if i were going out tonight...

...this is what I'd wear:

---

Shop: Tamarind Sequin Pant, Calypso St. Barth; Cashmere V-neck Sweater, J.Crew; Black Tuxedo Blazer, LC Lauren Conrad at Kohl's; Drift Earrings by Lulu Frost, Charm and Chain; Lucas Ring, Dannijo; Woven Cresent Bag, The Limited; Calcagni Wedges, Aldo

(But I'm just chilling at home with D, the puppies, a glass of wine, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.)

Happy 2012, everyone!

happy holidays!

A few of my holiday photos with warmest holiday wishes from our family to yours:

happy halloween!

I mentioned before that late summer into early fall is one my favorite times of the year. Weather-wise that's true, but to be perfectly honest the entire stretch of months from August through December gets me pretty stoked. It starts in August with my and Mr. DU's birthdays and just keeps rolling along into Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (and Festivus!), and finally, New Year's. And now an anniversary thrown in there, too- Mr. DU and I celebrate one year of marriage this December.

But this year since we aren't getting ready to move or to walk down the aisle, I had more time to plan for Halloween. So I transformed our our kitchen into "Sleepy Hollow Tavern" (sign from the Homespun Raven), stocked up on Oktoberfest beer and pumpkin ale, and threw our first annual Halloweenfest costume party.

And I admit, I recycled my costume (I didn't have that much extra time to get super creative!). I wore this same dress for the same costume idea nine Halloweens ago. In case you can't tell by the stiff arms and awkward stance, I'm supposed to be Barbie. And Mr. DU? Well, he's got a bad hangover.

what to wear:: 4th of july picnic

Usually I'm a dress girl, but this summer I'm loving shorts. I haven't loved shorts since high school, but for some reason, this season's batch is just so cute and versatile. You can dress them up or dress them down, and they're perfect for a weekend's worth of 4th of July festivities. If I wasn't on a shopping ban, I would have snapped up every last piece from the outfits below for the plethora of events I have to attend this weekend (three today, two tomorrow, Monday activities pending). Do you have any fun plans for this weekend?


{Shop}:: top: angel lace sleeve top, planet blue; shorts: flounced silk shorts, anthropologie; shoes: bridgewalk sandal, madewell; sunglasses: LC lauren conrad textured round sunglasses, kohl's; earrings: david aubrey jade turquoise earrings, south moon under; bag: backyard binocular, madewell; bracelet: vintage rhinestone friendship bracelet by essentia


{Shop}:: top: jane, abercrombie & fitch; cardigan: herd geometry cardi, anthropologie; shorts: glitter hem shortie, american eagle; hat: park bench fedora, madewell; necklace: diving deeply necklace by dk jewels; bracelet: multichain brass howlite bracelet by bead blossom; shoes: collected lights sandals, anthropologie

this past weekend:: easter

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend! Ours was fairly low-key, but it still went too fast! I got some work done for grad school on Saturday and we ran a bunch of unexciting errands. Then on Sunday, we just spent some time at my mom's house with a very non-traditional Easter dinner of a shrimp and rice casserole and asparagus. So tasty and a beautiful day, too! A few pics of our casual meal on her deck:





(Excuse the water bottles in the pictures- people were getting impatient with my picture snapping and plopped their bottles down!)

And a few cute dog pictures. These are my mom's dogs, Lily (top) and Violet (bottom). Violet is a recent puppy mill rescue and is quite shy. It was hard to get her to even look at the camera and she spent most of her time sitting in her kennel.So sad!


What about you? How was your Easter weekend?

peep!

What I wore: A very happy holiday!

As mentioned in my previous post, my holiday season was extremely busy but filled with wonderful activities. In the five Christmases that we've known each other, Husband (I need a better name for him on this blog) and I not only joined each other's family traditions, but we've created some of our own, like going out for a lovely dinner and then seeing a show at The Fulton Theatre downtown, and eating Overnight Eggs (minus the ham and with a few of my own additions, like paprika) for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Since what I wore on Christmas morning is of no consequence (do you really want to see my flannel PJ pants? Really?), I decided to share what I wore for our holiday theatre tradition as well as Christmas Eve spent with the in-laws and Christmas day with my family at our house.*

What I Wore: To dinner at Checkers Bistro and to see The Sound of Music at The Fulton Theatre


Dress: H&M
Blazer: Target
Necklace: FENTON/FALLON™ for J. Crew
Shoes: Nine West
Tights: Spanx Tight-End Tights in Latte
What I Wore: On Christmas Eve


Dress: ModCloth (last summer)
Sweater: American Eagle (many seasons ago)
Scarf: Target
Earrings: Displaced Urbanite (aka, elliot + jean)
Tights: New York & Co.
Boots: ???
What I Wore: On Christmas Day


Dress/Top: ModCloth (Holiday Season 2009)
Sweater: Target
Leggings: Abercrombie & Fitch
Boots: Anthroplogie Winding Ruffle Boots (from last year)
*I think my mother has decided to institute a new holiday tradition where I always cook Christmas dinner - I guess that's fair. She did it for years. Payback time.

I got a husband for Christmas

So, I'm pretty sure my Christmas gift was better than your Christmas gift. Not to be a one-upper or anything, but on December 30, I married my best friend. Despite all of the chaos with wrapping up my grad school semester, starting a new job at the end of October, and buying a house and getting ready to move next weekend, this holiday season was probably one of the best I've ever had.

We kept our day simple, with a visit to the JP in the early afternoon followed by a three-hour photo session downtown and then had dinner with our family and drinks with friends. It was the perfect day for us and I'm so glad we went the simple route. Of course, I still had to have a pretty dress. We haven't gotten our professional pictures back yet, but here's a picture of us that my (very camera happy) mother snapped after dinner (you can sort of see the dress):


Excuse our tired looks. Husband just loves getting his picture taken, so after a three-hour shoot earlier that day, I was lucky he smiled for the camera at all after relaxing at dinner.

We're already onto that "in sickness" part of the vows. He seems to have caught some kind of flu bug and has been on a strict schedule of laying on the couch, eating chicken soup.

Perfectly imperfect

Happy 2011! (When did that happen?)

What are your resolutions? Did you make any? Want to hear mine? No? Don't worry, I'll tell you anyway. This year I will not beat myself up for not being perfect. Really. That's it.


A Beautiful Thing by Lisa Barbero
Specifically speaking, when it comes to blogging. You see, I love to write (I majored in it in undergrad, for cripes sake), but I've found that over the course of my blogging journey (which sort of resembled a bouncy ball zinging all over the place), I've let my quest for perfection cripple me to the point where I just stopped blogging altogether. Yes, over the past few months, I had a ton of other things going on- 9 credits of grad school, a new job, my wedding, getting ready to move into a new house (more on those last two three things in a later post)- but I'm sure I could have squeezed some time in a few times a week.

But I didn't.

Because my fashion photos weren't perfect, because my outfits weren't perfect, because I didn't have the perfect thing to say, because I didn't have the perfect blog layout or logo, because I wanted each of my blogs (all 3 of them) to have their own separately perfect niche content...perfection, perfection, perfection.

But you know the funny thing about perfection? It's kind of boring.

So instead of reaching for perfection, I decided to simplify and just do what I love. Here's how:

• I moved all of the posts from my fashion/inspiration blog, Moxie/Grace, over here.
• Instead of blogging about indie design over my indie/handmade blog, The Blooming Wildflowers Project, I'm going to create a special category here for such posts.
• I completely nixed the idea of creating a marketing blog since I got a new job as a Marketing Director and I'm responsible for the blog there.

So now instead of trying to compartmentalize all of my interests into different niche blogs, I'm just going to blog here at Displaced Urbanite. Whether fashion or indie or handmade or just about life in general, whatever inspires me. I'm freeing myself from the constraints of perfection, embracing the work-in-progress nature of my blog (and of my life), and allowing myself to just be.

Imperfect by Fourteen23

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

A few of my favorite Valentine's Day heart Flickr photos:


Megan Troyer


kiwi gal


Kimberly Clark


Photo Jennix


Just Ree


Vicker Monkee

Don't forget to tell someone you love them this weekend! See you Monday!