Clover Grows Beneath the Trees

I really love this photo, it’s one of my favorites from our trip. The magnitude of the moss-covered trees and her tiny frame looking up at them in wonder… it just tugs at my heart strings. I took it on a hike called the Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rainforest in Washington’s Olympic National Park.

Clover’s reached a point now where she doesn’t want to be put in her stroller (Lucas pushed an empty one for most of this hike), our hopeful suggestions/pleas that she ride in it for a little while being met with a very matter of fact “No. I’m just walkin’ everywhere.” (Seriously, how can you argue with that logic? ;) This can make for some pretty slow going though when it comes to hikes, but at least this was a beautiful one!

She turned two today and each day seems to hold a new development in how she soaks up the world around her. She amazes me all the time with the things she notices and how she explains them. She’s a super verbal little two-year-old with a pretty impressive vocabulary!

Happy Birthday Sweetie! Mama loves you, like the trees love the sun : )

Island Adventures

Thanks so much for all the sweet comments and trip well-wishes on my last post! We did indeed have a great time and as I predicted the most fun was had during the three gorgeous days spent on the wee island off the coast of WA with Milla and Charlie.

They were such wonderful and generous hosts and it was so cool to get to experience their beautiful island community from a local perspective. Now for some pictures!

This is pretty indicative of who was most often the center of attention. The fact that she really seemed to "find her voice" on this trip and blossom into quite the lil' chatterbox (throwing out cute Cloverisms nonstop) was indeed highly entertaining.

Clover took a liking to Milla right off the bat and was none too shy about giving demands: “Meewa wanna sit wif me,” “Meewa wanna build blocks wif me,” and in this instance “Meewa wanna make a tunnel,” just to name a few. No question marks at the ends of those phrases, btw… they were most definitely stated as fact.

I think the liking was mutual though because Milla was so sweet with her and though it’s true building a tunnel out of smooth, oddly shaped beach stones is pretty much physically impossible, for Clover she gave it her best try!

On our first day, an afternoon of eating yummy salads at a local restaurant, visiting the farmers’ market, and hanging out on the porch of the local coffee house in the village was followed by Milla and Charlie leading us on a gorgeous drive out to a favorite beach of theirs. It was in a beautiful cove looking out at the islands’ largest mountain. A lovely beer sippin’ stone skippin’ Clover watchin' time was had by all!

On the way we stopped at none other than the Magical Dump! Where I found, among other bits, a cool 70’s denim wrap skirt to add to my Fall wardrobe as well as the prized plastic pig that Milla is holding above and that Clover adored and carried around with her and every so often would tell me: “Mine pig tum frum’a dump, momma.” So cute…

Speaking of pigs, after leaving the beach we stopped off at their friends' organic farm stand for dinner supplies. We pulled up to find a pack of the most adorable baby piggies frolicking in the field!

Milla's lovely garden and studio.

Wouldn’t you know it, in customary synchronous fashion, we surprised one another with vintage 70’s prairie dresses! The Gunne Sax style dress she gave me came from Violet Folklore and after drooling over so many of their amazing dress finds, it’s so great to finally own such a beautiful one :D I picked up Milla’s in Portland on our drive up at an amazing place that Anja recommended called House of Vintage.

Lucas took the above shot as Milla showed us around the small county park where she lives… yes lives! Charlie works for the park and they actually get to live there… in a super sweet little cabin with an awesome garden and chickens and a front porch with a view of the sea, not to mention the forest as their backyard… sigh.

After some beach time at the park, chatting over Pabsts and chips-n-salsa, Milla, in true hippie fashion, filled up a couple of her awesome woven baskets with picnic supplies (salad, hummus, crackers, cheeses…) and off we went on our next adventure.

Not before making another stop at the Magical Dump though! This time finds included a vintage denim bag lined with fun fabric and quilting. It'll accompany my wrap skirt to perfection and even Lucas didn’t leave the dump empty handed as I found him an awesome vintage western-style button-up shirt, plaid with pearly snaps.

On another part of the island, a beautiful forested hike took us out to a picturesque bluff overlooking the ocean and several big seal-covered rocks.


The sun dropped giving the water a silvery sheen as we picnicked, listened to the seals bark, and watched sailboats glide by in the distance. Oh geez… how poetic was that? Hahaa, but it’s true, it was quite beautiful!

Mama showin’ off her new dress before heading back to the park for farm-fresh burgers grilled over the open campfire followed by Charlie’s homemade blackberry pie, still warm from the oven, with ice cream on top, yum!!!

Day three brought us out to yet another picturesque location as Milla showed us around the farm where she used to live. Forested dirt roads wound through the property, leading to awesome hippie houses nestled in the trees…

Friendly farm animals…

… and scenic hilltop views of the surrounding fields and farmland. I’d say idyllic about sums it up!

Milla looking adorable and sporting the lil' 70's Holly Hobby print dress I gave her, another House of Vintage find.

Trying to get an outfit shot at dusk before completely losing the light.

Hangin’ out with Milla and Charlie was totally fun, they’re both awesome, and they made us feel so welcomed. Meeting Milla kinda felt more like seeing an old friend after not having seen them in a long time rather than meeting someone for the very first time, which was really cool, yet not entirely unexpected… and oh gosh, would you believe she’s even cuter in person?… I kid you not!

Thanks for everything you guys, hope you can make it down to California for a visit!

Also thanks to Milla for insisting that we pose for this family portrait as it’s the only photo of the three of us from our trip and I like it a lot : )

See more pics from our visit at her blog too, she got some good ones!

Long Time Comin'

If you're a long-time reader then you probably already know what it means when I post a dreamy camping pic... oh yes...ROADTRIP!!! We're off to galavant our way up the Pacific Northwest for the next couple of weeks, with some amazing destinations planned, most exciting of which will be spending time...

... on this lil' island...

... at this lil' house...

... with this lil' lady! Eeeee!!! <3

Magical Dump, here I come!

(Image #1 via Twig Hutchinson, others from The Little House By The Sea)

100% Thrifted Pick (9.04.09)

sprig of thyme, originally uploaded by mamushka marie.

I love this dress, and seeing how gorgeous it looks on mamushka marie makes me think that it was absolutely meant for her and her alone. It's so pretty combined with her fair skin and dark hair. She looks quite mysterious in a good way.

I love the vertical black stripes that run through the print, a print that will do her right on many a fall day to come, I’m sure. The brown leather bag and black shoes call out the dress tones beautifully, and don’t even get me started on how well she matches that fence! What a classy gal :)

The leaves are falling, but it's still Summer

Kickin' back in the freshly fallen leaves of the curly willow on a hot Summer day, and though the Autumn-hype is in full-swing throughout blogland, yes technically it is still Summer. At least in my hemisphere it is, though I'm not sure our willow got the memo.

I'll admit though, while Summer is my favorite season and I'm sad to see it slipping away, the romance of Autumn dressing is a bug that even I've been bitten by lately, tough to avoid with my blogroll knee-deep in gorgeous fall collections, inspirations, and what-not.

All for another day though... because today was hot, really hot and muggy, and in no way a day for Fall layers, not even light ones, which resulted in the rather minimal outfit.

The feather tank top was found on the $1 rack at Community Thrift in San Francisco. It had a small stain on the front (probably why it was on the $1 rack) and I FINALLY got around to giving it a good Oxiclean soaking just the other day. Thankfully that stain was no match for the Oxiclean!

I made the cutoffs from a pair of thrifted jeans... girls jeans (they were like capris on me)... Mary-Kate and Ashley jeans to be exact, haaahaaa, that's a little embarrassing, but I liked their high-ish waist and thought the embroidered flowers were cute (they're on the back pockets too... sewn through the back pockets to be exact, rendering said back pockets unusable... WHY? you got me.)

But on to my favoritest item of all! This vintage camera case has been all but surgically attached to my hip since it's recent arrival in my latest glorious package of magical thrifty goodness from the ever-amazing Milla :D

Her package had the best theme too: "The Last Days of a Seventies Summer." So fitting, and complete with flowy floral dresses, the best floppy hat ever, and among other delightful things (sure to show up in future posts) was an early 70's issue of Good Housekeeping Needlecraft magazine! I thought I'd share some of the gorgeous images found inside :)


It's a Spring/Summer issue and the colors are more Springy than Fallish, but I did start feeling excited about the prospect of layering and wearing knitwear again as I was leafing through.



I kinda like this look of layering little crocheted vests and sweaters over collared shirts, perhaps something to try for Fall.

And the reason she chose to send THIS issue of several she had. Just imagine the combination of the above top with THESE pants!!! Ridiculous/awesome, right? I'm pretty sure the two must have been separated at birth.