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