Moments of Late Fall 2014 & Winter Solstice

Upper: 1. Family Day in Seattle. 2. Love and Airplanes. 3. Adventures in Music.

Middle: 1. If You Let It (also see Versatile). 2. Rare Guests. 3. Brr.

Lower: 1. Of Kangaroos... 2. Theater Twists. 3. Retro in Tacoma.

I like to look back and see the mosaic I created with my days and in this case with my outfits in a certain period of time. I started this series as a once a month post, but lately do it in bigger chunks of time, say twice a season. So here I gathered a few outfits from early November till late December, right up to Winter Solstice which took place this past Sunday, December 21 this year. Here in America people consider this day the beginning of Winter. Back in Russia, we would always celebrate the beginning of a new season on the first of the month - March 1 for Spring, June 1 for Summer, September 1 for Fall and December 1 for Winter. There really is no right or wrong way to do it. What do you consider the beginning of a new season, personally and culturally? Do share!

These past couple of months I was really into theater and tortured my family with culture quite a bit. We visited both familiar and new-to-us places, both professional and community groups, both musicals and dramas, both in our own town and beyond. It was a great adventure, and I learned so much - some new genres and holiday traditions around here, some plays and musicals, and what's most exciting to me, I saw passionate people doing what they truly love to do. To me, it really does not matter so much what exactly we see as long as it is done with love, truly from the heart. I love people with fire, with enthusiasm. I want to know their stories. I like to imagine how they started, what was in the very beginning of their dream. I want to know how they were raised, what they had to overcome to really believe in themselves, and where they are going. That's the most exciting thing to me - the journey itself, not the destination. I realized that I'm rather a nomad by nature - forever exploring and wanting to experience something new, tracing a map of the world with my eyes, feet and imagination. There are still plenty of  theater groups to discover, but I feel at this point I am ready to switch my focus onto somethings else. I'll still go to theaters, but more occasionally. 

My Dad and me before entering the historic Rialto Theater in Tacoma 

for the wonderful, heartfelt Christmas Revel.

 The last performance we visited this year was Christmas Revel in Tacoma. I'm sure many of you have already heard of this tradition, and maybe participated in one. For my family and myself, it was new. We learned about it from Anna's improv teacher Tony Curry, an award winning actor (he apparently had a part in our beloved Northern Exposure, though I haven't watched this show in years and don't remember). Awards would not matter to me if my kid did not love her classes. She is absolutely nuts about it and gets disappointed when a class gets cancelled - now that's a sign that the educator really does something right, isn't it? So when Tony cancelled a class because he had to rehearse for the Christmas Revel, it got my attention. I bought tickets because it all sounded wonderful plus gave Anya a chance to see her teacher in action - on the stage. It was a great way to finish our holiday show season, we loved every minute of the performance (and it was long). Another surprise was, that the musical director of the show and one of the beautiful singers was Anna's music teacher from her 4th and 5th grade! So two key people in the performance were our daughter's teachers, and they were both wonderful, she is lucky to have such people in her life. Here is the link to our local Revels group - http://pugetsoundrevels.org/ There is a good chance that there is a group near you - it seems to become a huge movement (and if you are a fan of Renaissance period of music, costumes and performances, then it's a guarantee you'll love it).

It was a regular weekday night, and we all were a bit tired after a long day, so not too much embellishments this time, but I did wear a new skirt (will have to take pictures of it to properly show it on the blog) and my beloved silk blouse which I found in a consignment store earlier this year.

I wore dresses and skirts a lot and dressed up a lot during the last couple of months, but there were a few casual outfits on my blog too, comfortable for just knocking around. I mixed prints and wore my gorgeous Russian shawls quite a few times (there are 6 or 7 in my collection, I'll have to make a post dedicated to them!). Here are some of the outfits which I did not include in my collage (I try to limit the collage to 9 photos, I think it gets overwhelming after that), but I still like them. It's so much fun to explore style. When I started this blog, I pretty much wanted to learn how to "look good". I thought that I'd just learn a few things, find a "formula", and then just play with it. I admit that there are a few formulas found. But the fun to me is not in knowing formulas. I have much more fun exploring, trying, creating, playing - much like a child plays without knowing exactly how stuff works, inventing new and different ways of playing his own game. What can I say, I am rather a nomad. I'm not sure I ever want to "arrive"... so enjoy the journey!

Cold Spell

Something Old, Something New & Rays of Sun

words

My outfit for the Christmas Revel:

Skirt - Lane Bryant (it's such a fun piece! I'll show you the details soon)

Silk blouse - consignment

Reversible boiled wool jacket - Chico's

Boots - Aquatalia

Purse - an embroidered pouch from an antique mall

Earrings - Chico's

HaPpY hOLiDaYS to ALL!

 Performances I wrote about earlier:

Tacoma Symphony and Dame Evelyn Glennie

Little Women, drama at Lakewood Playhouse

Jack and the Beanstalk, English Christmas panto by Centerstage! (a tradition in Federal Way, WA)

Mary Poppins, musical at the Village Theatre, Issaquah, WA

Oliver! musical at Havier Than Air Family Theater, Kent, WA

It's a Wonderful Life, drama at Rosebud Community Theater, Federal Way, WA

The Addams Family, musical at Paradise Theater, Gig Harbor, WA

Sound of Music, musical at Auburn Community Players

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