Welcome to Of North

After more than five years of blogging under the name Urban Tease, I have retired my original blog and am already so excited to have a fresh start under the new name Of North.

I chose the name Of North after my first thought, Tackling Adulthood, was shot down by numerous people. It's probably for the best - Tackling Adulthood seems a bit too rigid, not creative enough. It doesn't really reflect all that I am. I took some time to brainstorm what represents me best and decided to dig into my Minnesotan roots. I had been reading a book given to me by my pastor titled, "On the Back of the North Wind" by George McDonald (mentor to J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis) and at first, thought of the name Of the North Wind. After deciding that that was just too long, I settled on Of North. Since this blog is written by an authentic girl of the north country, it only makes sense that the blog name reflects that. (I didn't want to title it anything about girl from the north country because it would be a major bummer if this blog ruined the Dylan song for both you and me.)

I created an entire playlist to inspire what I wanted the blog's feel to be like - a playlist featuring artists like Cat Stevens, David Bowie, the Grateful Dead, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Peter Paul & Mary, Big Star, Roy Orbison, The Who, John Denver, and even Audrey Hepburn's version of "Moon River". I contemplated making a mood board, but then I realized that my entire Pinterest is pretty much a giant collection of mood boards that fit the blog perfectly - because, well, they fit me, and I am the blog. 
If you liked Urban Tease, then you will like Of North - but expect more updates, more personality, and more variety. I decided to create a new blog after many months of feeling constrained by Urban Tease. It was time to start something that I would identify with more properly - something that I could fill with pretty things, people I love, DIYs, my confusing thoughts, and all of my aspirations of things to do, places to go, and people to meet. I wanted a place where I could have my hair in victory rolls one day or be hiking a mountain the next. I wanted a blog where I could reference both Friends and An Affair to Remember in one post. I wanted a blog where I could dedicate an entire post to how much I love my cats, or how much I hate sewing, or what book I'm reading at the moment. For me, Urban Tease was born with a very firm vision - to talk about fashion and to explore my personal style. Although I got out of that from time to time, I still was never comfortable spreading out into all that I want to write about. I'm not urban tease anymore. That's not me. I'm not a 15 year old girl, confused about who she is, wearing head-to-toe neon one day, flannel & Docs the next, and short flippy skirts than barely cover my bum another. I'm much more settled into who I am - at least who I am through how I represent myself with clothes - than I was even just two years ago. Although I still love to feature that on the blog, it isn't all that I am. I've been holding myself back, searching for a new creative outlet to express myself. Although I love Pinterest for how it can visually represent so much of me, my mind is overflowing with thoughts and words and beautiful things (and not so beautiful things, as well) that need to escape from me. Since we live in this age of being completely self-centered and exposed to the whole world through technology, and since I already blogged about more constrained pieces of my life, I decided that the best thing to do would be to start an entirely new blog - one with fewer constraints and one that represented all that I have grown into.
And so, with that, welcome to Of North!