outfit of the [yester]day: not-really nineteenth-century

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There’s absolutely nothing nineteenth-century about this dress–the vintage reproduction company from which I purchased it touted the style as 1940s-inspired, I believe, and collar dresses are sufficiently popular at the moment for my look to pass as something simply romantically contemporary.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending an unprecedented amount of time in a house inhabited by a nineteenth-century poet, but for whatever reason, I feel like this simple dress captures some of the Victorian aesthetic nonetheless. At any rate, I’m thinking it will be most suitable for leading historic house tours in the future, assuming I won’t have access to authentic Victorian period dress!

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extreme enveloping: woodland wrapping paper

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Hey, remember back in the days of yore when I wanted to make “creating envelopes out of unusual materials” a thing?

In November, I showed you, gleefully, the envelopes I’d crafted from a recycled roll of wallpaper, hoping to kick off a glorious new age of extensively eccentric envelope fabrication–and then I proceeded to spend the next eight months making envelopes out of nothing but magazine pages.

There’s no time like the present, though, and I’m happy to say that in my continued quest to catch up on all the pen pal letters I owe (if you’re still waiting on me, you should have yours soon!), I decided to turn my manufacturer’s eye to a new substance: wrapping paper. (Specifically, ridiculously cutesy forest creature wrapping paper probably designed for literal babies but I don’t particularly care.)

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pin review: trilobite by natelle draws stuff

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Happy Trilobite Friday! At the start of June, I had just been thinking that my pin collection was seriously lacking in representation of Paleozoic ocean life–and then Natelle Draws Stuff released a brass 3D trilobite pin and I became more delighted than I’ve felt in eons.

I’m aware that I am totally setting myself up for strangers telling me “ew, there’s a bug on your collar!”*: but introvert though I may be, I remain incredibly excited to spread the good word of trilobite natural history to anyone who happens to question my accessory choices.

*I mean, it is an arthropod, but it’s a cute one! Come on!

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thrifting haul: miranda

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If by your art, my dearest father, you have

put the wild waters in this roar, allay them!

So spake I while living my theatrical dreams as a seventeen-year-old playing Miranda in a college production of The Tempest. I’m very fond of this isolated island castaway and the brave new world she discovers, and it’s probably no surprise that I still have most of her lines memorized: including the bold opening speech in which she begs her wizard-father to stop the darn storm that he’s churned up. Seriously, Prospero, someone’s going to write a play about this all now.

This $3 thrift-store dress (it was sold to me as a shirt, but I’m pretty darn sure it’s just a really short dress? Or maybe I’m just too flexible in my clothing classifications) immediately reminded me of Miranda. Perhaps it’s the open-shoulder design, which might appeal to a daughter of a noble-sorcerer who needs her full range of motion to survive on a mysterious island. In any case, I was happy to play Prospero and develop the illusion still further by adding on a few maritime accessories!

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what’s in my mailbox? go and catch a falling star

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Never has a mail haul so inspired me to quote John Donne! I know I tend to describe basically everything stamped that’s sent my way as “magical,” but these letters are enchanting in the most unique of ways. Mythical creatures of all kinds have traveled to me from Argentina, Iceland, Norway, and the U.K. over the past few weeks!

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outfit of the [yester]day: cute + cephalopoda

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Hey, remember last summer when I felt an undeniable urge to re-curate my outfit photo wall? I loved that marine-themed wall art, but like any museum professional, I also know that you can’t display works on paper for too long without risking damage from the sun and other elements. Consequently, those free printables–I mean, works of art–have returned to my obviously high-security storage facility, and I’ve reinstalled a selection of early modern natural history illustrations of cephalopods, odd deep-sea fish, and phytoplankton.

Then I happened to find this vintage dropped-waist dress in a quaint secondhand store in Pennsylvania, and its cheerful pastel tones nearly perfectly match the faded hues of my new squid-themed mini exhibition. I–alas!–do not currently own a squid pin, but my second (!) mousemoth pin by Minnow & Moss, this version in green and yellow, complements this dress excellently.

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walking with dinosaurs

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Nothing says “cute lifestyle blogger aesthetic” like a series of photos of open-mawed animatronic dinosaurs, right?

Last weekend, I took a road trip four states over for an important family event–that also included an obligatory stop at a certain Pennsylvania attraction that we’d been eyeing for years. It’s probably no secret that, like the eight-year-old I am at heart, I have a soft spot for all things saurian, and this outdoor jungle of prehistoric beasts sent me into a glorious state of raptor–I mean, rapture.

(Also, yes, in case you were wondering: I did indeed wear my dinosaur dress.)

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