"It would protect me on the cold walk into the village for milk"

This lovely 1950s trench coat has been so trusty and warm and perfect. However, as much as I adore it, I am ready to retire it for the season. I'm also ready to retire my textbooks (at least for a time). I'm ready to instead pick up my high waisted shorts, sandals, and my leather bound journal. How I miss writing and reading for my own pleasure. I'm ready for summer's freedom and adventures.

There are so many things I want to learn that I cannot find time for while I am still in school --- ironic isn't it? I made a list of resolutions when the New Year came about, but I feel like I need to make another one for summer.

And so...some hopeful summer plans:

x learn to really sew with my new sewing machine
x learn to skillfully operate the animation software I purchased for Meep and Merp
x translate my favorite French poems
x take a yoga class
x buy a bike

And knowing me, there will be many more. I'm too ambitious for my own good.

Do you have any premature summer plans like I do?



Details:

This outfit was worn awhile ago. But some of these images didn't appear in the original post. And I am still wearing this trench coat every bitter cold April day.

This post title is a quote from Billy Collins' poem "The Lesson."

For Reasons, Most Wondrous

"To the garden, the world, anew ascending,
Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding,
The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being,
Curious, here behold my resurrection, after slumber;

"The revolving cycles, in their wide sweep, have brought me again,	5
Amorous, mature—all beautiful to me—all wondrous; My limbs, and the quivering fire that ever plays through them, for reasons, most wondrous;

"Existing, I peer and penetrate still,
Content with the present—content with the past,

"By my side, or back of me, Eve following,	10
Or in front, and I following her just the same." ---- "To the Garden of the World" by Walt Whitman

Outfit Details:

Photos taken by Josh.

Glasses//RayBan
Earrings//Vintage, 1950s
Ring//Antique
Cardigan//Charlotte Russe
Dress (worn as blouse)//Vintage, 1980s
Skirt//Vintage, 1960s - via Vintage Archives
Shoes//Vintage 1960s
Handbag//Vintage 1950s

un poète pauvre, mais libre

For so long I was so certain that I would grow up and become a famous writer of short stories or novels or maybe witty magazine features. And if that didn't work out, I knew for certain I would become an editor, a professional and vigilant grammar Nazi. But now I'm second-guessing that future.

After attending the media conference in New York and meeting the nation's most prestigious editors, I felt unimpressed. I can't imagine myself associating with them, and I surely don't want to become like them: boring, condescending, and -- did I mention boring?

I always have loved stories and writing, and I still do! Though I have written some fiction, I've always preferred writing poetry, and I've always been better at that. But, in case you weren't aware, poets don't make any money. Quite literally. None. Even when they have their work published, they still usually make none.

I haven't quite given up the notion of becoming a writer or editor, but I'm keeping my mind open to new ideas. With all my interests, I imagine I will experience multiple careers in my lifetime.

Oddly enough, this uncertainty feels good. I feel free not knowing what it is I want. I feel like dancing. I feel like exploring. I want to try everything.

Outfit Details:

(It deeply irks me that the waistline of my dress peeked out in these photos. I'm trying not to be OCD about it, but it's very very hard.)

Linked up at Not Dead Yet Style.

Necklace//Target (Surprised? I was.)
Dress (worn as blouse)//Vintage, 1980s
Cardigan//Charlotte Russe
Ring//Antique - Sara Coventry
Skirt//Vintage, Ralph Lauren, 1980s
Shoes//Vintage via The Paraders

Return of the [Vintage] Jedi

After many adventures in New York City, I have returned!

This is the delightful ensemble I wore to dinner with Josh the night before I departed.

He said, "Those shoes are really cool. You look really pretty tonight."

To which I said, "Thanks, love. I kinda thought so too."

False modesty never has suited me...

But don't you ever have days where you look in the mirror and think, Man, I look gooood?

Yeah, I like those days.

I'll be back later this week with some of my photos from New York :)

Outfit details:

Cardigan//Charlotte Russe
Dress//ModCloth
Necklace//Vintage
Purse//Charming Charlie's

Shoes//Vintage, 1960s

Happy As A Lark

Ok, so I look severely pouty in these photos, but that is the total opposite of how I'm feeling! 

This Saturday I leave for New York for the media arts conference, and I am completely thrilled!

I'm going with a group of people from my journalism class, which will be delightful because they are delightful people, but I still wish I could take my Josho with me (sigh).
But anyhow...I have a few plans formulating in my little curly head. I'm desperately wanting to visit central park and a few organic restaurants in the area. Unlike my town, NYC actually has options for people who hate eating chemicals. So as you can imagine, I'm happy as a lark ^_^

I'm also planning to visit whatever shops are in Times Square. Anyone know of a vintage shop in that area? I'd love an authentic 50s dress as a souvenir! In fact, I'm packing my suit case full of food so that I can save most of my food money for a dress instead. Priorities, people, priorities!

Outfit details:

Earrings//Charlotte Russe
Dress//ModCloth
Blazer//Vintage, 1980s
Necklace//Charming Charlie's
Ring//Antique
Shoes//Jeffrey Campbell

I Hate Jeans

It's true. I hate jeans. I own a few pairs so as not to seem like an American pariah, but I hate wearing them. Especially the hip huggers. With a long waist like mine, low-rise jeans = plumber's crack. And that's not lady-like or attractive by any means. (I know I'm not the only one this happens to! I've been to WalMart!)

So when I found this pair of retro bell-bottoms, I fell in love. They're corduroy and a delicious chocolate brown. So comfortable. Ahhh...my new pants and the spring sunshine have made for a very pleasant afternoon.

Outfit Details:

Earrings//ModCloth
Blouse//Vintage, 1980s
Owl Necklace//Antique
Bell-bottoms//Revolve Clothing
Shoes//ModCloth

Playing Dress Up

After an eternity (no exaggeration there) of devoting myself solely to workworkworkworkwork, I indulged in a brief round of dress up yesterday. I also spent time watching old episodes of House, made some muffins, and then decided I would do some painting with watercolor. Yep, I play dress up, write poetry and I paint too. 

Some people say that makes me a hippy. My brother says I have a chubby seven year old spirit trapped inside me. Which I suppose isn't too far off. I live off of sugar, and I mean, seriously, I'm wearing a t-shirt with a giraffe and a lion riding a tandem bike.

Outfit Details:

Hat//The Quirky Poet

Earrings//Kohl's

Necklace//The Quirky Poet

T-shirt//Modcloth

Skirt//Vintage

But there's nothing wrong with that :)

What sort of things do you like to do in your free time?

Kore

"I have watched your smile in your sleep

and I know it is the boat 

in which my sun rides under the earth

all night on the wave of your breath

no wonder the days grow short

and waking without you

is the beginning of winter

"How is it that I can hear your bird voice now

trickling among the ice towers

through the days of the anvil

as the year turns I carry an echo

over my own stones and I listen

my eyes are open looking ahead

I walk a little ahead of myself touching

the air where nobody sees you

and the sun as it sets through the forest of windows

unrolls slowly

its unrepeatable secret

all the colors of autumn without the leaves

"You were shaking and an air full of leaves

flowed out of the dark falls of your hair

down over the rapids of your knees

until I touched you and you grew quiet

and raised to me

your hands and your eyes and showed me

twice my face burning in amber

"Already  on the first hill with you beside me
at the foot of the ruins I saw through the day
and went on without pausing
loving the unheld air
as a wing might love it flying
toward you unknowing
knowing

"When they are together our hands are of an age

and a dark light flows up between them

into its feathers

We have brought

nothing with us

but what has come of itself

we pass the stone fragments

the ancient smiles holding out

no hands

like the trees their sisters born older

"I trust neither memory nor expectation
but even the white days of cities
belong to what they do not see
even the heart of the doubters' light is gold
even when you are not with me
in the flowerless month of the door god
you look at me with your eyes of arrival

"Thirty days after the solstice

forms of ripe wheat

emerge from the tips of the branches

Far outside them

here

where you have never been

I reach for you with my eyes

I call you with my body

that knows your one name

"Days when I do not hear you 

it seems that the season flows backward

but it is only

I

of hollow streets

deaf smoke

rain on water

"We cross the smooth night lake together

in the waiting boat

we are welcomed without lights

again and again we emerge by day

hand in hand

from all four corridors at once

under the echoing dome

guided by what has not been said 

"The shadow of my moving foot 

feels your direction

you come toward me

bringing the gold through the rust

you step to me through the city of amber

under the moon and the sun

voice not yet in the words

what is spoken is already

another year."

-- W.S. Merwin

Details:

"Kore" by W.S. Merwin - to read the complete piece (nope, this isn't the whole thing), see his collection The Compass Flower.


Photos by Josh.


Glasses//Ray Ban
Necklace//Antique
Dress (worn as blouse)//Vintage, 1980s
Skirt//Vintage, 1980s
Trench Coat//Vintage, Thrifted
Cardigan//Charlotte Russe
Shoes//Vintage, 1980s via The Paraders

Love Is Blind...

...and so am I. Do ya like my new spectacles? Well, I love them! They're totally dorky, endearing, and exactly what I wanted.

I've worn glasses since I was ten, but my eyes are so terrible now that the large E at the top of the eye chart looks like a fuzzy, hostile smudge. When I was little, I thought that everybody saw things in the indistinct, blurry way I did.  You can imagine how delighted I was when I got to see that the Moon's craters are actually visible from Earth.

My first pair of glasses were bifocals. After my exam, the optician wrote me a prescription for free bagels at The Bagel Place, which was across the hall from his office. An optician who wrote prescriptions for free cream cheese covered carbohydrates obviously knew what he was doing, putting a pitiful, awkward ten year old in bifocals.

Ok, so I'm still a little awkward, but at least my glasses aren't bifocals anymore. That helps a lot.

Outfit Details:

Linked up here.

Glasses//Ray Ban
Earrings//Charlotte Russe
Blazer//Vintage, 1980s
Dress//Target
Necklace//Vintage
Jeans//ModCloth
Ring//Antique
Shoes//ModCloth

Mon petit placard.

So this is my little bedroom and my closet. The reason the closet appears so sparse is because all the clothes are piled on the bed after laundry day. My room tends to be rather chaotic, and none of my bedding matches. But what did you expect of a quirky poet?

I kind of like taking photos in here...being inside means I get to listen to music. And then pose ridiculously because I’m dancing around like a five year old watching Spongebob. 

I also get to be with my bestemest furry friend Pea, who likes all my mismatched blankets.

Outfit Details:

Earrings//Vintage

Ring//Antique

T-shirt//Target

Cardigan//Vintage

Shorts//Vintage, BONGO 1980s

Tights//Vera Wang for Kohl's

Boots//Vintage, Ebay

Where I Am

Though I don’t have the pleasure of attending the IFB Conference this month, I will be making a trip to NYC in March for a writing conference. This will be my first time in New York. While I’m incredibly thrilled, I’m also incredibly frightened. 

See, I’m directionally challenged. Navigation is not one of my talents. I get lost in my own town, so I will likely be meandering hopelessly through the streets of New York with a GPS system in my hands and a glassy, bewildered expression in my eyes. 

Thinking about what I’ll wear there...probably exactly what I wear when I’m home. I don’t worry much about fitting into my environment. I don’t fit in here, so it makes no difference to me whether or not I fit into the New York aesthetic. 

Clothes aren’t so much about where I am geographically. I dress according to where I am in my mind. (And according to the temperature because no matter how strong the will, I cannot conquer the climate.)

People often ask me why do you wear that. I like to dress as though I’ve just climbed out of a novel. I like to look intriguing and whimsical because that’s where I am in my mind. I wear it because I like it. Because it makes me feel good about myself and good about my world. Because it’s comfortable. Because it inspires me and tells a story. Why would I wear something that didn’t accomplish those things? 

Why do you wear what you wear? Does it depend upon where you are on the globe?

Details:

Photos by Josh. 

Don't you love the awesome effects he used? He's such a genius. 

To see more of his snazzy photography, click here.

Earrings//The Quirky Poet

Trench Coat//Vintage, thrifted

Ring//Target

T-shirt//Hand-me-down

Skirt//The Quirky Poet

Purse and Shoes//ModCloth