Nesting

While staying with my parents is a life rich in stocked fridges, direct TV, and childhood memories, I can't help but long to build a little nest of my own. I want to hang my own knick knacks and spread out the creative projects that tickle my whim, and curl up with a book in a beautiful space all my own. And lucky me! I'm moving into my own lovely little two bedroom the first of the month! 

Source: Valspar

The colors above are my palate. I'm going for light creamy pastels, colors that harken to sweet fairy tale cottages or maybe even Marie Antoinette's bedroom. But I also want to set it off with plenty of rough wood and charmingly chipped paint... I want a shabby chic kind of rustic little grandma's country home. I picture mason jars, kerosene lamps, gingham, burlap, pastel quilts, dusty old books, birds nests, maybe some iron horse shoes or even an animal skull adorned with daisies? You know, rustic... but feminine and comfortable. And bookish. If you don't know what I mean, look at the images from my Pinterest inspiration board:

The site Pinterest has been so awesome for letting me collect inspiring image for this project. If you don't know what Pinterest is, it's basically a virtual bulletin board. You come up with a topic, and then you collect images from other pinterest users or ANY website using a little bookmark thing. You can see my home decor inspiration board here. Almost all of my images are from pinterest or Etsy.

Now my only question is........ how to I put it all together??

WearingRacerback tank:Aerie
Sports shirt (underneath): REI
Denim lace trim skirt: China
Moccasins: Cherokee, NC

Santa Cruz Sunrise

Another Summer manicure, also meticulously done by the ladies over at Jazmin Spa in Little 5. Each nail is a different zesty citrusy orange or yellow. Makes me want to drink pina coladas on a beach all day! Maybe I should call it the Miami Sunrise. Do you ever take any crazy chances on your nails?

WIS.

Summer days spent in
back-porch shade with lavender
tea and lemonade.

This maxi dress and crop top combo is very fashionable in China right now. I've Americanized my rendition by adding moccasins and my vintage macrome bag, where a Chinese girl might style it with wedges or even converse all star, and a big square clutch in a lovely bright color. Possibly.

I love the random little "WIS." on the breast pocket. Lots of clothes in China are adorned with "English" words, and I frame that in quotations because they often aren't quite words. Like "WIS.".... what does it mean? Why the period? Is it short for Wisconsin? Or did that combo of letters just look neat to someone?

Wearing
Dress and top: China
Moccasins: Cherokee, NC
Hat: Thrifted
Bag: Was my ma's
Dog: Belongs to my parents

Ah beautiful back-porch lounging, interrupted only by the occasional trip to walk the dog.

Cocktail Tuesdays: the Sidecar

"It's like lemonade for adults!" --My Aunt, after tasting her Sidecar.

My dad has this little project where he makes a new cocktail every night from the book Old Man Drinks: Recipes, Advice, and Barstool Wisdom By Robert Schnackenberg. I know, very Jules and Julia, right? I thought it would make a great blog project, but he's not really one for blogging, so I took it upon myself to chronicle one of the daily drinks per week. This week is the Sidecar.

"Veterans of the Great War will remember this one, first whipped up by the bartender at Harry's New York Bar in Paris to satisfy a U.S. Army captain who used a motorcycle sidecar as his principal means of transportation. After a few of these, you'd storm a trench for General Pershing, too" (Schnackenberg 136).

My aunt was right in calling it lemonade for adults. This drink is so summer; light and refreshing, sweet but not too sweet, and complete with a cognac kick. So perfect for back porch evenings still lit by that late summer sun.

Ingredients:

1/2 ounce cognac

1 ounce Cointreau

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Lemon twist

Shake them all together with ice to get it nice and cold, then poor into your prettiest cocktail glass. Optional: Sugar the rim and garnish with a lemon peel!

Mint Chocolate Chip continued

Speaking of Mint chocolaty delights, check out Yokoo's tote of the same name. Someday I will have the money to buy a real Yokoo original so I can support my number one girl crush rather than just stalk her flickr page! She's a local ATLien but a self-proclaimed hermit, which is good for me because I would be completely twitterpated if I ever ran into her.

Here's another picture of her with one of her luscious handmade circle scarves, a hue whimsically called "youthful sage" but close enough to mint to satisfy me. Someday, Yokoo knit products, someday....

mountain life polaroid series

I have this super cute Fujifilm Instax Mini that I bought in China for around 75 USD. It produces tiny little polaroid prints that are so much fun! It can be a challenge because the viewfinder doesn't show exactly what the camera will photograph, and since the canvas is so small you want to make sure the image is perfectly framed... so that takes some tinkering around... but I really enjoy it! This past weekend I went to the mountains around Cherokee, NC with my family and I used it as an excuse to take some Mountain life themed prints.

I set them up in this vintage cake stand my mom bought, but in my fantasy of being a real photographer in an exhibit somewhere, I envision lining them up on a mini clothesline with mini clothespins and offering the voyeur a big ole' magnifying glass with which to walk along and observe them. I'd surround them with mason jars full of lights that resemble lightning bugs and gingham tablecloths.

gingham fantasies

I impulsively want to buy this retro Esther Williams swimsuit for $74 dollars. Which I know is crazy when Target has some perfectly fine, if not perfectly gingham, more affordable options (this one at $35).

But the imitation is just not doing it for me! Is it crazy to spend 50 extra bucks just to fulfill some Mary Ann a la Gilligan's Island braided hair and denim wedge beachside fantasy? Someone talk me out of it! Or into it....

edit: Look what just appeared on my tumblr dash!

source: fromme-toyou

The swimsuit is apparently ModCloth's "Cherry Pie" and costs a whopping $90 (pictured below).

Source: Modcloth

Source: ModCloth

Delicious name and of course the styling wins hands down... I'm already adding a straw hat and a basket of blueberries to my fantasy... but the price is making the Esther Williams version even tastier. 

Plus, she's Esther Williams! She is this swimsuit. It feels wrong to go with an overpriced imitation when you can buy from the bathing beauty herself.

Source: flickr

Oh decisions decisions! What would you and your bank account do?

Mexican prints for summer

Something that did not change in China: Georgia Summers are freakin hot! So I've eschewed structured clothing and opted for nice flowing breathable pieces like this simple top from Love Culture. I went through a hippie stage in High School and never imagined I'd be going back, but I am just loving these Native American esque prints I'm seeing around.... it makes me want to buy one of those Mexican wool blankets (zarapes) and decorate my new apartment with cow skulls and dream catchers on my walls.

Image source: Mex and the City

I'm not the only one who is in this mood. One of the only things I've posted on tumblr to go "viral" (I might be using that term loosely) is this "Aztec Pastel fabric leather backpack" I found on Black Luna's flickr. It has over 4,000 notes on it, which, even though it's not MY backpack, still instills me with a little ridiculous pride.

Home Sweet Dress

This is an outfit I wore last week to go to dinner and a play, my welcome home celebration with my family.  The play was Avenue Q at Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points and it was amazing, if not amusingly awkward to watch puppet sex scenes while sitting next to your father.

This outfit is a very "Chinese" Summer look due to the ultra-feminine, almost childlike cut of the lace dress, and the towering heels. The only American touch is the addition of my vintage fringe bag. A Chinese girl wearing this outfit might pair it with some kind of super trendy purse with lots of little trinkets hanging off of it. Also the hair is a bit plain for China, lacking all the sparkly or adorable clips and barrets I grew to admire over the past year. Despite the Chinese influence, I'm still a sucker for a simple low side-pony.

Thanks for taking the pics, ma!

Mint Chocolate Chip

From Kikicoco's flickr

Ah, mint chocolate chip. I don't necessarily enjoy eating it, but I do love the color palette, which inspired my summer manicure.

Too bad I didn't get a picture when it was fresh, but the folks over at Jazmin Spa in Little 5 did a bangup job. The lovely nail technician didn't even bat an eye at my weird color request. If you have some cash and your cuticles could use a lil TLC, I highly recommend Jazmin Spa! Cute shabby-chic decor, nice smelling interior, and peaceful babbling brooks 'n flute type music (no blaring TVs or small children running around). Oh and need I add massage chairs?? Also, the gals were so meticulous about the paint job. I've never had such perfect nails. She didn't even fuss at me when I immediately went and scratched one of them and she had to do a patch job ;)

USA USA USA

I'm back from my sojourn in China, and what better season to restart my long neglected blogger blog than in the apple-pie cookout and lemonade season of July? I can't believe it's been nearly a year since last I blogged here. Living in China, blogspot services were blocked (along with lots of other nice websites many of us enjoy such as Facebook and YouTube), but that doesn't mean I was silent! I had so many adventures and there is just so much I want to say about Chinese fashion and what it's like to readjust.  If you're curious about that 10 month gap, check out the weebly blog I kept during my time in China, May Go Wren. I'm also using tumblr regularly so please follow me there!

I never lose an opportunity to go all out in theme, so naturally this 4th of July was no exception. I'm wearing old faithful cutoffs, which might be approaching the end of their lives evidenced by the slowly expanding holes including in the butt-region. Also a crop top tee that I purchased in China and slip on shoes also purchased in China. The bag is vintage macrome and fringe. I think I was going for a kind of 70s free spirit wild child kind of vibe.

I'll be honest. It's kind of hard being back. Everything is weird and different to me, somehow both the same and not quite how I left it. But I am super happy about starting a new kickass life here and getting reaquanted with all the old blogs and maybe some new ones too. If any of my readers are still out there: Thank you!