Style Diaries

Some time ago I was contacted to contribute to a book that would be featuring fashion bloggers from all over the world. I of course was flattered and very excited to be featured in such a book! I just got my copy of the book Style Diaries: World Fashion from Berlin to Tokyo, and I am so thrilled! The book definitely exceeded my expectations. There are 40 bloggers from all over the world featured, and the book is really wonderfully put together. I thought it might be kind of like a coffee table book- big and hard covered, but it turns out it's a really thick book with 400 pages of amazing photos from all of these international fashion bloggers and a little blurb about each one before their section. Even if I wasn't in the book, I would still go buy it! It's really fun to see a lot of bloggers I love being featured in this book. Most of the bloggers I've at least seen in passing and there are a few more familiar faces in there, like Keiko Lynn, Sally Jane Vintage, and Strawberry Koi.

I highly suggest checking it out. It's only $16.47 on Amazon right now and it features hundreds of pages full of fashion blogger goodness! I think it's pretty amazing that fashion bloggers are being recognized as changing the face of the fashion industry, and stuff like this just proves that we really are a legitimate part of the fashion world.

Rose of Cimarron

I mentioned Gretchen Jones' velvet dress last week, and after a bit of sleuthing I found the F/W 2010 collection of her line Mothlove which had that very dress in it! I was always a fan of Gretchen on Project Runway, even though she became the villain of the show. While the overall verdict by the judges seemed to be that her clothes weren't "high fashion" but more of a ready-to-wear variety, I always enjoyed the bohemian, chill vibe to her work. She seemed like a genuine person, with a streak of control-freak-perfectionist, and generally a lovely human being. You guys probably know that I'm not into "high fashion," if you will, so her work really resonated with me. Even though I wouldn't wear everything she sent down the runway, I loved her perspective and I usually found myself thinking "I would totally wear that" more often with her than most other designers. Anyway, here are some of my favorites from her F/W 2010 collection, Rose of Cimarron. As I head towards the southwest on my travels, I'll be drawing inspiration from this collection...

all photos via MothLove

Family Ties

While I was at my aunt's house in Alameda, I found a bunch of old pictures of my grampa as a younger man and my aunt, uncle, & Dad as kids. I adore old family photos. I have a whole set on my flickr of vintage family photos. I hadn't seen a lot of these pictures, and I'd never seen my grampa looking so handsome and young! The top photo is more like how I've always known him. He's looked the same for like 30 years! In the picture where he's holding a photograph, it's my grandma in the picture. Isn't that so sweet? It's hard to imagine my grandparents my age, but look at how young he is in the last photo!

It's also funny how kids totally resemble their parents as children. I looked just like my Dad in the picture below when I was younger (he's the one to the far left), and my cousins look exactly like my uncle in that picture. Of course my younger brother looks even more like my Dad!

The Morose Bee Giveaway!

My awesome sponsor, The Morose Bee, makes adorable ceramic jewelry. She hand crafts funky little hair clips, rings, and necklaces, like my yellow bicycle necklace! For the giveaway she's offering the winner anything from the shop for $15 or less (which means you too could have a bicycle necklace like mine!).

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post letting me know which one of her great pieces you'd get if you won! Make sure to leave an email address so I'll have a way to get ahold of you if you are the winner. The giveaway will be open for entries until Tuesday, Nov 2 at 9 pm PST.

Open to international entrants. One entry per person.

And we have a couple giveaway winners to announce!

The winner of the Archives Chicago vintage giveaway is...

Bethanne!

And the winner of the Funky Fondled & Fresh giveaway is...

Jannine!

The winners were chosen using the random number generator at Random.org.

two decades

I spent the last few days hanging out with my aunt in Alameda, which was such a great time. We ate some delicious food, went shopping at TJ Maxx and Target, watched TV and chilled out. Unfortunately I was having such a good time just hanging out that I took zero pictures!

On the way from Alameda to Sacramento, I stopped at The Nut Tree. When I was a very little girl we used to come to The Nut Tree. I'd rock on the rocking horses, eat these enormous frosted sugar cookies that were frosted with elaborate decoration, and ride the little Nut Tree Railroad through orange orchards. Now... all that's left of The Nut Tree is this tiny area that has the railroad, some rocking horses, and a carousel. Everything else is gone and it's become a huge shopping center. It broke my heart. The Nut Tree was one of my favorite places as a kid. The simple pleasures of The Nut Tree are pretty much gone. I hate that something almost ... sacred has been turned into this huge retail center. I remember riding the tiny train through orange trees, reaching out and trying to grab the oranges off the nearby branches. It was definitely one of the most iconic places of my early childhood.

I watched these two families get on the carousel, both of them had little girls who were around two or three. I just imagined that those little girls were like me 20 years ago. 20 years. In 20 years those little girls could be just like me. Returning to a magical place from their childhood, watching little girls 20 years younger than them ride the carousel. I'm sure somewhere back home there are pictures of tiny me at the nut tree. It's mind blowing to think that it was 20 years ago that I was that little girl. I've been thinking a lot lately about how bizarre it is to become an adult from being a little kid. You don't realize that the process is happening while it's happening. Then all of a sudden you're 23 years old standing in front of a carousel watching little girls clutching onto the prancing horses wondering how it all happened.

Last night I met up for coffee with Liz from SrslyLiz, which was really fun! She's the first blog friend I've been able to meet up with. I tried to meet up with a few other people but I just didn't end up being able to connect with them, so it was nice to finally be able to have a coffee date with a blog pal!

So, a long time ago, as in before I left on the trip, I said I was going to do another tour of the Brave with all my stuff packed in and everything up and running, and I finally got off my butt and did it! So here is a short little video of me showing you guys around my humble mobile abode!