Paint it Black

Kind of similar to yesterday, eh? I thought I'd take that look and make it even more casual. I've been feeling anti-color lately. I like the simplicity of black. As I'm sure you all know, I have no qualms with wearing overloads of color.

Today I miss my friends. I have zero friends in this town. Zero. I'm dead serious, too. Sometimes people say that for hyperbolic effect. The only people I know here beyond my family are coworkers. All I want to do is party all night and laugh constantly. Instead: bored and lonely. There aren't even any movies I want to go to. I thought about doing the whole Twilight thing, just because it looks like an entertaining movie, but I just don't feel like it tonight.

shirt/pac sun :: t-shirt/hot topic :: skirt/thrifted :: boots/lulu e bebe :: tights/fred meyer

I just learned that the Cold War Kids are coming to Anchorage in Feb. Damn! I will be gone by then. Way to go, Alaska. Bring a great band after I leave. I see how it is. Living in Alaska is definitely not for people who enjoy live music. There are some good local bands, but if you want to see a more popular band from the lower 48, you can pretty much forget it. I don't think I saw a non-local band's concert until I moved to WA. I remember my freshman year of college I went to a Yellowcard concert even though I didn't even like Yellowcard just because I'd never been to a concert before. I can't even believe I went to that concert because I pretty much loathe Yellowcard, haha! I still haven't gone to many concerts because I'm so damn frugal. It would be fun to go to Sasquatch or one of those big music festivals at the Gorge in central Wa, but I never ended up doing it.

I think my favorite concerts ever (not counting local bands/friends' bands) are Against Me! in Seattle and David Bazan in Spokane. We were going to see The Thermals in Spokane once but my friends took too long pre-funking and it sold out. I'm still totally bummed. I also missed Neil Diamond in Spokane once. And Van Halen! UGH! I really need to reevaluate what's important in my life, because those concerts should really be on the priority list.

David Bazan @ Empyrean in Spokane (I think I was sitting down in the front)
The first is my favorite song:

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Beginning To See The Light

Well well well. Today I ended up getting home before sundown (appx. 4:00 pm), so I quickly grabbed my camera before I lost too much light. This is the dress that I got on Black Friday which I couldn't find a photo of to share with you guys, so here it is! I really love it. It's pretty formal, in the going-out-for-drinks-and-probably-dancing kind of way (which is the most formal I ever would have to get these days). I made it a little more casual with a plaid, though. It's one of the sexier dresses I own now! Though I have no clue when I will ever need to look sexy for any reason. I gave a close-up of the dress because it looks so basic in the full-body shots, but it really has this gorgeous animal-esque, shiny pattern to the fabric. Almost reptilian.

boots/lulu e bebe :: dress/lulu e bebe :: plaid/pac sun :: tights/fred meyer

My favorite tights are falling apart, and I just don't know what I will do without them... My new pair of tights just isn't sitting well with me. I feel like it looks like some weird flesh eating flowers are tattooed on my legs. I guess I'll have to find a better replacement pair.
And I need to get my bangs cut. They are attacking my eyes constantly.
Has anyone else started Christmas shopping? I am seriously behind this year. Last year I had my list all made up and on my way to wrapping by now. I have zero Christmas presents so far! Congrats to all you who have your stuff all together, I certainly am not on the ball...



If you don't mind, head over to my chictopia and add my Modcloth Vintage Inspired look as a favorite! They're having a contest and I entered my most favorite vintage look. Thanks, lovelies!

rain on my parade

Outfit posts will resume Monday! In between pre-black-friday prep, thanksgiving, black friday, and weekend activities there is no way I can keep up with everything. I think next week will be back to normal, thank goodness! I need to catch up on sleep in a serious way. I kind of wish I was a dog, ours sleeps like 15 hours a day, at least.

I thought I'd share my friends' band with all you readers. They certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, which I realize. They're kind of experimental, lo-fi, non-traditional. I suspect if you like bands such as Minus the Bear, The '89 Cubs, Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, and Animal Collective, you may like pə-ˈrād. One of my best friends from college is the guitarist and for the nascence and early months of the band he actually used my electric guitar. If they become famous it will be my claim to fame.

The rest of the band are good friends from college as well and they actually were all up in Alaska this summer living in tents in a small wilderness tourist town. They would play gigs at the local historical hotel/pub and spend most nights drinking beer around bonfires on the shore of the Susitna River.

(photos: kristen black)

Their label, Leftist Nautical Antiques, just released pə-ˈrād's first album on cassette tape on the 9th of Nov, so if you want you can order it or download the whole album online. They recorded their debut album in a West Seattle bedroom by another friend of mine in one afternoon. LNA is actually founded by my best writer/photographer from CORSAIR. If I ever actually start a magazine I'd die to hire him. He was a life saver. So glad to see people from my old school really exercising their creativity in an entrepreneurial way. Things like pə-ˈrād and LNA really make me miss Spokane. There is this incredibly creative enclave there which is just nuclear with inspirational energy. It's very small, but so wonderful to bask in and contribute to. It's a very positive place, I think.

Fringe Benefits...

Okay, ready for a superficial post? I am. I was up at 6 am this morning to get to work at 7 in order to finish setting up for Black Friday. Thank God we aren't one of those crazy stores which opened at like 4 in the morning! Unfortunately I was the only one who showed up at 7, and since I don't have a key yet, I had to sit in my car and wait until the next person showed up. It was a pretty successful day, I think. I ended up cashing in on some of the deals we had and got three items: two dresses and a pair of boots. It was dark by the time I got home so I tried to find pictures online...but I couldn't find a picture of my favorite dress. I'll wear it soon and share with y'all.

Shall we continue with superficial and shallow topics? Indeed. Lets follow shopping with ... boys! Okay, well, boy... Man? Man.

Has anyone seen the show FRINGE? Ugh. So good. It's like the neo-X-Files, only better. I originally just liked it for the plots, characters and exciting effects, but if I just haven't fallen head over heels for Peter Bishop! Yowza! Haha. Peter is played by Joshua Jackson, and I prefer to say that I have a crush on Peter, not Joshua because I have no clue who Joshua is, but the character Peter... Yum. He's wickedly smart, has a razor sharp wit, a bad boy twinge, and is devastatingly handsome. Plus, you gotta love a man in a Peacoat. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Okay now I just have to find my Peter Bishop in the non-fictional world. Le sigh. I wish.

Peter: Call Me

Playing Catch-Up

Sigh, finally a moment to breathe. It took a national holiday to get a breather but I'm glad I got one, either way. The past three days I've been working non-stop. From 10 in the morning all the way past midnight. I never knew how much of a deal Black Friday was, especially since I'm never among the droves of people on quests for deals after Thanksgiving. We had two stores to transform into winter wonderlands and I'm still not done with one of them! I have to go in on Friday morning and finish merchandising the store! I'll tell you what I'm thankful for: Thanksgiving! Yay for holiday days off.

coat/nordstrom :: shirt/fred meyer :: skirt/thrifted :: boots/my old riding boots

Here's a little look at what I've been up to these last few days. I don't have pictures of the second store yet because it's not done, but here are some photos I took of my work at Lulu E Bebe. If any of you are in the Anchorage area, you should come down to Lulu E Bebe and Cosette! Cosette is having a 1 year anniversary party from 5-8pm and both stores are having a bunch of sales all day long. 10% off storewide, 25% off shoes, etc., etc. I think I'm going to make some purchases myself, I certainly have been lusting after a few things for quite some time!

I feel like I can't even talk about Thanksgiving because I have to catch up on the last few days of my life! My life has been consumed with work so much that my personal life (and thus, my blogging) has fallen to the wayside. I do have some exciting and potentially life-changing news. I decided to register for graduate school classes! I barely even had time to register by the deadline with all the work I've been doing! But in two months I will be moving to San Francisco! Yikes!! I have never lived in a city that big. Not that Anchorage is a small town, but it's certainly not nearly the size of San Fran. I think I am excited though. I always get nervous doing new things and going new places, but I'm better at it now than I used to be. I figure if I can walk out the door wearing some of the odd outfits that I end up putting on, I can deal with a big city.

I'll do a Thanksgiving post later. This will be my Tues/Weds post. Feels good to catch up on life.