Driving in the dark

I'm back, a little poorer, a lot the wiser about the glory that is South Dakota (surprising! I know!) First, let me throw a couple of Minneapolis outfits at you:

Fancy pants dinner with a very old friend:

Dress - Express, 12 years ago

Belt - made by me, look at the last post for info

Shoes - Michael Kors

Drinks with a friend who surfed my couch for a few days while in town for a wedding:

Dress - Isaac Mizrahi for Target SAMPLE

Pocketwatch - garage sale, I added the chain

Shoes - thrifted

Watching baseball...

Striped dress vest thing - thrifted

White eyelet dress - thrifted

Headband - ??? had it like 15 years

Bracelet - World Market belt

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

I'll do a full South Dakota report soon, I need to get a buttload of pictures from Ben. In the mean time, I'll in throw one picture of each member of SoDak RoadTrip Crew '09.

Ryan, in a cave:

Peter wanted to fit in with all the motorcycle rally guys, so he bought this $4 shirt and $1 bandana before we went out gambling in Deadwood:

I imitated and molested many, many predential statues, including this one of Thomas Jefferson:

We just arrived into town at 6am this morning after driving 10 hours, so I need to go bartend then sleeeeeeeep.

Note to self - must pack leather chaps?

Alright kids, I'm outta here! I'm heading off on a 10+ hour road trip to Rapid City, South Dakota. After over two years of dating (and two years of friendship before that) it's time to meet the Ryan's dad. and step-dad. So I'll be back with a massive photo update, but in the mean time, just picture me in the following places...

Staying on a ranch for part of the trip! Me! Riding horses!

Hiking! Cliff diving! (neither of these things will occur on Devil's Tower, which this is a picture of, but you know, I'll SEE the tower.)

Not actually going to the Harley Davidson annual rally in Sturgis, but it's going on right now and it's right by Rapid City so I imagine I will see (and HEAR) an awful lot of motorcycles this trip.

Presidential!

And in these picures, perhaps I'll be rocking the following belt once or twice. Which was SO easy but took FOREVER to do (how long is forever? Half a season of Pushing Daisies, followed by Pleasantville then The Darjeeling Limited. Perhaps it would have gone faster had I picked less visually arresting DVDs. Hmmm...)

Want to make one of your very own??? Follow these complicated DIY instructions:

1. Find stretchy elastic belt (I got mine at Goodwill for a buck and it is by Simply Vera - not so simple now, is it Vera? IN YOUR FACE!)

2. Pick a color scheme and stitch in a crapload of buttons.

3. Whoo-hoo! You're done (10 hours later). Now go reward yourself with a smoothie and some band-aids on your multiple needle stab wounds.

Got all that? I must go finish the packing (dread) in mustard yellow hardshell vintage suitcase (yesss!) See yous on Tues? ish?

Party Girl

My friend Jim is going away to law school in California. On Saturday was his going away party/band's last performance.  Yes, I rocked this giant '80s pajama shirt as a dress. Surprisingly everyone LOVED it (well, except the boy. He hates when I dress tacky.)

Blazer - thrifted

Belt - thrifted

Dress - thrifted pajamas (Toast and Jammies brand -score!)

Shoes - Charles David

American Blood and Treasure... (and David Bowie making a cameo)

My boys. Can you guess which one is going to law school? Perhaps the smartest band on the planet - the others are a neuroscience researcher, a middle school math teacher, an educational psychologist, and a lab assistant. Geez!

The audience.

On a completely unrelated note, I found an old typewriter for $4. Yesss! Now I just need to buy some ribbons.

Yeah, if you look, you can see I typed "Christine" then "typewriter" then "holy crap"... train of thought.

Ok, I gotta go. Working 35 hours in 4 days in order to get time off this weekend to go to South Dakota to finally meet that boy's dad. So excited for the 10 hour road trip!