a day late and a dollar...long?

Howdy, folks. We're a day behind. So pretend like this is Day 7, and then later tonight, when I post today's outfit, you can pretend it's Day 8. GOT YA! You don't actually have to pretend because it is Day 8. See what I did? I tricked you! Tricky, I know.


I was obligated to give you a trick because it's hard to give treats over the internet. Unless you're into...never mind. Let's talk about my post title. I am a day late, but I'm not a dollar short because we're not allowed to buy anything during this fine time called the 30 for 30. I'm the opposite of a dollar short. Get it? (Got it.) Good.

j.crew striped shirt, forever 21 burgundy blazer, anthro skirt, h&m mens socks, i.n.c. oxfords, h&m necklace

Jealous of my bare walls? You should be. This little extra space behind the fireplace was totes a selling point for my apartment, and yet we've done nothing with it. What negligent housekeepers are we. Suggestions on a clever way to decorate my behind-the-fireplace-nook (past the halfway point of me living in my apartment) would be greatly appreciated. Share your ideas with me in the comment box belooow! -christen

the rain turned to snow and set the city aglow!

j.crew black painter tee, american apparel mini skirt, aa yellow hairbow, aa yellow tights, frye boots

It's always a sad day when one of the proudest cities faces defeat. The streets turn gray, smiles turn to frowns and a certain gloom leaks its way into the ventilation shafts. Yes, I know we lost to the Packers in the heralded Super Bowl 35, but that doesn't mean we can't still have fun! On a little patch of greenery sitting in front of the mounted police unit (sadly no rioting called for their attention) we set up camp and found the light in the situation and shmaaw-zowww, we found loads of eerie greens, streaking reds and whatever other fluorescent colors you can pick out. We rocked our fan gear and held our heads high because there's always next year and what glorious times are to come until then. -shane

blowin' in the wind.

I felt much better yesterday; ready for day 5 of remixing! And if you're going to wake up at 2pm on a Saturday, you want nothing more than to look out your window and see wind and rain. And that's just what I saw! It was perfect, I cleaned my room, did some homework, edited a few articles for The Original Magazine, and watched The Princess and the Frog (which was GREAT) all without feeling bad about being stuck inside all day. I did get out for a little, though, and while most people probably wear pants when it's windy so their skirt doesn't fly up, I say why not pull a little Marilyn Monroe and have the opportunity to bashfully hold your skirt down several times a day? Why live a little when you can live a lot?!  -christen

j.crew black painter tee, macy's ruffled cardi, anthro bird skirt, forever 21 flower buckle belt, frye boots

:(

I had to take a 1-day sabbatical from the 30 for 30 because of an icky stomach thing. I hope that's not cheating! I definitely jinxed myself yesterday when I said "Bring it on, day 4!" 


Just for good times' sake, I'll let you have a peek of both my day (I was totally ROF but not L) and my shower curtain that I love so dang much (more than shower curtains should be loved). If all goes as planned, I shall be back in action tomorrow.

-christen

fall in the winter.

Sadly, for the sake of those who may have caught it out of the corner of their eye and chuckled to themselves for the rest of the day, I didn't fall today. I just feel like I'm wearing fall-ish colors. Or maybe Mardi Gras colors, which makes my outfit sound way more fun. These are two of my favorite colors (three if you count the earrings): eggplant (aubergine if you will) and olive-y green (and turquoise)!


I made a couple of friends this afternoon! They were folks from the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and they were kind enough to snap these photos for me. The one lady said they get asked to take pictures often since they're always roaming around the parks surrounded in lovebirds. The one dude said I need to get out of the habit of taking sitting-down pictures, that it's not a good pose for optimal outfit viewing.

Okay, not really, but if he had said that, he would've made a good point. :)

j.crew ruffled t-shirt, free people skirt, anthropologie belt, j.crew riding boots

Day 3: tackled (early because I'm going kickboxing). Bring it on, day 4! -christen

my socks & me.

hello and brr. I thought I should complain about the cold today since it seems like everyone else in America is. Which is silly to me 'cause although the weatherman called for 40 and it ended up being about 30 instead, that's still at least 20 degrees warmer than it normally is in Pittsburgh at this time of year. It's called a winter coat, people. Truly does wonders for the chilly willy bo billies of the world.

Speaking of coats, I'm not wearing one! Instead I'm wearing these outrageous socks, and they make me invincible. That's why I managed to sit on this big green metal thing without my lips turning blue. That's also why I managed to chill in this strange hand-on-knee position without getting a drive-by slap in the face. Believe me when I say that strange hand-on-knee positions often secretly mean there's something unbelievably cool going on behind the scenes. Now you know.

urban outfitters tee, urban outfitters cardigan, urban outfitters gray jeans, j.crew socks, I.N.C. oxfords

Shout out to Day 2 of remixing, and to Lindsay H., who's whiz-bang (I just learned that word by typing 'awesome' into the thesaurus, haha!). -christen

le premier jour.

So there's this wall:

And I definitely think it's a hideous-looking wall (Shane thinks such a statement should be forbidden from the blog), but at the same time, I dig the concept of murals enough to not mind it when I walk past it every day. I thought the backdrop would be a nice alternative to my fire escape, which you will most likely see in enough of my pictures to start feeling like you live there. I think it would be a dingy place to live. But you may disagree.

In attempt to create a makeshift tripod, I drug a giant, wet, monster of a recycling bin into the middle of someone's driveway, somehow snapping what once was my necklace, and is now an abstract representation of my former necklace. I tried to fix it, but it outsmarted me. I tried to keep my act together on this dreary day of a solo photoshoot, but *sigh* I was overall damp and frizzy and I have a leak in my boot (everyone knows that wet socks=not OK).

free people charcoal blue sweater, forever 21 orange dress, j.crew brown riding boots, forever 21 necklace

So I screamed at the top of my lungs * and decided to go home. 

* Not really, I was just faking. Anyways, it was (is) time to go to aerobics! Now I'm going to kickbox brain-created holographic images of...hmm...I was going to say 'my former necklace' to stick with the theme, but I'm actually not that bent up about it. So I'll probably just kickbox air. That's what I normally do. -christen


p.s. happy day 1 of the winter 30 for 30!

is this a fashion blog or a cooking blog?

Somehow, again, something delicious (and other than pasta) was cooked in this apartment. And because of it, I'm insisting that the overall notion that I'm not domestic be un-notioned or whatever. Because this stuff was gooooood. 

It's called Pineapple Fried Rice, a Thai dish that my ole buddy, ole pal Noelle has ordered so many times that she decided to learn how to make it. I was her sous chef last night. So was her boyfriend, Desch. Shane was named VIP taste tester. Here's what came of our cooking extravaganza! 

Unlike the photos of my eggplant salad toasts, which were taken in terrible lighting, this meal was actually orange-ish in color. It matched my plates and bowls! I would tell you how to create such a marvelous meal, but the recipe is a page and a half long, and I don't want to take that extra step toward carpel tunnel for no reason. So email us (fthewoods@gmail.com) if you would like to recipe. Trust me, you want it. 

And as if that wasn't enough, we continued the gluttony by frying up some bananas and shoveling them into our mouths with ice cream & chocolate syrup.

It's better than a banana split. Because it's fried.

*And now, for something completely different.*

As you can see by our shiny and new pink badge to the left, we're about to dive into something wonderful, yet scary: The 30 for 30, dun dun dun. Read this post from Kendi's blog to figure out what the heck that is. And be prepared for February 1st, 'cause here we come, a dose a day.
-christen

[insert title here]

on him: urban outfitters flannel shirt, bullhead gray jeans, vans mt. edition seakers; on me: j.crew shirt, american apparel skirt, modcloth circle scarf, vintage belt, modcloth double buckle wedges

So, here's what happened. I thought we were looking kinda spiffy the other day, and we just happened to have our pal Lacy with us, so a light bulb lit up above my head and I said, "Hey! Since we only keep Lacy around to do us favors, we might as well put her to good use and stick her behind a camera," or something like that (or nothing like that). And because we weren't even doing anything cool, Shane's premonition of having nothing to write about surrounding these pictures ended up being quite accurate. Darny darn. Soooo, I guess all you have to gain from this post is warm fuzzies inside from looking at pictures of us being cute. No need to thank me. I live to please.

  

(These are a little blurry 'cause it was frrrigid out and we were all big bundles of shivers! We're all about equal opportunity for photos here; no place for hate)

-christen

oh my faijfi;emacijejfao

I need to tell you about this because it's awesome. Tonight, for the first night in maybe...my whole life...I cooked something other than pasta for dinner (successfully). Because, ya know, although I don't even have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I've told people I could eat pasta for every meal, some nights (like tonight) I realize that's just not true. Sorry for lying, those of you who I told. You're over it, I can tell.


So, look!

What we've got here is my own rendition of Smitten Kitchen's eggplant salad toasts:

   -Dice up 'dat eggplant, mix it with olive oil, a little salt, a lot of pepper, and roast those babies in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes (I added black olives 'cause, why not?).

   -When the roasting stuff is done roasting, mix it with chopped onion, feta (and I added a little shredded mozz because I was short on feta...and by "short on feta" I mean I stole as much of it from my roommate's side of the fridge as possible without her noticing) and throw it all on some toasted baguette slices (or old hot dog buns. Don't judge.).

   -Finally, I drizzled it with a bit of peach vinegar, aka Vinegar of the Gods, because for some reason I don't own any other kind. I could seriously drink that stuff out of the bottle. No lie. 

   -Eat and die. (Because it's so good, not because it's so bad)

And that appetizing little blob to the right of this eggplant-y creation is The Pioneer Woman's crash hot potatoes.

   -Boil some baby potatoes in salt water.

   -Put them on a cookie sheet that's drizzled with oil and smash 'em. Since I don't have a smasher, I just used the bottom of a glass (worked like a charm). Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and herb of choice (all I have is basil), and slide them into a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until crispy brown. 

   -Eat and die. (See above)

And YUM! They were scrumptious. Disclaimer: no, I'm not a vegetarian, despite what 99.9% of the world thinks. Vegetables are just less scary to cook (no face-in-toilet involved if something goes wrong). (That's never happened to me before, it's just an irrational fear) (a phobia, if you will) (see that? 4 parentheses in a row. BAM!)

I wanted to include a picture of me eating this meal as evidence that I was actually responsible for all this. It's a very strategic photo, as it doesn't show how flat my hair was today, it proves that my counter comes up to my chest, which is just too tall for any counter, AND it's a little in-your-face proof to the few friends whose names will renamed unmentioned (*cough*Tyler*cough*Shane*ahem, excuse me*) that I don't always stick my pinky out when I'm eating or drinking. Sometimes I stick my pointer out instead. So there.

-christen

for your thoughts.

You know how you're looking at me right now thinking, "Wow, what a large smattering of color in Christen's outfit today"? Well, I equipped this outfit with a trick. It's called the ha!-I'm-still-wearing-earth-tones maneuver. I pull it all the time. Ornery of me, I know. 

Today you get to see magic happen in 'the woods.' Sit back and imagine the voice of Susan (the British female [the one with a deep voice] setting on your GPS) narrating you through this marvelous stroke of good fortune.

One day, Christen felt something peculiar about her shoe, so she decided to take a closer look and see what ever could be causing this disarray. Curiously, she found nothing.

She carried on, shivering in the winter weather, and hoping nobody would take notice of her elephant ankles. But, oh! Christen realized her upper body was not in the frame!

modcloth dress, anthropologie hat, anthropologie belt, rustic roots* bracelet, j.crew tights, modcloth shoes

She bent down so that her face could be seen, crossing her fingers (metaphorically) that none would regard the hole she mended in the knee of her orange tights, with brown thread, but quickly found that the pose looked terribly cheesy. Something needed to be done!

'Ah, much better,' she thought to herself as she kicked one ankle behind the other. But still, such a bothersome feeling under her toes. She took another look, and...

Aha! Nothing but a silly old penny. The end.

We need to clear one thing up. This isn't actually how the story went. Really, I found the penny almost immediately, and then everything else happened. But if I were to reveal the cool part at the beginning, you wouldn't have been nearly as electrified. That I know for sure.

*This needs to be mentioned. Rustic Roots was an awesome little shop in my hometown near Pittsburgh, owned by an even more awesome chick named Merrit. The shop is no longer there, I may have shed a tear over it, let's not talk about it. -christen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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