Classics: Refined + Rugged On Pinterest

| Megan

Classics April 2015 Well, it’s Monday. Yes. And while I really wanted to barrage you with some more photo log fabulousness of our trip into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, moderation calls for a break in that action. Am I right?

You can read my free verse chant here. Check out my picture log here. I will be finishing off with a recap of this trip with a day-by-day travel log on Friday. Today I wanted to talk two things 1) Classics, and 2) Pinterest. Let’s actually begin in reverse order and talk Pinterest for a moment.

I draw your attention to the adorable widget below, that now infamous red and white button. If you click this baby, it should send you to my account over on said site, Pinterest. I have arranged several boards of fun items for you to peruse.

Many of them are style based (even a board for “Him”), but I also have a board for food, words, and even a DIY category that I entertain on occasion (I swear some day I WILL make those rock bookends for my home. Like, SOON)! I like Pinterest because previous to this ingenious site I was emailing myself all of the links to these categories and boards anyway! Literally.

I’d find something I liked on the inter webs and send myself an email about it. Just a little personal reminder. The problem there is two fold. First, I would often forget what I titled the email to myself, and be hunting around the email search for long periods of time.

Second, I often forgot to simply add a picture of the item to my link so that I knew what the actual item, recipe, project looked like that so sparked my interest. As some of you may have found, links do not always live forever. I’d stumble across something in my email archive I’d want to cook, or wear, or recreate, and darn if the link was old, or dead, or inactive and I didn’t remember specifically enough what was in that unconnected connection to find it again!

Check out Rugged + Refined over on Pinterest!

https://www.pinterest.com/megsfarm/

Anyway, on to the classics. Caveat: everyone’s classics are different. I realize that some of the pieces I’ve stored in this category may not seem “classic” to some. A buffalo check coat, for example, may seem more “trendy” than “classic”. I simply have a hankering for buffalo check all the time, so I stocked it away in Classics because to me, it always will be!

Honestly, just like the Jennifer Anniston hair of the 90s that we all thought would never die. There are some classics that may not live forever. Dark wash skinnies are still going strong, still on my list of all. the. time.

I really hope they never die as a fashion staple, though some already decry and predict otherwise. They still hold an important place in my closet. Who am I to predict what my grandchildren will wear on their hover-boards? Sadly, it may not be a chambray shirt, black jeans, and a string a pearls.

But I do think there are style staples that have an ALWAYS tag, and a gorgeous string of pearls are one of those. Invest once. Pick your size of pearl, necklace length, and wear ON!

Beginning with the jacket in the top right corner, moving clockwise and finishing off with the gorgeous pearl necklace in the center the links are as follows:  Jacket, Tote, Camisole, Heel, Dress, Watch, Striped Shirt, Belt, Chambray Shirt, Earrings, Loafers, Pearls.

Add your favorite pair of jeans (skinny or otherwise), a rocking pair of sunnies, a simple white T, and you’re ready for anything. What are some of your classic style staples? Make it a good Monday!

XX, Megan

Desert Chant: Reflections on Wilderness Grand Staircase Escalante Part II

| Megan

DSC_0324 Some of the things I feel and think about the desert return to me over and over again. A desert mantra, maybe.

From the moment I arrive to the moment I leave I never cease to want to take it with me somehow. I don’t understand exactly how this works psychologically or physiologically or why I feel it so strongly. What makes you want to take landscape, skyscape, rock color, tree buds, flower blooms, blazing stars and hold it to you? Put it inside your chest? It feels as though the beauty is so raw, so deep, so filling, that if I could somehow contain it— take it with me— maybe I would never be empty again.

No technology, no technology, no technology.

In the same moment, I realize that another thing I love about wildness is juxtaposed directly opposite to that “take it with me” desire. The fact that we have managed to preserve (and up to this point keep) a fair amount of vast, open, uninhibited spaces for humans to venture “off the beaten path” whether relatively so or sometimes completely is another one of my desert mantras. Wide and airy and clean and open and unadulterated. So much space. So much beauty. It boggles and soothes me. Keep it that way.

No technology, no technology, no technology.

No technology, or very little, because we did use our phones as cameras. But I count that as a capture, a memory, a breath. Not constant interface. The singular reminder that we are all wanderers is a persistent part of the desert chant. All wandering. All lost. All seeking. All hoping. The desert reminds me of how fragile I am. How mortal. How sustained by the great pyramid Loren Eisley described. And sometimes I don’t know whether it brings peace or fear. I am reminded about how small I am.

No technology, no technology, no technology.

I am reminded of the Greater, the Creator, the Sculptor, the Crafter, the Master. The Grand Design. I am reminded that I should hold my ears more and listen inside of me. Not to the spew, churn, and tumult of all that surrounds me. I should listen to the beauty that surrounds me, teaching me that God is in the details. I should listen to me. To that thread of conscience from the Divine.

No technology, no technology, no technology.

Conscious deep breaths. Breaths allowing me to connect with the audacious colors of the sand, rock, and sky. Breaths seeking to hold in the goodness for another moment. Breaths clearing my head and readying my eyes for the vistas, the views– the scuttling lizard, the claret-cup cactus, the aubergine petrified wood, the desert bar berry bush, the someday arch, the desert firedot, the rocky mountain juniper, the emerald rivoli’s hummingbird, the rainbow gradient sands– the memory of being young and vibrant and unstoppable. Grounding, renewing, refreshing, giving me strength. Strength to return to the city, the town, the village, the civilization I have chosen.

No technology, no technology, no technology.

It’s not best to look behind as I leave, but forward. Life calls me on, away. I cannot stay forever, not this time. I feel the comfortable grit of desert days on my skin. Hair standing on end, eyes light with all they have seen, I tell myself I will be back again. Again and again. The van turns North toward home. Some things will come with me. Some things will always be different now. I am changed every time– better. Desert chant.

XX, Megan DSC_0326 DSC_0339 DSC_0333 DSC_0348 DSC_0365 DSC_0420 DSC_0379 DSC_0430 DSC_0439

Desert Vagabond Picture Log: Southern Utah’s Grand Staircase Escalante I

| Megan

“We need wilderness preserved– as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds– because it was the challenge against which our character as people was formed.” –Wallace StegnerDSC_0123

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Image 1- Headed east on State Hwy 95. This prominent rock feature is known as Jacob’s Chair. In the foreground you see White Canyon which parallels 95 until you reach the turn-off to 276.
Image 2- Hite Crossing Bridge. Crossing the Colorado on Hite Crossing Bridge, via 95, Mt. Hillers in the background.
Image 3- Grumpy Rock. Hite Crossing Bridge viewpoint.
Image 4- The mighty Colorado.
Image 5- Perspective.
Image 6- Wall and sky.
Image 7- BLM road 1200 meets up with the Burr Trail. Capitol Reef National Park.
Image 8- The Burr Trail Switchbacks.
Image 9- At the top of the switchbacks. Lay of the land behind us.
Image 10- Undulating teeth and a sandstone window.
Image 11- Just keeps getting better. Cutoff road 115.
Image 12- #vanlife
Image 13- Morning and moonset at the mouth of Little Death Hollow.

“We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we do no more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.” –Wallace Stegner, Wilderness Letter

Thumbing My Way: Little Lace Dress

| Megan

DSC_0037DSC_0005 DSC_0010 DSC_0035 Have you heard Eddie Vedder sing, “Thumbing My Way”? https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZAj-uUE_mmU“>

Now you have. This little lace number has been a go-to of mine for a year now. I’ve worn it so many ways in nearly every season. For a friends wedding with a long string of pearls, for family pictures with a herringbone blazer and chartreuse scarf, in the summer with flip-flops on a Saturday. This might be my favorite iteration of this outfit. Denim vest, a little rugged. Dress, the perfect amount of refined. Boots, smack dab in between! Have a fantastic Thursday, friends! XX, Megan DSC_0014 - Version 2

DSC_0008Dress: BCBG (an adorable option here, similar, and save), Vest: J.Crew, Boots: J.Crew, Sunglasses: Ray-Ban, Necklace: Gorjana, Wallet: Etsy, Watch: Invicta, Cuffs: Vintage, Ring: Vintage, Nails: OPI You’re Such a Budapest, Lips: MAC Angel

I’m So Fancy: Dressed Up Grilled Cheese

| Megan

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I LOVE a good sandwich. I’ve learned that humans cannot live by sandwiches alone, but I have this reoccurring food dream that one day I will open a sandwich truck. Yum!

This sandwich. Praise the Lord emoji hands. It is truly a refined take on the kid-favorite counterpart (though I have to admit that my husband and I have been dressing up grilled cheese for years with rosemary pressed into the butter on each side and a healthy dose of garlic powder in the middle).

This incarnation of the grilled cheese from The Scramble* takes everything to a whole new (half) healthy, full-flavored level. I mean, why not toast to health over the kale and artichoke extras and the peppy addition of asiago cheese? To sandwiches!

Oh, my, YES!

XX, Megan

Ingredients for the Main Dish

  • 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
  • 12 – 16 oz. kale (stemmed and chopped)
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 14 oz. canned artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
  • 4 – 6 oz. (about 1 1/2 cups) Asiago cheese, grated (I used an aged sharp white cheddar for this recipe)
  • 12 slices whole grain bread
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened

The Scramble suggests that you preheat the oven to 250 degrees, making 3 sandwiches at one time, and then warming the others in oven while you finish making the final three. I chose to use to skillets to make our sandwiches and whipped them up all at once!

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Saute

In a heavy skillet heat the oil and sauté the garlic for 30 seconds until it is just fragrant. Add the kale and salt. Toss until the kale is covered in garlic. Sauté for 1 more minute, then cover and steam for 5 minutes.

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Chop

Meanwhile chop your artichokes and slice your bread. (You can also grate the cheese now if you didn’t buy pre-grated.)

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Add

Add the artichokes  and balsamic vinegar to the kale and heat for 2 minutes. Then add 1 cup of the cheese. Stir cheese in until melted and remove from the heat.

Butter

Butter the outside of each bread slice. Heat two large heavy skillets (or warm the oven 250 and do two shifts of 3 sandwiches as described above).

Grill

Place 3 slices of bread on each skillet. Top the bread with 1 tsp of the remaining cheese. Then spoon about 3 Tbsp. of the artichoke/kale/cheese mixture onto the bread. Top with anther tsp. of cheese. Cover with last bread slice. Press firmly down on each sandwich, or do as The Scramble suggests and place a foil wrapped brick on top of your sandwiches!

EAT!

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*The Scramble is a meal planning service to which you can subscribe here. For a fantastic price you will receive 5 weekly meals which means 5 recipes (main course plus a side dish), complete grocery list, the ability to tweak the number of people you are making for, and full nutrition facts. PLUS tips as to how best to PREP your meal beforehand, add a punch of FLAVOR, and how to SLOW COOK almost every recipe if you’re especially slammed that night. This wonderful service really does live up to it’s name. You can come home at 6 p.m. and be sitting down to a DELICIOUS, HEALTHY, HOME COOKED meal by 6:30 p.m. most nights.

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