fitforafemme.com

Despite today’s coast-to-coast temps that felt a lot more Summer than Spring, one-and-a-half weeks ago I woke up to a rather chilly day in Boston – hence the cozy black sweater dress (H&M), snuggly moss green tights (H&M), and tough girl leather jacket (Zara). Isn’t this room lovely?

Our friends recently painted up their warm, roomy rowhouse, and the accent wall you see is a super versatile rosy brown that changes hue with the day’s light, looking plummy at dusk, or like melted chocolate in the morning. It was so inspiring for thinking of how to fill up the blank walls at our soon-to-be new home in New England. So many ways to play with color, and we want to experiment with them all: paint, wallpaper, re-staining the wood floors, whitewashing cabinets, etc.

I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS NEW LEATHER JACKET FROM ZARA.

I cannot tell you how many months I’ve been searching for it. At least a year, probably longer. I picked a vintage motorcycle jacket up at Afterlife in the Mission last April, but the shoulders were too broad and overpowered my frame, so I let it go in a clothing swap (after wasting months telling myself I’d take it to be altered somewhere – ha!).

I wanted something and true to the motorcycle jacket look – the heavy, wide lapels, a narrow collar, all the zippers and snaps and especially the built-in belts that could be left hanging loosely or snapped tight – but at the same time I wanted it to be fitted, as if it had been tailored just for me, and of course I wanted it to be gloriously soft, supple leather.

I kept bemoaning the insanely expensive jackets I loved at Reiss and AllSaints, pouting at the so-so offerings from Topshop and Asos, telling myself it wouldn’t  be that bad if I settled.

But then! Wandering around Newbury Street on my birthday, we couldn’t ignore the siren call of their lovely Zara store and walked in to have a peek. It’s the last place I’d expect to find exactly the leather motorcycle I desired, but there I spotted it, tried it on, and it was a match made in heaven. I was totally in love, but then came that decisive moment – I checked the leather: lambskin (phew) and then the price tag – not exactly a steal, but not highway robbery, either. Oh dear.

There was a bit of handwringing on my part, but because it was my birthday the tomboy very sweetly and lovingly and happily insisted on treating me, and who was I to resist? I couldn’t possibly. It was perfect! (Did I say it was perfect?)

Anyway, if I had to pick an article of clothing as my spirit animal, this would be it, and if any unauthorized persons come anywhere near it, PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT I CARRY A BLADE. It’s very sharp.

Let’s chat about some of the other accessories happening with this outfit – serious riding boots (Etienne Aigner), an earthy necklace (Mariele Ivy), a friendship bracelet from IndieMart and vintage ring complement a simple but thoughtful cold-weather look. Hope you enjoyed it! I’ve actually got quite a few posts in the queue, so they should be coming along a bit more regularly now that I’m back home. I have a new haircut to debut as well!

Cheers,

FFAF

Spring is here, or so I’m told. It doesn’t look it from where I am – there’s still quite a chill in the air and our skies have that diffused, bright grey overcast I have always found to be the most irritating of all our Bay Area weather quirks. We’ve had bits of unseasonable warmth here and there, and were hit with a great big walloping storm last weekend, but I think my thick black tights underneath the frothy, pleated pink of this sweet dress (despite the sunshine) tell the whole story!

I’ve definitely been quietly collecting Spring essentials, though – another pleated dress in a bold, sunny yellow, two pairs of skinny jeans in bright teal and magenta, a breezy, grass-green camp shirt, wedge sandals color-blocked with a soft dove grey suede and lemon chiffon patent leather (and a clutch to match), and a few preppy cotton shirt dresses – but I’m most excited about the necklace I’ve got on here – a punchy H&M steal at $12.95 – and some new additions to my makeup drawer from MAC.

Several years ago I took my BFF to one of her initial visits to Sephora, and one of the MUA grabbed a tube of Nars lipstick, popped it on the BFF, and the effect was amazing. It was a really simple color, just a dusty, rosy pink, but it was one of those transformative shades with my friend’s complexion. It looked so beautiful! Foolishly, I tried on the color immediately, and of course it wasn’t the same.

Well, last week I wandered into the MAC pro store in the Marina (please don’t ask me what I was doing in the Marina) and the MUA helping me came at me with this horrible, frightening orange lipstick. I was instantly suspicious, but I tried it on anyway.

EGADS! Glory, thy name is Korean Candy, and the perfect companion blusher is Optimistic Orange. 

The effect of either/both with my skin tone is kind of miraculous. The lipstick is a glossy, super lightweight and wearable orange-y red, and the blush is a creamy shock of bright coral. The latter requires a very light hand, but even when the MUA painted on two big, bratty stripes over my cheekbones, it was still kind of cool. I love both shades so much it makes me want to eschew the rest of my makeup for Spring! Just a little foundation mixed in with sunscreen, tons of mascara, and my orange-y babes right here.

I’m still on the hunt for the following – let me know if you’ve seen anything good lately:

• a full skirt in a deep tan shade
• grass-green pumps or wedge sandals
• a proper leather motorcycle jacket
• a sweet, girly blouse or tank in yellow

We should chat about this outfit! I got this dress on a whim from an odd little boutique in Emeryville called Lola. There are only about a half-dozen of them in the states, by the makers of BCBG. Between the swiss dots, pretty blush color and pleated skirt, I couldn’t resist. The bow belt, necklace and faux leather jacket are all H&M. The studded boots are Trouvé, the studded clutch Matt & Nat. My watch is Citizen, and the talon ring and thorned cuff are by Made Her Think. The faux bamboo shades are vintage!

I CAN’T WAIT TO WEAR THIS DRESS BARE-LEGGED WITH A PONYTAIL AND SWEET LITTLE BALLET FLATS. HINT, HINT. 

Also, I would just like to add that these photos were taken by M at Jack London Square in Oakland. We really love Oakland and were so happy to spend a breezy, carefree day there with friends recently. So many outstanding memories from when we lived there, and it’s kind of amazing how much of our history still seems to float and crackle in its air, still very much alive – we would look at one another and the remembering was almost a physical sensation between us! How is that possible?! We don’t know, but we are sure we’ll lay down roots there again someday.

Who else is counting down the days until The Hunger Games movie?! We have tickets to the midnight showing (I may have mentioned that before) and I cannot think of anything else.

XOXO,

FFAF

Welcome to Day 2 of World Peace, everyone! J/K.

Mixing blues is nothing new, I’ve done it here before, but I’m excited to share a bunch of newer stuff with y’all! Above is a lovely double-breasted wool coat from Laundry by Shelli Segal, it’s wonderfully heavy and skirted and has a great deal of personality for a basic camel trench. Of course, with this very mild winter we’ve had so far, I haven’t had the chance to wear it yet! Such a shame, but I’m sure it’ll get a ton of wear sooner or later.

These fantastic green leather gloves were a Christmas gift from M, and so was the Fossil leather wallet with the little keyhole. I’m in love with these gloves. The color is incredible, and they are so soft, and the fit is perfect. I’d been needing a new wallet for a little while and this one, even though it’s basic black, smells divine and looks great! I still have lots of feelings for my oversized scarf from H&M, but like the coat, it’s hardly been cool enough to wear it much. Grr!

Kicked up the outfit this time with my Adrienne Vittadini calf-hair leopard print wedge booties. The jeans are Ralph Lauren and I thrifted the belt – the stripes and vintage pearls brought a little East Coast prep to the table, too. The shirt is H&M’s L.O.G.G. brand, and the sweet little fox ring is from there as well. I kept the shirt half-untucked with the sleeves rolled up to keep things loose and breezy (like my hair). The crowning glory of this tomboy-influenced outfit is this new tortoiseshell watch. It was yet another gorgeous gift from the tomboy for Christmas – she knew I’d been lusting after an oversized watch to add to my collection, and she nailed it with this Michael Kors chronograph beauty. So good.

That’s it for now! I will say I just came back from a really magical clothing swap last Friday night, and have lots of new goodies to share with you. For now I’m focused on an exciting new opportunity to volunteer with an amazing organization (meeting with them tomorrow – more on that later) and a weekend for l’amour – we’ve got a date to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the night we met coming up, the BFF and I are going to sneak whiskey in to see The Vow, and of course Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! XO!

Last year when we went to get our tree, the lot was still damp from rain but it was warm enough out for bare legs! It’s kind of astonishing that we ended up with almost exactly the same size tree this year, albeit through a series of humorous and unintended follies. We decided to drive out to Half Moon Bay, where certain farms hand you a big old saw and let you pick your own to cut down. It was a spectacularly clear and sunny day, but with enough wintry bite to remind you what season it is.

I got the idea into my head because growing up it was always great fun when my family drove out to Half Moon Bay to chop down and carry home our very own special Christmas tree. In my mind, I was so small and the number and size of the trees so very vast that I would run around and get lost with my siblings. The trees were a deep, bold green and it all smelled like heaven. There was hot cider and everyone was happy, rosy-cheeked and smiling. Delightful! The most wholesome Normal Norman Rockwell-like memory of my happy childhood, really, and as it were it’s a big fat S H A M.

What is that?! Do you see that?! That’s not Christmas tree material! That’s a bush thing butchered to merely resemble a vague Christmas tree shape. There were so many of these, and tricksy M kept trying to sell me on ‘em. Outrageous! They didn’t even smell Christmas-y, and I was taking one home over my dead, hacked-to-pieces-with-a-rusty-saw body. I don’t know if it’s been a bad few years for trees (yes, I hear myself, please shut up) or we arrived too late in the season, but something’s changed in the past 20+ years, clearly.

The actual Douglas and Noble Firs still standing were too sad for our purposes. (I mean, look at that poor guy up there, center left.) They’d make fine Charlie Brown Christmas trees, or even perfectly acceptable 4′-5′ trees for smaller homes. I’m not disparaging them.

We wandered acres and acres, holding out hope for “the one” so that we could make our own perfect lumberjack lesbian family holiday moment. We’d pass other families circling like despondent vultures, kids in tow, M expressing solidarity with the exasperated husbands declaring that “the next one we find, we’re cutting down!” and me rolling my eyes good-naturedly with the women, and then we’d all fight over who got to carry the saw.

It was the saddest thing ever. Eventually we all became delirious, at several points ganged up on one another in different configurations, but mostly there was a great deal of laughter (and a flask of bourbon, I ain’t gonna lie). I fed it to M while we hiked another mile to check out one last patch of land, and that’s where we decided to plop down on a hillside to ready ourselves to admit defeat.

THAT’S WHEN WE SAW THEM.

Across the street, at another farm, dozens of absolutely perfect, lush, full, enormous trees. Sure, someone had already chopped them down, but we’d been out looking for hours and hours and damn hours, and no longer gave a shit. God, they were perfect. After a quick and very absurd family discussion, we got the hell out of there and went across the street, and found our special tree. (I had a brief dalliance with a Grand Fir, but we settled on a Noble. I’m a Noble gal at heart, as was my dear Aunt Judith.) The end! 

OUTFIT STUFF! I call these my “femme cargo pants” even though they are not quite that at all. They’re from H&M and have neat panels on the inner leg, like riding pants, with zippers all over the place. Pockets, ankles. Little baby snaps on the bum pockets. The faux fur vest is H&M as well, and the ruffled silk blouse is Lauren by Ralph Lauren. The pony belt is M’s but I steal it a lot. Boots are Nine West, the studded envelope clutch is Matt & Nat.

I’m wearing my stormy vintage ring from Pretty Penny, along with a Mariele Ivy necklace and lots of bracelets from Old Navy, actually. The earrings were a gift from M, lovely antique gold hoops with spangly bits of abalone.

Don’t worry, M brought her lumberjack hotness and she’s up next, along with before/after pics of the actual tree.

Hope everyone is having a lovely December out there,

FFAF

It seems we’ve all gone headfirst into December, with brash winds and orphan sunshine. Poor M’s been locked in a brutal two-day offsite brainstorming session for work the past few days, and is so sleepy she can’t even drink bourbon. It’s shocking, I know. Anyway, here she is standing in front of some sort of houseboat in a state of disrepair, in Sausalito. There are all sorts of boat lifts and such on either side of her, and despite the abandoned cooler in the front left, there wasn’t a soul around!

Boat, boat, we’re on a boat! This is pulling into Tiburon, on the ferry, of course. I love how it looks like she’s manning the corner/door, like she’s keeping watch almost. Side note: Did you know that watchcaps haven’t got anything to do with watches? I didn’t. I had to be told. I thought perhaps watches got so cold in extreme weather that there are wee tiny knit hats to keep them safe from the elements. Adorable, but WRONG.

This is the amazing, $300 Newkirk Down Vest she scored for $99 not long ago, by Polo Ralph Lauren. It’s pretty amazing, especially considering we’d been scouring the interwebs for puffers for weeks and she kept vetoing most of them as not awesome enough (even those with wildly outrageous price tags). She thinks this one is perfect, and now she’s got two and is satisfied – I think.

I like these photos so much, M all smashed up against the window (you can see how cold it is) and peering out with that dreamy, childlike curiosity. We saw all sorts of wildlife in the water that day – harbor porpoises who’ve been hanging out in the bay this time of year for the past few years (biologists are researching why, it’s fascinating), enormous pelicans dive-bombing for food, and sea lions. While the porpoises were super cool, my favorite, hands-down, are the pelicans. They’re so kamikaze! And clumsy! And the splash they make and the angle at which they plummet into the water, it’s a sight to behold.

This is where the very unsuccessful, wee crab-catching occurred. Hooray!

Corduroys: Kenneth Cole
Shirt: Izod
Sweater: Zara
Puffer: Polo Ralph Lauren
Boots: Mark Nason
Gloves:  H&M
Glasses: Dior Homme

Look how happy we are! We ought to live on a boat, like Conor says. (I love this song, I’d sing it over and over at the top of my lungs to and from my riding lessons all summer. Such a good album.)

We should move to Sausalito
Living’s easy on a houseboat
Let the ocean rock us back and forth to sleep

In the morning with the sunrise
Look in the water see the blue sky
As if heaven has been laid there at our feet

For some reason, I named this folder “Bunny Bun” in my Picasa, so there you have it. Maybe it’s because this bun is exceptionally fluffy, like a bunny tail. Who can say?! This was taken last Saturday, the kind of sunny, crispy Fall day where you can get away with bare legs, despite the fact that the day before we were all been bundled up in scarves, coats and gloves, braving the bay under surly skies.

I would like a few more of these days before winter takes hold, but the past few have been wrapped in fog thick enough to rile the mournful cries of foghorns, and we’re all braced for 70mph winds due tomorrow. Spooky! At least I’m well, having knocked that awful cold out with drugs or tea or bourbon or all three. (I’m sure M is convinced it’s the sidecar I had at the Lexington that healed me.)

Also? I have a confession: while I was running around today, I felt that sharp, distinct feeling of being ready to get the Christmas tree. Hooray! As I told a friend yesterday, I am SO excited about chopping down our own tree this year. LOOK OUT, YOU PRETTY SONS OF BITCHES, WE’RE COMING FOR YOU SOON! (If only I had this axe with which to chop it, and I must say I do prefer ax over axe, but I feel it behooves me to adhere to the spelling choice made by the company that makes the axes I so desire, alas.)

This is my HEY GIRL HEY face. Hey. So many baubles, where do I begin? Mariele Ivy necklace, the lipstick-y bullet cuff is from a little booth at a Portland market, the earrings are Asos and the ring is from H&M (and technically belongs to M, I believe). I’ve got my vintage Dooney & Bourke bag in tow and cozy brogues on again. The skirt, too, is vintage, and I paired it with my super soft  and very perfect Everlane v-neck tee and Sparkle & Fade cardigan. This was my “Oh, hey, let’s go to the movies!” outfit (and hair and makeup).

Tomorrow is the last day of November, and I would like December to be kinder. November’s been so cruel to far too many people I cherish, and it’s been kind of hard to take. I really want to be mindful of treasuring every single day in the coming month, for it’s the last of 2011! I can’t believe it, and 2012 holds so many uncertain (but exciting!) changes for us.

I’m ready (more than ready, actually), but for now, I just want to cradle this last month like a soft, sweet little kitten.

Love,

FFAF

I’m sitting here writing up this old blog post and M is playing Red Dead Redemption, which has raised my eyebrow in a disapproving manner on more than one occasion, I’ll have you know. She is determined to beat one more game before the end of year, given the fact that she’ll have had her PS3 for six months and will only have beaten one measly game (with MY help, thank you very much also WE MISS YOU LOST PLANET II). Too bad all the tomboys who’d play with her live in such far-flung places as SLC and Boston.

Did I not tell you that this scarf matches my dress in a borderline creepy way? In case you missed it from my other post, her mama knitted all three of us a beautiful scarf, just because. The petite’s was bright red, mine was chartreuse, and this is M’s! I have the feeling we’ll all be playing musical scarves this winter. They’re all fabulous. I lucked out because Grandma Medina also knitted me a lovely burnt orange scarf as well, also chenille. Hooray!

I never would have pegged M to pluck a GOLDENROD wool sweater off the rack at H&M, but she sure did, and it ended up being absolutely perfect with this vintage Salvatore Ferragamo tie, with the little lions and regal bugles. She paired them with an Elie Tahari dress shirt, Zara slacks and her trusty Asos brogues. (The belt is also from H&M.)

We hope y’all liked these Turkey Day photos as much as we do, and that your leftovers lasted longer than ours did (they were all gone by Sunday). I am swinging by my little brother’s office tomorrow to drop off his phone – silly fool left it in my car on the way home Thursday night – and one of our pumpkin cheesecakes, because we do NOT need to eat all three by ourselves. In other news, I was tickled pink to find the latest issue of Horse Illustrated (I didn’t even know such a thing existed) in my mailbox, an early Christmas gift from my folks! So sweet!

I also think I’ve settled on some nice DIY gifts for folks come Christmastime: Grandma Jones’s fresh-baked shortbread, and homemade bourbon caramel sauce and spiced pear-infused vodka. One year the petite and I also made our own wrapping paper, with some rad shaped sponges, beautiful paints, plain brown wrapping paper – and glitter, of course! I’d love to do that again, too. Do you guys ever do homemade or DIY presents? I wanna hear all about ‘em!

Here’s a few more of the two of us goofin’ around: