plaidurday [like saturday...but...a really bad pun...]

this entire outfit is almost entirely thrifted.
the hat is a few years old, and it was $1.50. the shirt was from goodwill, i think $4. the jeans came from plato’s closet, which isn’t i guess a thrift store, but it is a secondhand store and these jeans were $12.

i really love this hat. i wear it all the time, especially when i’m having a bad hair day, which happens…pretty often. when i bought it, i was in a long-distance relationship with my husband [who was, at the time, my fiance], and i would send him short videos every night to tell him what i’d done that day. this hat got it’s own video. 

working 9 to 5

Actually, 8:30 to 5:00, here is what I wore to work!

Lipstick: Revlon Super Lustrous-Pearl 619 Rose & Shine

Top: Sweet Biscuit Tee, Anthropologie, circa 2010

Sweater Vest: Thrifted, $1

Skirt: Pretty Pencil Skirt in Gray , Spotted Moth, $19.99

Tights: The Gap, 2 for $20

Shoes: “Rae” Jazz Oxford Shoes in tan, Ruche, circa 2010

the black sheep can wear the golden fleece

my day started off on a terrifying note. while alex and i were getting ready to go out, he found a giant scary spider in his jeans. IN. HIS. JEANS. i don’t know what it is about west seattle, but we have so many spiders in this house. i like to kill them because i hate spiders. i’m pretty sure this makes me a bad person. alex likes to put them under a cup and set them free in our backyard. in my opinion, this just invites them to come back, but he thinks that they will respect our personal boundaries.

ISN’T IT GIGANTIC?
then we headed out, without a specific place in mind. we just…drove. seattle’s nice to do that in, because there’s a good chance that no matter where you are, there are some trees or mountains or water [or all three!] to look at. we ended up in seward park, which is lovely. i had been a bit inspired by a post on the sartorialist:

 i had been looking for a skirt like this for a while, but all the ones that i found were so expensive. then finally this weekend when i went thrifting, i found this skirt! it was the most expensive piece of clothing i have ever bought at a thrift store [$13], but it is worth it. it’s liz claiborne and it’s in perfect condition. i’m also really excited because my hair is growing out a bit, so i can pin it back. i always said that people with long hair who just wear it up every day are unimaginative, but now i think that pinning my hair back is my favorite way to wear it. 

top: forever21, circa 2007
tights: forever21, $6.80
skirt: liz claiborne thrifted via goodwill, $13
shoes: deena & ozzy via urban outfitters, $10 on sale 


i have a food problem. and when i say ‘problem,’ i mean ‘urgent cravings.’ all the time. if i see a photo of a doughnut on someone’s blog, or see someone eating something delicious on tv, i need to have it. i don’t know anyone else with uncontrollable food urges like mine. except pregnant women. i am not pregnant. i just really love food.
i saw a photo of a doughnut and some coffee, and it got my brain really stuck on the idea of eating a doughnut today. so while we were out we went to top pot! delicious doughnuts. and apparently barack obama went there on his most recent trip to seattle and enjoyed a glazed old fashioned

 we got 2 jam doughnuts [raspberry & lemon, top], one bavarian cream, one shamrock chocolate glazed cake doughnut, and a chocolate glazed bar. 

when we got home, the nextdoor neighbors’ dog was outside, so i invited them over to play. their dog, joey [left] looks a bit like ira, and it is incredibly adorable to watch them play. 

my new friend

i do not know this cat’s name, but he lives at the vintage shop i visited over the weekend. he was really charming, and he hung out around my feet while i tried on some shoes i thought were $8, but turned out to just be a size 8. i didn’t buy the shoes, but i did get to hang out with this really sweet kitty for about 15 minutes. 

abbey's 2nd birthday

It’s become a tradition for me to bake cupcakes for my niece’s birthday (she’s only had two so far, but it’s been consistent). This year I made Yellow Butter Raspberry Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream frosting, you will have to endure this entire post to get to the recipe, or just skip to the end if the description alone is making your mouth water…

Here’s the birthday girl and a monkey!

I’d also like to introduce Veruca, my crazy fluffy cat.

V-Neck Sweater: Winter clearance from Target, $8

Striped Sleeveless Shirt: Forever 21, $5ish

Spring Flowers Hairclip: Forever 21, $1.50

Adding the Raspberries

The finished product! I found the recipe at the Big Girls Small Kitchen blog, if you’ve never checked it out before, you must do it now. It is full of amazing recipe ideas. You will get inspired. You will make delicious food. You will be quite pleased.

style inspiration: cassie ainsworth

when i think of my greatest inspirations, i think of the same as many people: alexa chung, michelle obama, audrey hepburn, jackie o, patti smith, and the like. but i’d say my greatest inspiration is a fictional character: cassie ainsworth from skins. 

it’s not that i think that i dress like her, or at least not as often as i’d like to. but inspiration does not require emulation. 

cassie is quirky and lovely. she wears colors that look as though they’ve been captured by an old polaroid: dreamy, flowing, and at the same time completely bold. i recently learned that the actress who played her, hannah murray, actually styled herself for the show and owned most of the clothes. jealousy is not becoming.

i love the way she effortlessly paired her knee socks, maryjanes, and an amazing collection of vintage skirts with modern tops. and did you ever see someone casually wear a gold dress like a champ like that?

these are a pair of my favorite jeans

a year and a half ago, my friend kara gave me a pair of jeans that fit her kind of wonky. we wear the same size in pants, but my hips are bigger. we have swapped a lot of clothes in the past, and it has always been successful.

little did i know that these hand-me-down jeans from kara would become my most favorite jeans. i’m in love. we’re in a very compatible long-term relationship. i see other jeans, but this pair and i see each other a couple of times a week.

oh yeah, and i love mini charleston chews. frozen. SO DELICIOUS.

jeans: BDG, c/o kara

t-shirt: forever21, $3.50

sweater: H&M, thrifted, $1

flip flops: old navy, $2.50

headband, maybe urban outfitters, but i don’t remember

photobooth

Paul is out of town this week, on his way to play SXSW in Austin. I have been left with only photobooth to take outfit photos, here’s what I wore yesterday to visit my family:

Jeans: American Eagle Outfitters, similar to these, $39.50

Socks: Delia’s Over-the-Knee Socks, on sale for $2.99

Boots: Steve Madden Grey Slouch via Victoria’s Secret, $30

Shirt: Peter Pan Woven Collar Blouse from Urban Outfitters, $15

Sweater: Lauren & Alex’s Fall 2010 Garage Sale, $1

Heart Pin: Gift from Lauren, priceless.

making a home from a rented house

i move a lot. since leaving home when i was 17, i’ve lived in 14 different places. because i move so often, i don’t always get settled into a new place or want to decorate as much as i would like. it’s hard to get motivated when i know i will probably be leaving soon. i also find it difficult to be excited about decorating when i am limited by whatever carpet or flooring is in the space, the colors of the walls, and how many holes i can put in the walls.

alex and i moved into our rented house in west seattle in december, and it is very likely we will be moving this summer. even so, i have put up a few personal touches. it makes it a lot more fun to be here, and it makes it feel more like our home than a temporary situation. i thought it might be fun to post some photos of things i’ve done, and hopefully i’ll have more/better photos in the future. there are also other things around my house i’d love to post when my house is cleaner and the lighting is a bit better.

this is our picnic basket that i decided to use as a magazine rack. it sits on the floor under a window and next to the chair that ira really likes to sit in. we keep magazines as well as zines from our friends in it, and a polaroid camera and a tin with the queen on it.

this chair was given to me for free by a friend in college, and then reupholstered in november. we used an outdoor umbrella cover from the crate and barrel outlet, and an acquaintance redid it for us. ira loves it, so it’s really become his chair. he likes to sit in it and watch people outside.

this is my favorite shelf. i got it from urban outfitters on sale a few months ago, and it’s just a nice place to keep my nesting dolls and other assorted figurines that i didn’t otherwise have a place for. i love the mint color and the shape. 

my mother lives in the czech republic, so she sends me hand-painted nesting dolls every so often. 

i have a lot of polaroids, and a lot of love.

i also have a lot of owls…

and the best part of my home: ira!

mary's first post

Hi all, I’m Mary and this is my first official Tea and Tangerines post!

Normally, I like to spend the entire Sunday on the couch watching movies, but today I was forced outside to acquire foodstuffs for the kitchen. It happened to be an unusually nice day for this time of year so the boyfriend and I needed only our peacoats and we were off to the neighborhood grocery store, here’s what I wore:

Bow Bobby Pins from Forever21 similar to these, $1.25!
Coat from Urban Behavior, can’t recall the price but I bought it on clearance
Peter Pan Woven Collar Blouse from Urban Outfitters, $15
Button from Sleep Bellum Sonno, Free!
Sweater from Target’s clearance section, $8
Socks from TJmaxx, $7
(these socks may look familiar from one of Lauren’s previous posts because, they are! we bought them together figuring it’s not too embarrassing to show up somewhere in the same socks)
My favorite shoes which they no longer have from Shop Ruche, $40ish

photobooth

aside from the fact that my head almost blew off of my shoulders from the wind, it’s gorgeous outside today. we had to do some grocery shopping and i had to ship a package, so it’s not like i had to look attractive. i just had to wear some clothing. so i threw on my favorite sweatshirt and some jeans and left. but i thought i actually looked alright, so i decided i would snap a photobooth photo

sweatshirt: forever21
jeans: urban outfitters, $58
scarf: modcloth, $15.99
socks: TJmaxx, $7
boots: target, $39.99 [mine are black, but these are the same style]