When one of your best friends works at Free People, you take advantage of it. One Friday afternoon I forced my friend Bella into a photo shoot. She works at the Free People at Lenox Mall in Atlanta, therefore she has plenty of great clothes to choose from. Downtown Athens provides the perfect backdrop to any photoshoot. 

Top, jeans, shoes - Free People

Necklace - Betsy Pittard

October is a weird time for weather in Georgia. One day its in the fifties, the next it is in the high seventies. This can present a difficult challenge when transitioning into your fall wardrobe. Therefore this is the prime time to wear your sleeveless turtlenecks, cause I know you've all got one hidden away in your closet.

If we are being honest, I truly think I bought this sweater as some sort of sartorial challenge for myself. It is such a great knit and color, that I could not resist, but in reality it is hard to style something that keeps your neck real toasty, but your arms are freezing

Sweater - Free People

Jeans - Joe's

For my first attempt at wearing this sweater I decided to keep it simple, just some good old jeans and boots.

I paired it with this Free People necklace.

Athens is known for its music scene, many musicians and bands got their start here and new and upcoming acts are always performing around town. The band R.E.M. started in Athens and there are a few landmarks that still stand solely becuase they were part of album artwork. For these photos I ventured to the train trestle featured on the back of R.E.M.'s album, Murmur.

I love getting to explore the rich culture of Athens. When people ask why I did not go away for school I tell them it is because there is still so much of Athens for me to explore, experience, and learn about.

Hopefully this sleeveless sweater will make more appearances in my Athens adventures. I'm going to challenge myself to wear it four different ways, let me know if you have any ideas.

Happy almost Valentine's Day! I do not have any special plans except cuddling with my dog, but I hope that your V-Day meets your expectations!  I really need to step up my photography game, but here is an outfit I wore recently, photographed in Downtown Athens. I feel like we have sort of skipped winter and moved onto a chilly spring here, even though we are supposed to have freezing rainy this coming week, but I highly doubt it. This odd weather presents a challenge of what to wear, you want to be warm because it's chilly in the mornings and night, but during the day it's warmish. This outfit was a great solution because of... wait for it... layering! I also like wearing a dress with palm trees on it in the middle of winter, it feels like I'm breaking some rules.

Sweater, Bra and Necklace: Free People, Dress: Fabrik, Boots: Frye

I have a lot of people ask me about my piercings. I have quite a few, none are too exciting, but I know that when I'm thinking about getting a piercing I like to be able to read about other people's experiences so I thought I'd put mine out there.

Let me start by saying that I hate needles, like a lot. One time my mom and the nurse held me down so my doctor could give me a flu shot, don't worry that was not last week, I was 7. When I got my ears pierced I was stunned after the first and did not want the Claire's employee to pierce my left ear. My mom told me I had to get the other one done because I could not be a pirate.

Despite this hatred for needles, I wanted more piercings. My freshman year of high school I got a second piercing on my right lobe. I opted out of getting one on the left, not because of pain, but because I thought it was cool to just have one double piercing, and honestly I still think it is. Considering the fact that this was eleven years after I got my ears pierced I could handle the pain a lot more and was surprised to find that it really didn't hurt at all.

In my junior year I declared that I wanted a cartilage piercing. I was too scared to go to an actual tattoo place, because I didn't like the idea of them pushing a needle through my ear, so I headed back to Claire's. This is my biggest regret. The pain of the piercing was around a 4, but the healing process was terrible. My ear hurt for a whole year until I decided to change it to a hoop and it stopped hurting. Now it never bothers me, but I only wear a hoop or a flat back stud in it. If I could do it over I would have gone to a tattoo place.

My senior year I had seen a girl with a conch piercing in a television show and became mildly obsessed, but I didn't get it. Partly because I was too scared and partly because my mom did not want me to get it. Then a good friend of mine had it and I realized that I really wanted it. Finally during my freshman year of college I went with a friend who was getting a tattoo and sporadically decided to get it. It hurt just as bad as my cartilage piercing, but no more than that. It's surprising because I thought it would be really painful because it it such a thick part of my ear, but it wasn't. The healing process was kind of long, but nowhere near my cartilage piercing. 

My most recent piercing is my tragus piercing. For some stupid reason I decided to get this not even a whole week after I got my conch piercing. I guess I was on a piercing high or something. This piercing hurt so much, but I love the piercing. When I got it the guy had to hold the tragus with forceps and I honestly thought that was him piercing it because he had it so tight. He didn't walk me through the piercing at all and soon I realized that he hadn't pierced it yet when all of sudden the I felt a sharp pain and my cartilage popped. This is the only piercing I've had make a popping noise and while it was not horrible, it wasn't pleasant either. I'd say it was like a 7 out of 10, but I really don't have a 10 to compare it too, so I'm not sure. The healing process on the other hand was a breeze. It didn't hurt at all, in fact I slept on the piercing the day I got it and it was completely fine.

So that about sums it up. I don't regret any of my piercings and would recommend any of them. Also, if you live in Athens, Georgia go to Pain and Wonder for piercings. They're the best. They come off kind of rude and scary, but once you get to know them they're great, especially the guy who does piercings. Both the regular earrings I'm wearing in these pictures are Kendra Scott and my conch piercing stud is neometal.