The Year In Outfits: 2011

I've been looking forward to making this post because I always seem to forget about a lot of the photos from earlier in the year. It's left me feeling a little bittersweet, though, because it's painfully obvious that my posts became more sporadic and less fun once we moved back to NC, which is sad! I know the most boring thing in the world is for a blogger to promise to post more (as if you're on the edge of your seats!) but I really do want to get back on track for 2012. I also want to make my posts more fun and location-centered like they were in St. Louis and Albuquerque-- there are plenty of cities to visit around here, so that's what I'm going to do.

January: Leaving St. Loius. The last photos taken at Tower Grove Park, near the frozen lake.

February: Roswell & The Bottomless Lakes. Such a fun trip! We spent the day in Roswell and then spotted a sign for "The Bottomless Lakes" and decided to see what that was all about.





Runner up: Sepensortia. Rattlesnake Museum!

March: 10,378 ft. At the top of the mountain at Sandia Peak.



April: & Old Lace My 26th birthday photos!

May: The End of the Desert. The last photos at that gorgeous park in Albuquerque.



runner up: Tea Please! A fancy afternoon at the St. James Tea Room!

June: Greenfield Lake & Coming Home. Photos at the lake near our new place.

July: A Delicate Interest. A dainty and delicate old dress.

August: A Summer Uniform. Basically what I wore all summer. All hail those shorts!



September: Peppermint Dream. The dreamiest color palette ever.



October: New Hair, Old Dress.. I went red! Even though you can't tell in the picture..



November: Adventures in Red Hair. There! Red!



December: Everything Fancy At the river-- probably the new default outfit photo location.

So yes-- more day trips! We've been talking about going to Charleston soon, and Asheville..

Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Dress

Just a quick outfit post re: my holiday dress for this year! We stopped by the river to snap these photos just before driving home on the 23rd-- the dogs were staring at us from the car wondering what on earth was going on.

I'm kind of obsessed with peachy colors and red hair together. This was the other Modcloth dress that I bought on sale around Thanksgiving.. I'm so happy with it, even though it kind of desperately needs to be steamed/ironed-in-a-careful-way and I couldn't find my iron in all the pre-trip hubbub, and I refused to stress out about it because I was already worrying about a zillion other things. I think it still looks nice!

How was your holiday? Eat anything yummy or wear anything fantastic? I haven't planned a New Year's Eve outfit yet but I suppose I should get on that..

Modcloth dress
F21 cardigan
Chinese Laundry tights
Seychelles heels
Bat bracelet c/o My Selvaged Life

Bonus George-amongst-Christmas-rubble photo:

What I'm Making: DIY Kitchen Chalkboard

One day when we own a house I will have a chalkboard wall in the kitchen, because that's just the best thing ever. But that day is not today and a normal sized one will have to do. I decided to make my own after trying and failing to find a school-like green one that didn't cost a fortune-- as it turns out, they're incredibly easy (and cheap!) to make at home. Yay!

I used the tutorial for a DIY Chalkboard Headboard and altered it to make a hanging board.

I'm terrible at remembering to take in-progress photos!

Materials:

• chalkboard paint
• four yardsticks
• wood stain
  
• heavy duty hooks
  
• plywood cut to your dimensions (ours is 2" x 4")
• 3/4" nails

The whole thing took two days total, but that's just because we had to apply two coats of paint and let it dry overnight. Jeremy ended up doing pretty much the entire project, so I can't take much credit for it besides finding the tutorial (and helping to to hang it on the wall, because it's heavy).

(Desserts: gingerbread whoopie pies and snickerdoodles, nom.)

Now I finally have somewhere to write the menu for the week! Much prettier than my usual scribbled-on-the-grocery-list tactic.

Everything Fancy

The post title is the name of this Modcloth dress and I just thought it was kind of perfect. Look-- cats! Birdcages! Chandeliers! Very fancy indeed.

Obviously I'm addicted to these vintage photoshop filters, but here's an unfiltered photo so you can see what my hair looks like in real (non-photoshopped) life. So bright! I think I fixed my dramatic dark ends problem, or at least improved it well enough for now. I really like this color so far (L'Oreal Mega Reds from Sally's).

The dress is via Modcloth, although it's because I won a contest (yay) and there was a mixup with the dress I was supposed to win, so I received a gift certificate instead. I used it to buy two dresses that were on sale because I'm thrifty. I was sent the necklace c/o My Selvaged Life in exchange for photographing it-- I absolutely love this thing for winter! It reminds me of a snow globe. It's a holiday variation of her orb necklace and I highly recommend that you all go to her shop and buy gifts for people right away, because her jewelry is so unique and beautifully made (and she didn't tell me to say that!) I bought the original version for my sis-in-law's birthday and she loves it. It's easily one of my favorite strange necklaces.

Modcloth dress
Chinese Laundry Tights
Seychelles heels
necklace c/o My Selvaged Life