Lilac Saloon

Allison

Let me introduce you to Allison, Katelyn, Josh and Tyson.  Katelyn is 2 and Tyson is a Boxer.  I had the pleasure of photographing this beautiful family recently and wanted to share my favorites with you!

Resort 2011 {Part 2}

{Part 2 of 2 - my favorites from the Resort 2011 Runway Collections}

I've been browsing through the recent Resort 2011 collections and wanted to share my favorites with you!!  I have noticed that this time I have been mostly drawn to the designers use of COLOR - especially the soft colors with hints of bright and dark.

.......................

Jason Wu
I love how different and ghostly that print looks.  Also love the striped sweater with the black embellishment - giving it a bit more of an edge.

Jonathan Saunders
Speaking of ghostly - this whole collection was ghostly.  Lots of white with haunting florals placed onto the garments in different ways.

Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs almost always has something to love.  Somehow, with this collection he snuck in "preppy" and got me to LIKE IT!  Look at that black little sweater and bottoms.  It's like a swim-set for a chilly day {if that makes sense??}.

Organic by John Patrick
Mostly, I need to note THE OXFORDS.  I'm still obsessed with them and these aren't helping!!

Oscar de la Renta
Can you wear stripes with more stripes?  The answer is - yes.  Also note the mixed-up plaid and the craaazy belt.

Preen
That model shouldn't look so sad to be wearing such and amazing outfit and EPIC SHOES.
  
  

Rag & Bone
A pretty simple look compared to a lot of the other stuff I've been featuring, but it's so well thought-out.  I love the casual sweater with that pleated dress and the perfectly placed skinny belt.  And THEN we have what seems to be the most perfect shoe/sock situation.

Stella McCartney
Her prints are unique and take you to somewhere new and eerie.  I like them for that reason.

Versace
The entire collection is a hit for me.  Very "NEW" feeling colors!  Don't you agree?

{All photos are from style.com}

14 Hour Drive

{source}

It is 5am and we are climbing into the car that is packed full of summer belongings.  Rollerblades, sunscreen, decks of cards and a cooler full of snacks.  We're making the drive from Estherville, Iowa to Alpena, Michigan.  We'll arrive there at around 8pm (or, 9pm for them due to the time change).

There's nothing better than Northern Michigan Summers!! 

Resort 2011 {Part 1}

{Part 1 of 2 - my favorites from the Resort 2011 Runway Collections}

I've been browsing through the recent Resort 2011 collections and wanted to share my favorites with you!!  I have noticed that this time I have been mostly drawn to the designers use of COLOR - especially the soft colors with hints of bright and dark.

.......................

Anna Sui
Cartoon cherry print, pastel colors (hello, lilac!!) paired with black in cute silhouettes. 

Balenciaga
This acid green/yellow is amazing.

Chanel
Really soft floral on chiffon is so pretty.  Also, the embellished neckline is great necklace inspiration!

Dior
Scalloped edges, candy and pastel colors, stripes and textures!  All of the colors used in this collection were so perfect.

Chris Benz
Love this skirt in the collection.  Off-kilter, layered pleating in a balanced mix of white and yellow!!  Yes, please.  As for the 2nd outfit - I want to wear the entire thing.  I'd change the shoes to black ankle boots, though.  The color combination is beautiful and silhouette is clean.  And the necklace?  Makes it.

Diane von Furstenberg
All pattern in black and cream with my favorite - acid green!  She's poetic, I tell you.

DKNY
Unique use of pattern always gets me... and the tights and shoes are at the top of my NEED list.  The 2nd outfit is so perfectly new and casual and I LOVE THE COLOR.

Erin Fetherston
Minimalism is done so right here.  It's not so stark that it's boring and under-designed.  This is thought out, clean, feminine and perfect!

 Givenchy
No matter the season, I always fall for black and red.  And pleats.  And ruffles.  And belts.  And skirts.  So basically this entire collection is perfect.  And check out how AWE-SOME that 2nd outfit is!!

Look forward to Part 2, tomorrow!

{All photos are from style.com}

Night Light

Remember the last time I tried to capture lightning on camera?  It was one of those rare times where there was lightning but no rain - and it was my first time trying to photograph lightning.

Well, on Friday night, we had the MOST SPECTACULAR lightning storm ever!!  It was more than just a lightning storm.  It was a huge thunderstorm with 60mph winds.  Once the heavy part of the storm passed, it turned into what I called a TECHNO RAVE of lightning.

When I took these photos, it was 3:30 in the morning.  We couldn't sleep.  There was so much lightning that it looked like a strobe light was in the bedroom.  And of course... I couldn't stop thinking about trying to take pictures.  Oh, me.

We got in the car and drove two blocks to an open area where there are railroad tracks and not much else.  Aside from this pole and wires, it was a perfect view.

I don't mind it in the pictures though actually.  It's a whole electricity theme, right?

Aren't these pictures just mind-blowing??  It makes my first ones look ridiculous.

I mean.... geez!  These big streaks of lightning kept literally making me gasp and flinch.  They were so bright they were startling.

There were multiple bolts of lightning going off at a time.  It wasn't... one here one there.  It was, like I said, like strobe lights.

The really bright ones that don't look like bolts kind of look like the sun don't they?

Is this really earth??  Those clouds look so unreal!

As Evan and I looked through these pictures when we got home, we said "People aren't even going to believe that these are real!!  They look too crazy!".  I swear, these are not Photo-shopped!!

It's so weird how the sky/clouds look different colors depending on the lightning and how much of it there is.

This one looks otherworldly.

And now for the grand finale.  Try not to s*** your pants...

I know, right?!

Latch Hook Rug

Normally when you see a latch hook rug, it's a bit dated and a lot bit kitschy.
Teddy bears and kittens and Santa's face, oh my!

But... I saw THIS...

And it opened my mind to whole new possibilities!  How amaaaazing is that?!

I want to make one!  I just don't want to spend $500 buying all the colors of yarn needed to make it.  Ha.  Has anyone else seen any other cool examples of this?  I'd love to see!

Summer Begins Giveaway WINNER!!

Check out the video HERE to watch Rachael of Hello Earth pick the winner!!

Congratulations, Carma!!!

I'll be sending you these beautiful Wallflowers in a pretty package asap!

 

Thank you to everyone who supported and entered our Summer Giveaway....

LET SUMMER BEGIN!

Wreckless Abandon

  

This evening, two hours before sunset, we drove back out to the tracks of the old abandoned trains.  There are technically two parts, on the same track.  One is pretty close to someones driveway and closer to the road and one is far from the road and all alone.

Last time I shared photos, it was of the train that is near someone's driveway.  The one we explored tonight was not that one.  Haha.  I didn't know how difficult it was actually going to be to get to it until we started walking.

The track is very overgrown.  Years and years worth of weeds and plants and branches and bugs.

It looked okay for a while.  Stumbling over flowering weeds and taking pictures at the same time for about 30 feet had me realize that I wasn't going to get to the train very fast.

After photographing that flower, I looked up and saw what was ahead....

I put the camera away in order to walk though that nonsense!!  It was taller than waist high, and there's train track under that, so we stumbled the whole way there.  I was praying that nothing was poisonous.

Finally, we reached the train.  I didn't know if or how I was going to get up inside there.

There was no ladder and the platform was about chest level, so climbing up would have been hard if I was alone.  Luckily I had Evan to give me a boost.

I walked in slowly and carefully, being very quiet just in case I needed to hear what was happening around me (bees or other living things!).

I'm making an assumption that before the track was so overgrown, this train may have housed a homeless person or two.  Things in separate piles, like these bottles collected in this one area, seem like a clue.

I am also making the assumption that the train closed down in the winter.  There were two boxes of Christmas lights at the doorway when I entered.  And, this lovely sign...

There's a birds nest on top of this wheel handle.

From this photo, you almost can't tell that the train is disgustingly gross!...

...Until you see this one...  This is when I decided that there was a human or two living in here.  The seat on the left that's cut out of the picture had a huge pile of... well, feces.  It had to have been human, it was in such a neat pile.

I walked through three train cars.  I think there were probably five or six total.

After this, I was close to entering car number four but I got nervous.  I heard a clicking noise (or thought I did) and the next car looked different and more unstable.  I started to feel the need to get out of there - almost like the way some psychic's feel in a haunted room that they need to leave.  Bad energy.

I closed up my camera bag and quickly walked out.  When I got back to the door, Evan said he was getting eaten alive by bugs out there.  He wasn't exaggerating, either!  His neck had bites all over it!!

We plowed back through the weeds and to the car.

Maybe we'll explore the next train in the winter.

***BONUS FACTS!!***

I did a bit of research and discovered that this train is the Spirit of the Lakes train on the Iowa Northwestern Railroad.  It used to be a Dinner Train and stopped running around 2002.  That means we walked through 8 years of weeds.  Sheesh.

Photos of the train BEFORE abandonment!

Summer Begins GIVEAWAY Reminder

Don't forget!!

You still have until tomorrow to enter the giveaway...
Please tweet, blog, facebook and tell your friends about the giveaway - share the love!

Comment on THIS BLOG POST to enter!!

{Fun bonus fact about the Wallflowers that I'm giving away!  It took 90 hand cut petals to create the set of three flowers!!  They look amazing on the wall clustered close together or hanging in size order or even mixed in with other art you might have already hanging!}
 

The Making of Striped Gloves

A little behind the scenes look at turning something old into something new!

I'm thinking I want to do a photo shoot with these inside that old train!  How sweet would that be??

26

 

I hope to welcome in age 26 with a hair day as good as this!

But seriously.

I turn 26 today and I'm happy about it.  Some people complain about getting older or define the specific age they are as suddenly "old".  I don't really get that.  It's all life, dudes.  It's all part of the journey and I think that my journey is only getting better as time goes on!

I'm grateful for the things I will do and learn and achieve and become this year!

Hello, 26, nice to meet you!

 
 

Striped Gloves

Remember the gloves I got from the antique shop the other day?

I think this photo is GREAT inspiration for a way to modernize the white pair!!

I was thinking I could paint the stripes on using black fabric paint and then embellish them a bit.  I'll share photos if they turn out well!
 

What The - CLOUDS

This evening at around 9pm, it was still a bit light out and Evan and I both noticed that the color of light coming in through the windows was strange.  Very yellow.  Very different than we've ever seen before.

We went outside and had a huge surprise waiting for us...

I decided not to edit these pictures at all so that I could give you a close representation of what we actually saw.  There IS spots of pink in those lower clouds.  The higher clouds were very flat and stripey and very yellow.  More yellow than in the photo, even.

We thought we might hear the tornado siren go off.  We checked weather.com.  Nothing.  This wasn't even a storm with any rain or thunder.

Very dramatic clouds, but that's all they were.
They quietly passed by.

Intense, right???

The color started to change to purple as we stood there and the sun set further down.

I have never seen a crazier looking sky in my life.
It was so amazing and beautiful that I forgot to be scared!

Summer Begins with a GIVEAWAY!

Very exciting news!!  Hello Earth, Wild Sparrow and myself are having a fantastic giveaway!  You can enter the giveaway starting today through June 24th... with the winner being announced on the 25th!  A good Friday surprise for one lucky winner :)

Guidelines:

Leave a comment on this post telling me your Name, Location and your favorite thing to do in the summer!

Commenting on Hello Earth and Wild Sparrow blog posts about the giveaway give you two extra entries!  Yay!!

No friends and family allowed (sorry, Mom!).

Winner will be chosen randomly and will be announced on Friday, June 25th on all three blogs.  Winner receives three original art prints by Hello Earth, a beautiful fabric pouch by Wild Sparrow and a set of 3 wool felt Wallflowers by Lilac Saloon.

Spread the word!!  

Flipping Out

I flipped out when I saw this Lanvin Ad of these girls flipping out.  Aren't these shots just amazing?  I tore them out right away and ran to the scanner with them.  I'm freaking out over how awesome they are!!

Dramatic and weird.  My fave.

 

I need to do a photo shoot like this.  Not sure HOW they got their bodies to do that.  I don't wanna break my neck.  Maybe I'll get my model friend Jane to do it this summer when I see her.
Thanks Jane, in advance, for agreeing to try this.  Hahahaaaa.
  

Small Town Treasures

I think I've mentioned this before...

Thrift stores in small towns can have the BEST STUFF.

Here's what we got, as proof of this theory:

Two pair of vintage gloves.  I might modify them into something (like this!) that has a little more edge.

 

A vintage collar.  Going to add my own touch to that as well.  Still brainstorming!

 

Hello, oval frames!!  They're not that easy to find, actually.  We were pretty excited about these.  Until we came across the next things...

 

OMIGOD amazing!!  First of all, why is EVERYTHING gold, always??  Other than that, wowww.  Awesome ornate candle holders that look JUST LIKE that frame we found earlier!!  They need to be repainted asap but once they are... they'll be stunning.

 

More ornate gold decor.  I know.  What the.
But can you blame me?  This has so much potential, don't you think?  Repainted and then fill those windows in with a cool something.  Evan said maybe some crazy cross stitching or something.

 

I giant spool of thin LILAC yarn.  Made for me, no??  I'll use it to wrap up my etsy packages!!

 

I GASPED when I saw these!  Jackpot.

 

Evan found this belt.  Different, right?  I need to figure out how to style it.

 

Total money spent: $20

I love Estherville!
         

Spirit Lake

We finally live near water again!

Evan and I grew up in a lake town in northern Michigan.  Nothing compares.
Central Ohio did not provide us with loving lakes to wander around and wade in.

I know, it's Iowa.  So seemingly far from water, right?
Not here!  We live right near the "Iowa Great Lakes"!!

It was so nice out that we finally made the short trip to find a spot to park and sit by the water.  It is so beautiful and clean here.

In the area that we found it was not very "beachy" but it was perfect for a BBQ picnic with some beach chairs and fishing poles.

Look!  Summer snow!

Little white poofs were flying through the air.  It was dreamy.

The downtown area of Spirit Lake is really cute.  It's not too different from Estherville but it is a little bit bigger and seems to have a bit more money.  From tourism, I assume.

We love living here and love every bit of exploring!!!

Old Lonesome Train

We have to make trips to the neighboring town of Spirit Lake quite often.  They have a Wal Mart.
We pass an amazing looking old abandoned train still on a track.  I've been dyyyyying to go and explore it!!

The area between the road and the track is REALLY grassy.  Long deep grass.  I didn't really want to walk through it in shorts and flip flops.  I get nervous.  I took photos from the road with the intent to find out who owns it so I can get permission to go inside!!  I am not moving out of this town without eventually doing a photo shoot inside this train.

Our landlord knows everyone here so I have a hunch that he'll be able to connect me to someone who will let me photo explore this amazing thing.

The space between Estherville and Spirit Lake looks completely like this.  Lots of beautiful fields.  I'm mesmerized by them.

There is also a small group of wind turbines which powers this plant.  We found out that it is an Ethanol plant!  Double awesome.

Hold me to that promise to get inside that train!

Wind Is The Reason

Ever since we found out we were moving to Iowa, I had wanted to photograph some wind turbines.  I wanted to walk right up to one and look straight up at it's powerful blades.

We found a lonely couple of them off of a side road in our neighboring town, Spirit Lake.

We parked in a nearby church parking lot and walked up the dirt road leading to the turbines.  There was a big turbine and a baby turbine.  Needless to say, the baby turbine was still huge.

As we walked closer, it was becoming more and more clear just how big these thing are!  It's like seeing an airplane in the sky and then standing next to one.  Big difference.

For a size comparison, here is Evan:

Some day soon he will be climbing inside that little door and doing very important work up at the top!  That's crazy, right!  Apparently there is also a job of cleaning the blades.  You hang off of the top and clean them.  I'd pee my pants.

 

Looking straight up at the wind turbine is just crazy.  A mixture of dizzy and amazed.

These things are the reason that we moved three states westward.

These things are the reason for our new life!

They're beautiful, aren't they?
             

Never Stop Exploring

Every time we drive south out of Estherville or north into Estherville on Highway 4, we pass what looks like (from a distance from the road) ski slopes!  We see these long clearings in the hills with some poles and ropes going up the center.  We wanted to check it out every time and just finally took the time to stop when we were on our way to The Grotto last weekend.

We had to drive off the main highway and up a winding back road past lots of secluded houses into thick woods.  We came upon a little ski lodge and noticed that it was really overgrown with weeds and grass.  It's out of season, true, but it was really obvious that we didn't just come across a ski slope..

We came across an abandoned ski slope!!  For some reason it was even more exciting.  Abandoned things are always a little creepy and mysterious - like they've got old fables and stories floating around them.

I love the fact that around here there are usually wind turbines in the horizon, no matter where we go.

It was pretty shady and a bit damp/cool at the top of the hill and we were getting COVERED in bugs and flies.  We actually walked really fast through here and I snapped the photos even faster to avoid having too many bugs land on us!

I wonder how long it has been since the slopes have been used?  Ten years?  Less?  More?

I thought this white thing was a sled but Evan said he thinks it's for pulling an injured person.
Kinda cool.

See... FLIES!!  I told you!

This photo looks like a double exposure.  It's actually just me trying to take a picture through the window INTO the main lodge.  I really wanted to see inside!  At this point Evan was already getting back into the car so I didn't attempt to take another.

There were a few peonies by the road so I jumped back out of the car and snapped a few photos before we sped off and away from all those bugs!

Always make time to explore your world.  It will amaze and surprise you - I promise!