Family in Fall, Sauerkraut Recipe and New Home

In my last post, I wrote about traditional Fall celebrations in the US which my family and I love, but this time of year is even more precious and beautiful to me for many personal reasons. You might notice it too, life usually brings us things in clusters. One such "cluster" is birthdays in my family. Of course, whenever a few people gather, some of them most probably were born reasonably close to each other, and it's especially true when we talk about a large family. I mean, there are only 12 months in the year, aren't there? But some such coincidences seem more like serendipity or kismet, if you will.

Modish Matrons #30: Iceland

If you ask me why Iceland even came to my mind when I put together the list of themes for the 2018 Modish Matrons back in December 2017, I couldn't explain - it just did. I have never been to Iceland and I didn't know the first thing about it. Obviously, I had to visit and learn. Or at very least commission sending a photographer to this intriguing far away place. The things we do for blogging, right? 

Modish Matrons #29: Beautiful Black

"Beautiful Black!" said Beate.

"It sure is!" said Tina and I.

And so the month of November is dedicated to this elegant, dramatic and edgy color - BLACK. I admit that I do not wear black very often, but I have a few favorite things in black, and for this outfit I remixed some of them in a new and a bit unexpected way. The only new thing in my outfit is...

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.

Playing with Neutrals

So, the Summer is coming to an end as we speak (though to me, it ended on August 31st - you see, Fall starts on September 1st in my Russian mind every year, no exception). But our playing with fashion continues, and why not play with neutral tones for a change. I love bold colors, but from time to time I feel inclined to wear neutrals - it's refreshing, as if I push an invisible restart button of my style.

Flamboyant in the Office

I wore this outfit to an important appointment earlier this week, and to me it is an example of expressive personal style even when you want to look professional and pulled together in an official/business/office situation. Honestly, if you're not required to wear a uniform at work, or you're not going to meet a president of  a country or the Queen, there is no reason not to have fun with vivid colors and bold patterns. If a part of you, like me, is flamboyant, there is no need to be afraid to come across as a bit flamboyant - it only will be genuine.

I Heart Dresses

I don't know what's your most favorite type of clothes, but mine, without any competition, is dresses! This past weekend, I made my goal to go out, wear dresses and take pictures. You see, more often than not, I stay at home and don't dress up at all; or if I go out, I don't take pictures of my outfits; or I don't feel satisfied with my outfits enough to share them. It's all fine, but as a result, I don't blog as often as I used to, and while it is also OK, still sometimes I miss it. I miss sharing my pretty dresses (and other things) with you, my stylish friends! So this weekend my faithful photographer and I made a point to bring our camera along, and I made sure to wear the prettiest outfits which I will be sharing with you over the next few days. And I am eager to do that! Are you? I sincerely hope so, 'cause ready or not - here I come! Yay!!!

Fish and Butterflies, and Life Updates

While Seattleites, Tacomans and their neighbors are experiencing a heatwave here and now, let me take you a week back in time when we were still in the mild mid 60s F with some raindrops thrown in for good measure here and there. Such weather was perfect to take my fish dress for another outing - so she wouldn't feel abandoned after her trip to Washington DC last month... besides, I promised you then to talk about my travel wardrobe! (HERE)

Dress Up, Dress Down

There is absolutely nothing wrong with either approach to dressing, and I use both, though I mostly show dressed-up versions of my outfits on the blog. In this post, I will share two outfits, very different in style and feel - in some ways, they really couldn't be more different, but I created both and I enjoyed them both equally. I just try to listen to that little bell that goes RING - when something from my wardrobe clicks with my current mood or energy level, and considering the weather and the situation I'm about to enter, I think it's pretty much all I have to know regarding what outfit to pick. It usually takes no more than a few minutes - and I am out the door!

Another Day, Another Dress

Another spring day, another floral dress. I think the only time I showed this dress on the blog was over a year ago, in the FEBRUARY 2017 post. In real life, I wore it multiple times, and especially often recently. Its cheerful pattern and bold colors have the ability to lift up my mood, and the versatile style makes it a good choice for various occasions. 

Solstice, Christmas, New Year!

Merry Christmas!

And if you don't celebrate it, then Happy Solstice (better late then never) and New Year!

I hope each of you gather with the most amazing people in your life and simply share the joy and love you have for each other. Life is so precious, it's worth celebrating at every and any possibility!

So let us have fun and ceLEbRaTE!!!

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!

Feeling Festive

It has been a wonderful holiday week for us. We got to spend lots of time together since Anya had the whole week off and Justin got a few days off (which isn't trivial with everyone's busy life), did a great deal of house work, and got to celebrate with yummy foods (Russian salads and sweets, and of course turkey, roasted traditionally by Justin). And my personal whimsical touch - torturing the family with culture, as I call it (there is no escape because I want to have it all). For you, my friends and readers, the latest is good news because if you're local, you can attend some of these festive events too. And as always I'm sharing my festive outfit (more coming soon) - who knows, maybe it'll inspire you to dress up too? It would make me happy!

Teal with Olive Accents

Now when the weather is back to mild (low to mid 50s F), and it is gray, wet and windy, I am playing dress up more. I came to love these kind of temperatures, from 50s to 60s, it is best for layering - not too cold, so you don't wear so many layers that you feel bulky, and yet you can add something interesting to a dress or a skirt, an extra layer for warmth, texture and color. Plus, it is a good temperature to wear all my polyester dresses (which I don't have so many that I can call myself Polyester Princess, wink wink), but still I like polyester for easy care, keeping good shape and bright colors even after many trips to a washer and dryer. So maybe I could be Polyester Duchess or something like that.

Oopsy Daisy, or Curiouser and Curiouser

 

A "daisy" here refers to the clusters of daisies we witnessed as we walked along the trail we choose for a walk last Sunday, which felt almost like fields of daisies and foxgloves covering the softly rolling hills, very poetic. And an "oopsy" refers to my orange linen pants (previously worn last Summer and shown here: JUNE, JULY, AUGUST in all sorts of inspiring places, so you might want to check out those posts if not for pants, then for beautiful nature and wildlife, which by the way will be plentiful in this post, and I really need to finish this loooong sentence right here ... I'm sure I will hear a sigh of relief now ... there!).

Weird or Genius?

Summery weather has finally arrived in our part of the world, which we thoroughly celebrated this past weekend. And while I am still working on my recent pictures, I've decided to share with you the photo shoot that we had a month ago, in April, at Gas Works Park - Seattle's most unusual park for sure, and perhaps one of the world's weirdest too. Are you intrigued? Are you interested in learning about it? Then dive in with me!

Only Jumpsuits

It's been a busy week and busy weekend with Mother's Day celebration, going to some of my favorite places. Our weather still cannot quite decide whether it should finally become warm and sunny or stay cold and rainy for just a little longer, which makes it tricky to choose what to wear. So in the end I took it easy and wore jumpsuits. One is old and has appeared on the blog numerous times, but this time in a new combination (photo in a garden), and the other one was purchased earlier in Spring and waited for just the right occasion. That occasion happened to be the season finale at Symphony Tacoma, with the world premier piece Fire Mountain by Daniel Ott. If you are interested in learning a little about this unique event, HERE is a review by John Falskow which I find quite profound. 

July in the City // Июль в городе

This linen kimono and trousers set is one of my absolute favorite purchases ever. I bought it back in March, and when the parcel arrived from London, I just couldn't wait for the weather to get warmer. It so happened that I had to wait for almost 2 months! I know it's still only early May, but to me, it's an ultimate summer city outfit, and when we got a couple of summery days (which ended with an unbelievable for this city series of thunderstorm), I was eager to wear it.

Этот льняной брючный костюм стал одной из моих самых любимых покупок. Я выписала его из Лондона еще в марте и просто не могла дождаться теплой погоды. А ждать пришлось почти 2 месяца - затяжная нынче весна! И хотя на дворе всего лишь начало мая, для меня это идеальный летний городской наряд, поэтому когда к нам на пару деньков заглянуло лето (закончившись невероятными для этого города грозами), мне не терпелось поскорей нарядиться.

Boho Chic My Way

If you think it always rains in Seattle, think twice! We had a whole FOUR mild sunny days since the beginning of October. Wahoo! (Read HERE - please note that even though the article declares 3 sunny days, we managed to squeeze another day and a half just after this read!) To be fair, it is the first winter like this in our 10 years living here. Previous years were sunnier and milder, and I noticed that we get especially nice winters when my folks are visiting from Siberia, so we intend to bring them here again soon - you're welcome, Seattleites!

Winter Boho

What is there to say about my outfit? I was charmed with this bohemian dress - its gentle floral pattern and lace make it stand out. The reversible wool poncho with a tribal pattern and fringe has been a favorite for some time (shown HERE, HERE and HERE; more ponchos, wraps and ruanas HERE). I also love the juxtaposition of the two garments. I called this outfit Winter Boho, but of course it's perfect for Fall and early Spring as well. And I just know that this dress will be in heavy rotation year round, with the exception of hot Summer days.