À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs

There is a beautiful cherry tree on our street, we've been watching it turning pink for a few weeks now. The other day while taking photos we met the lady who owns this pretty tree. It might be strange, but I was very glad to know that this perfect cherry belongs to such a nice old lady... They even look alike.

She told us to come again when the tree would be in full bloom, and it's very important not to be late: every year it blooms so nicely, but then one night a very strong wind blows and the next day all of the petals are on the ground, turning it pink.

We came again today and took these photos, and right now, while I'm typing, I can hear the wind banging on the roofs and shaking the trees outside. Tomorrow there will be a petal carpet in front of the old lady's house.

what i wear to work: spring edition

This week I join Nicole and the other ladies to discuss what we wear to the office. It might remind you of my previous floral outfit, and yes, I'll admit it: this spring is all about flowers here! I took these photos in the evening on my way home. I work in marketing and web development, and I've been in my current company for only 3 months now, so I thought it'd be awkward if I start shooting personal outfits at my desk. Also, the sunset was very warm and soft, I prefer natural light anyways.

I found this beautiful silk top in a thrift store recently and luckily enough the weather was perfect for me to wear it! I pulled out my light blue jeans from the winter storage and whipped up this pastel outfit! The flats are from Target, I got them in Missoula on our trip two weekends ago. I was looking for something neutral and thought this pair would be perfect for summer. So far they've been so much trouble! The first day I wore them they almost killed my feet... but every day it gets a little bit better, so I hope we'll be friends soon.

what to wear: florals

It's "What to wear" time and this week our theme is "floral"! My post should be called "Pastel florals", I combined pale green with light pink, soft grey and sea wave color. I had a hard time picking an outfit because I have so many floral items! I didn't even realize I was so much into flower prints till I went through everything for this post. I decided to go with a maxi skirt that I found in a thrift shop last September, I didn't get to wear it much then because it's too light, but now it's time. I have a similar pink skirt with floral print, so you'll see many flowers on the blog this spring-summer. I also wanted to try the grey shoes I got a week ago, and the streets were perfectly dry for taking pictures outside. 

My favorite thing in the whole post is the silk rose that my mama made for me. It was supposed to be a birthday gift but the package came early and I'm so very happy! There are a few other flowers ( a blue felt bouquet that I wear clipped to my yellow coat; and a bunch of summer field flowers for my room) in the package, culinary magazines with Russian recipes and lots of candy. It all makes me very happy and sad at the same time.. I wish I could be with my family for my birthday in a few weeks. But we'll definitely skype and everything, so I shouldn't feel lonely. 

Wearing: sweater Ralph Lauren, silk flower handmade by mama, floral skirt and shoes thrifted.

spring collection by eShakti

dress//c/o eShakti; shoes//H&M; cat//Uno

Bracelet//PB&J Boutique; earrings//Stella&Dot (won both in giveaways!!)

New season - new dress! I was very excited to get an email from eShakti because last time I did a review for them it was so much fun! Here's what I got last time -- it was great for lots of occasions over the holidays. This time I was asked to pick something from their spring line to wear and show.

The spring collection is full of dresses that would be perfect not only for spring, but for all the warm and sunny days coming this year -- dresses in bold vivid colors, flower prints and embellished birds in a many different styles. And all the items at eShakti are custom-made, which is awesome. It's like having a (less-expensive) personal tailor online: choose color, style, length, details such as pockets, neck line, sleeves, etc.

I had a few favorites from the new line, but this dress won - it has bunnies on it! I mean, seriously, what could be better than a white spring dress covered in bunnies?! It's adorable, very well made, lightweight and... it has pockets! Bunny print + pockets = I'm a huge fan, eShakti! My other favorites included this A-line dress in blue, this floral dress and a few that are out of stock already. There are new models added every day, and they also have bridesmaids collection now! Very cute, I might need some in the near future.

Bonus: eShakti is offering our readers a gift coupon code CHESTNTMCH84 for $25 value valid until March 25, 2013!  Hurry up and get yourself something nice for warm weather! 

what to wear for St. Patrick's Day

Ben: shirt//JCP; pants//ASOS; boots//thrifted

Katie: sweater//American Eagle; skirt//Lapis; boots//JCP

St. Patrick's Day is coming up and we decided to go green! Last year we spent this day (and many others) in Moscow and it was way colder than here now. Even now it's far below zero over there! But anyways, last year was great: we went to a parade, had a party in a pub and the next morning a photo of me was in the newspaper! 

This time we're planning on just going to an Irish bar and dressing in green. We got our outfits this year from a bunch of different places. Wearing green definitely gets us excited about the spring, we're looking forward to the snow being replaced by sunny grassy spaces again.  What are you wearing?

what Ben wore: blue jeans

coat||Ride Snowboards; scarf&sweater||from Moscow; jeans||Selected via ASOS; boots||Dickies

As you might have read, we received free glasses from Firmoo a while back -- lots of people did.  I'm not wearing them here, these are actually similar glasses that I got in Korea a couple of years ago.  Anyway, they asked if I'd be willing to share an image with them on their website, which I did.  One of the comments the photo received was: "A kind father?"  I guess I'm old enough to be a father, but I'm much cooler, and I can't let that pass as my reputation on the internet, so I made an effort to look less kind in this post.

As Katie mentioned in her last post, I've been wearing lots of colorful pants recently.  And as I've mentioned before, my tendency in the past has always been to play it safe and wear things that don't make me particularly stand out.  I have liked colorful pants for a while but was not brave enough to wear them.  I'm not sure if it's age or what, but I finally don't care that much what other people think of my pants, so I've really been enjoying them. I need a haircut, though.

Closing an important deal.

what I wore: red jeans

sweater//a.n.a.; jeans// Jordache; boots//Lucca ; felt berries brooch//made by mom; bunny brooch// c/o Sugar Cookie; ring//vintage; camera//Agfa

Ben has been wearing many colorful pants recently ( he has green, mustard, blue, yellow jeans!) and I started to feel a bit pale.. Now I have red jeans and my life is all colorful again! I also want to get mustard pants but I can't find the right pair in my size or shade. I wore my new jeans with snow-white sweater and suede black boots. 

Let's talk some accessories. Isn't this sleepy bunny just too cute? It's made by Missy from Sugar Cookie on Etsy. There are all kinds of adorable animals: bunnies, horses, pandas and squirrels, - as well as funny biscuits, acorns, mushrooms, etc. Tsss! I have a bunny, a hedgehog and an acorn! You'll see more of them here later. 

Say "Cheese!!" to my "new" film camera! It's Agfa Optima Ia (Germany, 1962) which takes 24x36 negatives on 135mm film. I found it in a local thrift store, it came with a leather case, beautiful embroidered strap, lots of small accessories and a leather bag - everything for only $15! I'm so happy with this find, it feels heavy in hand and seems to work well. I can't wait to see the results!

And this is what I look like at home: my winter black boots change to these softies which match even better! Looks kind of Christmassy -- a little late, but I love it. Very comfy, too. 

Lots of red jeans to choose from:

what i wore: eShakti dress on Christmas

dress//c/o eShakti; cardigan//thrifted; necklace//gift from mom; boots//lucca

Merry Christmas!! It was a beautiful and sunny day in our town, we went to a park for an afternoon walk and took pictures of my new dress from eShakti. I already wore this dress once for the end of the world party last week - and it brought me lots of compliments. I like everything about this dress: it fits perfectly, the embellishment looks great, I can wear it for many different occasions, and it is very comfortable. Oh, and it has pockets! It arrived very fast -- it only took it 4 days to get from India to Idaho!

I'm very impressed with eShakti: it's an online store where you can customize your measurements and style preferences. Often when I browse online clothing stores I find a dress or a shirt that I generally like but I skip it because the length or the neckline don't look appealing. That's not a problem with eShakti. Their business model is really wise: to keep costs to the customer low, and cut down on overstock, they don't actually "stock" any sizes, they don't have a warehouse at all. Every single dress is cut and made to order. Here's what they say:
"eShakti offers both design and fit customization for women size 0 through 36. Built-in customization tools guide women through our simple 3-step design and fit page where they can increase the size of a bust, shorten the length of a skirt and modify sleeves or a neckline! We ship directly to our customers in about 2 weeks from the date of order. We ship across the USA and Canada."

Register at eShakti and get $25 OFF your first order!