoarding it because it is such a good fall outfit with the best fall colors (although you can clearly see that springtime was blooming when we took these pics). as we were walking around la we noticed all of these people coming in and out of the 'hotel barclay', and realized they were making a movie inside! so of course we decided we wanted to take some pictures outside of it because it had to be significant in some way. 

syd is wearing: a green headband found at world market (is anyone else surprised at how cute their accessories are?), my favorite juicy brand light grey leather jacket (purchased years ago from nordstrom rack), a burnt orange peter pan collared tank (from brass plum), my high waisted purpley-brown silky pants (from soel boutique in utah), color-blocked bcbg heels (from marshalls), and my olive marc jacobs handbag (from nordstrom).

fashion / suit up!

i'm not going to lie, i'm kind of obsessed with this outfit. my whole life i have mocked women who wear suits- we don't need to wear pants to prove that we are as good as men! dresses and skirts look so much better! what kind of lady wears a pantsuit? well, apparently this lady has converted in a big way (though i'm not sure if any other suit will do it for me like this one has).

i found this baby at h and m for $50 altogether. actually, it wasn't even displayed as a suit. i found the pants, which obviously i had to have. and then as i was looking for a new blazer (my latest obsession), i found this matching one. the windowpane patterns vary slightly in size- but i kind of love that about it. the best part about the suit is being able to wear the blazer or pants separately or together. there was a month where any given day you would see me wearing one or both of the pieces. i'm not ashamed to admit it.

i knew i needed something bright to go with it so i got this pink triangled tank from tjmaxx, whipped out my favorite bright red target purse and my favorite ysl lipstick. pairing pink and red has been one of my favorite things to do lately. my shoes are old, from urban outfitters. they are probably my favorite pair of heels, but i sometimes hesitate to wear them because there may have been a few 'tripping and falling and ripping my pants' incidents in them. i don't want to talk about it.

ps. how awesome is this graffiti that syd and i found in la? sometimes i wish there were more street art in temecula...

fashion / sydney's birthday dream!

it's sydney's birthday today!! we are so sad that we don't get to celebrate with her but will be thinking about her all day! before sydney left on her mission (it has been two weeks today and already feels like forever!) we had to go up to la to get some paperwork for her visa. she had talked about taking pictures at the urban light sculpture at the lacma, so we made her dreams come true and did just that. we actually photographed a bunch of different outfits to create a little stockpile for while she was gone (of course they'll only last about a month though!). i think i'm going to get one of the photos framed but i can't decide which!

syd is wearing an old juicy couture dress of mine that is perfect for spring/summer. i love the bright pattern and the big bow in front. we put my black and white peter pan collared shirt underneath (she got bright red lipstick on the shirt when she put it on! can you spot it?). her little flats were from tj maxx, but we have seen shoes like that all over the place right now. 

we walked around the lacma a little bit more- it is one of my favorite places in la!

happy birthday sydney! i know you won't see this but i love you and am proud of you! if anyone wants to send her some birthday love you can email her at sydney.carpenter@myldsmail.net.