Misty Water-Colored Memories

Well, my darlings, I think this is officially goodbye for now.

I promised myself that when I stopped loving blogging, I would stop blogging, so here we are. I don't really feel like explaining or defending myself, nor do I feel the need to - I sort of rambled about why I am no longer in love with blogging on my Tumblr in the wee hours of this morning, so you can read that if you want.

At least for now, my switch from blogging to Tumblring is official. Follow me there! Get yourself a Tumblr! It's really fun.

So... goodbye, then. Maybe a month from now I'll miss blogging dearly and want to come back - or maybe I'll start a brand new blog - who knows? I just want everyone to know how much it means to me that you read my blog. Seriously, blogging has made me so happy over the past (almost) year, and it's changed the way I think about personal style and fashion so much. I love you all, and this definitely isn't the last you'll hear from me.

xxx

Annie

So This Is The New Year

SHOP CURIOUSER & CURIOUSER

That's right, the blog shop is still alive and kicking! Well, it will be, thanks to you guys...
I put up a bunch of new items and reduced the prices on almost everything else by at least a few bucks each.

Also, happy happy happy new year to all of you! I hope you all had incredible nights, I know I did. Mine involved sparklers and bonfires and delicious homemade tacos and sparkling cider and staying up into the wee morning hours of January. Tell me about your festivities!

For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear

I have been playing a lot of piano lately. By no means am I good at it, but it's always enjoyable. So much of my life is about trying to convey things through words, so playing music is a relaxing change.

I have also started wearing a watch again. It feels so old-fashioned to do so, but in the best possible way.

I felt like I was channeling Audrey Hepburn a little in this outfit.

Vintage Gap denim shirt, Forever 21 pants and flats, gifted watch

I am not normally the resolution-making type, but here are my two resolutions for the new year: write one poem every day, and learn how to knit. I will be spending New Year's Eve with almost all of my best friends (to the ones who will not be there, you will be dearly missed!), eating and dancing and relaxing and having a generally fantastic night. I hope you all have an amazing New Year's Eve!

Delicious.

Delicious is the best word I can come up with to describe my feelings about the Missoni pre-fall collection. Just when I was starting to doubt my purchasing of those Missoni-esque leggings, this collection appears before me, and my faith is restored. I still have no idea what to wear the leggings with, but looking at the immaculate colors and coziness and layering in this collection assures me that I will eventually come up with something. I know I would feel much differently about these pieces if I saw them out of the runway context - meaning, the styling is such a huge part of why I love Missoni. And the shoes are amazing.

Whatever may happen with the blog in the next few weeks or months, I will definitely be updating my Tumblr regularly, so keep up with me there!

There Will Be Feasting And Dancing In Jerusalem Next Year

I returned a few hours ago from a brief but very nice family trip to Washington. We stayed on the fringes of Georgetown, which is such an adorable and fun area for shopping and walking around, and our hotel was magnificent. It's always nice to go somewhere.

I feel like the blog might start to take a different direction soon, but I am not exactly sure how. I have been thinking a lot about fashion recently, and how I feel about it, and how it connects to other parts of my life, and I feel like I might need some time away from fashion and blogging to think about the other creative things that are important to me. I feel really good about my clothes lately, and obviously that's the most important part of personal style, but I am starting to think that deep down the fashion I am all about is not especially innovative or provocative, and therefore not entirely blogworthy. This is all sort of difficult to explain.

Lately I am not sure whether my dedication to my personal fashion is waning or waxing. By that I mean, I have been wearing a lot of simple, comfortable clothes lately, none that feel quite special enough to share on the blog but all that I love to wear. Basically, I think I need to start setting slightly lower expectations for myself in terms of what I wear on a daily basis, and then coming up with things to show off on the blog will seem much less (or hopefully not at all) stressful. I just want to be happy with what I post here, and then hopefully you all will be too.

I apologize if I sound maudlin at all. With the end of the year right around the corner, I have been feeling extremely pensive lately about every aspect of my life - friends, romance, writing, blogging, school, college, and everything beyond that. I think I just need to sort myself out a little.

All photos from The Cherry Blossom Girl. The above picture was taken at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, a place of which I have very fond memories. And the post title is from "This Year" by The Mountain Goats, my favorite and most mood-appropriate song lately.

About a week ago I started a Tumblr, which I will probably be updating more frequently than the blog at least for a little while. Please do not take this as an abandonment of the blog! Please! I just need to relieve myself of some blogging responsibility for a bit. And no matter what happens here, I will continue to read your blogs as I always do.

Dreaming Of Scandinavia

I have pretty much been living in variations on this sweater-and-leggings combination since the snowstorm last Saturday. Meet the newest addition to my granny sweater collection.

The vibrant colors, cozy knit, and wonderful oversizedness make it, I think, the sweater to end all sweaters. Sylvie, my dear, this is definitely one for the record books, and you must borrow it immediately!

These stirrup leggings I bought on Saturday are amazingly warm. Also, note the crazily thick socks. Under normal circumstances I usually wear thin cotton ankle socks, but in these chilly temperatures a good woolly pair is an absolute necessity. I feel like I am channeling Isabel of Hipster Musings in this outfit (never a bad thing, I am totally in love with her casual/cozy/insanely sequined style).

Between the glorious amount of snow and my newly blossomed love affair with leggings, I have been fantasizing lately about a winter vacation in some Scandinavian mountain cabin. Like this one, full of white walls, pale wood, minimalist furnishings, and huge windows for watching the blizzards. I can just picture sitting on a squashy couch in the loft, with only a mug of peppermint tea and a fresh notebook to keep me company, listening to The Mountain Goats. What's your fantasy winter locale?

Vintage sweater and suede boots, Forever 21 stirrup leggings, random woolly socks

I am heading out now for my favorite Christmas Eve activity: seeing a movie with my family and some fellow Semites. Merry Christmas to all!

The Stars Are My Chandelier

The name of the game is... simple colors, soft fabrics, and choosing comfort over trend.

Steven Alan wool trousers, Tomas Maier cashmere poncho, Vince jersey top, Acne tee, Alexander McQueen cashmere sweater dress, Alexander Wang sweater, Richard Nicoll dress, Miu Miu jersey stirrup leggings

These pieces totally embody the type of clothing I have been craving (and wearing very much of) lately. I cannot imagine anything more delicious than a cashmere poncho. Because of late rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday, then the absence of a camera battery charger this afternoon, I have yet to take any pictures of my purchases from Saturday, but I can assure you that they all fall into this category of simple, comfortable items, and that you will definitely be seeing them soon!

School is finally out for winter break. I could cry with happiness. A lengthy hiatus from schoolwork and alarm clocks is exactly what I need right now, preferably one filled with oversized sweaters and mugs of peppermint tea, snowy afternoons spent writing poetry and playing the piano, and spending as much time as possible with my friends.

My friend Chris and I (a different Chris from the one you met briefly in my last post) swapped mixtapes today, and I am totally in love with the one he gave me. It has lots of odd acousticky music on it, which totally suits my mood right now, and the post title is from one of my favorite songs on the mix, "The Stars Are My Chandelier" by David Dondero.

These pictures of Paris buried under snow are so magical. I want to experience Paris in wintertime so badly. Anyway, we got a significant amount of snow on Saturday night (I believe around eight inches) and it's been cold enough these past few days that basically all the snow is still here! Now it truly feels like winter.

Since I probably will not post again before tomorrow night, I hope all of you who are celebrating Christmas have a fantastic holiday!

It's Christmas Time In The City

Rather than plead for your forgiveness for my lack of blogging this week, I offer these photos from my spectacular trip into New York City today as penance, done in somewhat of a picture-or-two-or-three-an-hour fashion.

8:00 AM - Luke and I arrive at Grand Central Terminal, all prettily decked out for the holidays.

9:00 AM - We make a much needed stop at Starbucks before delving into our shopping adventures. The first store on our agenda? H&M, where I purchase several fantastic items that you will surely see soon. Luke gets a few things too.

10:00 AM - Next is J. Crew, where Luke buys khakis and a gorgeous deep red sweater. I am wearing my beautiful new black wool Banana Republic pea coat (well, sort of new, I found it at the thrift shop).

11:00 AM - Our final shopping locale is Forever 21, where I make four heavily laden trips to the dressing room and leave the store with a brimming bag. I almost literally screamed with delight when I found these Missoni Fall 2009 lookalike leggings. And I should mention that I purchased four pairs of leggings today. Craziness.

12:00 PM - In dire need of sustenance, we stumble into a cozy and beautifully decorated Irish pub near Herald Square for lunch. I have the yummiest crock of French onion soup and some of the best chicken fingers of my life. During lunch I flip through the Forever 21 magazine and see some of my favorite bloggers featured!

1:00 PM - Luke and I take the subway up to Bryant Park, where it starts to snow. I had never been before and it's quite a sweet little area, sort of a much less frenzied version of Rockefeller Center. There we meet up with Sylvia (who is wearing her magnificent Christmas sweater) and our friend Chris!

2:00 PM - The four of us trek through flurries and blustering wind back to Grand Central, where we buy our last coffees and snacks and head back home.

This was the first time I had properly shopped at real stores since the summer, and it was so much fun. I think I spent more money at once than I ever have, which felt slightly revolting but also pretty appropriate. It's the holiday season!

After being insanely busy this past week, I now have only two and a half days of school left until winter break. I already feel like a huge load is being lifted off my shoulder, and I will definitely not be taking any more six-day breaks from the blog. I missed it very much.