life lately

Mandy tagged me in her 10 things you don't know about me post, and I figured a life lately post would be the perfect place to do it!

1. I was bit by a dog when I was about 18 months.  It chomped my whole face, through my eyebrow and cheek, and under my chin, nearly blinding me.  I still have scars.

2. I was obsessed with CATS as a kid.  Like the musical, not the animal.  I had the video and knew every dance and every song.  I'd perform it with my brothers and my friend and her brother and force our parents to watch us perform it dozens of times while videotaping it.  I still know all the lyrics.

3. I'm excited to go grey.

4. I've never broken a bone, unless you count the cracked rib I got in 11th grade from coughing while having the most awful flu/cold sickness.

5. I have emetophobia (from wikipedia: an intense, irrational fear or anxiety pertaining to vomiting. This specific phobia can also include subcategories of what causes the anxiety, including a fear of vomiting in public, a fear of seeing vomit, a fear of watching the action of vomiting or fear of being nauseated.).  Not quite as bad as when I was younger.  I used to cry if I was anywhere near someone vomiting.  I didn't have a phobia of doing it myself, but being around it happening to someone else, smelling it, or hearing it... I would get so much anxiety.  This is a major reason why having a kid frightens me slightly.  Kids tend to vomit a lot, sooo that's gonna be great.

6. I've never been in a car accident with another vehicle (besides a couple fender bender backing-into-a-car accidents).  The only full-speed accident I've been in  happened when I hit a patch of black ice, spun around, crossed the road full speed in reverse and hit a tree.  But I've never been in an accident with another car where I was driving.  I was in the car for a 5 car accident, also involving black ice, but wasn't driving.

7. I love karaoke.

8. I ran hurdles in Track & Field when I was in high school.  I wasn't a very fast runner, but people always seemed impressed that I jumped over things while running and therefore didn't notice that I wasn't super fast.  I'm convinced the 200 meter hurdle race was invented by Satan.  In hell you have to run that race over and over again while he laughs at you, because you want to die, but– joke's on you... you're already dead.

9. I played Clarinet in band in junior high and high school.

10. I think I might enjoy public speaking.  Not entirely sure yet, as I haven't had tons of excuses to actually speak in public.  But I fear vomit like 1,000 times more than getting on stage.  I would get on stage and speak at a packed out Tacoma Dome with 5 minutes notice over getting puked on any day.

 
 
 
 

daily driver winne, on a grocery run // hot weather outfit // first CSA pick up! finally went to Shake Shake Shake! // what happens when I brush my hair while I blowdry hand lettered my new business cards.  and misspelled thief. yay for photoshop finally mega cleaned my studio.  I can see the floor now! blowing through Wild. SO good // Fancy hair & makeup for a photo shoot!
Interesting reads from the web lately:
 The story of an ex-hater and troll.  A good reminder that haters and trolls are real people too (even though they often hide behind anonymity), often dealing with their own issues.
 31 problems only curly haired people will understand.
 "Some people believe they have the right, no, the responsibility to decide who is broken and then to tell them loudly and often." Loved these thoughts by Jamie.
 Some interesting thoughts here about the dangers of the ideas behind princesses and femininity.
  "If you are not kind on the internet, you are not kind"
 James and her little ones are so cute.  Birdie is the only kid who even remotely gives me something like baby fever.
 So on board with Backwoods Mom's real talk about how things online aren't always as they seem.
  Click over and donate to this Indiegogo fundraiser! This is an amazing organization in Oaxaca, Mexico doing wonderful things to help and empower women.  They currently rent a van every time they need it, but it's rather expensive and if they had their own van that money spent on van rental could all go towards supporting their mission.  

the amazing spider-man

On Wednesday I had a fun photo shoot with Willow and got my hair done at Indigo for the shoot.  I couldn't bear to take the faux-undercut cornrow/braid out so I slept on it and rocked it again on Thursday.  After I got my hair done I had some time to kill before heading to the studio, so I walked next door to Bleach and then UrbanXChange and found this awesome Spider-Man t-shirt!  This is totally an outfit high school me would've rocked.  I was always wearing little boy's t-shirts.  They seem to have the perfect proportions for a small-busted, petite girl like myself.  



top/urbanXchange :: jacket/courtesy of asianicandy :: shoes (similar)/target bag/courtesy of stylelately :: jeans/courtesy of for elyse I love not feeling tied down to one style.  I'm feeling much more free to do whatever the hell I want with my style these days.  Not that I was ever forced to dress a certain way, but I definitely fell into a rut for a year or two, and over the last year I've diversified my closet so I'm more able to dress according to whatever style I'm feeling fits my vibe that day.  Somedays it's more girly/feminine, other days more hippie/boho, and sometimes it's back to my rock & roll/punk/pin-up roots.  I like that regardless of what style I end up wearing, I always feel myself, despite wearing a totally different style than the day before.

classic macaroni salad

The other day I had lunch at Metropolitan Market over on Proctor and enjoyed a nice little spread from their deli section.  For some reason I was drawn to the macaroni salad, despite having never really enjoyed macaroni salad all that much in the past.  It was delicious and I kind of forgot about it.  A few days after that Tieka posted a picture on instagram of some macaroni salad and all of a sudden I was like MUST MAKE MACARONI SALAAAAD.  I have no clue where this deep craving of macaroni salad came from, but I wanted all of the macaroni salad.  I looked up a few recipes to see what the general method to the madness was, and walked to the store to procure necessities.  
This is a super quick recipe to make, and most of the ingredients seem like stuff you likely have laying around in the pantry/fridge.  Since picnic/barbecue season is upon us, this is a great recipe to whip up super quick to take to a cookout.  It only takes about a half hour to make, so it's a good recipe if you're in a time crunch, or totally forgot to make something for a potluck but don't want to run to the store and grab something from the pre-made section.  
I think I may have sated my macaroni salad cravings now, but at least I now know how to make it from scratch if the urge to consume mass quantities of it ever arise again.  

(recipe adapted from food network & all recipes)

Total time: appx 30 min

Ingredients:

2 cups dry elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed, and drained

1/3 cup diced celery

1/4 cup diced onion

1/3 green pepper, seeded and diced

1/2 cup diced tomato

1/2 cup prepared mayonnaise

3/4 teaspoon ground mustard

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Cook your macaroni, as the package directs.  While the macaroni is cooking, prepare all your other ingredients (dice veggies, gather mayo, etc). 

2. Once you've finished preparing the macaroni, combine the macaroni, celery, onion, pepper and tomato in a large bowl.  

3. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, dijon, ground mustard, sugar, vinegar, sour cream and salt. Pour over the salad and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  You can store the macaroni covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Q + A // how to cut your own hair

A while ago I shared

some tips

for what to tell your stylist if you want to get your hair cut like mine, but today I'm sharing how I cut my own hair.  I've cut my own hair since college, partly out of frugality, but also mainly because I was never happy with how my haircut looked after going to a salon.  Not only had I spent hard earned money, but I'd spent it on something I wasn't happy with.  Being a DIY type lady, I took matters into my own hands and started cutting my own hair.

You can use my method if you want, but I'm not sure I would advise it if you don't have hair similar to mine, simply because I have no clue how it'll turn out.  It works for me, and that's what matters.  If you find that this method works for you and your hair, awesome!  If not, I suppose head back to the salon and let the professionals handle the shears.  I'm pretty gung-ho when it comes to my hair.  If it doesn't look perfectly coiffed (does it ever???), I don't care.  I do want to keep it relatively healthy, but I'm not afraid to play around with it.

I've never been to hair school and I don't "know what I'm doing" so the way I cut my hair is just what I've intuited to be the way I should cut it.  But on the other hand, I know exactly how I want my hair to look, and cutting it myself I don't have to try to describe my vision to a stylist who may or may not understand and/or listen to what I'm saying.  Once I started cutting my own hair, I didn't look back. I love the freedom it allows me to do whatever I want with my hair without having someone else mess it up, or give me a skeptical look like, "you want to cut it like how?"  Maybe it looks wonky, maybe there are pieces that are out of place or cut too short, but ultimately I enjoy the freedom that cutting my own hair gives me.

I know a lot of people have asked about how I cut my bangs and I didn't cut them in the video because I'm growing them out right now.  But, when I did have bangs and cut them, I usually cut them into a standard half-moon heavy bang

like so

.  That way if you want to straighten them they look fine, but I usually wore them curly and swept to the side.  Since my bangs are growing out it's a bit weird and difficult to describe how I style them.  They mainly do whatever they want and I just mess around to try and get them to do something not stupid looking.

Also, I typically don't use any product except for the occasional argan, avocado, or jojoba oil after washing.

hosting a swap party

Last month I hosted a swap party at my house for some friends.  We'd gotten together for some impromptu swaps before, but now that summer is in full swing, I wanted to make it more of a party.  I strung up some lights, put up some decorations and grabbed a pretty bouquet of farmer's market blooms to make things more festive.  Some people brought cupcakes and I made cupcakes too, so we had a ton of treats, and I had some bottles of wine and mimosa makings.
It was a pretty successful evening!  There weren't a ton of people there, no more than 10 at the most, but there were lots of clothes and I'm pretty sure everyone walked away with at least a small bag of new things.   I got new jeans, a cardigan, a dress, and more!  I'm not sure if I've featured any of the new swapped items on the blog yet, but I've been wearing them all the time, so I'm pretty happy with my new finds.  I think swapping is such a great way of expanding your closet.  Even though the Delightful Dozen stopped swapping a couple years ago, I'm still a huge fan of the idea of swapping, both permanently, and also just trading clothes with friends to get a new perspective on how to style them.  I know of a few blogger swap groups that started because they were inspired by the Delightful Dozen.  As a blogger, you can become closer to online friends and even start new friendships!  You don't have to have a big group of blog friends to start swapping, maybe just one or two friends you trade back and forth with.  Plus, it's just nice to get packages in the mail with fun surprises.

 

If you're not a blogger, or just want to have a swap party of your own, it's super easy!
Tips for hosting a swap party

• Make sure everyone knows to bring cute things.  The first time we had a swap a lot of people brought old ratty t-shirts.  Think about items you still like, but maybe don't fit, or aren't your style anymore.  No one wants your old gym t-shirt with stains on it.  

• If you have a bunch of people who are different sizes, consider making areas for people to place their clothing according to size.  Our party was small enough and most people were close enough in sizes that this wasn't necessary, but if there were a lot more people who wore different sizes, it would be nice to be able to look through items by size.

• Have an area to try things on with a mirror.  Since we were at my house I let people try things on in my bedroom and bathroom, but if you're somewhere else, make a little dressing room.  

• Make it a party!  Have drinks, snacks and music!  We went through phases of just sitting around and, munching, drinking and having fun and then spurts of digging through clothing.

• Plan ahead and give people time to dig through their closets to find items to swap.  We made a Facebook event a couple weeks beforehand to let people know and kept them updated that way.

• Have a place set up to hang or rummage through the clothes.  I had a little pole that I hung up, and then once that was overflowing we hung clothes on my back fence.  If you have a ton of people coming, make sure you have a place for all the clothes to go!

• If you're hosting, offer to take the leftovers to donate to a local thrift store, so people don't have to haul their old stuff home.

Have you ever had a swap party?  Did you get some awesome stuff?  Have any other tips for throwing a successful swap party?