Are you GAGA?

I am so thrilled to be attending my 2nd Lady Gaga concert in January! The concert is exactly two weeks away [14 days]!! She is kicking off her North American tour in Vancouver, BC and me and some of my lady friends and heading up there. I am very very very excited. 

In Summer 2010, it was the Monster Ball and this year it will be the Born This Way Ball! Part of the reason that I am completely obsessed with her is that she has the most incredible message - be who you are and you will be accepted. No ifs, ands or buts.  Hearing her message live, in 2010, almost moved me to tears. And her voice live is absolutely off the charts. Amazingly good!

Here are a few photos from my first Lady Gaga concert in August 2010.

Amy did our makeup

Photoshoot at our apartment before we made the trek to the Tacoma Dome!

Now, onto the most important question.... what to wear????

Merry Christmas {Eve}

As I mentioned here, we took professional photos in Rome while we were on our honeymoon this summer and just got them back a few days ago.  Here are some of our favorites (it was really hard to narrow down, but enjoy!)  All photos are by Michael and his 2nd shooter from Fisheye Studio. 

Thank you so much, Michael! We had a blast shooting with you.

All photos are by Michael and his 2nd shooter from Fisheye Studio. 

New diggs

As you may recall, we found out last Friday that we will have to move out of our adorable amazing apartment at the end of January. Were you worried we would be homeless or have to scrape by and end up in a crappy place we found on Craigslist? Well, fear not! I am an ultimate Type A personality and I like to think of myself as a "do-er" which means I. get. things. done.

Well, we found our solution less than a week later!

NOVA Apartments

It's the NOVA apartments in West Seattle! It's brand new construction, as in, we will be the first ones living in the apartments. It's walking distance to Trader Joe's grocery store and a bunch of other cool things in West Seattle. So we will have to deal with the West Seattle Bridge which I've heard can be a REAL pain at times. Anyway, I am trying to look on the bright side because moving into a new place is kind of fun. We get to organize, de-clutter and simplify our lives. And all of that sounds amazing to me.

And now for some photos of the inside {not our exact unit, but it looks pretty similar} - drumroll, please....

Kitchen

It's called the urban 1 bedroom

The only thing I don't like is the bathroom tile... but that's it!

Pretty sweet, right? We are certainly excited!

... And yes that is a washer and dryer in our bathroom{!!}, not our bedroom, like we have had for the past 3 years!

Good Things Come to Those who Wait

If you recall, I hinted at a special surprise back on day 5 of our Italy trip.

Well, here it is!

We got professional pictures taken in Rome (I literally just got them back, so its been really fun to re-live the experience)! It was so fun, everyone thought we were celebrities... except my feet were killing me from all the walking... but I highly recommend getting professional photos taken while you are on vacation if possible.

We met up with Michael of Fish Eye Photography from Hawaii who was planning to be Europe at the same time we were.  Michael and his colleague were in town filming a week-long 50th birthday party in Tuscany (!!) and were looking to shoot a wedding.  We connected via email and I said I didn't have a wedding for him to shoot, but that I did have a honeymoon happening... and it all worked out from there!

Here is a sneak peek, below. I will post more pictures and details soon.

Hope your week is going well!

Ciao,
Kim

Life Happens

We got the news on Friday night via a voicemail that our Property Management company left me at 2:30 in the afternoon.   Somehow my iPhone didn't register it until 10:00 pm that night. The owners of our apartment building want to move into our unit and we have to vacate at the end of January.  Of course I burst into tears {I have been very emotional lately}.

I will miss you, my lovely apartment!

After we got over the initial shock, we looked up Seattle landlord tenant law and sure enough, this is a good enough reason to terminate a month to month lease.  We are supposed to be getting the paperwork in the mail today. 

One of my favorite things was the mix of the different materials on the outside

I loved our modern apartment so much - it was the perfect fit for us and we had lived there for almost 3 years. It was the first place we officially lived together.  It's where we lived when we got engaged. When we got married. When we took our trip to Italy.  As you can see I am still in mourning.  

If you want to see pictures of the inside, a few months back I did an art tour of our apartment here. 

I hate moving so much. But I am trying to stay positive... and maybe we can get into a really cool new area like South Lake Union or West Seattle... I have been looking at some new construction in West Seattle, so stay tuned to see where we end up living!

AmazonFresh

We have been so lazy to go grocery shopping, it's actually really bad.  Last week we just gave up and decided to try Amazonfresh which delivers your groceries for free if you spend > $100.  I checked their website and discovered that they do deliver to our address {its pretty selective, so I would check your address before you get too excited}.

Right outside our door!

It felt like Christmas Day!

It took me about 30 minutes to complete my online shopping order. Get this: I completed my order by 9:00 am last Tuesday and I picked the delivery slot for the next business day before 6:00 am.. and they were on time! So in less than 24 hours I had everything on my doorstep.  Pretty cool right?

I will say this - it's expensive. The quality is great but $6.30 for a small tub of crumbled feta was hard to swallow {not literally}. I guess we decided that it was worth it convenience wise. The produce looked to be in pretty good shape and overall I thought it was a worthwhile experience. I would highly recommend it if you absolutely hate going to the grocery store like we do.

I have tried safeway.com before but the qualify didn't appear to be on par with Amazon fresh.

Have you tried any fun online shopping adventures lately?

My Evolving Style

Sometimes I wonder what has caused my style to evolve over the years.  It's not always easy to match up cause & effect, but I do think there are definite patterns to explore. 

Ages 0 - 7: We lived in Michigan. I didn't have much say or care about my clothes. I was a kid! But I did look pretty cute. I will try and find a pic of me when I was little to prove it to you :)

Ages 7 - 18: We moved to Hawaii when I was 7 years old.  Growing up in Hawaii, I didn't care much about style.  There are several reasons why: (1) There is (and was) very limited shopping on Kauai (the island I grew up on), (2) There are no real seasons in Hawaii, so there is no need for sweaters, boots, socks, etc. (3) Also due to the weather, people pretty much live in beach wear.  At the height of my teens, I probably owned at least 8 bathing suits. (4) We didn't have a  lot of money growing up, so I pretty much shopped what was on sale at the mall {the best store we had was Macys}. Once, in high school we flew to Oahu to go shopping for the day. I will never forget that! We had the best time, but there was no time for returns {this was around the time the internet was starting to get big}. 

@ Waimea Canyon, Kauai
My high school uniform: cami and super short mini {sorry, mom!}

Practically lived at the beach! Love mismatched bathing suits!

Gotta love my mid-drift hanging out!

Once online shopping hit the scene, it was all over.  I discovered American Eagle, jcrew {yep, I was reppin' jcrew in high school}, Target.. the list goes on and on. I do recall ordering a fun orange sweater from jcrew online that I hardly wore because... it's Hawaii! I still had that sweater up until a couple years ago. Jake always makes fun of me for having clothes from high school or college still - and I guess he is right!  But, it wasn't until I moved to Spokane in college that I discovered {cue bright light and AHHHHH! angel music} Nordstrom.  

Ages 18 - 22: The college years.  Ironically, it was during this time that I think I grew the most and discovered new brands, stores, styles, etc. I say it's ironic because I, like most college students was pretty broke during those years.  Don't misunderstand me - I did go on the occasional shopping spree but it wasn't a regular thing. My favorite stores were probably Macys, Nordys, and Forever 21 ... wait... no Forever 21 in Spokane. I guess I'm gonna revert to Abercrombie, Hollister, AE, Aeropostle - basically the mall.

On a trip to Vegas, I still miss those AE jeans to this day! Apparently I loved those long empire waist shirts.

The ol' long sleeve shirt under camisole days.

You can't really tell what I'm wearing in this one: I just thought it was funny.

On a trip to Seattle, I discovered one of my favorite stores of all time: Anthropologie {although I, like many, call it anthro, for short}.  I occasionally shop there although it's sometimes out of my price range and style range. They have been a little on the crazy side lately... Also, I went through a *rough* break-up in college and ever since then I think my style has always been quirky, different, don't-want-to-be-cookie-cutter, so I have always pushed the limits {in a good way} since then. Thank you, he-who-shall-not-be-named for breaking up with me! Now, I have uber cool style!! Haha... And my friends and I really do call him that. Not joking.

Ages 22-28 (and beyond): One thing I noticed once I got a real job was that my work clothes and weekend clothes started to mesh. I have worked since I was 14 and I have always had a separate work wardrobe but now I started wanting to buy more work clothes since I had to wear them for 40+ hours a week... I guess the thinking behind that is - If I have to dress professionally, I want to look cute while doing it...

@ my sis in law's 21st birthday -
the double necklace; wide legged jeans

My 24th (?) birthday - dark brown bob and wool coat

...What can I say? I am now officially a hipster. I recently started wearing these Derek Cardigan glasses from Coastal.com --and I love them! I get compliments on them all the time.  You know what they say... if you move to Seattle, you will become a hipster. It's only a matter of time. 

...I don't know if they say that, but it's happened to me -- and a lot of my friends.  

Are you a hipster? ;)

The Big Climb

Good morning, everyone! Have you heard that gmail is down today?!?!? I hope it gets fixed soon cause I cannot survive a day without it. Not really, but kind of. Anyway, I thought I would let you all know about an exciting event that's coming up in a couple of months - it's called the Big Climb! Have you heard of it?

It's basically...

69 flights of stairs at the tallest building in downtown Seattle [Columbia Tower]

1,311 steps

788 feet of vertical elevation.

And come March 24, 2013 I will have to climb 69 flights of stairs to help raise money for leukemia and lymphoma. It sounds crazy right? I have done this 2 or 3 times before... and it's actually not that bad. I skipped it last year - but did it in 2011. Here are some group photos:

We did it!

Team NDH

If you are so inclined to donate, please do so here. Remember... anything helps!

Friday Quotables

It's been a while since I did a "Friday Quotable" -- but i thought this one was appropriate for today. I know I sometimes don't give myself enough credit for my accomplishments. I am always looking at the next better, bigger thing. So, instead of trying to have "it" all -- whatever "it" is, exactly to you.... I am going to pat myself on the shoulder {haha, why did I think it was sholder??} back and say, good work, Kim.  This doesn't mean that I am going to give up or be lazy, but rather re-focus myself on what makes me happy and what I really want to do with my life -- family, career, friends, etc -- and make those things a priority. 

// Via

I encourage you all, to do the same! Tell yourself "good work, ________"! 

Do you have any fun plans for this weekend? We are going to Zoolights!

Clever Girls Collective

I recently applied {and was accepted} to be a part of a company called "Clever Girls Collective". What is that, you ask? 

They are a social media marketing agency who works with a network of bloggers. I haven't participated in any campaigns yet (I am just getting started). They basically work with a bunch of different companies on campaigns which bloggers help participate in. It's one of the world's largest blog networks, according to their facebook page. 

They basically match up companies that want to sponsor posts with bloggers (like myself) and a whole bunch of other things too. 

If you are interested in joining, here is more information (from their website):

• We are a technology-driven social media network. Our platform connects brands with social influencers while offering social influencers exciting content monetization.
• Our vetted network of 7,000 influencers (bloggers, vloggers, Tweeters, Pinners, Instagrammers…) reach more unique visitors every month than Twitter.
• Our social influencers create fresh and engaging branded content for our clients at scale. Our network amplifies brand messages across social channels to reach target audiences everywhere.
• Our offering [powerful network + robust products + custom platform] is unique and best-in-class. Our process is proven.

For more info about who they are looking for, click here.  For more info on what they offer, click here. Let me know if you sign up!

So, hopefully it will be a wonderful partnership for many years to come! Cheers! **Don't worry - I will stay true to my aesthetic, style. etc... and all that jazz. 

Cal's American Kitchen

Last Friday, Jake and I were supposed to go to Bravehorse Tavern for our newly revived weekly date night.  Jake came to pick me up from work at 4:30 and waited for a few minutes. When I got into the car, it wouldn't start -- so we ended up calling roadside assistance for a jump start.  We took the car to our local repair shop because we were worried about the battery, sure enough, we did need a new battery.  

Long story short, we didn't go to Bravehouse Tavern - we tried, but it was packed. And for some reason they have a weird system which is essentially seat yourself and it doesn't really work if you have to wait - it's just not fair... Anyway, we had been wanting to try a new restaurant just a couple blocks down from Bravehorse Tavern down in South Lake Union {SLU} called Cal's American Kitchen. And boy, am I glad we did!

We decided that we would do a "cheat day" - Jake ordered a beer and I ordered a rosemary mule for starters.  My drink was delicious. 

Our "happy "hour" drinks {except it wasn't happy hour}

I love the swig of rosemary, for good measure

For our entrees, we decided to order two different things and split them - I ordered fried chicken which came with two delicious sides and Jake ordered the classic beef burger - with a fried egg, per my request. I don't have a pic of his burger, but here is the fried chicken:

Friend chicken with mustard greens and yams & biscuit

Needless to say, we were stuffed after we each ate our dinner. Jake couldn't even finish his half of my friend chicken so we took it home and had lunch the next day.

I was very impressed overall - I liked the decor and ambiance but the chicken wasn't the best friend chicken ever. It was OK. I would definitely go back and check out some more entrees.  Plus, we love the SLU neighborhood so much.  

1.5 Thumbs up for Cal's American Kitchen!

Exciting blog news!

Have you noticed anything different around here? Well, this change should be seamless so I hope that you didn't :) 

I am happy to announce that I purchased a domain name - and now you can find the blog at http://www.thevintagemodern.com - it should work without the "www" but I am still troubleshooting a couple of things.  Pretty fancy, right?

It's not that big of a deal... but it kind of is... 

Anyway, I hope you had a good weekend! Megan and I went to the Urban Craft Uprising! It was my first time, but here are a couple pictures in case you missed them on instagram - I didn't take too many pictures... I always forget! Grrrr...

My big purchase: Screen printed by hand, tea towels from Nell & Mary via Urban Craft Uprising

Gorgeous pillows from Nell & Mary too!

Also, my gold skinny rings that I ordered about 3 weeks ago finally arrived. I absolutely love them! They are from June Designs on etsy. I think they took so long because they had to go through US customs. Don't you love them? I ordered 3 of these skinny stacking rings for only $38.

I think I am going to wear them every. single. day. from now on until the end of time. Which, if the Mayans are right... might only be about 2-3 weeks... Eeek...  

Other Urban Craft Uprising vendors that I loved were (in no particular order):

Nell & Mary - where the tea towels above and pillows are from!
Dotty Speck - fun jewelry
Such Sweet Tierney - craft supplies and amazing bags and such
Tako Fibers - DIY embroidery kits
The Victory Garden: Yarn and Curiosities - scarves, pre-made embroidery hoops

Enjoy the links above. They are all amazing little shops. 

Birthday Haul

Well it's been 10 days since my actual birthday and just this morning I thought I was still 27. Oops. Jake was pretty quick to correct me when I accidentally said it out loud ;). Even though my birthday is not about gifts... I thought I would share some what my lovely wonderful husband did for me --

I came home late Thursday night (a couple days before my actual birthday) from a little Anthropologie DIY event I attended with Megan (I blogged about it here).  I seriously felt like a kid on Christmas morning. I pretty much gave Jake a few specific instructions (ikea cart) and then he did the rest on his own! I have the best husband.

 Here are the goods -

Ikea Raskog Cart.. which is in process of being designed/decorated.

I am planning to use it as a bar cart.  This is my inspiration.... so fun right!?!? What else did I score? Did someone say CT???? My husband knows me too well.

JCREW makeup bag, LOFT gift card and Magic Mike! Woo!

Birthdays are the best! Have you scored any amazing presents for your birthday recently?

Thankful.

This is my first thanksgiving post since I started blogging! Sometimes I will admit that I do get kind of caught up in the shopping/sale extravaganza of the Thanksgiving Black Friday weekend. But, I feel so much better when I focus on all the things that I am thankful for, a gratitude list of sorts, so here are a few of the many things I am thankful for:

jake & i, circa 2007

megan & i, circa 2009

Baby Brynn!

my husband, friends, family, our apartment, our jobs, my new niece {baby brynn}, friends' dogs that i get to hang around with but not have to take care of, my health, my 4 blog followers, shopping with friends, happy hours with friends, phone calls with friends & just life in general.

I also think it's important to focus on the things we are thankful for, not just at Thanksgiving, but all year round. 

Birthday Weekend

If you have been following me on Instagram, you might have noticed that we spent my birthday weekend in good ol' Spokane. I lived in Spokane for 4 years while I attended college @ Gonzaga. I can't believe it's been 5 years since I graduated! Time sure flies as you get older. Anyway, we stayed with a couple of friends of ours and went down to Riverpark Square, Greenbluff and my new favorite restaurant called Chaps! 

Here are some snaps from our weekend -

Not sure why I love this so much

Our friend's doggie, "billy"

Ahhh... Spokane. I miss this place, sometimes.

A little squinty smile, anyone?

My birthday breakfast of blueberry muffin french toast, potatoes and bacon! It was delish.

Driving back home, over the pass... Until next time, Spokane!

Did you do anything fun last weekend? Can you believe today is Thanksgiving?!?  I'm not promising... but we might be getting our Christmas tree tomorrow! Stay tuned...