43; Mad Day Out (+ an exclusive 10% off coupon for Vantage Point Vintage!)

Dress: American Apparel • Vest: Forever 21 • Docs: Ebay • Jewelry: bone-carved bracelet + earrings, trinket necklace, crystal necklace, antique turquoise earcuff, antique blue sandstone bracelet

First order of business, I'd like to share with you guys a little gift courtesy of a really rad vintage store, Vantage Point Vintage. We teamed up together to offer you a chance to save 10% on their merchandise! Just use my special code ontheganges when you go to check out. You'll also find a banner for their store in my sidebar that has the code and links back to their site, in case you decide to buy from them later. (Though my advice would to buy asap -- their stuff sells out pretty easily!) I'll even understand if you completely blow off the rest of this post to go shopping there, I promise. ♥ I will be doing a shop spotlight post for this store in the coming days, so keep an eye out for that!


Gah, you can see my green socks in some of the shots -- how embarrasing! I meant for them to be hidden; the leather material of these Docs rub and press into the backs of my ankles and I made the mistake of walking to work in these the day they arrived while wearing below-the-ankle socks. These were the only long socks I could find.

So, Kathryn and I went into Cambridge (in the Boston area) yesterday for some exploration. Our friend Molly works at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, which is what inspired us to go initially. We had tons of Starbucks, I found a really adorable asian-stuff shop (and bought a few cute knick knacks that I forgot to photograph...), shopped at the Harvard Book Store (yeah, that's the name!) where I bought a German language course and a used book on graphic design. After visiting the museum, we went into a small mall called the Garage, and I spent the rest of my cash on a pair of sunglasses (that will be in my next outfit post) and a bracelet.

The museum was so amazing, and we actually ended up missing a few exhibits. It's so massive and there are so many animal specimins that I honestly can't begin to explain everything that we saw, so instead I'll perform another small photo dump and leave you this link to the museum floor plan to give you an idea of what we saw (everything left to the entrance/museum shop). The day ended with meeting up with Molly after she left work and we three took the train home, where she gave tons of commentary and stories on nearly every photo I'd taken. I love hanging out with her!

 From the downstairs section of used books at the Harvard Book Store, most surfaces are covered in random cut-outs, and in the foreign language section, they had a large array of miniature cut outs of vintage homosexual erotica book covers. So strange!

 If anyone can translate, leave me a comment? ♥

 The beginning of the museum photos -- it's one of the few dodo bird specimins left in existence.

 In one exhibit, there are three giant whale skeletons that loom over you from the ceiling. It's so daunting, but amazing!

42; My Life Aquatic

 

Top: SheTigerVintage on ebay • Skirt: Wholesale-dress.net • Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell on ShopAKIRA • Belt: Etsy • Jewelery: everywhere • Seal plush: New England Aquarium

Went into Boston on Monday. Kathryn had been dying to visit the New England Aquarium and we decided to go this week since we found a day open between all the chaos that's been going on lately. (Her grandmother died last week, and it's been hard for her to deal with especially when her family didn't know for a long time when the funeral was going to be, making it very difficult for her to get out of work when her boss doesn't seem to believe that his employees have a life that doesn't involve work.)

Kathryn's been arguably obsessed with fish and aquariums lately, and ended up setting me up to get a fish for myself, so it seemed like the one thing she would be interested in doing. I even bought a betta while in Boston and brought it home on the train -- very carefully, I might add! I don't have decent pictures yet (he moves around so much) but I will eventually. His name is Hesperus, and he's a halfmoon betta with blue and turquoise colouring. I've been stressing about his tank, because ammonia in the water (created by food if left uneaten and a betta's waste product) will hurt and eventually kill a betta if there's enough of it, and my ammonia testing kit says there's some in his tank. (Only 1.0 ppm, but that's still enough to make him uncomfortable, possibly burn his gills and make it hard for him to breathe. I suspect it's from the water he was in when I bought him, as pet stores rarely, if ever, clean the betta containers while they're in the store.) I've also had to struggle with the water filter's output current, because he kept getting caught in it and it would shove him across the tank and into a wall. I found a means of fixing it, and it seems to be helping disperse the current so far. I'm just worried about the ammonia levels...I'm doing what all the research I can manage is telling me, but I still worry. He seems lively enough, at least!

Now, I'll stop rambling about marine life, and instead, show you pictures of marine life! (Click to enlarge.)

 

The new tank where you can pet rays and small sharks. They're so soft!

I have no clue what this is -- an urchin of some sort?

A lion fish!

Is there anything cuter than a cuttlefish? Yes -- a sleeping cuttlefish.

I swear, these colours are true to life.

 

Look, it's Kathryn! Okay, so I said marine life, but I swear, if she keeps researching and talking about fish, she'll turn into a mermaid or something. ♥

41; Grandma's Couch

Top: Catworld Fashionshop • Tights: I've had them so long, I can't remember • Earrings: Antique shop • Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell via ShopAKIRA

I'd love to make a super long post, but I'm in such a weird, braindead mood lately! I'm not entirely sure what it is. (Probably the weather imitating fall. What the heck, Massachusetts?) As you can tell, I finally got to enjoy my new Litas; last night we headed out to the mall with the intention of buying me a pet fish, but it didn't end up happening. I had a 1.7 gallon tank intended to hold a betta, but found out that there wasn't a heater in the store that would service a tank smaller than two gallons. So instead of buying a betta, I bought a new tank. (It's recommended to cycle a tank's water for three days before adding the fish.) Instead, Kathryn and I shopped around. We hit Starbucks, Godiva, and discovered that a Teavana and a quaint little eastern Indian/Hindu shop had been added since our last visit. I was psyched.

I got loads of compliments on these shoes, as well. (One from a very openly gay man not too much older than I, which was all sorts of amazing. I love getting the seal of approval from men who are more fabulous than I am.) I will probably buy some cushion-y inserts for them though, as I've developed an odd blister on the bottom of one foot, and I'm not entirely sure why. I suspect it's the slippery lining of the shoe and something to do with its relationship with socks, actually. Doesn't hurt too much, though, and I still adore these things. It's fun being tall!

If you'll excuse me, I have an espresso machine waiting for me in the kitchen. This cold weather makes me want to curl up with Kathryn, drink a latte, and watch a movie. ♥

39; Gypsy Witch of the East Coast

Bandeau: Forever21 • Shorts: Crystallized Vintage (Ebay) • Boots: Etsy • Kimono: Shock Botique courtesy of Jean Greige • Hat: Ebay • Jewelery: everywhere (crow ring by Moon Raven Designs)

First off, I was interviewed by Larasati here on Blogspot recently! Check out the feature here. (In which I had a complete idiot moment and mis-said something in the motto bit of the interview. Just pretend I said that I 'remind myself not to judge myself too much'. Funny how forgetting a little word like that completely turns your meaning around!)


Yeah, I really did walk around Cape Cod dressed like this! Except I didn't sport the hat for the first few hours of the day while in Hyannis, with how cloudy it was. This outfit had been on my mind ever since my little crow from Moon Raven Designs arrived in the mail (whom I named Kaiser. I never name things, but he seems like so much more than just a ring to me). It seemed that Cape Cod was the only logical place for me to wear short shorts and a bandeau if I didn't to look inappropriately out of place. I think the inclusion of the kimono (and the hat) ended up making me look pretty out of place anyway, but at least it did in a good way.

I love feeling like such a witch. I found myself itching for any sort of new age store while in Hyannis (Kathryn's father said there should be one there, but we never found it) to further accentuate my outfit with crystals and charms. I'm longing for a Black Belles-esque black mini dress and want to do insane things like fill the room with sage and incense, tarot cards, feathers, and candles. Is there anyone else in the blogosphere that practices 'witch chic'? I need to know ASAP.


Onto the trip: we left at 4.30 in the morning, got coffee about an hour and a half later as we had just crossed the bridge connecting the Cape to the mainland, got to Dennis (where Kathryn's family's cottage is) and grabbed breakfast at Wolfie's, and finally arrived at the cottage to unload, rest, and eat. Having coffee on an empty stomach killed my appetite, so I didn't eat much until a few hours later in Hyannis, where I caved and ate some ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. Yeah, I'm not really nice to my body.

While in Hyannis, I found some suede and feathers to make some necklaces out of the crystals I bought at the 4th of July fest, a conch shell (for the symbolism involving Vishnu), a little voodoo doll charm, some shells for my mother, and at Spinnakers -- the single most amazing music store I've set foot in -- I was just so lucky to aquire a copy of the vinyl 45 single by Stephen Colbert and the Black Belles, "Charlene II (I'm Over You)"! I seriously couldn't believe that they had it, and the told me that the shipment of them had arrived to his store just the day before. It was as if we were fated to meet. ('Fated to be mated', you might say.) I'm preserving it for whenever I can find the opportunity to attend a taping of his show and see if he'll be available for signing it. It would make my life one step closer to nirvana.

We went antique shopping for a bit afterward, though I didn't find anything that 1. was within my price range, or 2. that caught my eye. We passed by a thrift store called Wicked on the way to Hyannis that we made a point to go to at some point during the day, but went back to the cottage to rest, and Kathryn and I took a relaxing walk full of taking pictures of each other. (Example, see above.)

Ate pasta, then went to Wicked, which is the cutest little thrift store! There's two small buildings, the one on front displaying vintage clothes and men's clothes, and the other off to the side and further back, with women's clothes. I bought a denim jacket, an open crocheted top, a black lace top, and a pink cami. I'm way too excited to wear them once they've been washed. (Not together, of course. It kind of would be overkill.)

We left shortly afterward, and arrived home at around seven-ish. I'm still feeling tired from it all. Four hours in a car ride + super humid weather takes a toll on me. I kind of wish we'd hit the beach, but I didn't feel like getting sand and salt water all over me. I was already sticky from the humidity and sweaty from the heat.

Luckily, we might be able to do it again next week! I'm hoping we can. Kathryn and I don't have very flexible schedules though we have been given less days to work. We had been hoping to go down to the Cape next week with just us, her sister Sarah, and some of her friends, but we kept hitting bumps in the road with that plan. We had asked to not work those days, so we might be able to do another day trip, or even stay a night. Fingers crossed!

I'll leave you with photos from my trip. I spent more time taking it all in than anything else, so I didn't end up with a ton of photos...sorry. (Click to enlarge the photos; I'd rather show your internet connection some mercy by using smaller thumbnails than usual!)

Hyannis:

 I'm really not sure what this is supposed to mean.

 I told you Spinnaker's was awesome.

 I'd give just about anything to be able to bring this doll home with me. It was at least three feet tall.

 An antique clarinet -- Kathryn's instrument of choice. She thinks it was used for highschool marching band and likely sat unused afterward. (She's so smart. I love it.)

Dennis:

Isn't Kathryn gorgeous? (It's okay, you can admit it.)

We seriously need to make 'witch chic' the lastest thing.