It's almost my favorite month!!!!

Oh delicious and glorious SUMMER!!!!! There are about a million things that I love about summer... the smells, the flowers, the birds chirping in the morning when I wake up perfectly chilled from having the window open, the makeup styles, the hair, the clothes, the shoes, the food, the cocktails, the showing skin, the masses of bike riders, the jewelry, the fabric prints, and the energy I receive from the sun... just to mention a few:) I had a bit of a clothing dilemma today. I have, in the past, been a very matchy matchy kind of girl. I have since realized the absolutely insane amount of time that it takes to dress this way. I have spent countless hours matching styles, then matching colors, then trying to match by completely not matching, and eventually going back to what is most comfortable for me... which is being ocd about matching and completely losing vision of my look as a whole. So, lately I've been trying to step out of my little fashion box and it has been so much fun! Today, I decided to go with the sundress look. This dress was given to me for my 26th birthday from my adorable little friend, Sharayah.




It was originally all solid colors but some bleach somehow leapt onto the bottom of the dress. So, i took a squirt bottle full of bleach water and had my way with the dress. Turned out to be a brilliant idea, I believe:) Then I have these shoes that my sister ordered and wasn't fond of. They would have never made the cut originally because the pinks of the dress and the shoes do not match and the polka-dots are so different from the block shaping and block coloring of the dress. But, my theme for the day was light and fun... and I think that in order to have fun with this dress it required a little spark from the shoes. So, here they are in all of their cute and
fairytale glory.



I love these shoes... I think that if a converse and a ballet shoe had a polka-dotted baby that this is what it would look like :) What I love about this outfit choice is the blend of reds, pinks, and patterns. I think that it was out of the box enough for me to feel slightly uncomfortable and perfectly summery. Which, is awesome.

Saving the world, one hair at a time.

Today was a crazy day. It has been raining in Bozeman for what feels like an eternity. If you are going to be a full-time pedestrian you have to be prepared for rain. It's not hard to look good in rain gear if you have a polka dot umbrella and pink rain boots from Germany. Lucky for me, I have both! Here's our delicious backyard lilacs and my rainy day gear.



I have been enjoying going to sleep at night with my window open, one foot out of the blankets, Sigur Ros on the ipod, and the rain beating down on the gorgeous plant infestation outside my bedroom window. I love the sound that the rain makes when it hits the leaves and the grass... it's just delicious sounding! My plants have been loving the window being open for days and having a fresh mist on them all the time... here they are! Clark is the big succulent that has really flourished in this window. The little jade remains nameless, and the cutie in the middle is Gable... Clark's brother:)



And these are the beautiful bushes outside my window that make me so happy and have such a delightful sound when rained upon.



Well, enough about my plants... more to come on them later! Today was also a crazy day because I have been thinking alot about the absolutely devastating and downright awful oil spill happening in the gulf. It is the 57th day of the spill and millions of gallons continue to spill every day. But! BUT! Today I found a way that I can help and be a part of the solution... which is all anybody really ever wants when something so terrible happens. I am joining up with a non-profit here in Bozeman called Montana for the Gulf... an awesome group that is raising awareness and lighting fires under people's asses all over the place! What am I doing to help, you ask? Well, I will be collecting hair. Salons and beauty schools all over the place are collecting hair to send in nylons to the gulf to soak up this mess. I believe that the goal is to build a 20 mile barrier with hair-filled nylons. It's genius. It's renewable. It's taking the resources that we have and doing something awesome about something un-awesome. So, if you feel like you need a haircut for a good cause, give me a ring! We'll get you a new summer "do" and we can save the planet... one hair at a time:)

Curses!

Foiled again... by the computer:) I was attempting to post this photo of my friend Dominique and somehow ended up publishing the draft... so here's the photo and we'll continue where we left off!



What I love about this outfit is the perfect blend of harsh winter with soft spring. There are harder and darker lines in the vest, and a softer blended look with the long sleeved t-shirt. I also love the pink fingerless mittens... they add a beautiful touch of color without overdoing it just yet so early in the season. What I also love about this is the creativity that went into this outfit. Dominique is wearing vintage glasses, fingerless mittens that were knitted by a friend, and a vest that was originally a coat earlier in the day. Dom found this coat at Sak's and loved the design of it... however, the sleeves were a bit short. So, after a few snips and stitches you have a beautifully tailored, down vest for $6. Does it get any better than that?!

Well, without getting too crazy about how I feel about Spring and it's fashion, I'd like to end with saying that part two of Spring fashion and Spring hair will be posted within the week... but I'll leave you with a song that you will LOVE... enjoy!

http://lala.com/zTb2I

Oh delicious Spring!

Well, shucks... I have thus far completely dropped the ball on my blog! I don't know exactly what happens when February sets in. It seems like EVERY year I'm truckin' along just fine and then SHIZAM!... February sucks my brain out of my skull and I wake up in April thinking, "Good gravy, what happened to me?!" I'm very aware of how winter affects me, but for some reason I'm surprised every single spring when I pull out of my funk and I feel alive again. So, anyways, moving on! Lets dwell on the positive, shall we? :)

Now that I'm am fully immersed in Spring, I feel alive and ready to start blogging again... phew! With that comes the million and one ideas I've had over the past 3 months that I wanted to write about. What's been on my mind lately is Spring fashion and Spring hair... which I believe go together, but are very much separate islands to swim around.

Spring fashion is so fun, isn't it?! Everybody starts looking around at everybody else as more skin starts to show and tan lines begin. Well, in my case that would be burn lines, but that's a whole other blog concerning skin. So, as more skin starts to show and mating season begins... we watch fashion really bloom alongside the trees and plants surrounding us. Women's hem details become more floral, feminine, scalloped and flirty unlike their hard-lined and architectural winter neighbors. The color palettes transition from dark reds, grays, and blacks to lighter, sunnier options of yellows, creams, and pastels. I personally cannot wear pastel colors unless I'm sickly tan... and that is just not an option anymore. I am a big fan of Nicole Kidman's perfect pale skin and her's is the perfect image to visualize when I'm stepping out into the sun with my MyChelle SPF 28 and feeling like a nerd. Anyways, back to the Spring color palette. While living in Montana a lot of the rules for fashion must be amended because of our crazy weather systems. Spring is a huge transition for weather in Montana... it is very possible to have 70 degree weather one week and 20 degree weather the next week. This makes the Montana fashionista very creative and flexible. My friend Dominique is a great example of this:

Inspiration at last...

I found some inspiration... praise the land! Last week I was fretting and fretting about going back to school. I was underwhelmed, uninspired, discouraged about the lack of sustainable, scientifically sound and fashion forward hair products, and lacking the vision needed to be stoked about school. I have an issue giving my time away to anything that I'm not excited about... this includes going outside when it's cold out, eating salad when all I want is a box of Theo's chocolate (this caramel description should give you a taste of what I mean: cardamom sings over a base of our rich buttery caramel to create an exotic and warming combination. Garnished with smoked almond and Hawaiian red sea salt), and spending 36 hours a week at school when I'm not feeling it. I knew that I needed to find something that would make me excited about school or I was going to be miserable the next 10 months... harumph! But, true to how the universe generally works for me, I found a light at the end of my beautyschool tunnel. I was introduced to a haircare line called Davines. You can find them at davines.com... The first sentence on the page that I saw was "Beauty will save the world, and sustainability can make it happen." And then I fell in love. It took me about 17 seconds to realize that I just found the line that I wanted to be in love with, and I felt like it immediately loved me back. I couldn't read the pages fast enough; nor could I absorb all of the beautiful and INSPIRING photos and write-ups as fast as I wanted to. I am very passionate about hair. I am also very passionate about using products that are good for your body, good for the environment, and scientifically sound. All of this mumbo jumbo finally found a place to live harmoniously together... in Italy. Of course. Which is fine; it'll be a great place for me to go and study someday! And by study I mean dine, dance, shop, and meet beautiful men... of course.

So all of this was very exciting for me because I would also like to have a line of my own someday. I would like to have a haircare and/or skincare line that is sustainable, ecologically and environmentally sound, and based around what we have here in Montana... especially as far as plants and herbs go. I believe that the earth gives us the things that we need for our bodies. This is true with food and I believe the same is true for our hair and our skin. I know that there are many properties to plants and such, and this is where my research begins... learning more about what plants are native to Montana, what properties those plants have and how they benefit us, and how to find a scientist who can put all of this together for me. Looks like I have quite the adventure ahead of me... and I'm ECSTATIC! So, I have a few books on herbs that I'm starting, but if anyone has any suggestions on other good books to dive into, let me know! I currently have Nature's Pharmacy and The Herb Bible... both of which are great; however, not as detailed in the Montana and cosmetic areas.

Well, enough about what I've been inspired by for the moment. I would like to end on a fashionably fun note. I ordered a few things from Urban Outfitters to start of the new year and here they are!

These are my new leather biking/walking/life gloves...


This is my new orchid hair piece...


And this is my new vintage hat...


The hat was really a find of the century... it has real fur on the rim and it is in perfect condition... I love Sak's! For those of you who don't know... Sak's is a thrift store across the street from my school. It is the store where I found my perfect white Sorel's for $15, tons of cute vintage clothes and scarves, one of my new favorite books (blog to come later!), and a very cute nameless boy who rides a Bianchi. I love Sak's. It is my favorite store in Bozeman, hands down.

Happy hair, happy clothes finding, and a very happy week to you!

2010 and my new blog

Well, I've been talking about doing a blog for quite some time now. I find that the more I talk about things, the less I seem to do them. All talk, no action. This is true for my new found passion of sewing my own clothes, starting a roller derby team, selling my kombucha to drinkers of the delicious fermented tea, making my own herb tinctures and salves, and learning how to cook a wider spectrum of dishes. So 2010 is my year of action. I plan to do all of those things this year. So here goes the first one on the list... writing a blog!

I currently attend the Academy of Cosmetology in Bozeman, MT. This school happens to be beautyschool bootcamp. I am, at the moment, suspended for the entire week because I had too many demerits last month. So I'm taking this opportunity with all of my free time to catch up on life. Tonite I even made myself an elaborate dinner: Spinach Fettuccine with a Mushroom, Sherry, and fresh thyme sauce. This delectable dish was topped with Chaubier Tomme... a soft, pungent, French cheese. And for dessert I indulged in a Lake Champlain Chocolate- Milk Chocolate with Peanuts, Peanut Butter, and Crisp Rice. They claim that their chocolate bar is a 5 star chocolate and I certainly agree. I will definately be buying this treat again.

As for my want to start making more clothes myself... I've gotten really into fun prints. I went through a plaids and paisleys phase a few years ago that is still in action. My new print that I'm fairly obsessed with is damask. I have found the most amazing damask prints... one of them being this righteous antler damask at the top of the page. I have some plans for it... but I'm not telling until it's all done. You know, that whole talking and not acting thing we discussed before. Along with this damask I have also fallen in love with this sweet damask chair that was my mothers... until I begged to have it:)


Other than damask, I am also really fond of seer sucker. Wikipedia says that seer sucker is "A lightweight fabric with a crimped or puckered surface". They say that to create a seer sucker fabric you weave fabrics together that shrink differently... whoever thought of this was a genius. One of my favorite pairs of pants are a green and white striped, nautical looking, wide legged, pair of seer suckers. Pretty much the cutest pants that ever lived. And as far as what to wear them with goes... I've chosen to dress them down with an Ingrid Bergman t-shirt, metallic jewelry, and a recycled pop tab wallet... or dress them up with a Free People coral lace top, Tess Anderson-made coral earrings, and black wedge boots. I'd have to say that both ensembles were equally cute and perfectly my style.

Well, on that note, I think that this concludes my first blog. I hope that your new year is full of fun prints, fashionable hair, and good food to boot!