Creme Brulee.

Pink Blouse, Denim Shorts, Loafers, Cameo: Thrifted.

Wide Brimmed Hat: c/o OASAP.

Cat Tights: Gift from my aunt via Delia's :)

Lipstick in MAC'S Please Me with NYX buttergloss in Creme Brulee over it.

Helloooo ♥

You all are the loveliest people to offer me so many wonderful places and ideas to visit when I come over to Europe. And the fact that you all are insanely hospitable just makes my heart so full...gosh, I love you guys! You're the best creatures on earth :) I'm going to take all your suggestions and compile them into a list + do some research to pick out where I am to go (too many places sound lovely!). x

I've had this outfit planned out for awhile and didn't even realize until I put it on that it was perfect to wear it today because...come on, you guys all know! It's the 10 year anniversary of Mean Girls today! And of course it falls on a Wednesday, so not wearing pink wasn't an option. It's been stormy and rainy here all the time (which I actually love), and was stubborn to want to take pictures of this outfit. So, I took them in my ever so handy and dandy dorm lounge. What a beaut it is, no? Also, Blogger totally killed the quality and saturation of these photos. What is up with it lately? I've seen a lot of other bloggers having concerns with posting and formatting and such. 

Hope you all are lovely! Tomorrow is MAY. Very excited ☼

With much love, Lauren.

✿ Blossoming ✿

Polka Dot Pinafore, Blouse (via clothing swap), Camera Necklace: Forever21.

Knee Socks: H&M.

Basket Weave Flats, Gold Earrings, Purse: Thrifted.

Hello everyone! ♥

I've had some exciting new developments happening in my life as of late. It's almost like spring brings nature's revival and the human revival, too! I'm very excited to have gotten my job back at Aeropostale and will be working as a sales associate again this summer! I absolutely love the job and feel blessed to get hands on, industry experience in a friendly, encouraging, fun working environment. Looking forward to late night floor sets and helping people feel good about themselves again :)

Also, I decided to sell vintage in my online shop again this summer! Really, really looking forward to finding more gems than ever when I'm thrifting, and giving them away to good homes...I should have the shop up and running in the next two weeks!

Then, I finally got my flight plan for my Florence trip! I'll be leaving August 17th, taking a bus to Detroit, then PARIS (!!!!), then right into Florence. A part of one of the classes I take is built in weekend studying trips, and we also recently got where we'll be going and when. 

September 16-20 Paris (the number #1 place I've always wanted to go to).

October 2-3 Milan

October 21-25 London

I am so excited I could burst. I've been planning out in my mind the places I want to go to while I'm there in Europe along with these required trips. I really want to do a lot of traveling in Italy and know I'm going to hit up Verona, Venice, Rome and perhaps a few others. Outside of Italy I'm thinking Switzerland, Ireland, Greece, Spain, and France. 

Those of you who live in Europe or Italy--where do you suggest I visit?! x

With much love, Lauren.

Life's Snapshots #43.

Flowers in my hair forever.

I recently recieved a customozed mug set from Red Envelope! Ahh, love drinking my evening tea in these.

Pizza night in with my awesome roommate.

 I've been writing all the good things that happen to me this year and putting them in this jar to read at the end of 2014.

A donut a day keeps the doctor away.

Awesome day spent in Akron.

h-a-p-p-y.

 I need to remember this always.

Roommate is a babe.

A sweet friend thrifted me this awesome mint, scalloped bag!

A good day starts with Starbucks.

Eye of the tiger for milkshakes.

These rainbow shorts will be up in the store in a few weeks when I get home for break!

Love my hometown.

Colorin' easter eggs with little sis.

Relaxing, thinking.

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've been so absent lately :( This is my last week of college and then next week are my finals... can't believe my sophomore year in nearly done! I've been stressed and overwhelmed with keeping up with everything, so my apologies that I haven't been updating as much as usual. Hope to be back to regular posting soon-- for now, I am still doing a few updates here and there on instagram if you want to follow me with @passingwhimsies!

Love you all, take care. x

With much love, Lauren.

Revival.

Green Utility Jacket, Boots: Thrifted.

Striped Skater Dress (on sale right now!): c/o Chicnova.

Necklace: Gift from Katie.

Lipstick in Maybelline's Fuchsia Fever.

Hi ♥

Sigh. I had forgotten how beautiful and rejuvenating spring can be. But when you're surrounded by blooming buds and birds chirping, you just can't help but be happy!  As of today, I have two weeks left to live here in Kent. It wouldn't be quite as upsetting to go home for the summer if not for the fact that I won't be returning here until January of next year. 

I picked this place to live--I love my university and all of the people in it. So it'll be hard not to return in the fall and get to experience all the things I love about it here. I'm not looking forward to missing friends and not seeing them...not having the life I really enjoy here.

I know that something even more spectacular awaits me and I chose this, too, but it's still sad for me to have so long until I return back. I'm a mixture of wanting to stay here, wanting to go home, and wanting to be in Italy. What I know I should be doing right now isn't fretting over all the places my 'home' will change to be in the next year...it should simply be taking each day by itself and enjoying it in its own way :)

With much love, Lauren.

Bloomin' Lovely.

Gap Striped Dress, Loafers,White Belt, Red Boater: All Thrifted.

We used to have a Gap in our local mall several years ago that eventually went out; since then I haven't stepped in a Gap since. I remember as a pre-teen girl thinking it was the most spectacular place. The racks of pristine clothing, the variations of jean styles on the walls, neatly folded cardigans in every color laid on rounded tables. It was a place for older girls, cooler girls than myself at just 13 years old. For Easter though that year my mother and I were looking for a dress and our usual hotspots of JcPenny's and Kohl's had us empty handed, so we slipped into The Gap.

I remember picking it up and being so in awe. This strapless, a-line dress that came down to tea length on my short, youthful frame. It was made in a mint green plaid poplin of sorts, with a nipped waist and lining to boot. I begged my mother to let me try it on and I went back to the dressing rooms, feeling like a hot shot at only 13 to be trying on such an adult dress. I loved it. I loved every bit of that Gap dress and it was the first time I can remember feeling a garment change who I was. It made me feel something; it made me feel powerful and older and beautiful. A true feat for an insecure pre-teen girl who'd grown up feeling incredibly ugly. Even though the dress was expensive, my mother bought me it and I was the happiest girl in the world to see the hip, striking cashier girl wrap my beloved dress in fine white tissue paper and slip it into an iconic Gap bag.

I wore that dress for Easter that year and for many more events in the years to come. Every excuse I could get to wear it, I did. Eventually as I grew older and more "fashion forward" the dress became dowdy to me and embarrassing...I realized it was too big in the bust, the length overwhelmed me, and it really wasn't that flattering at all. I think I gave it to good will or something, I can't be even entirely too sure, but I know I gave the dress away and I wish I hadn't. It sounds silly, but I wish I'd kept it because it was the first piece of clothing that made me feel something. And that's exactly what clothing is supposed to make you do-- make you feel. It could remind you of a memory you had in it, of a person, of a place...It can make you feel happy, sad, angry, or peaceful. It can turn you into a confident style maven or a lady of the past. But a garment should make you feel something and if it doesn't, in my eyes you're doing it all wrong.

It's all a round about connection to the dress I'm wearing in these photos. Just a thrifted, striped dress I picked up over the weekend. But it's from The Gap, and I haven't slipped into anything from there since my strapless, plaid, sundress. I couldn't help but remember that little thing when I tried this one on; funny how some things come full circle.

With much love, Lauren.

Easter Florals.

Floral Dress, Necklace: Thrifted.

Basket Purse: Vintage.

Straw Wedges: Lulu*s.

Lipstick in MAC's Please Me.

Hello everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend wherever in the world you are :) I certainly did! It was filled with baby kittens, rainbow cake, an Easter egg hunt, and of course lots of chocolate. I didn't have an Easter dress for this year until I went thrifting on Saturday and found this pretty, floral, 90's dress. I have too many floral dresses to count already, but what really caught my eye was the beautiful crochet sleeves on this dress. I've never seen anything like it! It did perfectly well as a dress for the holiday festivities, but I think I might sell it in the future because I just have too many floral dresses...I've got to stop buying them!

I actually ended up going to church on Saturday evening instead of Sunday because of fitting everything in schedule. This was my first time going to 'my church' for Easter, since last year at this time I hadn't even visited it yet. I am a very emotionally connected person. I feel as though if I'm not moved emotionally by something, then I'm not feeling it with my heart and it... just doesn't feel right. I need to feel this inner happiness, this burst of emotion and life to feel satisfied in the choices I make and activities I do. That's why I'd been frustrated for some time because when I would worship in church for the past few months, I didn't feel that. I would get excited and riled up about the music, but I didn't feel that inner emotion that I once had felt when I first gave my life to Christ. It kind of came suddenly on Saturday evening though as I was worshiping-- that overwhelming feeling of joy that only Christ can bring. I couldn't help but finally cry and smile at the same time and lift my hands up high to worship; to think of all He has done for me and how He loves me. x

With much love, Lauren.