twig and tree

My Dream Portraits

I love the idea of formal portraits that look stiff and fake. 

And I am a sucker for images of Carolina Herrera and her daughters.

So many ball gowns and skirts.

Even their casual photos looks formal, swoon.

Magic Man is not a fan of portraits, let alone anything stiff and formal.  So bless his heart for indulging me once a year (and no one more that that).

I suppose if we want to do it right, next year we (READ: the adults) will ditch the smiles.  At least the kids figured that part out.    

Twig and Tree

My Dream In-Laws in LA

One of my favorite things to do is visit my In-Laws.  It's true- they're so funny and from the first time I met them they treated me like family.  In November they moved from Meridian, MS to West Monroe, LA so we road-tripped out to see them and check out their new home.

I know very little about Duck Dynasty, 

but apparently it takes place there.

 I usually get teased by my whole In-Law family about my wardrobe and what I chose to wear when, but I think I finally got it.  It was balmy and sprinkling on and off and my lightweight Free People dress (love those sales on sale) and my Melissa oxfords (best rain shoes ever) fit all situations I found myself in.

It proved to be the perfect outfit for checking out one of my new favorite lakes, the Black Bayou.  

 As you can see, we could Not contain ourselves.  

My brother-in-law also drove up which means even more fun.

   

 Can you tell it was windy?

Actually we had tornadoes that night - my first ever!

Magic Man was about to make it rain.

 As was the the sky.  

Magic Man accuses me of having too many 'favorites' or '#1's' but the lake was my first Bayou and I did truly love it.

And I love these guys.

We also checked out the mall, which Magic Man and I had once visited (well, we slept in the parking lot during a road trip).   

Do you miss Walter White too?

We ate non-stop (mostly healthy stuff like Mom's homemade bread  and Five Guys' grilled cheese) and watched The Christmas Story (Do You Like Santa? . . .  I Like the Wizard of Oz) while the tornado tore up part of the town.  

There was a frozen custard place I wanted to visit but we ran out of time.  It's fine, we'll be back to see our family and also so I can visit my most favorite lake ever of all time. 

From One Dream Locale to Another

So Magic Man and I packed up

And relocated from Meridian, MS 

to Austin, TX.

And although I wanted a tad more time in the Deep South (can you blame me?) . . . 

(why yes that is a peacock in our tree) 

And at my job at Coastal Living 

(I loved going to work everyday) . . . 

. . .I do adore Austin.

The day after we moved we were asked to submit a video as a possible location for Tig Notaro's Road Trip Documentary.  We didn't get picked but now we have a record of our first days in here.  

As you can see Here: 

and here:

And now starts a new chapter, where I can wake up at 6:00AM and drive 5 minutes to the nearest H&M (1 of 2 that were selected in Texas) and be the 5th person in line. . . .

to shop the Isabel Marant X H&M event.

This couldn't have happened in the Deep South and if I was still in NY or CA it would have sold out. 

I guess this classic song has it right:

  

My Dreams of Bohemian Country Life Were A Bit Off

I had romantic notions that life near a forest would look like this:

But since moving to the South I have been apart of such activities and they actually look like this:

P.S. This is the county photo

And this photo is for the city-folk who might get upset when they saw a children so close to him:

(I really did re-take it for that reason.)

Anyway, comfy, not form fitting clothes that allow for maximum movement with nothing on your heads is actually how you do proper archery.  You'd think that a hat would be a useful item that everyone wears.  But unless it's a baseball hat, you will be teased.  I was shocked at all the comments from my new family-in-law when I wore this hat.

Totally pragmatic, right?

It was a hot and sunny day!

They reacted as if I was wearing this:

Yeah, I wish.

Anyway, so lesson learned.

What you see in magazines about country life does not translate to real life.  In Mississippi.  And you'd think this would be obvious but life in LA or NY really does look like editorials. 

But I haven't given up completely.  There are plenty of other rural photos I can try and recreate.  

Like basically everything from Vogue's 2008 Fashion Rocks issue staring Dhani Harrison and Sasha Pivovarova.

I'm almost positive my Mississippi Husband would wear a flower crown while playing chess in the woods.  Just as long we weren't in his father's camp (if you're Southern or a hunter you might know what this means).