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

Of Erasers and Tracing Paper

Tracing paper is my best friend. I've been working on a children's book the last few days - trying to take advantage of my time off from work. I'm done with writing, and just started illustrating! I've just got a few rough sketches, but here's what the last few days have looked like to me:

Erasers are also my best friend, haha. Oh, and it's going to be SUPER short, in terms of text. It's about feeling like nobody gets you, and having crappy self esteem, because those are things I struggled with a lot that were never addressed anywhere, so, yeah! It has a happy ending, though. I'm gonna scan it all in and color it digitally in photoshop. I just get too scared to go at it with paint and pen - so permanent! My goal was to have a complete self-published copy finished before I turn 25 - which is on February 5th - so I gotta get a move on. Wish me luck! :)



-Elizabeth

Christmas with the Leon-Guerreros

Before Franklin and I head out to spend time with family on christmas, we like to have our own little private christmas at home, just the two of us. This was our first christmas together as a married couple, huzzah! and we've already acquired some sweet holiday traditions:

1. make the house smell like breakfast
2. wear silly hats

 What I got Franklin: Vintage Suzuki Omnichord, Vintage GE Keyboard, Clash of the Kings

My favorite part of christmas was Franklin's reactions to his gifts, haha. Doesn't he look so happy in that last picture? ha! I see christmas gifts as an opportunity to show him how well I know him :) I think I did pretty good this year, heehee. If you've never heard of an omnichord, here's a demo video I found on youtube for your viewing pleasure: CLICK HERE to see what an omnichord sounds like!

What Franklin got me: Diana F+ lomography camera, Speedball screenprinting kit, a Camera Obscura record and a REALLY AWESOME DRAFTING TABLE!

I've been super obsessed with my new Diana F+ camera. It's completely manual, right down to opening and closing the shutter. It takes 120 film, which I've never used before, but I'm oh so excited to see how my photos turn out. After looking through all the photo albums at Franklin's grandma's house, it makes me really want to be more conscious about collecting tangible photos for future generations to gaze upon. It's sad how all my photographic memories are digital, and if my computer crashed, they'd be lost forever.

Anyway, how was everyone's christmas? I hope it was fun! It gets hard to make your own christmas and find your way of cultivating that christmas spirit when you get older, without feeling like you're trying too hard to recreate your own childhood memories. but you get there eventually! I feel like we finally got there this year. It definitely helps to wear silly hats, I tell ya what.

-Elizabeth

An Eventful Eve

Franklin's sister, Lindsey, came to visit for christmas, and today was her last day. We went to their grandma's house to exchange gifts, but their grandma was out running errands, so we snuck in and hung out in her house all day - unsupervised! haha. We went rummaging through old photo albums and peeking in drawers in search of their old memories. It was actually the most fun I've had in a long time. Here are some pictures from our unsupervised adventuring:

1. Old photos of Franklin's grandparents, their sweet old camper van, and their cute corgi.
2. The greatest wall I've ever laid eyes on.
3. So much wood paneling... drool.
4. Franklin kept us warm with his manly fire-making skills
5. Franklin showing me a sweet old book he found. What a handy man!

Also, after admiring Lindsey's outfit, I asked her if I could take a picture of her so I could post it on the blog. She agreed. When we were taking the pictures, there was a really grand painting of waves crashing behind her, and with her loose shirt and high boots, it made her look all sorts of swashbuckling. So we gave her a bottle of rum to use as a prop, and she posed for me so I could make this animated gif of her being very awesome. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT. Haha, what a good sport. I miss her already!

-Elizabeth

Christmas Post Cards, weee!

I've been workin' on a post card design to send out in lieu of a christmas card this year. It took me a few weekends to finish it because, during the work-week, the only thing I can manage to do when I get home is eat and sleep - so the weekend is my only time to work on any sort of creative endeavor. Unfortunately, it is also the only time I can sleep half the day, so not much gets done, ha! I think I'll print them out on card stock, and find some square envelopes to send them out in. It is hip to be square, after all.

My parents flew up to surprise my sister & I this week. It feels so normal to have them within hugging distance, so when they visit it feels like they never left. When they fly back home to California is when it'll start to feel all sorts of weird and surreal. I wish they lived back in Washington!

What I'm listening to: Animal Collective - Brother Sport

-Elizabeth


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