This past weekend, my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary! Back in the day (in 1988!) their wedding color was a light teal blue. So, they encouraged guests of their party to dress accordingly:

I wore a light blue vintage dress I got at Buffalo Exchange about a year ago, strappy silver sandals from Target and some fun summer jewelry.

Funny story: I had to leave the set of Job Hunters on a huge shoot day to get to this party, which is why my hair ended up in fishtail braids. Spoilers… this is a Season 2 Avery hairdo. Our costume and makeup team also had a heyday dressing me for my party, even though that’s obviously not in their job description. Chunky blue circle earrings and fat white bracelet were courtesy of Markie the costumer, and Mallory our makeup girl removed my false eyelashes and “normalized” my makeup a bit before leaving. They did a fab job! I wish I had people to dress me every day!

My family also looked adorable — and can we talk about how fantastic that cake is? My mom was positively glowing that day, and she totally deserved it. I am so happy and proud of my parents for achieving such an amazing milestone together, and I was so glad to celebrate the momentous occasion on a gorgeous day like the one we had. My family is the best. 🙂

You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have an absolutely completely awful horrible head achey bad day every now and then. Wednesday (yesterday) was that day for me and superficial or no, sometimes the only cure for a bad mood of this calibre… is new clothes.

This outfit makes me happy for a number of reasons. First of all, pattern mixing. Floral print and polka dots are, in my opinion, among the most carefree styles of clothing one can wear, so the combination of the two instantly took my mood from “totally sour” to “slightly less irritable”. Not to mention someone on tumblr referred to these overalls as “coversomes”. Is that a phrase? If not, it needs to be. I love it.

I also used the “pin your hair back in an attempt to hide the fact that you didn’t shower today” technique, which went off without a hitch. Sleeping in braids is the trick to this method, giving your hair a somewhat believable wave-like quality.

Next was the “random bracelets from my dresser” combo, which was part accessory, part potential sacrifice if my day happened to get worse and I needed something to explode. The ricocheting of fake pearls in every direction in a moment of massive frustration is a nice backup plan to have tucked away in the back of your mind as you face your absolutely completely awful horrible head achey bad day.

The last and most important element of my bad mood outfit was my Harry Potter sorting hat necklace. Because even on the worst of days, I know I’ve always got Harry to cheer me up. My necklace was a gift, but I just found this similar one on Amazon.

What are your go-to strategies for your bad days? What silly items of clothing or games or TV shows can make you feel better even during the most stressful times? Let me know in the comments – maybe they’ll help me too.

Update: As it is Thursday now, I feel I should let you all know that I am having a much better day, and the bracelets did not get exploded. They made it back to my jewelry box unscathed.

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While in LA last week, my friends and I attended “Disneyland Day” for VidCon – which is like any other normal day at Disneyland, except the park is swarming with YouTubers. Rather than donning my official gray VidCon tee like many others, my friends and I decided to Disneybound:

This was my very first time Disneybounding and I decided I wanted to go villain. I chose Cruella de Vil; mostly on account of finding these adorable polka dot shorts. The puppy earrings were actually just white dog earrings I found at Claire’s (by walking in and asking the girl working to “show me whatever dog stuff they had”) that I drew black spots on with a sharpie. I tucked in a slouchy red shirt, grabbed some other black and white accessories and wa-la! If it doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will!

I never got a full picture of all my friends and I in costume, but we had among us a Dumbo, Christopher Robin, Scuttle, The Queen of Hearts and Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. I love dressing up, so getting to do so, subtly, on a normal day is something I am all about.

Who should I Disneybound as next? Or, if you’ve done it yourself, show me pictures in the comments section!

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The first day of VidCon (Industry Day) was surprisingly low-key. I wasn’t speaking on any Industry panels this year, so I got to wander around, eat pastries and actually sit in on a couple of panels.

My first outfit was a casual one; I paired my brand new shark attack shirt with a yellow bandeau, denim shorts and red sandals. This outfit was inspired by both my love of Sharknado, and the rapidly approaching SHARK WEEK! In fact, it’s currently Shark Week right now as I write this, and I can’t wait to get home and get my Discovery Channel on. Overhyped or no, I’m not gonna pretend I don’t love Shark Week just as much as everyone else.

What were we talking about again? Oh yeah. VidCon.

So Industry Day was a mix of panels, running into friends, and generally soaking in the feeling of finally being at the event you’ve waited all summer for. Also free snacks. Seriously, I ate this cheese danish they had on a tray outside the panel rooms that I swore was the most delicious thing I’d ever eaten.

In the evening a handful of my friends and I donned our party outfits (I sported this super cute new top I picked up at another favorite clothing store of mine called Papaya along with another bandeau in gray) and hiked our way to Downtown Disney for the Nintendo Brand Ambassador’s party.

Before we got there, however, something AMAZING happened. I’m sure not all of you follow the Sephora Disney Collection news as closely as I do, but some drama went down recently that made it very difficult to get the new Ariel Palette. I was devastated, naturally. But! On our way through Downtown Disney I saw a Sephora and realized it couldn’t hurt to try. Sure enough, there were two palettes, looking lonely in a giant, empty display case. I snatched them up immediately (one for myself and one for my friend Eia) but only found out later that local Sephora locations send their extra Disney stock to this store (because they sell better near Disneyland, obvs) and even then, I got the last two. And they’d only been put out hours prior. BOOM. So pleased.

Anyway. VidCon. Stop letting me get so off track!

The Nintendo party started small, so I grabbed Joe and Liz and we took up residence outside on the empty outdoor deck (after snagging some surprisingly large glasses of wine). Eventually we ran into more friends (I had invited Tara and Alexander Theoharis as my guests; we also saw Meghan Camarena, Alex Carpenter, Jason Munday, Maxwell Glick, etc.) and it became a genuine party. Also there were these vanilla macarons on the hors d’oeuvres table that I swore were the most delicious I’d ever eaten… clearly I am fickle with my superlatives.

My favorite part of the night was the fact that because it was a Nintendo sponsored party, there was a DIRECT correlation between the amount of fun we were having (read: the more free drinks we consumed) and the amount of giant green Luigi hats that ended up on people’s heads. It was a beautiful evening. And so typical.

All in all, a great first day of VidCon.

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Ah. The airport look. The look that screams “this was the heaviest stuff that didn’t fit in my suitcase, so I’m wearing all of it!” The one day of your trip that it’s not required to look fabulous, because you’ll likely change the second you arrive at your destination. Let’s break it down.

I’m wearing:

• The only pair of jeans I packed
• The only sweater I packed
• A watch, so I don’t have to keep pulling out my cell phone to make sure I haven’t missed my flight while browsing the airport bookstore
• Boots, because they didn’t fit in my suitcase
• Hair in braids, because it’s early and my hairdryer was already packed
• Bright under eyeliner to mask the giant dark circles hiding underneath

I’m currently sitting at my gate in SeaTac airport armed with a bagel breakfast sandwich, a bottle of water, and an eagerness for airplane naps I can’t even describe. VidCon is going to be a whirlwind of excitement, of friends, of parties, of events and laughter and memories – but right now, this 2 1/2 hour flight is beckoning me with a soft caress and promise of upright eye-resting, and that is the greatest thing I can imagine.

It’s been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday.

I can’t wait to see everyone this week! VIDCON, HERE I COME!

When your best friend is a choreographer, you see a lot of opening nights for various musicals. You also spend a lot of time getting your fingers crushed during big dance numbers, in anticipation that every lift, every turn, every step goes off without a hitch. This was the case on Saturday when I attended the opening for Legally Blonde, the kidstage performance that’s kept me from seeing Eia for most of the last month.

The show was so much fun, though. If you’ve never gotten to see the musical version of Legally Blonde, you’re seriously missing out. It has all the cleverness and heart of the movie, but with show stopping dance numbers, hilarious songs and amazing sparkly costumes around every corner.

My only regret about the whole experience is that I didn’t think to wear pink. Who am I?

What I’m wearing:

• Turquoise floral dress from Herberger’s
• Medium brown cowboy boots from Forever21
• Funky pink and cream satchel from Wholesale-Dress.net
• Tortoiseshell sunglasses from Forever21
• Unicorn necklace sent to me from a fan

What’s your current favorite new musical? Let me know in the comments!

Last night, Joe and I went to see Chicago at Village Theatre here in Seattle. I first fell in love with this show back in middle school when the movie came out, but in all that time (um, let’s actually not talk about how much time has passed since middle school) I never managed to see a live production of the show.

Joe surprised me with tickets this week however, so I threw on my (literal) dancing shoes and away we went. It was a lot of fun; the costumes and choreography were phenomenal and I can guarantee I’m going to have these songs in my head for weeks. If you see me Bob Fosse-ing around at VidCon, you’ll know why.

Anyway, here’s what I was wearing:

• Funky galaxy dress, thrifted. It has glitter on it!
• “The Best of Times” heels from ModCloth.com in “Noir”.
• Black & White purse from Forever21

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As promised, I’m going to break down this year’s Renaissance costume, explaining the different pieces, where they came from, and what they mean. I’ve been attending Faires since mid high school, and the beauty of assembling a costume like this is that over the years, you can add a bit here or alter a bit there – and after awhile you’ve really built something unique and wonderful. The idea of putting together a costume in one year is daunting and expensive, but you can easily put together starter pieces and then add on each time you visit another event.

This is my costume! I will start at the bottom and work my way up. So, on the bottom I have two complimentary skirts, both handmade. At the Faire these will run you about $50-70 each piece, but mine were handmade by myself, Liz and a friend a few nights before the Faire for more like $30, total. The bottom is a simple floor length purple skirt (Liz and I learned to hem this ourselves!) and the top is a neutral green skirt with three cinched sections to add texture and an interesting visual pattern to the design. Oh, and you can’t see this, but for shoes I am wearing basic brown boots.

Next is my leather bodice. This is the one expensive piece of my costume, and I obtained it at the Faire last year from an extremely talented leather merchant. The bodice cost me $129, but as the central piece of this costume, it was a pretty worthwhile purchase. You can’t see this in the photo but the bodice laces in the back with a long leather cord and holds everything in nicely. The sparkly patterning on the front was what really sold me.

Next is my simple leather belt, a necessity for any Renaissance costume. These generally cost anywhere from $30-50. From this belt hangs all of my “flair” – again, you can’t really see, but I have a leather satchel, a coin purse, a frog to hold a mug, a potion bottle, a magic wand, and a magnifying glass. In the back, not pictured, is a furry raccoon tail.

Moving up, I have a simple off-white undershirt made for me years ago by my friend Liz’s mom. This is another staple of any Ren Faire costume – whether you use the blouse length style or a chamise, poofy sleeves are a must.

And finally, the newest addition to my costume is the leather headpiece/tiara. I’ve spent many years looking for the perfect hat or head adornment, as I look terrible in both hats and snoods, but this year I finally found it. Sure it might have cost me $40, but for a piece I know I’l wear year after year, I’ll take it.

Have you ever been to a Ren Faire? Do you dress up? If so, what’s your favorite costume piece?

Hello, and welcome to my first “Look” post! I’ll be posting “Outfit of the Day” entries anytime I wear something particularly fancy, when I’m at important events, or when I go to costume or themed parties. This first post falls into that third category. Last night, my friends and I had a “mustaches and miniskirts” party as a sort of going-away soiree for our friend Kayley. Both mustaches and miniskirts were required of everyone in attendance.

We had a bit of a tough time convincing one of the boys to don his miniskirt, but most people were pretty on board with the whole idea. Especially Gale. We couldn’t get him to take his off (though this may have had something to do with the fact that his stand is much wider than the skirt in question)!

Anyway, the mustache was obtained for free at the LeakyCon mustache world record event, the skirt was a thrift store find and the vest is Forever 21.

What’s the craziest themed party you’ve ever been to?