The Cutest Couple on the Town

 

As you can tell, my new wool berets quickly became my favorite headwear (I soon will show you the other color that I got... can you guess what it is?). Another strong favorite of this Fall is this rust plaid dress by eShakti, made of cozy brushed cotton and fully lined (the style and fabric is similar to the skirts you've seen before, last time in my posts about Portland back in April 2018 HERE and HERE). I wore this dress sleeveless when the weather was warmer earlier this season, but now it is wet, blustery and penetrating - just perfect for layering with turtlenecks! (I guess it is time to refresh my stock with other pretty colors too.)

Hidden Village

 

Last Saturday night, feeling exhausted and a little chilled after the whole day spent outdoors, we stopped at the closest restaurant we could find, which happened to be a vegetarian and pescaterian Thai place in Bellevue, WA. We are neither, but sort of naturally leaning that direction in the last couple of years, and we love Thai, and our dinner was amazing! Anya got wide rice noodles with "veggie meat" (you wouldn't know the difference, honestly), Justin had pineapple rice with prawns, and I had pad thai with mixed seafood - delicious! No wonder I look as pleased as punch in these pictures! 

Winter Woollies and Movies

Another rainy week in Seattle (Tacoma too), and another woolly, cozy, but still feminine outfit, that I wore on one of these drizzly days. On the bright side, Patti of Not Dead Yet Style has picked one of my recent outfits among others in her post FIVE FAB INSTAGRAMS OF THE WEEK, IN LEOPARD, RED AND BLACK - I feel so honored! 

A Wardrobe Formation

Early November surprised us with cold air and even a few snowflakes here and there this year. With temperatures dropping to the mid 40s, it was time to get my cozies out. This outfit is in heavy rotation lately, and I am happy to report that it contains only stuff that I have owned for years, but in a new combination. I've finally arrived at the feeling that my wardrobe is complete. If you read my blog since the beginning, you might remember that I started creating a wardrobe practically from scratch back in 2013, after a prolonged period of very low interest in clothes (let alone accessories, let alone style as a creative process). My body has been changing in the last several years in size and shape, which provided additional challenges. I was learning not only what can look good on my body, but also my tastes, preferences and my comfort zone. I discovered that when it comes to style, I've become much less conservative compared to my younger self, more curious and open to new ideas. I discovered a new born willingness to try new (to me) things and maybe even look ridiculous at times - it does not bother me now. So what if someone won't appreciate my experiments? It's only clothes!

Potpourri

 

A Merriem-Webster dictionary online defines the French word potpourri (literally: "rotten pot", a name for a meat stew popular in 17th century) as "a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices that is usually kept in a jar and used for scent" or as "a miscellaneous collection". In the last September post, I decided to bring you a potpourri of my outfits, suitable for a transitional season. I wore these ensembles either in Spring of this year or in Fall a couple of years back, and even prepared photos for publication, but for whatever reason changed my mind and did not post them before, with one exception, when I posted and then changed my mind and deleted that post (yes, my mood can be that changeable - women, eh?). In this mix, I threw together a bunch of colors, shapes and styles; some leaves, petals, and even some bark; and a few classical paintings to make my potpourri more interesting and palatable. Have I stirred up your curiosity? No more introductions then - dive into my recipe!

Modish Matrons: Folk Art

 

Welcome to Modish Matrons - a link-up that once a month offers you a theme to play with and an opportunity to get together to share our diversity and love of fashion and style! Add your link in a special place at the very end of my post, and please visit my beautiful co-hostesses Tina and Beate to see their interpretation of the theme!

Modish Matrons: Russian Winter Fairy Tale

Happy New Year!

Here at In The Writer's Closet, we begin it with a new, updated version of our monthly link-up that will start on the 1st of every month and stay open for a whole month. If you are on Facebook, we'll appreciate if you like our new page MODISH MATRONS, and thank you to all who have already liked us! Our team - Tina, Beate and myself - would love it if you get inspired by our themes, but feel free to join us as you are, too. Other than a new date, we also arrange our themes differently now - we take turns, so each month one of us presents a theme that inspires her, and it is represented in our collages too:

Happy New Year! + New Video

 

A very Happy New Year to each and all of you!

It's my most favorite holiday of all. It's something about childhood - in my home country, it is THE holiday which is widely celebrated as the biggest event of the year. Most of our traditions have pretty much the same flair as Christmas here - no big surprise there, our New Year celebration takes roots from both ancient winter celebrations and Christmas. It's the connection with childhood, that's what makes it so special - brightly decorated tree, lights everywhere, special treats and beloved people by our side. And always, always a feeling of magic and dreaming big dreams. I'll probably spend tomorrow preparing a couple of traditional Russian salads - one with salty herring! sounds yucky doesn't it? ;) - nevertheless, it is one of my most favorite treats. I'll probably watch some favorite Russian winter movies. Then I'll dress up, say thanks to 2015 and welcome the New Year.

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. 

Cardigan Crazy

I went a little crazy lately - on floral blouses and long cardigans. The blouses were all found at Goodwill, so no feeling guilty there. This particular one came home with me from our mini-vacation in Oregon, and I just adore it. It reminds me of blouses my Mom used to wear back in the 1980s (and of course I also got to wear at least one of them, with a pussy bow and very similar sleeves). The fabric and the floral design seem so charmingly old-fashioned, and oh those colors! I will admit, it is irresistible, and I just want to wear it all the time. 

Who I Am

I spotted this dress at Lane Bryant earlier in the Winter, and fell for it - maybe, because it reminded me of two dresses I had in my early 20s (both self-made). 

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.

Abandoned Beauty

Doing a little Internet research before visiting the Washington State capitol building in Olympia, I came across a surprising picture of an old building which seemed so out of the ordinary, I instantly felt like I was thousands of miles away, somewhere in Europe, in Italy perhaps, in a place I've never been before. 

words

words can hurt

they can put

a cold spell

on a heart

freeze

the heart to death

let me forget those words

breathe 

words can heal

they can reach 

the tiniest spot

in your heart

put their roots

deep down inside

grow like a child

grows in a mother's womb

words can explode in you like a bomb

they can be gentle

they can be strong

they can become 

the last words one ever hears

with his heart, not his ears

shhh

listen to silence

look inwards 

for words that heal

that give love

like a mother gives her child a meal

quiet words, 

plain, not fancy at all

as simple as seeds 

but when they reach soil, not a wall

they grow into beautiful things

that's where it begins

kind simple words that fall 

into a longing soul

like dry seeds fall

into longing soil

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.

In The Seaside Cottage

I'm inviting you to my house today. There will be nothing about outfits in this post. Instead, there will be plenty photos of my home which were taken within the last two or three years (though none of them are recent). We live in a rental cottage, a cozy old little house which even though it could use some renovations, definitely is a charming little place. It's probably no more than 1000 square feet all together, not counting the garage and basement which we use for laundry facility and storage. If you like your home nicely organized, tidied up and spotlessly clean, minimalistic or decorated like it came right out of a magazine, you cannot count on me. But if you like cozy homes with character and a spontaneous spirit, and don't mind some mess along the way, then you might enjoy my little tour. I also will supply you with links to a few of my personal favorite places to shop for home decor around Puget Sound. So get comfortable, and I'll pour you a glass of red and offer you something cozy to eat like shepherd's pie tonight (same as in the photo above taken 2 years ago). Come in, friends!

Warning! LOADS OF PICTURES!

One, Two, Three

Sometimes we photograph my outfits, but I don't have enough time to post them, and some of them remain in my backlog forever - I just lose enthusiasm about them. Does it happen to you? To avoid that problem this time, I decided to show three of my outfits from last week in one post. I'll just add it to the series of posts labeled "2-in-1". So here you go, three outfits from three different days.

Happy To Repeat

I adore this outfit! It's fun, feminine, comfortable and very me!

I don't repeat my outfits much lately, but I know that this one will be on repeat when the mood strikes me. 

"What's that about not repeating?" - I hear you asking. 

"We don't have so much clothes!" - I hear you saying. 

Do get me right: you don't need a bottomless wardrobe to come up with new combinations! I don't have one, though I'll admit that I do have plenty of pieces to mix and match. It's just always much more interesting to create vs. to go with routine. I used to have sort of personal uniforms - I would fall in love with a few outfits and repeat them over and over again, while some clothes would just hang there without much use. I do it very differently these days. And it's really fun and easy - just add new accessories, change shoes or purse, use different nail polish to bring out another color of that colorful shirt, change that shirt, add a scarf - and before you know it you've got yourself a new look!

Dream Dress

Aren't you getting dizzy from reading about all the dresses this month? Because I am. Well, as they said in a famous Russian cartoon - only two dresses to go. Or maybe three. :)

Unexpected

This gorgeous whimsical beauty of a pattern peeked at me from a random stuff rack at one local Goodwill store. I don't even know what sort of mix was on that rack - the new arrivals which were not sorted out and put on their proper racks yet, or the stuff customers tried on and rejected. What I know for sure is that if not for that random rack, I wouldn't find this top. When I had it in my hands, I noticed that the size was marked as Small (let me remind you that I typically wear  XL, so even if I sometimes check racks with size L, I never even think of checking out a rack with size S...) 

Fate! ;-)