30 Days of Fun (16-18)

Sunday, Day 16: Went to the theater to see Aladdin.

Monday, Day 17: Looked at old photos with my mom.

Tuesday, Day 18: Slept in delightfully late.

30 Days of Fun (13-15)

Thursday, Day 13: Made myself some tasty lemon-y chicken, salad, and carrot kinpira after a week of eating horribly.

Friday, Day 14: Spent time with my dog.

Saturday, Day 15: Went to Cap Hill Block Par and saw Les Savy Fav.

Parts of this last few weeks have been rough, especially Friday and Saturday but I have been so grateful to have this project to prevent me from wallowing. I chose to do it just because it seemed cool, but I do think I needed it, although I didn't know that yet. This entry, although it has one of the most obviously fun things (block party) in it, actually was a sad period. On Thursday my family decided that it was time to put our dog, Shiloh, down. This was something we knew was coming for quite some time. Friday we called the vet and tried to spend as much time with her as possible and then Saturday it was time. We all went to the vet together and it was heart-breaking but we knew it was the right thing to do. Afterwards, we buried her in our backyard, I took a shower and cried some more, and then I met up with my friends and had a fun time anyhow. Had I not been doing this project, had I not already bought a ticket to the block party, I probably would have stayed home and been sad. I didn't feel guilty that I was having fun because it didn't mean I loved her any less. I could be sad and have fun at the same time and that's what I did.

mad electricity

dress - vintage, belt - thrifted, shoes - steve madden

This simple electric blue shift is one of my favorite summer dresses. Although I wear it somewhat infrequently because I feel like the color makes it really noticeable so it's too obvious if I wear it often. It would be super Mad Men if I had some of Joan's amazing curves but as it is, I style it a little more casually. I also feel like that could get really costume-y if I put this on with heels, a beehive, and red lips. Instead, I like to wear it with a funky belt and flat, casual shoes. Last year it was my braided rainbow leather belt and moccasins and this year it's a kind of western belt with loafers.

30 Days of Fun (10-12)

Monday, Day 10: Read Infinite Jest on the scaffolding.

Tuesday, Day 11: Watched Mad Men after work.

Wednesday, Day 12: Had a solo dance party in my pjs.

30 Days of Fun (7-9)

Friday, Day 7: Drank gin and tonics with J after a rough day.

Saturday, Day 8: Watched fireworks, saw a friend's band play, and went to a crazy party in the woods/by the river (I fell in the ditch and hurt my knee).

Sunday, Day 9: Ate cookies made with my new fav choco chip cookie recipe.

30 Days of Fun (4-6)

Tuesday, Day 4: Cuddled with the cutest darn cat in the whole world.

Wednesday, Day 5: Read guidebooks to places I'm not visiting.

Thursday, Day 6: Played/watched drunken basketball after a show.

Please give me suggestions for fun things to do!

strawberries pt. 2

I already wrote about the first day of strawberry picking, this was the second. I went with my mom on the first, and my friends the next. This time we were in an even better section of the field and in no time had around 13 lbs each. Well, J had less because she didn't want to make jam. Silly girl. Of course a lot more pictures were taken with the three of us.

shirt - gap, jeans - uo, boots - thrifted, lip color - revlon just bitten in gothic

After picking our combined 35 lbs of strawberries, we went the shitty grocery store where we bought mexican Cokes, the only local burger joint in our small town, Pickle Time, for burgers, and ate in the park by the river. Later, we went back to my place, made a few batches of jam, a strawberry rhubarb pie, and these delicious strawberry-basil-gin cocktails. Yum.

long skirts and long days

tank - gap, skirt - mom's, belt - thrifted, clogs - jeffrey campbell, purse - vintage coach

I know I go on and on about it, but summer really is my favorite. Lazy afternoons, warm evenings, floaty skirts, and tiny tanks are all things that make me incredibly happy. I spent the day sunbathing and eating popsicles before heading to work in the afternoon. Even after I got off it was kind of the perfect summer evening. Warm enough I don't need a sweater (although I did have to wear my trusty long grey cardigan at work) and full of nostalgia. Both the skirt and the purse were my moms. As a little kid, that skirt was a favorite of mine for dress-up. I would wear it hiked up to my armpits because it was way too long for me.

I'm still playing with the length today. As I sort of mentioned before, I'm trying to branch out of my comfort zone with certain shapes of garments. I talked about wanting to get comfortable exposing my belly in crop tops, and now I'm trying longer skirts. I find I often feel frumpy in anything that goes past the knee, and I feel most comfortable in short little things. I didn't want to wear this skirt at it's full, ankle length glory, so I folded over the wide elastic waistband a few times and belted it. And I'm happy! This was one of those outfits that come together perfectly. I've decided I like this length of skirt, so let's consider the experiment a success. At least as far as this particular skirt is concerned, I am no longer afraid of longer lengths. Although I do insist on heels. I think flats would bring me right back to frumpville.

30 Days of Fun (1-3)

So the always inspiring Maggie of Mighty Girl just started a really wonderful project. For 30 days, she will do something fun every day. Although this came out of some negativity in her life right now, which I am not facing, I love the idea and am stealing it for myself. So for the next 30 days, I will do, photograph, and post something fun every day. Actually, I will post every three days so it's not so overwhelming, resulting in ten posts of fun over the next month. I only heard about this today, but I did really fun things Saturday and Sunday, so I'm starting the 30 days with Saturday.

Saturday, Day 1: Went on sketchy carnival rides.

Sunday, Day 2: Saw my friends' band play.

Monday, Day 3: Ate a cookie and watched Kids In The Hall sketches on youtube.

I'm already thinking ahead to fun things I can do in the coming days. Obviously, they don't have to be huge, but just something that makes me happy. If you have any suggestions of fun things to do, tell me! What are YOU going to do that's fun?

so jai pitted thai

Today was spent being lazy, painting my nails red, and drinking gin until ShyGuy (he's not actually shy) picked me and Big J up to go to Seattle and see L Train's band play at Neumos. They're called So Pitted and I'm liking them more and more. We saw them play last night too, at the Blue Moon, but that was a bit last minute since they were filling in for another one of his bands.

I liked them, the other bands...not so much, so we left and tried to find something to eat. Unfortunately the mexican place we wanted to go to was closed (not surprising on a Sunday night near midnight) so we went to a thai restaurant that's open late. Even though I stuffed myself with delicious curry (Jai Thai also has amazing "Country Style Pad Thai" which I had a few bites of and decided is way better than the regular stuff), I am now eating a yummy and cute cookie Big J made for me as thanks for lending her my car when she was in a pickle. 

All that tastiness paired with hanging out with my bestie, an old friend who I'm just starting to see more of, and assorted friends/acquaintances/cute boys at the show has put me in a fantastic mood.

shirt - designed by tavi, cutoffs - diy, polka dot tights - target, boots - thrifted, purse - thrifted coach

This picture was taken on the scaffolding we've been using to refinish the shingles on our house. I thought it looked neat so I climbed up there right before heading out for the show. I think it makes for a kind of neat picture. I've started cuffing the sleeves of this shirt and decided I really like cuffed tshirts because it reminds me of greasers and The Outsiders. I also really like this shorts/tights combo, but every time I wear tights with shorts my mom thinks it's so weird. She never says it looks bad but she just seems kind of puzzled. Today she kept asking me if the show I was going to was "very casual" and telling me I looked "nice but casual. This is from a woman who hates to dress up and was at the time wearing stained shorts and a tie dye tee.

strawberries pt. 1

shirt - weekdays (copenhagen), jeans - uo, boots - thrifted, jacket - cotton on (sydney)

I picked massive amounts of strawberries both this day and the next. I'll post pictures from that later since there was a lot. This day I was just tired and it rained a bit and I was kind of dirty but I picked 14 lbs of strawberries. This field is my favorite pick-your-own place. Berries are only $1 per pound and all the employees are high school boys. While we were picking, on of them was leaning against the little shack they weigh your berries in, playing acoustic guitar. I don't really like listening to people play acoustic guitar and I think most people that whip out a guitar at any opportunity are annoying, but it was kind of perfect. Small town, cute fresh faced high school boy, playing something super generic while he sits around at his lazy summer job. He also flirted with me a bit when he showed us where to pick, in a funny awkward way and complimented me on my glasses.

pie for breakfast

slip - liberty of london for target, tights - target

Sometimes you just need an incredibly lazy day, and that's what today was. I never actually changed out of this Liberty print slip and some ripped tights, and I spent the whole day in bed eating leftover strawberry rhubarb pie with ice cream, reading, and watching Mad Men. Yeah, I missed out on that until now. I had caught a few episodes at other people's houses but I just illegally downloaded (shhh) all 4 seasons and am totally bingeing on all the early 60s greatness. I wore a dress that reminds me of Joan Holloway except I don't have her curves the other day. But I think Peggy Olson might be my hero and I love her goofy little bangs.

I just finished reading Vanity Fair by Thakeray, which was great. A novel without a hero, yes, but thoroughly entertaining. Now I've been alternating some short stories by Fitzgerald with another beast of a book, Infinite Jest. My friend Amanda assures the that about 150 pages in, it gets interesting and readable, but I will admit that I have been stuck in the first few pages, unable to really get into it. However, our informal book club and her encouragement will hopefully get me past that and I can start yet another slog. It seems lately all I read are enormous, important books. Anyone have anything light and fluffy to read? I have enjoyed some Jeeves stories by Wodehouse, and was thinking about picking up some more Nero Wolf books. I need light but fun things like that to read while at work.

summer slurpees

I just finished up with a 2 1/2 week housesitting gig last week. For a lot of the time I was just bored and sick, but towards the end I was really enjoying being able to walk to work and hanging out in town. The walk to work was very pleasant, although as the weather got warmer I got a little overheated sometimes. It was interesting to be so much IN a town, and I spent a lot of time observing people and thinking about summer.

Growing up out of town, really kind of in the woods, I never had a neighborhood to hang out in or a lot of other kids to play with. To see my friends, we had to get a parent to drive us to the other kid's house, so there was no spontaneous dropping by. And as I got older, I couldn't walk to the store for treats, or to the mall or movie theater. I couldn't even bike anywhere, not to town or even a friend's house. Everything was far away. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE where I live, where I grew up, and I think I am incredibly lucky to have had all this amazing nature surrounding me. But staying in Redmond reminded me of all those things I missed. I saw kids walking around town as I walked home after work, buying Slurpees at 7-11, waiting for the bus, riding bikes and skateboards. They had places to go, they were meeting up with friends, some of them were probably getting in trouble. They were always in groups, and the ones I noticed the most were all pretty young. Too young to drive, so they walked, in the still hot but beginning to cool off, still light but starting to get dark evening.

Maybe this is just because I love summer nights so much, but I started imagining what they were going to do. Not that there's a lot you can do when you're 14, but I missed that whole free summer thing. My summers were more about reading books by myself in my backyard than wandering around unsupervised. Obviously a lot of them were just out walking around because there was nothing else to do. The same impulse that makes malls crowded with kids who aren't buying anything. A lot of them were going to the skate park, which I walked past every night. They were buying soda and candy and maybe some popsicles. I'm sure there were some girls who picked out the perfectly casual cool outfit to meet up with that one really cute boy. On Fridays, I know that some of them had to have been heading to the Firehouse, the teen center that all your favorite high school bands play at (I frequented that place a lot in high school, but it always involved begging one of our parents for a ride). They might have been going to a movie, but more likely just going to sit in the park in a big group. Some of them were certainly going to get in trouble, whether they had an older brother who promised to buy them beer, or they were going to smoke pot in the wooded corner of the park or behind some unused building. They were doing the kinds of things kids are supposed to do when they get out of school for the summer. The air was warm, they didn't need that jacket their moms told them to take, and they were free.

shirt - weekdays (copenhagen), skirt - thrifted, tights - target, boots - thrifted

So while I was in Redmond, I guess I tried to recapture that sort of summer. This particular day, I got slurpees with my friend and went for a walk before work, then randomly ran into this girl I knew after work, who invited me to hang out by the river with her friends and eat candy. Then we went to an open mic night where curly haired gingers played bad Bright Eyes covers and I ended up getting a drink with some random. It involved a lot of wandering around town. I also got called a hipster multiple times, which honestly puzzled me because I didn't think this outfit was that hip. And each time, the person obviously thought that would offend me but it really just made me laugh. I mean, the more you deny being a hipster, the more of a hipster you are.

skating! fireworks! keyboards! barbecue!

Guys, I had such a blast yesterday! The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I think because I just love summer! JAR hung out at Amanda's with her family. We ate SO MUCH good food. We had sangria, like 5 different kinds of chips and guacamole, watermelon, kebabs, potato salad, green salad from the garden, beer, brownies, and lots of candy. Summer barbecue foods are my favorite! I loooove potato salad and watermelon so so much.

We lit off some smoke bombs in the front yard before it got dark and we headed to Carnation for the big fireworks. I loved Liam's matching outfit/smoke. It should be an album cover or something, don't you think? It's fun watching Liam get so into the fireworks. He was setting up all sorts of "funny" shots, like making it look like he was farting smoke or smoke was coming out of the car's exhaust. These two of J and him are my favorites though.

Then of course we busted out the keyboard that was in my car, the most ghetto-fabulous kid-style keyboard ever. It's a Casio Rapman, with scratch and voice effects. I think we might have written some songs, sitting on the hood of my car. I keep a lot of random things for entertainment in my car. In addition to the keyboard, there's usually a skateboard (which shows up later in this post), a kite, sometimes an inflatable raft, and all sorts of other things.

shirt - handmade (london), jeans - uo, boots - thrifted, jacket (not pictured) - cotton on (sydney)

I bought this tank at the Greenwich Market while I was in London. I love the print, but I might still be struggling with the shape. I'm trying to get comfortable showing my abdomen, but I don't think I'm totally there yet. But I want to wear tons of crop tops this summer, so I need to get comfortable. This outfit was fun because it reminded me of two different trips, the London visit, of course, and also once it cold dark and cold and I put on my jacket, I was reminded of my trip to Australia when I bought my favorite summer jacket ever. That thing gets so much use. 

While we were hanging out in the front yard, I found my old skateboard in my trunk and we started goofing around. I was trying to ollie, but I'm not very good. Summer always makes me want to skate, so I think I'll try some more this year. I know I'm never going to be any good, but I'd like to be able to do a few simple tricks and just be comfortable on a skateboard. Enough that I can fool around and have fun with skating.

After getting home from the fireworks in Carnation, which were a little disappointing this year, to be honest, we lit more sparklers and Amanda's brothers lit a bunch of other fireworks. Some pretty good ones actually. Shane and Shiloh came over too, and I had too much to drink and teased everyone. I really love my friends!