the most wonderful time of the year

       Ahhhhhh alas, it is that time again: the sun is shining, I am constantly sweating, my bank account is low, it can only mean one thing! Music festival season is upon us.  Chicago is fucking AWESOME in the summer because of all of the festivals/parades happening each year. Literally every single weekend there is always something going on.  And, for the very first time ever this year, I attended Spring Awakening.
       My good friend and fellow GG, Eileen, suggested the new festival and I eventually obliged. The week leading up to the festival included I kid you not HUNDREDS of texts back and forth trying to decide on the perfect outfit.  Would people be dressed in more flowy/hippie clothing like Lolla being that it's Chicago and it's an outdoor festival? Or neon because it's electro/dance/rave? Could we somehow mix the two genres without looking like idiots?  Either way, we were sure of two things; it was going to be HOT, and no matter what we wore it really wouldn't matter anyways.


       SO Friday night came along and despite our hashing and re-hashing of outfit options for the next day, we both were still lacking a proper "fit" for festival.  Panic mode commenced. We searched the local options hoping to stumble across that perfect flowy/hippie/neon bandeau/skirt/short combo.
        Finding nothing but a plain black bandeau and some glow sticks, I went back to my closet empty-handed. So here was my plan; I already had some neon yellow chinos, so that could fulfill the 'rave' aspect of my outfit, but I needed a top that was more 'festival-y'.  So out of the depths of my costume box came my Pocahontas or 'indian princess' piece from my childhood.  Although I know my sister, being the avid follower of this blog that she is, will read that I ripped apart this costume and will kill me, I justify the sacrifice because of two reasons: 1. there were little holes at the bottom (most likely from pet rats) and face paint all over it from this past Halloween. Given those two impairments, it wasn't much use anyways. Here is a before photo of the costume:

And after!

Woops, lied about the selfies apparently!

       I really liked the fringe so I just cut off the bottom 6 inches or so and tucked it into a bandeau to keep it up. However, something about the fit of it made me scared of being accidentally exposed to Chicagoland's youth, so instead I used the extra fabric from one of Eileen's dresses and tucked it around a bandeau. I did, however, braid strips of the costume into a headband, so all was not lost! Here are some photos of the festival:

True to form, by the end of the day I had taken 2 naps.

       Hopefully next time I will have better foresight to create something earlier than the night before the festival!

ming.