Maren and the Dream of Horses

Saturday afternoon I was indulging in a little nap when my husband woke me up and informed me that I needed to change into my jeans. My half asleep self mumbled, "ugh, why?" "Because you can't ride a horse in a skirt," said the hubs. Hooray! I've been wanting to go horseback riding for a long time now. It's something I've never done and I just wanted to know what it's like, you know? Anyway, after many not-too-subtle hints (i.e.- saying "when am I going horseback riding?" periodically), my dear spouse took the hint and surprised me with a trail ride for my birthday.

It turns out, riding a horse is a bit like raising a toddler. Old Tom was constantly trying to wander to the side of the trail to snack on the trees. Being the experienced layer of smack-down that I am, however, I let him know that I meant business, and we had a pleasant ride through the park.

Sadly, I did not remember my camera, so I have no pictures to share with you of Tom or the cool old bus sitting on the stable's property. Instead, I though you might like a sparkly animated GIF. You LOVE those, don't you?

Bowling Outfit

This is what I wore for my birthday party on Friday night. I was pretty excited because I found pretty much the whole outfit in one trip to the thrift store, but I didn't even do it on purpose. I happened to pick up each item and when I got home I said- "oh hey, that's an outfit! Can you even tell from the pics that the shirt is pastel plaid?

cardigan: thrifted (originally from Target)
shirt: thrifted (vintage Levi's!)
skirt + belt: thrifted
shoes: f21
frilly socks: payless

You can't really see my purse which is a little brown leather kiss-lock number that I found at a garage sale a few years ago, but you CAN see my bowling bag, which I found at the thrift store- with my ball, Annette, inside- for a dollar!

Super Birthday Bowling Party

Yesterday was my birthday. I am now officially the big two-nine. I have to say, this was one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. Even though it rained like felines and canines. We had homemade pizzas for dinner and then headed out to L&M Lanes, which is really more like a bar that happens to have a few lanes. We proceeded to bowl terribly (or at least I did), drink good beer, and have a great time. Perfect. I feel so blessed to have these wonderful people in my life, especially my husband who put all of this together for me.

Oh- and my friend Marlene made Pistachio Rosewater cupcakes for the occassion (!!!), but we were not allowed to bring them into the bowling alley, so we did a cupcake tailgate in the parking lot afterward. How could the day have gotten any more awesome?

My First Outfit Post!

Today is such a nice day in our fair city that I felt inspired to put on a bright, sunny outfit and pose for y'all. For the month of May, some friends and I have issues ourselves a skirts-and-dresses only rule. I feel like it has been really good for me. I never really believed that how you dress affects how you feel, but now I see that it is totally true- I feel so much better about myself when I make an OUTFIT instead of just throwing on my jeans and a t-shirt. Anyway, it is outside my comfort zone to attempt to look cute, and even further outside to post it on the internet, but here we go!



Wow, what's up glasses glare! (sorry). This is an old house dress that I recently bought at the thrift store. I almost passed it up, but then I noticed the previous owner's initials written on a tag inside, and they were the same as mine! I thought, I obviously have to buy this because it literally has my name on it. At the time I still figured I would wear it as a nightgown, but I think it really works with a pink belt. I love the ric-rac!

dress and belt- thrifted
cardigan- Target
shoes- Old Navy

Thanks for checking out my first outfit post. I'm having fun with this, I think I just might do it again sometime!

Les Beaux Arts

Last night we went to see our cousin's M.F.A. thesis show. It was nice to get out of the house after 5 p.m. and do adult things. (We kept Murphy up past his bedtime for the occasion- and he didn't even implode!)

We got to view many graphic design goodies, and Murphy discovered the joys of his loud voice in a large, echoey room.

Plus, when we got home, we ate this for dinner:


beer, cheese, bread and fruit is our new "we don't feel like cooking but want dinner to seem awesome anyway" plan. We're calling it "continental night".

All in all, a pleasant evening.

Oh, and P.S.- that cheese with the brown wax? It tastes like sausage! I'm a vegetarian and all, but OH HELLO YUM!

Praise Seitan

Tonight I took Murph down to the corner store to visit daddy at work. Sure, I'm a nice wifey visiting the hubbs at his place of employment, but what really brought me out was the vegan buffalo seitan sandwich! (om nom nom)



I am so proud of Jon for putting together this vegan menu. Sure, most vegans are health-conscious, but face it- sometimes you just want an ooey gooey delicious mess, no matter who you are. If you're in Rochester on a Wednesday night, come out to Nathaniel Square Corner Store and get yourself some craft beer and AMAZING vegan sammies!

powder puff

I try to be conscious of the environment and health concerns, you know? I'm crunchy like that. For YEARS now I've been using this Nature's Gate deodorant which seemed pretty innocuous to me and smelled great. I recently looked it up in the Skin Deep database, though, and it scored a 4! If you don't know, the Skin Deep database rates the safety of personal care products and the scale starts with zero being the best. A 4 is worse than many conventional commercial deodorants! Well, I was very disheartened by this so I think I'm going the make the extra hippie-ish switch to using baking soda. The fun part is, I decided to purchase this vintage powder jar on etsy to hold the "deodorant":



Well, I had get something pretty to make me feel better about making the switch. I hope it works for me! Do you use a natural deodorant? How does it work for you?


In other news, I took Murph out thrifting with me the other day and I clearly wore him out! This kind of sleeping is unprecedented for him.

petticoat junction

I am just not finding time to blog! It seems like one baby falls asleep and the other wakes up. (I am babysitting my cousin's 4 month old in addition to caring for my guy)

I have been feeling inspired by a challenge, though. A friend and I both own lots of dresses and skirts, but never wear them. We decided to wear them every day for the month of May. I am actually feeling like I never want to go back to jeans! It really is amazing how good you feel when your outfit is PUT TOGETHER. I really want to share pictures with you, but I've been having camera issues. grr. Hopefully I will get that squared away and have a few glamor shots to share at the end of the month.

Right now the Lilac festival is happening here in Rochester. It is mostly a trashy carnival (think deep fried oreos), but there is also a beautiful winding walk through the park with tons of blooming lilac bushes! I hope the weather improves so that I can go out and smell the flowers (literally and in that figurative, meandering way).