On the front porch

 

 

Dress: Old Navy, thrifted;

Shoes: Tayla platforms, Target;

Red belt: Ann Taylor Loft;
Ship necklace: Beacon's Closet.

When I get home, it feels so good to get out of work clothes and into something much more comfortable and livable. It's liberating to be able to wear clothes that I think express my identity, instead of black work ensembles that are just thrown together.

I did get the nerve to walk up on the farm's cabin porch Thursday afternoon, but it still felt so...macabre. Visitors are allowed to walk all over the farm property, because it's now a county park, but I kept expecting a gust of wind or something to knock me down when I stepped on the porch. It felt like I was intruding on someone's property, except no one's lived there for more than 70 years. The door to the cabin is locked, but I've played around in my head about what's inside except for the period furniture and blankets. Buried treasure under the floorboards? The answers to the universe etched on the other side of the door? Some crows were keeping watch over the fields during our shoot, and it just made our daily visit all the more surreal and eerie. At least the photos turned out well.

This dress was a recent thrift find. I think being at the farm park so much is beginning to affect my sartorial choices, because when I saw this dress, I thought it was perfect in that Southern Gothic kind of way. It's hard to believe that it was originally from Old Navy, because it definitely looks like it was made during a much earlier era.The color of the dress is olive, with a print of white leaves all over it. I feel like a character from a William Faulkner novel when I wear this dress. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

Treasured: Ancient mariner necklace

Necklace: from Beacon's Closet, NYC.
All the ways I've worn it.

Growing up, my house was a shrine for my dad's collections from his former Navy travels. He left the military when I was six to focus on our family and move us to a more settled town. However, the memorabilia from his past life took up our walls and rooms: straw hats from China, paintings from Japan, nature photos from Alaska, and the like. What often outnumbered these items were his trinkets that depicted Navy life itself: model boats in bottles, Navy men dancing on lager pint mugs and a little trio of metal ships named Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria. I spent hours reading about female pirates and sea captains. It is no wonder that I became obsessed with nautical life --- I was ingrained with it, in the same way football culture can be ingrained in small children. It was in my blood. If there was anywhere I wanted to be, it was with the mother sea.

When I was in high school, I got involved with the Boy Scouts' co-ed program and learned to sail. I learned all the important knots, how to raise and lower sails, how to adjust the jib and the mainsails. I went on a few sailing trips, around the local lake and once even in the Florida panhandle, where I saw huge waves and dolphins try to jump onto our boat. I was around the saltiness of it all so much that I wanted to compete in a yearlong sailing competition, and even contemplated naming my future children after boat parts (Tiller and Hull). My father even had a friend donate an old red sailboat to me, one that I scrubbed and cleaned, and set up sail in my backyard. Even if we lived a few hours from the closest lake, I still sat inside it, dreaming of all the places I would go with my trusty red boat.

When I went to college, I went to a landlocked university, and my time on the water waned. My hands idled over schoolwork instead of tying knots. My parents eventually donated the boat to my brother's Boy Scout troop.

A couple years later, I spotted this necklace during a trip to New York. Its design reminded me of my father's model Columbus ships. I had to have it. When I wear it, it reminds me of my childhood, and wishing I could have been a sea captain back in the day, because it sounded cooler than being the damsel in distress. Whenever I wear it, it makes me feel like a pioneer --- like I could suddenly do all the things I promised a very young version of myself that I would do -- live on a sailboat, learn all the knots, compete in sailing races that would take me to exotic lands. Maybe one day I will. But for now, I'm content to wear this necklace, and wikipedia different ways to tie intricate knots.