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

Wednesday

you know what it is

There are two things to be excited about:

1. I moved from off my fire escape!

2. Best jacket everrrr! And since there's a story behind absolutely everything that has anything to do with me, I'll spare you this time and just leave you knowing that I spotted this jacket in a magazine a long time ago, but never thought I'd find it or be able to afford it if I did...and then I found it on extreme sale at ModCloth a couple years later and voila! It's on my body right now. 

You like how I said I wasn't going to tell you the story, and then I did? It's inevitable. Just be thankful I gave you the abridged version.
modcloth jacket, delia's blouse, uo jeans, i.n.c. shoes
Mmm, so I'm thinkin' the only thing Wiz Khalifa and I have in common is that we both did this gangster thing in front of these old steel mine smoke stacks. That and we both rep Pittsburgh 'cause it's awesome...
'Possum. -christen

hair day

Once upon a time, mi madre introduced me to a curling iron. I assumed it into my possession and wore my hair curled every single day. I loved it, it was my thing, therapeutic in a way. But because it was too much slaving away to actually curl it every day, she also introduced me to a satin pillowcase so that my curls would slide around on it overnight instead of getting messed up on a cotton pillowcase, and I wouldn't have to wash and redo the whole thing again in the morning. Princess treatment back in the day. 

Now I still enjoy curling my hair, but I realized it's really not necessary to do that often, so I just blow dry it and forget about it most of the time. I still use the satin pillowcase (who would forfeit a thing like that?), but clearly a curse has been put upon me, because it doesn't do its job anymore. And I wake up with cowlicks everywhere.

I used to consider big-cowlick-days bad hair days, but now I'm so used to them that cowlick days just 'hair days.' Definitely not good, but since I was blessed with the inability to see the back of my head, not particularly bad to me. Today, like many days, I had a hair day. So I did this:
target flannel shirt, free people sweater, citizens of humanity jeans, j.crew boots
And afterwards it looked like this:
Not too shabby, eh? I look completely unhappy, but I'm not sure why 'cause today was a fine day. Disregard my face and just focus on my hair. Normally I would tell you the opposite, so take advantage of the opportunity at hand (at hair).
Above is another creation of Aunt Kim's, isn't it cool? It's wood, in case you couldn't tell. 
My posture is just screaming some sort of cheesy down home phrase, so I might as well just give you one...

Thanks for visitin' us down at the woods, y'all, come back again real soon now!
-christen

business casual

...since I work in an office and everything. NAHT! I'm just running out of ideers for these outfits, so I have to take on different personas in order to come up with more ideas.

This is outfit #19 (I'll be doing a lot of catch up posts today!), and it's because 19 is the aliquot sum of two odd discrete semiprimes 65 and 77, and is the base of the 19-aliquot tree (thanks, Wikipedia) that I'm looking so BA in the picture below. I couldn't help it. There was too much cool mathematical crap going on to look chummy. It actually kind of looks like I'm sleeping standing up. I can't say I've ever done that, but I also can't say I'm not verge on narcoleptic...it's a real struggle to not be napping at all times.

Below is a closer look at the necklace I'm wearing, A. because it's cool, and B. because Aunt Kim made it. I'm pushing her site again now that I'm actually wearing some of her jewelry, as promised. It's all so pretty. And BA. She's BA too...
 But she's not narcoleptic. -christen

snow white

I mean my outfit is snow white, not my skin. Okay, my skin is too, don't remind me. This outfit feels particularly remix-y to me because I already wore this sweater with this skirt, but this time I pulled the skirt up like a dress! Wild! It was kicky, fun.
I've noticed that people in catalogs who wear random shoes (like the many-shades-of-brown ones with an otherwise all all pale outfit that I've worn) tend to pose in some kind of unnatural position...but the point is to pretend like they just happened to be doing that when the picture was taken. I'm thinking some of the edgier issues of J. Crew, although I may have taken it to an extreme ;)
i.n.c. sweater, anthro skirt (worn as dress), i.n.c. shoes, kookai belt
-christen

Tuesday

christen on ice

Today when I ventured out onto my slippery, snowy fire escape in platforms, I instantly became a ballerina. Cue Tchaikovsky.
When wearing a beret (authentic, from the streets of Paris!), how can one resist?!
j.crew tee, aa skirt, modcloth shoes, Parisian beret, vintage scarf, thrifted gold chain, anthro bracelet
Below is a closeup of my scarf. It was my great grandma's babushka! And don't go thinking I didn't wear it as a babushka while riding in the cart at the grocery store as a kid. 'Cause I definitely did.
And here, a look at my bracelet, which snags every sweater it comes across:
I thought I'd end it with a graceful bow of my own kind ;)

-christen





flat lacy knows best

Lacy was telling me the other day that when she was younger, every school night she would lay out what she was going to wear the next day on her floor, and when her mama came in to kiss her goodnight, she'd say goodnight to 'flat Lacy' (the outfit on the floor) too! Too adorable for words.

Last night I made a flat Christen with this outfit, and...she was cuter flat. Everything was a little bunchy when I actually put it on, but hey, ya win some, ya lose some. It was all made up of earth tones anyways so I was pleased enough :)
modcloth shirt, uo sweater, free people skirt, j.crew boots, gifted (from ma!) hat, f21 leaf necklace
-christen


flight school isn't over yet





In lieu of the recent blizzard-like conditions pummeling through Pittsburgh, I thought I'd throw out a little reminder that many regions of the earth never lose their powder-perfect snow, and while we thought spring was just around the bend, let's not forget that there IS snow on the ground and there are dudes out there shredding places like Austria, Romania, and Patagonia while we slop through our own cookie dough slush on the way home from the Indian foodmart. I can truly say I've never witnessed a more epic film trailer showcasing scenes with enough monumentality to turn you to stone.  Embrace the cold and snow because these guys don't know what summer is and I think thats rad.


-Shane

Saturday

(outtakes)

Three things:
1. how do you like my sloppy first attempt at a blogger bun?!
2. how do you like my for-the-first-time somewhat successful liquid eyeliner job?!
3. thank you, Lacy, for participating in my bath tub photo idea without asking any questions.

-christen

get out!

you're invading my privacy.
f21 blazer, anthro pants, modcloth necklace, modcloth platforms
-christen

they're not pig tails...

they're puppy tails. Obviously, my mum thought I looked way cuter than a pig when I wore them as a young buck. Sorry yours didn't. There's not much I can say to console you there. Unless you wanna talk logic...
My purple tights look nasty (not to be confused with sicknasty <--good)
Pigs are nasty
My purple tights are a pig

Yeah that's...nevermind.
j.crew shirt, f21 dress, uo socks, i.n.c. oxfords
-christen!

the word of the day is

props. They seem cool at first, but then you realize they're no fun. Because if you take them anywhere with you (which you will), you have to keep taking them places with you. What a pain! I'll give you an example. 

My hipster faux glasses. I get all psyched and weird when I remember I have them, so I put them on, I wear them out of the house, I start to get annoyed that my peripheral vision cannot extend beyond thick tortoise shell rims, I let myself get pushed to my limit, I wear them on top of my head for a few minutes, and then I give up completely and just put them on someone else. That someone else inevitably loves the new addition to their otherwise undecorated face, and secretly plans on stealing them...but only for a few minutes until they get sick of them too and give them to another person. It goes on. And in the end, everybody is thankful for me and my faux glasses and the opportunity to wear them for a moment, and to share the temporary feeling of coolness with the person next to them.

You see, that's how I've made most of my friends: getting sick of my props.

Today I'm not wearing my hipster faux glasses because last time I wore them, I despised them and "accidentally" left them somewhere so I never have to deal with them ever again. But now I kind of miss them. So I used, and then didn't use, this chair as a stand-in prop.
anthro sweater, gap vest, uo skirt, j.crew boots, modcloth bracelet, antique chair
This isn't an octopus; it's a faux hipster glasses-less sourpuss.
-christen 8-)




Tuesday

my shoes & me

Last time I wore crazy yellow-y footwear, I claimed it as sort of my companion in the title. Why not keep consistent? I don't really think they went with my sweater too well (yellow + fawn = ??), but I like them and I haven't worn them yet, so I disregarded any fashion rules that may forbid me from wearing them together. Take that!
i.n.c. sweater, j.crew shirt, citizens of humanity jeans, j.crew boots, gifted necklace (from bethlehem!), vonmirfuerdich bracelet
Here's a close-up of the bracelet I'm wearing. I got it at the I Made It! Market that the Original mag hosted last weekend. I love it <3
Here's a picture of the boots I should be wearing with this outfit, but can't because they aren't a part of my 30. Okay, you broke me down, between you and me, I actually did wear them for most of the day. Not because my dog ate my yellow heels, but because, let's face it, there's no way I'm walking 15 minutes in heels just to get to class and be overdressed. You don't have to cast any spells on me for cheating because karma already took care of that by making me slip on absolutely nothing in public. Satisfied?
(That's Rusty) -christen


scratch that.

Today is # 11. All it took was counting the outfits, it wasn't that hard, I'm not sure why I didn't do it yesterday. Either way, since I have the weekend to catch up for, I'm just going to post things and stop being confusing and complain-y about which day it's for. All you need to know is that there will be 30 outfits from the same selection of 30 items by the end of it all.


And speaking of which, I realized I never posted a nice little key with all the skirts, sweaters, shoes, etc. I'm going to be choosing from! I walked into my room with full intentions of doing so until I realized it looked like this (below) and decided to turn right back around. For all intents and purposes, this is my version of that remix key. 

Oh, and here's what I wore...some day in the not-too-distant past. It was fairly colorless so I decided to give it this nice jaundice tint. How's that for a word combo? Nice-jaundice. I may be the first one ever to have said that. I'm disappointed in myself for not wearing jewelry (how could I do a thing like that?) so I'm going to end this post as quickly as possible so that we can forget about it and move on.
uo shirt, aa skirt, target tights, frye boots
(Quick ending) -christen

Monday

miss me?

I hath returned! I bet you were worried. I had a serious case of no-internet, which is obviously an easy fix if you just press the power button a few times. You can imagine my confusion when I approached the internet box to find that there are no buttons on it. So I turned right back around and just clicked the Safari icon on my computer 15-20 times over the weekend, and frowned when it said there was no internet. Yes, frowned. It seemed appropriate at the time.


Today is 'Day 14,' but only outfit 11. I think. Oh no, now I can't even remember. Well either way, today is Valentine's Day! And all you folks out there who think it's a pointless holiday, to you I bear the palm of my hand and say "talk to the left, 'cause you ain't right!" (Okay, it's funnier in person.) It's supposed to be a holiday for nice things to happen, and that's it. A simple point, but not point-less. I didn't wear pink or red or anything for Valentine's Day, but I probably would have if my remix selection allowed for me to...I should've planned ahead. At least for this holiday I won't get pinched!


We had fun shooting today - it wasn't frigid for once, and it was nice to have a colorful background to cheer up the gloomy day. We should've taken a picture of the whole mural...darn it. Oh well, you should just go see it for yourself, it's on the side of Sorrento's. Go after 8pm because obviously nothing can beat a $5 pizza.
target flannel shirt, anthro skirt, lucky brand duck boots, vintage red beaded nekclace, j.crew enamel bracelet
-christen

Friday

dag nabbit...

I let myself get a day behind again. I have a feeling this is going to keep happening on the weekends (which start on Thursday for me). Gotta give it to bloggers who keep on schedule. [APPLAUSE]


Yesterday was one of those wonderful days that I sneeze about 6 times within the first minute of walking outdoors because it's so bright and sunny. Meanwhile, everyone else was sneezing at my sweater. What can I say? I have that effect on people...wink, wink.


Here are some, ya know, pictures of me. 
anthropologie sweater, hand-me-down-from-mom anthropologie pants, handmade necklace, jeffrey campbell c/o modcloth shoes
It definitely looked like the floor was going to crumble and drop me into a black hole via chute of colorful swirls and flying objects from my childhood, but alas, the floor remained in tact. 
(me unconvincingly pretending to fly away)
(me unconvincingly acting like a high fashion model (although isn't it cool that it turns into a hood?!))

This is an unbelievably cool necklace that my broski got for me at Handmade Arcade a couple years ago. It's a dude's tie twisted all up into a beaded necklace! I couldn't get it to sit right on my cowl neck collar thingy after that 'high fashion' pose, but eh, you get the idea...


And speaking of handmade jewelry, I'm going to use this opportunity to plug my aunt's handmade jewelry blogggg, Jewelry Snob! I'll talk about her again when I'm actually wearing a necklace that she has made. That might make sense.
That's it! -christen

Wednesday

because i don't care for this kind of wind (the 16 degree kind)...

I didn't go outside much today. However, I did...


   1. eat a yogurt
   2. make a sexy purchase for the upcoming valentine's day underwear exchange ('panties' is an uncomfortable word, and thus it has not made its way into my vocabulary)
   3. forget my mittens


...and those aren't things that happen every day. I also...


   1. would like to take a nap, but probably won't
   2. am seriously planning on making cookies later (choco chip, of course; from scratch, of course)
   3. realized a second ago that my flannel sheets from Costco are THE most comfy things on this continent and had to take a quick break from typing so that I could rub my face on them


...and those are things that generally tend to happen every day. Especially #2. And 1. Definitely 3. 
modcloth shirt, gap cotton vest, cookie lee wrap bracelet, jeffrey campbell shoes c/o modcloth
This picture ^ is totally just so you can see my shirt not all scrunched up. But it just gave me an awesome idea. Stay tuned.
B-T-dubs, isn't this chair the greatest? Shane & Tyler found it in someone's trash and took turns carrying it on their heads for about 4 miles so that my apartment could benefit from it. Wasn't that nice? I thought so. Its cushions are still fluffy and it doesn't even smell bad! It's also my sly way of blocking off that recently-made-infamous space behind my fireplace so that people aren't as tempted to go back there and wonder why it's so bare. 

smiles from christen (because smiles are more lovable than an en dash!)