I've spent the last week in a shopping frenzy, and I have a pile of gorgeous dresses to photograph for the shop! Now for some inspiration… I spent a very indolent Sunday hiding from the blazing sun in my blacked-out living room, poring through an issue of Vogue from this May that a friend had lent me. This was possibly the best issue ever, since it focused on the models, complete with Juicy Model Gossip! If they were all like this I would have continued my subscription. Natalia Vodianova did a photo shoot where she channeled famous models from the past several decades, and I was so happy to see that Penelope Tree was included in the tribute. Her outfit was the best, by far:

…but then I like things pretty Dramatic.

The real Penelope Tree does not disappoint, in fact I think she trumps Natalia and all the modern models for the fact that she was one of the very first to carry off that "I'm sorry, I was communicating with aliens, did you need to say something to me? How terribly dull" expression whilst wearing her entire closet inside out on top of her head. I heart a good juxtaposition, and this girl had it down.  Continue Reading... (339 words + 6 images, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

From Amber

A few weeks ago something rare and wonderful happened- my Uncle Charlie came to visit from his home in Florence, Oregon. Charlie is one of the coolest dudes I know- my mom's older brother, a lifelong bachelor who turned himself from an alcoholic cigarette addict into a health food junkie and all around happy guy at mid life.

He stayed with my 87-year-old grandma in Sacramento (that's them above, six decades ago), and Mycie and I drove down into the valley to spend some time with them, my mom, and my sister. If you've ever read the story of my unassisted home birth, you know how much my grandma means to me, how intrigued I am by the winding branches of matrilineal lines on the world's family tree. Whenever we're all together, we try to get a picture of the four generations of women in my family. Here's me, Mycie, my mom Janis, her mom- my grandma Claire, and my sis Lacey (two-and-a-half years younger than me):

But I can trace my matrilineal line even further back than this, thanks to a pile of old family photographs my grandma has. She was one of twelve children, but if you think that's crazy let me tell ya that my great-grandma Valida actually birthed seventeen children(!), but five died in infancy. My great-grandpa was named Joseph. They were a French-Canadian family living in Massachusetts. Here's my great-grandparents and the first 11 kids, back in the 1930s (my grandma is 3rd from left in the first shot):