Forestry

The snow is melting! Hurray! We've been having lots of rainy days which are actually quite wonderful; I love being warm inside my car while the rain is hurrying down outside or sitting by my wood stove and hearing it drip down off the eaves of my little house. Last night we had a miraculous break in the weather and a few of my friends came over for a bonfire. We played Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Cash on the guitar and had a little singalong, and ate HUGE s'mores with these gargantuan marshmallows that my friend Lisa stumbled across in the supermarket. It's funny, you never get too old for s'mores, they've been a staple at every bonfire I've attended!






Boots, Dress (a grandma nightgown I altered), Belt, Leather Jacket: Vintage

Today is my first day off in eight days so I'm going to celebrate by sleeping in late, making a huge breakfast, and sitting inside one of my favorite coffee shops to watch the storm over the lake. I came across a sweet garage sale yesterday and bought a dress and a skirt which are both too big for me, so I'm going to do a little altering and hopefully they'll make an appearance here soon! I've been thinking about selling some of clothes and shoes (I came to the realization that I have far too much in my closet after a friend remarked that they felt like they were in a theater dressing room when they saw my bedroom) on ebay or etsy to declutter my life a little bit. Would anyone be interested in buying some of the clothes I've featured on the blog and/or do you have any advice about selling online? I'd love to hear it!





As always, please tell me what you're up to! I love hearing about all of your exciting lives, especially those of you who live in the big city! I'm living vicariously through you!

P.S. Here's a little outtake; "Hey tripod, I'm talkin to you!"

Blue Velvet on Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Hope your day off was filled with sunshine, time with friends and BBQ's!
I didn't have the day off today but the boat company I work at was hosting the sea plane splash in, so we had a big BBQ outside and watched all of the planes landing and doing flyby's. It was so exciting to see all of the planes land right in front of us; I was pretty impressed because some of them were tiny and we had pretty big waves out on the lake today!







After work I went to yoga (if you follow me on twitter you know that I've been having a serious yoga obsession lately) and then hung out with Rach on the beach. We juggled and played on the playground. It was the perfect way to end the evening.
Tomorrow we are going to a fire dancing class, I am so excited! Lately I have been really into poi and hooping (perhaps I need to join the circus?) and such so I think it will be really fun!





This dress is still my favorite dress in my closet. Wearing it out in Tahoe got me quite a few stares though! I went in to work to check my schedule and got told by one of the guys I work with "you look like you stole your grandma's wardrobe" and by the other one that I look like I "go to church and secretly listen to Jane's Addiction". I can never win here, haha! Oh and you may have noticed from the photos that we haven't quite reached summer status. I'm really hoping for it though! I can't wait to spend all of my time off at the beach!
Boots, Coat, Belt, Brooch: Vintage, thrifted; Dress: Topshop




What did you do for memorial day?

Woodswoman

Well hey there guys. Life has been so good lately! Yesterday I had the day off so I made oatmeal whole wheat pancakes with strawberry, mango and ginger sauce for breakfast, and went on a beautiful hike to Eagle Lake with my friends Rachel and Bobby. The hike was pretty snowy; we had record breaking amounts of snow this year (in some resorts the last time they experienced this much snow, almost 700 inches of snowpack, was in the 1880's) so lots of it still hasn't melted! Luckily we came prepared with our hiking boots and Tahoe mettle and we made it up the mountain to the lake, which was deserted, since everyone else had turned back because of the snow. We watched some blue jays flitting about through the trees and took lots of pictures. Last night I had the last spring session of my writing class, and then headed out to get some post writing drinks. It's interesting, I feel like I know so many intimate details of these women's lives because of reading their stories and poems, yet I've never really talked to them outside of class. It was so much fun to hang out with them without writing, they are such a hilarious bunch! After our drinks I headed back to my house in the boonies, where the local pizza place was having a going away party for my friend Kim. They had a DJ, jello shots, unlimited serve your own beers on tap, and free pool, so it was a great party! I am sad to see her go but she's moving to Portland, so she will definitely be one more friend to visit on my list of people-I-love-who-live-in-awesome-places. Today I drove back down to San Francisco because I have to get my fingerprints taken because I am getting my US citizenship(!).







Fascinator, Shorts, Belt, Earrings: Vintage; Cropped Tee: Ross; Sandals: Steve Madden
I really like how these photos turned out. I just took the camera I am carrying, a Pentax, into the shop because the shutter wasn't coming back up again after taking pictures. Of course when I went into the shop it was working perfectly fine. Boy, did the camera repair guy make me feel dumb!







What do you like to do on your days off?

"Fire on the mountain, run boys run/the devil's in the house of the rising sun."

I just went back down to the San Francisco Bay to have a little quality time with the fam and enjoy some non-snowy weather (Riiiight...it was pouring with rain the whole time. I bite my thumb at you, weather gods!). I went with my friend Rachel, who's from Virginia, so it was so much fun to get to show her around. We went for a very muddy walk on the reservoir, lost the dogs after they chased after a pack of turkeys and then found them half an hour later, explored Grizzly Peak (the truck was far from happy about all the hills, but we made it!), had some exciting thrifting finds (an airplane brooch, 80s sunnies, books on conspiracy theories, and so many country cassette tapes...Willie Nelson what whaaat!), ate ridonculous amounts of cheese then salivated over the raw food at Cafe Gratitude, had some near death experiences at the crazy intersections in Berkeley (2 girls+huge old beat up truck+bay area=confusion), bought the most perfect bridal shower gift in the world and tons of cards from Blue Barnhouse, cooked up two epic feasts, played with my chicken Beatrix Potter, went mobbin' on my brother's minibike, watched my brother get an award for excellence in automotive technology at my old high school, sucked on sunflower seeds til we were oversaturated with salt, ate ice cream and drank beer, played shuffleboard (I beat Rach and our friend Chris twice!), got spanked by Rachel at pool, talked to my sister on the phone who I have not spoken to in months (she's always off doing things like staying in monasteries in Tibet and going on the Trans-Siberian Railroad), did some more mobbin on the minibike, and had an epic drive back up the pass to Tahoe this morning. We spent the whole car ride listening to a cassette we got called "Driving Tunes: Country, Volume One" and blasted Devil Went Down to Georgia like it was going out of style. It was so much fun! Sometimes I miss living close to a city...but then every time I come back to the mountains I remember how much I love being here!





I have been feeling weird about posting my outfit details as of late because it's always all thrifted, but here goes: All thrifted except for the tee, which is h&m. Yaaaay!



What have you lovelies been up to this week? Tell me some happy things!

Witchy Woman

I am so excited that blogger is working again! I was going to post this yesterday, so I'm really glad it finally got fixed.





I love how these photos look a bit eerie. I was hoping they would come out this way! The last time I wore this skirt the photos were equally as creepy, haha.
This is actually my next door neighbors house; they just moved out so I am free to peek in their windows as much as I like! Tahoe is really quiet right now. The summer crowd hasn't arrived yet so there are lots of empty houses.
Boots, Skirt, Belt, Camisole: Thrifted Jewellery: Gifts





There is one exciting thing going on though; the AMGEN race! It is one of the biggest bike races in the world, and the first stage is right here in Lake Tahoe. It is supposed to snow on Sunday, the first day, so hopefully all of the bicyclists will be ok and not slip on the roads. If only they made chains for bike tires! I am really excited to watch the race, I think it is going to be amazing to see!





Do you have any sports that you love watching?

Spring Garden/"Hi, my truck is famous!"

I'm inordinately excited about the fact that there is a picture of my truck in the San Francisco Chronicle today. I'm a big dork, but here's the link. Kind of cool, huh?



I am so happy about springtime and the fact that I can wear these Steve Madden heels again! I bought them in the middle of my road trip last summer when we had been on a pretty big shopping ban so I was so excited to wear them. I still love them lots!



I normally wear this skirt as a dress but I decided for once to wear it the way it was made to be worn, and I loved swishing about in it. I normally chop any long skirt that I buy because I like them to be mini length but I think I could get used to wearing them like this; I felt so ladylike all day!





We have been doing some major home improvement projects at my place; the other day we moved almost 2 cords of wood into our shed and we've also cleared our patio and started making space for our garden. I can't wait to start growing lettuce, herbs and other delicious things!




Do any of you have a backyard garden? If so I would love any advice you can give me!

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Well, spring is officially upon us. The bears have come out of hibernation! I've seen 5 in the past week or so, checking out our neighborhood. So far they are all pretty harmless, although I was at a party a few days ago and some cubs were out on the deck. We were all ooh-ing and aah-ing until we saw mama bear lumber up...she was huge! The bears are everywhere...I guess that's what happens when you live in a national forest!





Jacket: H&M; Jeans: Uniqlo; Scarf: Edinburgh Woolen Mill; Blouse and Boots: Thrifted

This is a pretty good example of my Tahoe uniform; it means I don't get too many "wtf is she wearing?" stares from the other locals. Although someone did tell me I looked "mighty fancy for the grocery store" when I popped in to get some butter for one of my endless rounds of cookie baking. I've been getting some interesting comments in the past week. Some dude was trying to hit on me in Safeway today and made the mistake of telling me I look "just like that chick from Dirty Dancing". I gave him a withering look, said "nobody puts Baby in a corner" and sauntered off. Shazam!
Hope you all had a totally fab weekend. Mine was filled with lots of work and Royal Wedding obsessing. I'm sure those of you that follow my twitter got a little sick of my Wills and Kate love-fest, but they are just so sweet together!



Hope you're all gearing up for a wonderful week! Tell me about your weekend, did you watch the Royal Wedding?