in which nothing but blue skies do i see

I can't lie, I love the sunshine. I love that it is light out when I wake up and that I drive home into the sunset every evening (rather than the darkness). But these slowly changing seasons sure do stink up my ability to take blog photos. My usual spot was taken over by streaky blackout areas this morning as the trees reached their shadows toward the river. At least this spot was consistently bright (albeit blinding...). And you get to see the river behind me! See all the sheets of ice washed up on the shore?

(hat: stolen from mom; necklace: diy gift; dress: thrifted; slip: urban outfitters; tights: h&m; shoes: seychelles)

When I received this necklace at the Christmas gift exchange, I knew immediately that I would wear it with these tights. The outfit itself is pretty uninspired, but I wanted to go neutral/natural with the necklace and this is what came out. See the little heart-shaped beads? Pretty appropriate for Valentine season, if I do say so.

Anyway, I had good reason to be a little bit out of my element when dressing this morning--I was super productive last night! I made dinner, prepared my mail and packages for posting, finished and filed my tax returns (I love Turbo Tax), and then passed the 70,000 word mark on the novel (and, more importantly, I now know how I intend to end it, which I hadn't the dimmest idea about until last night)!

So yeah... I wasn't quite with it when I woke up, but there are more important things :)

in which it has begun

So, it finally snowed again, and I think this time it's here to stay (if the cold air is any indication). Also, my photo spot is free of intruders once again. All is right in the world, it seems.

(dress: banana republic, gift; sweater: tjmaxx; belt: thrifted; boots: seychelles; gloves: gift)

My dear friend sent me this dress (thanks, Bonnie!) and I think it's fabulous. The print has a tribal-meets-chic-meets-sixties vibe, and I love it paired with brown. I also love that since starting this blog my friends sent me their sartorial cast-offs :) I am always standing by to remix!

Last night's meeting of Art Club was everything that I expected it to be. Mostly we just drank wine and ended up getting really fired up about politics, but art and politics have a historically important/difficult relationship, no? I mean, I honestly cannot believe this came out of our country:

This is why I can't bear to watch the news anymore. Not that I watch Fox News anyway, but it's incredibly painful for me to imagine that this is the world I live in. No apologies today for getting political on the blog... I'm too riled up.

Tomorrow is Friday, yay!! It's our last full weekend together before K leaves for the west coast for the rest of 2011 (and then some), so we're going to fill it up with good times. For starters, tomorrow night we're going to see a local production of White Christmas! My holiday spirit seems to have dropped off in recent days (I'm not as excited about Christmas songs on the radio, etc.), so hopefully this weekend can jumpstart my merriment.

in which i wear a denim dress

Tomorrow I leave on a jet plane, but I have queued up some chambray outfits for the rest of the week! This is the dress my friend Steph sent me, and I am sure it is going to become a summertime staple... I think I'll even pack it in my desert-bound suitcase tonight!

(denim dress: gift; shoes: seychelles; headband: diy)

I made this silly little headband (and many multiples) for my friends at Christmastime. I basically just picked up a bunch of doilies from JoAnn Fabrics, sewed them onto felt backing, and added fabric (or ribbon, until I ran out) so that they could be worn as headbands. I originally had pretty grand plans involving feathers and flowers but ran out of time (! whoops...) I kind of like that they turned out pretty simply--there is such a thing as overaccessorizing your accessories!

I can't lie, I am pretty excited for the next few weeks of my life... and really, the whole summer! I have lots of great trips and quality time with even more quality people coming up in the next few months. It's going to be excellent. Stay tuned this week for more chambray fun!

in which i have awesome people in my life

I declared this week "Chambray Week" because my friend Steph is awesome and sent me a lovely little denim dress that she bought on etsy. But I didn't really like the way I styled it and the photos were not great, so I kind of want a do-over. I also took photos this weekend which were equally bad, but I wanted to make sure to have a full week of outfits to post while I'm away! We'll see. I might just have to do a little photo shoot this evening. The photos from this morning were the only ones that turned out well, so here you go. Steph also sent me this beautiful dream of a blouse in the denim dress package, so I had to make sure that both were worn right away (I love new-to-me clothes)!

(blouse: gift from steph; shorts/belt: thrifted; shoes: seychelles; feather headpiece: gift from k)

I found these chambray shorts at Goodwill a few weeks ago and when I asked K what he thought of them he said they looked like something his grandmother would wear. So I bought them, naturally. Speaking of K, he is a gem! I picked him up on Friday after a particularly frustrating afternoon at work, and he was waiting with this little feather fastener in hand. It's so pretty and a nice replacement for my headband from UO, which is falling to pieces. We continued on to meet my family at the White Rock in Woodbury (home sweet home!) for an early Father's Day celebration (my little brother was leaving for Denver on Saturday night so we wouldn't be able to celebrate all together on the actual day). After plenty of pizza and sangria, we headed back to the house to play Irish tunes. It was a wonderful evening in honor of the best dad ever!

On the way home, we discovered that K's car had been vandalized. I just want to touch on this because it enrages me a little bit. It is no secret that I basically don't care if my car just looks like a rusty pipe--as long as it runs, I'm not too concerned with cosmetics. K, on the other hand, devotes a lot of time and energy to making sure his car is shiny and rust-free, and while I don't necessarily understand and often wish that he wouldn't park all the way in the back of the parking lot so that someone won't open their door into his, I do respect it. So for someone to cause $3000+ worth of damage to his car just for kicks makes me want to kick them in the eyeball a little bit. It's not like they even stole anything! At least if they had stolen something it might have made more sense, but clearly they just thought they were being little rebels or something, which makes me very disappointed in the human race. Anyway, rant over about that.

After doing quite a bit of pre-trip shopping on Saturday, K and I took a little day trip to Portsmouth, NH on Sunday. More about that later :)

the key to 2011

This well may be my last outfit post of 2010! K and I are leaving for Portland (ME) tomorrow morning for a low-key destination NYE. I'm delighted to be getting out of town--we'll probably just check out some of the festivities, have some delicious Indian food for dinner and retire back to the hotel for champagne by our in-room fireplace!

(necklace: gift from K; headband: DIY; shirt: Old Navy; skirt/scarf: vintage; tights: HUE; socks: TJMaxx; boots: Seychelles)

K gave this necklace to me for Christmas--he works with a woman who repurposes antique skeleton keys (among other things) to make jewelry, and of course he immediately thought of me. I like a man who knows what I like! Anyway, I think it is quite lovely. The designer has a blog and etsy shop with some really beautiful and creative pieces, many of which seem inspired by nature--petite pearls in a nest play at unhatched eggs, little honeybees chase beads of nectar down a chain and kitschy antique pendants wax reminiscent of a rose garden--and all are playfully pretty and totally worth checking out!

As for the headpiece: my childhood girlfriends and I have been exchanging gifts since we first started receiving an allowance, and this year I really wanted to make something for them. I had the idea to make headpieces out of doilies a long time ago but never actually got around to doing it, so when I unearthed a heaping stash of pretty doilies while perusing JoAnn Fabrics, I knew I had struck gold. I had originally intended to attach them to barrettes, but after sewing the doilies onto sheets of felt in camel, baby blue, royal blue and black I decided I wanted the pieces to contour to the head and it just didn't look right on a barrette. Luckily, I had some supplies in my craft drawer (because of course I was doing this super-last-minute)--I started out with black velvet ribbon, which disappointed me by running out after three headpieces, so I had to improvise once again. I had some sheer lace-like material (purchased last halloween for a never-worn owl costume), which I cut into strips, and Voilà! I had also intended to make the headpieces a little bit more elaborate by adding buttons or lace or feathers or all of the above, but I think I prefer the understated simplicity of the stand-alone doily. And it kind of looks like a snowflake, which is totally winter-appropriate!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I can't wait to spend it with each and every one of you :)