Outfit of the Day | Just a Small Town Girl

Jacket: H&M, super old | Tank: Kohl's, similar | Jeans: Gap | Flats: Ivanka Trump Annulia | Bracelet: J.Crew | Ring: F21 | Super classy Wild Turkey iPhone case: free from the hype girls at the bar | Sweaty face: courtesy of my dad who refuses to turn on the a/c until June 1st

The whole "living in a cupboard" thing presents an issue for outfit pics as I have zero space for a full length mirror and have to use my mama's, bad lighting and weird fur accessory included. Welcome to my summer y'all! We'll get through this.

I wore this to watch my dad get recognized for his service on the school board, and my third grade teacher and high school basketball coach were retiring, so it end up being kind of an event. I'm a firm believer that everyone should be raised in a small town - you don't get into serious trouble because it's kind of like your parents have a thousand pairs of eyes, and it always feels like a big family reunion when you come home. Plus, you know, country music and truck beds and county fairs and fields. Having an end in sight makes me appreciate the time I get to spend here and actually enjoy it instead of just surviving it.

Anyway, this was my second time getting actually dressed since I've been home. And I really enjoyed it and I'm really sad it only happened for like an hour. New mission: actually get out of my pj's to study for the bar. (Don't hold me to it.)

OOTD | Neon Tan

Take 1: Graduation Day.

Leather jacket: Black Rivet | Dress: BCBGMAXAZRIA Avery | Belt: F21 | Heels: Prabal for Target

So back in this post I hinted that I pulled the trigger on a new graduation dress... it may have been a wee bit over the top. Though I guess a neon graduation dress was probably not out of the realm of foreseeable possibilities for a girl raised on honkytonk music.

Because nothing is ever allowed to go 100% smoothly in my life, it rained all day on graduation, the professor in charge of hooding me tried to choke me with the damn thing, and our dean of students decided to watch Sex and the City the night before and called me Samantha Jones instead of Johnson. What I lack in actual full-length outfit pics I make up for in funny stories.

Take 2: Graduation Night. Tan cargo jacket, cognac belt, the glittery Target sandals. No pictures, because we were much too busy scream-singing every sad song even remotely connected to graduation that we could find.

Take 3: Wedding. 

Cardi: Target, recent | Belt: Target, recent | Shoes: BCBG

My friend actually does look like a pinup girl, just not to this extreme. ;)

Had a wonderful time at one of my sorority sister's wedding this last weekend, though my shoes came off and my hair went up pretty quickly. We started the night with the wobble and ended with glowsticks and Thunderdrunk... sometimes you can just tell when a marriage is going to last.

Linking up today for Marion's Trend of the Month Challenge and The Pleated Poppy's What I Wore Wednesday!

OOTD | In Which I Deem Feathers "The New Business Casual"

This is my grandma. Y'all have met her before. We share an affinity for sequins and big earrings and shiny things generally.

Totally cool if you read the title and pull one of these. I might deserve it.

I jumped into the burning ring of law school fire and I have emerged on the other side like a mofuggin' PHOENIX!! I'm also living in a cupboard at my parents' place for the summer. I am Harry Potter.

But it's fine. I've got big plans for my cupboard summer. Big plans.

More on that later.

Back to the clothes! Jesus H, did y'all forget this is a style blog? I think I did. I got distracted by puppies and whiskey. (That's a line I use more often than is appropriate.) No more! I bought this dress last semester some time, fully intending on wearing it at Christmastime, but then Christmas didn't feel very black feathery, and then I was going to wear it on Valentine's Day but I was at Harry Potter World with my parents instead of, you know, on any kind of date, and then I was going to wear it on spring break for formal dinner but it didn't feel very Mexico-ey, so the night before my graduation open house (AKA free wine and a jazz band and outside voices in the law library - we know how to party) when I couldn't find anything to wear, I threw business casual to the wind and busted out the feathers. I added my favorite F21 boyfriend blazer over it, because blazers make feather minis appropriate for law school functions... see what finals do to my brain?

Blazer: F21, stupid old | Dress: ASOS | Shoes: Target, recent from the clearance rack | Earrings: F21 | Clutch: crazy awesome TJMaxx find that doubles as a weapon | Ring: F21

I am super bummed that you can't tell my earrings are big and green. They're my favorite. That little firecracker of an old lady up there taught me early that when it comes to earrings, bigger is better, and you always coordinate them with your outfit. Always. Woman never leaves the house without insane earrings. In fact, her boss once asked her if she stole a stripper's pasties and stuck them on her ears... in his defense, they were pink and rhinestoned. And you know, shaped like pasties.

I think I digressed at some point. I'm so stoked to actually be writing a post again that I think my brain exploded on my keyboard. Up tomorrow: my actual graduation dress (and the three ways I've worn it in the week and a half since I graduated).

Dear 790

"This is my temporary home,

it's not where I belong,

windows and rooms that I'm passing through.

This was just a stop

on the way to where I'm going,

I'm not afraid because I know

this was my temporary home."

When you're little and people ask you what superpower you'd want, you pick flying or invisibility or seeing the future or the ability to shoot fire out your nose.

You don't pick leaving.

But here I am in the middle of an empty apartment, getting ready to say goodbye to another place that's seen all of my best and all of my worst, hoping that someday staying will come as naturally to me as leaving does. 

The street numbers are my little trophies. 8230, where I imagine I'll still be having sleepovers with my best friends when we're 30. 513, where I discovered that girls aren't always evil even when they're traveling in packs and wearing strange letters. 639, where I learned to read maps in weird languages and live a little. 422 and 431, where I learned the hard way that you can't make someone love you.

790, where I learned that I'm so much happier when I'm alone than when I'm settling. That it's okay if my life isn't anything like what I thought it would be at 25. That I'm a whole lot more than the sum of all my mistakes. To just say it already. To finally stop underestimating myself.

The best part is that the very best parts are still to come, still out there somewhere, and all I have to do is find them.

A little open letter to my next number: you've got a lot to live up to, but so do I. And it's okay if you're not my last. Just do me a favor and leave me better than you found me.

(See you guys next week! Miss yo faces)