homecoming

It seems like one of the first things that happens once I get a new dress is that I remix it with this plaid top.  I've probably worn this top with nearly everything in my closet by now.  It's starting to wear down a little bit and I should probably start a quest to find a replacement for the inevitable day that I'll have to retire this one.  I actually brought tights to wear with this ensemble but it turned out to be warm enough to go tights-less.  Of course after the sun set the temperatures dropped and I was rather chilly walking downtown, so I won't make that mistake again. It's been wonderful being home.  Today my mom and I went to get pedicures (a treat!  I never get my nails done), and in a few minutes we're going to yoga together at a studio we've never been to here in Anchorage!  My parents just got back from vacation and my mom did yoga nearly every day there, so it'll be fun to do it with her!  I haven't done yoga in over a week so I'm glad to have a chance to get in some mat time before getting back to my normal routine back in Tacoma. As for the Iditarod, I've taken about 2,000 photos so far and my laptop is painfully slow at editing photos, so it might be a few days before I can share some, but it was so much fun to get out there again and experience something that was such a huge part of my childhood.  I got so nostalgic and a little verklempt more than a few times.  I've also been able to catch up with some friends that I haven't seen in a while, so that was also wonderful.  Coming home is such a breath of fresh air!

 
dress/courtesy of modcloth :: boots(similar)/target :: shirt/courtesy of free people bullet necklace/local craft fair :: long necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis

diy mobile magazine

Hi guys!  I'm partnering with a super awesome company who is working on making a mobile magazine platform called Luca where you can create your own little magazines!  These little magazines are an awesome way to share blog content on mobile devices like iPads and smartphones where you can flip through just by swiping, like a magazine!  For my first "Luca" magazine  I thought it'd be fun to put together a little magazine of some of my favorite easy DIY projects, which you can find here.  It's mainly formatted for mobile (but it also works on a normal computer too), so grab your phone or tablet and flip through!  Also, since we're still working out the kinks, let me know if there's anything that you think would make the magazine make more sense in how you navigate, etc.  I'm planning on making a few more Luca (maybe a recipe booklet, hair and makeup tutorial booklet, etc), so if you have anything from the blog that you'd like to see compiled into a little mobile magazine, let me know!  I'm excited for Luca get all the final touches so it can officially launch, I think it'll be a great way to create packets of content for readers.  I'm currently putting together an Anchorage city travel guide and I think a Luca mobile magazine would be the perfect platform for something like a city travel guide!

And speaking of mobile devices, I might be a little less active on the blog this week because I'm up in Anchorage running around, so if you want to see what I'm up to, follow along on Instagram!  I'm sharing lots of Alaskan photos and a ton of Iditarod images too!

homemade healing hand lotion

When I get a new item of clothing that I love I'll usually wear it to death in the first couple weeks of getting it.  If I really love it, I'll probably want to put it on before I'm even out of the store.  I'm realizing that this effect transfers over to other parts of my life too, because I just can't stop playing around with essential oils right now.   When I first got them I didn't even know you could make your own lotions and stuff, but now it's one of my favorite things to do!  The best part is that it's crazy easy.  This lotion was actually the first one I ever made after I saw a friend complaining about having really dry hands from the winter weather and working as a barista.  I looked up which essential oils would be good for that and found a few recipes for healing hand lotions that looked really simple to make and just dove on in.  Five minutes later: hand lotion.  So awesome.  
Anyway, I'm pretty stoked on essential oils and figuring out all the cool ways to use them, so if you totally couldn't care less feel free to skip past, but I love learning how to make new things that I didn't even know I could make, so I want to share those things with y'all.  I'm still playing around with them and have had some awesome success with them and I'll probably do a blog post about it later after I've had more experience, but for now I created a separate page sharing my current experiences if any of you don't want to wait for a blog post and want to learn more about what I've been using my oils lately!




1/2 cup coconut oil (best to use cold pressed, extra virgin, organic, unrefined) 4 drops YL Frankincense Essential Oil 2 drops YL Lavender Essential Oil 1 drop YL Lemon Essential Oil
Just drop everything in a mixer (or do it by hand) and whip for 5 minutes.  Transfer to a glass jar (citrus oils will eat away plastic containers), and you're done!  I made a second batch for Dan because he does a lot of dishes at work, so his hands are constantly getting wet and dry. Plus, we both rock climb, so we use chalk to keep our hands from getting sweaty and slippery while climbing, but that also dries out the hands too. 
Coconut oil will start to liquify in warmer temperatures so you might want to mix in something else that will keep your lotion from turning into oil, like Shea butter.  Also, depending on the coconut oil you get, you might get the coconut smell in there too.  When I first made lotion I used refined coconut oil and it didn't smell like coconut at all, but I've heard that unrefined is better for your skin, so it's your personal preference.  Some people also find that coconut oil doesn't moisturize as well as other oils, so play around and find out which will work best for your skin!
// With any health or body care routine, make sure to do your own research and consult with any healthcare professionals you feel will help you make a decision on how to best care for your body.  This is just my story, but make sure your story is informed and healthy for you! //

iron pyrite

When I clicked on this dress to get a closer look at it I noticed it had shiny gold threads woven into the fabric.  At first I was disappointed because I liked the plain grey, but the more I sat on it, the gold grew on me.  I figured I could return the dress if it ended up looking weird but I'm so in love with it.   The combination of the sweatshirt fabric with the little flecks of gold reminds me of pyrite, or "fools gold."  When I was a kid, maybe around 6 or 7, my Dad and I flew up to Mount Susitna and landed on top.  We wandered around for while, exploring, and I found a couple iron pyrite stones which I took home. As a kid I'm sure I thought I'd found something valuable.  Fools Gold indeed.  My Dad quickly told me what the specks of "gold" really were, but I still loved the rocks and kept them. I'm sure I still have them, squirreled away in some nook back in Anchorage.  
I've been loving more fitted, slinky maxi dresses these days.  This one is especially comfy as it's pretty much the maxi dress version of a sweatshirt.  In theory that sounds weird, but in practice it's amazing.  A slinky, sexy dress that also feels like you're wearing a hoodie?  Awesome.  I was a little afraid the length would make me look too short, but I actually like it.  Plus, it's a nice change to be able to wear flats with a maxi instead of always needing platform heels.  Short girls take note!  A maxi dress that you don't have to hem!

 

dress/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes(similar)/target :: bag(similar)/courtesy of fossil jacket/modcloth :: necklace/courtesy of moorea seal :: photos by Dan

i didn't marry my husband

I try to avoid calling Dan "my husband."   Not because he's not, or that I don't love being married to him, but because he's so much more than that one word has the ability to communicate. And truly, husband is only one small role that he plays in my life. He is so much more than "my husband" and to refer to him as just "my husband" doesn't do justice to who he is as a human. Dan isn't my husband. He's kindhearted, brilliant, hilarious, brave, adventurous. He's a friend, a son, a lover, a musician, a cook, a brewer, a business man, maybe someday: a father. Dan is not my husband. He is an incredible human being who was carefully crafted by an infinite God, and it does him no justice to call him simply "my husband."  I don't like the ownership that it places over him.  Truly he is my husband, not anyone else's husband, but he's not mine.  I don't own him.  He is a person independent of our relationship.  He has friends, family, interests outside of our marriage.  It is true that we belong to one another in a way that is deep, spiritual, and life altering, but this doesn't give me ownership over his personhood.

This isn't to say that I never call him my husband.  We are married and it's a clarifying adjective to explain our relationship.  But he is "Dan, my husband" not, "my husband, Dan.  Husband is an adjective, not a noun.  Dan is who he is, not "husband."  I don't love my husband.  I love Dan.  Perhaps this distinction feels unnecessary or that I'm getting caught up in the details of semantics too much.  But I feel that by constantly reminding myself that I'm married to a human being, not the role of husband, I am forced to approach our marriage honestly.  Husband has so much tied to it.  What a husband should do, what society's idea of husband is, what other husbands are like, what other husbands do.  By taking my focus away from all that by eliminating the word entirely, I'm forced to be married to only Dan, not any of those other ideas of husbands.


I should clarify that this usually doesn't bother me in regular "IRL" conversations, it seems like people typically refer to their significant others by their given name, not their title.  I have no problem using "husband" to describe Dan's relation to me in my daily conversations with people I meet.  I had initially written some of that first paragraph on Facebook and a friend responded, "Maybe 'Husband' is meant to mean all that."  And I think she's right.  I realized I'm more referring to seeing this word in online contexts (facebook, blogs, etc.) It doesn't really bother me when I hear it in person, but online I quite often see people constantly referring to "my husband" (or wife) but never even say what that person's name is. There's no sense that the writer acknowledges their husband/wife's existence outside of their relationship as a spouse (Though I suspect that in some cases this is to protect their spouse's privacy, or perhaps the newlywed excitement of getting used to the new title).

Personally, I'm not one for pet names and generally avoid gratuitous PDA, so I'm just not the kind of girl who enjoys using descriptors like "hubby" or "wifey" in the first place.  This isn't to say that people who do get enjoyment out of that or feel loved when those terms of endearment/titles are used are wrong or terrible people or anything.  When it comes to sharing life online, though, I want to be intentional about words.  I want to communicate first that Dan is an amazing person, completely separate of his relationship to me.  It's because he's so incredible that I don't want to relegate him to the cookie cutter mold of "husband."

It's a shame that sometimes words lose their deep meaning in lieu of knee jerk instant associations.  I think about words like "liberal" "conservative" "Christian" "religion" and more, which have lost much of their true depth to stereotypes and easy definitions.  Husband and wife often have that same problem, maybe not so much in our daily conversations, but definitely on blogs and social media.  It's easy to write people as two dimensional, even yourself.  But I love Daniel.  He's not on the blog a ton, but when he is I hope I can communicate to the best of my ability that he is so much more than my husband.

Photos by Arrow & Apple