Santa Cruzin, Part 1

We had a great time camping over the weekend and there will be pictures from our trip soon (I promise this time) but first I thought I’d share the pics from my last trip which was now like two months ago that never made it onto the blog.

Clover and I took our first solo mother/daughter road trip to Santa Cruz to hang out with my friend Kristen and her daughter Zoe for a few days back in March. With all the craziness of becoming moms for the first time, we hadn’t seen one another since we were both pregnant and it was so much fun to get to spend time with her and meet eachother’s little ones, only a few months apart in age. They hit it off splendidly!

Kristen and I first met twelve years ago when we worked together at the UC Davis Marine Lab in Bodega Bay. So it was fitting that one of our destinations would be a UC marine lab discovery center. Interesting to us as biologists, yet plenty of neat stuff to keep the girls entertained, perfect!

Kristen’s husband who works out at the lab took a little break to come say hello and I got him to snap a picture of us sitting on the giant elephant seal statue out front. Those starfish, by the way, were HUGE and very cool.

Peeking into a classroom that was apparently set up for some sort of sea otter lab made me feel a little nostalgic for my days as a UC Santa Cruz marine biology student.

The full skeleton of a blue whale next to the building was pretty amazing too.

If the fact that Kristen lives just a short walk away from a pretty awesome beach wasn’t enough to make me envy her situation a little then you can bet the fact that right across the street from said beach is the cutest little natural history museum in existence sure as hell did!

Oddly enough, it too had a life-sized whale out front (see Clover for scale ;) and that little girl sitting on it kept making me think of the film Whalerider.

Luckily all the taxidermied critters were very cooperative in posing for pictures. My little critter on the other hand… not so much. Her and Zoe were zipping from one thing to the next taking it all in.

They even had a live beehive with clear Plexiglas walls so you could look in and watch the bees doing their bee business. There was a tube that went outside through the wall and you could walk up stairs along the side of the building to get a close look at them going in and out of the hive. Why they are not wearing their sweaters, I do not know ;)

As mom to a very curious toddler, I loved how geared towards the little ones the place was with small stepping stools strewn about to boost them up to the displays and plenty to interact with. They even had a box set up like a prehistoric excavation site complete with sand and paintbrushes for the kids to take part in the excavation.

There were visits to numerous park playgrounds as well. Can you spot little Clover trying with all her might to get up onto that play structure with those short little legs?

Getting to hang out with an old friend while watching our daughters become new friends made the trip all the more special :)

Before heading home, Clover and I cruised around downtown Santa Cruz where we hit up the Goodwill and the Salvation Army (I’ve already shared most of my finds) before getting on the road to drive back north up the coast where we stopped off in Half Moon Bay to meet up with my sister Shayna for lunch.

On the way into town, I saw a van parked in a field with a big sign that said THRIFT STORE, so of course before getting back on the road I had to go check it out. Unfortunately, the place turned out to be pretty creepy but not in a good creepy thrift store kind of way where hidden gems are to be found, just crap and lots of it.

The sign on the side of the building that bordered an overgrown empty lot turned out to be the coolest thing about it. I do really like that photo though, so that’s good enough for me.

P.S. Looking forward to catching up on all your lovely blogs!

I'm off...

I watched The Red Balloon last night for the first time since I was a kid, back when I think they used to play it on PBS. Such a visually delightful little film. The short scene where the boy wanders through an outdoor market full of random curiosities had me dreaming of Paris flea markets... one day, sigh... and this scene is just the sweetest:

Combined with the fact that I'm about to head off for a weekend of beach camping, the scene at the end when all the colorful balloons come to carry the boy off reminded me of Diana's surprise giveaway over at her wonderful blog our.city.lights.

The other day I left a comment on the interview post she did with the talented Naomi Rose about her polaroid photography and the next thing I knew, I was one of 10 lucky winners to be able to chose one of these awesome polaroids to receive a free print of! It was a tough decision but in the end I went with this one and I can't wait for it to arrive. It also makes me want to go pick up a package of colorful balloons to take down to Santa Cruz with us :)

Speaking of which, The Duck is packed and ready to go so have a great weekend everyone, I'm off to the beach!

{image via BitsofBeauty's flickr}

A bee in a sweater?

We have a friend who’s getting his MFA at Mills College in Oakland and we drove down on Saturday to check out the open art studios. This was the 100% thrifted outfit that I wore featuring my new red boots. I found them last week for $2.50 at the Salvos. I’ve never owned a pair of red boots before so I was pretty excited when I discovered they fit.

I’m loving this dress that I found there recently too. The bottom part is a high-waisted dark chambray skirt with pockets and the top part is just a plain white tank connected by a wide strip of black elastic in the middle. I’ve worn it several times now and I like how different tops can be layered over it for completely different looks. I’m sure you’ll be seeing it again.


The dreamcatcher pendant came off a thrifted keychain.

With Clover to keep track of, I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures while touring the open studios. She kept trying to run back to the refreshments table in the hall yelling “more blueberries! more blueberries!” That kid can put away blueberries like nobody’s business.


I did snap a few pictures in our friend Joey’s studio though. This one was my favorite.

Then we went to view the current exhibit being put on by the graduating students in the art museum. Lucas took Clover outside for a bit and I got a chance to wander through photographing to my heart’s content (all photos can be clicked for more detail):





These wacky haphazardly stacked hippie camper shells on matchbox cars were pretty cool and there were a bunch of neat found object wire sculptures.

My favorite was the room with the yellow crocheted branches and tree trunks that looked like they were growing through the walls and the floor.



Along one of the walls there were intricately crocheted seeds of all different shapes and sizes displayed under small bell jars, SO awesome.


This lil’ guy hung down from one of the tall trunks at about eye level. You couldn’t tell what it was without walking up to take a closer look… a bee in a sweater!!!

100% Thrifted Pick of the Week (5.13.09)

birthday date dress (almost 27 weeks),
originally uploaded by Pop Elegantarium.

Wow, how amazing does Alexa look?!?! I'm loving the vintage dress (for some reason, I am all about the vertical stripes lately), the length of the dress and height of the boots are perfect together, and this is proof positive that being pregnant and looking HOT can indeed go hand in hand! Yay for stylishly expecting mamas everywhere :) Hope your birthday was as awesome as your outfit Alexa!

And since she got me feeling all nostalgic for my maternity days, here's a little blast from the past:

My sister took this photo when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Clover. Speaking of which, I had a lovely little Mother's Day on Sunday. I hope you all did too! :)

Tagged

Sorry about the blog neglect over the past week. For whatever reason it just wasn’t jiving with my (or should I say Clover’s) schedule for me to get any posts done. So to get back into the swing of things I’m actually going to do a tag… yes, you read it correctly. I know, I’m a big ol’ flake when it comes to these tags and memes and awards. I guess I just need to face the fact that despite my intentions awhile back to get better about it, I’ll just have to sporadically fit in the ones that I can. Sorry if I skipped over your tag!

So, last week I was tagged by both Tracy of Vintage Found, a new-to-me blog that I have been enjoying very much of late, and Anja of Clever Nettle, an old favorite, to do the Always & Nevers meme. The task at hand being to list 5 fashion always-es (things you always like or cannot do without) for YOU personally, and conversely list 5 nevers (would not be caught dead in) for you personally. Keep it fashion related, tag 3 bloggers, and post any kind of photo you want. So without further ado:

(image via garance dore)

Always!
1) little white dresses
2) perfectly worn jeans
3) flat boots
4) floral prints
5) overalls (I may be in the minority on this one, but I have always had a great fondness for them and I think they look adorable on grown women. Now in argument of my case, look at this picture… YOU tell ME which of those ladies is the cutest?! ;)

Never!
1) heels for casual day-to-day wear (I’m a flats girl through and through, but kudos to you girls who can pull off grocery shopping in a wicked pair of heels!)
2) NEON (Too bright, I prefer my colors to be more subdued. I will admit that a pair of neon pink ankle socks may have found there way into my wardrobe in the 80’s but I was just a kid, I didn’t know any better.)
3) probably anything that could be classified as “bling” (I don’t like it when things get too sparkly, not to say that I don’t appreciate a shiny element here and there when it’s incorporated well)
4) visors (pretty much always funny looking)
5) Crocs (need I elaborate?)

My tags:
Milla of The Girl Who Married a Bear
Caroline of Bonjour Mon Coeur
Anabela of Fieldguided

But wait that’s not all. I love all three of these ladies’ blogs too, so I figured I might as well pass on an award to each of them while I’m at it.


This very sweet award was given to me recently by the ever so lovely and kind Anna of Much Love and it was just too cute to not pass on! Again, if I failed to publicly acknowledge an award that you gave me, I’m sorry, they really are always appreciated!

The Sweet Sweater and the Braided Hairs

When the ever so sweet and photographically talented Liz left me a comment about a thrifted sweater that didn’t work out for her (she thought I might like it), I had no idea what a perfect little sweater would soon be making its way across the country to me.

When the cardboard box showed up at my door last week, I opened it with the same sense of anticipation that I do all such packages (this sort of thing never gets old :). Well, let’s just say boy was she right about me liking it because, in fact, it was love at first sight and I immediately began wishing for cooler weather the moment I took it out of the box!

A few days later I got my wish, just before all this rainy day business started, we had one day that was just perfectly overcast but not cold enough to need a jacket. Perfect lil’ sweater weather!


Being inspired by equal parts photos of this nature that I keep seeing pop up everywhere and equal parts the fact that my hair was overdue for a washing, I decided to play around with some braids and this was what I came up with.

It was one of those hair-dos where I was just kind of wingin it. Sadly, I’d probably have a tough time trying to replicate it, so I’m glad I at least got some pics.


My favorite things about the sweater are the sleeves and the fair isle detailing, which made me think of something Fiona from The Secret of Roan Inish might have worn. I’ve been in love with this little girl’s wardrobe ever since Kater reminded me of the film in this post.

(Movie stills via All This Happiness)

The Curly Willow and The Magical Dump

This was a 100% thrifted outfit I wore earlier in the week before the weather took a turn for the gray and rainy. Not to complain, since we are in a drought year and need to welcome all the rain we can get!

On sunny days, I’ve found that I have better luck taking outdoor outfit photos in shady spots, which is why, once its spring leaves sprung, I started setting up my tripod underneath our curly willow tree in the back corner of the yard. It’s a lovely spot enveloped by leafy branches and I like the way the light filters through.


Here’s the view looking up. I loved climbing trees as a child and this is a tree that was made to be climbed. I can just imagine all the future hours that will be spent by Clover scampering about up there like a little monkey :)

Would you believe me if I told you that the majority of my outfit was free from the dump? Well, it’s no joke. Both the dress (which I love) AND the boots (you already know how I feel about those ;) where picked up for me by Milla, my long distance thrift buddy and all around kindred spirit, at the dump on the little Pacific Northwest island where she lives.

Of course this isn’t just any dump, in fact, at some point we began referring to it as “The Magical Dump” and ever since reading her description of it in this early wardrobe_remix post, I’ve dreamed of one day making a sort of thrifty pilgrimage, if you will, to experience this place for myself.


Yay for the tiny floral prints of the 90’s! Inspired by these ladies, I added a newly thrifted brown leather belt to the navy dress and even had several commenters on my w_r post mention the belt specifically :)

The very happy ending to this post is that we’ve actually begun planning a family road trip for the end of summer in which we'll be camping our way up through Oregon and Washington in The Duck with our final destination being none other than a certain small island off the Washington coast! I am SO excited at the thought of meeting Milla in person in just a matter of months and even more excited that we’ll be able to go “shop” The Magical Dump together!

* sigh *

Happy May Day

Virtual flower baskets to all!

(Images from: VictorianTraditions.com, verhext's flickr, and clair_voyant's flickr)