remixology no. 4

t's been a while since I did a remixology post!  This time I'm creating eight outfits out of eight pieces, not counting shoes and accessories.  Remixology in the summer is a little harder because remixing is much easier with layering, which is just not really an option when it's hot outside.  Some of these outfits would make good transitional looks between summer and fall as the weather starts to cool off.

For this Remixology I teamed up with Ruche, who sent 4 pieces from their shop, which I paired with 4 pieces I already had in my closet.  It can be easy to get into a rut of styling an item the same way every time.  Years ago in my early blogging days I started the Delightful Dozen, a blogger swap group, and one of the main reasons was to see the different ways other people styled certain pieces.  It was super fun to see how someone else chose to wear an item, and sometimes it totally changed the way I thought about a particular piece!  I already loved remixing, but seeing how other people styled the same item game me so much inspiration for how I could stretch my own wardrobe.

8 clothing items:

white maxi dress + striped top + lace top + sleeveless top + mint floral top / courtesy of ruche

jeans + green dress / courtesy of modcloth :: beige moss dress/courtesy of lace affair

Accessories:

heels/courtesy of blowfish shoes :: sandals/thrifted :: flower crown/handmade

silver bib necklace/free people :: quartz necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis

orange + yellow necklace/courtesy of noonday collection

  Look 1 // A pretty casual, every day outfit, made a tiny bit fancier with some awesome shoes.

Look 2 // I belted this loose top to create a bit of a peplum, and styled it with a funky necklace for a more eclectic look.

 
 
Look 3 // Same maxi, but this time it's a bit more romantic, bohemian, and flowy styled with a lace top.
Look 4 // I paired a casual top with a funky dress in the same color story.  An every-day type of outfit with no fuss.

 
  Look 5 // Same printed dress, but this time it's a little bit more bohemian.  The flowy, sheer, kimono-type top and a statement necklace give it more "umph."
Look 6 // A drop waist top creates a different silhouette on this maxi dress and gives it a more relaxed feel.

 
Look 7 // With a lace top and more dramatic accessories, this dress takes on a bohemian look.
Look 8 // Styled on its own with more understated accessories, this white maxi can stand on it's own just fine.  It feels most sophisticated in this iteration, to me, and I'd definitely wear this to a dinner party or date night!
 

bottom 7 photos by me, all other photos by Dan

wanderlust

esterday I had a friend from abroad visit.  We went to college together and since then we've both gone on separate adventures, and she's currently living in Germany with her husband, teaching art.  They're on a 6 week trip, traveling all over the US and have made it to the west coast now.  It was really fun seeing her and catching up.  I've been feeling a lot of wanderlust lately and hearing about her life abroad and her current trip made me long even more for the open road.  I've always wanted to move back to Alaska eventually but I recently saw an acquaintance move to Utah and I remembered how much I loved the geography of the southwest when I was on my Winne trip.  I've been thinking for so long that I'd end up back in Alaska that I didn't really consider living other places first, but now I feel like it'd be really interesting to spend a year or two here and there, getting to know various places.  
The Winne is occupied for the time being, but I've still been wanting to take a road trip.  Back when I was a teenager, before my Winnebago obsession set in and I was deep in the throes of my El Camino obsession, I dreamed of getting a travel trailer to pull behind the El Camino and traveling the states.  Now I'm secretly scheming ways to get on the road in the Elky.  Even tent camping in the truck bed!  She needs some work before she's road ready, but I'd love to take a 3 week jaunt and visit some friends in Nashville, stop by the in-laws in so-cal, and revisit the southwest again.  Unfortunately I have a taste for ridiculously thirsty vehicles and gas prices are not very road trip friendly.  Still, I prefer traveling by road.  There's something about being on the interstate and watching the landscape slowly pass by and shift from mountain to plain to desert.

 

top(dress) + skirt/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes/courtesy of seychelles bag/courtesy of fossil :: shades/courtesy of bonlook :: photos by Dan
In some ways I feel like a totally different person than the girl who took the Winne 11,000 miles across a continent.  It'd be very interesting to take another trip who and where I am now.  I remember feeling confident and powerful on the road, but I feel even more comfortable in my own skin now.  Driving has always been my sanctuary and I really haven't done much driving in the past couple years(beyond small in-town commutes or short hour long jaunts to nearby spots).  When I'm on the road everything gets in focus.  It's like all of the thoughts and experiences jumbled in my head fall into place.  All of the white noise of daily life washes away and what's left is pure and simple.  
It's been a while since I had a road-reset.  The El Camino was my first car and it's been a while since we spent some quality road time together.  In college I used to take hours long wander-drives on the highways around my school, usually past midnight when my roommate was sleeping in our room and I didn't feel comfortable hanging out in there.  It was a place that felt closest to home in a new situation where I was living thousands of miles from my hometown, friends, and family.  I would crank Radiohead and melt into the encompassing warmth of the night.  Sometimes halfway somewhere feels all the way home.

three chocolate protein shake recipes

ith the heat these days I've been trying to eat as many cold things as possible without resorting to popsicles and ice cream all the time.  Finding something that fills me up but also cools me down has been a challenge, so I started making some protein shakes to both help with the midday heat and hunger.

I like to keep some frozen fruit in the freezer to have on hand for smoothies and such.  If you're freezing fresh fruit, instead of buying bags of pre-frozen fruit, spread it out on a cookie sheet and pop it in the freezer.  This will make sure your berries freeze individually instead of clumped together and they'll freeze faster spread out on a cookie sheet than thrown together in a ziplock.  After they're frozen you can toss them in a ziplock to store.

Chocolate Strawberry Banana is probably my favorite version of these three.  It's just fruity enough, and reminds me a little bit of a banana split.  Yum!

CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY BANANA
1.5 bananas frozen
2-3 strawberries frozen
1 c milk
1 scoop (~1/4 - 1/3 c) chocolate protein powder
1 tsp chocolate powder (optional)


 

Keep some cold brew on hand or chill your leftover morning drip coffee in the fridge to make this smoothie!  Not only will it cool you off, but it'll give you a little kick of caffeine too!

MOCHA
1/2 c cold brew coffee
1/2 c milk
1 scoop (~1/4 - 1/3 c) chocolate protein powder
10 ice cubes

 
Truth be told, I'm not a big peanut butter fan, but I know tons of people out there are, including Dan!  I used to work at a smoothie shop in a gym a long time ago and this smoothie was their most popular smoothie, so I know I'm probably in the minority with my PB aversion.  Reese's Pieces has proven that chocolate and PB is a tried and true combo and this smoothie is awesome for those of you out there who love peanut butter and chocolate!

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER BANANA
1.5 bananas, frozen
1 spoonful peanut butter
1 c milk
1 scoop (~1/4 - 1/3 c) chocolate protein powder
1 tsp chocolate powder (optional)

DIY rolling island

he kitchen is probably my favorite room in the house.  No matter how nice the living room is, it always seems like people congregate in the kitchen. Compared to our last house we’ve got a palatial kitchen, but we still find that we’d like a bit more counter space for cooking and entertaining. I figured a rolling island would be the perfect solution and decided that instead of going out and buying one, I’d like to make one myself!  I had made our living-room coffee table using pipe and wood, so I wanted to match that aesthetic, plus I was familiar with the process of building that way. I absolutely love the way it turned out, and it’s the perfect space for storing our coffee and tea accoutrements.  Whenever we need to use it for extra counter space, we just roll it to where we’re working and it’s ready to go. I got caster wheels with locks so we can keep the island from rolling away when we’re chopping veggies and doing other work.

All of our coffee-making things — grinder, French press, pour over and filters — are included on the first shelf to keep the top shelf from getting too cluttered. There aren’t enough of us in my household to justify a drip coffee maker, but there’s plenty of room to store a coffee maker as well. We’ve also started getting into drinking tea, so I made a basket of our tea bags, loose leaf and tea pots as well.

This DIY came to around $350, but I was on a time crunch and Ikea was all sold out of their butcher block so I had to spend about $100 more on the butcher block top by buying it elsewhere, but Ikea's Numerar Beech countertop is much cheaper.  I ended up getting the countertop I wanted for this DIY later on when I was redoing the Winne's kitchen and Ikea is definitely one of the most inexpensive places to get a butcher block countertop.  They're about $130, and I like it because it's wood and therefore really easy to cut to size, depending on your size needs.  I was also thinking of getting the Ikea Sanfrid stainless steel table top and using that as the top, and it's even cheaper, at $99.  It also has an industrial look, so it'd go well with this DIY too.

What you’ll need:

8 12-inch-long, ½-inch diameter black pipe nipples

8 1/2 inch floor flanges

4 1/2 inch Ts

32 1 1/4 inch #12 flathead screws

16 2 inch #10 roundhead screws

16 #10 flat washers

4 caster wheels (if you want to keep your cart from rolling, get ones with wheel locks)

4 2×4 blocks (4 inches long)

1 73-inch x 18 inch pine board (cut in half to create two 36-inch long pieces)

1 36-inch x 19 inch butcher block (mine is 1 1/2 inches thick; you can

find inexpensive butcher block countertop IKEA)

1. First put the caster wheels on the bottom of the bottom shelf. Pre-drill holes in the 4 inch 2×4 blocks. Make sure the holes for the screws are 1 1/4 inches from the edges of the pine board, so place the blocks on your bottom shelf to measure from the edges. The screws will be long enough to attach the 2x4s to the bottom shelf. Once all your holes are drilled, position the 2×4 blocks on the pine board bottom shelf and place the caster wheels lined up with your pre-drilled holes. Put the #10 washers on and screw the wheels on using the #10 roundhead screws.

2. Now, flip the bottom shelf so the wheels are facing down. Place your four floor flanges on the bottom shelf directly over the 2×4 blocks and rotate the flange so its 4 holes aren’t directly over the screws you just put in for the wheels. Mark where the holes are with a pencil and drill holes for the screws. These screws will also go through the board and into the 2×4 to further secure the 2×4. Screw the flanges on with the #12 flathead screws.

3. Take your first four 12 inch nipples and screw them into the floor flanges. Screw the Ts on to the top of the nipples and then put the last four 12-inch nipples on top of the Ts.

4. Grab the second pine board shelf and place it on top the 12-inch nipples. Position it so it’s directly over the bottom shelf (if you want to measure where the center of the pipe hits on the bottom shelf to get the top shelf exactly matched, you can do that, or you can eyeball it). Draw a circle around the edge of the pipe on the bottom of the board, so you know where to drill the hole so it can slide down to rest on the T. Once you have your circles drawn, take a 7/8ths spade drill bit and drill the holes you just drew. Now you can slide the second shelf onto the 12-inch nipples and they’ll slide down to rest on the Ts.

5. Put the last four floor flanges onto the top of the nipples; make sure they’re tight. Put your butcher block on top of them, and again you can measure everything to make sure it’s centered, or you can eyeball it. Mark with a pencil where the floor flange holes are, pre-drill holes and then screw the top on with the #12 flat head screws. You’re done!

geometry lesson

oly cow, July has been packed.  I feel like I've been sprinting for the whole month and August is (hopefully) my finish line.  Of course, more things will be coming up and I'm sure August will be full too, but I'm hoping things will be a bit less crazytown.  I need to actively not over-schedule myself because I have the bad habit of saying "yes" to too many things and ending up a pile of human stress laying the floor rolling around moaning, "whyyyy."  Okay, that was an exaggeration.  Life is such an ebb and flow of busyness and relaxation, I'm not sure I believe that this elusive "balance" actually exists, just a healthy understanding that sometimes I'm in the ebb of relaxing periods of time and other times I'm in the rush of busy times and that each one of those times doesn't last forever.  There's a light at the end of those busy tunnels where I'll be able to crash and binge on Netflix TV, even if it feels like I'll never be able to get everything done.   In some ways I feel like trying to find balance is unhealthy.  Trying to constantly remain balanced on some mythical peak of neither under nor overwhelmed, while not falling towards boredom or stress sounds stressful in and of itself.  It seems more like life is just learning to sail calm seas along with stormy seas and learning to find your sea-legs and go with the flow.  Obviously it makes sense not to over schedule yourself and purposely sail into dangerously stormy seas, and similarly to not remain anchored in the shallows.  But I'd rather be sailing somewhere, following the map of my dreams and goals, and encounter the seas I'm given along the way, than stay stuck in the harbor. 

 

dress(worn as skirt) + top/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes/courtesy of loly in the sky bag/courtesy of rouge + whimsy :: scarf/thrifted :: shades/courtesy of lulu's

Last week I went into my commenting system and noticed my super old email was still connected to it so I updated my email and somehow I'm now unable to log in or retrieve my account, which means I can't approve comments.  If you've commented in the past week, they are going through, I just can't approve them so they show up for the time being.  I've emailed support three times so far and haven't gotten a response, which is a bit obnoxious, but hopefully the issue will be resolved soon.  So don't worry if your comments aren't showing up, they're going through, I just can't approve them yet!