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

time for two things

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

The sun is shining after a bit of rain on Sunday and yesterday. I don't mind the rain too much and I love the way everything looks so fresh and green afterwards. Harper always says the rain washes the sky, and I think she's absolutely right. We saw a beautiful rainbow on our way home yesterday and it made us all smile.

I'm super excited about Kassi's Two Things Tuesday this week. I get to share two great recent thrift finds. If you haven't checked out Kassi's blog, hop on over now to check it out. Its a daily read for me! She's got great personal style, a beautiful family, and major crafty-girl skills.

I mentioned a little while ago that I had found this great chair for my little Harper. I had seen a very similar one on another blog that was painted a vibrant, juicy orange. I immediately made mental note to look for one on my thrifting/antiquing adventures but never thought I would actually come across one that same week at a thrift store for $4! I've debated painting it a bright, shiny color but Carl seems to love the white and I like the juxtaposition of the chippy paint against our mid-century modern Drexel dining set.

Seeing this chair everyday just makes me so happy. Harper seems pretty pleased with it as well. She feels like like quite the little lady having this special chair all to herself.

Same favorite thrift store, a few weeks later, I also found this adorable ceramic camera. This was one of those a-ha! thrifting days where you feel like you scored some seriously awesome treasures.

The drink menu in the background I swiped from the Saint Cecelia Hotel during our trip to Austin. That hotel is so incredibly cool, I wanted to live there!

I love the wonky shape and hand-painted details on the camera. It looks like it could be someone's ceramics class cast-off. Lucky for me!

The camera made its new home in one of my favorite nooks in the house

I'd love to see the two things you are loving today!

Tell me about your two things in my comments

Or create your own post and head on over to Kassi's blog to Mister Linky!

XO,

Chelsea

work it out weekend

For once, I am actually posting a weekend wrapup on a Monday. Its a miracle!

But amazing things happen when you don't have an overbooked weekend and you plan to, well, plan!

It was a wonderful weekend of relaxing, getting things done and rejuvenating our tired spirits.

Things accomplished:

amazing relaxed breakfast with the family

zoo time with the kiddos

An afternoon nap (I never get these!)

Taxes!! 

a wonderful dinner celebrating this lovely lady

birthday girl and I doing the matching gray shorts pose

budgeting - icky but necessary

cleaning

crafting - almost finished with my very first piece of embroidery

and last but definitely not least - two tickets to Norway please!!

(photo source: flickr)

YIPPEE!!

and finishing it all off with a romantic dinner for two

Weekend: fully accomplished

I'm ready to tackle Monday!!

How was your weekend??

XO,

Chelsea

i HEART Thursdays - I love balloons

Oh joy. Its already Thursday again! My honey is on the train home. I've got a sweet little boy to gather, meet Carl at the train station and the three of us are off for a date night adventure of dinner and How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. Not sure how I'll survive dinner out while on day 4 of my detox - but I'm determined. Super excited to see Dragon - especially with my Nordic sweetie.

Today's <3 post is a random mashup of pretty balloon hearts. Just because :) 

What's your favorite day of the week??

XO,

Chelsea

weekend rewind

I really do need to get better at posting weekend highlights on Monday, rather than Thursday! I just never quite get it together by then though! That will be my new goal for next week. Maybe.

This last weekend was a whirlwind of activity! From charging it down to LA for a night with some friends and much needed catchup to a pit stop on our way back to SB for some cliff soaring and then lots of get togethers back in town to celebrate the fun Easter weekend!

Graham about to take a picture of me taking a picture of him. He was having "lens envy"...

We had dinner at Spanish Kitchen on La Cienega. The black mole was outstanding! One bottle of champagne, 3 desserts, a latte and a round of port later and we were all stuffed! But we somehow managed to finish off the night with a dip in the hot tub and a bottle of Cristal! How's that for fabulousness?

A little breakfast at Basix the next morning was something we could hardly wait for!

Saw a Harper Ave sign on our way and of course had to stop and snap a shot of that!

you know I love me some Freeeeench Toast and Tam and I love our fishbowl mimosas!

modern buildings in West Hollywood

Highway 101

Carl ridge soaring Bates, while I ran along the train tracks overlooking the ocean and then jetted down to the beach to built a heart with rocks for him to see from the sky.

We rushed home to scoop up the kiddos, color some Easter eggs and prep for a huge brunch feast the next day! Fantastic Mr. Fox was an awesome diversion for the kids while the adults were busy in the kitchen.

Easter egg hunt madness

backyard "lasso golf" which is the PC name for testy toss!!

my favorite part of brunch - dessert

it looks like eggs, but they are really homemade meringue cups with lemon curd! YUM!!

Clearly a good time had by all. 

(and yes, that is my new Liberty of London for Target shirt. I was surprised that the Tar-jay I hit up on the way to LA had quite a bit of Liberty left. Yay!!)

Everyone retreated after brunch for a little naptime. I cleaned, grocery shopped and we watched Sherlock Holmes. Being lazy felt pretty awesome, but we somehow rallied ourselves for another party Sunday eve. 

Whew!!

I need a nap just thinking about the busy weekend!

Thankfully, its been a restful week.

Looking forward to a date night with my two hunky guys tonight. 

A little dinner and How to Train Your Dragon 3D.

What's your favorite part of brunch?

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

Techie Tuesday - it makes me wicked smaaht

Living with a guy who has a Masters in Electrical Engineering  has some major benefits - "honey, the screen went blue again!" and also some pitfalls - as in sometimes I don't have a clue what he's talking about. Being with Carl has definitely upped my techie status and we both get pretty geeked out over new devices, software or home projects where he can "hack" anything. I've actually even written a Hello World in 3 (or 4) programming languages. My old boss used to tell me that he knew I was secretly a major nerd - now it appears all his suspicions are true!

This got me thinking about a fun new blog series - Techie Tuesdays. I'll alternate Techie Tuesdays with participating in Kassi's Two Things. I plan to have Carl join in the fun by writing reviews of new cool stuff out there - stuff you actually want or want to know about. We'll also have some fun DIY projects as well. Please tell me if there is anything you want to know about and we can do a feature on that also.

For the first Techie Tuesday - lets talk about the iPad. We are getting one, not necessarily by choice, but that's a pretty long story. Regardless, we are coming by one for free and I'm really interested to hear what other people think about it. As with all Apple products, there's tons of marketing and buzz out there. But there also seems to be a lot of haters on the interwebs.

It seems that anyone who considers themselves an IT or techie type doesn't really feel like the iPad is worth all the credit its been getting.

We plan to use ours for video watching, as a cookbook in the kitchen or for just reading on the go.

And we also want it - because it makes us feel "wicked smaht"

Check out the video below - a hilarious video about the iPad using Good Will Hunting:

Because we held out for the version with WiFi and 3G and a bit more memory, we won't be seeing it until the end of this month. When we get it, we'll be sure to review it and discuss!

How about you? Anybody want this? Have it? Have another tablet that is awesome? We wanna know!!

XO,

Chelsea