when one door closes...

Well, today is my last day of work! Pretty excited, I must say. Yesterday I totally overslept and was late for work. Whoops! I don't think anyone noticed. It was funny because I was in bed dreaming that I was late for work and then my mom comes to my room and is like, "uhhh do you work today?" and I was like, "ah! I was just dreaming that I was late!" Crazy how the mind does that. I guess that'll teach me to not have phone conversations till after 2 am when I have to wake up at 6:30. Oh well, it was worth it.

My Brave tote bags are being printed this week, so hopefully I should have some more information to you guys about ordering, etc. in the near future. It's going to be a limited edition of 24 (unless I want to keep one... then just 23 for you guys), so there's not going to be a lot of them. I'm keeping the film transparencies of the bag print and I'm thinking of doing an edition of the same print but on paper when I go through Spokane. I'd really like to spend a few days at my old school visiting with my favorite prof and printing a limited edition serigraph of that same artwork. So if that all gets to happen, I will be offering you guys those prints too in the next few months. I think Spokane is going to be my first destination once I get through Canada, so that might be the first thing that happens! I'm really hoping I get to print. I adore being covered in ink and spending all night in the print studio working on editions. I want to do an etching when I'm there too. I think I might want to buy a copper plate to work on beforehand though... ah all this printmaking excitement is just blurting out of me, sorry!

dress/ruche :: skirt/from jenloveskev via delightful dozen :: shoes/minnetonka

When I got this skirt from the Delightful Dozen I realized that I don't really wear brown and don't really know how to wear brown. I mean, I just don't have anything in my closet that is brown (that I can think of right now, maybe I'm lying). So it sat in my room for ages with me trying to figure out what to do with it. Then I decided to try a more fall color palate with the oranges and browns together. Meh. I'm not sure brown is my color. I feel weird wearing it.

Borne on the FM waves of the heart

It was one of those amazing Alaskan summer days yesterday, and I really wished we could've gone out to our cabin, but alas! We sold it this summer and we don't even own it anymore! Kind of sad to see places that hold so many childhood memories be sold. I hope someday my kids have those kinds of places. Right now I feel like such a nomad that it's hard for me to even think about committing to settling in one place and just staying there for decades. We moved to Anchorage in '91 and have lived in our current house since '97, but I just can't imagine living in the same place that long right now! Perhaps it's moving every year the past few years for college. Living in dorms, then apartments/condos, moving back home temporarily, and now living in the Brave in random places, it's all so temporary.

dress/UO from Tieka (via Delightful Dozen) :: shoes/kensiegirl :: shirt/billabong via pacsun

I'm sure eventually I'll want to settle down and find a geographical location that I can cozy into and make my own, but for now I guess I just have a wanderlust. I think it's a good thing to have at this time in life though. I've never wanted to just settle for anything in my life, not men, not mediocrity, and I don't want to live somewhere just because I happen to be there. I want to seek out a place that fits me. I love Anchorage and I adore living in Alaska, but if I stay here it will be settling.

I always thought I would find someone in college, marry them and then settle down as a young person, but it has definitely not turned out that way at all, and I wouldn't change anything. Even the parts of the last few years that have supremely sucked. And now, I think the person I am is much better able to be in a relationship, even though I'm not and don't necessarily care to be. I'm just so much more confident in who I am as a person, the things I like and what I stand for.

Yesterday I spent almost an hour outside taking pictures of my outfit, and then upon stepping inside and standing in front of a mirror again, I tweaked my outfit and liked it way better. Consequently, some of these pictures are from before the tweaking, and some are from after. I like both versions, what version do you guys like better?

Oh, and I dyed my hair the other night too. It's a little bit darker and I think my roots are less of a line and more of a gradient now. Ombre wasn't a complete success, but I like how it turned out. And my nails have been painted CMYK again! If you're not a printmaking geek like me and you don't know what CMYK is, it's the four colors used in process printing- cyan, magenta, yellow, and K stands for "key" which is black.

The Remedy: Autumn inspiration

I'm having a hard time coming up with outfits lately, probably a result of a creative dearth overall. I thought I'd browse the street style archives around the net for a little bit of inspiration. I love all the layering and texture of these outfits. I need to bring out my tights and get back into the practice of layering. The simplicity of summer sundresses has made me totally forget how to layer! Since all my money is being sucked into the Brave right now I can't afford new autumn outfits, so I'll have to make my summer stuff work for fall and winter. Granted, this is what I usually do, but it'll be even more-so this season. Frankly, I'd rather eat and fill up with gas than have a new wardrobe.

looks 1-4: Vanessa Jackman looks 5-9: Stil in Berlin

The best of the rest

What with seeing everyone's outtake photos lately, I just had to post some of mine. I swear, sometimes it feels like 90% of a day's shoot are ridiculous photos like these. The things my face does on a regular basis are just terrible! Haha. Granted, sometimes I end up taking silly photos on purpose, but I think the goofiest ones are the unintentional outtakes. I went back to last summer looking through my deleted photos, so here are some of my outtakes from summer 2009...

I think the thing I like about blogs is that they aren't magazines. We don't have thousands of dollars to spend on retouching, photographers, sets, etc. We do everything ourselves (or with the help of a friend/boyfriend/husband). Another thing I love about blogs is that we represent ourselves accurately, not like magazines that manipulate people's bodies with retouching so that they aren't even anatomically correct sometimes (I can spend hours sifting through photoshop disaster sites. It's like watching a horrific car wreck, I just can't look away). I love that we are just us! And at least for me, I don't retouch anything except colors/contrast and I hope you guys know that I try to represent myself accurately here. I promise more outtake posts. Trust me, I have hundreds.

Flower Child + Giveaway!

Autumn is seriously in the air up here. Leaves are already changing and starting to fall. I love autumn as much as the next person, but I'm not sure I'm ready for summer to be over yet! This is why I'm excited to be traveling. I'm hoping I'll be able to chase down some warm weather in the more southern latitudes. I do like the wintertime, but I don't think I'm ready for it quite yet. Especially since our summer hasn't really been that "summery". Last summer when I wasn't home, Alaska had one of the best summers ever, and this one where I actually am home has been very dreary and grey. Granted I like the grey, but I still do love having an actual summer. Ah yes, talking about the weather. Sorry I'm so boring! Hopefully more excitement will occur in my life soon. I suspect hectic and exciting times will be coming soon enough, so I'm kind of taking advantage of this down time.

dress/violet folklore :: shoes/minnetonka

I've been having trouble writing posts lately. Sometimes it feels like I have so much to say and other times I just feel like my head is full of mush. Do you guys ever feel totally bland? I feel that way sometimes. It makes me scared that if I get bored of myself, how is someone else going to be interested in me enough to want to hang out all the time/get married to me/etc. I guess I always come around and like myself again eventually, so maybe that's some hope? I think I fear mediocrity more than failure. Mediocrity is just hovering there in the middle, neither one extreme or the middle. You can't even feel bad for yourself being mediocre because you have the ability to change your status quo. Either fail, or work harder and succeed. Granted, sometimes feeling mediocre is just a feeling.

Okay, that was a killjoy paragraph...

Moving on to less debbie-downer topics... I love this dress, but it's not staying in my closet! One lucky reader gets to win this dress from Violet Folklore! It's a size small/medium and it's a medium length. It hits me around the knee, but I'm 5'1", so it'd be shorter on anyone taller than me.

To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment on this post between now and next Wednesday, September 1 at 9pm akst (10pm pst). Make sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you win! This giveaway is open to international entrants. One entry per person.