Modish Matrons #28: Colorblocking...Colorblogging!

Hello lovely friends and dear readers, and welcome to October Modish Matrons! This month's theme is Colorblocking...Colorblogging! offered by gorgeous Tina (as you might know, we rotate each month). As soon as I learned what the theme was, I thought of this fabulous skirt, and the rest of the outfit came together spontaneously.

Contrasts and Variety

We did this photo shoot last weekend at the University of Washington in Tacoma. It's a beautiful campus nestled in the hills of Tacoma right in the heart of the city, from where you can see Commencement Bay and the Port of Tacoma, and take a short walk to the three museums across the street - Washington State History Museum, Museum of Glass and Tacoma Art Museum.

Cool as a Cucumber

In this new faux leather jacket, I feel like Special Agent Cooper - cool as a cucumber. Being so taken with pattern mixing for the most part, I haven't done much color blocking lately, which is where I started my style experiments back in 2013. I didn't know that term back then, I just saw it done by some fabulous style bloggers, and I liked it and wanted to learn how to do it on my own. I ended up doing a lot of it over the past few years! But time flies, and our interests change, or at least move around - there are always new (twin) peaks to conquer, right? So I haven't color-blocked in a while and felt a bit rusty. But this jacket, guys! It reminded me of a biker jacket I used to wear in the 1990s. It was made of the fabric that looked like crushed velvet, but thick and practically indestructible, and it had similarly cool details and vibe about it. It wasn't such an intense color though, but a beautiful deep gray - I wore it non-stop, with everything. Years passed, and I tried a few moto jackets, but nothing really grabbed me before I found this one. Thank you, my new red jacket, for bringing me back to my (style) roots!

The Fine Art and Science of Being You

When I started this blog back in 2013, the very first height of my styling abilities was color blocking. It was what I felt drawn to when I observed other style bloggers, and it was something brand new to me as a concept, so for a long time, I had a good fun playing with it. Now when I look back, I see how simple my outfits were. But for someone who for a few years lost her interest in style, coming back can be quite overwhelming, to the point that you just give up and go back to your routine (in my case, it was dark blue boot cut jeans & some kind of cute top or jacket). I spent a few months mostly just reading about style before I pumped up the courage to start experimenting and created my blog. Color blocking was a good place to begin, and I think I did pretty well.

The Mamushka!

 

I don't know about your part of the world, but here in the US there are basically three kinds of movie theaters. My favorite kind is the little independent movie theaters that show artistic movies, foreign movies, documentaries, and indies. Another kind of theaters show current movies, and with the latest addition of comfortable recliners, they became more welcoming to me, especially when they show classic old movies, or (rarely) something of my interest (Woody Allen, for one).

Midlife Fun: Pumpkin & Squash

 

WOW!

After staying at home without getting out for two weeks, it feels so weird to finally get out and embrace the world! All the smells, noises, color, light, air, temperature...A-MA-ZING! I'm feeling a little drunk with all of it! 

It's a good thing I got better just in time for MIDLIFE FUN too! This month, we celebrate pumpkins and squash which to me express the true spirit of Autumn - its beauty, coziness and abundance. Pumpkins are technically a kind of squash, and our theme could be simply "squash", but "pumpkin" is such a great word, it would't be right to leave it out. 

Playful in a Park

 

Parks are for playing! Whether you play sports, enjoy time with your family and friends, or go for a walk, it's all about joy. We've been experiencing rainy weather here for the past few days, but there was some glorious sunshine too, and we took advantage of a sunny day to play in a local park and enjoy Autumn leafage this past Sunday.

Sunny in Tacoma + Video

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the general rule is 'when sun is out, everyone is out'. Not on big game days though, so we had the whole town to ourselves! We parked our car in a practically empty, huge public garage and caught a free tram (Tacoma Link) to the museum district. Care to join us for a walk?

Shall We Dance?

Where You Belong

I believe that dreams are necessary to life. To my life, they certainly are - they are the map which tells my soul what direction to move. 

I love the place where we live, I really do. It's beautiful and peaceful, not overly populated, easy access to everything we like or need. But one day, I want to live in this town where citizens cherish old buildings (such as this 1930s shopping center and first "talking pictures" Historic Lynwood theatre) and don't destroy them, clearing the space for a brand new mall. Where citizens nourish arts, culture and education. Where new daring beginnings don't vanish into thin air, unnoticed by both town leaders and community members. Where on every square foot you feel with every fiber of your being just how special this place is to people who live there, how much people care. I will take walks on these streets, buy vegetables from the local farmers, taste wine in the local wineries and write my heartwarming stories with little action and big heart. I will smile and laugh a lot and not feel lonely anymore. Some day I will arrive there and not hurry back. I recognize it by the longing in my heart every time I visit, the way you know when you found your soulmate - you know that this is your home. 

Riverwalk

It seems, this hat wants to go with pretty much every one of my outfits. 

And it seems, I let her!

Zestful

I felt incredibly alive wearing this outfit today - of course sunny mild weather has also something to do with my cheery mood, but even now looking at the photos, I feel zestful. 

Gray & Orange

Another outfit from early March (March 10th) which did not make an appearance in the blog yet. 

I love the way the shades of red and orange play with each other here. They don't seem to interrupt each other, don't seem to dissonate. I'm often amazed how versatile orange is. 

History: State and Personal

When our daughter was little, we visited our state capital Olympia a couple of times. It's is a beautiful small town (population 48,338 as recorded in 2013) on the very south end of Puget Sound, only 50 minutes drive from our home. 

Girl Next Door

On Fridays, when Justin gets out of work earlier than usual, we like to go out to lunch together. One of our favorite places is an Indian restaurant - I believe it's the only one in the nearest town, and it's without a doubt the best Indian I've tried. (I sometimes think, 'can food get any better than that?' There is something so satisfying about Indian cuisine on so many levels - taste, visual presence with colors and all, variety of textures, and of course, of course the heavenly wonderful smells!) I typically choose to wear something bright and colorful in honor of this culture, but yesterday, I felt like breaking the familiar mold.

Land's End: Cape Flattery

I wanted to share photos of our New Year's travel to the land's end - на краешек земли, as I call it. 

We do a lot of road trips. Practically every weekend we go exploring our amazing state which has so much variety (4 different climate zones, to begin with). There is probably not enough time in our whole life to really get to know every bit of it, and we do have quite a few favorite places where we return regularly, but we also love discovering new-to-us corners of Washington (with occasional trips to beautiful neighboring Oregon). This time, it was a trip to a new place, and literally a corner - the most Northwestern corner of the contiguous United States.

Please note: many photos in this post. 

Bonus: you don't need to fasten your seat belts or wear your hiking boots to start your trip.

Blue Sky, Blue Skirt, New Chapter

Blue sky is not a very frequent guest here in Seattle during our rainy season, and blue color is not a very frequent guest in my closet. It might sound strange, but I have never been a big fan of blue. Though lately, in the last couple of years, I find myself much more drawn to blue, and especially to the sky blue hue like this thrifted skirt from Goodwill.

Theater Twists

 Justin and I experienced a couple of theater twists this past week. We visited two small local theaters - Rosebud Children's & Community Theater Conservatory in Federal Way and Heavier Than Air Family Theatre in Kent/Auburn area. In case you are in the South King County area and don't know what's going on here - do check them out! They both do a great job, each in their own way, both performing/entertaining and educating by offering summer programs for children. Our daughter took a one month long Summer camp at Rosebud two years ago and landed a few small roles in Oz! the musical, which was her first experience acting. They had three performances if I remember it right, and she enjoyed every minute of it. (She takes an improv class this year from another local theater group. The class is taught by a very gifted actor and teacher, and Anna really loves it. I'll tell you more about it in one of my future posts.) I've never taken any acting classes myself and I don't believe that I've ever been in a play, but raising my daughter and working with other children showed me how extremely important it is to a child to act, to pretend, and not only being not judged for it, but quite opposite - being praised. And I sincerely think that adults would benefit from it too. 

Of Kangaroos, Mushrooms and Acceptance

What to tell you about this outfit? Hmm, let's see. The dress is something new to me, "outside of my comfort zone" would be the correct description. Only outside of that zone actually feels quite comfortable to me - it's inside of the zone which gets uncomfortable, to tell the truth. And I am not only talking fashion here. Just think of it. We stretch outside of our so-called comfort zone when we feel uncomfortable staying inside of the zone. It's that very discomfort of staying inside of the the circle (or a box, if you will) we got used to which makes us move outside of the "comfort zone". So really, the "comfort zone" becomes a discomfort zone, and vice versa - a new territory, a "discomfort zone" becomes the more comfortable and desirable place to be. 'Nuf philosophy, it's a style blog after all, isn't it? I laid my eyes on this dress the minute I saw it on the web. I had my doubts about the lines ("Won't I look like a kangaroo in it?" I asked myself), the price was biting, so I waited for quite a while. But I found myself coming back to this design over and over again - some part of me knew it was the dress for me. So I used the opportunity of a Black Friday sale and from the comfort of my sofa, the dress was ordered. When I received it and put it on... I knew I found my new favorite.

One Dark Ooky Night

 

This was a couple of weeks ago. I planned this outfit for visiting Seattle (the Advanced Style movie was showing), but changed my mind at the last minute and went to a little local theater instead. (I wrote about our exploring local art groups HERE.)  It was The Addams Family, a musical which was just recently released for small theater groups, and the Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor (an adorable maritime village located on the Key peninsula just half an hour from us) jumped to the chance to make a Northwest premier. We happened to catch the last performance in mid-October, and it felt like an early Halloween.