Spring Thinking

Spring Thinking

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

Spring has arrived here in Colorado! Things are not quite green yet, but there are definite buds on the trees and bulbs starting to push up from the ground. We have a ton of tulips planted in the garden out back and I can't wait to see them come up and bloom! I will know it's really arrived when the 100-year-old rose bushes that cover the walls of our garden start turning green - they always seem like they are the last things to wake up in spring but the thousands of pink roses we get all summer are worth the wait. 

I don't know about you but It feels like we are exhaling the cold darkness of winter and with each deep breath we are breathing spring to life.  I am grateful for the sun, the beautiful weather we've been having, the chances to play outside after work and on the weekends, and the fact that I can shed my coat midway through riding my horse and trot around in a sweater or a down vest. I got a new swimsuit in the mail and things are really looking up! 

In addition to the lovely weather I made a promise to myself that I would buy myself flowers for each week of school I have left. After this week it'll be nine more. I have nine more to get through as gracefully and as patiently as possible and I have nine more little bouquets to pick out on Monday mornings and bring home for the weekend on Fridays. I picked out sunflowers the first week, white lillies the second week, and I'm not sure what will come next week! Keep watching instagram and this blog for real time postings of my flower choices. You're on the edge of your seat, I'm sure! 

Finally, here are a few things that have kept me occupied on the internet this week:

// For dinner this week the major hits have been stir fried tofu, mushrooms, and greens and this spicy Tofu Tikka Masala

// I can't wait to try curried kale next week

// Check out this excellent and lighthearted playlist of remixed folk songs - I listen to it right after work when I'm cleaning up for the evening

// I don't own a single coffee table book but I daydream about owning them regularly - I'd love this one about Detroit in 1968 by Enrico Natali to be in that stack

// Even though I'm more of a pearl stud earring wearer, these Rough Diamond Stud Earrings are a beautiful, fresh take on the classic diamond studs.

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I'm wearing my mother's tweed jacket from her college days, a Land's End Shirt (I love these shirts so much I own like, three of them), Madewell Skinny Skinny Jeans, and Frye Melissa Button Boots. The necklace I picked up in Anchorage, Alaska last summer. 

C'est La Vie!

C'est La Vie!

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

Last week I splurged and bought the Laudree Sucre cookbook on line. I've been obsessed with macarons ever since my very first visit to Paris and I've fed my obsession with visits around town to various macaron makers and a visit or two to the Laudree in New York City as well. With the new cookbook in hand my friend Jess and I decided to attempt our very first batch of macarons. 

By the end of the experience we decided to re-name what we made "gluten free sandwich cookies" instead of macarons since that's really what they looked like, not the perfectly round fluffy macarons that we anticipated from looking in the cookbook! 

The point, of course, of all that baking was to have fun and I would say we did that pretty successfully! We laughed our way through the vague directions and chit chatted about anything and everything. 

One of the  great joys of my life here are the wonderful friends I have made. I have learned so much about being a faithful and consistent friend from them, about opening up, even about the scary stuff about yourself you'd never want to admit to anyone, and how sharing in experiences with people can grow you together and separately. 

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This photo set was taken by the amazing Jessica Triggs! Love to her, always. 

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I'm wearing Madewell Skinny Skinny Jeans, Madewell Sandals (out of season - similar here), and a j. crew shirt (on sale!). Keepin' it simple. 

Denim & Lace

Denim & Lace

uyguguygu   15.57   Comment  

I raid my husband's closet quite a bit - oversized and cosy sweaters, comfy lounging T-shirts, half of his cycling gear, and most recently this coveted Levi's Cycling Commuter Jacket. I first spotted this jacket from across the room at a party, and unlike anything I've ever experienced with a person, it was truly love at first sight. I made a beeline to the person wearing the jacket and started asking about it - there were little reflective tabs on it, back pockets, a vented back, longer than average sleeves, and all sorts of functional and beautiful details. If you know me I insist on everything being functional and beautiful in my life and this jacket easily met both criteria. I talked the jacket up so much he must have thought I was flirting with him. In reality, though, I was just flirting with the jacket. 

Not too long ago JR and I went to the Levi's store and I saw it, the coveted jacket, on sale for next to nothing. We bought one for JR. I've been "borrowing" the jacket wearing it once a week with various outfits ever since. 

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I'm wearing the Levi's Commuter Jacket over a brand-less lace dress purchased at Buffalo Exchange. The shoes are from Urban Outfitters so long ago they don't even sell then any more. I'm wearing the same two vintage turquoise cuffs and the Wild Horse Feather's equestrian themed bracelet as the last post. The necklace was purchased in Alaska this summer and made by an artist who's card and name I've sadly lost! 

Saturdays at the Barn - Barbour, Horses, and a Sweet Little Corgi Puppy

Saturdays at the Barn - Barbour, Horses, and a Sweet Little Corgi Puppy

uyguguygu   08.28   Comment  

I've been lucky enough to double the amount of riding I've been doing this month. This means I get to spend much of my Saturday morning at the barn with all the various people who make up that precious community, the horses, and the occasional guest star, like my trainer's 9 week old corgi puppy who thought walking across the piled cavaletti was the most amazing thing he had ever experienced!

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Dressing for the barn means function and form - while this barn doesn't have a dress code or serious expectations about what we wear I still feel it's important to both look nice and make sure my clothes stand up to the beating they get when I'm there and help me be a more effective rider. With one horse I wear gloves, with another I don't because of how I want the reins to feel. I dress in layers and wear protective clothing like a helmet and halfchaps. Today I'm wearing Ariat Paddock Boots, Tuffrider Breeches (like always...), Dublin Halfchaps, a very old sweater from the GAP, my trusty Barbour Beadnell, and Betsy Johnson sunglasses.

I am also wearing two of my vintage turquoise bracelets we've picked up on various trips and a wonderful leather one with an equestrian theme from Wild Horse Feathers. I've taken to wearing it almost every day and have gotten a lot of great compliments and comments on it, both around and at the barn. 

Rooftops

Rooftops

uyguguygu   07.00   Comment  

Is it strange to have a favorite parking garage? I guess it doesn't really matter if it is or not because I do have one here. From the roof of the parking garage I can look out over the city all the way to the mountains, and I'm surrounded by the rooftops of the buildings around it. It's rarely open so I don't normally park there but sometimes when I'm parked in the floors below I'll climb the staircase to the roof of it and just look out over the sprawl of the city and peek at the glorious Rocky Mountains. 

The mountains, are in a way, like the sea: Omnipresent but ever changing. They change with the weather, the snow fall, the sunshine. They are green for a brief minute in the spring, covered in snow that reflects the orange and purple and blue of the sky all winter, and sometimes they are invisible from the roof, covered in clouds. 

Today was clear, and I could see the mountains in all of their glory. The roof of the garage was closed so I took the steps up and had it all to myself. It was also very, very windy and my camera was almost knocked over by the wind while getting these shots, too! 

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The jacket was kindly given to me by the folks over at T B Dress. The shirt is vintage. I'm wearing an assortment of vintage pins on the jacket and Michael Michaud earrings were a gift from my fabulous in-laws. The jeans are j.crew's matchstick cut. The shoes are by L.K. Bennett. The flannel purse is from Talbots. 

Red Barns in the Snow

Red Barns in the Snow

uyguguygu   06.00   Comment  

About five or so years ago I asked my friend A how she figured out how things went together. She was the most put together person I knew. Well, actually, she still is. I was struggling, in my early 20's to figure out how to dress, act, put my house together.  I didn't have a heritage of style like some people do. I hadn't been taught to put things together. My parents endowed many other fantastic things to me - how to manage my finances and how to be kind and smart and relentless - but not style. Growing up was one big battle between my mom's aesthetic and my dads and there was never a compromise so it was just a tangle of objects that various people liked. We also were told almost every single day that we were going to be moving because my parents were going to sell the house. This meant that we could never settle in and invest in the way things looked. 

 To top it off, at the time A and I had this conversation, I was newly married and couldn't get my style to mesh with my husbands and I felt like my tiny house, my clothes, even my haircut was a disaster. I was trying to figure out how to meet his style expectations without compromising my own as well. 

"Well," she told me. "I just look at everything. I look and I look and I look and I look."

That was it. That was the missing piece to the puzzle. So, the very next day I began to do exactly what she told me. As I went through life I tried to notice what caught my eye, what made me excited about things, what was I drawn to. Over the course of the last half decade I feel like I've really been able to narrow down the things that make me happy, and to also reserve a little hidden place for the things that make me happy but don't usually mesh well with the other things. The advice A gave me was super simple but it's completely changed the way I look at things. I wait for things to resonate in a very specific way before I go for them. I acquire things more slowly now. My decision making takes longer. But life is quieter because the cohesion helps to calm things down, both visually and mentally. 

These red barns, dotted around the countryside near my parents house, resonated with me in that specific way. The blankets of sparkling snow surrounded these weathered red structures made me catch my breath and as we drove northward I watched them pass, delighted in the tradition and character that defines that part of the midwest.  

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I'm wearing a blazer by Ann Taylor (Similar here in black). The shirt is an old Ariat western riding shirt. (Similar cut and features here with a different plaid.) The Jeans are Madewell's Skinny Skinny.  The boots are from Frye and the sunglasses are from Betsy Johnson. 

...and in all things, simplicity.

...and in all things, simplicity.

uyguguygu   06.18   Comment  

It was going to be warm so I dressed in a simple black dress, my Birkenstocks, and these fantastic bracelets that my friend S. brought me back from Spain. (Thank you!) The morning started out just as quiet and easy as my outfit - making the bed, tidying the house, tea and journaling by the window, and putting a load of laundry in.

I am grateful for days like this. Breathing room creates time to think. Time to think creates answers. Answers create resolve. Resolve creates action. It is not healthy for me to be busy all the time, for every minute of my schedule to be booked up. Slowness is a luxury I forget I can afford but I am always glad when I can take it. 

What are you doing to simplify? 

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The shoes are Birkenstock's Gizeh - these are super comfortable shoes for running around. I thrifted the dress some time ago and have no idea where it's from. The bracelets and my every day pearl earrings were both gifts from friends and family.