Monday, June 30, 2014

Style Imitating Art: Luggage Barcode Sunset No. 4



It's SIA time! Yesssssssss. As a reminder, this week's inspiration was Luggage Barcode Sunset No. 4 by Douglas Coupland. And here are the inspired ladies who took part this week!

First up is Erin of Loop Looks, and she has the best scarf ever. It's amazing and take an otherwise cute outfit to the next level.



Jen of Librarian for Life and Style is at ALA this week, but she found the perfect spot for outfit photos before she left. And she looks great!



Isabella at Adventures in HEL is living in a new place! And she has an awesome outfit to go with it. I love the sash with the striped top!



Kezzie of KezzieAG says she has poofy hair but I'm not seeing it. I think she looks adorable!



My SIA co-creator, Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey, is apparently cutting down on colours in her outfits. Interesting. She's missing some blue, but who cares? She looks excellent, as always.



And here's me, looking hilarious as always.



Thursday, June 26, 2014

What to wear to the Governor's Ball Music Festival if you're not from New York



Governor's Ball Music Festival
June 6-8, 2014
Randall's Island, New York City, NY

I have wanted to go to a music fest for a very, very long time, and living where I do, options for music festivals are few and far between. I could drive to Bonnaroo and deal with tents and hippies and mud and no showers and sitting in a car for ages just to get in and out, or I could fly elsewhere and throw down a lot of money for a hotel, a ticket, and travel.

welllllllllll

This year, Outkast reunited. It's kind of a big deal. And while coachella got the first big OMG WE HAVE OUTKAST announcement, the group also announced on their website that they would be headlining at the 2014 Governor's Ball Music Festival. This was a new fest that I hadn't heard of before, and with somewhat good reason--it's only been around for four years. So I started doing research. The fest was three days, on Randall's Island, plum between Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. It also took place on my birthday weekend, June 6th through 8th. Whoa. Did stars just align? And then they announced the lineup, which included Jack White, Vampire Weekend, Janelle Monae, Outkast (obv) and about a billion other bands that would be ridiculous for me to list but let me tell you I was stoked just reading the list.

It seemed like mostly a pipe dream, because Gov Ball took place at the same time as the start of summer reading at work, but I was APPROVED for time off for the fest and I sprung into action, grabbing a 3 day ticket and emailing my friend E., who lives with her husband in Park Slope, & who was deeply kind to offer to let me stay with them for free while I was in the city. It came together! I got a ticket for the shuttle, planned my flight so I'd have one free day before the fest to do with what I pleased, and started saving money. I had to buy some shorts because most of my shorts are officially barn shorts now, but here's what I wore on all three days. (I was probably the least hip person there. I don't care.)

Day 1 (June 6)



Top: J. Crew | Shorts: Walmart | Shoes: Toms
Bands: Outkast, TV on the Radio, Phoenix, La Roux, Bastille, Janelle Monae, Little Daylight
Food: mac and cheese (Beecher's), cheesesteak (Carl's)

Day 2 (June 7)



Top: Boden | Shorts: Boden | Shoes: Toms
Bands: Jack White, Sleigh Bells, The Strokes, Broken Bells, Fitz and the Tantrums, Classixx
Food: risotto ball (Arancini Bros), chopped beef sandwich (Mile End Deli)

Day 3 (June 8)



Top: Target | Shorts: Boden | Shoes: Toms
Bands: Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, The Kills, The Head and the Heart, Tyler the Creator, Frank Turner
Food: lobster roll (Luke's Lobster)

I have spared you all a shot of the aggressive Toms tan that I received while at the festival. But here's a look at what my poor Toms look like now that they've been through the ringer:



Gross.

Gov Ball was wild. I will say that going alone probably wasn't AS good as going with someone, simply because I didn't want to make friends with groups of people, but it also allowed me to do whatever the hell I wanted, which was awesome. That's one of my favourite parts of traveling alone--you do you the whole time. It's pretty fantastic. One day I brought a book with me to help pass time between bands, and I found myself more than once by someone else reading a book. It's like a secret handshake for bookworms...except it's blatantly obvious. Whatever, you get the point.

I took my trusty green Jansport bookbag with me, and that thing more than paid its dues (I also used it when I was driving across America, so it's been all over). I was able to haul my camera (which stayed home after day one because security deemed it "professional camera equipment" which isn't allowed), a towel, sunblock, a book, my phone, my charger, a bottle of water, and anything else I wanted to lug with me.

I had a really awesome time at Gov Ball. I might go back someday. I have many tiny stories that I can tell--about charging my phone, about the people I met, the food I ate, and the bands I saw--but they're not interesting when they're all rolled into one. They might leak out bit by bit. But at least there's this post with all my clothes so I can remember it! (I will be writing an additional post about my free day in Manhattan, which...will be much different.) But for now...I'm glad to be home!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Leg room







Top: Boden | Skirt: Target | Belt: Target | Wedges: Target

I had to take two flights each way to get from Cardiganland to Vancouver last week. I like flying--a lot--but it always seems to give me a headache. I have a larger bubble of personal space than most people, and it is very aggressively violated on a plane and in the airport. Anyway, I met a couple of Mormon missionaries while I was walking home from dinner one evening. I'm mostly irreligious (I was raised without structured religion but I was baptized as an Episcopalian after my grandmother got mad at the Pope & I go to mass on Christmas Eve for funsies...and if you want to talk sometime about being irreligious in the Bible Belt, let me know), but I respect everyone for believing what they believe, and Mormons are no different. In fact, I think I have even more respect for the missionaries because they do some really tough work. And the ones I encountered were quite funny! I chatted with one of them for about 20 minutes, and he asked if I would be all right with him saying a prayer for me. I said that was fine, and then they prayed for me to have a safe flight back to Charlotte.

And then the seat next to me was empty on both flights back home.

Those guys...they did me a solid! And I have a really cool picture of them on the street (I promised them I wouldn't put it all over the internet) and most importantly, I'm going to have a great memory. I might not believe the same thing that they do, but I appreciate their making an effort!

SIA: PSA



Luggage Barcode Sunset No. 4, by Douglas Coupland
Acrylic on canvas, 2012

To explain my absence over the last couple of weeks--I was rather abruptly sent to Vancouver for work! It was quite unexpected but I'm very lucky I had this opportunity, both professionally and personally--I've had a passport for the last five years but wasn't expecting to use it before I had to renew it, and my being picked to go to Vancouver, of the 200 people in our system, was a huge honour. I had training every day from 9-4, but my evenings were free, so one evening I rode the AirTrain into Vancouver proper from my hotel in Richmond and hiked down to the ocean. I walked by the Vancouver Art Gallery, which I desperately wished was open, but it closed at 5 everyday. The gallery was showing an exhibition on Douglas Coupland, an artist and prolific author from Vancouver, and Coupland has installed artwork all over the city. I sadly didn't see any while I was in Vancouver, but I wanted to highlight Coupland, so I found Luggage Barcode Sunset No. 4 for SIA this week! Send me your photos by Monday, June 30th (!!!!!) and I'll post the roundup that night. I can't wait to see how you all interpret this one! Plenty of pattern to play with.

Bonus: here's a photo of a real Vancouver sunset!

Friday, June 13, 2014

SIA: PSA (short notice!)



Sea by Richard Schallert
Serigraph, 1976

This is exceptionally short notice (New York, crazy work, exhausted, etc.--I'll explain in more detail in my next post!) but here is this week's pick by Jen for Style Imitating Art! Jen actually owns this serigraph, which both makes me jealous (it's so beautiful!) and makes me think omg what a good idea. I might have to wheel out some of the art I own too someday. Jen has a certificate of authenticity, which will be awesome if she ever takes it to Antiques Roadshow. More importantly, it has great colours that match this time of the year so well.

Send Jen your outfits by Monday night, June 16th! Enjoy the beauty of this one!