a colorful modcloth wish list + giveaway!

I don't know if it's the graphic designer in me or what, but any time I go to put together a wish list, I always want to separate things by color.  Today I'm doing a giveaway for a $100 gift certificate to ModCloth, but I also wanted to share some of my favorite things, inspired by the new design's color scheme!  Things have been really spring-y here in the PNW so I'm feeling really inspired by spring colors and outfits.  With festival season starting, there are a ton of festival-style wish lists popping up, and while I love festival/bohemian style as much as the next girl, right now I'm much more into graphic, bold, colorful styles.   What style are you feeling right now?  Has festival fever hit you yet?  I actually have never been to a music festival before!  I'm not super into music and going to concerts, but I would love to go to a music festival one day.  We've got some big ones here in Washington.  I have lots of friends who have done Sasquatch, and quite a few who have gone down to California for Coachella, but the tickets are pretty steep and I'm just not in the loop to pay attention to when they go on sale and such.  Are any of you planning on going to a music festival this year?  Which one?  Have you gone in the past?  Was it awesome?  Tell me all the things!

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#FLASHBACKFRIDAY // hopin' for raleigh

o, Delightfully Tacky has been around for almost 7 years.  Crazy.  I can't think of anything I've done for 7 years straight, other than maybe breathing.  And eating.  Some of you have been around that long (kudos, long-haulers!), but I have a feeling quite a few of you are newer and don't have the time to scroll back through 1,973 blog posts to get the whole backstory.  While my style isn't the same as it was 2, 3, 4 years ago, I still love some of those old outfits and outfit photos, so I wanted to share those!  Flashback Friday is so common on instagram, so I figured why not do a flashback friday on the blog?  I think it's super fun to not only look back on the outfits I put together in the past, but also read the posts and remember where I was and what was going on in life at the time.  

I used to take photos down at this truck/dock all the time when I lived at home in Anchorage.  The lot next door to our house was basically vacant, except for the floatplane dock and this truck that never moved.  Now, there's a giant house on the lot and a family lives there!  It's so weird to go home and have a big house next door instead of a forest and empty lot.  Also, I haven't picked up the guitar in at least a year.  I like music but over the years I've realized that it doesn't bring my soul alive the way it does in my friends who are musicians.  I like music, I like listening to music and as a creative person I appreciate it as an artform, but I've realized it's not my artform.  I'm visual through and through.  Give me all the visual arts.  

On another note: I can't figure out for the life of me how I got my bangs so damn perfect all the time back then...

I'm Hopin' For Raleigh // June 27, 2010

I was so excited when Maria of Lulu Letty joined the Delightful Dozen. She has such great style and I couldn't wait to see what she put up for swap. I was so thrilled that she put up her Lulu Letty ModCloth dress! I remember seeing it on her when she was featured on ModCloth and I fell in love with the simple chambray dress. It actually reminds me a lot of the dress I styled up at the Revolve photo shoot, only way less expensive!

dress(similar)/lulu letty modcloth dress (swap via Delightful Dozen)
boots(similar)/ minnetonka :: belt/forever 12 :: scarf/courtesy of Rare Treasure

Secret time: I play guitar. I'm not that great at it, but I do the best I can. I don't really have enough time in the day to practice all the time. This guitar is actually my little brother's but he stopped playing guitar years ago, so I have "borrowed" it. Both of my guitars got left in Washington when I moved up here. I'm excited to grab them when I drive through Washinton on my trip. Hopefully I'll have more time to play, and maybe actually finish one of my own songs. I have a music myspace, but all the songs I've posted are covers. Nothing fancy, just recorded with my Mac and GarageBand.

A guitar is the best accessory, though. Anyone looks about 100 times cooler the instant they're holding a guitar. And boys become 100 times more attractive with a guitar, pretty much universally. Why is this? I am not sure. Maybe it has something to do with guitar players knowing what to do with their hands... haha! I think people who play music use their brains in a different way too. The visual mentality is pretty ingrained in me, and I try to make my brain think in a more musical way, but it's not natural for it to be like that. It's more of a second language than a first language. Consequently, I'm not very confident when it comes to my music. Hopefully with more practice I'll gain a little confidence.

ona bowery giveaway!

ith my new photography site and blog design launching, I knew I wanted to celebrate by giving away some of my favorite things.  I've been using ONA's Union Street bag for a few years now and love it, but I've always coveted the smaller, leather Bowery camera bag.  I still don't have one (some day!), but I am giving one away to one lucky reader!  Seriously, this bag is so gorgeous, the perfect size for carrying daily, and having used an ONA bag for years (and just being able to tell from the obvious craftsmanship), it'll last a lifetime.  
When I first discovered ONA years ago I was so excited to finally find a beautifully crafted camera bag that, really, didn't look like a camera bag at all.  I was used to stuffing my ugly standard camera bag inside of my cute purse to keep my camera safe, or just putting my camera in my purse sans camera bag, being super careful to keep it from dropping or banging against anything.  ONA makes such high quality, gorgeous bags designed to keep a camera safe and sound while simultaneously looking beautiful and non-camera-bag-y, so I'm really excited to give away a bag that's been on my personal wish-list for years.
bag/ONA ::cardigan(similar)/courtesy of ruche :: jeans/courtesy of modcloth boots/vogue footwear :: necklace/moorea seal :: top/cosette

 



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blog (design) love giveaway!

ince I got to work with Promise this past week on making my new site go live, I wanted to give you guys an opportunity to work with her through the Blog (Design) Love 2.0 e-course from my pals over at A Beautiful Mess!  Blog (Design) Love 2.0 is the second edition of their popular Blog Design Love e-course and it's packed with all new design lessons from Promise Tangeman and re-worked coding lessons from Elise Blaha Cripe. You’ll learn design, font, and color basics for crafting a strong visual brand online. You’ll be able to map your site’s navigation, know how to make your archives work for you, and how to optimize your posts for Pinterest. This self-paced class will help you to customize your online space in a way that fits your style, engages your readers, and looks amazing!  Promise and Elise are amazing, and one lucky reader will win access to Blog (Design) Love 2.0!

I'm a design junkie and you're likely to find me tweaking my design instead of working on something I really need to get done simply because I love it.  I know a lot of bloggers feel design challenged and stressed out by personal branding and graphic design, but Promise and Elise are amazing at making it simple and exciting.  If you're looking to do a DIY update to your own blog design, this e-course is the perfect way to help figure out the process!



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going live

 couple of months ago I got to help out with the GoLive experience up in Seattle with Promise Tangeman and the GoLiveHQ team.  Being a host and helping the attendees launch their brand new websites was such an amazing couple days and by the time the first day was done, I was dying to be a part of the next GoLive event.  The next one ended up being in LA at Promise's house, and it was the same week as Texas Style Council's CAMP, where I would be speaking, so I decided to make it one long inspirational week, and boy was it!  I'm exhausted after a week of being around so many encouraging, inspiring, go-getter women, but I truly wish I could make weeks like that a regular occurance.  
Last Monday I flew out of Seattle down to LA, got in at about 2 am and sleepily shuffled into my Airbnb cottage to get a few hours of sleep before heading to Promise's house for the first day of work.  Having seen the process before from the perspective of a host, it was nice knowing what to expect.  As attendees started showing up, we all mingled in Promise's kitchen and living room, sipping on mimosas and coffee, and grabbing a bite to eat while chatting with new friends-to-be, anxious to get started working on our new sites!  Laptops started popping up on the tables and we made our way to our seats to rifle through our swag bags, which were full of fun goodies from local artisans, before delving into the hard work of getting our sites live in the next 48 hours.  


 
I decided to host my new photography site on Showit, which was a new software for me, but I found it pretty quick to learn (very similar to using Photoshop and Lightroom) especially with the help of the GoLive ladies, and it was fun and easy to bring everything in my head to life.  I'm such a tunnel-vision worker when it comes to that kind of stuff, I just put my head down and get in the zone, so everyone was calling me a ninja because I was super quiet and just powered through it, haha!
Having done plenty of web design work in the past for both myself and clients, I knew I didn't "need" to do the GoLive Experience.  I was fully capable of downloading the template and tweaking it alone in my own office, but I wanted the community, the feedback, and the support of other creative, inspiring women surrounding me and cheering me on.  I've always been more of a loner, feeling like I can do things myself, but as I get older I'm learning how unbelievably invaluable community is and how important it is to have people in my life, women especially, who I can talk to, share ideas with, and be encouraged by.  Being a host for GoLive in January showed me that it offered exactly that. 
 While some gals were there for some serious design help, I was more there because I want to actively surround myself with people who I admire and seek encouragement and guidance from.  Interestingly, later the same week we talked about this at length at TxSC CAMP, and the concept of "friendtors" (friends who are also mentors), became a focal point of the weekend.  Sitting in a room full of other women who were launching their own new websites and making those connections in person was exactly what I needed.



 



I surprised myself by getting a little emotional near the end.  I'm so used to going it alone and doing everything for myself.  I don't know if Lone Wolf Syndrome is a thing, but if it isn't I'm making it up and I definitely have it.  I feel like I have to do stuff for myself and don't let myself rely on others.  Having a team (and the other attendees) around me who were so for me and excited to see me succeed and wanted to give me as many tools as possible to succeed got me pretty choked up.  In typical lone wolf fashion, I stuffed it in and held it together, but still, the feels were in force.
Going to TxSC right afterwards was the perfect follow-up to the experience with GoLive, but I'll have to do a whole other post (or two) on that.  On a less emo note, Promise's house is basically what my house wants to be when it grows up.  Dan and I have been thinking about getting a bigger house, eventually, and I was so inspired by Promise's space.  So eclectic, so much light, so much open space.  Old craftsman homes here in the PNW have pretty closed floor plans.  One of our big renovation plans is to knock out the wall between our kitchen and living room to make it feel more open and light, but that's a pretty big project.  I loved that Parker, Promise's pup, hung out for the two days.  I missed having Dusty around while I was gone, but Parker let me pet him and get in my dog love times.  He's a fan of the same Ikea pillow that Dusty lays on all the time.  Ikea should make a dog-bed version, I'm thinking.  



Today I've launched the final part of my new site, the matching design on this here blog!  I tend to want a fresh look over here about once a year and it'd been a while since my last design change.  With the new photography website going live, it seemed like the perfect time to freshen things up over here as well.  I made a little celebratory dancing video because why not?  Dancing is always a great way to celebrate, right?  Also: champagne.   Welcome friends!  I'll be working out a few kinks in the next few days, but I've got some giveaways coming down the chutes for even more celebration!  Stay tuned!




Top 6 photos + video  by me, the rest by Kristen Booth Photography + Lapierre Photography