8.24.11

Cape: Free People
Skirt: Woman Within
Tank: Target
Shoes: Clark's
Belt: Thrifted
Bracelets: Market in Mexico, gift, Made in Jackson Hole

This morning felt like the first true day of fall, right on time for Labor Day here in the U.S. Although its been getting pretty cool at night for a while now, today it was still 56 degrees F at noon, windy, and cloudy. Exciting stuff! I can't wait for boots and cozy sweaters and ski season. So, it seemed like the appropriate time to post photos of my new cape. I wore this a couple of weeks ago to dinner and let me tell you, it was more than a little warm for the weather. However, I think it will make another, more seasonally appropriate appearance this afternoon. This cape is a totally new type of sweater for me and I have absolutely no idea how to wear it. I'll guess I have to try it with everything and see what works!

I hope that those of you in the U.S. have a great holiday tomorrow and don't have to work. Any exciting plans? We're hoping to have a lawn games tournament, complete with croquet, bocce ball, and badminton!

08.04.11

Dress: Made by me
Belt: Etsy (came with vintage dress)
Sweater: Woman Within
Leggings: Kohl's
Shoes: Target

Last Thursday, I went in search of some new scenery. We have a ton of beautiful locations in my town, but a lot of the best views are on someone's property or right next to a road that is next to a steep cliff. We have a lot of cliffs around here. I don't know about ya'll, but I'm not so into posing it out right by the road. I'm fairly certain that I look totally ridiculous while attempting to take my photos (as evidenced by the out-takes), and I'm not quite ready to explain to the world why I think personal style blogging is so awesome. I'm sure ya'll all know how I feel. However, the locations for my last three posts are all within 15 minutes of my house. I know that if I keep seeking them out, there will be plenty more for me to find. When I found this spot, I was even rewarded by a rainbow! Doesn't get much better than that after a long day spent in the office. The desert is a truly spectacular place.

08.03.11

Dress: Boutique in Santa Fe
Sweater: Columbia Sportswear
Shoes: Nine West
Sunglasses: Oakley via steepandcheap.com

Ya'll, I seriously can't stop with the neutrals! What's wrong with me? A simple click through my archives will quickly prove that I'm not typically a neutrals kind of gal. Maybe I'm getting more boring in my old age? Although I'm currently loving beige and white, I think (both you and) I might get a bit bored, so let's hope it's a passing phase! I promise to punch it up next post with some bold colors.

I thought the (non-) colors in this outfit would look perfect with some aspen trees, so I had to seek some out for these photos. I love their white bark and the beautiful color and shape of their leaves. I think they are my favorite tree (though I am also partial to maples), which is perfect, because this is definitely becoming one of my favorite dresses. I'm hoping to take better advantage of the beautiful surroundings that I get to enjoy every day here in northern New Mexico and share them with ya'll in my outfit photos. Check back tomorrow for some of the best scenery I've posed with yet, including a rainbow!

07.28.11: In which I succumb to a few blogger trends...

Shirt: Old Navy
Cardigan: Old Navy
Jeans: Woman Within
Shoes: Kork-Ease
Bag: Gift from sister
Necklace: Vintage Egyptian Faience Beads, Gift (restrung by me)

Ring: Made, Jackson Hole, WY

Last Friday I wore an outfit that proves that I am not as immune as I'd like to think to the influence of the blogosphere. As spring progressed and the weedy, dry, grasses of New Mexico grew, so did my desire (nay, need) for a pair of vintage inspired wedges. Flats and flip flops would simply not do this summer, as they had in many summers past (27, to be exact). On this, the summer of my 28th year, I would buy myself a real pair of grown up sandals. It seemed that every time I opened up my laptop, I would be inexplicably drawn to ebay or zappos, searching for the perfect (on sale) pair of sandals. And, though it broke my little deal loving heart just a tiny bit, in the end I settled on this pair and paid full price. However, I love them and have justified the purchase by telling myself that this style has been made and worn by fashionable ladies for 50 years, so surely I will be able to get 50 years of use out of them. Right? 'Cause a neutral-colored, cork wedge never goes of of style? Right? And to go with my new shoes, I just had to buy a pair of skinny jeans. And, that's the end of my story about how I succumbed to the evil (genius?) influence of the rest of the personal style blogosphere.

3.11.11

So... I took these like three weeks ago. Better late than never, right? I'm working on this blogging thing slowly!

Dress: made by me, upcycled from t-shirts
Tank: lane bryant
Leggings: sock dreams
Socks: sock dreams
boots: Frye (ebay'd and new to me!!)

So, I just got these boots. I'm totally obsessed with them! Turns out, ebay is the way to go when you want nice shoes for cheap! Of course, the sizing is a total crap shoot, but I lucked out. FYI, ladies, after extensive research I think these Paige Riding boots are the Frye boots with the biggest calf diameter . The size 10 fits my 17" calf just fine!

It seems like spring has finally sprung around here, hope things are looking lovely in your neck of the woods, too!

New Mexico Textures

Sorry for the long absence, ya'll! I'm still getting settled in here in New Mexico and enjoying every minute of it! Petey and I went on a little hike on Sunday and I remembered to bring my camera (and more importantly, my Nikon 1.8f lens which I am still totally obsessed with). It makes the harsh New Mexican landscape look soft and buttery! Here are a few shots, with more to follow soon:

New Mexico!

Well, it looks live I've become about a once a week blogger! Whoops! I promise to (at least try to) get better once I get a bit more settled in. I've been busy with unpacking and decorating galore (and of course, working lots of 10 hour days out in the field)! I'm so excited to finally have a place to hang up all the art and photos that I love. I've had so many roommates for so long that I haven't gotten to every fully make a house my own. I'll have to share some photos with ya'll once I get things a bit more in order. For now, I just wanted to drop in to let ya'll know that I am REALLY enjoying New Mexico; from the people to the scenery, everything is really quite fabulous! I've been skiing every weekend and generally exploring the area. Just check it out for yourself:





I snapped these shots by the Rio Grande near Santa Fe. It sure is lovely here!

MLK weekend

For those of us here in the states, today was Martin Luther King day which (for those of us that have real jobs) means no work on Monday! In celebration, a few of my friends and I rented a cabin up in the mountains. It was by no means deluxe, but there was good company, a hot tub, and lovely scenery and thats really all a girl needs! Here are a few snaps I took (the last one is with my super exciting new lens- it makes night look like day).

A Few Photos from Texas

For Christmas, I got an amazing new lens for my camera, the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. I had my eye on this lens specifically because its an affordable lens that can be used to achieve a really shallow depth of field because you can really crank the aperture wide-open. In non-photo jargon (which I don't know that much of anyways), that means you can get a really sharp focus on one tiny spot of the photo and sort of just have the rest fall away into blurriness. Mmmmm, sexy! Anyways, my dad and I went on a little adventure on his birthday (which is just two days after Christmas) up to Lake Texoma, right on the border of Texas and Oklahoma. He was looking for fossils but didn't fare too well because the lake was too high and covering them all up, but I wanted to test out my new lens and I think I fared a bit better than he did! Here are a few snaps I took:









I really like how the shallow depth of field allowed me to capture the sparse and barren nature of the Texas plains. If all the background details has been clogging up the photos, I don't think they would have been nearly as effective! Of course, this lens doesn't auto-focus on my Nikon D60 so I have to try to focus all on my own which can be a bit challenging and resulted in practically a metric ton of blurry shots. Also, I'm really getting into square format photos. I've found myself cropping nearly everything to a square recently! Well, as I've said before, I am a total amateur at photography- everything I know I've learned online. So, if ya'll have any brilliant photo insights or feedback, feel free to share away!