Today's outfit was inspired by one of my favorite movies- Almost Famous. Specifically, a certain Miss Penny Lane.
I actually bought this shirt because it reminded me of a scene from Almost Famous-
I needed to pick something fun and spunky for today as I just got back from my appointment to get my Paragard IUD replaced after the first unsuccessful attempt about 3 weeks ago. I'm also somewhat pleased to say that I hold the record for what my doctor called "the most difficult IUD placing she's ever experienced." Three or four attempts, a lot of wincing and biting down and viola. Anywho... A little detail- I decided these bangles were appropriate since Penny wanted to go to Morocco. Greg's grandmother found them in India and brought them back for me. They aren't Moroccan but we can pretend they are. The buttons that run down the blouse are probably my favorite part of it. I love fabric eyelet closures...despite the fact that they can be a pain in the ass in large quantities. Outfit Details- Shirt- Buffalo Tank- Hanes Shorts- Buffalo Boots (that have and will be frequently seen as they are my favorite)- Buffalo Bangles- Gifted Necklaces- Same as yesterday
And last night I got a few pics of Preen's 3rd Birthday bash. I arrived very early. But I relished the uncrowded time I got to spend taking pictures of the store. Inside, looking at the entrance. The belles of the ball, vintage queens and all around lovely gals Emilie and Erin. Happy Birthday Preen and Congrats to Emilie and Erin!
If This Outfit Were A Song-
How could I not?
*Also, I apologize for the crappy low res outfit pics, my camera just wasn't cooperating today.
I hadn't really thought of a theme until I put on my clothes today. I was going for a simple look and I have a longstanding addiction to stripes, but when I pulled everything together it became a little bit more clear.
Tuesday's Theme- "Girl, Interrupted"
Perhaps it's the impending monsoon season, the fact that there has been a perpetual overcast and Tusonan bones are aching for some rain, it draws me to a somewhat non-summery palette and perhaps a couple American Spirits tonight as I celebrate Preen's (a lovely vintage and alteration store run by a couple of dynamic ladies who I'd like to get some pictures of tonight to put on here) 3rd Birthday downtown.
Outfit details- Shirt- Target Vest- Ross Shorts & Shoes- Buffalo Exchange Purse- Desert Vintage Necklaces- beaded one from Target, locket was thrifted
Accessory Detail- This is one of my most loved and prized possessions. It was my grandfather's half of a matching set he and my grandmother shared for a long time (they're still alive and are a couple of my most favorite people in the world). My aunt has the other half. I feel very blessed to have been given this ring.
I found this awesome early 60's circa purse at a vintage shop downtown and I fell in love immediately. It holds so much and is very sturdy and structured. I feel like it wouldn't be out of place on the set of Mad Men, which makes me love it even more. I have dubbed her "Joanie" as a result. If This Outfit Were A Song-
On another note, Jack wears-
Hat- Greg's old Indiana Jones costume. Cape- A souvenir from Six Flags, where I was unknowingly pregnant with Jack at the time. Ukulele- Ixtapa, Mexico Utter Craziness- My genes.
So here we are again! I think I may do an "Inspired By..." theme again because it really helped me pull outfits together.
Here's Monday's outfit-
I apologize in advance for my general sullenness in photos. I'm not a huge "smiler". Maybe it's the moody Swede gene, I'm not sure. So I took the next one to compensate.
Outfit details (as if there is really a need for this section seeing as how I get almost my entire wardrobe at Buffalo Exchange.)-
We were driving to another Sunday filled with chlorinated water, slippery sunscreen soaked skin and guacamole chased with margaritas. We had our c.d. player in full swing, as is our custom, and when I looked behind my seat I saw Jack smiling, swaying to almost every song. And I wanted to cry. Because motherhood has taken all the balls I ever had and filled them with overly sentimental tears. Or maybe I've always been filled with overly sentimental tears, but now they come at anything and everything. It's embarrassing.
I wanted to cry because if there was one thing I wanted to impart on my child it was a love of music. I started when he was in utero and I'll never stop.
I promised in my head (because he wouldn't understand me if I told him my grand plans) that I'd take him to the record store when he turns 13 and buy him the foundation to ground him when he comes of age, when he gets his heart broken, when he gets his heart put back together, when he thinks we're being complete assholes and when he thinks he needs a friend.
My dearest little smile face,
I want to be your tambourine man. I want to hold your hand. I want to weave you a blanket of the highest quality melodies and lyrics. And I want you to experience the cold enough to wrap it around you and feel comfort.
We must dance. We must sing. We must turn it up. We must feel and bleed and scream and go hoarse.
If there is one thing I can give to you other than my love let it be this. Because I suck at math and I've got a bad temper and sometimes I'm too idealistic and selfish and flighty. Sometimes I buy a movie and realize after I come home that I was supposed to pick up milk and we end up drinking water and juice and watching "Rushmore". Sometimes you'll hate me. Sometimes you'll wish I had made myself something. A career woman, a person capable of bringing home the bacon AND frying it up in the pan. You'll probably hate that I hate to cook. That at times I'm not always nurturing and womanly and soft. And that's okay. You can hate all those things, but please love me enough to let me in in this aspect. Because all of those things you may one day hate may disappear and we can be two people with the window down and the volume up.
I can't wait until 2021. My love is a mixtape, and I'll give you the music to make your own.
I decided I'd post two of my favorite music videos of all time (they achieved this status due to the feeling they bring and leave behind, the visuals, the everything...). Hopefully they bring a smile to your lovely mugs as well in these dog days of summer.
This one makes me want to re-do my wedding. If I could I would decorate it in this fashion (tons of colors, paper lanterns, confetti, bohemia all around). I loved my wedding, but we planned it within two months, most of which were just making sure everybody got invitations in time, making sure we had food for our guests and making sure places were in line for lodging for those from out of town. We did it while sticking to a budget of $3,000. BUT, if we had more time to really sit on ideas and search out things so they were "just so" instead of "well, that works" (but then, nothing in our courtship, parenting career thus far or lives has ever been "just so") then it would have been very much like this video.
I'll do a "Wedding Re-do" post inspired by this video next. But for now I have another video-
I became bloody obsessed with this video after Rebecca at GGC posted it awhile ago and I still am. It makes me absolutely giddy and the song is superb. Even Jack is bewitched by it and bops his head and shimmies in his car seat every time it blares from our c.d. player in the car and screeches at us "again! again!" when it's over.
And here's why my morning rocked my ass off-
I suppose motherhood has left me rolling with a different sort of gang these days.
* Also, I apologize for my blog randomly cutting off a quarter of the videos I post. I don't know what the deal is with that.
My new (and temporary) birth control is making me fat. No, perhaps I'm making myself fat since "they" tell me I have control over the hand that continues to relay forkful after forkful of cake to my mouth, but the pill is certainly the fuel to the fire. I just don't have the water (or wherewithal) to put it out.
What the hell happened?! I used to be able to eat grown men under the table and not gain an ounce. Then I have a baby and I gain a pound just thinking about having a muffin. It's fucked up. Because right now is when I most want cake and avocados and butter in everything. After the laundry and the incessant, and more often than not fruitless, job searching and applying, the toddler and spouse, the every day of motherhood- LET ME EAT MY GODDAMN CAKE! It's all I want at the end of the day. Sweet, sweet food. And carbs are my weakness (it would not be uncommon to find me letting out a relinquished sigh, and reheating a bowl of spaghetti at 11 p.m.).
I can't wait to stop the pill. I'm praying the new, non-hormonal IUD will at least give me the extra push (because the hormones in BC make me incredibly lethargic which shouldn't be the case with an ex-athlete and now world class toddler lifter and quasi-committed pilates doer) to kick start my whipping it into shape. Even now that I'm on the soon to be last week, I can feel my energy slowly prying it's way back out and that excites me. So much in fact that instead of the devilishly tempting tiramisu in my fridge, I decided to whip up some quinoa (due to Mrs. Woolf's awesome new section, Eat Well, over at GGC) and topped it off with a few slices of avocado. Drank some water and went to bed early. Today I plan on working out.
And if all else fails, I'll always look to my idol in aging and lifestyle Mrs. Sophia Loren. Because if a woman who looked like this- was quoted as saying this-
"Everything I have, I owe to spaghetti." ....
And STILL to this very day looks amazing. Well, than maybe I'll just cut myself a little slack. God knows no matter how disciplined I could trick myself into being, I'd NEVER, EVER in a million years give up my spaghetti.
-This is where I'd post a picture of myself as a baby, with a face full of spaghetti, but since I can't find it, I'll post the next best thing-
And maybe I'll just avoid applying to the Italian restaurants...just to be on the safe side.
* I feel I should post a disclaimer regarding this particular post.
1. I am not a PETA member. I feel that sometimes they garner a lot of negative attention (not all press is good press) through their tactics which, at times, can be extreme. But then, so are the injustices happening to animals every day in shocking numbers. Often times you experience negative feedback from the public when they find PETA's emblem punctuating signs and flyers, as they see PETA as an extremist organization. I am not an extremist.
2. I am not writing this to judge anybody who has been or used to go to circuses. Many people aren't aware of what is going on behind the scenes and that isn't necessarily their faults. I write this in the hope that perhaps I'll open eyes to an unfortunate truth that people don't often realize.
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I was asked to join in a demonstration against The Ringling Bro's circus due to their blatant use of cruelty when it comes to the animals unfortunate enough to be in their shows. I agreed since I feel that you should practice what you preach and I've been a supporter of animal rights since I can remember (6 or so?) but had yet to really participate in a protest, so I figured I should get the ball rolling on that.
We arrived at 11 a.m. and held signs with pictures depicting the methods that Barnum and Bailey use to "train" their animals.
This is an extremely common "method".
For over an hour we displayed the harsh truth before the ticket windows under our blazing Tucson sun. We were met with looks of guilt, looks of annoyance, looks of hate, looks of sadness and about 50% of the time the crowds tried to just plain ignore the signs or flyers. Much like we ignore the homeless, the "problem" children, the environment, the meat industry and so on. It seems people have a longstanding love affair with simply ignoring problems. Because ignorance is bliss right?
Hmmmm...real blissful.
It broke my heart to watch person after person continue to pay money, to actively support the abuse that we were showing them, to see the show.
Where are we as a country, as a people, that we're willing to compromise the lives of other beings for cheap entertainment?
What caught me the most was a little boy who couldn't have been more than 5, who I could hear speaking behind me to his parents about how "they're hurting baby animals back there mom. I don't want to go to this show. This makes me sad. They should treat their animals better." His parents simply shushed his understandably worried remarks and continued to fill him with lies so they could go on with their entertainment. I was so angry on many levels. Why are we LYING to our children?! How is it that a 4 year old can grasp what is so fundamentally wrong and a 34 year old can't? Are we trying to spare their innocence or are we simply paving the way for more people to close their eyes and pretend that it's all cool when it so very much isn't? We even get a few people trying to debate with us about pro-life/pro-choice. Which is funny because if one claims to be pro-life, shouldn't that be for ALL living things? But that is neither here nor there.
We had a couple people leave after speaking to us and vowed never to come back. We had some people say they were still going to the show since they purchased tickets but weren't coming back thereafter. And that is what you do it for. For the future. For the hope.
Please educate yourselves on where your money is going. Educate yourselves on what happens before and after the curtain goes down. There are alternatives for entertainment (Cirque Du Soleil being one of the most famous, which is cruelty-free and WAY more cool to watch).
Because we can't expect to evolve as people when we can accept the abuse that other living creatures endure. Because these animals are not OURS.
Because there has to be a better way.
Facts and solutions can be found at many sites, but to list a few-
http://www.circuses.com/
http://www.circuses.com/pdfs/AnimalFreeCircuses.pdf
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/anti-circus.asp
http://hsus.org/wildlife/issues_facing_wildlife/circuses/index.html
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