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. 

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

uyguguygu   14.19   Comment  

We went back to the midwest this year, to my parents house. My parents moved this year and this is the first time I've actually stayed at the new house. We had to use google maps to find it which was a strange and unfamiliar feeling.

They are now out in the countryside and I love the place they moved  - there are three tack shops within a ten mile radius, a lake, a pool in the backyard, and enough room for everyone, and I mean everyone, to stay here without having to crowd in. My entire family and significant others plus my in laws are here, too!

A midwestern Christmas is always cozy - we see the the family members from my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve and the cousins do a silly white elephant gift exchange. Then, on Christmas morning we all exchange and open presents and then tinker the rest of the day with all the new stuff. Our day also included a walk around the neighborhood in the new snow, and a giant dinner with everyone!

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It's beautiful here! The vest is from Land's End.  The button down and jeans are from Madewell. I'm wearing my mom's sorrel boots. The scarf in my hair is vintage. 

Redheads and Redheaded Horses!

arabian blessings Horse horses Life redhead Riding thoroughbred

Redheads and Redheaded Horses!

uyguguygu   19.29   Comment  

I try really hard not to repost pictures from instagram because so many already follow me over there...but I loved this picture my trainer snapped after my lesson today.

The horse I usually ride, an Arabian, was in the process of throwing a shoe and it wouldn't come off but it was flopping around annoyingly and he couldn't be ridden. My trainer let me ride her beautiful horse, who I think is a thoroughbred. He had been shown the day before and was perfectly groomed and so sweet, lovely, and responsive. We also have the same color hair! He is the cuddliest horse I've ever met, which is an added bonus!

Summer Sweetness - Part I

Summer Sweetness - Part I

uyguguygu   11.23   Comment  

Things take practice - that's what I've learned this summer. I recently started horseback riding because I really just wanted to be a beginner at something, to remember what it was like to have absolutely zero knowledge of something and yet be expected to do things while muddling your way through them to the goal. 

I like tackling new things in community with others, too. I like the process of meeting people and figuring out where they are coming from, what you can teach them and what they have to teach you. Horseback riding is like that - not only do you meet a horse, get to know it, earn it's trust, learn it's commands, and figure out how to partner with it, you learn how to listen to your trainer as she's asking you to do things you've never thought you could do, working through your mistakes, and more importantly, your fears. 

Thanks to Jessica blogging has been collaborative this summer, too. It's become a bigger process, and welcoming someone into a happy project I've been working on for a very long time has been a joyful experience. Jessica takes gorgeous pictures and I am so proud of her work and of her dedication to the art of photography, but beyond that she's an excellent teacher, a fantastic brainstormer, and is always willing to answer questions about how to up the ante on my pictures, especially since I feel like I've plateaued in the last year or so with the quality of my own pictures. 

Working with someone else inspires me to get out there and work on what I love, to dig out things I haven't worn in a long time, and to try something again, to look at it in a new light. I think everything I'm wearing has been blogged before but never like this.

Honestly, I used to be terrified of collaboration. I was always the girl in school that would take on the entirety of the group project, terrified I would get something less than an A. Over the years, tI've learned to let collaboration be about learning and making mistakes. I've come to grips with letting others teach me. I've slowly opened up by trying to be less shy or more welcoming. In real life I feel that I come off a little standoffish...mostly because I'm somewhat nervous about things because I'm so afraid what I'm doing will fail if I don't make it go just so or people get too close. I've worked hard on that but I still have a long way to go! 

This summer I have learned and am learning so much - new writing styles, horsemanship, how too cook, photography basics. Out of curiosity, have you learned or are learning? Who is teaching it to you? 

It goes without saying that all of these pictures were done by Jessica Triggs. 

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The Hair and Makeup was done by me. I used MAC pigments on my eyes and MAC's Russian Red on my lips. (This is, in my opinion, the best shade of red for redheads!) 

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The shirt is vintage, repaired quickly before the shoot after sitting under my bed for almost three years. The scarf and shoes are vintage, too. The shorts are by the talented Anna Allen.