Laundry Day: My Time Was Running Wild

No, I'm not a hunchback. That Quasimodo-esque bump on my back is from the straps on my dress. 

There will be a bit of radio silence central around here for awhile, folks. My already nomadic life this year is increasingly in flux, and I'm spending nearly every waking moment dealing with various transitional adjustments. My current lease is up next week, and I'll be subletting with a friend for a few months. My increasingly homeless existence, while somewhat disorienting, is also exciting, refreshing, and fun, and I know it's leading to something good. So for now I'm trying to be very zen about the whole thing, and embrace the changes that are coming my way. I thought I'd pop onto the ol' blog and share a few pictures of my life of late, in lieu of a "proper" outfit post. I'm going to spend the rest of my evening eating fresh cherries, drinking pinot grigio, and embracing living my life out of a suitcase.

I've spent my evenings and weekends drinking beer and eating beets. I can't wait to check in on the garden on Friday!

On some days, the woods by our apartment are positively misty and magical.

I've been walking my Sperry Topsiders into the ground, and they've happily held up to the challenge.

A little sneak peak of a lovely stormy day photoshoot with Emily.

The gorgeous waters of Lake Michigan.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I promise that I'll be around, but I wouldn't recommend setting your watches to me this month.

Title song: David Bowie, "Changes"

Having a long neck is the key to being a good giraffe.

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Live in Arizona? Friday, I'll be here, if I haven't evaporated already.

A Story About Cherries

Please supply your own narrative.

My Heart's On Fire

Tank top: Old Navy * Cardigan: thrifted * Jeans: Gap * Loafers: c/o Common Crow Vintage * Necklace: Noble Town Vintage * Earrings: museum gift shop

Everyone, please meet Elvira. Elvira, meet everyone. She's a little shy, and needs a bit of a cleaning, but I thought it was high time for her to be properly introduced. Elvira is a Schwinn World Tourist, from the late 1970s-early 1980s (my best guess is 1982, based on the style of the handlebars and materials used for the wheels and frame, but it's not really a super precise guess). She's lived in Chicago until this weekend, when I brought her with me to my weekend home (haha, that sounds so much fancier than it is!). I can already tell that she'll be very comfortable there.

I actually bought this bike two years ago, but have barely ridden it at all. The thing is, though I admire and adore the plethora of folks who bike their way through the Chicago streets, I have little need for a bike in my life in the windy city. From where I live, I have a 20 minute walk to work, a 5 minute walk to the grocery store, and a 5 minute walk to the lake. It's silly, perhaps, but it's just never been practical for me to commute by bike. So Elvira has sat, unloved, in the basement bike room of my apartment (and, this past winter, negligently, she sat outside for some of our rough storms and got just a tad rusted, but after a quick visit to the local bike shop, she seems much happier and nearly rust-free).

I like Elvira because she's an easy bike to ride. The cruiser-style handlebars and the simple 10-speed gears make her flexible and versatile, ready for city streets, bike paths, and lakeshore cruises. I need an easy bike, one that won't stress me out, because, to be honest, I'm a little bit scared of bikes. Silly, I know. But two years ago, just after I bought Elvira, I had a bit of a bike mishap and badly broke my right arm (those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time probably remember the cast I sported for much of the summer of 2009). It was a very silly accident, doing something totally mundane (riding my bike through a parking lot), and I felt like it could have been easily avoided, but wasn't, so the whole ordeal instilled in me a sense of apprehension about bikes. I'm working my way through the fear, and I'm glad I have Elvira to help me with the transition.

In any case, she's a lovely little bike, and she's becoming happily acquainted with the streets and paths of my weekend home. I'm hoping to spend a bit of time next weekend polishing her up and installing a basket so that we can ride the town in style. (Oh, and speaking of style, I just adored the colorful ease of this outfit. It was one of those outfits that garnered real-life compliments - from a stylishly cute little hipster boy, no less! - so I considered it a wild success.)

Happy Monday, all!!

Title song: The Oakridge Boys, "Elvira"

{recipe} Lemon, Chard, and Chioggia Lasagna

Lemon, Swiss Chard, Sausage, and Chioggia Beet Lasagna

I think there might be something in the air/internet. Last week, in search of a tasty way to cook up our first batch of red swiss chard from the garden, I came across this post on Cup of Jo. That post led me to this recipe on Martha Stewart Living, which I promptly bookmarked. After making it myself, and diligently photographing all of the deliciousness, I planned out a post for this morning to share this yummy summer lasagna with all of you. Opening my computer this morning, I see that one of my fave food blogs, A Cozy Kitchen, posting this recipe this morning! It's as if the lovely Adrianna read my mind. So, rather than doing a straight-up recipe today, I'm going to share my pictures, thoughts, and general steps in this delightful dinner, and refer all of you to either of the two recipes linked above for proportions and step-by-step instructions. Ah, I heart the interwebs...

My happiest moment of the weekend was filling a grocery bag with the first load of veggies from the garden. Swiss chard, chioggia beets, carrots, green onions, arugula, and lettuce were all overflowing from the bag, so I made it my mission to make the best ever garden-fresh dinner. After I found the recipe for this lasagna, I decided to alter it just a bit to include the beets. It was a good move, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about making this dish (and I also highly recommend that you do).

I got Italian sausage from a local farm's butcher, and Joe helped me cook it up before layering it in the lasagna. I've recently read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, and have been exploring a pseudo-vegetarian lifestyle. While I'm not going all-out veggie, I'm only buying meats from local, environmentally-friendly and ethically-acceptable farms and butchers. It's narrowed the playing field quite significantly, but I can live with less bacon if it means the meat I'm getting is good for me, the animals, and the earth. (Side note: I do plan on writing a more substantial post about this sometime soon. There's much more to say.)

I am obsessed with the light, creamy, chard-y bechamel sauce that this recipe calls for. I almost always make lasagna with a tomato-based sauce (though I do often add cream), so I love how this no-tomato version totally changed the vibe of the dish. I'm equally obsessed with the gorgeous striations on these chioggia beets. Have you ever seen anything so pretty?

Layer, layer, layer! Because I'm lazy and clumsy, I always use the ready-to-bake lasagna noodles. It's probably a cop-out, but they taste just as good and save time and noodle-tearing. The layers of steamed lemons were the perfect unexpected kick to this lasagna. I never would have thought to include them on my own, but they added the perfect summery pizzazz to this meal.

Ain't it purty? So colorful, healthy, hearty, and effing delicious. Joe and I marveled at every morsel, and happily ate the leftovers for lunch the next two days. Oh, and it pairs perfectly with a bright sauvignon blanc, so don't skip that!

We paired our lasagna with a fresh salad from all-gardened foods: lettuce, arugula, carrots (confession: we definitely picked the carrots before they were totally mature, but we just couldn't wait! We tried to pull only those carrots that had started to crowd the other plants), and green onions. I love the mad spicy kick that fresh arugula adds to a salad (so different than store-bought!), and it was incredibly satisfying to know that everything we were eating was grown by us. I am so looking forward to many more months of these homegrown, homemade meals.

A Little Peace of Mind

Dress: ModCloth * Sweater: thrifted * Oxfords: UO * Belt: Akira * Necklace: Noble Town Vintage

I'm exhausted, you guys. I've had the busiest, craziest, most sleepless few days, and I'm just totally dragging this morning. I dropped Joe off at the airport on Tuesday morning at 4:30, and I feel like I've been going non-stop since then. Even with my long, lovely weekend, I'm oh-so-ready for it to be Friday. I'm not trying to complain, but let's just say I'm really looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning.

This is actually a repeat outfit, with everything other than the shoes. I am sort of smitten with the shapelessness of this look, but I'm not sure why. I don't usually go for tight or form-fitting clothes, but I also try to balance loose items with more fitted ones. This outfit disguises my waist (or rather, waist-lessness, since I'm really more of a rectangle than an hourglass) and covers my legs and arms with ample fabric, but I love it. Maybe it's because it's just easy. Each piece of this outfit fits me well, is comfortable, and sits on my body in a way that never needs any adjusting, futzing, or rearranging. I love the colors, the softness of the muted tones and the huggable texture of the sweater. I love the accessories, pieces that I wear so often that they seem to becoming part of my trademark style. In some ways, it's an odd look, but to me it looks and feels so right. :)

I'm participating again this year in the Dress Your Best project, hosted by the gals at Academichic. I participated last year, and it would be remiss of me not to mention how profoundly the project impacted me. I was surprised by how seriously I took it, and how the idea of dressing for, and celebrating, parts of my body filtered through my thoughts and outfits for the duration of this year. So I'm really pleased to be going at it again this time around, and I feel like this outfit is a perfect one with which to kick it off. It's an outfit that doesn't highlight one part or the other, one feature over the rest. Nor is it particularly unique to my body or style. Rather, it is an outfit that could be worn by a plethora of body types. It would look wildly different on someone with an hourglass shape, or a tall woman with platform heels. And it would look smashing in both, and other, cases. But on me, on my small rectangular body, it looks unlike it would on anyone else. The pieces combine to fit me, on my body, and create a visual that is unique to that body. So this year my first Dress Your Best "submission" comes in the form of a celebration of my body as a whole. It has its ups and downs, its curves, dimples, imperfections, and scars, but it is mine, and it is unlike any other.

I'm really looking forward to crafting more posts in the next couple of weeks to celebrate the things that I adore about myself. I haven't narrowed down the list yet, and I may just fly by the seat of my pants with it and pick something at random everyday, but I know it will result in days of happy, productive reflection about myself. It's something I should do more often, and I'm glad to have the excuse to do it again now.

Title song: The Beatles, "I'm So Tired"

Weekend Clothesline: I'll Wait on Mountaintops

A few snippets of this past weekend, my last with Joe until he returns from South America in August...

Our garden is producing more and more each week...

...we enjoyed our first meal with veggies from the garden: a swiss chard, chioggia beet, and lemon lasagna...

...I found the most perfect pair of shorts from an old Boy Scouts uniform...

...we drank a bloody mary that was sent straight from hell (included as garnishes: beef jerky, cheese curds, a pickled egg, and a dill pickle. Oh, and a shot of PBR)...

...I got covered in bees!...*

...and I said farewell to this guy. But just for now. See you in seven weeks, Joe!

*I think this is the third time I've linked to that video on this blog...and that is nothing short of awesome.

Title song: Lady Gaga, "Bloody Mary"