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Quick impromptu hiatus

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in and say that I’ll be taking a hiatus from the blog for the next two or three weeks. There’s a lot going on right now so between that and my schedule (AKA the lack of time to dedicate to the blog), I’ve decided that rather than half-ass posts, I’d prefer to wait until I have the time to sit down and write them as best as I can. I know, I’m bummed too. I really…

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KL Polish: haul + review

Hi everyone! Today’s post is coming to you (almost) live for my office — during my lunch break, of course! I lacked the energy to actually write this over the weekend as I usually do and thought I’d give myself a week off from beauty posts, but I have so many posts lined up that would never get up if I kept doing this so here we are. At least I don’t have to worry about getting this done in time,…

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If you’ve been following my blog the last three weeks, then you saw the past two fashion posts featured photos by the lovely Kiersten, AKA my fairy photographer. Sadly, this is the last of the three looks we shot that day, but I saved the best for last (and we’re going to shoot together again eventually)!

I’m warning you right now, this blog will be the most photo heavy so far, but there were too many pictures I loved from this outfit not to share them all! For this look, I wanted to do something very elegant and classic to go along with this beautiful dress from YesterDaze, a vintage store in Tampa that is just too good to be true.

This dress is a 1950’s navy wiggle dress that I picked up at YesterDaze, turned to my friend and said, “Do you think this will fit?”

Well, for a total eyeball, we did really well, because once I went to the fitting rooms and tried it on, it was clear that it fit perfectly!

The dress features the most amazing neckline detail — I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, because I don’t think words will do it justice.

I’m sure none of you are surprised by the earrings in this post, once again from my lovely friend Kate’s Etsy, Winifred + Bramble. I just really love these earrings a lot, okay?!

The hat was a purchase on Etsy I am so happy about, because it’s such a beautiful but simple style and I think I’ll get plenty of use out of it… and one day, I will learn how to do pin curls and brush out my hair to get that perfect vintage hairstyle and this hat will look perfect then.

To finish off the outfit, I wore my favorite tan heels from Chase & Chloe (purchased on Amazon), which are probably the most comfortable pair of heels I’ve ever owned (never mind the fact that I discovered that day that despite being comfortable, they’re not suited for a whole lot of walking anyway). Lastly, I wore the What Katie Did seamed pantyhose, which sadly did not survive the day and were my last pair, so I’ll be looking for alternatives soon since I think their pantyhose are just too small for me in all of my 5’9 glory.

I was drawn to Disney’s Boardwalk Resort for this shoot and boy, am I glad! We found the most adorable little garden in the back of the resort which provided the perfect shoot location, between the relative quiet, the lawn that Kiersten could roll around in to her heart’s content and this adorable archway with the most beautiful and yummy-spelling flowers!

I honestly love everything about these photos, and I’m so happy to have friends like Kiersten in my life to do this for me! She’s incredibly talented, so if you aren’t already, please follow her Instagram, her blog and go check out her new Etsy!

Thanks to Kiersten for the beautiful photos and thanks to all of you for reading my blog. <3

Sing with a swing If you've been following my blog the last three weeks, then you saw the past two fashion posts featured photos by the lovely…

#look

Creepy Cute: March 2017 Boxycharm

Hi everyone! I’ll be honest, I haven’t exactly figured out what “Creepy Cute” means or why it’s our March theme, but it’s not a bad box so I’ll zip it. On that note, let’s move on to why you’re really all here. This month’s Boxycharm featured five full-size items (well, four and one travel-size), as it usually does, and while I’m not sure it’s the variation I was hoping for most, I’m pretty happy…

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#boxycharm

Summertime and the living is easy

I know you’re thinking, “Valentina, it’s not even summer yet!” Well, here’s the thing. I live in Florida, where it’s summer one week and winter the next. Last weekend, it was nice, sunny and warm, only for the temperature over the week to drop way down to (Florida) cold weather. So that being said, between our fluctuating weather and this particular look, well, it needed some type of summer…

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#pinup #repro #review

Très Jolie: March 2017 ipsy

Hi everyone! I just very belatedly realized I never posted my February ipsy bag, so I’m very sorry about that — but I’m back with my March one! And hopefully I won’t miss any months in the future. Overall, I’d say this was a good month for ipsy. I love the bag itself, and that illustration is so beautiful! I love when ipsy sends bags that are different sizes from their usual, because I feel like…

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#ipsy

Do you ever have a brand that you look at wistfully, admire from afar and desperately wish to get your hands on? That was me with Collectif, a British repro brand who one of my favorite bloggers (Miss Amy May, in case you were wondering) showcases on her blog all the time.

After seeing her wear Collectif in several different blog posts, I knew I wanted to place an order, but between the exchange rate and the cross-continental shipping, I kept holding back. Recently, however, they had an additional 30% off their sale items and I knew it was time to bite the bullet and place an order.

And place an order I did — I bought two dresses, a skirt and two tops and it was around 100 USD, which I think is fairly impressive considering what each item retails for full price! I have a cart full of goodies waiting for another discount count so I can order some more, because I’m really very impressed with Collectif so far. Collectif, if you’re reading this… how about that discount code?

So with all that yammering out of the way, let’s get on to the actual outfit, shall we?

The dress you see here is the Saria blossom print swing dress, which features a fairly full skirt that can take a medium-sized petticoat, halter straps that tie behind your neck, a round neckline and a fitted bodice.

The dress doesn’t have pockets (sadly) but other than that, the only thing I dislike is the halter neck straps, because I find those always hurt my neck if I tie them too tight, but if I don’t, the dress falls down constantly. Thankfully, that’s an easy fix since the straps are long enough to convert to shoulder straps.

This dress, despite being black, screams spring to me, so I wanted the photos to convey that. My friend Kiersten, who is an amazingly talented photographer, agreed to take pictures of a couple of different outfits for me and I’m so glad that she did! I’ve managed to do well with my blog photos because most of my friends are good at photography, but this was my first time shooting with a photographer (as much as she will claim that she’s just an amateur) and the pictures are beautiful.

We went to the Port Orleans Riverside hotel at Disney, because it’s a beautiful resort, it’s huge and it has lots of gardens and hidden courtyards that were perfect for shooting these pictures. We found lots of adorable staircases and thus, there are probably too many staircase pictures in this post… I’m not sorry.

To accessorize the dress, I wanted to break out my What Katie Did seamed stockings for authenticity — because, you know, nothing screams vintage like seamed stockings! I also added my white mermaid scale earrings from my dear friend Kate, who makes the most beautiful earrings ever. I’ve mentioned her before in the blog, but I wanted to make sure to get a close up of the earrings this time so you could admire just how beautiful they are! I only have three pairs of earrings from her, but I’m absolutely planning on getting lots more.

I didn’t want a closeup of the gloves because a) there aren’t any details worth shooting up close, b) they’re a little stained and I didn’t clean it, but for what it’s worth, they were a purchase from my dear friend Kelsea of Lotty Dotty Vintage and I wanted to make sure I gave her a shoutout too!

Last, but certainly not least, is this beautiful vintage hat purchased on Etsy. Doesn’t it just scream spring? I’m not sure what decade this is, but if I had to make a totally uneducated guess, I would say 50s or 60s. I was a bit wary of this hat at first because the shape is just so strange to me, since it isn’t perfectly round, but I got over this fear and I absolutely love how it turned out.

Kiersten did an amazing job of making me look good (and I’m sure she had a hell of a time editing the pictures and seeing all the weird faces I make) and I had such a good time shooting with her! You should absolutely check out her Instagram and giving her a follow! She posts a lot of Disney (not that it should be a warning) but you can see how talented she is.

Wow, this post got lengthy really fast. Sorry for all my ramblings, if you made it all the way down here, you’re the best and I appreciate you. Thanks for reading!

Feeling floral with Collectif Do you ever have a brand that you look at wistfully, admire from afar and desperately wish to get your hands on?

#review

Collective haul, or controlling the oil

Hi everyone! As I’m sure you’ve realized by the title, this post is a small collective haul from the weekend I was in Tampa. I’m a bit surprised at myself for not getting more, to be honest, but that may just be because I saved all my money for vintage shopping! Now that I don’t work in theme parks anymore, I’ve been trying to actively wear makeup more because I know I’m really bad at wearing…

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#haul

Hi everyone! Today’s blog post is a little belated, since it was originally supposed to go up last Sunday, but as you read in Wednesday’s post, I took a little vacation from the blog since I couldn’t find the time or energy to write anything for the blog.

Well, now I’m back! I have coffee, a backlog of photos for weeks worth of beauty posts, and my fingers are ready to do some serious typing.

Up first: this beautiful 40s-inspired dress from Lindy Bop, which I purchased recently and I’m already madly in love with. Lindy Bop had a sale recently and it just so happened that they emailed me right after pay day, so how could I resist? I ended up with five new dresses, including this Bretta dress in the bicycle print.

Out of all the other prints, this one was definitely the least intimidating to me (and I don’t like the color of the polka dot one). I took the dress out for a spin in Tampa a few weekends ago, to do lunch and some shopping with a few friends.

Aren’t we cute? We all seemingly agreed on a pink/red color scheme without even planning it, and as each one of us showed up for lunch, we couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that it looked like we were purposefully color-coordinated!

After lunch, we went out for some ice cream and I couldn’t not take a picture of how pretty our ice cream looked with Lauren’s purse in the background! (My ice cream was forest berries and mango pineapple, in case you’re wondering, and yes, it’s delicious.)

I knew I wanted to get blog photos done, so I grabbed Elizabeth (on the left) and Lauren (who you’ve seen here before!) and we found a pretty spot with nice lighting to take pictures. It was actually a restaurant in the shopping plaza we were in that was unoccupied, so the terrace was perfect for what we wanted!

We stumbled into some Girl Scouts selling cookies on our way to the picture spot, and well, how could I say no to Girl Scout cookies?! I was really excited to try these, since it’s the other baker that I haven’t seen before, whereas the council that the troop I used to lead was a part of used the other baker.

For those of you who can’t understand what I’m going on about — Girl Scout councils choose from one of two different bakers (Little Brownie Bakers or ABC Bakers) and they carry different types of cookies. Here, I have the Savannah Smiles and one of the two variations of the s’mores cookie.

Anyway, back to the fashion part…

This dress features slightly puffy short sleeves, a round neckline with a keyhole cut out, belt loops and a matching sash (not pictured here) and it’s a lightweight chiffon fabric, which is perfect for Florida. It’s a very bright, 40s-inspired dress and I’m anxiously waiting for Lindy Bop to come out with more prints — Lindy Bop, if you’re reading this, please give us more!

Instead of wearing the dress with the sash, I styled it with a vintage navy belt (you’ll see the dress it belongs to soon!) and a vintage navy hat, both purchased at YesterDaze in Tampa. I honestly could have written an entire blog post about that store alone, and I could have (and did) spend hours in there looking at everything.

So that’s it for today’s blog! What have you been up to? Purchased anything exciting recently? I swear, half the reason I buy so much is that getting things in the mail is just so exciting!

Dipping my toes in novelty prints with Lindy Bop Hi everyone! Today's blog post is a little belated, since it was originally supposed to go up last Sunday, but as you read in Wednesday's post, I took a little vacation from the blog since I couldn't find the time or energy to write anything for the blog.

#review

Review: ABH Modern Renaissance

Hi everyone! Sorry for the random blog vacation I took, I had a lot going on last last weekend (when I usually write my blog posts) and then on today (Sunday, as I’m writing this), I just couldn’t myself to write the blog post for then… so thus, mini vacation. Today’s post is one I’m very excited to share with you, because I’ve been lusting after this palette for ages and after seeing a friend…

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#review

About cultural appropriation and intersectional feminism

Hi all. Today’s post is a little bit more serious, but I really wanted to speak up about this subject and be transparent with everyone, especially as I move forward as a pinup and fashion blogger. Picture credit: @marsupialpudding on Instagram. You may remember seeing me talk about Pinup Girl Clothing a few times, most recently in last week’s post. It’s a brand that I was wholeheartedly…

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Review: Wet N Wild Liquid Catsuit Matte Lipstick

When it comes to drugstore brands, Wet N Wild have long been one of my favorite brands out there. I often find myself perusing the aisles of Walgreens in search of my next lipstick or product to try out, and considering my love for their matte tube lipsticks, when they came out with liquid lipsticks, I knew I needed to get my hands on them! Of course, in trying to pick three colors “I didn’t…

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#review

Is there anything better to do on a nice Sunday afternoon than dress up and go to Epcot with a good friend?

Well, probably, but going to Epcot is always a fun time anyway.

You may remember Lauren from my post about going to Universal two weeks ago, and she’s back again (remember what I was saying about not being able to get rid of her?) for another park day, this time in a different park.

Lauren and I went to Epcot for one of the last weekends of the Festival of the Arts, a new festival that started this year and was all about, well, the arts! Compared to Food & Wine or Flower & Garden, it was definitely small in comparison, but it was actually really good and we had a great time eating our way around the world!

We couldn’t really decide on a cohesive theme this time around so it was vaguely Valentine’s Day themed… sort of? What’s funny is that we ended up totally switching outfits, I had originally picked my red Harley dress to wear and Lauren had brought a pink one, but had this Trashy Diva dress for me to try on and I liked it so much, I wore it to the park. This is the Gia dress in the Lovebirds print and I can already tell it’s going to be my gateway into the Trashy Diva world…

As for the rest of my outfit: hat is vintage and purchased from Etsy, purse is vintage and purchased at a vintage market, the ribbon is just from Wal-Mart (I bought it for a different outfit last year) and my shoes are the Jessica Simpson Mandalaye flats, purchased from Amazon.

Lauren, on the other hand, ended up wearing my Harley! She’d never tried one on, so I told her she should when she got to my house and she liked it so much that she ended up wearing it to the park, instead of the pink vintage shirtwaist dress she had originally planned to wear.

Of course, we then set out to do a mini photo shoot in the UK pavilion (AKA my second favorite, after Canada!) to take advantage of the pretty backdrops and the nice lighting.

The lipstick I’m wearing here is Bésame Cosmetics 1969 Dusty Rose lipstick, which is quickly becoming my favorite shade and I need to get the full size lipstick ASAP. Look how beautiful it looks!

Look at Lauren, posing like a pro. When we first went to Universal, she was saying she didn’t really know how to pose but she definitely learned more quickly than I did! It took me quite a few tries to figure out what worked for me. Oops.

Of course, I couldn’t let the blog post end without a weird picture of my face, right? Right.

Lauren’s dress is from Pinup Girl Clothing and she’s wearing Bésame Cosmetics 1941 Victory Red lipstick (which is coincidentally my favorite lipstick ever).

We had a great time eating and drinking our way around the world, and I do wish we could have gone one more time! Sadly, the festival ends this weekend and we just didn’t have time to make our way out there again.

Sunday in the park with lovebirds Is there anything better to do on a nice Sunday afternoon than dress up and go to Epcot with a good friend?

Would You Be My Galentine? February 2017 Boxycharm

Happy belated Galentine’s/Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope everyone had a great day with their family, friends and significant others alike. I just spent the day at work, trying really hard not to cry about all the adorable stories (and video!) we published in honor of Valentine’s Day. It was hard, let me tell you. It seemed fitting to post my Boxycharm unboxing today, though I had originally…

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#boxycharm

There are lots of things Orlando is known for — Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, a terrible interstate highway, a 16-year-old building that’s never been completed — but one thing that gets overlooked frequently, due to our booming tourism industry, is the more unique places around town.

Ask any Orlandoan, and they’ll proudly tell you about all their favorite essential Orlando places (none of which are a theme park). There are plenty of hole-in-the-wall restaurants, amazing bars and unique shopping experiences — and Artegon Marketplace was at the top of that list for this Orlandoan.

Artegon was a mall, but not your run-of-the-mill kind of mall. It’s Orlando’s “anti-mall,” an artisan marketplace located in the midst of tourism central (AKA I-Drive). It featured cute little shops of every kind, an indoor rope course, food trucks by the entrance on certain days, and so much more.

It was a hang out for my friends and I — we’d get food from Fuddruckers, a piña colada served in a pineapple and go watch movies. Sadly, Artegon closed its doors on January 26.

To say farewell, my friend Mo and I went for one final hurrah to take pictures, because seriously, you’ve never seen a mall better suited to photographs. In order to properly honor Artegon’s colorfulness, I wore my Red Seville Gina dress from The Pretty Dress Company.

I saw this dress in a production of West Side Story late last year, and I’d been obsessed with it ever since. I couldn’t resist temptation and I had to snatch it up, and let me tell you — I haven’t regretted it for one second since.

The Gina dress features a flattering scoop neckline, cap sleeves, a full, pleated skirt and pockets! While they pockets aren’t too big, they’re big enough to fit a phone (provided that it’s smaller than an iPhone 6). The skirt is so, so full (it twirls beautifully!) and it can comfortably fit a petticoat. I’ve been obsessed with my vintage lace petticoat from Malco Modes, which isn’t very full but it gives the dress a nice silhouette.

I wanted to bring out the pink in the dress, so I chose a light pink vintage hair scarf tied with a nice big bow on top. For shoes, I went with my trusty Jessica Simpson flats (which, as a matter of fact, are really worn out on the sides and I need to replace them soon).

I forgot a necklace, but I accessorized with my new white crystal mermaid earrings, which I got from my friend Kate! Seriously, go check out her etsy, you will undoubtedly find something you’d love — there’s something for everyone!

Mo’s outfit consists of two Amazon pieces — in fact, the skirt may look familiar!

I saved my favorite pictures for last — Mo’s artistic vision made for some great shots, and these were definitely a highlight for me. I love how well you can see the detail of the dress in the shot on the left, and I love how candid the one on the right looks.

I’ll definitely miss Artegon, but I’m glad I got to experience it as much as I did. It’ll be hard, but here’s to hoping whatever occupies that space next lives up to Artegon’s legacy.

Farewell Artegon, hello Seville There are lots of things Orlando is known for — Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, a terrible interstate highway, a 16-year-old building that's never been completed — but one thing that gets overlooked frequently, due to our booming tourism industry, is the more unique places around town.

A few weeks ago, I had the joy of taking a new friend to the Wizarding World for her first visit, and let me tell you, there isn’t anything more magical than seeing someone’s face when they see Diagon Alley or the Hogwarts Castle for the first time ever.

You may know I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, so when I found out Lauren had never ever been to Wizarding World, I quickly offered to take her.

She probably thought I was weird, considering we’d never even met and here I was offering to give her a free ticket and guided tour to WWoHP, but alas, there are few things I love more than sharing the magic of that first visit with someone.

Of course, when we made plans for this adventure, one of the first things we decided on was that we were dressing according to our respective houses. See, Gryffindors and Slytherins CAN get along!

For my Gryffindor princess outfit, I knew I wanted to wear my beautiful Gryffindor flower crown, courtesy of my good friend Hayley from Magical Ribbons. Her work is absolutely beautiful, and this flower crown is hands down one of my favorite things ever!

And well, of course I have enough colors in my wardrobe to represent my house! The cardigan, skirt and shoes are all from Amazon, the top and belt are from Pinup Girl Clothing, and my petticoat is vintage Malco Modes! (I know. I love it.)

Lauren’s top is from Jones New York (she thinks), her skirt is Collectif, her petticoat is Malco Modes and her shoes are from Jessica Simpson (same ones I have, in fact). The wand, of course is from Ollivander’s.

We certainly got a lot of looks that day, but we were too busy having fun and getting to know each other to care! I can safely say Lauren loved butterbeer and the parks, and she’s very close to deciding to buy an annual pass.

I also can’t seem to shake her, we haven’t stopped talking since that day!

(Just kidding, I love talking to her.)

Hogwarts house unity and new friends A few weeks ago, I had the joy of taking a new friend to the Wizarding World for her first visit, and let me tell you, there isn't anything more magical than seeing someone's face when they see Diagon Alley or the Hogwarts Castle for the first time ever.

Zoya 4 Free nail polish haul

Hi everyone! As you probably guessed from the title, this post is all about the newest additions to my nail polish family. Last year, I found out from Stash Matters about this awesome sale from Zoya where you got four nail polishes for just the cost of shipping. Which, okay, it’s $15, but still a good sale considering these retail for $10 to $12 each. You can see the ones I got last year here.…

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#haul

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