Today's Everyday Fashion: When You Love Your Job
Today's pictures have kind of a funny backstory. This outfit was one of my favorite things I packed for Europe. We planned to spend the day at the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's in Rome, so I put it on, and off we go. Then things started to unravel... the line was hours long, so we had to do a "skip the line" tour. The cold I had suddenly took a bad turn and I was running a fever, walking around like a zombie at the Vatican. It was too dark for photos inside, our guide was rushing, and when the tour ended we stepped outside and it began raining buckets. Officially throwing in the towel, we hopped in a cab and I spent the the night in sweatpants, with exactly zero outfit photos to show for it.
The next day we were leaving Rome, and I was feeling super bummed not to have photos of this outfit in Europe. So I put it all back on, and we staged a photo shoot right there in our hotel. Which sounds, I don't know, maybe a little nuts? Who goes to those kinds of lengths to photograph an outfit, right? You're in Rome, don't worry about blogging and enjoy yourself! On our flight to Paris, I read Tribes by Seth Godin and this practically jumped off the page:
So I’m sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Jamaica, checking my e-mail. A couple walks by, obviously on their way to bed, having pushed the idea of vacation a little too hard. The woman looks over me and, in a harsh whisper a little quieter than a yell, says to her friend, “Isn’t that sad? That guy comes here on vacation and he’s stuck checking his e-email. He can’t even enjoy his two weeks off.” I think the real question - the one they probably wouldn’t want to answer - was, “Isn’t it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?”
His wording is a bit harsh (it's a business book about stepping out in leadership), and in this scenario I'm both characters. I felt kind of silly doing the photo shoot, but then again I love my job so much, the lines between "fun" and "working" are incredibly blurred. Getting creative and coming up with concepts, outfits, the whole thing, is like, literally my heart and joy. Blogging is not something we take vacations from because it's what we love. (We do, however, unplug regularly, which is very different. There is not an enjoyable activity in the world that you don't eventually need a break from. I pretty much always skip blogging completely on weekends, for example.) I've never been a huge fan of the quote: Build a life you don't need a vacation from. Because, hey, let's not go overboard here - I really like to travel and everyone needs time off occasionally. But the sentiment is true. I genuinely love what I do, so don't be surprised one bit if you see me sneaking in moments of "working," even in a beautiful city like Rome. :-)
Dress: Limited, $65 (similar below)
Blazer: White House Black Market, $90 (similar, similar, similar)
Purse: Vince Camuto c/o Off 5th, $70 (similar, similar, similar)
Shoes: Dolce Vita, old (similar)
Earrings: Kendra Scott c/o Amazon, $36
Sunglasses: Foster Grant, $15 (similar, similar, similar)
Approx. dates: Shoes are 4 years ago. Dress, purse, blazer and earrings are 1 year ago.