Junkyard Wonders

Junkyard Wonders

uyguguygu   06.00   Comment  

How many of you have ever read the book The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco? It's one of my favorite children's books. I had the pleasure of using the book in a reading unit I taught this year and the kids really loved this book in particular. The premise of the book comes from Patricia Polacco's own childhood and is about a little girl who ends up in a special education classroom with an exceptional teacher who was able to inspire the students to create and learn through creating.

I have to make a confession - until yesterday I've never been in a junkyard before but I've read about my fair share of them. Many of you who know us well know that my husband, J.R. is restoring a vintage Porsche and auto salvage yards have become his "thing" in this process. He found out a Porsche of a similar model had been dropped off and was there to be (for lack of a better term...) cannibalized. He wanted to head over straight after church and I wasn't opposed to going along to look around, having never been to one. I also bargained for a shopping trip to my favorite grocery store on that side of town and a trip to my favorite Indian Food Restaurant and he was more than happy to throw that in after inspecting the car at the salvage yard.

Clearly, my shoes were not very practical but I know why Kate Middleton wears L.K. Bennett frequently for appearances - this pair is made for walking! I liked how out of place I looked among the rows of cars and since I had my camera in my car and was able to get a few outfit photos there. The light was pretty much perfect - all those cars act like foil reflectors!

We didn't find the part for the Porsche we were looking for - someone had gotten their first and had taken the entire circuit system out but we were able to pull a few things for our primary car including a quarter panel to replace the dented one from an incident with a dear up in Estes Park many summers ago.

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I'm wearing the Pansy Corset Trench Coat by Anthropologie, which is no longer available but can be found on ebay using this search.  I'm also wearing Madewell Skinny Skinny jeans (like always...sorry...it's pretty much the only cut I wear right now), L.K. Bennett Sledge Pumps, and a Hurley T-Shirt I borrowed from my husband's closet (Similar color in a woman's cut here...on sale, too!). The belt is from Calvin Klein. 

Summer Shakedown

Summer Shakedown

uyguguygu   06.04   Comment  

It's full on summer here for us - long days of sunlight, sweltering heat, relentless sun, tons of sunscreen (I use this Korean brand on my face and this American brand on my body), tank tops, and playful shoes. No complaints from me here...

Here are some things to keep you occupied if it's too hot to go outside:
- I finally made a facebook page for my blog. Feel free to follow it for updates and other fun trivia if you'd like!

- For someone who doesn't need to collect clothes like I do - a minimalist/personal style how-to guide.

- Here's the yoga for equestrians series I've been using lately. It really opens up those hips! 

- My aunt-in-law curated excerpts from my grandfather-in-law's war letters. He participated in D-Day and this was put up in part to remember and honor that sacrifice. 

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Sunglasses are from Pilgrim. The tank top is very old Urban Outfitters and the pants are from Madewell. I'm wearing hi-top Chuck Taylors with ridiculously awesome neon green add on wings I found on sale for $1.99 the other day. Score! Here's how to DIY a pair. The watch and strap are from j. crew. The earrings are vintage and were thrifted way back in high school!

Modern/Vintage

Modern/Vintage

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

I have an extensive closet - I don't think this is any secret. I only rarely get rid of things and I hang onto my clothes for years...decades, even. My style roots are in vintage and I used to wear almost exclusively vintage or vintage style clothing. (Oh my goodness! I was able to make every single word in that sentence a link to a different post featuring vintage clothing and I only looked through half the blog! wow!) Dresses, petticoats, house coats, vintage inspired shoes and jewelry reigned for years. I started wearing vintage in middle school and wore it throughout my early and mid twenties and I've collected a large amount of clothing from various eras ranging from the 1850s to the present. As I've gotten older my taste has evolved and I'm not wearing as much vintage. This is partly because I've taken a more preservationist stance on my originals, but also because my tastes of changed and what is practical and useful for me is different now than what it used to be.

Recently I was standing in my closet thumbing through my suits and blazers and I realized that I had a lot of pieces that just never make it out into daylight that are perfectly sturdy and wearable. I think this is a conundrum for many of us who have left our vintage phase. We can't really part with these one of a kind pieces but we don't really want to wear them, either. My initial solution was Acid Free Boxes but even that couldn't store everything, only the oldest and most fragile or most valuable.

I realized that, given a little thought, it'd be perfectly fine to mix some of my very vintage pieces into my daily wear. So, I did what any other person with too many clothes and not enough ideas did: I played dress up. I pulled out a dozen or so sturdy pieces of vintage clothing out and started trying them on over what I had worn to work that day to see how they would mix and match. Suits got separated, dresses got modern blazers over the top to liven them up, handbags were turned into clutches by turning the handles inside, skirts were given modern shoes and at the end of it all I had a few ideas. 

For date night this week I decided to pull out a vintage clutch from the 1960's and the top of a suit from the mid 1940's that I bought in high school. Both of them are sturdy (the clutch actually was deadstock and had tags on it!) and I wasn't worried about potentially damaging something irreplacable. I paired this uniquely structured blazer with a basic t-shirt, Madewell skinny skinny jeans, and a pair of updated patent pumps from L.K. Bennett. I matched the red clutch to a red bracelet my friend had brought me from Spain and  off we went! 

Do any of you have this type of vintage conundrum? How are you handling it?

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I'm wearing a vintage blazer and carrying a vintage clutch. The bracelet is a small gift ("Petite Cadeau" - My foreign language phrase of the day!) from a friend's trip to Spain. The Pearls are also vintage. The t-shirt is from Caslon (similar cut here - can't find the same color!). The jeans are Madewell's Skinny Skinny cut. The shoes are from L.K. Bennett.

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. 

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.