dual denim

Taking pictures at camp is awesome. It feels so great to do outfit photos in a natural environment again! It's like I'm back at home in Alaska. I love Tacoma, but doing outfit photos in town isn't as fun as frolicking out in the woods. Western Washington definitely earns the title of "The Evergreen State." Everything is just this vibrant alive color of green. While I've acclimated to really enjoying the city environment of Tacoma, I think I'll always have the wilderness residing deep inside me, calling me home. You can take the girl out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of the girl.

dress/courtesy of spotted moth :: shoes/courtesy of strut :: top/courtesy of alainn bella

I'm not usually a matchy kind of person, but when I saw these shoes next to this dress, I knew they wanted to be friends. I've had this dress for about a year and while I don't wear it all that frequently, it's still a dress I really like. Every once in a while it's just perfect! I think this is why I hate getting rid of clothes, because I always think, "but what if I want to wear that in a year! What if I give it away and then I have this perfect opportunity to wear it and now it's gone!?" Haha. I'm definitely a recovering pack rat. Literally. I had saved every geometry homework assignment from my freshman year of high school... because I thought they might be useful one day...?? Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. Since then I've moved around quite a bit and moving is definitely a great way to encourage catharsis and getting rid of those random things that I hold on to for one reason or another. Living in the Brave was definitely awesome for that because there simply wasn't room for random junk to accumulate! I'm glad that I am able to let go of things now. I still have that tendency to want to keep things but at least I can get rid of stuff more easily now!

Brave Sneak Peek!

Here's a little sneaky peek of my little Brave in the woods! Since I'm not totally settled into it yet, there's still a bit that needs to be done, but I was so excited that I finally had a lens for my camera that would actually be appropriate for taking interior shots that I just had to share some photos! My new quilt looks absolutely amazing in the Brave! I got those little Winnebago figurines from Etsy a few months back. Totally going to be one of those weird old ladies who has a strange collection of Winne paraphernalia.

Right now I'm trying to figure out all the fun stuff that I'll be doing for my campers! I really really want to have a fun DIY thing that I can create for each of my girls that they can take back with them from camp and keep as a memento. I still have little neat things from when I was in highschool, tucked away in books, so I was thinking of making a bookmark for each of my girls with their name on it and something like a positive list of words that describes her, or a verse that encourages them, etc. I REALLY want to take an instax photo of each girl to include on this little bookmark thingy, but I don't have an instax camera yet and that would all be coming out of my (extremely limited) funds, so I'm gonna have to think about that and see if it'll work. I'll definitely share a DIY with you guys once I figure out what I'm doing!

Greetings from camp!

Well, folks! Greetings from Soundview! I've had quite a few posts scheduled already so the transition to being at camp wouldn't feel overwhelming. We've been full on with our staff training and our first camp group comes on Friday! Woo! We've been doing everything from learning about eachother, getting CPR certified, learning about first aid, protocols, how to use our walkie talkies, as well as what all our summer programs will be during the week! It's a ton of information, but so far everything is going really well. I've got quite a learning curve since I'm one of the very few new people on staff.

It's really nice to be out in nature again. Right now I'm living in the bunks with all the other staff during training so we can all be together, getting to know one another. Once camp actually starts, though, I'll be living in the Winne! I'm mostly moved into the Winne right now, just so I can have all my stuff organized in there instead of jumbled in the back of my car. It's so great to be living in the Winne again. Soulmates reunited! Now that I have a 24mm lens for my camera I'll be able to take some decent interior shots of the Brave, so hopefully I'll be able to post that soon too!

top/courtesy of ruche :: skirt/handmade :: shoes/courtesy of strut :: watch/urban outfitters

I got these shoes in the mail the day I was leaving for camp, and I'm so glad I did, because they are so cute! I love them! I really love little oxford flats because they have great details, but they're still flats, so they're easy to slip on and run around in, which I'll definitely be doing a lot of this summer!

The internet here is pretty slow, so I'll try to keep up with posts, but uploading photos takes a long time (it's like the good ol' days of mobile blogging in the Winne on the road!). I get about 24 hours off in between almost every camp session so I'll try to use that time to answer emails, tweets, etc.

Sponsor Delightfully Tacky!

Hey guys! Just popping in to let you know that I'm currently accepting sponsors for July and beyond. If you run a shop or blog that you feel like my readers would enjoy, sponsorship is a great way to gain exposure! Right now I've got ads available in all three sizes (large, small, & mini). If you'd like to test the waters of sponsorship, try a mini ad, which gives you a taste for sponsorship with a minimal financial investment!

If you're interested, go ahead and click over to my sponsorship page for more information. You can also email me at delightfully-tacky@hotmail.com if you have any questions!

Sunny Lazy Days

A few weeks ago it was absolutely gorgeous in Tacoma so a bunch of friends got together and spent the whole day sitting around, grilling up burgers, drinking cheap beer, walking to the convenience store for ice cream, and playing with a tiny snake friend! Snake friend decided to make a little bed out of my floppy hat, so cute! I love snakes. Especially little ones. This one is going to grow up to be pretty big, but I like them at this size. They just seem like portable snakey friends when they are so small!

One time I was in Seattle with a friend during the big snowstorm of 2008 and we were at the bus stop waiting for it to show up, but they were all really delayed because of the snow. We ended up meeting this really bizarre guy who had a small snake, about the same size as this one, wrapped around his neck to keep it warm under his dreadlocks. Its name was penelope. The guy was going to school studying witchcraft, if I remember correctly. When he got on the bus, he proceeded to sing Christmas hymns very loudly. Such an odd encounter!

Just visiting

On Sunday I got to come back into town for a visit since it was Father's Day and we had the day off from staff training. I was really excited to get to come back, visit Dan and get some blogging done. My Bloglovin' is going to be overflowing with unread posts by the time I get back from camp. I'm just not going to have the time to keep up with it all! I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to reply to emails and tweets. I have limited access to internet at camp and I'm going to be super busy so I probably won't have a lot of time to do that kind of stuff.

I love these adorable shoes from Blowfish, but unfortunately they were too big for my size 4.5 feet (they're size 6's). Usually I can wear size 6 in flats and boots, but these ones were just a smidge too big and kept jumping off my feet. Luckily my ex-coworker who now works at the coffee shop I was at all day fit into them perfectly, so I gave them to her. They're exactly her style and look awesome on her, so it worked out!

cardigan/old navy :: top/target :: scarf/from tieka :: jeans/levis

sandbox flats/courtesy of blowfish :: watch/urban outfitters

Last week I had to go to the jeweler to get my watch sized since my wrist is miniscule and pretty much no watch is made to fit me. This is partially the reason I don't wear bracelets or watches, but I also don't like things around my wrists, including sleeves. I always push my sleeves up to 3/4 length because it drives me nuts! But we have to wear watches at camp because we aren't having our cell phones out in front of the kids. We want them to not have their cell phones, so we have to lead by example. It's funny to realize that my only way of telling time for the past 7 years has been my cell phone! I'm getting used to having a watch and it fits perfectly now that I got the extra links taken out by the jeweler.

While I was at the jeweler I saw one of those ring sizing thingies and I decided to figure out once and for all what my ring size is. I've never really known besides knowing that no ring I've ever put on has fit me. I have to wear rings on my middle fingers because all my other fingers are much too tiny. Turns out I wear a size 3.5 ring. Three and a half, people. What am I, 10 years old? Haha. Ridiculous.

Crosby's First

My good friends, Jason and Kaela, had their son Crosby's first birthday last week out at Point Defiance Park, so we went out to celebrate the little tyke's first year on the planet. He's a crazy little kid. Pretty darn hilarious. Jason and Kaela are actually the Program Directors of the camp I'm at this summer, so I'm spending the whole summer with these guys! Kristi and I climbed trees and found a squirrel friend who was completely acclimated to people and just walked right up to us. I suspect he had been fed quite a few scraps. I've never seen a less skittish squirrel in my life! Kaela made adorable moss party favors for everyone. And we ate yummy chocolate cupcakes. Crosby chose to use his cupcake as face paint.

This birthday party reminded me of my brother Ben's first birthday, which was in a local park in California. It was such an incredible event as he wasn't even supposed to stay alive for two weeks. A one year birthday just seemed so surreal. I wasn't old enough to grasp it at the time, nor do I even really remember the birthday party (I'm only 2.5 years older than him), but I've seen lots of pictures of it. He's just this happy-go-lucky one year old shoving chocolate cake in his face like any other one year old would. I can only imagine how overwhelming that must have been for my mother. Overcoming the idea that her son wasn't going to live, then accepting the blessing that he was going to live and then seeing him acting like a normal one year old baby- no tubes in his mouth or nose, no wires hooked up to him reading his vitals, no scars visible. Just a little redheaded boy with the most vibrant smile she'd ever seen. Pretty amazing. If you want to read her thoughts on his 3rd birthday, you can read this post.

BFF Style!

Hello! Kristina here, that other ginger-to-luminescent-hair transforming monster you’ve seen popping up on this here blog lately. I’m (not so) secretly really stoked to have the opportunity to guest blog for my bff, Delightfully-Tacky. Naturally I’ve been reading her blog since the start, and it kind of geeks me out to have my silly ol’ face on it. I don’t normally do this kind of thing, so forgive me if I bore. I am currently spending my summer road-tripping more-or-less across the country. So when there was a gap in my plans, I jumped on the chance to drive up to Tacoma and spend some time with Elizabeth and finally meet Dan. What’s an extra 2,000 miles? NBD. You guys should see how cute Tacoma is, I completely fell in love with all of the old houses, little shops, and the people who live there. Did I mention how cute Elizabeth and Dan are together too?? If it weren’t for all of the cloudiness, I would move there in a heartbeat.

I have been trying to figure out what I want to write about, because Elizabeth has already talked about some of the highlights of my visit (um, 1022 South, yes please). But really, the highlight of my trip was spending some time with my bff. I’ve never been the type to have a lot of close girlfriends, so my friendship with Elizabeth is extraordinarily special to me. We’ve known each other since 8th grade, and have been there for each other through all the tumult of growing up, college, failed relationships, everything else that comes along with the progression of life. At this point in my life I am coming out of one of those “failed relationship” stages, and am admittedly a bit of a wreck of a human being. To have a friend that you can be totally yourself around, vulnerable, cry, and know that I won’t be judged for at times ungracefully mucking my way through healing, is such a treasure.

dress/forever 21 :: boots/nordstrom :: leg warmers/american apparel :: shades/free people

As I was doing my daily yoga yesterday along with one of Ashley Turner’s DVDs, she was talking about how you should consider the five people closest to you, and what that reflects about your inner state. Are those people uplifting, nurturing, and supportive of your goals and who you are? One of my favorite yogic mantras is “Om Namah Shivaya,” which roughly translated means “I respect and honor my true self.” Embodying that mantra and making sure the people around me equally respect and honor who I am has been my true journey so far this summer. The thousands of miles traveled across this country in my wee little car seem to be just a manifestation of that. I will have traveled approximately 10,000 miles by the time I return home, but it seems that the distance covered in inner growth pales in comparison to that at times.

For any lady (or man!) who has experienced becoming and adult and simultaneously recovering from the end of a relationship, you know it is never easy, and healing always seems to take more time that it should. But for me, right now, most of the time this deep feeling of being blessed by having those select people who are closest to me in my life overwhelms the crappy feelings enough to keep this girl movin’ on. Even though the relationship Elizabeth and I have is unconventional (we rarely *actually* speak, and have grown accustomed to seeing each other maybe once a year if we’re lucky), I will always count her as one of those closest five, and am incredibly happy to have spent some legitimate time with her in her natural habitat.

Right now I’m reading “The Path to Love” by Deepak Chopra, and I just wanted to end this with a little quote that has inspired me lately. I think it kind of compliments the recent post “The Infinite Variety of Individuals.” I don’t think I am alone in feeling a bit like a roughly pieced together collection of parts most of the time, so this to me is beautiful little piece of advice to myself and all of us women out there:

“This shift in perception happens not by changing who you are but by seeing who you are and then shining it forth. If you were able to exhibit the full grandeur of your being, your whole life would be a romance, one long love story dedicated to ecstasy and joy…Who you really are is not a collection of parts but a whole. Seeing yourself as whole is the first step toward seeing yourself as truly attractive.” (page 72 &75)

You are beautiful, make sure the people closest to you believe that too, and embrace it =)

1022 X 2

Something about being at 1022 just makes me want to take pictures of everything. The interior is gorgeous and all their drinks look so pretty and photogenic. I end up leaving there with a camera full of photos. This is probably due to the blogging culture I live in, but I have started to love taking pictures of all sort of things- food, flowers, people, textures, etc. Even my ancient Nokia 6010 snuck into a photo, haha.

I love showing people around Tacoma (even though I'm still a newbie myself), simply because I love this city and I feel like most people either don't know about Tacoma at all, or they have this concept of Tacoma skewed by the infamous "aroma of Tacoma" and by what they see of Tacoma driving through on I-5 (that's not Tacoma, people). I personally feel like I've found a kindred spirit in this city and I adore it. I'm certainly going to miss this place over the next two months.

I'm so glad Kris got to come visit. It's a huge bummer that it's a bit dreary here, to say the least, for most of the year. She really loved Tacoma and would definitely consider moving here if it wasn't for that, oh, majority of the year when the sun is veiled by a thick layer of clouds & rain. She's a sun person. Luckily I've never been a victim of Seasonal Affective Disorder, so the clouds and rain don't bother me too much. Kristi kept dropping hints that maybe she'd be coming back soon for ... an event. Let's just say she's not too subtle about wanting Dan & I to tie the knot. Haha! I'm pretty sure she almost accidentally called him my fiance once or twice. This girl has been my FMOH (future maid of honor) for about a decade now and has said Dan & I were going to get married since we met in '05, so now that we're actually dating I'm pretty sure she's just waiting for the "I'm engaged!" phone call. Haha.