ModCloth Uniquely You: London Summer

London Summer by gladysn featuring oxford shoes

Today I'm excited to share my style board for ModCloth's Uniquely You Campaign! When ModStylist Amy contacted me about their campaign, I was thrilled but also a little nervous. I hadn't put together a style board in loooooong time. But seriously, I shouldn't have been anxious in any way. It's crazy fun to put together outfits especially when you've got the whole of their collection to choose from. And I definitely could have made boards for many of their other dresses, like this one or this one or this one or this one ... there are plenty more on my Wishlist over there. (You all know how much I love ModCloth, right?? Half my wardrobe comes from them!)

But I have to say, given my current obsession with blue and my forever-love of green, this particular dress, Work to Play, was perfect for me. The mint green and navy combo on this dress is killer. I was thinking about where I'd love to wear it this season when all of a sudden, I had an image of me on a gorgeous summer day in London, taking in the sights and having some tea and scones in the afternoon. It's a total fantasy, of course; I've never been to London. But 1) visiting there has been on my bucket list forever (English major in the house) and 2) I've been watching Sherlock over and over and although I know they actually shoot it in Wales, the show tricks me into thinking about London. Haha!

I know there are two pairs of shoes up there, but I couldn't resist giving myself a couple of options (I'd definitely have at least two pairs of shoes in my luggage). The dress is called Work to Play, after all. Both styles would be super cute with the dress, maybe one for walking around town and the other for a nice dinner out. Then of course I had to include the dainty mint purse and adorable owl pocketbook, just to play up that Peter Pan collar. And given that it's London weather, I added the cardigan and the umbrella, for the just-in-case. Et voila, the London Summer style board was born!

This was lots of fun. Thanks for asking me to take part in the campaign, ModCloth and Amy!

xo, Gladys

P.S. Fantastic image of London borrowed from Hull Trains in the UK. Also, I wasn't compensated for taking part in this campaign.

Chapter Draft Done!

OK, this is not an academic blog, but I'm so relieved to be done that I'm posting a Wordle of my chapter! I always do one of these Wordle things when I finish a chapter. Over 14,000 words, baby!

Oh, and you know what today is, right? May 4 ... Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you. (As it was with me, I suppose. Yay for being done! Though it almost burst my bubble when I realized that the last time I did one of these was YEARS ago. Yikes. But hey, I'll let it roll off my back. On to the next -- and last -- chapter ... after some rest and relaxation, that is. I need more sleep!)

xo, Gladys

Birthday Fun at the Huntington

So, I'm still struggling to finish the same dissertation chapter I talked about last time. But I'm getting so grumpy from lack of sleep that I thought I'd take a break to post here and fondly remember some recent events. My dear friend M and I had a ladies day out last weekend to celebrate my birthday. We went to the gorgeous Huntington Library and Gardens and of course we dressed up. It turned out to be perfect weather, and really the whole day and evening were fantastic. What a gift.

Dress and sash: Tulle via Modcloth | Cardi: Banana Republic | Leggings: ? | Shoes: Fluevog Erika (different colorways available)
M is also wearing a Modcloth/Fluevog combo. Her boots (compliment-magnets, I tell you) are still available (Bartoli in red).

My dress without cardi or sash

With cardi but no sash

Trying for fierce expressions

Closeup of my new glasses. This is my usual expression when I look at people/cameras.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Huntington, as expected. We loved walking around the place in our pretty dresses and even better-looking and comfy shoes. Our favorite thing was seeing the mind-blowing Archimedes manuscript exhibit. Archivists and restorers are hardcore. Seriously.

Of course we had to eat somewhere special, so we went to the famous soup dumpling restaurant, Din Tai Fung, in Arcadia, just a few miles away from the Huntington. If you've never been and you love delicious fresh Chinese food and you live in SoCal or are visiting, I highly recommend it.

Then of course we got dessert, despite being already stuffed. These were from J.J.'s in the same plaza as the restaurant.

Then, what do you know, in the same plaza we found a cute little clothing store. Their markups were unfortunately too much. We tried on a couple of things anyway, including these adorable rompers that caught our eye from the window. They're certainly well-made and of good fabric, but much too expensive (at least for us -- does $140 for a romper sound reasonable to you?).

Special thanks to dear M for making my birthday special this year! Oh, and thanks also for drawing this for me:

Can you guess who it is? Ah, she knows me so well. Hee hee! #Cumberfangirl

xo, Gladys