Wardrobe Wednesday - this rocks

I am very much in love with the raw rock vibe of these baubles. A little bit Flintstones, a little Pocahontas, but all the way sexy in a raw and natural way.

Fools gold studs

turquoise slab ring

Geoffrey Good's amazing Hex Agate Necklace

agate ring 

dara ettinger's amazing necklace

raw diamonds

patchwork

This is actually an outfit and shots from last week. It was a really fun little photo shoot with the kids there to play, keep me smiling and of course, get their own photos taken too. This week's rain sort of eradicated any hopes of beautiful outdoor shots - seems to be sort of a theme around here. Spring rain on Tuesdays. In any case, I do truly love the rainy days and the extra injection of color that results from it.

I definitely felt the restlessness of Summer when I wore this dress last week. The chill in the air forced me to throw on a sweater, but I was still feeling the boho summertime vibe of the patchwork dress. And probably a premature anxiousness to get on vacation already! 6 days, 19 hours and 10 minutes until we are on a plane heading for more tropical climes. But who's counting??

Wearing my beautiful new ring from KDikio Vintage. I found her when JenLovesKev offered a giveaway, went on the site and couldn't resist this beauty. If you get a chance to check out KDikio - she's got a great eye and lots of amazing pieces!

Outfit details

Dress: F21 - old

Swing sweater - Banana Republic - hand-me-up from friend

wedges - Steve Madden - old

Sunnies - thrifted

Ring - KDikio Vintage - check her out!!

Of course the photo snapping wouldn't be complete if these two didn't get in on the fun

Little Miss Harper Lee, painted face and all, being Sleeping Beauty. I must have about 20 shots of her laying down like this. "My turn, my turn!!"

I would also now like to announce that I'm quitting my job to become a stage mom for this little ham. Seriously, where did he get this from?? He jumped up on those stairs and struck that pose. Way to work it little guy! Maybe Merl's Manfriend and Sutter can get their own Pouty Model Pose workshop together?

Happy Wednesday!

XO,

Chelsea

old faithful

This outfit is my standby.
Something I know always looks good.
The dress and ankle boots combo is one of my favorites and it never fails to make me feel great all day.
Sunshine and blue skies doesn't hurt either.

Funny things happen when you are running around taking pictures. A guy walked by when I was out in this field and asked if I was taking self-portraits. I lied and said I was testing camera settings. Then he asked if I had any tips for shooting into the sun. Um, no. Clearly, I barely know how to use the thing myself.

Another beautiful week and the first day back to my workouts after the detoxification last week. Tomorrow will be the first run in over a week. Fingers crossed that its an easy transition back because I've got to start training for the Nike Women's Half in San Fran. So excited for that race!!

Happy Hump Day!

How is your Wednesday?

XO,

Chelsea

lilac and wisteria

Southern Cali weather in the springtime has a tendency to be somewhat bipolar. A predicted 50% chance of rain will result in sunshine. No reports of rain and it will suddenly begin to pour, only to go back to sunshine plus wind that same afternoon. Case in point: Monday morning was raining and I wore jeggings, boots and a big sweater. Fast forward to Monday afternoon and its warm and windy. Hmmm.

But today was sunny as expected and I took full advantage of popping on a spring skirt and sandals. I took to the flowers for further inspiration. One of my favorite things about spring are the lilacs and wisterias. Both are short-lived and both are heady with perfume and saturated with color. I love driving around town and seeing the sudden purple bursts of wisteria draping down a wall or archway.

What are your favorite flowers this time of year?

XO,

Chelsea

rainy day

Its a blustery, rainy, wet Wednesday so luckily I've got a backup outfit post.

We've had absolutely gorgeous weather, so I'm not minding the rain so much. Although I will say I hit the snooze on my iPhone alarm about 10 times this morning. My honey has the day off and it was oh-so-tempting to just want to have a rainy day at home. But no. Renewable Energy work calls my name. Up and at 'em...

I've mentioned before that I have a bit of a stripes addiction. This dress was no exception. Its the perfect throw-it-on piece that can be casual or dressed up with accessories. I took the casual approach...

my absolute favorite earrings. birthday gift from Carl last year. he went in to the shop/museum looking for a gift for me and when he wasn't sure what to pick, they asked him to bring in a picture of me so they could find just the right thing.  handmade in Norway and absolutely perfect for me.

What is the most perfect birthday gift you've received?

 XO,

Chelsea

geranium

Ahhh Spring! 

I can't stop mentioning how much I love this season. We're blessed in Southern California in that we don't really even have "seasons" per se. But I can't help but feel the change in mood when the days are longer, more consistently warm and that big yellow ball is shining day in and day out.

I picked this little nook yesterday to shoot in and I realized that I just so happened to match the newly blossomed geranium in our side yard.

I'm a huge fan of bright colors and I think more is definitely more! I got lots of comments on how bright this outfit is. I'm taking that as a compliment ;)

I love this. 

Here I am trying to give my best "fierce" face and out darts my little man. Sutter, your timing is impecable!!

What makes you feel like Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods?

XO,

Chelsea

concrete and sunshine

The warmer days of Southern California have drawn my eyes to a wardrobe of a sunnier variety. 75 degrees in the middle of March, thank you very much.

One of my favorite color combos is yellow and gray - gray being the perfect bridge between somber winter and sunny spring. They are also the color of my new peep-toe booties that I just couldn't wait to wear.

Icelandic opal. My beautiful Christmas gift this year. Direct from Iceland.

someone needs a pedicure. though they never last long when I'm running constantly. just focus on the gorgeous new shoes instead!!

What colors does Spring make you crave?

XO,

Chelsea

wardrobe wednesday - head in the clouds

this shot pretty much sums things up pretty good. my feet may be grounded in the earth, but my head is in an ethereal cloud.

nothing that can't be solved with an evening of watching Coraline with the kiddos, making homemade pizza and then starting a new craft project.


speaking of feet - I'm crushing on just about every pair of shoes Anthro is currently peddling...ahh, a girl can dream right?

some flats even I could love 

 with pretty socks, these are the bees knees

the detailing is amazing

where do I begin??? love, love, love

 I have two pairs of almost these exact shoes from old navy from years ago. suddenly inspired to remake them to match any and all of my spring/summer outfits

my stripes addiction is no secret. please come home with me stripey booties!?

Not that I need more shoes. Our over the door shoe rack breaks daily from being overstressed...

What's your shoe addiction??

XO,

Chelsea

weekend wrap-up + wardrobe wednesday

Yes, I am actually doing Wednesday's post on Thursday. A crazy weekend and busy week have pushed me all the way into Thursday without posting! Not to mention the lack of internet at home which causes me to do all my posting (shhh) on breaks at work. I'm happy to report though that we are all hooked up to the interwebs and now I can actually do some posting at home! And I'm hoping to enlist my honey's help over the weekend with some photography skills. He's pretty good and has a sweet camera!

Our last weekend was pretty crazy! Lots of progress on setting up the house - its even to a point where it might be worthy of getting some photos over this weekend!!

The two littles weren't feeling so hot, so we had to skip out on a birthday party.

Sutter loves this old fashioned key. I told him it was the key to my heart.

Harper loves makeup and headbands. I'm in serious trouble

We tried to make it up to them with some playtime at IKEA. If that didn't work, the ice cream at the end definitely did!

We spent all day Saturday at IKEA - super fun to get all the odds and ends we were needing, but there's something about spending all day doing that that just sucks a little bit of your soul!! It was pretty fun though to have Carl in tow to pronounce all the names of the items. And he got a bit of the homeland to bring home. We bought a ton of packages of Swedish meatballs and sauce. Plus I surprised him with 6 jars of Sill. We also picked up a GIANT projector screen on the way to IKEA so our movie theater experience is just about complete :)

We were rewarded for our hard day's work with a fun night out at Carr Winery. Its an awesome local winery who's tasting room is in a quonset hut. Its pretty awesome. Barrels of wine aging to perfection, shuffleboard, backgammon, great sounding music, good friends and good wine. They had an "Open That Bottle" evening where they were offering library wines for the price of the current stuff. With my industry discount it made for some pretty affordable juice, so we ended up going home with a half case. Oops. Well, we needed something to fill our new wine rack!!

Check out Carr, its pretty awesome. 

Carl is double-fisted with the drinks there. I guess he's probably holding my glass...

no idea why Chantal keeps trying to hide behind her wine glass...

 the quonset hut creating some serious love mood ;)

we got some great video of a guy dancing the funky chicken, but I'm still working on figuring out how to get that here! anybody know how?

a robot with a heart. and a glass. guy after my own heart!

Sunday was full of more organizing - mainly by Carl! I snuck out for breakfast with the girls and perused downtown SB. Kass - I popped into Anthro and managed not to buy everything in sight! It was hard!

Sunday night was the best though because we had the crew over for some delicious lasagna and great wine. Finished the night off with some peach cobbler and a little Motorcycle Diaries. Great day!!

Now for some Wardrobe...

Its been sort of a wet week here. I thought I'd brighten the mood with my new tights from Anthro - on sale for $7. Hard to say no to that!

 

 

This heart dress is my favorite. Its a go-to that never fails to make me feel happy when I wear it!

I'm looking forward to our guest this weekend and lots of happy home nesting!!

What is everyone else looking forward to?

XO,

Chelsea