First Things First: The Frist

I consider myself to be an artistic person. Art was always my favorite subject in school, and you could often find me huddled in the back of the classroom, hunched over a sketchpad, my hands covered in ink stains. I used to live & breathe art: pages & pages of doodles all over my notebooks, moleskin journals filled up with mixed media collages, and countless word documents on my laptop of poems, prose, and short stories. During my junior year of high school (which feels like the stone age now!), I got really into photography. My mother ran an online vintage store (still does!), and I would often borrow her glamorous 1950s and 60s dresses and set off to some fabulous location in Memphis for a photo shoot - and thus began my love affair with fashion photography. I was way ahead of the curve on #OOTD back then! 

For someone who loves art, wandering around the galleries of an art museum (while dressed to the nines) sounds like a pretty perfect day. While Nashville doesn't have any fashion exhibits right now, they do have something equally as intriguing: the Nick Cave exhibit at the Frist.

Babes Who Brunch

When your best friend lives 2 hours away in music city, daytripping is a must - and often! You'll be seeing a lot more of Nashville on here in the coming weeks. There's so much to see & do there, so I'll be covering some spots in a series of Nash-centered posts. 

Today's post is all about the most important meal of the day: brunch! We stopped in at Le Sel to indulge in some good food & of course the all-important photo sesh. Located in midtown, this trendy little restaurant has all the bells & whistles of a totally Instagram-worthy spot: plush pink booths, black & white striped floors, a pink neon "irresistible" sign & the cutest little bar area. The aesthetic was completely my taste, to a T.

The Cold Always Bothered Me Anyway

One of the bonuses of having family visit means free babysitting. Since Lilly would be in good hands, I took the rare opportunity to ditch my usual sweatpants uniform in favor of dressing up for date night, & I had the perfect dress I wanted to take out for a spin.

When I saw this ice blue maxi dress, I immediately thought of Elsa. The gauzy material was so light & flowy, perfect for a warm spring evening (because seriously, the cold really does bother me. I'm such a southern girl and I can NOT handle the cold). I didn't get any photos of the back (Instagram hubs was in a hurry to get to dinner), but it was completely open back with thin crisscrossed spaghetti straps, so just use your imagination.

The Jolliest Holiday

I remember watching Mary Poppins as a kid and oohing and aahing over the Jolly Holiday scene. I adored the bright colors of the carousel horses, the playfulness of the dancing penguins, and the catchy song that would get stuck in my head for hours. I remember thinking how pretty Mary looked in her Jolly Holiday finest and wished I could wear her signature red & white dress. Flash forward 15+ years, and my childhood dreams came true at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party when Barry & I dressed as Bert & Mary. Our costumes were so good in fact, that we got in trouble for taking photos with some small children because we were "too legit" & people thought we were the OG characters instead of partygoers!

Having bounded as Mary already, I knew that I wanted to try Bert next. His outfit is just as fun, with its brightly colored stripe blazer in hues of red & orange with turquoise accents. Naturally, I wanted to put a dapper spin on it, so when I found this gem of a 1960s picnic dress, I immediately knew I had to genderbend disneybound as Bert.

T-teach Me How To Dapper

Let's talk Dapper Day! For those of you that don't know, Dapper Day is a bi-annual event held at Disneyland in CA, as well Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, and celebrates the styles of yesteryear when people would actually dress up to go to the parks. There are usually several meet-ups going on at various locations throughout the parks, and no matter where you go, you'll find people dressed to the nines, snapping photos and grinning ear to ear. It's a pretty magical day!

I had my first taste of Dapper Day last spring. I was supposed to meet a friend down in FL for the weekend, but I got ghosted, and I was not about to let that ruin my mini-vacay! So on the morning of my first Dapper Day (on my first ever solo trip), I donned my Tinkerbell finest (I got told I looked like a princess by the sweetest little girl at the bus stop!), boarded a bus bound for Magic Kingdom, & hoped for the best. Dapper Day did not disappoint!