Perfect Roses

Perfect Roses

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

The high season for roses is over in our garden but there are still a few lingering around, perfect blooms opening a little behind schedule. I don't mind, though. The fact that there are fewer around makes each one more precious.

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The dress is vintage. The shoes are from Urban Outfitters many seasons ago. 

Milwaukee Home

Milwaukee Home

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

Whenever I go somewhere I buy things to take home and wear. Every time I wear that piece of clothing I think about who I was and where I was at the time I purchased it. I dressed to beat the heat the other day and ended up in two pieces that represent two places I have loved in my lifetime - the most obvious being Milwaukee. The T-shirt came from Milwaukee Home. The shoes also represent another city I've spent some time in - they are the NORT x Nike Dunks  and came from Recon in San Francisco many years ago. 

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The shirt is from Milwaukee Home. The belt is vintage but you can find a similar one here. The skirt is from The Gap. I purchased it in high school but you can find a similar one here. The shoes are from Recon in 2006 but you can find them using this ebay search. The sunglasses are from Pilgrim. 

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. 

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. 

Windows and Light

Windows and Light

uyguguygu   07.00   Comment  

I collect old windows. White ones, with wobbly, old glass that's become unsteady over the years. I have far too many and they have all been found in dumpsters from the frequent rebuilds a lot of the old houses have had around here. Denver is a city that is very much "out with the old, in with the new," particularly when it comes to architecture. It's very frequent to see an old house being torn down or gutted completely down to the supporting frame to put in a new house or rebuild the old one to the point where you have no idea when it was really built. I've been known to salvage little architectural details like windows from the dumpsters instead of letting them get tossed. 

I keep the windows gathered all in one spot up against a wall. Behind it I have Christmas lights I shoved behind them (this was the backdrop to our tree this year, and I liked the lights in back too much to take them out) and they illuminate our house warmly in the evenings. The windows give one of our enormous, blank walls some texture, and leave the wall open for me to photograph against because they are easily moved. Today I decided to use them as the backdrop they usually are, and add more textures in front of them - wool socks, a faux fur stole, and a white dress woven with pattern and trimmed with lace. 

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There's a whole lotta vintage going on in this picture - the stole, dress, and belt are all vintage. The shoes were purchased from Anthropologie several years ago, and the socks are smartwool and keep my feet toasty warm!