Red with Teal or Blue

Ta-daaa! To those of you who put bets on the color of my second beret and guessed red:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I bought three berets this Fall: gray, blue and red. I thought that either I would share them all with my daughter, or that she would choose the one(s) she likes and make it (them) her own. And since she has just discovered her love of the color red, I was almost sure that she'd choose the red one, but to my surprise she chose the blue one instead, perhaps to match her new wool coat. The blue one was also the smallest of the three and just wouldn't fit all that extra fluff I have in my big head, so it seemed like a perfect choice anyway.

Reset Button

14 days without a new photo shoot is all I can handle! Thank goodness for good health, no rain (though I missed many sunny days that we had while I was sick), and of course for Justin who is good with the camera. 

I am happy! I am celebrating all of the above!

Two Magic Ingredients

Inspiration comes from all sorts of sources, sometimes unexpected ones. I don't know what you thought when you first saw this outfit on me, but I know what two little girls in a movie theater thought when they whispered to each other and giggled, looking at me wearing this very outfit. And what do you know, they read me as an open book!

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.

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. 

Modish Matrons #11: Buds and Blooms // Модные матроны №11: Сады в цвету

April showers bring May flowers, as we all know, and we had plenty of rain here not only in April, but also in March...and February...and January...and December...and November...and I probably wouldn't be too wrong if I say in October as well. It was a rainy year, what else is there to say! So as we welcome the month of May, we want to celebrate buds and blooms in all forms, sizes, colors and shapes, much like women and their outfits! We invite you to join the 11th issue of our monthly link-up with your floral or other Spring-inspired outfits! 

Нет худа без добра, а апрельские ливни, как говорится в английской пословице, приносят майские цветы. У нас дождило не только в апреле, но и в марте... и в феврале... и в январе... и в декабре... и в ноябре... Наверное, я не слишком ошибусь, если добавлю: и в октябре тоже. Дождливый был год, что тут скажешь! Встречая долгожданный май, мы приветствуем цветы всевозможных форм, размеров и оттенков, совсем как женщины и их наряды! Приглашаем вас присоединиться к нашему ежемесячному мероприятию, уже одиннадцатому по счету! Добавляйте ссылки на ваши платья в цветочек и другие наряды, вдохновленные весной!

Ferry to Bainbridge

 

A couple of months ago, I shared pictures of two dresses on my FB page, mentioning that at that point I liked them both equally, though I purchased only one, and at the time of ordering I had a very strong preference. The intriguing part of my story was that I couldn't remember which one of the two dresses I picked. 

Rebirth

 

This is, in a way, a rebirth of my last year's outfit seen HERE. That time, I wore this dress with my animal print coat (although, for some reason, I didn't take any photos of the coat that day). This time, I wanted something different, and the combination with my bouclé cream long vest came to mind. The vest was part of a Spring collection, but it's quite a heavy and fully-lined textured piece that I find wearable in all seasons (except for hot Summer days, obviously).

50 Years of Happiness

October is rich with birthdays in my family - Justin's as well as my nephew's birthday are tomorrow, Mom's and two of her sisters (twins) on the 24th, and then my Dad is not very far away on November 1st. But this year, we also celebrate my parents's Golden Wedding Anniversary. Almost exactly 50 years ago, on October 15th 1966, Misha Lialin and Nadia Shadrina, who first met in the 6th grade and then hadn't seen each other for many years (so many that my future Dad did not even recognized my future Mom) became a family. They were beautiful, young, head to toes in love, and poor as church mice, my future parents. There was no white dress, no wedding rings and no photographs. Just a small civil ceremony with a couple of witnesses, as was required. But on that day, a new life began for the two of them - and, a couple of years later, for my brother Andrei, and in 5 more years for me.

Finding New Harmony

So, about those different stories. They absolutely don't have to come from brand new pieces - neither in art nor in life. Sometimes, a great inspiration comes from doing old things in a new way. We don't have to get a new vocation or even hobby every single time when, in an otherwise enjoyable activity, we suddenly feel a bit stuck in a rut. And wouldn't it be just a bit unwise if we got rid of an old friend or our hubby every single time we felt a bit stuck in a rut? And while you can, of course, change the country you live in or the continent you're on, what to do with the planet when you feel just a bit annoyed with some things that are going on there? Stop the earth, I want to get off?  Now, that puts things into perspective. If you genuinely love what you have (or, in case of our planet, you objectively don't have too many options), working with it, making it meaningful and enjoyable time and time again, is also a great creative challenge - both in art and in life.

Labyrinth: Created for Dreamers

A week ago, Justin and I went to see Labyrinth (1986), a fantastically wonderful fairy tale which celebrated its 30 year anniversary this year. Justin had already watched it before, loved it and even, apparently, owned it on DVD. I, on the other hand, watched it for the first time! Can you believe it? I can't! Me, who is all about fairy tales, magic, innocence, humor and romance - who writes stories not very different from Labyrinth herself, has never even watched this gem of a fairy tale! 

Teal Tale

It seems every redhead on earth must know that teal, this greenish shade of blue, looks great on them. Yet when a friend gave me a teal pashmina a few years back saying that it should look good with my coloring, I thought she was joking. My perception of teal was that it was a shade of blue, and I did not like blue back then - in fact, blue was not to my liking until recently, probably only a couple of years ago.

Luxuries of Winter

 

One of the unexpected developments for me this Fall/Winter was finding this faux fur coat and falling in love with it. So I'm from Siberia, right? How much do you think I wore fur coats (genuine fur, like sheepskin or nutria coats, and mink and fox hats) in my life? That's right, much. At some point, you just get tired of the whole thing. I did not have any fur coat ever since I left my homeland, which was almost 14 years back. But somehow I loved this coat so much, and even though I was afraid it would be heavy and bulky like those I used to see when I was a kid, I decided to give it a try. The coat did not disappoint, it is everything I wanted it to be - soft, lightweight, cozy, warm, with pockets, a pure joy to wear! I wear it all the time, with everything - dresses, skirts, pants, denim. I'm often complimented and asked where I got it (see the info at the end of the post if you're interested). It sure is a keeper in my closet. And with it, many luxuries of winter returned to my life as well. I found myself enjoying knit hats and scarves, leather gloves, tall boots - all the things I was so eager to discount once I moved to a much milder climate.

Yes

Thank you for your warmest welcoming, my dear friends - I savor every single word. I'm so happy to write again, to share with you again. It is definitely some of the happiest times for me, the time I spend writing. I rarely know what I'll write when I sit down to write. And when I think I know, I am rarely right about it. So mostly I just go with it. There is nothing around me, not a thing, not a noise, not a person exists at this moment. It's only my being tapping into something huge, amazing, wonderful and truly miraculous, and I become a vessel for that magical energy to just run through me. There are very few things in this life that I love more than that. To know that what I have to say and how I say it brings joy to others as well, makes it even more special. So I thank you from all my heart! 

A Place to Listen to Silence

When I wrote about our discovery of beautiful waterfalls and an abandoned brewery near Olympia back in early March (I also wrote about that place in the later post Days Passed), I mentioned that the same day, February 28th, we also made another discovery. Today the Real Adventure Man and I are taking you to that other place. There are not too many places near a big city where you can literally hear the silence, and this is one of them. I am talking about the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge founded in 1974 to protect the Nisqually River estuary in South Puget Sound.

Crazy Just Might Work: I AM A WRITER

Happy May!

I love May. May is one of the most cheerful months for me. Nature is going wild - flowers, trees are in bloom, air is getting warmer and days are getting longer. End of school year. Long Summer ahead. At times, it feels like Summer already! I was born in May too. I believe it somehow makes my personality - cheerful, optimistic, enthusiastic dreamer who just loves life and many different aspects of it. May can be stormy though. It brings not just showers, but thunderstorms. Not only in Mother Nature, but in people's nature. If there is one weather comparison to my personality, it probably is a thunderstorm. Can be big and loud, but does not stay for too long - it passes, and then it's bright sun, birds chirping and flowers blooming again. Crazy!

J'Adore

I adore jumpsuits. The very first one was custom made for me when I was only 11 or 12, my daughter's age now, and I am still astonished that it was actually my Mom's idea. I was a little self-conscious to wear it - no one had one in my small town, and even though I often do things no one I know does, back then I had very mixed feelings about my changing body (insensitive comments did not help). It was a gorgeous number in deep beetroot color, with long gathered at the bottom sleeves as well as legs, with a little collar and a zipper. The one mistake the seamstress made was not taking my growth into account, and at that age girls grow especially fast. As a result, I did not wear that jumpsuit a lot, and eventually Mom brought it into a consignment shop for someone else to enjoy (she later told me that she saw a girl wearing it).

A Year Ago, in May

Yep, I wore both of these outfits just about exactly a year ago, but have not posted either of them in my blog, decided after looking at the photos that they were nothing really special. Now when I look back, I actually like them. It happens in life sometimes that we appreciate things more when we look back, not as we actually experience them. Seems silly, but there it is. It also happens the other way around, and I guess it's just a natural part of being a human - insightful in some ways, and oblivious in others, we are sort of both, a sage and a fool all in one person. 

Catch the Wave

I want to thank you all for such wonderful comments to my last couple of posts - and for sharing your stories and feelings. I think it might help those who are going through their youth with a similar confusion or perplexity, and wondering if life gets any better. It does! Our insecurities are not easy to work through, but not at all impossible. Our relationship with ourselves, and essentially our life does get better with age.

On to this outfit. I know I post a lot of outfits lately - one could say I'm on fire. What can I do? I feel like something inside of me finally opened up. I think I tried a little too hard earlier in my style journey, now I'm much more relaxed, I caught the wave - I don't try to come up with an unusual combination, instead I listen to the mood I'm in and just go with my instincts. I want to thank Melanie for this realization - it was something she said in a comment to me, and it really struck me like lightening. In styling, just like in any form of art, you as an artist really need to feel what you are doing, much more feel than think it over. I finally, finally get it - I learned how to catch the wave! OK, maybe not like "learned it all", miz fancy pants, but I'm on the right track, I know it!

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