skating down the mountain, skyline in our rear view mirror.

Monday

retribution

olive bullhead jeans, billabong dream tee, old navy scout jacket, element hat
A step out my backdoor and I find myself in a windblown hollow of this world's treasured landscape.  I come from a family of hikers and if you haven't gathered, I did some hiking this holiday break.  From quarries, to hydro-electric powerplant reservoirs to my neighbor's farmland there is always new terrain to cover, nature to trudge through while the wind whips your face.
dark blue levi's 511 jeans, levi trucker jacket
It takes loads of the right stuff to be a person of True Grit.  You need the guts, the willingness to lead a long and lonely life at times, and know you might spill a little blood along the trail.  But even if we don't take down the bad guys or jump in front of the next stray bullet to save a friend, we can still show our own true grit in climbing that cliff of loose stones or braving the steep mountain goat path down to the river.  So get out and roam the land like our ancestors once did and feel the vastness of mother earth in each trickling stream and awesome lookout.
The latest installment from the Coen Brothers is a straight shooting story of vengeance and outlaws finding themselves while in the heart of Indian country.  "It wasn't ground breaking but still a good movie," says the fellow 3 rows up as we exit the theater.  He was right.  It was sincerely good but movie-goers are more and more often looking for the movie of the year instead of, say, a good old fashioned wild west rodeo.  The next movie you go see forget about the 3-D special effects and focus on the character out there pushing the limit, shooting if he has to shoot, and having love at his very core; just like all of us.-shane

Saturday

we'll talk, talk, talk about...

...how much fun we had, yeah! 
Glass art by Dale Chihuly. Lobby of Phipps Conservatory
I'm always tempted to title posts something about the sun, but I don't want to get too predictable, so I decided to use lyrics from a song that says something about the sun in it. But not the 'sun' lyrics themselves. Get it? Either way it's a great song. And the reason I'm so caught up over the sun is because...

Preeeetty much the best part about every day is the fact that even though the temp is dropping at a puzzling stagger, it's still sunny much of the time. And don't let the crotchety weather moodsters of Pittsburgh get you down by telling you that's not true--we promise to only blog on beautiful days to keep you thinking It's Always Sunny in Pittsburgh =P
martin & osa coat, j.crew knit tights, j.crew riding boots, target mini bag









See, I'm squinting from the brightness and everything! 
(Secretly I just squint when I smile...hehe) Look at my ridiculously cool hairpiece that Shane swindled for me from Nature! And it just so happens that a big house of nature was the destination that day--Phipps Conservatory. It was in its transition between a Halloween gargoyle theme and tacky Christmas theme, wasn't too impressive in that aspect, but some of the plants were insane-looking!
I can't remember what the flower above was called, but I think it's so lovely! Each different flower took on its own distinct personalities, it gave us such glee to take pictures of them and try to refrain from touching/interacting with them. We may have slipped up a few times, oops! The Bird of Paradise, below, is lookin' pretty insect-y to me. Eww!
And last but certainly not least (in fact, most), we ventured into the Amazon room and found this wonderful little trickle of water that each time I think back on, seems bigger and bigger, and now I've decided is a waterfall...and came all too close to knocking each other in trying to climb on the rocks. Hilarious and terrifying. And so much fun. -christen
gap blouse, free people skirt, vintage necklace, anthropologie belt

Thursday

turk de soleil

Stuffed, packed, gorged, glutted, jammed or just plain satisfied, I hope you found a middle grounds with your over thankful body and had a glorious Pilgrim Day.  Don't be satisfied keeping it safe and on all fours for rest of your time off...these hard-hitting sand skaters fight everyday to go big while dodging stray bullets in no man's land.  Be thankful for home, for warmth and the freedom to skate. Enjoi
Skateistan
-shane

Wednesday

cách cách!

Oh school, how you chop me into bite size bits and sprinkle me all over. Gruesome, yes. Accurate, indeed. Okay, truthfully, I really do absolutely adore college and never, ever want to leave...but I must admit that I'm still, after 3 1/2 years here, trying to figure out why they can't just eliminate the work and let us do the fun stuff all the time! Haha, oh well, crooked-toothy grins are not endangered here, I can assure you that.



This week is an excessively meeting-ful, essay-abundant, meaningless-assignment-saturated one, but I've decided once and for all that I'm not going to let it put me in panic mode...although it may effect my outfit choices a bit (helloooo slouchy shirts). Above, I'm finishing off a roll of B&W film mid-meeting, and from this film strip are some photos that I turned in with my portfolio today, woohoo (although Shane's the real photographer)! Oh yeah, and about the title: I couldn't for the life of me figure out an onomatopoeia for a camera shutter sound, so I Wiki'd it, like I do with everything (not really), and the Vietnamese version seemed the most accurate. Whatcha think? :)     -christen

Thursday

pre-weekend dealings

bass tan loafers, bullhead blue skinny jeans, indigo polo, h&m azure blue race jacket
Fresh out of class and in the midst of a damaged shoe return, I find myself with no further commitments between me and the weekend.  Oh what a glorious feeling it is, loosened up, jailbroken mind and bumping into an old friend.  Here's to a weekend well spent in the streets with my fellow people of Oakland.  Each one seems to surpass the previous weekending extravaganzas.  Hey! It's Thursday and I know you're counting down the hours until the quest for endless adventure continues.  As am I my friends.  "The good times are killing me, here we go!"-shane

Monday

back in action! (maybe)


Ohhhh, my friends, what can I say? I'm starting to realize the challenge of blogging: it's easy to take pictures of your outfits every day, but it's a totally different story to come up with something worthwhile to tell you to go along with it. That's why our interactions have been fleeting :) But we're learning! And hey, maybe this will end up being a bit of a confidence booster, this blog...maybe it'll help me learn that everything I have to say is important! Hehe, cheesy, I know. I'm trying! 

Well anyways, look at my kick-butt shoes! Last semester, into this past summer, I was a Writing Team intern at ModCloth.com, before they moved parts of the company from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, and in my final week, some of my coworkers (who are all awesome) told me I just have to get a pair of platforms. So I did, and of course they're my favorite shoes I've ever owned. I was sort of just playing dress up in these pictures, taken on Friday, in some spare time between writing a paper and...writing a paper, but then I decided to wear it out that night (although I ditched the platforms for some opaque black tights and boots - brr!)!


h&m dress, vintage belt, modcloth shoes


If all goes as planned, you guys will be seeing an influx of posts coming up! But since we're stuuuudents, you know, nothing's guaranteed. We'll get the hang of it eventually! In the mean time, check me out on chictopia. You'll probably see some overlap outfits (college budget = limited wardrobe, sort of), but I try to update my blog on there as much as I can. See you soon! -christen

Friday

looking at the sun

modcloth dress, jaywalk boots, kookai belt (below). on him: bullhead olive jeans, h&m button-down, electric hardknox sunglasses

Technically not summer, yet missing the cool  fall weather, September's soft warm air never ceases to keep our spirits high. These giant iron statues all around campus peer at us every day but today we thought we'd introduce ourselves. -shane
So much beauty all around us, day after day, on campus. Pittsburgh's the best :) ...and then before we knew it, we had to rush off to class! But we spent pretty much the rest of the day lounging in the grass in Schenley Plaza (much prettier and softer than the grass next to the Hyker statue, up above) anyways, so overall, there's no denying that it was one of the many perfect days. -christen

sunspots

level 99 jean shorts, lucky sweater, scarf from belgium, modcloth sandals, lucky bag
Today was a Jean Short Day - it wasn't the first this week, and certainly won't be the last. I can't stop wearing them! I just love them too much. You'll start to see a jean short theme as long as summer sticks around. :)

It wasn't particularly warm out, so I bundled up on top, but Mr. Sun kept my little toesies warm in these killerrrr sandals, which were the the icing on my earth toned cake (my favorite type of cake!). -christen

Monday

holding onto the gold

Hello! The names' Christen and Shane...we're new. We decided to break away from campus life and hit the streets of downtown Pittsburgh to do a little exploring. Sea blue fountains and thick twisted tubes of urban art stole us, so we snapped a few shots in our afternoon gear.

A childhood of rich memories in murky river waters and swathes of soft green grass, with mud squeezing through our toes every step of the way, has lead us eagerly to the heart of a fresh landscape full of architecture, fashion, sensations and intriguing new personalities. Running, jumping, diving head first into the bowels of the city, there's no end in sight. And we're filling in the blanks as we go.