dirt barbie diaries

Making a Case for Pilates

So pilates gets a weird rap, right? A whole lotta white girls, weird contraptions (aptly named the apparatus, I think), and like, lemon water. Or like, whatever. Brunch is also often associated. I recently started going to pilates… religiously. Not daily, but I definitely go once a week. It’s a foundation to my (sparse) weekly routine. To be clear, the class I attend isn’t a Hollywood pilates…

Picture this–  You sir in your seat on an airplane next to a short, but round woman. She’s respectful of your space & even gives up the arm rest.  But, as soon as the wheels go up, a neck rest comes out, her seat goes back and she seems to melt. Fully relaxed, her arm starts creeping over the arm rest & her being slowly oozes into your personal space. Not malicious or unthinking, just relaxed.…

Lines are blurred easily in adult life. Kids movies lied. In Mulan, there was no choice! Her father could not fight and she had to defend her family’s honor!  Bull shit. That shit never happens IRL.  There’s a quote from Winston Churchill I read today that sparked this whole thought process:  Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.  I’m in a weird…

San Francisco, house on a hill, coffee and toast at the kitchen table watching CNN. That was how my Wednesday started today.  In town showing my portfolio and laying groundwork to make some changes, I’m working to become a stronger designer. But can I do that and still be the idealistic dirtbag I want to be? Answer: um yeah duh.  This is nerve-wracking. I’m all over the place. I definitely ate…

I’ve tried to figure it out since… can I add “Wedding Photographer” to my skills on LinkedIn after that or is it too much of a stretch? It might be a stretch… but so would “Juice Shooter.” Both are accurate to a certain extent— I’m going to put “experience with product photography” and skip the Juice Shooting bit for now.

ANYWHO, I hadn’t heard much else after sending in the final products and was stoked to see a few pop up on the Google machine today!

https://juicebasin.com/bridal-cleanse-need/

So that was neat. Below is a gallery of a few other photos from the shoot:

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Stella Liechty Photography, 2016

Failing Sucks – Tribalry.com

This week I wrote a piece for Tribalry.com (a rad networking community I’m a part of – whaddup to the zero people in the Dream Big Tribe who will see this!) about failing forward and how each failure that we endure takes us another step forward. Lucky for me, I was fired the same day I was asked to write the piece and had some fresh experience to pull from. Below is a copy of the article, because…

I want to be crazy, I think. The more I have the opportunity to be limitless, to be free, to be the “wild child” that people have seen in me for a long time, the more I want it. I want to have tattoos that are blatant and visible, I want to wear patches, I want to encourage mischief.  I want to cause trouble and be democratic. And march for the rights of humans–women, men, LGBTQA, the future…

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I was “let go” from my job today. No explanation, just my last check, a 🤷‍♀️ and a cya. Maybe it’s like a thunderstorm, but I felt it in my knees… saw this coming.  But that’s not important. What’s important is that this is the stereotypical place where one gets a college degree, is unemployed and nothing is holding him/her back. So what do you do? You get a part time job and ski your ass off.…

New Year, Who Dis

…and the Yeti lives on. It (I’ve decided to keep the beast gender-neutral) still needs new tires desperately, and the build-out is still on hold, but I can’t imagine another adventure mobile for me. So there’s that update for myself to look back at and think whatever it is I’ll think next time I come across this. School is done, skiing is here, my knee is feeling grrrreat, and work is full speed…

Internal Debate: RS (Rational Stella): the truck is expensive to run, needs some love, and impossible to park in almost all urban settings.  IS (Idealyc Stella): but it’ll be great for weekend trips! Great for social media things! RS: it need new tires and brakes! IS: BUT YOU CAN JUST CAMP IN THE BACK! Free camping anywhere, any time! Every weekend! RS: cops hate it when you camp in the back of a…

“Could you describe your adventure style for me?” I asked. Not sure what response I would get…  I got a good answer.  But then I thought… what answer would I give in return? Hmm. Good question, give yourself a pat on the back for that one…  “I like travel that’s rewarding and I hate being a tourist. (Being a tourist and being a visitor are different.) I like drinking beers that I’ve earned,…

Shifting gears again and trying to understand and build a life that’s going to allow me to be the most happy and productive.  Not entirely sure what that looks like, but I’m realizing that home to me (and maybe to everyone else) needs to be a sanctuary. A place that you can take your pants off and read for hours, a safe place to flop at the end of the day and a place where the silence is your…

Was, umm… kindly? woken up at 2:30 this morning by the police knocking at my window.  No camping in SLC. Period.  Nicer than the last interaction with the police, but still annoying. He just suggested I try and ‘blend in’ more downtown. I was parked on campus–where I’ve bought a parking pass & am in classes– and nearly blinded as I was told that what I was doing was illegal.  Lessons learned:…