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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Buggin Out!

     After a little "Holiday Hiatus", I am back to blogging and ready for new and exciting adventures in 2013!  2012 was...well, a whirlwind of things.  It was exciting and different, scary and anxious; stressful and surprising, another year of getting to know myself and the world.  But that's a blog post for another time...This post is about one of my all-time favorite things, bugs!  Some of you love them; (maybe only on fabrics or jewelry) others of you can't stand them- but they have been a huge influence on my life and thus- my style as well.  I am absolutely in love with the bug craze that seems to have carried into the new year, and I can only hope that I will continue to see beetle adorned jewelry, butterfly print pants and scarves, and amazing insect home accents.  My inspiration for this post was an awesome beetle necklace that I found in H&M yesterday, it is such a versatile piece and can be worn with so many different outfits.  The novelty of it really spices up an otherwise ordinary outfit or gives a "pop" when you need one.  So how have bugs been influential to me?  (and I know your probably stumped about his one).  Let me count the ways:

1.  Bugs really introduced me to nature and my love of all things in the natural world.  When I found my first Luna Moth at five years old it was love at first sight.  She was old and damaged so I prepared a place for her in my window-sill in an open jewelry box, she laid eggs that night and a week later there were little caterpillars crawling all over the place!  

2.  Bugs inspired my love of color- over the years I found caterpillars, beetles, and butterflies from all colors of the rainbow.  Their vibrance and otherworldly patterns inspired me to dress more colorfully.

3.  Bugs inspired my love for photography.  In junior high I started borrowing my family's digital camera (they were brand new then) to take pictures of the butterflies in our backyard.  A few years later they were the subject of my first official photography contest, which I placed third place in!  

4.  Bugs followed me into college.  I pursued a minor in Entomology, and had to collect, identify and pin over 700 species of insects during my last year of college, I have never done anything more challenging in my whole life!  

5.  Bugs inspired my jewelry line!  I have a whimsical jewelry line called "The Lemon Moth" that was inspired by my love of giant silkmoths and lemon flavored things, how they came together I'm not too sure!  haha.  

This list could be much longer but then it would just get ridiculous, so on to the fashion already!!! :)

Left to right: skirt from ASOS, "Very Hungry Caterpillar" skirt from Etsy
This vintage dress is one of my favorites!  I found it on etsy as a maxi dress and had a smart seamstress attach the original red stripe to the bottom of the new hem.  The neck scarf was a find at the "family thrift", and the orange beret from H&M is sooo comfy in cool weather.     


This scarf is amazing!  Daniel gave it to me as a gift last year and since then I have been trying to find ways to wear it.  It is SO big, so it can be used as a bathing suit coverup, a really big winter scarf, or even a cape!


Apples to Apples...

This dress combines two of my biggest fashion favorites- bugs and fruit!!! What could be better than a bright 60's mini dress covered in ladybugs and big red apples?!  Not much else (I think).  This was another great etsy find, and I decided to play up the apples by adding an apple headband and necklace! (the apple necklace actually opens up like a locket!)



  I found the vintage scarab beetle bracelet at a local antique mall, the scarab charms are only plastic but I love how chunky it is!

So take a cue from the bugs- and break out your bright colors for the winter!  Or try some fun insect prints or patterns.  It will help you beat some doldrums now that the holidays are over ;)  What is your greatest inspiration in fashion?  Do you draw any influence from nature, or any particular person, place, or thing?


Buggy Bonanaza redux

6 comments:

  1. I love that you've been into bugs from such a young age, and gather inspiration from them still. That's really awesome. I think I tend to gather inspiration from old photographs from the 60s & 70s, and the color of everything from that time period - sort of dull and muddied, but still kinda vibrant-ish. yes. oh, and I really dig your shoes, by the way ;D

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    1. You're too kind :) Thank you! And I must say that I do feel that you embody that decade in your photographs and outfits (60s and 70s) I really love the colors from that time period too. I like to kind of add an element of it and kind of juxtapose it with super bright over-the-top vibrance.

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  2. How fun! I love animal prints (like real animals) so I totally get the pattern obsession - your back story makes yours even better. I love all the bug items

    <3 katherine
    of corgis and cocktails

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    1. Thanks Katherine! Yea, actual (animal) prints are really fun. I have a lot of horse prints too and I use to ride so I love wearing them!

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  3. I love your butterfly dress, it's so pretty and looks great on you! Nice stories about bugs, Unfortunately I have a phobia of moths that comes from an early age! I'm working on it ;)

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    1. Aw thanks so much! And it's ok, we all have our fears, haha..my best friend actually HATES moths, I've tried to convert her, only about 30% there. I actually had an old boss that was so afraid of caterpillars that she would run out of the room if someone brought one in or if she found one while chopping parsley. Always made work interesting, haha. :)

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