HAPPY FOR HUE: HOT PINK

1. May28th & Kate Spade watch in spirograph, Kate Spade Saturday //  2. Crossover dress, Kate Spade Saturday // 3. Leather thong sandal, Zara // 4. Play the angels posts, Kate Spade // 5. Factory tiny dot tee, J. Crew Factory // 6. Hancock park - ginnie leather cross body bag, Kate Spade

What I've Been Up To Lately

I've been knee-deep in a few projects, making it tough to post more often.  I wanted to share the few things I've been working on the past couple weeks, and hopefully this week I'll also have another "I Love You, California" post for y'all.  I have a few in the hopper, who knew there were so many amazing things to do with your babes, toddlers and chilluns in the Bay Area?

First, I've been working on a website and branding for my parents, the beekeepers at River Road Honey Farm.  They started out in 2005 with just a few hives, and 7 years later it's a whole operation!  I love simple, clean and charming websites, so this was a really fun one to be working on.  It's not done yet, I'm hoping it will wrap up this week.

I've also been working on a wedding album for my dear friend Sara.  She got married in Hawaii in April, and I've been creating a super special album for her.  I love wedding albums, don't you?  It brings back memories of looking through my grandparents album and thinking about how young and chic they were.  I know many people forgo the album these days, but to me it's a tangible and beautiful artifact of your wedding day to share for generations.

This is my favorite page from the album.  The bride is seriously cool and a indie music lover.  She is genuine, funny and unique, and I wanted to create something that reflected her personality.  I create all my albums without templates, using only the photos and story of the day to inspire an album that is absolutely personal.  For this layout, I was inspired by an album that won WPPI’s Wedding Album of the Year in 2012.  The photographer Jerry Ghoinis said about it "I thought I would take a risk and create a polaroid collage creating a sense of movement in each spread. It makes a 2D image almost appear 3D. It was like creating a puzzle from the inside out with no knowledge of the final image."  Amazing.  This page is a collage created from five different images of their sky lantern send off.  It was the most fun I've had on a project recently, I felt like I was in the zone creatively speaking and so thrilled about the final result.  I LOVE a good puzzle!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately.  Hope your weekend was as motivating as mine was.  Happy Monday everyone!

Kevin Russ

Lately I have been drooling over the photos of Kevin Russ - do you know him? It all started with a photograph I suggested to a client for their office, and then while trolling Instagram one day I came across the Most. Gorgeous. Amazing. Photos. Ever.

The lighting, the framing, the stunning West Coast scenery and gorgeous wildlife (in seemingly unreal poses.)  My mind kept asking "How did they get that shot??!"  I wanted to get out and take some amazing pictures of my own, I love that kind of motivating inspiration!

Obsessing over every single one I thought I should know more about this talented person.  So I followed the link in his profile, low and behold it was the same photographer as the buffalo print I'd recommended. Of course, awesome!

(Kevin Russ prints, clockwise from top left 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

He sells many more of his gorgeous prints here on Society 6, if you're as entranced as I am. His Instagram is so much fun to see. Warning: if you follow, you will want to hike every waterfall, gorge, seaside, forest, cliff and beach up and down the coast. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Style Crush: Vintage Rings

Do you get hung up on a particular thing?  For me, it's always been rings.  I love love love rings. Necklaces are lovely, but I never seem to get around to wearing them.  I can't wear earrings because my ears are stretched.  I have two watches I really like to wear, but bracelets are not really in my wheelhouse - I think partly because they tend to get in the way when I'm on my laptop.  So, rings are my jewelry of choice.  But not ANY ring, I love luscious, unique, and vintage (ish!) rings. When you haven't seen one anywhere (and it's floral), it's exactly my style.  For example, my engagement ring is a pale green diamond, almost seafoam green, my favorite color!  And the ring I received from Edwin when Rosie was born is a morganite stone (peach/pink emerald) set into a rose gold flower.  I was trolling around the other day and found these rings, too pretty not to share.

1. C. 1960 Vintage Carved Coral and Diamond Bee Ring from Ross Simons // 2. Vintage Hexagonal Diamond Engagement Ring from Ritani // 3. Ornate Retro Vintage Tri Color Gold Eternity Band from The Three Graces // 4. Star Amongst Stars in a Russian Diamond Ring from 1st Dibs // 5. Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Ruby Bow Motif Ring from 1st Dibs // 6. The Irina Ring from Brilliant Earth // 7. 1.93 Carat Art Deco Diamond Ring from 1st Dibs

If I had more confidence about buying vintage when we were ring shopping for my engagement ring I would have totally gone for one of these.  There are some amazing and reliable resources for vintage rings out there, maybe for our anniversary?!  A girl can hope!  Swoon!

Farmers Market Flowers

I am just delighted every week with the flowers at our local farmers market. They are always whatever is in season, they look fresh and are the loveliest colors.  Best of all? It's $20 for 6 bunches of flowers, regardless of variety. In the past I've gotten ranunculus in every color, snap dragons, cosmos, daffodils, sunflowers, sweet william (a flower I love the look and name of.) 

This week there were rows and rows of a personal favorite: dahlias. Oh how I love dahlias! They are so interesting texturally, they come in so many hues and sizes, they look vintage and modern at the same time, and they look lovely in many different varieties of arrangements.

I'm also partial to them because they were in my wedding bouquet and bring back sweet memories.  Our genius wedding florist, Church Street Flowers, had suggested them based on the black and white, vintage modern look of our wedding and the flowers (and the florist!) have been a favorite ever since.

Here are the four arrangements that I made this week, all done from the $20 for 6 bunches investment.  Similar in process to this post on arranging $18 worth of Trader Joe's flowers, I sorted all my flowers out in piles by color and type, arranged my large bouquets first and used the odds and ends to make a little posy for the bathroom and the kitchen window.  It might be a ridiculous way to spend 30 minutes of very precious free time, but I find it relaxing and it creates lasting enjoyment!

We've been having a rough couple weeks with the baby munchkin, so it has been uplifting spotting these flowers at every turn in our house. Hooray! Hope you are all enjoying this lovely sunshine. Bon weekend!

HAPPY FOR HUE: STONE GREY

Grey is one of my favorite neutrals. I could wear jeans and a v-neck grey t-shirt everyday for the rest of my life and be very happy. natalie 

1. Cece leather ballet flat, J.crew \\ 2. Boxy leather holdall, Topshop \\ 3. Cropped matchstick jean in garment dyed denim, J.crew \\ 4. Quilted sweat, Topshop \\ 5. Gloss short rain boot, Hunter \\ 5. Colored shirt, Zara \\

Happy Monday

I hope you enjoyed the 4th of July holiday!  We had a lovely time, and I was so busy chatting, eating, and mixing drinks I didn't take a single picture of the party - boo.  Rosie showed her toddler friends quite the good time, beating the heat splashing away in the water table and the kiddie pool.  Isn't it amazing those two silly looking plastic items are endless hours of entertainment and happy toddler making in the summer?  I'll admit I sneak my toes in too, it's the coolest (get it? coolest?)

Rosie's outfit (sadly so tight in the chest I'm pretty sure it's time to pack it away) is last season from Janie and Jack, my dress is Anthropologie here.

P.S.  If I had the time, or energy, I would totally make this tricycle car wash - I'm obsessed! Happy Monday y'all!

Photography Challenge: Week 3

Well hello, and how do you do?  We have been enjoying the long weekend, despite a few bumps in the road (my daughter slept for a total of about 6 hours last night, good times!)  The BART strike looks to be on at least a 30 day reprieve, and the 4th of July was sunny as it should be - all is well in the world!  This is week 3 of my photography challenge, and although I do seem to be getting more familiar with my settings, I'm still not very quick in fixing them.  My new ridiculous habit is to forget my ISO setting and so the first 10 pictures I take are so badly lit they are garbage. Then I realize UH DUH, I'm on ISO 100, inside the house, with practically no light.  No bueno.

This picture is Rosie and her dear friend Elise, who is so precious and I just adore her.  She looks just like a little doll, doesn't she?  Adorable separately, I think they are compounding the cuteness together.  I just want to kiss them both!  I wish I had increased the aperture a bit because Rosie is sitting up a little further than Elise and a teensy bit out of focus.  I should have chosen another photo, but it was so sweet.  Nevermind, I stand behind my choice!  I will keep trying, I will!

Style Crush: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

I've seen the movie Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid at least 649 times, honestly.  It's a classic, it has tons of action, humor, and young Robert Redford and Paul Newman - swoon!

(pictures 1, 2)

But the real scene stealer is Katharine Ross as Etta Place (you might recognize her from The Graduate.)  Her long brown hair, her big brown eyes, that serious look and adventurous spirit.  She's totally gorgeous, and I have a style crush.  A full blown western-maxi-skirt-heavy-eyebrow-wild-spirit crush.

(pictures 3, 4)

So here are a few items I think you might catch modern day Etta wearing, in all her Sundance Kid loving glory.  I just want to ride off into the sunset in that maxi skirt and bleached denim shirt, on the back of Paul Newman's horse would not be a bad day.  Giddyup!

1. The Transport Rucksack from Madewell // 2. Annie Bing Sleeveless Dress from Shopbop // 3. Brixton Tiller Floppy Hat from Zappos // 4. The Archive Boot from Madewell // 5. Vintage Maxi Dress from Etsy // 6. Braided Updo Tutorial from She Let's Her Hair Down // 7. 1969 Bleached Western Shirt from The Gap

A Rose By Any Other Name...

We named our daughter Rose Luella Lee.  We named her long before she was born, the minute we said Rose out loud we knew that is what she would be.  The name Rose has several family ties for me, first, I was raised in Roseville, Minnesota.  My grandfather grew roses and entered them in competitions, Rosie is my step-great grandmother's name and a favorite aunt's middle name.  I love roses, I have several rose tattoos and pink spray roses and garden roses are my favorite flowers.  Rose was also my favorite Golden Girl. 

Luella means warrior, and boy did we ever name Rose accurately.  What comes first though, the chicken or the egg?  Is she a warrior because of her name, or did we just guess extremely well with our little antagonistic daughter.  I sometimes wonder if we didn't bring her battling nature upon ourselves (and if so, should we name our next child Peace?)  No, I am not thinking about having another child, we have our hands full thankyouverymuch.

The name Lee means "plum tree" in Cantonese, the language of my husband's family.  They are from Hong Kong, and moved here when my mother in law was (unknowingly) expecting my husband Edwin.  The plum tree we planted when Rosie was born 17 months ago is already bearing fruit, way ahead of schedule and always pushing towards the sky - also so much like our young and tall warrior daughter.  We have been eating the fruit from the tree and it's sometimes bitter and sometimes tooth-achingly sweet.  Oh, you've met my daughter?  Sounds just like her doesn't it?

Sometimes I think the world is just full of meaning.  A few random musings for your Monday.  Hope you are surviving this ridiculously inconvenient BART strike, for those of you in the Bay Area.  I wish for you speedy commutes (or better yet, instant tele-commutes!)