baby it's cold outside

In preparation for a project that I'll be starting in a couple weeks, I decided to venture beyond my balcony to take pictures yesterday. There's some awkwardness to be overcome in the whole setting up a tripod to take pictures of yourself in a public place thing. I thought it would be best to try it the first time when it was twenty-five degrees out, and no one in their right mind was at the park. (I am not, by the way, included in that "in their right mind" category for the purposes of this story.)

Here are some of the lessons that I learned the hard way on this adventure:
1. Always wear gloves until the last possible second.
2. Bring boots with good traction if the grass is going to be covered in a quarter inch of ice.
3. Do not wander far from your car because of a pretty tree. You won't take any pictures of it anyway, and it will take that much longer to get back once your fingers have started to turn blue.

Yeah, it was really cold.  So cold that I had no option but to use a Christmas song title for the title of the post (and an overdone one at that).  I left with only two good pictures because I couldn't feel my fingers to press the buttons on the camera anymore.  I think I did a pretty good job acting like I was having fun, though, don't you?  And that red wall is fantastic.

dress-as-skirt/thrifted, shoes&sweater&belt&necklace/target, tights/?

itty bitty living space

We'll get this out of the way first: these pictures are kind of awful.  My skirt's all wrinkled, the lighting's off, and my the couch clashes with the red. (Not that I dress to match my furniture. That would be weird.)  I edited the heck out of them, and I think it just made it worse.  So there's that.

Then there's the awesome optical illusion that I didn't mean to create. I wasn't even going to post these pictures for the reasons mentioned above, but I couldn't resist once I saw the trick they played on me.

Do you see it?  I'll give you a minute. (hint: it's way more pronounced in the second picture)

skirt/ann taylor loft, shirt&earrings/thrifted, tights&cardigan/target, boots/rough hewn, belt/h&m

On the internet, giving you a minute means you have to scroll down. It's true. Spoiler space.

Did you figure it out? I look disproportionately large.

But why, you ask? Or you didn't ask, probably. I'm still going to tell you. It's the bookshelf on the left side!  You probably can't tell it's a bookshelf; it looks like the corner of the wall.  But since the bookshelf is significantly shorter than the wall, it creates the illusion that the ceiling is also much lower than in reality.

I am a giant living in a tiny dollhouse!

I don't have a whole lot more to say about these pictures.  I got bangs. Argyle tights are better than other tights.

I have to go stomp around a tiny village now. Then build a house on top of a beanstalk. No time to waste!

grey ships pass into the west

I've been holding on to these pictures for a few days, because I didn't really have a grasp on what I wanted to say with them. They feel somehow wistful to me, and I wasn't sure what to do with that. I just knew I wanted to do it justice.

I love this scarf. I thrifted it last week, and I had to wear it immediately. It has a great western vibe (without going too far into cowgirl) that I find myself drawn to increasingly when I'm shopping for clothes.

Why is that? What is so appealing about that particular aesthetic right now? It definitely has visual intrigue - just look at the pattern on this scarf. You notice something new every time.

Or maybe it's the colors - the rich browns and oranges and blues and greens (in general, not just on the scarf). Sometimes it feels more natural to dress in colors that come straight from the earth, like the clothes are really an extension of creation, instead of something measured and produced by machines.

Ultimately, though, I think it's about all of the ideas that have become intrinsic to "The West" over time. Despite the fact that it has been mostly settled for a while now, there's still this sense of freedom and adventure and purpose that accompanies our collective mental image of "going out west." In fact, it reminds me of a lot of the concepts that are woven into the practice of pilgrimage - something that I spent a lot of time with last year as I applied for a fellowship to study and practice it.

This year, though, I'm not feeling like a pilgrim. On the contrary, I'm feeling pretty stagnant. I've settled into a daily routine - get up, have some coffee, check facebook, go to work, come home for dinner, go to the gym, watch a TV show, go to bed, with a few variations. I may go to small group instead of the gym, or write a blog post or bake biscotti instead of watching TV.

You would think that moving to a new city would be like exploring a new frontier, but it has mostly magnified my restlessness. I guess I’m searching for my pilgrimage here, for that “west” that I can strive toward - something adventurous and purposeful. And I don’t like the thought of losing that to routine. 

I don’t have any specific thoughts on this, really, just identifying the general longing to find the journey God has set out for me, even if I’m traveling it from my apartment.

Dressing the part must be the first step

jeans/target,shirt/gap,jacket&scarf/thrifted,boots/nine west

This has become one of those things that I talked about in my first post, something that I want to fold up tightly and hide in my pocket to keep just for me.  It feels fragile, like a single wrong word will shatter the truth of it, and maybe letting people read it will do the same thing.  But as fun as it is to write about baking pop-tarts and what I'm wearing (and I will continue to do so), these are the kinds of posts that stretch me, that hold the most worth for me, and that share who I am more than the lighter topics.

So despite the fact that I may have a minor panic attack letting this piece of me out, I'm going to let it go anyway.  What about you? Do you have a "west" that you're traveling towards right now?

from a foggy thursday

Yesterday we had the kind of fog where driving anywhere, even down neighborhood streets, makes you feel like you're alone in the middle of a vast, empty field.  A vast empty field where the wind and bugs and birds sound oddly like car motors.

During drives like that, I sometimes like to pretend I'm in the middle of a "dark and stormy night" mystery novel or an X-Files episode.  It makes the ride to work a lot more exciting.  And a little creepy.

Don't worry, though, I have yet to be actually abducted by aliens.

skirt&cardigan/ann taylor loft, shirt&belt&boots/target, tights/gap?

Taking decent pictures was almost impossible with the fog. It was already hard enough to make it look like this skirt wasn't a size too big (and meant to be worn hip level). I did, however, feel pretty good about the fact that I didn't think twice before mixing prints. Look how daring I can be.

come on spring

Happy Valentine's Day!  Yes, two days later.  I hold that one day should not have a monopoly on heart-shaped chocolates. The adorable one above is from a small gift that all of the employees at work received in our mailboxes on Monday. And while, as a non-bitter single person, I feel neither animosity nor particular excitement towards Valentine's Day, I am always appreciative of surprise chocolate.

However, I am even more excited about what Valentine's Day means in terms of the larger picture - springtime!

Or at least that's what it meant when I lived in Memphis. Wisconsin doesn't seem to have gotten the memo.

But I don't really care what Wisconsin thinks.  I am dressing for spring anyway.

Okay, I know I said that I didn't think I would be style-blogging. And honestly, this outfit is not exactly daring or creative (also my hair is slightly wet). But I just couldn't resist the challenge of taking interesting pictures with nothing but a point-and-shoot, my balcony, a table, and about fifteen minutes to edit. And it was a lot of fun. So there you have it.

The crazy thing is, we actually have a high of fifty degrees today.  You know how many degrees above freezing that is?  Eighteen. That's right. We beat you today, winter.  All that snow you can see in the background of the first picture - it might actually melt!

Or, you know, we may end up with five inches left instead of ten. As the optimist that I try to be, I choose to see that as half melted instead of half frozen. Or something

With that kind of thinking, the groundhog's prediction, and the flowers on my shirt, spring might actually be convinced to come visit Wisconsin a little early! I can always hope.

Dreaming of the days when I can ride a bike outside

jeans&shirt/ann taylor loft, cardigan/target, belt/don't know, shoes/thrifted-old navy