Of Cake, Parfait, and Onions

Hello lovelies! It has been such an exhausting week of school and labs and work, but it's finally the weekend! I am not fully recovered but my voice is mostly back, the coughing is drastically reduced, and I have growing six-pack abs as a result. I have so many posts lined up but not many photos edited - plenty of catching up to do.

Since I have started working in my research lab again, I have to be careful what I wear. While I don't have to don dress pants and fancy tops, I still have to look more graduate student than party-going undergrad. Thus my staple is usually some sort of jeans and a cardigan or blazer on top. Shoes can be flats, low heels, or just sneakers. Yesterday we had a lab meeting at 3, so I had to shower quickly and fly to the metro station. Luckily the train was behind schedule because it was rainy and gloomy all day. I was able to leave at 5:30 = TGIF! My boyfriend and I went to a local Vietnamese restaurant for pho and vermicelli noodles, and I ordered some delicious 3 color bean dessert for the first time. Oh how I love the weekends.

Speaking of gloomy and atrocious uncooperative weather, St. Louis has been very erratic lately. One day it will be 85 degrees, the next full of thunderstorms, the next is chilly true fall, then back to blazing sunshine again. When it's raining I can't really take photos outside, so my boyfriend and I have been trying to shoot in his bedroom against a blank wall. Our doom lighting sucks, for lack of a better term, so we try to turn on as many lamps as possible but the camera still doesn't want to pick up clearly grrr. It's funny because my 3.2 mpx camera on my phone shoots better in low lighting than a Nikon SLR xD I should really learn how to use that hunk of a thing. I ended up brightening these photos a lot and trying to pick out the few that weren't blurry.

To match the floral shirt, I played with super colourful makeup after I got off work. I unbuttoned one button on the cardigan and pulled down a sleeve to expose more of the floral pattern.

Wearing:

Floral print quarter sleeve top, Wet Seal (size M but very skintight after washing, gift from roomie)

Striped sleeve grey boyfriend cardigan, Forever 21 (size S)

Denim flare-bottom denim jeans, Paris Blues (junior size 3)

Bow flats, American Eagle for Payless (size 5) 

The sleeve really made me want to hold out my arm in a fancy way

Haha looks like I crawled out of bed at 5 PM xD

 This was the yummy bean dessert! There was red bean, mung bean, and some yellow bean too and condensed coconut milk. Delicious!

What do cake, parfait, and onions have in common? Layers :D The yogurt parfaits at my university are pretty boring. Tons of yogurt, some simple granola to stir in, and some fruit all smashed at the bottom. So underneath all the boring layers, there's something beautiful. It applies to most things in life :) [Why can't my school serve parfait like that!?]

A sneak peak of the FOTD that went with this outfit. Not so bland anymore eh? :D

I hope the weather improves so that I can take some pictures outside. Do you think there's a huge difference between indoor and outdoor photos? Please don't leave me if I have to shoot inside :*( Hahaha have the BEST weekend! I should have more posts rolling in soon.

P.S. Take a moment to treasure how precious life is. Say a prayer for those who lost a loved one in the 9/11 attacks 9 years ago. It may be a very long time, but I still remember what I happened as clear as if it were yesterday. God Bless America ♥