Just kidding!

Just as I'm about to give up and start planning for Fall, Summer pulls a fast one and the temp reaches 83 degrees. Not to get into weather too much, but we always know when things are warming up or cooling down in Seattle. This Summer has been completely unpredictable, though! It'll be 56 one day and 78 the next!



I styled a couple outfits the other day, in anticipation of Fall (and because it was cool) and I'm seeing a lot of stripes in my future. They are with me in the present, as well. My love affair with stripes smolders on!



In these photos:
American Apparel Harem pants
Thrifted top
Vintage velvet blazer
Vintage Coach
Forever21 glasses

Reviews

I've been slowly compiling reviews of all the different daily outfit communities that I use. Today seems like a good day to share them with you. It's another cool, gray day. We have had a total of 78 minutes worth of 80 degree weather. I must say, the mildest winter I've ever seen!

On to the reviews!

Chictopia
This site is what got me started. They're a wonderful community. I've met so many great people there! It can be hard to get your photos into the Style Gallery, which is for photos that the staff at Chictopia choose based on some complicated qualifications, but everyone's photos are always visible in the New Photos section. At Chictopia, the rule is kinda of "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." You can vote for photos, but you don't rate them, nor can you take away votes. It all makes for a happy, positive, inspiring experience.

Hypeed
I use this website occasionally, but it is definitely not my go-to. First off, photos load really slowly. They require photos be at least 2000x1500, which is HUMONGOUS. Most other websites only require 600x400. This can be a problem when you've set all of your photos to 600x400. They also have very specific feature themes and your photos must go through approval before they are included in a thematic category. You can just upload photos to your profile, but if you actually want people to look at them, you need to get them into a feature category. Another thing I don't like is that they have a rating system. You are in competition to get featured, so you rate other people's photos and they can rate yours. It's on a scale of 1 to 5. One means "No" and 5 means "Perfect". What I've noticed is that girls vote others' photos down in the hopes of making their own ratings look higher. This kind of system tends to bring out the mean in people, and it's the reason Chictopia got rid of it years ago.

Lookbook.nu
This place is for those of you who are too cool for school. Everyone seems like they are part of the It Crowd and nicely enough, they make you feel like you are part of it, too. Sometimes it seems everyone dresses the same (peer pressure is plentiful), but for the most part, it's a great site. It's easy to see others' photos and in turn other people see your photos. This site is definitely user friendly. It's easy to hype photos and easy to post looks. There are 3 categories of photo galleries: Hot, New, and Top. From what I gather, Hot is similar to being featured and Top is for photos with the highest votes. New is self-explanatory. I highly recommend joining this site, if you haven't already for two main reasons: to get your style noticed and to get inspired!

Weardrobe
This site is a little weird. It's still up and running and there's someone who chooses photos for the Featured section, but other than that, this site seems pretty dead. There are no contests and they haven't chosen a Spotlight Member in almost a year. There are still a lot of users, but it's definitely not as active a community as the other sites I mentioned above. Still, it's another site to post your outfits on, so you may want to think about joining.

In this outfit:

American Apparel dress & petticoat

H&M flower pin

Payless peep-toes

Belt is borrowed from an H&M dress

Whirlwind

What a weekend! I worked both days, had a huge bbq with my family because my cousins were in town, and managed to fit in two photo shoots!


The first photo shoot was downtown and took about 45 minutes. This was the one for the Marie Claire contest.

The photographer shot quite a bit of film in several different spots. We even went to the roof of a parking garage. That was a great location, because we didn't have to wait for pedestrians to pass and I didn't have to worry about getting hit by cars! I have done very little modeling, but something I learned about myself was that the more film they shoot the more relaxed I am and the more I enjoy myself. When it's like "Ok we'll take 3 shots, lets get this done, go!" It's much harder to relax then. For instance, I was such a ball of nerves at the Shipley & Halmos event last Fall that I am surprised any of the photos turned out at all! The camera starts moving in close and I am thinking "OMG what do I do with my cheekbones?? How do I pose my chin??" I found a way to relax myself, though, and that was to make funny faces in between shots. I'm sure there are a few on film, as well.

Have any of you done modeling? Do you get nerves? I don't know if my blog would exist if I couldn't take my own photos, haha.



The second shoot was much shorter, but was still fun. They took a few photos and then we departed. For the first shoot, I was instructed to wear simple, classic colors; nothing too revealing or crazy and natural looking make-up. I had way more freedom on the second shoot, but that naturally made it harder to decide on an outfit. I got up an hour early to finish deciding. I was pretty satisfied with the results, though. Hopefully you'll see it in the November issue of Glamour :)

In these photos:
H&M chambray dress
DIY cropped Forever21 tank
Forever21 sandals
hand dyed scarf

And the winner is...

Not BlogSpot! It signed me out in the middle of posting and I lost everything I had written.

Anyway, on to choosing the winner! I used the old names-in-a-hat routine, so the winner would be totally random. The winner is... Isabel over at I Fly A Starship!!!

She will be enjoying this lovely little Blog Birthday Prize


Hope everyone had a lovely weekend :)

And the winner is...

The winner of my little Blog Birthday Prize is Isabel Spectre!!! Thanks to the old hat routine, I was able to pick a winner at random. Congrats random winner!!

On holiday

Haha, sadly, I am kidding! I've been working my butt off instead. I missed you all terribly :(



So much working and busy-ness meant I was not broke for a few weeks. It was a nice change, but now I am back to "Uh oh, shouldn't have spent that money at Forever21..." I think I will go back on my clothing diet (which was a great success, btw)



So I've been working hard at making my wedding reception happen, but I'm not really sure how to go about things. Thank goodness for my husband, who is very good at taking care of boring yet important stuff like making reservations and obtaining event insurance. It has given me a chance to play with colors and patterned papers and day dream about center pieces. I'm just getting the invites out that my step-mom was so graciously kind to put together for me. She is a graphic designer by trade and very skilled with the Photo Shops. She scanned in my original drawings and cleaned them up a bit, then worked with me for hours on alignments, fonts, and other graphic designy things I did not understand. Here's how they turned out:

I am still trying to think of the perfect thank you gift for her!

(The drawing is based on the original illustrations from Pride & Prejudice)

Ok, back to work for me! Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY! You can win this lovely little necklace :)



My outfit:
Vintage dress
Forever21 frames
GAP clutch
Banana Republic sling-back flats
Vintage bracelets

Birthday, giveaway, and big news!

Today is the one year anniversary of Fleur d'Elise! It's been a great year :) I have met so many wonderful bloggers and connected to so many amazing blogs and communities, thanks to this blog.

Some Stats:
In total, I've posted 131 blogs articles (not including this one)
Gained 104 followers via Google
Since I started using StatCounter.com in April, I've had over 4000 visitors

Here is a picture from my first post

This is from my second post


The past couple of weeks I've been immensely busy with work and planning my wedding reception, but I've been thinking about the blog and all of you a lot. Mostly I just feel guilty; I've neglected something I really care about, but sometimes it can't be helped! I've also been trying to figure out how to my measure my blog's success now that it's a year old. Is it the number of followers? The number of comments? The number of affiliates or official recognitions? It would make more sense that success is a product of all those things, and not just one.

For instance, 104 followers is a drop in the bucket when compared to the fan base of other more established bloggers, but I am lucky and flattered to have everyone of you. I'm also thrilled to share some awesome news with you: I've been contacted by Glamour for a street style photo shoot and I am a finalist in Marie Claire's What I Love About Me Contest! I am not guaranteed to be in either magazine, but the simple fact that they would even be interested in considering me for publication is completely awesome! As stressed as I am this week, I am feel completely blessed. Thank you all for your support and readership. I would not have come so far without it.

And now for my official THANK YOU! It's time for another giveaway!

One lucky reader will win this necklace and vibrant lipstick. The necklace is from Forever21 and features a Goldstone pendant and I've added a pink ribbon. It's very similar to a bracelet I made back in January. The lipstick is a Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Siren. It's a gorgeous, creamy orange-red and is one of the colors I recommended in this post. It's a fantastic shade for Summer and will look stunning with dark and muted colors this Fall.

Ok, so to enter:
Follow me via Google or BlogLovin' +1
Like Fleur d'Elise on Facebook +1
Link to my blog/giveaway on your blog +2
Remember to leave me a comment with your name and email and links!

The giveaway will end in one week. Good luck!