fitforafemme.com

Howdy, folks. How was everybody’s weekend? Ours was bloody fantastic. A dear friend from Boston came to stay with us and it was non-stop fantastical shenanigans from the minute she arrived Friday night, catching up over hibiscus flower cocktails to our early evening tea and cookies send-off on Sunday. We visited several nearby beaches, accompanied her to get a new tattoo at the stunning Seventh Son tattoo shop in SOMA, moseyed around Half Moon Bay’s pumpkin patches and harvest festival, and enjoyed many delicious meals and stories and laughs. It was a blast!

Our Indian Summer persists, despite what these photos may be telling you. We’ve had a few crispy Fall days here and there, but for the most part our days still hover in the 70s. I was so excited to wear this outfit – a super light silk dress fortified with thick black tights, riding boots and a natty, no-nonsense coat and bag. You’ve seen this dress before, but on a warm Spring day with bare legs and platform mules, so it was fun to turn it into something that works for this time of year, too.

I wanted to show y’all our new front door. It’s such a deep, lacquered mahogany, I love it. We got to pick from around six colors – glossy jet black, red-orange, pale blue, brown and darker beige. Originally, I asked for black, but changed my mind when they told me of the hassle involved. We’ve since decorated the house inside and out for Halloween – a wee bale of hay, lots of pumpkins, oversized pieces of candy corn and vampires and ghosts! I’ll try and get some photos up here soon. So festive!

Dress: Julie Brown
Coat: H&M
Boots: Etienne Aigner
Contrast Satchel: Asos
Foxtail: Dollywood

Necklace: Mariele Ivy
Thorned Cuff: Made Her Think
Earrings: Asos
Fox Ring: Asos / Smokey Ring: Pretty Penny, vintage

I cannot even begin to express how pleased I was to discover that this gorgeous green corner of our garden was a trellised canopy of pink jasmine. Aside from lilac and lavender, it’s so one of my very favorites. It reminds me of Oakland, of being young and dumb and throwing myself into myself with a force I now find mildly alarming, in retrospect. If my 20s had a little animated book you flipped through to see a tiny film full of gorgeous, wretched chaos careening into the arms of unyielding perfection, the smell of pink jasmine would writhe up headily from the pages.

I’ve been known to tear a small bunch of jasmine away and toss it onto the dash of my car. The more the sun breaks it down and disseminates it through the stale of my car, the better. It beats the hell out of some scented whatever-the-heck you can buy at a gas station! In somewhat related news, all of the houseplants that were scarcely hanging on at our old SF flat are now thriving, and some are barely recognizable they’ve flourished so much.

Today was a 50-50, half grey and half silvery sunshine. Last night I shocked the entire lesbian nation of SF by appearing at a social event on a weeknight sans tomboy (13 Licks at Q Bar in the Castro, to be exact), so despite the fact that I was back in bed before 1AM, I wanted to take it easy this morning.

Jeans, a striped cotton pullover and heels seemed low-key enough, especially when pulled together with oversize, lacy pearls and a blazer. The top knot was a no-brainer, et voilà!

I’d never been to this particular bar on this particular night (though I’ve been there plenty when it was called other things and hosted other nights – lesbian nightlife is very complex, yo, especially in the context of cross-longevity and whatnot), so I chose an outfit (not pictured) which I considered to be “playing it safe.” Leather panel skirt, lacy black bra, MAJORLY lacy + sequin vintage blouse. It was raining, so I paired it with sheerish black tights and my new Aldo boots, and plunked a big floral chiffon bow over my ponytail.

I was repeatedly told that I was fancy, and my companion for the night insisted on buying me a drink on account of my necklace that says femme. (Totally unintentional side effect, that bit.) I got to meet some FB friends IRL for the first time, which is always fun and delightfully awkward and kind of nerdy, right? But so good, and definitely cute. Plus, they played Adele.

Anyway, I will wear it again sometime and post it here for you, sweet readers. Yes.

THESE VINTAGE FAUX-BAMBOO SUNGLASSES.

Aren’t they nifty? God, I’m glad we stopped in Auburn on our way up to Tahoe last weekend. I scored not only these shades, but a lambswool capelet and the above-mentioned ivory sequin + lace blouse. Someone started sending us Latina Magazine, so I was reading it on the drive and saw these amazing hoop earrings by Lauren G. Adams. I usually stay away from hoops, especially HUGE ones, but I fell so deeply and immediately in love with these that I scanned them with my smart phone RIGHT FROM THE PAGES OF THE MAGAZINE and bought them whilst sailing 80mph up HWY 5, y’all.

F I E R C E.

Jeans: James Preserved Denim
Striped Shirt: Kersh Essentials
Blazer: Banana Republic
Blue Patent Pumps: BCBG
Pearls: Spoiled! (Oakland)
Sunglasses: Vintage (Sisters, Auburn)
Bag: Co-Lab by Christopher Kon
Foxtail: Dollywood

PS. ZOMG, my Zoya “Intimate” Spring Collection arrived today! Of course, I put Gemma on right away – it’s described as a “light muted olive green with an overlay of blue and violet duochrome shimmer.” It’s extra-festive for St. Patty’s Day!

PPS. Special announcement: Fit For A Femme is super excited to be part of this rad photo show with Lesbians in SF, debuting at the one and only Lexington Club for SF Pride 2011! Here’s the flyer for a sneak peek and to learn more about the show. (Don’t forget to “Like” LISF on Facebook and check out their excellent Tumblr, and if you’re local or will be in town for Pride, mark your calendars for the show dates!) It’s going to be outstanding.

Blue Monday because these were taken on Valentine’s Day!

It’s now Thursday night. I am antsy, very antsy. Tomorrow we’re heading back out to Lake Tahoe for more snowy bliss on a long holiday weekend. Since there have been lots of storms in the past week, there will be plenty of fresh powder and it will probably be much cooler than last time. I’m pretty sure we won’t be skiing around in light sweaters – I’m actually worried I won’t be warm enough this time! I’m going to take a break from FFAF and just enjoy my girls and the beautiful surroundings. I hope y’all have wonderful plans to make the best of the holiday, too!

I’ve made no formal announcement about the fact that I’ve moved on to greener pastures, work-wise. This has been my first week and it’s been wonderful. It’s an ideal role – challenging, but there’s a pleasing balance of working freely and as part of a sharp, funny, creative team – and as resident Maven (that’s what my business cards say, I love it), I’m focused on wrangling data and paving new organizational paths at a small design company in the tech world!

Needless to say, I’m thrilled and things are off to a dreamy start. It’s an incredible place to be and I’m so deeply happy.

Now that all the new news is out of the way, what’s this I’ve got on here? It was a dreary Monday, so I abandoned all wispy notions of wearing something frothy and pink, and opted for this comfy cotton day dress in navy blue. I brought a coat but left it in the car, since I knew the museum would be warm indoors and carrying it around all the hours we whiled away in there would be cumbersome. I was perfectly comfortable the whole time. PHEW.

Dress: Banana Republic
Belt: Vintage
Boots: Nine West
Snaky Earrings: Gift from M!
Bag, Foxtail: Freebird by The Sak, Dollywood
Nail Polish: Jo by Zoya

Happy President’s Day weekend, kittens!

GOOD GRIEF. All weekend long it seemed like the entire San Francisco Bay Area was basking in the gorgeous winter sunshine. People went to the beach, sunned in the park, had BBQs. Typical wintertime on the West Coast, as evidenced here and here. I spent Sunday in a paper thin cotton sundress and vintage YSL heels. It was eighty degrees in our house. I eyeballed our swimming pool hungrily, but had a houseful of guests coming for our belated housewarming / SB XLV party, and silently vowed to take a dip this week if the temps rose again.

The warmth is long gone and we’re back to crisp blue skies and a constant wind with bite. I went to the Ferry Building today and out there on the water the wind is so bad it almost blew my dress right off!

But the cherry blossom trees are ablaze. Ours seemed to bloom fully overnight, as you can see. I’ve trimmed off the lighter branches and put them into vases to brighten things up in our home. Even though the petals shed like crazy, they’re so beautiful. All told, I’ve got the pink branches, bright yellow, freshly cut daffodils and soft, live lavender in the house. Spring fever has crept in early.

I wanted to thank you for your suggestions in my last post! I will definitely be checking out your recommendations and reporting back.

I’m also planning to improve on the indexing here so that folks can find what they’re looking for a little more easily – we contributed to Autostraddle’s recent post in their new series “Queer Beauty Bar” on smelling good and I realized that there’s no way to hunt down all of my scent / fragrance reviews! Terrible!

Look, you definitely want to go to there:

I am LOVING what Alex has done with the site and hope to contribute more to this Queer Beauty Bar series in the future!

So, this ensemble!

I thrifted this dress, it’s very comfortable. The wind does funny things with it, but it also just falls nicely and is perfect for these not-quite-warm, not-quite-cold days. I paired it with some ribbed tights and the boots I picked up in Portland at Rock ‘n Rose. You’ve seen this Freebird by The Sak + Dollywood fox tail combination a million times, I feel.

I keep getting asked about it and complimented on it everywhere I go, more lately than ever before, and I just don’t know what it is! Often, they’ll ask me where I got such a beaut, and you should see the utterly crushed look on their faces when I confess that it’s from Dollywood, yes, DollywoodallthewayoutinTennessee. So sad. It breaks my heart.

I love this picture the very talented photographer Keep Drowning took of it at a party M & I were at recently:

(Photos courtesy of Keep Drowning, obviously.)

Yes, those are my very excellent Calvin Klein suede and patent leather cut-out pumps.

Anyway, very cool photos. Y’all should hire that person, because I had no idea these were even taken and I’m in love with the smoky, boozy, candid haze they capture!

WHAT A WEEK.

Jesus Christ. It’s like this wussy little 4-day work week was so slighted by how completely and totally amazing our magical holiday weekend was that it decided to be the biggest shit in the history of the universe. So.

When I think of the last weekend, a warm, cozy glow washes over me and I nearly wince against the memory of the sun hitting so much white, can almost hear and feel the slushy crunch of snow under my boots, can feel M’s big, warm, fingerless-gloved paws against my torso as she catches me when I slip on an unsteady swath of ice (and her smile when it happens), the delicious bite of big mountain wind in my hair as I soar float down a tree-lined, twisting run, trying to catch up with her. The work week is all but washed away, and my mind sets on plotting how long before we can go back (21 days exactly).

Here is a wood we came across. Tahoe City has some nifty little walking bridge, and that’s where we were trying to get but stumbled instead into a park-like area with a Gatekeeper’s Museum and a little red shack to show you where the Original Fire House once stood, with ominous black bear painted cut-outs from particle board placed here and there.

It was beautiful. Even though footsteps had worn a clear path out to the clearing of soft, untouched snow that had fallen over the rocks or sand or both of the Lake Tahoe shores, only a few imprints were visible past a certain point. First I ran and then trotted and then walked briskly out toward the water, turning back often to check on M, who kept snapping photos and gingerly stepped through the snow, laughing.

I found a snowman missing its face, and tried to give some of it back. A long, skinny finger of land or dock stretched way out into the freezing cold water, and I wanted to walk to the end of it, but M hollered at me not to. Too dangerous. I stopped and flopped down into the snow, sunk down half a foot, and began to flail around the way I imagine people do when making snow angels (which I have never done), to make a snow angel.

M caught up with me and doubled over like she was having a fit and then told me my snow angel was the worst one she’s ever seen, so I threw some snow at her and made a beeline for the trees.

Anyway, you can’t imagine how beautiful it was there, unspoiled and hushed and lovely. These pictures of the scenery hardly do it justice. If we weren’t expected back at the cabin, we probably would have found somewhere to nap like real bears.

When I woke up today and peered through my blurry Valentino glasses to search for my contact lens case, panic set in. I knew I only had one lens left, and if anything happened to my last pair, scarcely hanging on by a thread, I was screwed. I hate wearing glasses, I hate the loss of peripheral vision, I hate how wobbly and unsteady I feel in them. I ran my hands over the bathroom counter, over sticks of eyeliner and tubes of lipstick and sundry palettes, and gasped as they met the little cage that is supposed to sit immersed in some sort of fizzing disinfectant solution overnight, every night. It hit me.

WHILE TAKING MY CONTACTS OUT LAST NIGHT, I GOT DISTRACTED BY LASH SERUM AND GIDDILY APPLIED THE LASH SERUM AND ABANDONED THE PROCESS ENTIRELY.

My eyelashes might be longer and thicker and darker, but I was stuck in my glasses half the day today because by morning the contacts had shriveled and dried into a cloudy, brittle mess. I had to make an emergency eye exam appointment (as it turned out my old prescription expired last September) and sweet talk them into giving me a trial contact lens (to go with the orphan lens) on the spot, and praise Dolly they did.

So the rest of the day went. The free lunch at work was so-so, but a coworker gave me some Tcho chocolates. I ended up working very late, but scored $300 of Banana Republic goodies for less than $50 at their last chance sale. The sitter was late picking up the petite, but we had delicious Italian delivered and I carried my stinky fathead puppy around for awhile, like a baby. There might be two suns in 2012, but Mexican CNN has naked chicks, so it’s all evened itself out, hasn’t it?

Corduroys: Levi’s
Sweater: Target
Boots: Vintage
Foxtail: Dollywood
Bag: Freebird by The Sak
Cocktail Ring: Banana Republic

This is what it looks like when a sassy city girl leaves the big sparkling bay behind for 6,000 feet and then some of snowy mountain times. We zoomed from a bright, chilly San Francisco through the state’s capitol and its too-hot suburbs all the way up to absolute heaven on earth in Tahoe City, North Lake Tahoe.

It was somewhere around 36°F.

These are my Silence + Noise skinny blacks, paired with a basic cotton v-neck tee from the Gap, and topped with a soft, cozy striped cardigan from Aerie. I gave it a little oomph with a vintage Gucci scarf, my Dolce Vita for Target boots, some vintage chains and Freebird for The Sak bag. Bracelets from Banana Republic and my BFF. The Dollywood foxtail stayed with me throughout the weekend, and was the only way the tomboys were able to keep track of me on the slopes!

After all the wide-eyed road tripping we did, we were famished when we finally got to town. We saw this cute little pizza shack with its train sign and old-timey truck parked out front, and I made M double-back so that we could check it out. Fleetwood Mac came on when we walked in. The pizza wasn’t bad, they had Modelo Especial on tap and also served carnitas and fish tacos. The best part by far was how it was perched over the Truckee River, which was incredibly beautiful just before sunset, perfectly still and softly framed with snow.

However, we learned rather quickly that our footwear was lacking. For some reason, I thought these boots had some sort of tread on them. They didn’t. M thought her fancy new boots had tread on them. They didn’t. Did we end up spending nearly $100 on proper snow boots on our recent trip? OF COURSE WE DID. If we hadn’t, we would have ended up cracking our little heads on the concrete.

Side note: I still insisted on wearing a pair of heels out to dinner on Saturday night, and didn’t break my face. Hurrah!

Now that, friends and lovers, is a sky scrubbed clean by all the storms we had this weekend. By Sunday morning it didn’t look it, as you can see, but we had some serious weather; sheets of rain pitched about by volatile wind, hail, a touch of flooding, loads of thunder and lightning.

The papers went balls to the wall over them, using words like “violent”, “theatrical” and “wallop”, which is my personal favorite.

W A L L O P.

On Saturday during the very worst best of it we ran around the new house hollering and squealing and flinging doors wide open like fools, standing wide-eyed counting one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand whilst waiting for the thunder to come crashing down around us, giggling madly.

We’re spoiled Bay Area girls; we get excited when Mother Nature pitches a fit. Even a wee one!

I am very much still in my nude-beige-flesh-blush tone phase. I love that this bag is a taupe-y mushroom shade, has just the right dash of sparkle and is a perfect match for my Dollywood foxtail. The earrings are a touch heavier than I can deal with for very long, but have gorgeous earth tones – red clay, cream, soft olive green, the same taupe as the bag, and the floral silhouette is etched on the backs – a nice touch for big earrings that are easily turned around!

In home decorating news, we went thrifting Saturday and scored a beautiful dusty rose velvet armchair for the living room, two sets of antique lamps for an absolute steal (just $39 for both sets), and another antique lamp as we’ve got quite a bit of space to illuminate. Our new couch arrived dry by some miracle on Friday, and yesterday – just after these pics were taken! – we all set off post-brunch for an afternoon at the pet store acquiring supplies for the petite’s new fish tank.

Here are the little guys we’re starting her out with:

There are ghost-y, creamy white versions of these guys, with the same glow-in-the-dark blue eyes. She’s getting those, too.

Denim: Levi’s
Blouse: Ultra Pink
Mini Crossbody Bag: Freebird by The Sak
Boots: Rock ‘N Rose
Earrings: Claire’s