Ginsberg & Plath

They had an after-hours fundraising gala at the library next door, complete with costume contest. The requirements were to dress as a character or an author, so Franklin & I went as Allen Ginsberg & Sylvia Plath -  even though we kind of already dress like Ginsberg & Plath on a regular basis, hahaha.

By the way, that painting you see on the table there? I bought it from a ten-year-old girl at a craft fair I where I was selling brooches.  Anyway, it's actually a really awesome painting.

Summertime Clothes

Outfit Details:
Everything: thrifted
Shoes: Minnetonka

I'm really bad at dressing for warm weather. Like, getting dressed kinda stresses me out in the summertime - what am I supposed to do without sweaters?! I've found that if I stick to this formula, though, I'll be okay: an airy skirt + a tank top + an overshirt. The overshirt kinda satisfies my need for layers without making me feel all hot and miserable.

In other news: I just got back from a crazy last minute road trip to-and-from Southern California. My grandma passed away last week, and Franklin, my sister & I drove down to attend her funeral. The drive is about 20 hours each way, and we didn't stop to rest. It was crazy. I don't think I've known what true exhaustion was before this weekend, haha. I'm glad we went, though. Funerals are important for your soul, I think.

Anyway, I hope ya'll are having a great summer!
I'm going to go drink a few whiskey-gingers & call it a night.

-Elizabeth

Purty in Pink

What I wore to see Camera Obscura last night:

OUTFIT DETAILS:
pink scalloped dress: tjmaxx, three ena
knee-highs: fred meyer
oxfords: thrifted, rockport
record player brooch: handmade (not in the shop yet, though)

I found this awesome vintage king-sized sheet at the thrift store, and we're using it as a photo backdrop in our bedroom. I want to start taking weekly family portraits with Franklin in front of it - I think it'll be fun. Maybe we'll change the backdrop every season? So many possibilities. Oh, I'm excited :)

Camera Obscura was amazing, by the way. Danced the night away to my favorite songs, and I even made eye contact with Tracyanne Campbell, heehee. They played French Navy during the encore, and it made me so so happy. Anyway, I had a good time. I never thought I'd see 'em live, so I'm a very happy girl.

-Elizabeth

Cat Lady, Hat Lady

I feel like all I wear lately is my preschool-teacher smock and its accompanying drool-and-mashed-potato-caked jeans. Toddlers are messy! and exhausting. When I get home, all I want to do is shower, put on some sweats and go to bed. It was nice to dress like myself for once, ahh.  Also, you can't tell very well in these pictures, but I dyed my hair! it's kinda coppery red.

OUTFIT DETAILS:
sweatshirt: thrifted
bandana: thrifted
hat: thrifted
skirt: thrifted
belt: thrifted
shoes: minnetonka
cat lady brooch: stoic + pariah handmade (listed here)

Right after I came back inside from taking photos, we got some crazy sun showers, which resulted in a perfect rainbow! We could see the end of it, right in our yard - but when we tried to run toward it, it just kept getting further away, hahaha. Tricky illustions. Oh, what fun though :) The lighting was amazing. I tried to take some pictures, but it just didn't do it any justice. So we just used our EYES to look at it, haha.

Sometimes I have to resist the urge to record everything photographically, 'cause otherwise I forget to experience it myself, with all my senses, and I start treating it like a memory while it's still happening. Sometimes taking photos helps make something memorable, but sometimes you just have to live it and leave the camera at home. Not all the time - just sometimes. Ya know what I mean?

Anyway. I should probably get out of these wet clothes and change into those sweats now, so I can go watch netflix & fall asleep. I hope you like the outfit! It feels so nice to get out of my grubby work clothes and stop feeling like preschool teacher.

-Elizabeth

PS: fourth season of arrested development in less than a week! are you guys excited or what?

Ferry Fotos

What happens when you miss your ferry and get stuck waiting in your car for hours? Ya read a lot, and eat a lot of snacks, and take outfit photos in the car! I probably could have found a sweet rocky beach to take outfit photos, but it was windy, and short skirts + wind are a terrible combination, so I stayed safe inside the hull of my vessel :)

1. Crocheted hair bows I started making. I think I might sell 'em in the shop, and super cheap, 'cause it doesn't take me forever to make them, like the brooches do.
2. A view from the ferry dock.
3. I like wearing lots of brooches at once. It makes me feel like a scout, like I earned a bunch of merit badges or something. I'm wearing a crochet fiend badge of honor (like this one, in the shop), and a pie brooch that I kept from the twin peaks series I did last year.
4. Franklin, finishing up Clash of the Kings. He's so far ahead of me :( Now he's in the middle of the third book, and I can't catch up. Sigh!

-Elizabeth

Mathy music + plus signs

We went to see Maps + Atlases last night - it was great! I thought it would be fitting to wear my plus-sign print dress to see a somewhat math-rock sorta band. It was such a small, warm little show, and they played the perfect mix of old and new songs. Also, I drank lots of chai-infused whiskey and danced until my body hurt, haha.

OUTFIT DETAILS:
math dress: H+M
belt, sweater, oxfords: thrifted
brooch: handmade (I can't seem to stop wearing this one, haha)

I don't know if it was the chai whiskey (it was) but I started to feel all giddy and one-with-everything. I started thinking about how crazy it is just to EXIST at all, and how silly it is to spend any of this time we have worrying (I worry lots) or being self-conscious. So I danced like mad & conversed with as many strangers as I could. It's like a natural physical reaction to music, dancing. So when you're at a show, and nobody's dancing, it's like, why are you all restraining yourselves? dance! It's good for you.

-Elizabeth

Of Changing Names

OUTFIT DETAILS:
Sweater: j.crew
Top: handmade
Skirt: thrifted
Shoes: rockport
Brooch: stoic & pariah (Record Player Brooch)

I finally changed my last name! It's so weird that the last name I was born with, and identified with for 24 years, has just been expelled from my legal name and replaced with a new one. Also, it's surprisingly difficult to change one's signature. My first name gets scribbled so effortlessly, and sloppily, while my new last name stands out all self-aware and awkward. I'll get the hang of it eventually, and make it mine, but right now I'm still adjusting, haha.

In other news: I had a surprisingly good experience with the DMV today. Is that a rare occurence or what? I've spent my life believing in that universal truth - that all people who work at the DMV are inexplicably grumpy & mean. But today, I had a really nice, friendly old guy help me with my license renewal, and I was so shocked! That was, until I had to go see the lady that takes the pictures, and she lived up to my previous expectations of a DMV employee, haha - what a crank!

What I'm listening to: Let Me Go Home - Camera Obscura
What I'm drinking: PORT!

-Elizabeth

What I wore today: Franklin's Sweater

Today we went to this grange, where we got married back in April, to take some pictures. I lost my engagement ring right after the ceremony, so we poked around in the grass to see if we could find it. We didn't. But that's okay, 'cause it served its purpose, right? Oh, but that would have been SO awesome if we found it, haha.

OUTFIT DETAILS:
button-up shirt: Nordstrom -thrifted
wool skirt: American Eagle -thrifted
black tie: stolen long ago from my older brother (and I think he got in NJROTC, haha)
brown oxfords: Rockport -thrifted
green sweater: Challenger -borrowed from Franklin, but also thrifted!

I love old buildings. Mossy steps & rusty railings. It looks a little neglected, but it's definitely well-loved. The Rexville Grange, ahh. It has so much history, and so many people in the community have a really strong connection to it. I'm so glad we got married here, because now we have a connection to it, too :) huzzah! Someone at the corner store told my parents that the place is haunted, but we haven't heard anything besides that. There ARE some weird orb things in some of our wedding pictures though! haha. Who knows.

What I'm listening to: Black Sand - Jenny Lewis
What I'm drinking: leftover boxed wine from new year's eve, yes!

Have a lovely night, my dears!
-Elizabeth

1960s Cocktail Party Fun!

For New Year's Eve, we threw a 1960s cocktail party at our house. It was so much fun! Low lighting, old records constantly a-spin, and toothpick-stabbed appetizers galore. We scored a fancy metal cocktail shaker at the thrift store, to make fancy things like manhattans and martinis. (But I ended up just drinking spiced rum & coke all night, heehee!)

Most of our friends play music, so we cleared out the living room and set up all our music equipment so we could have a sort of open mic with all our friends. (My favorite part of the night was when Franklin & our friend Henry played weezer songs from the blue album. Oh, sweet nostalgia.)

A video of our friends Jeremy (Leaf Colors)&  Henry (The Fortnight) playing Auld Lang Syne. It is so much fun to listen to drunk people play music. It's all sorts of chaotic hollering and clattering madness, I love it. I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve! My resolution is to be more social, and go on more adventures. What about you guys?

-Elizabeth

Bricks & Burritos

Hooray for matching Franklin today!
His style is like a weird bohemian grandpa bum, which I totally dig. So I embraced it and wore a few extra layers to really emphasize that homeless look, haha. I think we really captured each others' awkwardness with these pictures, don't you?:

I made him wear this Kerouac brooch set I made, because it fit today's vibe pretty well. We had every intention to screech up to our friends' house, and force them go to Tacoma with us, but we chickened out and texted them instead. They were busy. So we turned around and went home to drink whiskey & coke and make music. On the way back, we stopped by this burrito place that boasts their baby-sized burritos. Not baby burritos. Baby-sized burritos. I'd say the description was pretty accurate:

And now, stomachs full and heads a-buzz with whiskey, we're off to go make music in the attic band room.

What we're listening to right now: Nirvana - where did you sleep last night?

-Elizabeth

Floral & Teal

Look who joined the glasses-wearin' club. I couldn't see very far driving, and every day was ending with a really awful migraine (my worst enemy). So I got me some glasses, and now I can see. My headaches are way less frequent, which is the most awesome thing ever. Oh yeah, and being able to see while driving on the freeway, is also pretty sweet.

With my new job & Franklin's new job, our weekends have meaning again. This weekend was: thrifting, sushi dates, playing duck hunt using the sweet Konami NES laserscope Franklin found at the thrift store, watching daria, and drinking ovaltine. I have a bunch of brooches I'm workin' on for the shop, and I swore to myself I'd finish them this weekend, but that didn't happen. This weekend was for relaxing. and LOTS of thrift store shopping, yikes. I spent a little too much money, I think. I think the act of shopping-but-not-buying is really fun for me, too. I like to fill up a cart at the thrift store, and then have Franklin convince me I don't need any of it, and then I usually put it all back, hahaha. But the act of putting it in the cart is fun stuff, in my book. What a weirdo.

Franklin and I are going to start carpooling to work with each other starting today! I've never carpooled before. It makes me feel all grown up and stuff. Look at me, all married & carpooling and requiring glasses to drive -what a lady! Anyway, yeah. In other news: I had the girl at the coffee stand make me a pumpkin spice latte, with egg nog instead of milk, and it was AWESOME. I have dubbed it "the holiday drink" and I vow to have one weekly. Maybe. Maybe I shouldn't. No, no - I definitely should.

What I'm listening to: Dogs - Page France
What I'm excited for today: drinking coffee out of my new coffee cup! haha.

-Elizabeth

What I Wore Today: Navy & Burnt Orange

Today, I went thrifting with Franklin. Remember what I said about him keeping me from buying stuff I don't need? Yeah. That didn't really work out today. You see, we found this thrift store less than a mile from our house, and, it was AMAZING. It's kind of hidden, and I think it's really only frequented by old ladies. The mark of a truly great thrift store, if you ask me. This is one of those places that you DO NOT tell your friends about, haha. It's our special little treasure chest, and we're keeping it a secret, heehee. We'll post up a picture later with all of the cool stuff we scored, but for now, you just get to see what I wore on our thrifting adventure:

sweater: thrifted // shirt: thrifted// shoes: minnetonka// owl brooch: stoic & pariah
leather satchel: thrifted //pants: urban outfitters (clearance!)

This is probably my favorite shirt. Which means: I never ever wear it, haha. It's like I treasure it so much, that I don't want any harm to come to it. Both the shirt and the satchel were finds during the western day sale at goodwill (from different years, haha). When it comes to my favorite outfits, there is usually a unusual, somewhat bright color in the mix. I'm always drawn toward burnt orange, mustard yellow, or kelly green. They are like, my favorite colors to wear, I think. And I'm so happy that fall is here, because all of my favorite clothes are for chilly weather! The past two days have been wonderfully grey and rainy, and I remember now, why I choose to live here :)

After taking the above outfit photos, on the way out the door, I stumbled over our mail, which contained a much-anticipated package from ANYKIND! It had two lovely lovely bows in it, and this is the one I've been sporting all day (It's my new favorite!):

I was so excited to get this in the mail today! I am seriously in love with my new bows. They feel super famous, too, 'cause one of my favorite bloggers made them! haha. (Thank you Jesse, you make such lovely things!)

And now, I am going to go have my fourth cup of coffee for today. I'm so tired - this week has wiped me out! I just started a new full-time job as a preschool teacher assistant! It's super hard work, but super fun, and every cute little smile and every little giggle I hear makes the job super worthwhile. I love it.

What I'm listening to: Montezuma by Fleet Foxes

okay, time for more coffee!
-Elizabeth