I WON A FREAKING CONTEST

Today was a very good day:

1. There was no school, or at least I didn't have to go to school (my school's testing its online correspondence system.)

2. I woke up really early and took a wonderfully long drive in the countryside looking at all the beautiful trees changing colors, the late summer flowers, the petite antique houses, and the swelling pumpkins.

(drum roll, please)
3. I was chosen out of 576 commenters to win a £59.99 satchel in a contest on one of my favorite blogs.

Excuse my language in the title, but as one may be able to see, I am a little excited. I won a contest. That's never happened to me. About a week ago I entered the Cambridge Satchel Company contest on What I Wore. We were asked to pick one of the satchels from the company's website and describe what we would wear it with. I chose this beautiful yellow satchel and described it like this:

The greatest thing about this bag is that I could use it for so many things - carrying books between classes, sneaking snacks into the movie theatre with friends on a Saturday afternoon, and using it as a stylish alternative to my currently worn out carry-on bag for flights. The first outfit I’d construct around this golden delight would start with my delicate cream lace dress from Anthropologie, layered upon by my warm faux fur vest from BB Dakota. My legs would be encased in opaque black tights and my tall vintage beige boots would sound lovely crunching the fallen leaves below my feet. With my happy yellow satchel hanging at my side, I would go on walks through town and in the woods admiring the beautiful change of colors in the trees and reminiscing on the past summer’s golden sun[ny] weather.

It's a bit precocious, yes, but I really wanted to win and I wasn't sure if the winner was randomly selected, so I spent a lot of time coming up with a response. I meant ever word of it though. When I turned on my computer today to procrastinate from doing my homework, I immediately went to check my blogger subscriptions since I hadn't done that in a few days. And there it was: I saw my name in connection with the announcement of the winner of a 15" yellow satchel. It took a good ten seconds for what I was reading to sink in, but then I jumped off my chair and started yelling around the house at the top of my lungs "Oh my God!" over and over until I was hoarse. There was some impressive 'happy dance' jumping thrown in there too. It's a good thing that I was home alone today or else I would have scared my mom to death.

Since I've never won anything before so I wasn't expecting much from the results of this contest. It caught me so off guard! I'm really grateful to Jessica of What I Wore and Julie of the Cambridge Company for holding this contest; they made my day.

Gold Shoes, Fur Vest

Another new blog that I'm now following is The Owls Are Not What They Seem. Two friends, Joelle and Noel, share their fashion sense a le blog.

Joelle:I looooooove the her vintage faux fur vest in these looks. Where can I get one? Also, the gold tone flats at a certain amount of sophistication, that I can't help but admire.

Noel:I couldn't help slipping this photo in here. She's so cute in it! I love all the red details and the overall fall vibe from it; and it doesn't hurt that she's so gosh darn photogenic!

Face Hunting

What I like: the sleeves, the collar, the length, the shoes, the tights, the umbrella.

Anthropologie

I think it's not far from the truth to say that I am obsessed with Anthropologie's fall collection.
I think I'll ask for the Tuscan Rooftop Satchel for my birthday or Christmas or buy it for myself when I get a job, since I need another nice purse other than pink.
Don't those wonderful shoes just look like lemon drops?! Need. Especially since I feel that all my everyday shoes are falling apart.
These are simply darling! Instead of wearing your heart on your sleeve, you get to wear them on your vamp!

Coloring Books

I'm so glad there are some beautiful, non Spongebob coloring books in the world. I would definitely choose to bring my crayons on a plane with this book if I could get my hands on it.

{Via Oh Joy!}

Little Pink Dress

More Weardrobe conference snooping: What really caught my attention about this photo were the Vivienne Westwood shoes that I've been coveting for the past few months. I really love the quail dress that Audrey of Home Run Ballerina is wearing too. She posted about buying the dress back in August, and it's still available over at Buy Definition, but it's way too expensive for something I wouldn't wear that often and it only comes in medium, so I think I might attempt making something similar too it. I know I'm always saying that I'll sew something together, but this time, the goal is so simple, that maybe I will. Who knows. I still need something to wear to Wicked tomorrow night...


It's also available in green at identity streetwear:


Edit 09/14/09 - And no, I didn't have time to go buy any fabric. Instead I wore just a circle skirt from H&M, a soft brown-green cotton long sleeve shirt, tights from Modcloth, and lots of sparkly jewelry.
Edit 09/18/09 - The Dress Shop's has another dress that I think is a nice alternative to the original:

This Time Tomorrow

{Clockwise from top left 1, 2, 3, 4}

I've been obsessively sorting through all the pictures from the Weardrobe conference in New York, so consequently I've been discovering loads of new bloggers to follow too. I really love This Time Tomorrow's Krystal's vintage fall-ish postings.

Edit 9/18/09: Ooh, I'm a detective, I found that wonderful blue top Krystal's wearing in the bottom right corner on Free People. I really love it!

Tiptoeing Through the Tepees

This picture reminded me a lot of my uncle and aunt's backyard. A few years ago for the family reunion at their house, my aunt set up two large tepees in their sprawling expanse of backyard to offer more sleeping space for the relatives. She had painted a few Native American-esque pictures of buffalo and horse on their sides. Since then, she's sold the smaller one, but every year she invites her grandchildren and my uncle's grandchildren to camp out in the large tepee for a whole week. The rules are that no one can go inside the house though, except to use the bathroom and shower. When they were visiting our house last May after they'd gotten off another cruise to Alaska, my uncle's wife invited me to come, but it was one of those half empty invitations that someone gives you just so they can keep talking about it in front of you and you don't feel left out. It does look life fun though.

Earth Tones Anyone?

This looks like it's right out of some quaint German curiosity trinket store. I really love the outlined white globe and the blue dish.

When I Grow up...

...I want a room that's decorated just like this!
I love fur coat on the coat rack, the old telephone (which I already have), the delicious mustard lime chair, and of course, the ribbon bulletin board. Delightful!

Green Inspiration

These impossible topiaries looks like they belongs in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

You really have to think about it to find out how they made these hedges look like basket weaving.

Twins

Ever randomly find a picture on the internet that is a dead ringer for someone you know in real life, but that you know can't be them? I have- now twice.

de Betty

Over the summer I practiced my French by reading several untranslated French blogs. One of my favorites was le blog de Betty. I first discovered her from lookbook, but now I'm an avid follower. Although I'm not a fan of the shredded tee shirt look that I've seen around a lot this season, and which Betty has posted about, she more than often pulls off something so devastatingly chic that I just want to fly to France and stalk her whenever she goes shopping.I mean COME ON! Are you even looking at that jacket? Or at those boots? They're perection, but only better - since they're French.

Her hair looks so soft and touchable. And look at those nails! I love how she brings random bits of the unexpected into each outfit; often feautring touches of hot pink.

Drowning in Shoes

I positively adore this picture from Jane Aldridge's mother's blog. Since she was featured in Teen Vogue several months ago wearing that the same Prada skirt (without the petticoat) (can be seen here), I've been on the hunt for a similar perfect plaid whenever I go to fabric stores. A good plaid is so hard to come by; either you look like you're doing 90s grunge, you shop at Hot Topic, or you go to a parochial elementary school (I speak from experience.) Ebay has a couple of the designer skirts up, but they 1. all seem to be size 2/4s and they 3. are $200+. I can still like it though. And those shoes... .... ... :)

Another Bookish Tee

Remember my posting about a Catcher in the Rye tee? Well now I've found this Great Gatsby one! Seriously, what's with all my favorite books finding their way onto guys' shirts?

Tea

These oragami tea bags are so clever. While the tea infuses the bird, the shape gradually expands. Such a cute idea, I wish I could do this with my tea bags without shelling out for folded filter paper though...

Shark Eggs

I don't know why I never thought about it, but I never imagine what shark eggs looked like. Imagine my surprise when I came across these pictures of actual shark eggs! So weird... Don't even think about pushing these dangerous objects out from anywhere, TMI.