First Day of the Year Ride

First Day of the Year Ride

uyguguygu   07.00   Comment  

On the first day of the year JR and I decided that we were going to ride around the city from friends house to friends house. We wanted to greet them with the happiness of the new year and keep our friends cozy and warm so we handed out pairs of wool socks, which sound really silly but was way more fun and brought much more joy than we could have anticipated. We got started around noon and took a two hour jaunt around. We handed them out to friends we ran into while walking. We left them at unanswered front doors. We gave them to friends who were up and at 'em. We really got lucky with the weather during the ride - before and after we rode it was snowing, cold, and wet. 

Hope your 2014 is cozy and warm so far! 

***

The blazer is by Banana Republic (somewhat similar one here) and the chambray shirt is by The GAP (somewhat similar one here). I'm wearing (again, yes, I know...) Madewell's Skinny Skinny jeans with thrifted shoes. The pearl earrings were a gift from my in-laws and the belt was given to me by my aunt. The bike is a Pashley Princess Sovereign and of course the socks we gave out are made by Wigwam, which are made in my home state of Wisconsin! 

Cross Country Ski Morning

Cross Country Ski Morning

uyguguygu   07.00   Comment  

My parents moved close to a great groomed nordic (or cross country) ski area. While we were at my parents house for Christmas we decided to get all the young folks out and onto the trails on rented (and really well waxed, I might add!) skis and do a lap around the park. I haven't cross country skied since we left Michigan in 2009 but I still had fun and remembered how to do it in no time at all. While we were out there I ran into my friend S. who I used to race bicycles with! Even though we didn't look like pros at the end we still enjoyed ourselves and no one got hurt. I'd call that a successful morning! 

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright!

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright!

uyguguygu   22.19   Comment  

It's been a while since I've posted - I've been convalescing from some sort of virus. As a teacher I rarely get sick...but when I do I get really sick. There's something going around at school, many of my students were out last week and some of the other teachers are also feeling poorly as well! 

That being said...it's Christmas party season around here! I love holiday parties because they give you a chance to pull out those party dresses you never get to wear. Last weekend, before I got sick, I got a chance to go to the first one of the season!

Dressing up for the holidays doesn't have to be intimidating - I always try to figure out who will be attending, I read the invite for the dress code, and I interpret it without over thinking it. Most of the time simple clothes are best.

 For work related things, particularly for J.R.'s company where he is one of the younger employees I wanted to make sure my clothes were fresh and modern but still had a sense of propriety about them to be respectful to the older ladies and gentlemen that would also be attending the event. I also knew that every single woman there would probably be in a "little black dress" or some sort of holiday colored confection so I chose to go with a creme colored dress to stand out in the sea of black. For a little holiday flair I added burgundy tights, a set of four thin bracelets in gold, carbon, copper, and silver, and grey booties. 

We shot these pictures in the dark  on our way down to the party on campus at ILIF and the halogen light was turning everything yellow - switching to black and white provided better, clearer pictures! 

Dress: Madewell

Bangles: Madewell

Shoes: Dansko

Tights: Target