remix archives // featured sponsor: minnetonka thunderbird moccasins

This past month Minnetonka has been my featured sponsor and so for this installment of the remix archives it only seemed natural to feature my favorite shoes, which are my Minnetonka thunderbirds! I got my first pair back in 2007 at a little touristy-type shop in West Yellowstone during my family's cross-country RV trip. My mom had always told me that her Minnetonka thunderbirds were her favorite shoes growing up, but we'd never seen any sold up in Anchorage, so when I saw them in West Yellowstone I immediately snatched up a pair. I've always had at least one pair of them since then, with only a brief week where I had lost my original pair to the jaws of some Rottweilers who thought they were dog chew toys.  I've worn them so many times on the blog I might even venture to say they're my most featured clothing item on the blog of all time!  Brace yourself for moccasin overload!

           

melting home

I love ending and beginning a year in Alaska.  It's such a great way to reflect and ground myself in a place that intensely safe, refreshing, and unequivocally home.  I will be sad whenever my parents sell that house and move on.  So much of my life was spent in that home.  Cracking up into the wee hours with my best friend, looking out the backdoor window in the middle of the night when I had insomnia, running around the backyard, jumping in the (ice cold) lake, ice skating, birthday parties, movie nights, crying over stupid boys, doing hours and hours of homework, putting on fancy gowns for high school dances, coming home to a driveway full of emergency vehicles and watching them put my brother in an ambulance– barely alive, running through sprinklers, making a "bobsled" route down the backyard hill after being inspired by the winter olympics, playing dogsled and dragging brothers around the yard in a sled, moose, bears, eagles, beavers, secretly decorating a huge evergreen with christmas lights and surprising Mom... it's hard to count all the memories that have been made in that house since we moved in in 1997.  Those don't even scratch the surface.  It's strange to think that I was just a little kid when we moved there, and now I'm an adult, with a home of my own.  We've barely begun making memories in our new house.  It's so comforting to be in a place that is teeming with memories.  I feel like I'm soaking in a warm bath of familiarity and love.  The best spa treatment.

dress/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes/courtesy of blowfish :: belt/thrifted necklace/gift from moorea seal :: jacket/courtesy of asianicandy
I miss snowy outfit photos!  Snow is just so beautiful and pristine.  And despite the chill, I still enjoy taking outfit photos in frigid wintery scenes the most!  Maybe we'll have another "snowpocalypse" here in Tacoma like we did last year.  I think Dan & I must've brought some Tacoma with us to Anchorage because the temperatures were in the mid 30's the whole time we were there, melting all the snow off the roads.  It did make it a bit less painful to do outfit photos though.  No rubbing red, frozen fingers together this year. 
I got to refill on dog-time, spending plenty of time playing with Simon, and Little Bit was more social than usual with a house full of people.  She's definitely getting old.  She's blind in one eye now, and her hearing is going as well, but she's still a spry ol' broad and holds her own against 2 year old Simon (who's almost twice her size!).  It's strange to think that just 2 years ago we were galavanting around the country together, sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon and running around the beach on Tybee Island, dipping our paws in the Atlantic.  She hung out with me for these photos, and poked her little, blurry head into the photo below.

goofballs.

This past week Dan and I have been hanging out up in Anchorage with my family for Christmas/New Years.  We spent Christmas in Tacoma and then flew up a couple days later.  It was so good to spend some time with my family.  A couple days into our trip my Macbook Pro decided it was no longer going to turn on, and upon a trip to the Apple store we found out that my hard drive was completely dead.  Thankfully, we took it to the Mac store and they put in a new, bigger(!), hard drive, and were able to salvage all my data off the old hard drive!  Yay!  It was actually really nice to have an excuse to have some technology-free quality time with the people I love most in the world.  No distractions, just family.

My family had decided on taking some goofy Christmas photos this year, so we all donned Santa hats, and had a cigar and a glass of brandy.  Silliness ensued.  There was some hamming it up for the camera, as you can tell.  After 26 years of "normal" Christmas photos, something had to give.  For a family full of goofballs, I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner!

  
This year I really want to be focused on being thankful.  Constantly.  Through the good and the bad.  I'm a naturally controlling person, and I get stressed out when things don't happen the way I want them to, or when I feel like I'm not doing enough or being enough, which is really just another way of trying to control things.  I want to be more aware that everything around me is an astounding gift.  Life is so much like falling in love.  At the beginning, your heart is bursting and every tiny things is thrilling.  But eventually it becomes regular, and the thrill is lost and you start to take it for granted.  And you get annoyed at things you used to find charming.  It's entropy, but that doesn't mean I can't combat it by making a conscious effort to be thankful and gracious every day.  I've been hearing about people choosing a word or theme for 2013, and I hadn't really thought of doing that before, but I would like to make 2013 about giving thanks.  

hello 2013!

Happy New Year!  Well hello, 2013.  New starts are exciting, regardless of what time of year they come, but January 1st will always be a time of reflection and planning for the future year.  I've got three more slots to fill in my 26 before 27 list, but once I finish it up, I'll be sharing it with you guys, as well as how I did on my 25 before 26 list!  It's always crazy to think about the year ahead.  I almost always feel like if you'd told me one year ago that I'd be where I am today, I'd never believe it, but I think that this is one time when I would believe you, though I'd be pretty excited.  I kind of feel like slowing down in 2013.  Living at a slower pace, whatever that means.  Dan and I don't want kids for a while, but we do feel like now is the time to do those things that we won't be able to do once we've got those limitations (like taking a trip to europe or something.  I hear that's more difficult with a small child in tow...).  My biological clock is ticking for something more of the canine variety, however, so I'm crossing my fingers for a pup in the new year!!  My mom was asking what my favorite thing was that happened in 2012.  For me, it's a no-brainer.  Our new house.  2012 had its ups and downs, but overall it was pretty great.  I've had a couple years in the past (hey-yo, 2009) that I just bid good riddance to at 11:59 pm, Dec 31st, but I definitely look back on this year with fondness.  I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about the past and future as the year begins and we settle back into our normal routine after recovering from holiday madness.  What was your favorite thing that happened in 2012? top + belt/thrifted :: jeans/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes/courtesy of le bunny bleu I'm pretty sure the best place to find awesome plaid tops and flannel shirts is in the little boy's section at the thrift store.  I got this one a long time ago, but just recently I got a new (to me) buffalo plaid flannel that is so cozy.  There are usually a ton and sometimes the arms are too short, but I typically roll my long sleeved shirts anyway.  Plaid tops are one of those items that I refuse to buy new, simply because I know I can find them at a thrift store.  Though, perhaps their ubiquitousness is only due to the fact that I thrift in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.  Hmmm.
These jeans are my new favorite pants.  I have two pairs of them, and I just found out my mom bought a pair too, after I went on and on to her about how awesome they are.  So she ordered a pair and was pretty skeptical that they'd actually fit, but they fit her like a glove and look amazing on her!  We both have the same pear body shape (surprise, surprise: genetics), and I was blown away when I slipped these on for the first time and they fit my butt and my waist, and so was she! It's kind of amazing to me.  I mean, they look pretty awesome on the model on modcloth's website, but that's never an indication of if a pair of jeans will fit my body, or my mom's, for that matter.  I actually thought it might have been a fluke, and was still pretty sure the second pair wouldn't fit right, but they did too.  So it's not a fluke. Okay, I'll shut up about the jeans now.     

tailor & stylist giveaway

Hi guys!  Happy last day of 2012!  I've got one more giveaway for you before the year comes to a close.  Today I'm bringing y'all a giveaway from my sponsor, Tailor & Stylist!  T&S is a great online shop run by, wouldn't ya know, a tailor and a stylist!  They bring a great eye for style and fit, and have a wonderful selection of really cute items, vintage inspired pieces, and classics.  Wouldn't this just be the perfect dress for Valentines?

To enter, just follow the directions below!  The giveaway will be open for entries until 11:59 pm on Saturday, January 5th.  Open to US and Canadian entrants only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway