Day 4: Document Something Old


I took pictures of a very small percentage of the things that I got secondhand (meaning from thrift stores, from consignment shops, hand-me downs from my mom or from friends, etc.).

shirts and sweaters

purses, hats, belts, jewelry, scarves

Day 5: Document Something New
(This one is a total stretch.)

The newest news in my life is that Craig and I have been assigned to be part of a dance festival for church. (Assigned, not called -- although we were asked if we would accept the assignment.) It's evidently going to be a multi-stake situation, really huge, happening in May, and we ... will have something to do with it. We don't know what. But okay. It will be a lot of scenes like this:

Including tye-dye.

Day 6: Document Art


I have a folder in my Google Reader called "art inspiration," so here are some images from that. I really gotta get going on making my own art again.

"Bullseye Geometric Print" from twoems

"sisters" from Galen Smith

Day 7: Document Autumn

Day 8: Document Something Funny

This is firmly in the category of "funny because it's true." I found it here.

Day 9: Document Inspiration

I snagged this quote from the Flickr photoset "Thanks, Oprah!" 

Day 10: Document Your Coffee Break

I don't drink coffee, so pass. BUT: I will say that a Dollar Tree location recently opened up right across the street from my workplace, and so Dollar Tree is the new official sponsor of my lunch breaks. And I'm glad about that.

Day 11: Document Your Favorite Shoes

woven leather loafer-like shoes, Naturalizers brand, secondhand from Value Village, $8

Who can choose their favorite shoes without any second-guessing? I'm not sure that my choice is really the top pair out of all my pairs, but they are pretty close. These ones are mega-comfortable, as well as cute/stylish in a "my grandma or grandpa might wear these" sort of way. They're also the newest shoes in my closet (newest to me -- they were probably made in the 80s).

brown and black leather riding boots, Laredo brand, secondhand from Junk in My Trunk, $1

The runners-up: these Laredo riding boots that I found on the best thrifting day of my life. These are boots that were probably $100+ dollars originally and can be bought on eBay and other such places for $40-$60 ish. I found them for $1. They fit wonderfully, are super tough-looking, and they work with so many outfits. I'll never, ever get rid of them.

Day 12: Document the Highlight of Your Day

I watched the documentary "Bill Cunningham New York" today. It's been in my Netflix Instant Queue for a while, and it just seemed like the right fit for my morning of washing dishes and picking up dirty socks from the floor. What a great film! Bill Cunningham is a very well-respected photographer in the world of fashion, yet he is the most understated, salt of the earth sort of guy. He lives this incredibly pared-down life in New York City, and his whole focus is on documenting interesting, notable clothes. Because he loves them. It was a very inspiring and sweet film. Highly recommended for those who like documentaries. Or clothes. Watching Bill at work sincerely made me want to change the way I live my life, and it also made me feel like I can change the way I live my life, and there aren't many things in this world that I can say that about.

Day 13: Document Hopefulness

Just an excuse to share this picture from about a month ago. That's my husband, along with our niece and nephew (Sydney and Wes), on the banks of the Puget Sound. Also, speaking of hopefulness, I've gotta list a few songs that are making me feel pretty jazzed and hopeful lately.

"Uncharted" by Sara Bareilles

"Horchata" by Vampire Weekend

"I'm Gonna Be Somebody" by Travis Tritt

"America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles

Day 14: Document a Friend

I don't often talk about Craig as my "best friend." It's partly just an issue of titles, titles that best describe a person's relationship to me. I would say that there are probably five people who are my "best friends" -- Craig, my mom, Chelsea, Jesus, and myself. Do I call all of them "my best friend"? Not usually. Craig gets the title of "husband," my mom gets the title of "Mom," Jesus has lots of very obvious titles, and I don't really need a title to explain my own relationship to myself. By default, the title of "best friend" is usually saved for Chelsea. If I were to call her "my former roommate," that wouldn't be a title that really described our relationship. Similarly, if I were to call Craig "my best friend" and introduce him that way, it would probably be a little strange to say later on, "Oh, also, I'm married to him."

That was such a digression from the real point.

The real point is this: even though I don't talk about it often, Craig is a best friend of mine. These days, with our recent move to Seattle and our isolated-ness from many of the people we'd call "friends," our reliance on the friendship parts of each other has become more and more and more. We almost only have each other to talk to about our days, our sore muscles, our thoughts about music, our food cravings. I love that I married someone who was firmly my friend before we ever got together -- and not just any friend, but one of the most supportive and intimate friends of my entire life.

Day 15: Document Your Commute

This one was taken at the Renton Transit Center, waiting for the bus doors to open. That's my bus in the foreground (or, rather, one of the three buses I take in order to get to work).

Also on my commute that day, this ad was on the side of that same bus:

They are Mormons. And so am I. But four million bucks says I never get a bus ad. No worries -- here's my Mormon.org profile anyway.

Day 16: Document a Life

This is the "life" of our trip from Utah to Washington, the journey of our move. The pictures I chose are slanted to allow for the most cute possible, so there are several images of our niece Audrey.

the UHaul truck and our car behind it - Idaho Falls

Audrey wearing a "hat" made out of her dad's arm sling - Idaho Falls

Tyler, Janna, and Audrey, on a walk - Idaho Falls

Audrey with Uncle Craig, at Tyler's soccer game - Idaho Falls

Audrey watching "Bubble Guppies," with her monkey and alligator - Idaho Falls

Megan & Kent's house - Spokane

(we had buckets of fun with those two, but all the pictures were lame, sooo ... you just get this one)

pictures from our drive through Washington

at home in our new apartment, nesting by painting the living room purple

And finally ... pictures of what I wore. Please hold your applause.

I've liked a lot of my outfits over the past few weeks, but I've forgotten to take pictures/haven't been able to because of the rain. No matter. Onward.

MeWriMo: Three Days Worth

First fact about me: I do not like white chocolate. And it's apparently not even chocolate.

I subscribe to this blog called GOOD, and each month, they start a new challenge for readers to participate in (if they so choose). The month-long challenge is a general way to improve as a person (like "perform acts of service" or "live healthier"), but GOOD then gives a daily challenge that's more specific and fits under the umbrella of the larger challenge (like "Buy a meal for a homeless person" or "Snack on fruit rather than the crappy stuff you usually go for").

The GOOD challenge for November is to document your life, and this works out as a perfect motivation for me to start working on the good ol' blog again and hop on the personal history train that has been toot-tooting its way into my world for a while now.

I'm calling November "MeWriMo," which is a shameless ripoff of "NaNoWriMo," the abbreviation for "National Novel Writing Month." NaNoWriMo also takes place in November, every year. I thought about participating this time around, but I decided to do some non-fiction, personal-type writing rather than do the fiction thing. You can call that "Memoir Writing Month," or "MeWriMo." And it's all me, baby.

So anyway, I'm following along with the daily documenting challenges from GOOD.

Day 1: Document Street Style

tuesday

(earrings from DownEast Outfitters, cardigan from Old Navy, Trouve tee-shirt from Goodwill, watch from a shop in Provo, Levi-Strauss jeans from DownEast Outfitters, Cole Haan loafers from Goodwill, jacket from Macy's, bag and gloves from Target)

wednesday

(necklaces from yard sale and Buffalo Exchange, Gap sweater from Goodwill, skirt from Buffalo Exchange, Naturalizers shoes from Value Village)

thursday

(headband from Target, vintage Nordstrom top from Value Village, BDG jeans from Buffalo Exchange, Naturalizers shoes from Value Village)

I'm gonna keep documenting my outfits this month, even though it was only the challenge for the first day, for a few reasons. The first one is that this blog got its start with outfit pictures and so forth, and I'd like to have that as a continued part of what I'm recording here. I've also started working with clothes for a living and have spent some good brain time thinking about my personal style, so I've got some new things to say. Anyway, anticipate that.

Day 2: Document a Pet

Walter!

Walter has been our cat since August 25th. Craig and I had this deal going where we decided that once we had moved to Seattle and we both had jobs, we would get a kitty cat of our very own. (Craig and I both grew up having family cats, and by sad coincidence, both of our beloved, elderly family cats passed away over the summer, so we went through our grief and realized all-the-more how much goodness a terrific pet can add to your life.) On the very day I got hired at my current job, we got our bums down to the local Humane Society and took a look around. There were many friendly cats who were eager to play and cuddle, and we almost overlooked Walter entirely. He was very mellow in a cage on the bottom row. We only noticed him because, at whatever angle it was at the time, Walter looked like a mini-cougar. It was pretty distinctive. We played with him for a while, and even though he didn't seem super-interested in us, it seemed like a good fit. With a few signatures and interview questions behind us, we were taking him home an hour later. It took about three weeks before he would even leave the bedroom of our apartment, but now, he roams with ease. This cat is ridiculously set on cuddling with us. Anytime Craig or I are sitting still for more than 90 seconds, he takes advantage of the opportunity and hops onto whichever lap is most convenient. He also sleeps in bed with us and has gotten really great at not bothering our sleep in any way. On the downside (every relationship has a downside), he has a bit of a problem with cat snot. He expels it regularly, in quantities that are seriously astounding.

I'm not gonna say that I understand parenthood now that I have a cat, but I will say that I kind of understand parenthood now that I have a cat. I love this animal a lot, so much so that I attend to his bodily functions and want to have conversations with other people about those bodily functions. What could be more mom-like than that?

Day 3: Document Happiness

How's this?

It's better than this.

The crazy thing is that those last two pictures, where I'm looking horrendous and showing off my crackers, were taken because I said to Craig, "You know, I think I'm feeling a lot better now. Go ahead and take some pictures so we get this all documented before leaving the hospital." Which means that at this point, I was feeling better. My appearance before this moment must have been just heartbreaking.

I had vaginal surgery back in July (wrote about it briefly right here). Was it happiness? No, not in and of itself. I was very sore for a while there, and coming out of the anesthesia was a terrifying experience. But it was a big step, an important step, one that (fingers crossed) will help me become a mom someday. That brings some happiness to the equation. I also got to have my husband and my mom take care of me for an entire week, which was just marvelous. We moved to Washington two weeks after the surgery, so we had to stuff a lot of Provo happiness into the post-surgery days, and I think we succeeded.