fashion / modern monochrome

i am kind of obsessed with this look, though sometimes it's hard to pull off. wearing all of the same color can seem either drab (all black) or crazy (all coral)- but if you get the look right it can be just straight awesome. for sydney's outfit we used my bright orange floral pants (from nordstrom last year), and paired it with her lacey orange top. it works because the top has enough white to break up the color, but still has the vivid hue we were looking for. she is also wearing my seychelles platforms that are the same color, and my small coral purse from target. we also put my favorite lipstick on her. we added in my fedora to offset all the color, and pull the whole outfit together. what do you think? would you be brave enough to wear something like this??

ps. i got to talk to this cute girl yesterday! she was on her way from the mtc to costa rica and sounded fabulous! if you'd like to see what she has been up to/why she will be gone for a year and a half, you can read about it on her blog.

interiors / bar cart makeover

i am obsessed with bobette's bar cart. we bought it for my wedding and used it for... it has the perfect geometric pattern embedded in it's metal barring. of course now that she painted it gold we love it even more. is anyone else going through a phase were you want to spray every piece of furniture gold?? a few years ago bobette had everything in our house painted black, and we are slowly converting all of those pieces to white or gold (or just getting rid of them entirely).

this is what the bar cart looked like in february (sorry for the crappy iphone-at-night shot). many of the same basic elements we kept: the reindeer head that bobette found at homegoods, the ikea shelves above, the actual bar cart, and some of the accessories like jars, plates and cups.

then bobette somehow found a way to style it even cuter. she went with a 'party theme' and included things like the oh joy for target party hats, the fun streamers we end up using at lots of events, our favorite coasters, some pretty napkins, our new marble platters, the water carafes we use for entertaining, and her growing collection of straws. we found those lucite frames at the thrift store for $2 each. the picture on the left was made by yours truly (using an orange sharpie, computer paper, and oh joy! gold confetti). the picture on the right was the back of the fall anthology magazine.

up top she used (from left to right): more water bottles, our vintage gold rimmed glasses, gold rimmed platters from target, a rainbow cake that my sister made, a cupcakes cookbook from anthro, my favorite fleur de lys tumblers from anthro, a decanter, and garden fresh roses as pretty as peonies.

what do you think? do you like it before or after? we are obsessed with this new set up.

baby shower / vintage brunch for little adelaide

this is one of the most adorable showers i have been to! it was for my friend, nicole- she is having her first baby this month. her mom put this shower together and put more work in to it than i have ever seen! not only did she do all the decorating for the shower, she redecorated, refloored, refurnished, repainted etc within the week before the shower! it was a madhouse but somehow it all came together! my mom came in and helped with some of the details and styling, so don't be surprised to see some of our props!

nicole loves anything vintage, so her mom went with that theme for the shower. it was a tuesday morning brunch, with the most delicious food! in the entry way, ann wanted to create a raincloud for the gifts area. she bought the tissue puff balls, and made raindrops with cute vintagey paper (all pinterest inspired of course). we added our giant frame with some of nicole's cute baby clothes.

how adorable is ann's new couch? she put nicole's favorite candies around, and nicole's maternity pictures that i took!

ann used our door tables and rented mismatched vintage chairs. she hung the cutest vintage umbrellas (also rented) above the tables. she went simple with the flowers, placing bud vases of clippings and tulips down the table.

so cute right? thanks nicole for letting me photograph and share your shower!

ps. nicole is naming her baby adelaide, and is calling her lady for short! i would steal this name if she weren't one of my good friends, it's so freaking cute!

entertaining / bright and cheery springtime tablesetting

i love this tablesetting that bobette put together. it is possibly the most colorful and cheery table i have ever seen. she start with a runner made of navy blue ikat napkins from homegoods. she layered chartreuse runners lengthwise across the table, creating each 'placemat' (from ikea). the centerpiece is a wooden box that was made for a wedding in our backyard, filled with flowers cut from our garden. she started each place setting with a basic white square plate (from ikea). she then added our thrift store clear glass gold rimmed plates, and a colorful blue salad plate on top of that. she added our gold geometric soup/pasta bowls (from homegoods). we got those bright orange napkins on super sale at world market (they seriously have the best selection of basic napkins). she tied them into a faux bow tie with a pink ribbon. for glassware she used our tall glasses and our vintage blue dessert dishes, on top of our favorite pink and orange coasters.

fashion / vintage dress + green shades

this dress is possibly the luckiest vintage item i have ever found. when i studied abroad in london with kira we used to devour portobello road for hours on end. we stayed so long that we could never make it to the end of the road. we finally realized that we needed to start from the bottom up. we took the metro a couple of stops down, and found the mecca that is at the end of portobello (not quite as picturesque as the first few blocks, but wayyyy more affordable). that's where i found this dress that has accompanied me to some major life events. like my interview at anthro (that i was late for an didn't get the job because of it- i'll never learn). i love it so much. 

i paired my (old) teal t-straps (seychelles from anthro), my gold bow headband (from anthro), bright blue earrings (world market), and green warby parker sunglasses.