wardrobe capsule

a couple weeks ago, i found this style challenge through this blog.  the idea is a minimalist closet - thirty-seven articles of clothing - that hones in on your particular style so that every outfit you wear feels extremely, extremely you.  not to mention decluttering and de-stressing your life.  i was intrigued.  and then i went home and counted my dresses and was like holy moly i have thirty of these how the HECK would i pare my entire wardrobe down to 37.  so i decided to forget it but the idea stuck in my head and yesterday i found myself enthusiastically tossing shirts into a "probably give this away" pile.  i might be cheating - i'm not counting clothes i wear exclusively to work, running clothes, dog walking clothes, pajamas, dance clothes, accessories, extra extra fancy stuff... - but i've got a list of 37 items (14 tops, 3 skirts, 5 jeans, 7 dresses, and 8 pairs of shoes) that i will be wearing and wearing and wearing again this fall.  and that didn't seem like a lot, but when you consider that i can pair almost every top with almost every bottom, PLUS dresses, not to mention the different tights and scarves i can wear with everything, i come out with a whole lot of outfit possibilities, and all of them are made up of clothes i actually 100% love.  and maybe now i'll do something with my hair besides an elsa braid?!  (nah)

who knows - maybe i'll hate it - but i figure i'll just stick with it for a couple months, and then see if i want to update to a winter capsule.  it's not like i'll need my tshirts anymore...and then i can break out the sweaters...oh man, the planning might be the best part of all this... whatever the outcome, if i cheat, if i cave and buy everything like a credit card-wielding shopping monster (let's avoid that one actually), it's a new thing, a new way to approach fashion (if you can call what i wear fashion) with a lot less clutter and a lot fewer dollars.  my shopping growing up was fairly limited to the thrift store, which is all well and good if you do it right, but it took me years to figure out that quality is greater quantity and if you buy 20 things you only sort of like you'll wind up happy with none of them.  so this is sort of a reverse reaction to that - low low low quantity (relatively speaking) with a focus on quality and likeability, for the lack of a better word, for instance, my $10 target vee neck tshirt may not be the highest quality, but it is soft as heck and matches ALL my bottoms and looks great with a scarf, so i anticipate wearing it at least once a week this fall.

hey natalie (who is possibly my absolute favorite blogger right now) suggested a pinterest board, and you can believe i followed that advice.  my capsule board is here, and about 90% of it is stripes and scarves and fit & flare dresses:

so when i have my capsule 100% hammered out, i'll post pictures of the clothes (fascinating?) and then later maybe pictures of some of the outfits i put together (even better?!).  i am by no means stylish, but what the heck, i'll give it a shot. 

in college they tell you a lot of stuff about life after graduation.  they talk about the workplace and about grad school and expectations and if you're lucky they'll talk about how to find and apartment and do your taxes.  they talk about things that can be attained through hard work and checkboxes.  they don't tell you how incredibly weird and lonely it is and how few friends you'll have.

i wouldn't say this so openly if i hadn't had the same conversation via text or phone or skype or whatever with pretty much all my close friends in college.  you graduate, and your friends dissipate.  nobody's having hall parties anymore.  there isn't anyone to whisper-giggle with in class.  there isn't class (unless you're in grad school, i'm not i don't know what it's like).  you can't run downstairs and say YO BOYS IT'S B4D LET'S GO because nobody lives downstairs from you except a lot of spiders in your crawlspace, and they don't get as excited about breakfast for dinner.

point is, making friends after school is not easy.  places i've tried to find friends: bus, dog park, ballet class, coffee shops.  places i've actually found friends: reconnecting with people i knew in high school, people that happened to move to the same place i did after college, friends of guys i dated (warning: these friends may be temporary).  that about covers it?  so when sarah was like "i'm going to frisbee now!" i was like "PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PETE TAKE ME TOO."

and it worked.  there are like a billion and a half people to be friends with there.  athletic, sociable, easy-to-talk-to recent grads, and i love it and i love them (too soon?  oh well).  i'm not the best frisbee player but i can go out there and have a blast if the environment is right and if the environment is cute friendly guys and cute friendly girls then the environment is right, which is lucky cause that's what everybody seems to be.

point is, if you graduated from college within the past couple of years and you're still floundering around for things to do and people to do them with, 10 out of 10 join an ultimate group.  they're full of good people.

first off, i want to say it's awesome that there is a fingernail polish that can detect date rape drugs, and i'm super impressed and excited that a group of college guys took the initiative to help prevent rape in a really creative way. BUT i struggle with there being yet another thing that women are supposed to do/wear/buy to avoid sexual assault. taking measures to protect yourself is GREAT. buddy systems, self defense classes, nail polish, chastity belts, whatever! go for it! but rape victims are already unfairly asked why they wore what they wore, why they were where they were, why they drank what they drank, etc, and my concern is that "why wasn't she wearing that nail polish?" will be added to the list of victim-blaming questions.

good things about today

1. the guy behind the counter at greens stuffed three extra hush puppies into my bag when i asked how his day was going.
2. a cute guy rode by on a bike while i was on my walk with bixby, and both of us looked back over our shoulders at each other.
3. i'm wearing my new dress and it is way pretty and i feel a little like i belong in a fairy tale.

scattered throughout my life (social media mainly, various unkept blogs, old journals) is the statement "this is your life at XXX."  or "you are XXX years old and..."

this is your life at seven.
you are eighteen years old and.

today you are twenty-four and restless.  today you fiddled with your phone and walked your dog and biked to work.  today you wore cowboy boots.

the limbo continues.  (which sounds way more like a party than my actual life.)  at one point you're going to have to be more decisive and choose who you actually are and who you actually are going to be.  in eighth grade, we were told to write down a word - ONE word - to describe ourselves.  how do you do that?  how do you take your entire self and wrap it up into one pathetic little word that doesn't have a chance at encompassing your little finger?  i chose "nice."  heck, i was nice.  maybe that was the most appropriate word to use at that moment in my life.  but not an hour later.  not an hour earlier.  certainly not now. 

when i was a little kid i wanted to be a doctor AND a ballerina AND a farmer AND a writer AND AND AND AND.  i still feel like that.  i don't know how to take my whole life and swirl it down into one little pinpoint and then DO that.  pick a career.  pick a place.  pick a life.  pick a word to describe yourself.

today you are twenty-four and everything is temporary.  today you are twenty-four and you have to start choosing.

this song on repeat, all day.  for a cozy kind of sad.

four years ago today

the cliffs of bonifacio

snorkeling queen

that rock in the background?  not a ship.

this is a ship.  oh, argo.

four years ago was seamester, three weeks on a 112 foot sailboat exploring the mediterranean.  i was good about journaling, entries almost every day, and everyone posted pictures on facebook, so i was able to compile a bunch of stuff into a decent little memory blog.  every year around this time, i go back and check it to see what was happening, what i was thinking, doing, seeing.

august 19 just says we just finished an 18-hour sail.  but we’re just outside of bonifacio now.  i can’t write i’m too tired.  (eighteen hours would have been 2 shifts of three hours for each watch team, some of them in the dark, it was exhausting and exhilarating, i miss it more than i should) but the next day's is more robust and describes the events of this day, four years ago:

...we found this amazing candy shop sam and everyone had recommended, this cavern full of barrels and barrels of gummy rats and cubes of black fudge and butterscotch eggs.  i really shouldn’t have bought as much as i did, i should have just marveled at this primitive honeydukes, but oh well... 

we had lunch and then all the students, even pete and connor and alex, and chad and stephanie went for this amazing hike.  it was really difficult, 5.5km and completely shadeless and pretty steep in parts, but the view!  we walked along the edge of this huge cliff that peered out over the bright blue water.  from below the cliffs look like utah only less orange and instead of dropping into flat land, it turns to this amazing clear ocean water.  i don’t know how high we were, but you’d definitely die if you fell off.  so we hiked forever, and i actually kept up, and just before this lighthouse we turned down a rocky path that led steep down to the beach.  i stripped and dove in right away, hot and dehydrated.  the beach was sand covering rocks, and in the water it was the same.  i brought my snorkel and things, so i paddled around in the water some.  i saw some jellyfish and some regular fish.  it was really cool, so clear and gray....  

...after the hike we walked back to the boat, which had moved to a slip, and ate dinner.  we got ready to go out, and those of us not confined to the boat went to a bar on the main walk next to the harbor... everyone was just talking and flirting.  then we moved to this other bar... it gets sort of blurry...

we left bonifacio this morning, still wobbly from last night.  we’re headed for sardinia now.  this is the second to last day of sailing we have, this and a 24-hour sail all the way to rome.  it’s raining but it’s sunny, so i should go.

i was twenty, halfway through college, with no one i knew, the farthest i'd ever been from home, having the most wonderful time.  i'd always said i could live on a sailboat - i did live on a sailboat, for three weeks at least, sleeping with the waves, sailing with the stars, grinning in the sun.

I GOT A DOG!!!!!!

his name is bixby, often bix, and he is the best little lovebug i could have asked for.  he came from the local shelter, an owner surrender that's all trained up and good to go, lucky me! 

we're still figuring each other out - what he has to do to get treats, how much food he needs to fill out those skinny ribs, when he's allowed on the bed, how to keep him from barking at harmless joggers - but i am so head over heels for this dude.  he LOVES walks, LOVES his toys, LOVES babies, LOVES LOVES LOVES.  he has some of the best manners, staying by my side on the leash, taking treats gently from my hand, sitting before we go inside or outside.  we walk ALL THE TIME (i think i covered about six miles yesterday) but if he doesn't get enough outdoor time he goes nuts, barking and whining.  he's the most talkative dog i've ever met.  he'll whine, bark, ruff, yap, even howl a little bit to try to get his meaning across.  yesterday i left him outside weaver street with a group of guys so i could grab a loco pop, and they said he was perfectly well behaved, but when he saw me come back his did the happiest bark (and of course, wouldn't shut up).  when we walk he'll sometimes look up at me and smile like i'm the best thing he's ever laid eyes on.

today is his first vet appointment, with me anyway, and i'm hoping they give us the go ahead to jog and hit the dog park and go to the lake because this dude has so many adventures in front of him he doesn't even KNOW.  he's changed everything, and sort of nothing, because i can still go out and see friends and have a wonderful time, there's just a dog around a lot more.  he is a huge time commitment, and part of my brain is constantly dedicated to worrying about him unless he's right next to me, but i am so, so happy he is my dog and that i am his human.

erika weekend! or, what the fuck is a norva

the ideal thing to do is probably drop everything and drive four and a half hours to northern virginia so you can spend the weekend with your college roommate and her husband.  highlights included everything: babysitting a toddler, watching penelope, going to the dog park, drinking lime-a-ritas, getting dinner and drinks at madigan's, visiting the humane society, shopping at national harbor.  perfect, perfect.  we fell a little lot bit in love with an american bulldog named kimbo who was the biggest saddest sweetheart ever.  he would lean up against the fence so he could be petted through the chain link.  i was THISCLOSE to taking him home, but ya know, speedy decisions, long distances, another dog on my want-to-adopt list, yikes.  the baby learned to say our names (or close enough anyway) and he was this perfect little angel boy until his siblings got home.  we ate sandwiches like we'd never had one before - the one at potbelly's was to die for, and i splurged calorically and besides the sub i got sour cream and onion chips AND an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie AND a frozen raspberry lemonade.  yolo, am i right?

anyway.  point is, i am so incredibly lucky to have this girl (and dude, what's up daniel!) who opens up her home for me and plans the best possible weekend after finding out i'm coming just a day in advance.  appalachian state was a wonderful place to go to college for so many reasons, but i think the most valuable thing that came out of it was the friends i made, and erika is top notch, one of the best.

moving: the before

yes, i have mentioned moving a bajillion times (and have thought about it a bajillion more times).  and monday, it happened!  a crew got together and schlepped all my things from one house to another house .8 miles down the road.  i'm head over heels excited to organize and decorate.  i planned to do a before and after post, but i'm going to jump the gun and go ahead and post the befores.

 

the living room!  i adore the natural light and plan to play it up with white curtains.  also, the hardwood floors are totally swoon-worthy.  i'm thinking of getting a little bistro set to put under the window, since i almost never have more than one person over for dinner at a time, but i'm not sure if that would be adorable and cafe-like, or just "why do you have patio furniture in your living room."  i'll figure something out.

 

the kitchen is the room i was most apprehensive about, but it's proved itself not too bad.  it's still tiiiiny, and almost all of the storage space is shelving, so everything - all the food and dishes - are out in the open and have to look pretty, which heck, may help me keep it cleaner.  i've actually unpacked most of the kitchen stuff (priorities, amiright?) and it looks a lot better already.  note to self: buy stove burner pans, they are the easiest/cheapest/only (??) way to makeover an oven.

 

the bathroom turned out to be my actual least favorite room, good job kitchen.  it also has next to no storage, just a couple of shelves and the medicine cabinet (discovered this morning).  the wooden toilet seat also kinda weird me out.  the worst part is that it's an older bathroom, so it has mildew where i don't want mildew (aka anywhere), so imma attack it with bleach before i do anything else.  the unexpected bonus is that when i shower at night, i can see the power plant through the trees, and it makes me feel like i'm in the iron giant.

 

the pink walls in the bedroom were initially a big whoa ew, but i think they're growing on me.  the lighting is wonderful, the floors are wonderful, the door that leads to the porch is wonderful.  the walls are going to be covered with art hopefully (my dance project girl with the wild magazine hair needs a home).  my bed is in it, and i like to be in my bed, so making this room an ideal place to be is a priority.

best for last - the screened in porch.  the problem with porches is that i'm an idiot and forget to use them, but with this one being right off the bedroom and all, i foresee a good number of cocktails being consumed out here.  my only plans right now are to throw up fairy lights everywhere and put some sort of chair or bench against the wall - there isn't room for much more than that.  but i think it'll be totally lovely.

the excitement doesn't end here - i have a whole lot of boxes to unpack and a long list of things to add to my little forest cottage to make it as charming as i can.  hopefully that'll all happen soon soon soon, and then there will be photos aplenty.