Forty Trips Around the Sun

Birthday Attire :)

Shirt: thrifted
Dress: thrifted
Cardi: old f21
Tights: target
Moccs: Violet Folklore

My actual birthday was pretty mellow. Brunch with two of my sisters-in-law, a jaunt out to the coast with Lucas and Clover in hopes of whale watching off Bodega Head (no whales, but plenty of sunshine, huge crashing waves below, and a little grove of cypress trees to climb around in), then out for a nice dinner with my sweetie that night. Little did I know that was all just the calm before the storm, the perfect storm of perfect birthdays that is!

Perhaps you've already heard, but my 40th birthday turned out to be the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER and FULL OF SURPRISES! Once I get a chance to go through my pics (of which there are MANY), I'll tell you about it. Hopefully, you won't be too sick of hearing about it by then ;)

Greenery

So into houseplants right now...

[images via: The Nomadic Sun, Buddha Interiors, Bohemian Homes]

An Outfit and a Haircut

Big news around here: I finally got that looong overdue haircut I'd been needing. The ends of my mermaid hair were in pretty sad shape.

I haven't been taking pictures lately, which is probably why it's been so quiet over here. Though I did bust out the camera to document my newly trimmed hair.

This smooth, straight, and shiny business is not its natural state and my natural state rarely involves a willingness to put forth the effort required to recreate the look. It looks like this approximately once every six months to a year. Just after I get it cut.

This awesome 70's sweater was a gift from Brigit (pssst, today's her birthday!) when we did our swap last year and I really love it so it's about time I worked it in to an outfit post. It's one of those items that I get complimented on pretty much every time I wear it out.

This was the first time I'd thought to pair it with my beaded necklace of jingly amazingness from Nicole. I think they make quite the pair.

I picked up this blue rayon top with floral cutout detailing on a recent thrift outing. I've been thrifting a lot lately trying to gather goodies for several packages I've got in the works.

Gosh, I hope you guys aren't getting sick of these boots yet, because clearly I'm not, haha, they're still my favorites :)

Later that evening I wore this to a super fun clothing swap with a bunch of lovely vintage loving ladies. I wish I had taken pics! I was able to find new homes for lots of clothing items of mine and took home some lovely pieces as well. I'll try to get better about the picture taking folks!

Happy Birthdays to all my lovely Aquarian sisters, there are lots of them going around right now! Mine's coming up in exactly one week and it's a biggie. I'll be wishing my 30's a very fond farewell, yikes!!!

Glass Beach

Following a nice visit with Lucas’ dad (aka Grandpa Bill) and his wife up in Fort Bragg last weekend, we went down to Glass Beach for some fresh sea air before embarking on the two hour drive home.

Back in the early 20th century, Fort Bragg residents referred to this stretch of beach as “The Dumps” and threw household garbage down from the cliffs above. I know, can you imagine? The area was closed in 1967 and eventually cleanup programs ensued.

Over the decades, pounding wave action has worn the discarded glass of yesteryear into smooth bits of gleaming treasure along the beach so named for its plentiful sea glass.

It was windy and freezing cold but the rock formations were perfect for climbing around on and Clover (I mean Clara, yes, the tiara is under her hood) had a total blast doing just that.

Over the years, in spite of signs forbidding it, the beach has been totally picked over (we saw several beachcombers filling small pails while we were there), to the point where the remaining sea glass is mostly made up of tiny pieces. Though I imagine there were once some amazing treasures to be found.

Speaking of found treasures, this coat is my most favorite recent thrift find. It's like wearing a cozy wool blanket with pockets, I love it. Perfect now that the winter chill has finally found its way to us.

I scored it for six bucks at one of the two new Goodwill stores in town (the cutoff overalls are from the other). I love that there are still new thrift stores popping up here. We already have at least 15, that I can think of, I'm probably forgetting a few. Not to mention others in towns nearby. Whenever I travel anywhere, I always return feeling very thrift fortunate to live where I do.

Out of curiosity, if you don't mind sharing, how's the thrifting in your town?

Day Trippin'

We made the most of this weekend's bizarrely beautiful weather (what is going on January?!) by heading off on a little family outing yesterday. Any guesses where we went?

Nope, it was not The Shire. Guess again...

Following a gorgeous drive out to Point Reyes, we parked at the main visitor center and from there embarked on a short hike to a recreated Coast Miwok village called Kule Loklo.

As I said, the hike was short and when we reached our destination there were all sorts of neat dwellings and structures to explore, perfect for a kid Clover's age, and a fun way to learn a little bit about how these local indigenous people lived.

We followed up our hike with super yummy wood-fired pizza in the quaint and quirky town of Point Reyes Station perfectly paired with a refreshing wheat beer for the parentals. To top it off, they brought us the most delicious Florentine cookies! You-know-who was pretty excited about the free chocolaty goodness, yeah, and of course Clover was stoked too ;)

It was an all around lovely day and ended up being a perfect lil' Sunday family adventure, just what we needed. I mentioned before how I wanted to do more of this type of local exploring, so I'm thinking a good goal for 2012 will be to make it the year of fun day trips! Hopefully a few longer ones too :)

"Clara" fell asleep on the ride home. Yes, it's been awhile, but we officially have ourselves a new character. Remember that Nutcracker movie I told you about? Yup.

We rigged up this tiara thingy out of pipe cleaners and beads because she wanted to emulate this look. She wears the thing EVERYWHERE. I forget sometimes and we'll be walking down the street (or trail) and I'll notice people looking at her with these big smiles on their faces. Then it dawns on me, oh right, she's wearing a crown. Ha, never a dull moment with this one.

See, I'm actually guessing that her new interest in ballet is just the latest manifestation of her love for inhabiting new characters, in this case that of a ballerina, or now more specifically, Clara.

At this age the dance classes we sign her up for are really play based and more for fun than anything else. While there were some valid points brought up in the comments section of my last post regarding the possible pitfalls of girls becoming serious about ballet at a young age, I wouldn't be surprised if something new took its place right quick. We'll see though, I agree, it's definitely important to be aware of that stuff.

Anyway, welcome welcome to 2012! The year of fun day trips! Wishing many a lovely outing upon you this year :)