Autumn in America

I wouldn't be at all surprised if an all-American survey showed that majority of the population considers Fall their favorite season. Autumn in America is nothing short of amazing. September still feels like Summer, and in many states most of October too. Besides sunny warm days, it bursts into all shades of yellow, orange, red and purple. November brings one of the most beloved holidays, Thanksgiving, and preparation for the winter celebration extravaganza. And of course, we can't overlook Halloween which children and adults alike simply adore for its unique spooky spirit: costumes, candies, party fun and home décor. Speaking of which, I gave all the rights to decorate our home for Halloween to my daughter and husband since they absolutely love it. But one of the things that makes Autumn and October in particular really fun for everyone is visiting a pumpkin patch. Many farms open their imaginary doors to the public during the whole month, offering hey rides, corn mazes, petting zoos and of course pumpkins of all sorts, shapes and sizes. I would say that other than football and Halloween party games, America's favorite Fall game is playing farmers!

From January to March

Hello friends,

This is a catching up post before we get to Spring at full swing here In The Writer's Closet. I gathered a few outfit photos which were taken any time from January through February and most recently March outfits...and of course, some of the life events which went with them.

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!

Indian Spice, American Revolution and Soviet Clown

I don't wear boho often, but I have a few pieces and love playing with them from time to time. Neither the blouse nor the skirt are new to my closet (showed previously HERE and HERE), but until just recently, they sort of lived in the same town, but on different streets, and didn't have a chance to cross each other's paths. Then they bumped into each other during a town meeting so to speak, went on a date once, and what do you know - pretty much immediately decided to get married. Kids! 

Modish Matrons #13: Safari

Our July theme was offered by Beate, and it sounded like this:

Heia Safari: What would you wear if you only could shop your closet for packing that suitcase.

Now, that's a challenge! Anyone could feel puzzled if not defeated by this theme! Anyone but fierce and fearless MODISH MATRONS (insert drum roll here)! Tina and myself followed Beate's lead and created our own versions of African travel worthy outfits. As always, I cannot wait to see the girls' interpretations. Please join me - let's go visit BEATE und TINA! 

There's a First Time for Everything + Fun Announcement

Hello my friends,

Before I go on sharing some photos from early Spring that I did not get to share with you yet (also, a fun announcement at the end of this post!), let me tell you what happened yesterday. It was a wonderful day - first of all, it is always joy to visit with Erica (my hair stylist), and this time it was even more fun because I took Anya with me. After the salon, I took Anya shopping for clothes for her, and as we were marching to the food court of our outlet mall, a woman came to me and said,

"I just wanted to tell you that I love your blog!"

What? That has never happened to me before! In almost 3 years of writing this blog, I have not met a reader, with the exception of my wonderful fellow bloggers (which is fantastic, though a little different). Meeting my blog reader Susan was a wonderful feeling, and she was so lovely to say that she feels that I write from the heart. Thank you so much! You've really made my day, and I will always treasure that. 

Stripes, Stripes, More Stripes

They say, we got more rain this winter than in a few previous years, but it does not mean that we don't have perfectly wonderful sunny days and blue sky - sometimes, we do! Like today, or that day a couple of weeks back when I wore my new stripy dress. It is so easy to wear, comfortable, that I wore it out quite a few times, and even was lounging at home in it. The silhouette is very simple - almost a basic sailor shirt, which is flattering on a woman's body even the way it is, but combined with a variety of stripes, creates an especially successful design. 

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! :)

Dream Dress & Dinner Theater

 

Many pictures and much news!

I was so thrilled when I received a product review invitation from eShakti - the unique online women's apparel company that specializes in customized clothing sizes 0 to 36! This is only the second offer I have accepted, as a blogger, and this one was not to  be missed. Short of having your own talented dress maker, this is the best option to have. The whole process of selecting and tailoring the dress to my wishes was smooth, easy and as much fun as playing paper dolls when I was a child. 

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.

October Babies

I've decided to go a bit crazy and post two more outfits today. What? Again?? Yes, again. But you would never guess why I combined these two outfits into one post. Because the photos of both of them are awfully dark! Not especially artistic of me to post lower than usual quality photos, but I happened to like these outfits and I rarely repeat the same outfits a few days in a row (I repeat, but mostly something casual "throw on and forget about it" type of clothes). Well these were special, and I hardly will do them again soon and definitely will not dress up just to retake the photos, so here you go.

High On Life

Did you know that the artichoke is a thistle (чертополох)? 

Well I didn't! Until Justin pointed out how similar they look. 

I think I am a bit of a thistle artichoke myself. 

Not just a flower. Not only a vegetable. 

Big, bright and bold. 

Surprising. Unexpected. Unusual. 

With a myriad of tiny flowers

and a big heart.

A Bit of Americana

Denim is surely the most American of all American things style-wise, and has become a wardrobe staple for millions worldwide. Yet I somehow managed to get my very first dark blue jeans when I was in my mid-30s, and my very first denim jacket in my 40s. This is another quite unique jean jacket from my growing denim family which I wore for certainly the most American of all American holidays - 4th of July.

Kubota Garden & The Real Adventure Man

One rainy June weekend, Justin and I took off to one of the Japanese gardens up in Seattle - the Kubota Garden which was founded by one (!) self-taught gardener and Japanese garden enthusiast, Fujitaro Kubota, in 1927. The long story short, as this visionary dreamt, his 20 acre garden eventually became a public garden, free for visitors and open every day, as a city park, till dusk.

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. 

Russian Platok

In every country and every culture in the world, women traditionally wear shawls, scarves or headscarves which serve us as both unique accessory and warm cozy clothing item. In Russia, we have a few traditional types of scarves or shawls which we call ПЛАТОК (platok) one of them being the gorgeous colorful shawl traditionally made in Pavlovsky Posad, a town just 68 km (42 mi) East of Moscow. 

Special Day

It was a special day calling for a special mood and special outfit! As I have told you before, dresses and skirts are on my mind lately. Yet, I wasn't satisfied with anything from my wardrobe on that particular day. While pants are staples of my everyday wardrobe, and seem like nothing special as a general rule... yet there are no "general rules" when you are trying to create something special! Do you agree? These pair of Hue leggings were very unusual for me. They created just the right playful and sexy mood I wanted that day. Why? It was Justin's birthday! And everything was special about that day! :) 

First Trip into Fall

September was spoiling us with hot summery weather until just now. Last week, I was still wearing my summer wardrobe. We did get a couple of big storms mixed with 80 to 90 degrees temperature, but only this weekend feels truly fall-like...