leather and silk

These are things that one can find in Florence for less than they would usually cost. Of course, I took full advantage of this phenomenon.

Those shoes? Handmade. Forty euro. The tie? Also handmade, and silk, and makes a great belt, thank you. Also, note the Duomo behind me in that last picture. 

Is it rude to brag? 

I don't really care. I abandon your social conventions in favor of my new shoes.

OUTFIT

dress - brandy melville

shoes  - handmade in florence

tie - bought at the san lorenzo market

sunglasses - urban outfitters

purse - h&m

sorrento

posing in pompeii

running around the ancient temple

caroline navigating to the brothel

erika at the beach

my hair in the wind

lusine and caroline waiting for a cab

a caprese salad in capri

... and oh hey, mediterranean.

another traveling song

This is the kind of shit I wear when I travel. It's comfortable and it has little else going for it. That is, until I decide on a whim to look cute with a flower in my hair.
Fun fact of the day: I wasn't going to take an outfit picture today (because, really) but then I felt distinctly anxious and I figured fooling around in front of the camera for a little while would loosen me up.
Anyway, now I've survived my seven hours of train travel and now I am here:

What an adventure this will be.

OUTFIT

Flower - H&M

Jacket - Burger

Tee - Urban Outfitters, via my sister's closet

Jeans - 7 for all mankind

Shoes - TOMS

doing it myself

I have too many t-shirts. I have a lust for self-made objects (just call me homo faber). I absolutely cannot sew.

Hence, I bring you my first DIY project, courtesy of ... love Maegan. Go over there for instructions. It's super easy.

before: old high school t-shirt that i never wear

after: super cool tanktop

Also: wow my hair looks orange in that last picture. I'm afraid I've gone somewhat ginger. I also somewhat love it, so whatever.

zermatt

We tried to go today. We never quite got there. We did, however, spend a lot of time at train stations.

Also, I ate some kāseschnitt. Kāseschnitt, for those who don't know, is basically a plate of melted cheese over a bit of bread. I got mine with an egg on it. Gotta love the Swiss and their cheese.

staple of the swiss diet: melty cheese

That's pretty much been my adventure today.

OUTFIT

Sunglasses - my beloved Cassie glasses

Flannel - BDG

Tank - Abercrombie and Fitch

Scarf - Globus

Jeans - H&M

Boots - Durango

chesery

After lunch we went to one of my mom's favorite shops in the town, called the Chesery. It's a mixture of a cheese bar and antique store/thrift shop, and I'm pretty much obsessed with it now.

I love all these little frames. It makes me wish I had a bunch of tiny pictures. Also, desk space. That would also be a nice thing to have.

The whole store had this atmosphere of an abandoned attic in Wonderland.

I found the most gorgeous necklace. Unfortunately, you can't see the price in the photograph. I hate how weak the dollar is compared to the Swiss Franc (and everything else, for that matter).

murten

Today mom and I took my grandfather and de facto grandmother to Murten, another little french-speaking town. We got there around 1:30, which apparently is not a time that one ought to seek lunch in Murten.
Mom and I ran from restaurant to restaurant (leaving the older generation in the dust) trying to find someplace that would serve us. One woman said, "I'm sorry, but we close at two." My mom said, "It's only one thirty!" The hostess laughed.
It was very poor manners.

We ended up finding a wonderful little restaurant in a cellar that would take us. I had some pommes frites and felt less bitter about the whole thing.

All of this is because I got my hair done this morning, actually. We were meant to get to Murten around 12:30, but the salon took a while making me strawberry blonde. Do you think it's too orange?
I am of two minds about the whole thing.

OUTFIT

Dress - H&M

Jacket - Aeropostale

Sunglasses - Urban Outfitters?

Gold belt - Target

Shoes - H&M

exploring avanches

Avenches: I had to google it to get the spelling right, but google thought I was trying to search "avalanche." Then I typed "avanche switzerland," and it returned all of these news articles about avalanches killing people in my country.
Awesome.

Mom and I killed time for a while exploring this little town. There was a thrift store she knew I'd like.

I found this adorable little bag. The only problem was how little it really was -- I know my iPhone wouldn't fit inside. Still, if I only had a little camera and a few dollars to carry around, I'd be all over this.

They also had a wonderful collection of scarves. I keep thinking I'll buy one one of these days and use it as a headband, but I can never quite get that to work. Does anyone know a tutorial?

(I'm assuming it really only requires tying a knot, and clearly I'm just dysfunctional.)

This necklace actually elicited a gasp. So cute. The charm on the side says "Bee Mine" which is basically the most adorable thing it could possibly say.

When we finished wandering around there, it was still raining, so we opted to duck into a bakery for a little while.



I had "Petit Pain aux Sucre" which obviously meant "a little bread with sugar on it" which obviously meant "delicious." Always eager to wow people with my linguistic abilities, I tried to order in French. Apparently my accent is off-the-charts terrible. The woman at the bakery (no joke) laughed at me.

But I got my petit pain. All's well that ends well.