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)

Going Back and Forth in Time, Gifts from Bosnia and Herzegovina & Gloriously Overgrown Garden

Do you like when I share with you combinations with my old clothes? New purchases are exciting, and I do enjoy my new clothes very much, but at the same time I love wearing something I bought last year, and two years ago, and four or five years ago, and on some occasions even much earlier. My goal as a fashionista is to have a closet full of stuff that I love and collect over the years. I do make some mistakes (I call them experiments), but it's gradually getting there. So here I'm wearing another mix of old and new from my closet. I wore it yesterday, on a cool and drizzly day, cool enough for a thin sweater. But I will get to it later in the post, because at first I wanted to talk about...

Modish Matrons #22: No Matter the Weather

Happy Easter and welcome to Modish Matrons, 

the party where my dear friends TINA und BEATE and myself get together to celebrate style and creativity! Each month, one of us offers a theme, and April was Tina's turn. "No Matter the Weather," said Tina, leaving it wide open to interpretations. "Hmm," said I and scratched my head trying to find a focus for my outfit.

Overgrown Beauty

My photos today are not from an unusual city park or professionally landscaped, meticulously manicured award-winning garden, but from our own little cottage garden by the sea. It is overgrown and practically wild, with dandelions taking over the lawn and bees buzzing busily around the abundantly blooming bushes. The people who planted all the trees, shrubs and flowers around the cottage many years before us did really an amazing job, so even without much care everything grows and blossoms beautifully, and every Spring we have our own marvelous display of blooms. It is especially generous this year due to the enormous amount of rain we received last Winter, I suppose, and I wanted to share this beauty with you before it's gone for the season. 

Like a Russian Play

When Pantone revealed the colors of the year of 2016, I thought that there would not be too many things for me this year. "Oh good, I'll save money then," I thought. Rose Quartz and Serenity, or, translated into my unsophisticated color vocabulary, pale pink and pale blue (I know, it's not the same!), just aren't my colors. I do think they are both pretty and serene, I just did not think I would want to wear them. But appetite grows with eating, as they say, and at this point wild horses would not be able to drag me from my experiments with style. To my surprise, I soon found myself getting into pretty blues and pinks. And when I saw this dress, I fell head over heels for its tender beauty.

Playing With Interiors

Art Walls &

Creating a Bedroom Where There Was None

"Never stop to think... do I have a place for this?"

Mary Randolph Carter

The blue pillow cases are made from old kimonos by a Japanese lady (charity bazaar). 

Window curtains from Russia (gift from Mama). 

Quilt - Macy's (sale).

Justin bought me a new pocket camera: my old one went dead after extremely productive life, and another one was lost for a while, and when we found it, the battery exploded, and instead of buying a new battery for $30 to $50, he decided to invest in a new camera. So I'll most probably be getting back to my habit of taking tons of everyday pictures (which is both a wonderful hobby and good for family archives). I thought I'd share some with you - nothing super artistic, point and shoot, but with lots of character, warmth and attention to details, you know - the way I tend to do things.

Rare Guests

Snow is a rare guest here in the Puget Sound area - it's usually us Seattleites who go on special trips to visit the snow which is only a couple of hours away in either the Cascades on the East side or the Olympic mountains on the West. It is the mountains which hug us from both East and West that protect us from the extreme weather conditions. It's not common to have  snow on the ground here by the sea, but we usually have a day or two every year when we get the white dust in our yard. My parents though don't recall any snow when they stayed with us during the winter two years ago. You'd think that being from Siberia, we must love snow and miss it, yes? Nope, not in this household at least. But I have to admit it looks really pretty, it changes everything and adds light to dark months.

Mama & Papa Play Dress Up

These photos were taken on one of the first few days after my parents' arrival. I offered my Mom to try on a few of my dresses and skirts. She zeroed in on this one - you can tell that she feels good wearing it, even though she ideally would need at least one size smaller.

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.

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!

Sequins and Art of Staying Home. In Two Parts

So what do you guys do when you stay at home with the  flu? 

I think I've watched all the shows, read all the blogs, and cooked all the dishes I could think of. That's pretty much all I can manage now. We are not feverish any more and getting better, but I think Anna will stay at home one more day tomorrow, and I will go completely crackers from cabin fever and exercising Mother Theresa's talent (I have only a veeeery tiny bit of that one!). So I decided to play dress up and blog about it. Anna was my photographer. (She later also played dress-up, but - for the record - refused to be photographed.)

Share-in-Style: Fruit with Mis Papelicos!

Ta-daa! And the secret reveals! 

Why did I have a reason to go to Goodwill? Because gorgeous, ever inspiring and so lovable Sacramento of Mis Papelicos kindly asked me if I would like to partner with her Share-in-Style: Fruit this time. Would I? Would I?! But of course! I am happy and honored to do it!

So Not Me

To mix things up a bit, I will show this almost monochromatic outfit with a few color accents. 

I wore this skirt and a blouse before, though I did not photograph that time, and can't remember the accessories I picked then. I think it could be my yellow ballet flats, instead of these suede magenta loafers, and the whole look was a bit more playful. The tailored blazer gives it an almost business-y feel, like I am about to meet with a team of bankers or something. And it is just soooooo not me... I was debating (with myself mostly, but Justin also said his word) as to include this outfit in my blog or not, and decided that since this blog is my honest style journey, I will include this too - there is something to learn from this experience.

Uncomplicated

I actually wanted to wear a dress yesterday. In fact, I have wanted to wear a dress for quite a while now... But there is always something. Either the Pacific Northwest sky with its rain or unpredictable clouds and sunshine, and rain, and thunder, and some more sunshine mixture throughout the day (where did it learn to do so? was our sky on vacation in Scotland or something?). Or I feel as moody as our weather, and just don't feel like dressing up. We had a relaxed out-n-about kind of day, and I knew I needed something to be and feel comfortable all day long. So after a nothing-to-wear kind of morning when half of my wardrobe was out and any combination seemed wrong, I finally picked this new-to-me sheer striped blouse and weekend/boyfriend jeans which are completely impossible to resist 'cause they are like a good old friend, you know, so soft, and comfy, and just perfect in every possible way.

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! ;-)

Floral Finds

For someone who has been craving floral patterns for this Spring, I'd say I definitely hit a jackpot when I found a few gorgeous floral pieces in two wonderful consignment shops in one completely charming old town this weekend. (I will write a post about it soon.)

All Your Pretty Purses

...and necklaces!

These pictures were taken in February - the very last day of it. It was such a beautiful, Spring-y day! This sort of outfit is my "go-to" these days. I love elements of military style in women's fashion - although I prefer gold and brass to a camouflage print (triumph and parade vs. hardship and sweat - I guess my associations are something like that). What about you? How do you like your military inspired clothing?

Come Out To Play!

It's no secret that I started my blog to learn, - I mean, that's not the only reason I started the blog, but it is definitely a big part for me. So how do I learn? I try things on, mix them up, buy more, mix more, Justin takes pictures of my "so-to-speak" learning, I pick the ones which I like best and edit out those which are repeatable, then I write a text (whatever I feel inspired to write about in that particular moment), often I ask Justin to proof read and correct only if I made some serious mistakes. I really don't mind minor mistakes or "eccentricities" which I think make any blog more real and alive. I have not probably told you yet, but I worked in a newspaper for a few years - I was a proofreader and used to clean up texts, sometimes pretty radically. I am over this sort of cleanness now - it sort of makes anyone's language too universal, too proper, if you get my meaning. Writing is very similar to style, really. Eccentricities are what make our style individual, interesting, intriguing. Same goes for writing.

Flirty Filosopher

Happy Valentine's Day! (a bit belated one :)

When it comes to celebration, I am in! When it comes to celebrations of love, I am in all the ways! All sorts of love deserve to be celebrated - romantic love is just one form of it (feels wonderful though), and what about love to your kids, parents, siblings, friends? And how about love to the place you live in, to the ocean, to the mountains? And don't forget about love to your pets! And all your little beloved цацки? (Collectors will understand!) Love of writing? Love of being free? Love of life, for pity's sake!

Genius

No worries, the snow melted long ago - it covered the ground just for one night and a few hours of last Sunday, and now we are experiencing lots of rain in Seattle (we are good at it, you probably heard the rumor). Justin was really surprised to see me walking in these open shoes in snow, but hey - it was pretty nice outside, and I couldn't resist anyway. This outfit was on my mind for a while, but it wasn't completed - I just couldn't decide what shoes to wear with it. Then I remembered my beloved, my sweet, my intricate and oh so comfortable Pikolinos from probably 8 or 9 years back. Aha! Now the picture was complete!