older women: fashion icons

Advanced Style: Age and Beautyfrom Ari Cohen on Nowness.com.

i think this video is incredibly awesome. not just because i adore iris apfel but also because my very own mother sent it to me with the words "i want to be like this!" written beneath it. mom, you've always had great style and certainly always pushed me to break fashion molds and strike out on my own. we could all take a tip from these women. fashion is supposed to be fun!

Photographer (and blog writer behind this video) Ari Seth Cohen said this: "I not only want to show that older women are vital and creative, but also to show people [they need not be] afraid of aging—and personal style is a great way to showcase this."

yes! thankfully, i too have women in my life who demonstrate the exuberance, wisdom, and freedom that come with age - at 40, 50, 60, 70 or beyond. more oft than not, i find myself more inspired by images of my Nana in the '50's with her short pixie cut or my mom sporting a cinched boatneck sheath and gorgeous bangles in the '80's than i am by the trends shouting from store windows.

what do you think? where you get your fashion inspiration?

on my way home from the lake

thankful for cold, cold Green Bay water to fling myself into on sunny 80 degree days
thankful for amazing Wagon Trail brownies (absolutely delicious every. single. year.)
thankful for cute texts from a husband who misses me but also loves me enough to let me go on vacation without him
thankful for a flight cancellation that led to a 5 hour car trip with my dad and great conversation about jobs, our family, and what matters most
thankful for lost luggage that allowed me a mini shopping spree on the airline's tab (hello, new jeans!)
thankful for early morning coffee in the quiet
thankful for our deck which gets just the right amount of sunlight and gives me the feeling i'm in my own treehouse in the woods
thankful for sweet time with my sisters who seem to be funnier and more fashionable every year
thankful for whatever law forbids chain restaurants or shopping malls from popping up in Door County
thankful for walks with my mom
thankful for my nana and gampy who birthed this wonderful, large family and gifted me 24 years of summers at my favorite place on earth

happy weekend!

don't you just love summer weekends? i am really looking forward to this one. i finally am beginning to feel a bit more settled in our newlywed digs. we only need a few more things, some photos on the walls, and one big dinner party with friends. it's been completely wonderful to feel 'home' even among the mess just because m comes home every evening after work, and i get to run up and plant a big, wet one on him. i love that.

so the weekend started with the Harry Potter premier last night at midnight! did anyone else go? wasn't it awesome? although i feel a bit sad - it's the end of an era! i remember reading the first book lying in a hammock one summer at our summer house in Wisconsin. those books are the kind of reading you can just fall into for an afternoon - just magical (!). i'm headed to Wisconsin next week actually (sans m so i'll be a bit sad), and i think i'm going to reread HP 7.

tomorrow i am throwing a little soiree for my dear little sis who is sadly leaving us to finish school in Illinois. you go, girl! one day, kirby is going to be traveling the world, caring for the impoverished, and making a difference - all while cooking incredible meals. at least that's what i think. we'll be celebrating her in style with some cornhole in our backyard and some sweet summer foods (i've been obsessing over watermelon this year!).

hope your weekend is full of popsicles and slip n slides!

chicago children's choir

just had to share the new blackberry commercial featuring my aunt josephine! isn't she gorgeous? she possesses such amazing talent and passion. composer, conductor, creative director (not to mention mother to two cuties - our flower girl and ring bearer!). she is an extremely accomplished woman, and she's changing kids' lives through music every single day. i'm blessed to know her.

jo, you're a beautiful woman. i can't wait to walk down the aisle to your playing!

Nana

i'm back! i'm so sorry i've been somewhat MIA this week. i normally try to keep things light and fresh on A Strong Aesthetic, but, to be honest, i couldn't do it these past couple of days. my family received some news that my Nana has breast cancer. needless to say, it's been an emotional, prayer-filled week for me. but yesterday we got some encouraging news, and i do believe it was due to all the prayers of so many friends and family. so for now, i am clinging to what i know to be God's truth and sending all my love down south to Nana.

the woman (pictured above in all her glamor- i mean, really) has fabulous style in all areas: she owned a clothing store, sewed a lot of my mother's clothes, has beautiful looping handwriting, ran her own interior design business, and was the winner of a beauty pageant to boot. she demonstrates more strength, both in her stubbornness and in the way she overwhelms you with love, than anyone i know. she is deeply devoted to my Gampy whom she has loved for over 50 years and who affectionately calls her, 'Shicky.' she's an avid reader and always recommends the best novels to me. she is every bit the part of a loving grandmother with all the wit and wisdom of a trusted friend. and she makes the best chocolate chip cookies i've. ever. had. i could go on and on. she is a beautiful woman whom i cherish so very much.

i know she's going to kick this cancer in the butt with more style and panache than most could muster on a healthy day. she's Nana, and nothing else would suit her.

poms and stamps

last weekend, i invited some girls over for brunch, mimosas, and crafting! now that the wedding is just five months away (!), it seemed high time to put some action into all those diy plans i'd made. the craft party was a wonderful success, and i couldn't have asked to share it with more lovely friends!

i spent the friday before the party preparing. my sister (and fabulous MOH) and i headed out to get all the essentials: ingredients for brunch, champagne, orange juice, fabric, a movie, and chocolate (ok, the chocolate and the movie were for us).

we set out all the crafting supplies:
1. tissue paper (i had bought the paper in bulk from this paper mart)
2. pipe cleaners, scissors, tape, pencils
3. cards (in one of our wedding colors! a total score from the Michael's sale bins)
4. thank you stamp (i splurged! thank you, ampersandity!) and ink pads
5. fabric (in various prints and textures, all in our wedding colors, from JoAnn's)

and then we turned on some music and went to work in the kitchen. we made this delicious egg strata (though we used 8 eggs, tore all the bread into bite size chunks and sauteed all the veggies beforehand). we made it the night before, so the next day all i had to do was pop it in the oven (along with some cinnamon rolls!). and finally collapsed on the couch to watch this movie (which was actually pretty good!). i LOVE time with my sister. we had a blast.


(that picture wasn't taken while we were making egg strata... though we have been known to strut around the kitchen in the dead of winter in our bathing suits. i love our matching freckles!)

the crafting party turned out beautifully! i had made poms earlier in the year for a party (pre-engagement), so i did a quick tutorial on pom-making since we'll be using a lot of them at the wedding. all the girls quickly became pom-making pros and set to work. my good friend natalie, known for her wordsmith skills, added stamping to her skill set and stamped ALL of my thank you notes. and maureen began to craft our fabric wedding banner.

the egg strata was a big hit, the mimosas were delicious, and the conversation was sweet. i'm so excited to see all of the diy decor coming together. i've had this vision growing in my mind since september, and it's going to be all the more beautiful knowing so many friends contributed to the finished product! i feel very loved.














thank you so much to all my beautiful friends who helped! i'm so sorry i didn't get photos of all of you but your presence was much appreciated. i wish i could post all of the finished products, but some things will have to be left until the wedding.

taking a moment

hello dears, i'm so sorry i've been quite m.i.a. and inconsistent lately. the past week or so has, quite frankly, been full of wedding planning and decision-making, and my energy has been exhausted by it. i am beyond excited to marry m, and i feel incredibly blessed by the generosity of our families in the wedding planning process. there are so many fun, good things to look forward to (not least of all, actually being married !!!).

sometimes, though, i must admit that wedding planning can rear its ugly head and cause me to become a stressed, unfocused crazy person. if you've witnessed this, i do apologize. i think a lot of the anxiety that i allow to creep in comes from my tendency to lean on perfectionism as my defining state. and, big news - i'm just not perfect. my wedding will not be perfect. and my wedding planning will not be perfect.

i won't be able to make my perfected, shiny original vision for the wedding come to life in every single way (for instance, i originally envisioned everyone sitting at one long barn table together... but hello! we are expecting 250 people. one table? not happening.)

also, m and i disagree. this has been perhaps one of the most surprising things about planning a wedding for me (i'm not sure why, as m and i tend to have different tastes and make decisions in different ways). it's not always easy.

so this week, full of decision making and to-do's, has been messy. and yet, it has been wonderful.

it's been wonderful because i finally allowed my perfectionism to die. and i received the best gifts - grace and love. my parents graciously told me i would never be perfect but i was still beautiful and very capable of making good decisions. m affirmed that it was ok we disagree, that it did not mean we were less excited to marry each other, and that the wedding is about so much more than our decor and desserts. it's about celebrating God's provision in our lives and for bringing glory to His goodness by committing our lives to each other.

i've been thinking about that a lot this week - how profound it is that when i'm wrinkly, gray, and weathered by life's difficulties, i will still be committed to the promise i made when i was 23. i will still be committed to m, in his mess and in mine. at the end of the day, no matter what happens at my job or how miserable my day is, i'll be coming home to m, my best friend. the wedding will be amazing. i'm so excited. but marriage will be life-changing. my life for his. laying down my desires (even my perfectionism), in order to love m. i've hardly a clue what that means in real life besides what i've experienced through Christ's love for me, but i am anticipating a life of adventure and fierce, fierce love.

ps - i love the above picture, taken at our surprise engagement party. such joy.

a chicago christmas

here are a few photos from my chicago family christmas. my mom always makes our home so cheery and bright with lots and lots of decorations (some of which have been handed down to her from her own grandmother) and a lot of which have been handmade by me or by one of my sisters. somehow she keeps the house looking festive and familial without allowing it to become overrun with knick knacks or clutter. ever since i was young, my family has decorated our house for christmas the saturday after thanksgiving. we go out and get the christmas tree (it's always a contest to see who picks the best one) and while my dad strings the lights, all of us girls start unwrapping ornaments, garland, the advent wreath, and snow globes.

the chalkboard is courtesy of my dad who, little known fact, is a great artist. i love that every so often he'll decorate the board with some message or drawing for us when we return home for a weekend or holiday.

finally, i just love our christmas tree. while i always enjoy seeing those trees decked out in proper golden garland and strung with gleaming red bulbs, there is something i adore about our little handmade tree. the ornaments all have stories behind them, whether gifted, made, or passed down. i love that kind of heritage.

i'm back!

whew! can you believe the holidays are over? i hope yours were restful and cheery. i had the best time at home, having a slow week full of family, some wedding planning, and my first bridal shower! now that i'm back, it seems i've hit the ground running and all that r&r has fallen by the wayside.

does this happen to you? it's like all week i got plenty of sleep, worked out every day, ate delicious meals, read a lot, lounged, wondering just how in the world i would fill up all the hours in the day. and then bam! vacation is over, and i'm wondering just how in the world i'll have time to work, eat, plan a wedding, work out so i fit into my wedding dress, and maybe sleep. and why, oh why did i not get more done during vacation? but that is what vacation is for, i guess. a reprieve from the constant roar of accomplishment.

so here are the very few non-accomplishments i checked off my list while i was gone:

1. painted my nails the most glittery gold (see above photo). it chipped off after 4 days, leaving my fingers in a sorry state of post-christmas hoopla. but i still enjoyed looking at them, like the sweetly sad feeling you get when you see all the wrapping paper balled up in the trash around noon on christmas.

2. listened to a new friend talk about the life he left in mexico, his love of painting, and how he once won a singing contest in front of 300 strangers. this might have been the most meaningful conversation i had all christmas season, and it happened when i volunteered with my church at an event for the homeless.

3. watched old home videos. oh my goodness. i haven't laughed that hard in a long time. my parents were strenuously committed to documenting all of their young daughters' lives on camera, and the result is pure entertainment. as the oldest, i exhausted myself in front of the camera, coming up with anything, anything to bring the attention back to myself (as my sisters would say, oh how things have changed). hilarious.

4. made these no-bake cookies (my grandma was famous for them around our house).

5. saw this movie. i highly recommend it. colin firth is amazing, and this story warms my heart.

6. read a lot of this book. a must read. it's changing the way i think. more thoughts on it to come.

would love to hear how your holidays were!

home for the holidays

merry christmas, all! my sister and i are heading out today for chicago to see my family. i really can hardly wait - my nana and gampy are already at the house, my youngest sister is home from college, my mom has White Christmas ready to be watched, and my dad has promised fresh homemade cinnamon rolls (he makes the best ones!). they have lots of snow on the ground and i can't wait to go sledding (never too old, right?)!

i'm looking forward to watching modern family (we're obsessed) curled up in my parents' bed with my sisters and some quiet time of reflection and prayer in our reading room (my favorite room in the house). my aunts are also throwing me my first bridal shower while i'm home!

i always get pretty emotional during christmas. thinking about the love of God embodied in a child. being overwhelmed by how much i love and cherish my family. and, this year, missing m. it seems unnatural to part with my best friend for my favorite time of year, but i know we have every christmas from this time forward together. thank God for that.



i'll be posting randomly over the next week or so, so please say hi if you're also on the blogosphere! wishing you all a merry, merry christmas!