Tomboy Style Love

Tomboy Style is my favorite blog. Hands down can’t get enough. My Mom noticed this and bought me the Tomboy Style book. I took a little quite time while my toddler was sleeping and read the book cover-to-cover and keep going back to it for more. My favorite kind of picture book.

Lizzie Garrett is the author of both the before mentioned blog and book and I think we would be friends. She outlines the rebel, the prep and the athletic tomboy. I find myself falling in many of these categories.

Reading her book and blog has brought back memories of buying my first tie (from the Limited Too in Syracuse, NY), always wearing vintage mens military gear, baggy corduroy pants and vintage tees with blazers. I went through a few phases (in college) trying to fit in with the other girls. It never worked. I’m happy to embrace my tomboy, rebel/punk, feminine, prep and funky style.

Buy her book. Check out her blog. Break out of the norm and own your own style. Cheers!

Happy 2013 – Music Run Down of 2012

Happy 2013, everyone. Here is the annual music run down! I enjoyed an amazing year of new-artist, old classics and some amazing shows. Cheers!

Jenna’s Music 2012 Run Down

Top 10 Songs (in no order)

The House That Heaven Built – Japandroids
Lord Knows – Dum Dum Girls
No Tell by Smoke & Jackal
Its Time by Imagine Dragons
The Only Place by Best coast (off The Only Place album)
“45″ by The Gaslight Anthem (catchy as all hell & the lead singer sounds hot)
Ho Hey The Lumineers
Comeback Kid by Sleigh Bells
All Your Gold by Bat For Lashes from The Haunted Man
Forest Whitaker by Bad Books
Take A Walk by Passion Pit

Top 5 Albums (in no order)

Dum Dum Girls – End of Daze
Japandroids – Celebration Rock
No Doubt – Push and Shove
Tennis- Young & Old
The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

Top Concerts

No Doubt (Gibson Amphitheater, Los Angeles)
Sleigh Bells (Rialto Theater, Tucson)
Willie Nelson and Family (Celebrity Theater, Phoenix)
Japandroids, (The Sail Inn, Tempe, AZ)

All Concerts (no order)

No Doubt and Fitz & The Tantrums
Bob Log III
Martina McBride and George Straight
Young the Giant
Japandroids
The Kills
Foster the People (Kimbra and Mayer Hawthorn opened)
Cults
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Willie Nelson

Top Songs that are were overplayed:

Simple Song – The Shins
We are Young- Fun (still love this song, but wow it got air time)
Anything by Foster the People
Anything by Mumford and Sons…yes I said it. They are annoying.

Concert Series: Japandroids

Concert Date: November 7 (weekday show = dedication)
Concert Venue: Sail Inn, Tempe, AZ
Opener: we missed them…sadly…but it was Bleached they were very punctual and we were not
Main Act: Japandroids

First off…I love the Sail Inn. This venue is a gem just off the beaten path in Tempe, Arizona. It is a divy indoor outdoor venue that features an intimate venue to watch and enjoy live music. Japandroids has been a favorite of Cody (hubby) and I for a while and with their radio hit “The House That Heaven Built” this past summer we were very excited to catch their show.

Japandroids is a duo of Brian (guitar/vocals) and David (drums/vocals) from Vancouver. Their lyrics are fast, hearty and full of punk rock angst in a good way. David their drummer plays super fast which Cody loves. I think Brian has a legit voice and is not hard on the eyes.

Seeing them at the Sail Inn was a treat because it felt they were playing for an intimate party of you and a few dozen of your friends all sipping on whiskey drinks at an outdoor party. As a band they are extremely thoughtful to their fans, noting certain songs they didn’t play their last trip to AZ and thanking the crowd between songs.

The crowd was solid. We thought it would be filled with young hipsters wearing plaid but it was a good mixture of high school nerdy skinny indie kids roped off on the side in the non-drinking area (to the right of the panoramic image at the top of this post), just out of college kids wearing plaid, 30-somethings wearing plaid (us) and even a few folks reaching in their 50′s. A small mosh pit broke out but it was a polite pit that even stopped at one point so a young nerdy dude could grab his glasses he had dropped. Amazing.

Even though my ears were ringing at work in the morning I’m glad we took our old music fan asses out that Wednesday night to hear Japandroids. We will 100% be catching them their next tip to AZ.

Check out some pics I got from the show:

Click image below for The House That Heaven Built video. It is rad!

Source: youtube.com via Jenna on Pinterest

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Concert Series: Sleigh Bells

Sorry I’ve been slacking lately…BUT I do have thoughts on Sleigh Bells and their bad ass lead singer Alexis Krauss.

Concert Date: October 19
Concert Venue: Rialto Theater, Tucson, AZ
Opener: Not sure but they were loud
Main Act: Sleigh Bells

This concert was amazing and LOUD. Sleigh Bells music is high energy, dramatic and makes me want to jump up and down and pick a fight. It is crazy cool girl power lead by Alexis Krauss who is amazing. She was wearing fishnets, pink cord shorts, a lacy bra and a parental advisory T-Shirt cut up. Her black hair is cut perfectly and flies with ease as she headbangs and bounces across the stage. She hit every note and had every person in the theater under her thumb.

Pics I took on my iPhone and video from the show:

SleighBells Tucson October192912 from Jenna Rutschman on Vimeo.

Source: dallasobserver.com via Jenna on Pinterest

California Dreaming

Living in Arizona can suck at times. Mainly June, July and August. I grew up in lovely summer loving, bomb fires, lake swimming, boat rides, thunder storms and sun tanning life in upstate NY. Phoenix, AZ is an inferno in the summer and to boot I hate shorts.

While taking our annual trip to San Diego with Cody’s family we had a date night and spent a little couple time crossing the bay and heading out in the Gaslamp to a cool bar called Neighborhood.

I wanted to be warm in the CA chill, let my curls go a little wild and causal all at once. So I paired cropped boyfriend jeans, sperry boat shoes, a fun apple print sweater and a gift my Mother-in-Law gave me a beautiful Zuni squash Blossom necklace.

The mix of pretty and pattern play is too much for my imagination. I love the styles coming our way for fall and can’t wait for the weather to finally cool here in AZ. Until then, I will enjoy my California Dreaming trips.

A few fall inspiration pins, these pins are found on pinterest, they are not my creation or my styling just my inspiration:

Source: jcrew.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Source: atlantic-pacific.blogspot.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Source: refinedstyle.tumblr.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Source: toh-atin.com via Jenna on Pinterest

XXX Summer Olympics – Love of the Water

I grew up in the water and truly love swimming. The water, my high-school swim team, the lake where I grew up in Upstate NY are all part of my soul. The XXX Summer Olympics reminds me of how much I loved being part of my swim team. We trained with dedication and if you were a swimmer you embraced crazy practice schedule, thousands upon thousands of yards swim practices, paper suits, soar shoulders, chlorine smelling skin and constantly having wet hair.

The Olympics have reminded me how fun it is to keep in touch with old swim buddies and easy thanks to text message and FB. Growing up in a small town that had a remarkable swim record I connected with girls at an early age who loved to swim. Some of whom I spent pre-school through senior year of high school together. We had swim lesson’s every year in gym class (yes we had a pool and swim lessons as part of gym, amazing I now know), went to modified championships and varsity championships, we went to state qualifications and states that made us nervous while winning medals and sharing tears when beat at the last second.

I can’t wait to jump in a pool and swim some laps. A little slower than when I was a real swimmer. But the love for water will always be within me.

Sharing my favorite XXX Summer Olympics commercial:

Concert Series: Willie Nelson & Family

We went to Willie. Willie Nelson that is. It was an awe inspiring moment in my life. My dear friend Kelley told me that seeing The Boss for the first time was a spiritual experience. I have yet to see Bruce Springsteen. But Willie Nelson was a spiritual experience for me.

We went to Willie celebrating our friend Tim’s birthday. For icing on the cake we spent a little extra for amazing seats. Celebrity Theater in Phoenix is a small, odd venue with a circular stage that moves. But, this particular crowd was perfect. Rather than the smell of kind bud, beer and whiskey the AZ crowd was a little older and subdued for a Sunday evening. But we celebrated with a fantastic dinner followed by Willie Nelson served up with whiskey and beer. It was a delicious evening.

Willie has his trusty guitar with the big hole in it, his American flag guitar strap, cowboy hat, bandana and sister Barbara on the piano.

Willie played several of my favorites including Georgia On My Mind, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain and City of New Orleans. We were eight rows back and Willie even though 79 sounded crisp, relevant and lovely. A true living legend in my mind. Our babysitter at 19 had no idea who he was