Forty Five and Full of Drive

We are back in Washington State, returned from Washington, DC! To most non-Americans it probably sounds like it's not a biggie - wouldn't these two Washingtons be close to one another? In fact, everybody knows about Washington the capital of the US, but not as many know about Washington the state. But to those who know, it's obvious just how different these two Washingtons are - different in nature, climate, history, subculture, spirit, vibe, style and definitely very different location, as the capital city of the US almost could not be further from our state. We are 2,763 miles or 4.446 km apart, which is more than the distance between my Russian hometown Krasnoyarsk and the capital of Russia, Moscow (4,150 km)! And would you believe that before our trip I did not know that? I honestly thought that it would take three or four hours by plane to get there!

Cannon Beach, Oregon: Ocean, Muffins and Puffins

The pictures for this post have been sitting in my blog drafts for almost a month now without posting, not sure why - perhaps because I don't like to end things. But I do like to have a closure, so here you have it - PART THREE (final) of our early Spring mini-break in Oregon State. Click here to read PART ONE and PART TWO.

More Oregon vacations from previous years in these posts:

MAY 2015 

DECEMBER 2015 

AUGUST 2016: PART 1 and PART 2.

I also invite you to look at my old Russian blog for a zillion photos of Portland, Oregon that we took during our first few trips there (prior to this blog):

PORTLAND JAPANESE GARDEN 

(considered the best Japanese garden outside of Japan) 

and PORTLAND: CITY OF ROSES, BRIDGES, TRAMS AND BOOKS.

Both posts written in February 2013, with pictures from 2007, 2011, 2013 taken by Justin and myself (yes, I used to bring a camera wherever I went, for many years!).

And now on to the final destination of this year's trip.

Modish Matrons #18: The Most Wonderful Time

On the first day of every month, despite the fact that we live across the pond from each other and there are 9 hours time difference between us, despite the fact that we don't speak each other's languages, and English is not our native tongue, my lovely friends TINA und BEATE and myself invite kindred spirits to come over for a playdate which became our good tradition in the past 18 months. A year and a half of our thematic link-up parties! (If you count the first 6 months when we appeared under the name MIDLIFE FUN. You can find all of our past parties under the tag MODISH MATRONS.) If you ask me, it is another good reason to celebrate during this festive season, which is the theme of our December link-up. Please add your festive outfits and visit my gorgeous friends who always delight me with their imaginative approach!

Bohemian with Fringes & Hipster with Records

 

When I introduced you to my genuine suede fringed skirt in THIS POST recently, I mentioned that I had an idea of a more bohemian looking outfit with that same skirt, and now... voilà! I present you another outfit featuring the skirt, a more relaxed and a little bohemian one (a bit pilgrim-ish even), though it isn't exactly what I had in mind at first.

My Birthday Suit

I know what you think! Uh-uh, no such luck today, guys! That was the 1973 birthday suit! This is the 2016 one!

Gentle Hues

As many of you these days, we are busy with all sorts of holiday preparations and festive events. Yesterday, Anya had a concert in her school. Justin and I were impressed. Her school has a few choirs, groups, bands and an orchestra - a strong music department with talented teachers who undeniably are on fire to do something really amazing with and for kids. Anya is in two choirs - a girl's choir and a mixed choir of girls and boys of 7th and 8th grade. When I was a kid, we had subjects like art or music only once a week. She has 2 hours of choir every day of school! The kids were fantastic, singing and playing not so trivial pieces in beautiful arrangements, skillfully done, with lots of heart. 

Hello Again!

You knew this day would come, didn't you?

I am so happy to be here again and greet you all, dear friends and readers!

I received so, so many warm, wonderful words from you - please know that I was very touched by your kindness and the interest you expressed in my blog. I must say that it was overwhelming, in the most positive way. Thank you!!

I don't know what happened. For the first few weeks of non-blogging, I felt happy and content with my life. I got really busy with other projects, worked on publishing my books, and of course spent lots of time with my family. Justin and I had our little trips, and since taking photos and writing about our discoveries was a huge part of our life for many years, regardless of blogging, we have never stopped doing it. But I missed sharing little style and shopping stories with you, and lately, literally in the last few days, I started really missing my blog. Maybe I just needed a nice long break to feel refreshed? All I know is this (and Justin really helped me to come to this conclusion). Life is too short to regret our decisions. Ultimately, nothing in life is completely irreversible, we can change our mind about pretty much anything, and if something that helps us feel better is missing from our life, then it's OK to re-decide. I don't know (and I can't know, can I?) where it's all going, but for now, writing my blog makes me feel happy. I am all for feeling happy. I know that you are too. So hello again! :)

Deception Without Deceit

Sometimes, vacation means staying at home and having no particular plans in mind, freely combining the things that people usually do on vacations, such as sleeping in, eating out, shopping and sightseeing, and things that were put aside in the everyday routine, such as cleaning up closets and such. So it's really not such a bad thing, a so-called stay-cation - one can unplug his brain and just live spontaneously for a change. No plans, no big preparations, no passports or room reservations needed. One day of our stay-cation, we filled the tank of our Outback with gas and took off to discover one of the most beautiful state parks in Washington, Deception Pass park.

Sense, Sensibility & Matryoshka

Weathermen predicted a rainy day which screwed up my plans for what I wanted to wear to our family day trip. I tried this and that, and the pile of rejected pieces rapidly grew on my bed. I almost gave up and was ready to turn to an easy option like a pair of jeans, which definitely would make my life simpler - and the hell with all that being true to my creative self stuff. I did not sleep enough the night before, and the gray skies did not brighten my mood either. But I knew that what I really wanted was to wear a new maxi dress which was in my closet waiting for a couple of weeks for warmer weather and just the right occasion for its first outing.

Romancing The Times

Happy New Year, dear friends and readers!

We are back from our little getaways, reconnected with each other (we had a grown up family vacation, while Anna spent a holiday with her father traveling down to San Francisco and up to Vancouver, Canada), and getting ready to go back to school, work and everyday life tomorrow. I will share some of our trip photos here on the blog, but first I wanted to share our spontaneous photo shoot of a couple of vintage dresses which I found just before Christmas (read the story here). These dresses have no labels on them, and I can only guess the era they were made or, as a possibility, they were custom made later, with those eras in mind, inspired by vintage fashion, using vintage fabrics and even vintage techniques. I'm only writing here about our best guesses as I'm certainly not an expert on vintage fashion.  It was quite intriguing to research these fashions, and if you can tell me more from these photographs, I'll be very grateful.

Brr

It's cold outside, the snow seem to be stuck to our yard (hopefully, not for long). But it did not stop Anna and me from going to another little community theater this past weekend. Theater is on my mind lately. I just can't help it. I want to see them all. This time, we went to the Lakewood Playhouse which is about half an hour from our home, to watch Little Women - an American classic, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott. 

If You Let It

Anna and I went to see Mary Poppins, the wonderful heart warming musical presented by the Village Theatre in Issaquah (for Seattle folks - their other stage is in Everett). I'll tell a bit more about it in a sec, but first I wanted to say that I tried to wear black and white this past weekend to join Sacramento and Monica and Share-in-Style which is always great fun, I even prepared an outfit (hopefully will be able to wear it tomorrow), but this dress put a spell on me - I just couldn't resist it and wore it again. But Anna saved the day without even realizing it, by putting together this black and white outfit. Do you recognize the dress she has on? That's right, I have a skirt which I showed many times on my blog (last time I wore it for another "Julie Andrews musical", oddly enough - read HERE about my outing to see Sound of Music). When I bought this skirt, Anna liked it so much that I ordered one for her too. I love how she wears it as a dress here - very creative! Her sense of style started blossoming pretty early on. At the age of 9, she was already putting together stylish and truly unique outfits, constantly being praised by grown up fashionistas. 

Family Day in Seattle

"As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was about to happen.” 
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Another fun cultural family event. You know that I dedicate this year to exploring a myriad of little cultural organizations in the greater Seattle area. I was familiar with a few of them, but most of them stay hidden until you start diggin'. So I started. I was asked before how I even get the information I get (and gladly share with others). That's all 'cause I love diggin'. Do you have some diggin' to do? Call Natasha. Did you want me to dig up some dirt? Stop calling right now. I only dig for fun shiny stuff. For instance, I dug out over 60 theaters in the area. I bet there are some more left!

You're Gonna Hear Her Roar

She is not Dumbo, the little elephant anymore, Anna's very first Halloween costume, her big love at the age of 2 years old. You're sure gonna hear her roar! But as I went through her Halloween photos, I got a feeling that the theme was building right up to this year when she made her own version of the Queen of the Jungle, inspired by Katy Perry's fun video. Maybe you'll catch it too.

Meeting Anne The SpyGirl and Russian ABC: S is for Salad

As many of you know, Anne of Spy Girl is currently on an artistic travel adventure - the project she calls On The Edge: US. We are lucky enough to live very close to the Western edge, so Anne and I had a chance to meet. This is the very first time I met someone from this wonderful and warm blogging circle (but I did meet great blogger friends from my previous blogs - with some of them we are friends ever since that, for almost a dozen of years already!). I offered Anne to stay in our little cottage up the hill from the Puget Sound, and she accepted my invitation!

Tie-Die and Teal

At the beginning of my blog, I thought that Anna and I will both write in it - sort of two generations, mother and daughter, and two takes on personal style. But then Anna (or Anya as we call her at home) got really busy, and then she got really into her own many interests, and it just so happened that she did not write here for a few months. I don't know whether or not she'll decide to post here on a regular basis in the future, but since she is on a school break now and we finally are having a great relaxing family time, I asked her if she'd be interested to post her recent outfits, and she agreed! You can find other Anna's posts under the label "Anna's fashion" (there are also a few posts featuring Justin under the label "Justin's style"). The first photo is by Justin, he took it last evening on the beach. All other photos are taken by me during the day.

The rest of the post is by Anna.

Hi, its me, Anna. Yesterday, I sort of had a two-in-one outfit. I know I haven't posted here in a long time, but even if I wasn't here, it doesn't mean my fashion stopped. Anyway, on to the outfit.

Winter Day in a Zoo

I am leaving for a short holiday break with my beloved one, and while I am getting ready for the trip and organizing the house, so it is nice and clean for our return, I thought I'd also post a few posts of my outfits and our family days lately. One of which was... yes, a trip to a zoo!

Let It Snow: Part 2

Part 1 is here.

Since snow is such a rare visitor here in Seattle, we love to come out and play when we get a chance. This time, we were digging our writers' closets for some good finds, appropriate for playing snowy/wintry outfits!

Let It Snow: Part 1

Part 2 is here.

I woke up this morning while it still was dark outside, though something was noticeably different when I glanced over toward the window, looking to see what time it was. I looked back again. It was nice and white, and even though the sky was still dark above my head, above our little cottage, above the whole town and the Sound, the ground was light, covered with little sugar coating. SNOW!! First one this year. I am so happy to live in our mild climate. I am happy that snow here by the coastline is mostly decorative and usually melts by noon.

When my family woke up, Anna and I picked a couple of outfits to show off in this lovely little snow. Justin suggested that we take photos as soon as we can - and he was right. Everything melted just a couple of hours later!

Parka's Life and Adventures

It's freezing here in the Pacific Northwest - rare for us! It just keeps getting colder and colder. They say it is one of coldest spells in Seattle for years. Here is hoping that we will have only a couple more cold days, and that will be it! For many, many years!

These days, I just don't feel like many layers. I still wear my boiled wool jacket, combining it with pencil skirts and turtlenecks or cardigans for quick errands around town (no photos just yet). But when it is below 30 F, I get into my parka! And even though I don't feel like shooting new pictures of my parka outings, I thought that it would be great to find old photos of me in my parka and to dedicate the whole post to this wonderfully cozy number.