a delightful giveaway from chicwish

Today I'm partnering with featured sponsor, Chicwish, to bring you guys an awesome giveaway!  One lucky winner will get to kickstart her summer wardrobe with a $100 gift certificate to spend at Chicwish.  They've got tons of great summer pieces and I was particularly taken with their Boho Collection, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite pieces!  This summer I'm really loving the more flowy and hippie vibes mixed with bold and graphic prints.  Comfy, yet chic.

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6
To enter to win, just follow the directions below!  There are multiple ways to enter so you've got more than one chance!  Chicwish also has a sale going on right now for 30% off + free shipping on orders $50 or more using the code HOLIDAY30 until 6/30, so you can take advantage of that too.   


a Rafflecopter giveaway


photos via chicwish

pebbles

I've been feeling a strong resurgence of pin-up style in my outfits lately.  Getting back into that scene has been fun, and it's so great to meet new, fun people.  On a whim I decided to compete in a pin up contest this August, and I've never done anything like that!  I was never a pageant girl growing up, I was probably the furthest thing from it, actually.  One of my friends from Adventures in Oz won last year's contest and encouraged me to go for it, so I said, "What the hell!" and signed up.  17 year old me would be so proud.  I used to take my El Camino to car shows and car club meet ups back in high school and I remember seeing the pretty girls in their pin up outfits walking around the car shows getting their photos taken against shiny hot rods.  I secretly wished I could rock that style, but I was still too self conscious at the time.  I'm excited to go to a car show and pin up contest ten years later, with the self confidence to rock a hot pin up look.

 

top/courtesy of modcloth :: jeans/courtesy of for elyse :: shoes/thrifted necklace/moorea seal :: shades/gift :: photos by Dan
This might just be the only leopard print thing I own, which is an oversight I promise, my burlesque sisters, to rectify immediately.  Leopard always walks that line between luxe and kitsch, falling to one side or the other depending on the application.  I've never been much of a luxe type girl so I suspect my styling will always meander towards kitsch, which is probably appropriate for a girl with a blog named "Delightfully Tacky."  For all the ways my style has evolved and revolved over the years, it's always interesting to see which things come back to me and resurface.  Every once in a while I step back and I'm like, "does 'delightfully tacky' still work as my blog name?  have I grown out of it?" and then I realize that I'll probably be delightfully tacky my entire life.  It was a phrase I used to describe myself years before I even started the blog and I'm sure it'll describe me years after the blog goes away.

strawberry rhubarb lemonade

The rhubarb is still going strong in our CSA and now they've added strawberries!  One can only make so many strawberry rhubarb pies without it reaching the level of absurdity so I've been thinking of new ways to utilize my stock of strawberries and rhubarb without repeating the same recipes over and over.  We've been having amazing weather, and I think summer might finally be here to stay, so all I really want to drink is iced tea and lemonade.  As a kid I remember going to Red Robin and getting their "freckled lemonade" which was lemonade with muddled strawberries in the bottom.  This lemonade recipe doesn't have muddled fruit (though why the heck not, right?  Go for it), but it's way more delicious than Red Robin's.  I'm having a hard time not guzzling straight through it.  I think my blood sugar thanks me for making that effort.  
One of my favorite things about summer is lemonade stands on street corners.  Kids with their pitchers full of crystal lite and scrawled signs.  I lived on a small cul-de-sac growing up and there wasn't any foot traffic and the only cars that rolled through were our neighbors, so I didn't ever get to have a lemonade stand, except for one time when we had a garage sale.  I remember we got those costco jelly-filled pastries and giant muffins and sold those too.  I also remember sleeping in until like 1 pm, so I probably missed half of my potential customers.  It was summer!  Sleeping in on summer break is, like, totally legit, though not recommended for fledgling entrepreneurs.

Ingredients
3 stalks rhubarb, chopped
1 lb strawberries, pureed (use a blender or food processor)
2 cups sugar
4 cups water
1 cup lemon juice

1. Pour the water, sugar and rhubarb into a large pot and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add in strawberries.

2. Let it sit for about 45 minutes and then strain through a sieve or cheesecloth.

3. Refrigerate the syrup for 1 hour and then stir in lemon juice.  If it's too sweet for your taste, add water and/or lemon juice until it reaches the desired taste.  If you have powdered or premade lemonade, you can always add the strawberry/rhubarb simple syrup to that to give it flavor, too.

4. Serve over ice.  I garnished with some mint, because who doesn't love a garnish?  Oh, and if you're feeling a bit saucy, throw in a 1/2 oz of vodka!

get rejected

I recently read an article on Design Sponge by Amy Azzarito that gave me a bit of shift of perspective.  The article is about asking for what you want and not being afraid of being told no.  So many of us don't do things or don't ask for things simply because we're afraid of being rejected.  If you think about it, if someone says no to a request you're no worse off, you're still right where you started before you asked but now you know the answer.  If you hadn't asked, the answer could've been yes, but you never would've known.  We tend to feel like being told no is a reflection of us, that we weren't worthy or that we're lacking in someway.  That's not always the case, though, more often being told "no" just means that the person we asked is lacking.  They don't have time to do what you're asking, they don't have the resources to complete your request, etc.  But we're all standing around getting nowhere by not asking for what we want.  If a guy wants to go out with a girl but is so afraid of being rejected that he never asks her out, they he really doesn't have a chance with her.  By being afraid of the No's we're sacrificing all of the potential Yeses.
The article mentioned Rejection Therapy and my interest was piqued so I looked into it.  Basically it's a "game."  For 30 days you have to be rejected, you have to make a request and the response has to be no.  If you make a request and the answer is yes, you have to keep trying that day until you get a "no" response.  It feels a little brutal, but essentially it's a psychotherapeutic technique called flooding, so you expose yourself to the thing you fear over and over and eventually the fear minimizes and you're no longer afraid, in this case, of rejection.  

 

top/courtesy of wolf mama vintage :: sheer top/courtesy of ruche  necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis :: bracelet(similar)/vintage
 jeans + heels/courtesy of modcloth :: photos by Dan
I think especially as women, we don't ask for enough.  We aren't bold enough.  We're afraid of being unladylike, or bossy, or bitchy if we ask for what we want.  I was particularly struck by a story Amy's shared in the article:

When I heard about the concept, I was immediately transported back to my first job in New York. I was working for a company that sold book binding supplies and was hired on the same day for the same job as another girl. She and I, both new to the city, became good friends and one day she let her salary amount slip. She was making about $100 more per week than I was. At the time, this was a huge difference. I was just barely scraping by on the amount I was making. I was so shocked that I asked how she got more money. She told me that when she was offered the job, she just told them that she needed more. I felt like the wind was knocked out of me. I couldn’t believe it was so simple. She just asked.

She just asked.  She wasn't better, she wasn't more experienced, just just asked.  The answer could've been no, but it was yes, and the result was more money.  If we all go around willing other people to give us what we want, we probably aren't going to have much success.  I'm pretty doubtful of my telepathy skills, so willing other people to give me what I want probably isn't going to give me great results, but I kind of live that way!  Maybe if I'm just nice and courteous and shy and demure people will give me what I want.  What?  It makes no sense.  We can be courteous and also ask for what we want.  And being said "no" to isn't then end of the world,  it actually might be the beginning.  The more no's you get, the more yeses you're going to get.  If you get one yes for every three no's, you're just going to have to wade through the no's to get to the yeses, but you have to take the no's to get the yes.

This quote from Barbara Kingsolver has been my new approach to life: “This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘not at this address.’ Just keep looking for the right address.”  She's talking about a book manuscript, but you can fill in anything.  Consider that you're making a request to "the person who will say 'yes'" and if they say 'no,' you've just asked the wrong person, so keep on asking until you find your yes person.

So, go out and get rejected today.  Ask for so much that someone tells you, 'no.'  Feel the rejection. Accept it as what it truly is, not all the baggage you bring to it.  Move forward knowing that at least you asked!  And maybe the next time you'll get a yes, but you'll only know if you ask.

And if you need a little fire in your belly to go for it, watch this and feel the power.

midsummer

Happy summer solstice, everyone!  We're quite enjoying the summer sun here in Tacoma today.  We finished fencing in our yard this week, so now I'm gearing up to renovate the yard into a patio/garden.  Mostly I'm just procrastinating pulling up all the ugly sod and cement that currently inhabits the area, but it's exciting to have a yard that's private!  We didn't have much of a backyard to begin with and now that the Winne is back there it's pretty much non-existant, so fencing in our side yard has more than doubled our yard space.  Dusty's also pretty excited about having more yard where she can run free.
Dusty was also pretty excited to run around on the beach at Titlow.  There were a few other dogs around so we had to keep her on the leash so she wouldn't run off and find a new pack, but she was having a blast running back and forth along the water.  Do you guys have any plans for Summer Solstice festivities?  I think we're just gonna chill and hang out in the sun today, and maybe I'll find it within myself to start working on our yard, or maybe I'll just find a lawn chair and crack open a beer.

 

top/via swap :: blazer/courtesy of modcloth :: jeans/courtesy of for elyse shoes/courtesy of bc footwear :: necklace/francesca's collection :: photos of me by Dan