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Anna! If you guys thought I was scamming you to get more followers by now I wouldn’t blame you, but thank you all who entered my two year blog anniversary giveaway! And sorry for my delay; things really were a lot to manage with my day job and wrapping up year one of grad school. Anna, you should see an email from me right around now.

I put the names into Excel (so they were numbered) and then used random.org to generate a number. Hopefully that’s how you’re supposed to do one of these things. Thanks so much everyone who entered, thanks for following along here on the blog, and for supporting my non-profit shop!

Outfit details: bracelet, necklace (gift- story here) & dress- handmade in Mexico; felt hat- thrifted; boots- vintage (Ebay); hand woven belt (my e-shop here).

If you follow me on Instagram/Twitter you’ll have heard the sad news about our little Ole, so needless to say I haven’t really been in the mood to do a post since then. But since I already had this one ready, here it is: for this outfit I went with the same version of the one I wore way back here. I was trying to do some layering to make a different version of this skirt of a dress but that was proving complicated so why fix what’s not broken right? This skirt from a little market in Mexico doubles perfectly as a dress and I always love a woven belt for some extra originality, so on it went with combat boots (which I always think completely change the look) and my bright blue felt hat!

Also, after all the spring blossoms, I wanted to share what the real desert spring looks like. This is in a nearby park and should be more like how the scenery looks everywhere than how our backyard looks, which I mention because I keep thinking of how Kristian commented on this post that she was surprised to see so much green. I forget that if you’re not from here you wouldn’t know the sad truth… most landscape in the Phoenix area is ridiculously wasteful of water in order to be insanely green (and by ridiculously wasteful and insanely green I really mean it! I bike by sprinklers on the same patch of lawns every single morning and they are like psychedelic green). But our rental place is in an old neighborhood where we are fortunate to have irrigation, so I don’t feel bad about wasting the grey water and we get to enjoy a sometimes green lawn and a crazy little jungle yard.

(And a huge thanks to Jen for making both graphics! : )

Outfit details: hat, sandals, blazer, shorts- thrifted (shorts last seen here); bracelet-hand made in Mexico; shirt: c/o Whoop Tee via Adrian.

As you can see I’m a little bit obsessed with the oleander blossoms around my neighborhood. This time instead of using our own as a backdrop, I stood in front of a neighbor’s yard, pretending to act cool and collected for you all while these adorable-looking dogs barked up a storm. My eleven year old self would’ve been terrified. (I was attacked by a neighbor’s dog then but was bit on the back and not hurt majorly and then overcame my fear of dogs not too long after for a random “about me.”) But anyway, speaking of dogs, you know who has some majorly sweet pups? The awesome gal I won this top from, Adrian! Her husband Jayare is a super talented tattoo artist and actually drew the adorable graphic for this top and I was a lucky winner of my own Adrian-as-an-owl-shirt! Thanks again for such a fun giveaway Adrian and for helping my t-shirt collection grow (I hardly own any nowadays). Also, you can check out how cutie Adrian styled her own here and here!

P.S. With my little blog hiatus I forgot to tell you all, we’re having a giveaway on the Flock Together blog; enter to win a $75 gift card to Modcloth!

I’m a little late in the day here, but I wanted to share a video I enjoyed yesterday. Or actually link to it I should say; I didn’t see an option to embed the video so you’ll have to click here to view it. The topic of negotiation came up during my elective class this past Saturday, and our professor recommended the website http://leanin.org/. This site may not be news to you and may not seem relevant to this blog, but I know a lot of us are professionals and small business owners (or will be soon) so I thought it was worth sharing.

And, I’m sure you have heard this one by now: a woman is seen as too demanding and not nice while a man is seen neutrally (at worst) in the same negotiation scenario. But, did you know that women actually outperform men when they’re negotiation for another person? Yep, we love standing up for others we care about but we’re (statistically) too chicken to stand up for ourselves. So check out the video for a few helpful tips (which include how she gets crazy shoe bargains using negotiation!).

(Hello readers – today I have one of my very favorite posts ever to share with you all – Marlen sharing how she has made travel possible and some amazing stories and absolutely gorgeous pictures! Thanks so much for your wonderful post Marlen!)

 

Being there six weeks makes it really hard to choose just one story for you, buuuut my favorite town there was Varanasi. It’s the holiest city in India, and this place was nothing short of beautiful. Much like the rest of India, Varanasi decided to kick the idea of an organized grid system for streets, and instead chose to lay out the roads much in the same way a tangled ball of yarn would look like on the carpet.

A mess. A beautiful, frustrating mess.

When walking those roads there’s usually some deep, echoing chant coming from one window or other, with heavy drums dancing with the almost mystic sounding mantras drifting through the alleys. My favorite piece of the town, though, are the ghats, or the stairs that lead into the Ganges. Spanning about two or so miles along the coast, you can spend an afternoon walking down them and blatantly and curiously people-watching.

Specifically, people watching the half-naked Indians washing their bodies and doing leaping cannon balls into it all in the same spot. I can’t tell you how many old lady nip slips I’ve seen. Perched along those same stairs were the Sadhus, the wandering monks and the Holy Men of Shiva that lived in tents pitched up from tarp and shrines and relics built in front of their, er, doorways. They sit completely naked inside, their dreadlocks in a top knot and their whole bodies smeared in the ash from fire, symbolizing that we are born from the ashes of the destruction of Shiva. While we were walking down the ghats we passed one of those tents, and one of the sadhus stuck out a hand and called us in. There we sat for a while with them, learning about their religion and drinking 7up with them, haha! I’d love to tell you more about it, and if you’re interested read my posts in tumblr right here! I was blogging about all my stops there :)

 

 

The oleander (yes, Ole our cat’s namesake) in our backyard are absolutely stunning right now so even though it got up to 100 degrees on Sunday when I took these pictures, I needed to take pictures with them. I decided that The Chickadee in Plum (one of my favorite colors that I’ve surprisingly never featured) went perfectly with the mix of pink and white oleanders. And, since I’m just a few inches too tall to make this tunic into an actual dress and it’s too hot for leggings, out came the steadfast spandex. It may be a bit more grunge 90’s look than I’d intended and I got funny looks at the grocery store, but I’m ok with that.  (And I switched it out for my own The Chickadee in Chili Pepper variety because I never want to risk anything with shop tops).










Outfit details: hat- hand woven in Mexico; boots- vintage Ebay; top- hand embroidered (in my shop here).

It’s sad that it’s getting too hot to enjoy the outdoors already when our backyard is in its full blossom glory, but we were blessed with a very cool April so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Still, it’s hard to think about the next five or so months being unbearably hot. Of arriving from my bike ride home from work covered in sweat. Of avoiding going outside whenever not mandatory. I try to think of it as Phoenix’s winter months where people try to avoid the formidable outdoors, but of course the fiery hot months always make me question living here. It’s especially easy to see why we’re one of the few car free families in these months, and in all honesty we’ve been known to avoid daytime activities for the sake of not biking there in the heat (or waiting around in it for public transportation, which I find even worse). But that’s besides the point, fortunately I can still spend my lunch hours outside in a shady spot, and fortunately my work has lots of gorgeous outdoor areas!

Well, I’m sure you knew that it was actually last Monday, but since it seems to have been under mentioned around these parts, I thought I’d dedicate today’s Media Monday to it. This video is from 2010 and surely is controversial in what it does and does not include, but I thought it was a good one to quickly (without falling asleep) see some legislature that has and hasn’t helped the environment over the past 40 years.

And in case you were wondering, I do have some post ideas relating to Earth Month. I just needed to take a little blog hiatus last week to wrap up my first year of my masters and will be spending evenings this week catching up a bit on well, everything else!

I’m sure we all know that staying away from microwaves all together is the best option because of the creepy radiation and whatnot, but when it comes to popcorn, I can never get the cooking in a pan thing down. It’s supposedly really simple, but when I want a quick snack for a study break, I don’t really want to stand and toss the pan around and then have a wash it later.

So, I present you with this slightly less green but still much better than packaged popcorn (wasteful packaging via a bag in a plastic bag, both of which you toss in the moment, and weird chemicals in your food) option!

All you need to do is line the bottom of a paper bag with whole kernels, fold the top down, set it upright, and microwave for about two minutes (depending on your microwave of course). The best part is you put nothing in the actual bag, so you can re-use it many times over again (please do).

Oh and I can’t forget to mention that this is WAY cheaper than buying microwaveable popcorn bags! And pretty much the only calories are what you top it with, so it’s much better than most snacks.

So I decided compiling all my inspiration from other blogs into one month is just a task I’m not up for. It’s so hard to narrow it down, and I don’t even have too much time to read blogs. So I said, why not share my “muses” more frequently? Maybe I’ll change it to “Bi-Monthly Muses” but that doesn’t have the same ring, but anyway, here are some things and people I’ve enjoyed!

Kristian has the most amazing panoramic shots of rural Wyoming (and super classy outfits to boot :).

I just found out about Mikaela’s blog via the Arizona Blogger Facebook group and am obsessed with the amazing canyoneering she does -like in this post.

I haven’t tried it yet, but this homemade dry shampoo looks like a great all-natural option! (And has two recipes, one for brown and one for blonde hair!)

Jenni totally nailed the classy yet fun and cheery look here (which I find so tough!) with this Flock Together dress swap.

I loved Loulou’s re-use of egg shells here to sprout grass, so creative and she must be an egg boiler pro!

I’m pretty convinced that Ashley was secretly contracted by Anthropologie for her photoshoot here because it’s just so perfect.

This stencil paint is the cutest idea, such a cheery top for spring!

Lisa is a hemming pro – look how cute she made this vintage dress!

And as if I didn’t already have a huge girl crush on Marlen, I’m now obsessed with her posts about her recent trip to India and Nepal. She has some absolutely stunning pictures and amazing writing and fun stories to go along!

I originally wore this same outfit but with my The Chickadee top, but I figured you’ve all seen that one enough so I might as well highlight a piece I’ve never shown on here. So ta-da, here you see a bright pairing of the The Maya in gold! First I tucked it under and up (and didn’t look in the mirror in the back, excuse that fashion slip ; ), but then thought I’d show it loose down as well because I liked the comfy fit. And yes, we took Ole along for this stroll, which is where this few second clip is from.

Trying to hug Ole without touching the top. He didn’t appreciate it.

And Jonny is a total cat abuser.

Ole is staring at a fly on my slacks. Did you notice it?

Outfit details: slacks- Ross ($15); sandals – Buffalo Exchange; hat- thrifted (gift); top- handmade from my shop here; bracelet- handmade (here) w/ a knitted flower clipped on.

On another note, I went on a slacks kick, now that it’ll be too hot for them in another few weeks of course (but never in my office). I’ve been wanting colored pants for a few years now but had been holding off. Since I hadn’t bought anything new in over 2 years (yay!) and I truly could use a pair for work I treated myself (to Ross that is). For some reason I couldn’t find a black pair that fit well, so I ended up with these and some salmon-colored ones. It may be a bit silly to have salmon and red ones, but they’re both office-y material so I justified them both. And you’ll be seeing my salmon ones soon, although I actually wore almost this same outfit with them to work but with my the Chiapa top and a cream cardi. Obviously I’m a bit repetitive in my outfits because I hadn’t realized I almost mirrored the outfit until now. Let’s just say it’s “my look” and call it intentional : ).

Hello! Today I have a guest post from Ashley. I saw her request to support her shop on Twitter, and since I think she’s a pretty awesome lady and I’m a huge fan of small business and going after your dreams, of course I offered the little bit of help I could. I hope you enjoy hearing a bit more about her wife/husband shop and green products!

I’m Ashley from The Gnarly Whale – an all vegan, eco-friendly minimal-ingredient bath and body shop. Today Dus was gracious enough to let me share our story about our company and our dream and I am SO excited to do so. This business is what I do – day in and day out – and to be able to share something I’m so passionate about is truly a privilege for me.

The Gnarly Whale launched in October 2012 from a dream that I was unsure I would ever fulfill. I approached my husband about starting it as a hobby, needing something else to focus on while I was designing and consulting. By the end of the year, we both realized it was never meant to be a hobby. It was never meant to be a small side project. Instead, it was meant to change our lives and restructure our dreams. And that was exactly why I’m here today, sharing our story and even asking for your help after you get to know us.

About Us
We’re a husband and wife team doing what we love to do and hoping that some day, doing what we love will be enough to financially support our entire family. Our dream is to someday relocate ourselves and our business to Florida to open up a shop oceanside. We know that this dream will become our reality as soon as we can afford the cost of relocation and the cost of doing business in Florida where there are much stricter guidelines for cosmetic type businesses. Until then, we’re focusing on growing our brand awareness and our current product lines.

About Our Brand
All of our products are 100% vegan and cruelty free. We’re tree huggers ourselves so we made sure that all of the ingredients used in our products are completely vegan and have not been tested on animals. Final product testing was also done on humans. Most of our printed materials (business cards, postcards, etc) come from recycled paper. We also use reusable packaging when we mail out our orders whenever possible. Our hope is to leave the Earth a little better than when we found it and provide our customers with a way to do the same.

And here is how you can help us make all of this a reality. We’ve asked Intuit to grant our small business wish and we’re hoping we can get enough votes to win the money to expand our product line, purchase better equipment to speed up our manufacturing, and to put towards the cost of relocation. All you have to do is take a couple of seconds, click the link, and vote once a day. And if you really think our story is worth it, share it with you friends. With your readers. With your family. With your neighbors or co-workers. Shout it from the rooftops if you like us that much.

Anything you do to help is appreciated. No matter how big or small of gesture, we’re grateful for you even taking the time to get to know us and our dream. And if you’d like to connect with us further, we’d love to hear from you! Follow us on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. Send us an email and say hello. Or even stop by our shop.

Thank you in advance for anything that you do!

- Ashley and Nathan

I posted this last week on Flock Together and just a preview here, but you know me, I couldn’t resist posting it here too! (read: things are insane so might as well give myself less work : ). When I borrowed this vintage dress from Marisa I knew I couldn’t just style it one way. I styled it with a few layers appropriate for winter (in this post), and then that same day had to stop at home so since the weather forgot it was winter, styled it up for spring as well! And now I have a perfectly-spring post already ready to share – double win! And on a side note, I stopped by Buffalo Exchange in this outfit and a worker asked to take my picture for their blog. I’m still waiting to see it up, but either way it was a pretty awesome compliment, which I mostly owe to Marisa : ).

Outfit details: hat, booties, necklace (gift)- thrifted; dress- swap with Marisa; hand woven belt- for sale in my shop.

(top left to right) : Marisa / Hannah / Rachel /

(bottom left to right) : Jessi / me again / Marlen

I love seeing the different ways we’ve styled it, from fall through winter now to spring! Do you have any items you can transition through any season? If so, what are some of your favorite ways to remix items for spring weather? I’d love to hear your ideas and of course leave any links of remixes for the seasons you’d like to share, I’m certainly always on the lookout for fresh ideas to keep my current wardrobe feeling original.

Jonny and I decided to take Ole along to take a few pictures down the alley the other evening. Until he gets distracted (which is every few minutes at most), Ole does the cutest thing ever running after us like a little puppy. But well, that’s all I’ve got for you today. I hope you got a smile out of this like we did and that your week is off to a good start!

Hello! Since I’m not getting new inventory all the time like many cute vintage shops, I find it hard to highlight my items without being too repetitive. But, since I’ve never featured The Pinata top I decided to snag it for a quick little photoshoot. One I took myself with the camera timer and a table or sometimes my arm, which ended up a bit silly at times. I did finally purchase a little fold-up tripod and a timer though so hopefully I’ll set those up for next time Jonny is not around.

Outfit details: shorts- secondhand jeans made cutoffs (5 years old); sandals- thrifted; embroidered blouse- The Pinata, available in my shop here.

Anyway, sometimes it’s hard for me to find things to say on here lately. The daily grind of my 9-5 and grad school is exhausting me and making it hard to find time to blog in general. Even if it’s through pure stubbornness, I’ve still been trying hard to make quality posts regularly though, and just be briefer in writing. I know no one wants to hear a soppy post about nothing and my days of having time for those long rants I used to do are momentarily over. This past school year I’ve been ditching activities I’d like to do (like see friends) or know I should do (like exercise) for the sake of coming home to do school work. So, in short I’ve been trying to take control my own happiness better, get into an exercise routing, do my neck/shoulders rehabilitation daily and of course little by little get caught up on things around the house. So that’s what’s really been doing on in my life. Not too fun, but I figure at least I need to make time somehow (maybe reading textbooks on the treadmill) to get in shape since my body’s the most able it’ll ever be!

This is an outfit I wore to work last week, minus the hat of course because that’d get me even sillier looks at the office than my bright pink tights. I re-wore the ensemble (sandals for a more spring look right?) for a bit and with all the sunshine Phoenix gets year-round a good floppy hat is a must. The few dark pictures were from an evening last week after work which was quite a lovely one. Jonny met up with me, we biked home together, stopped at a local Mediterranean restaurant/shop for take-out and a few groceries, and then had a little picnic in our backyard. It was perfect; mostly because it was great to see Jonny before 9pm on a weeknight, not be in class until 10pm myself, and not be studying. And we even had visitors (see below : ).

Our neighbor’s cat has recently been lonely since someone from the house moved out and follows us around outside. He even came inside our house the other day when I had the door open for a minute but luckily there were no cat fights since little Lila isn’t pals with all other cats like Ole is.

The picture below was way too dark so I decided to try out the Photoshop filters for the first time.

My watch from Sprout watches is holding up great! I’ve worn it almost every day since getting it (in this post) and couldn’t be happier with it and am so glad I got up the courage to write the company.

May peace be with you : ).

Outfit details: dress- gift (2009, last seen here); sandals & hat-thrifted; belt- handwoven in Chiapas, watch- c/o Sprout Watches.

I suppose I could call it “April Edition” instead of March, but these are things I loved in March so I’ll say they inspired me in March for April… that makes sense right? Now on to some things I enjoyed!

First of all, a friend’s mom posted this picture of her and her two sisters one Easter some moons ago. How cute are their matching dresses?

Who the heck would’ve thought pink and burnt orange would look awesome together? Not me! But Leah proved me totally wrong in this post.

I love Katherine’s layers in this post but what I also love is that her pups make frequent appearances (makes me feel not so silly posting with my kitties perhaps) and that she thinks to get so many different angles… she’s a rockstar!

Erin gets these amazing vintage pieces for free sometimes from her work in a theater and the numbers she combined here are just too fun!

If you called me obsessed with Hannah you wouldn’t be exaggerating, but of course I had to feature this post of hers because I LOVE her vintage styling of my The Chickadee in Chili Pepper in a gorgeous blanket of snow. Plus it was the kindest thing of her to offer to style up the top via Flock Together and I am forever thankful to her.

Now for some more beautiful snow, and something I don’t usually appreciate enough – neutrals! Preziosa totally rocked the neutrals here and makes me think I’ll finally give them a try…

Until that is I remember Ashley’s gorgeously bright color combo in this post.

Adrian’s pairing of mustard yellow with bright purple in this post is another pairing I’d never have thought of, and I think the cream dress ties it all in perfectly! Plus Jonny saw this post and said “who’s Uno, that little kitty?” which made me LOL for real.

Elana’s blooper post was definitely on my (non-existent) “funniest posts of the season” list.

And here’s the perfect thing to end on: Megan’s little meditation guide! She reminded me that I need to finally give it a decent shot with short and simple tips and a super cute graphic. And does the graphic look familiar by the way? Rachel drew it! And I featured her and her drawing in last month’s inspiration, fun fun!

What have been some of your inspirations as we start April? I’d love to hear!

I’m posting over on the Flock Together blog today, head on over to check out how I remixed a vintage velvet dress for spring and see some super cute looks the other gals made from fall through winter as well!

Spring is definitely here in Phoenix and quickly turning into summer. Our lawn is growing like crazy again and all the plants brought to Phoenix from all over the country also bloom, making it supposedly one of the worst places for allergies. Our lawn was a bit out of control but I thought it was fun for a picture. And I had fun starting off my weekend morning with a bit of gal pal laughs before studying consumed my energy, so I wanted to share a few of those.

Ole has gotten so big that he reminds me of the big teddy bears you always hoped to win at carnivals as a kid. I guess we need to put him on a diet… Now, how can we do this without putting little Lila on a diet too? Any multiple cat owners out there know what to do?

Outfit details: jeans & sandals- Zara sales 2008; top- hand embroidered in Mexico (last seen here & then here); hat- thrifted; bracelet- handwoven (my non-profit shop).

And as far as outfits go, for me of course spring doesn’t mean I pull out all my flowy skirts and sandals but instead try to hold on to anything non-summery while I still can. Like these jeans, which had not moved from my top closet shelf for over a year. And since I haven’t worn this top since this post, I thought I’d better give it another shot before it got too warm for the polyester mix. Although strangely enough it’s gotten even colder in my office. All that wasted energy to make us all walk around in cardis/long sleeves. So dumb. Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying some spring weather over there as well!