{OOTD} Red & Stripes #throwbackthursday

Old outfit from 2011! This is just an outfit I wore to go to class. I decided to be more dressed up than usual and wore heels! It was also surprisingly hot that day, which prompted the shorts. I rarely ever wear shorts, especially ones that short. This is definitely an experimental outfit for me back then. It's crazy to look back and see because I never would wear this type of outfit now. It really just isn't me :]
It seems kind of pin up though, doesn't it? Maybe if I had a 1940's hair style? Maybe? :D

I do miss those heels though. They had a lovely classic shape to them. I gave them away to family in the Philippines though. At least someone else is enjoying them!

Outfit Rundown

Cardigan  |  Forever 21

Tank Top  |  579

Heels  |  H&M (get)

{OOTD} Green Plaid

It's been a while since I've mentioned Poshmark, but this outfit consists of mostly items I purchased off of the app. I haven't posted a Poshmark Finds post in a while, but I haven't stopped shopping! That app can really get addicting! Just a fair warning! Haha! Do let me know if you'd like those types of posts to continue :]

Anyways, I just wore this out on a little date with the Boyfriend. Actually, not so little because dates together are always special. Excuse the cheesy-ness, but we're actually in a long distance relationship, so time together in person is extra special. We only get to see each other about once a month. Shout-out to all those in long-distance relationships!

He really liked the outfit that he insisted on taking a picture for the blog. Unfortunately is is just an iPhone photo in a dimly lit apartment complex hallway. Apologies from the both of us! The Beret is my boyfriend's, but I'm really the only now who uses it. It was gifted to him from his sister from her trip to Paris. So it was ultimately a gift to me! 

Outfit Rundown

Beret  |  Stolen from the BF

Coat  |  Love Tree

Turtleneck  |  Talbots via Poshmark (similar)

Scarf  |  via Poshmark

Skirt  |  Forever 21 via Poshmark

Gloves  |  Aldo Accessories

Tights  |  Forever 21

Ankle Boots  |  Target via Poshmark (similar)

{OOTD} Blue Chevron Stripes

So... you may have seen my last post about the eShakti dress review. It was actually a really cold day for me and I couldn't actually go out without a coat, so this was my actual outfit for that day. I just needed to highlight the dress for the review, so I took pictures without the coat. So here you go! My outfit and accessories for a date with my boyfriend that weekend. I'm really happy about how the blue  and green embroidery match my purse without being the same color.






Outfit Rundown

Beret  |  Goorin Bros.

Earring  |  Claire's 

Coat  |  Purchased at Ross 

Dress  | c/o eShakti

Boots  |  Purchased on Zulily

{Review} eShakti Dress

Hello hello! Long time no outfit post! I'm not counting the Dapper Day outfit because of course I would take pictures whilst on vacation! I did get off by butt and took actually outfit photos on a normal day because I got the lovely opportunity to review a dress from eShakti. Many of you have probably heard of eShakti from the many blogger reviews around the community. It is a website that sells customizable clothing. They have tons of dresses and skirts in retro styles, which definitely attracts me. They also have tops and jackets. They do have regular sizes and the base design where you pay $7.50 for customizing, which I find pretty affordable. I chose the Retro embellished poplin shirtdress. I had it customized to my measurements and I also changed the sleeve length to 3/4 sleeve. Other options were to change the skirt length and to remove the pockets or embroidery.

Pockets

The thing I love most about eShakti are the side-seam pockets. They are perfect. I am much less likely to lose my phone when I have pockets. So, I would never choose the remove pockets option. Ever. 

Sleeves

I changed the sleeve length because I prefer 3/4 sleeves the best and most dresses I find don't come in that length. I found that I didn't enjoy the look of the sleeve being so loose fitting didn't seem to fit the style of the dress, so I folded it up and folded it up until it looked good, which ended up being short-length. I regretted not getting a full length sleeve because I could have folded that up to 3/4 sleeve length. It would have been much better if there were actual pictures of each type of sleeve length instead of illustrations. I understand not making completely different sleeves every time they make a new dress, but at least show different sleeve types in different fabrics. It would definitely help the decision making process. 

Embroidery

The design is lovely and I like the colors. The embroidery isn't evenly stitched around the entire skirt. Some parts are stitched closer together than others. The closer stitches are definitely better looking. Overall, further away it looks  good. The chevron stripes also don't match up on the side seams. They kind of match up on the top, but closer to the bottom it gets less matched. It's understandable since the skirt goes outward to make it full. It also isn't so noticeable. These are things I am fine with, but it does speak to the quality. Since I'm taking about the skirt portion.. It is extremely full and fits my petticoat, but it isn't a full circle skirt as advertised. It's not cut as a circle skirt, which automatically makes it not a circle skirt. It's actually 4 panels. It might be 2 panels because I can't tell if the embroidery came before or after the fabric became a skirt. I'm unsure because the stripes match up on 2 of the seams. Anyways, When I hold up a circle skirt it makes a 180 degree line, but this dress doesn't make it that high. It definitely comes close though! Fitting my petticoat is really all that matters.

Fit

It fits really well. It felt tight whist putting it on, but I think it just fit so exactly. That or they didn't add enough breathing space or I measured incorrectly. I found that the shoulders were actually a little too big. I may have measured myself wrong? That was the measurement I was most unsure of when I took it. This is definitely the hard part about ordering customized clothing online. I know a lot of people don't know how to measure themselves properly. That may actually also include me! 

The construction was good.  The darting was the best fit I've ever had there. The sticking connecting all the pieces together was solid. It didn't feel like it was going to fall apart anytime soon. The pockets are awesome. They are big enough to hold what I need. I wouldn't need to use a purse sometimes even. They also aren't obvious when worn. I have other items with pockets including a coat and a different dress (not eShakti) change the draping of the fabric that it's obvious if I have something small in my pocket and ridiculous if it's something big. The way these pockets are sown are awesome. I love the customization choices as I really like over the knees lengths which is so hard to find even for a shortie like me. I absolutely hate sitting down and being able to feel the chair. Some dresses are too difficult to resist though. The dress design is also extremely cute, much like most of the other options on the site. They also seem to go through designs pretty often. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone wearing the same dress as you. I do like eShakti and already own a dress and skirt from them. I also just purchased a dress for my mother. I'm excited. I wouldn't count on the fit being completely perfect all the time even though it's a customization website. It is really difficult to do, even designers have multiple fittings before the finished product. I would definitely continue to shop at eShakti purely for the pockets and over the knee-length skirts/dresses. The pretty designs and full skirts are also a big reason too though. I could definitely look past any imperfections for these reasons. 

Outfit Rundown Beret: Goorin Bros. Earrings: Claire's Dress: c/o eShakti Website - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest If you want to shop at eShakti, you can get 10% off with the code "calamaristyles". It's only valid until December 3, 2014 though! Just enter it in the promotional code box :]

I received this dress for review, but all opinions are my own!

Your Items, In Store

Although these are old pictures, I still wanted to share. Isn't it crazy when you see stuff you own in stores when you're not expecting to? It's one thing to have made a recent purchase and walk back into the store wearing it, but after months or years is so unexpected.

Actually, I tend to stay away from stores where I am wearing a recent purchase for fear that it'll look as though I have stolen it right off the rack and walked out, but that's just being a bit too paranoid... Right?

Haha, anyways, the pair you see me wearing in the picture I bought back in February of 2012. I bought it while on a trip to New Orleans. I had only brought one pair of shoes and did not realize how uncomfortable they were for walking around a lot. I went into Payless to get a replacement and surprisingly, this pair was extremely comfortable Once I saw this pair again in October of that year, it really surprised me. It was pretty cool to see the difference of constantly wearing it for 9 months to new and unused. I still own these shoes today and they are still going pretty strong. If you ever seen these shoes in store at Payless, I would highly recommend them. They're very good especially for the price!

{Adventures} Dapper Day Fall 2014

Photo Taken by the Dapper Day Staff Person

So, I went to Disneyland's Fall Dapper Day this year with these dapper fellows. It was already exciting to be able to go to the happiest place on earth, but to see some awesomely dressed people everywhere made it even more exciting. I thought it'd be appropriate to post this for Halloween since we're Disney bounding and that's as close as I'm getting to having a costume to post.

We got to see more of the Grand Californian because the convention was held there and behind me you can see that they had many lovely things for sale and such dapper people everywhere. They also had a Photo Booth where that first picture was taken.  Before entering the room, there was so much going on in the hallway as well. Lots of booth everywhere to tempt you out of your money. I wasn't able to save enough money for shopping unfortunately. I did walk away with that cool dapper day pin I immediately put on after purchasing.

These pictures were all taken on our first day there, September 12. We spent the whole day at California Adventures so that we'd have easy access to the Grand Californian. We did the sketch studio and got a fashion illustration of ourselves. I bought this shirt too because the girl on it looks exactly like the fashion illustration of me. 

Outfit Rundown:

Hair Bow - Icing

Top - Hot Topic (similar)

Cardigan - Thrifted

Skirt - On the Trashy Side

Purse - Forever 21

Socks - Forever 21

Shoes - Payless

Can you guess all three disney bounds? 

Prize for whoever can guess all three!!!

{Foods} Macarons

I have been obsessed with eating Macarons! I wasn't interested the first time I heard of them because they just seemed too darned pricey! The first ones I tried were from Cocola Bakery and it was a boxed set that my boyfriend at the time purchased for me to try. I liked them, but I did not feel that they justified the price! When I got into Lolita fashion, many lolitas seemed to LOVE them, and I suppose it affected me and I wanted to give them another shoot. I bought an individual piece from Cocola and it was a bigger size than the set type. It was pretty good, but I never decided to buy anymore because the price just turned me off too much. Then, I saw a review on Trader Joe macarons and I immediately had to try them! I bought a box and I fell in love. I actually liked them better than Cocola's somehow. My boyfriend says I have cheap taste in food, but I don't know if that's true... Maybe his taste it too expensive? Anyways, it was a pack of 12 with 6 chocolate and 6 vanilla. Found in TJ's freezer section with all the desserts. They are priced at about $4 to $5

I believe. Which is way better than $2 for an individual piece. Since then, I have noticed that Trader Joe's has come out with more flavors, but they seem to be seasonal. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Here is a picture of their Pumpkin flavor during the Thanksgiving season.

It was alright, I definitely went crazy with pumpkin flavor this past Thanksgiving season and bought a ton! I only bought one box that season as it was only alright, I'd rather stick to the Chocolate/Vanilla box. I don't think this should deter you from trying it next Thanksgiving season if they come out again, especially if you enjoy Pumpkin flavor. I didn't get a picture, but during the Holiday season, TJ's came out with peppermint flavor! It was delicious!!! 3 exclamation points! I bought 3 boxes that season. I would have bought more had I more money and if there was more stock! I shared both the Pumpkin and Peppermint flavors with my 5 roommates and we all agreed on the taste!

Since then, I have been craving macarons often and dream of trying Ladurée in Paris. Who's got expensive taste now? For now, I will try whatever I can get my hands on!

**This is actually an old post I found in my drafts box from last year thoughhhh!

What do you think of Macarons?

B.A.I.T Footwear sale on Zulily

Hello all! I just wanted to share an awesome find today! Zulily is a website that sells items for up to 70% off, but their stock is limited and they sell these collections for a limited time. Today I stumbled upon a B.A.I.T Footwear collection that will be ending this Wednesday! If you wanna view/purchase the sale, you have to make an account with Zulily, but it is completely free. And just to mention: I am not associated with Zulily, nor have they contacted me. I just wanted to share this really good sale as these prices are the cheapest I've found to purchase B.A.I.T shoes new!

The shoes pictured in this post are all a part of the sale too! I just recently learned about B.A.I.T footwear a few months ago and have really wanted to try a pair. I don't have one, but I've just heard such great things about their shoes!

If you do want to give Zulily a try, I would really appreciate it if you used my referral link here.

Does anyone else have issues commenting on blogs?

I love reading blog posts! I wish I could comment though to feel more part of the blogging community. I don't have much time to make blog posts for my own blog, but I love reading others. With my lack if time, I usually just view on my cellphone. I rarely try to comment unless I have something to say, which leads to long lengthy comments. So I try to comment of these wonderful posts, but somehow things go wrong. The app decides to close or the box won't let me click elsewhere within the text to edit. When this happens I've already written a paragraph! After I either get to frustrated to re-write my comment and it never sees the light of a computer screen or I write a really short comment that didn't really encompass my old one. 

This happens way too much. Like 98% of the time.

This frustrates me and these awesome people who write these blog posts never know that I exisit and love their blog. 

Been away, but it's okay! Right?

Hi all, obviously haven't been blogging in a while. I've been reading up on blogs though :) Thank you bloggers for all of the great reads! 

I've just been too busy to actually post. I'm currently a soon to be college grad, juggling school, work, and internship. There's also also my social and family life.

I'm pretty happy and content living my life and with the way I blog sporadically. 

I blog because I want to and it isn't always what I want to do. I do wish I could blog more often, but other things definitely take precidence. I definitely take my hat off to all you wonderful bloggers, who regularly post, while juggling life. One day, I hope to blog regularly, but until then I will continue my sporadic blogging schedule.

I just felt like writing this for now, so I'll leave you with a few random pictures I took :)