Jewelry Lust

Anyone who ever meets me or even takes a peek at my blog will know. I LIKE JEWELRY. A lot. Like a lot a lot. It should come as no suprise that my parents run a little boutique selling jewelry. I wasn't the most careful and graceful child (I have a stack of broken watches to prove this) so jewelry was not necessarily a part of my life. Fast forward 20 years and KAPOW! Jewelry love/lust hits hard. I actually bought my first diamond ring about six years ago. It's my beloved leaf ring that I feel naked without. I am always lusting after things in my mom's shop and so I thought I would share a few drool-worthy items. :)

The FLOWER ring. I love. I want. 14K white gold setting with diamonds, pink sapphires and more diamonds set in the center with yellow gold.

14k yellow gold setting with an amethyst stone. The deep purple is stunning.

 

Does this look familiar? It's one of the rings I love wearing. The green tourmaline stone is what originally caught my eye. 14K yellow gold setting with small white diamonds and a sea-green center stone.

 

My mother's newest leaf ring addition. The prettiest one I've seen since the one I picked up for myself. This one is a daintier version of mine and I think a little more "organic" in feel. 18k yellow gold set with small white diamonds. I WANT!!

 

This ring is definitely one I would feel nekkid without. This is the first diamond ring I ever bought for myself and I did so once I finished with university. 14k white gold with pave set white diamonds. I adore this ring.

 

A beautiful setting that has a more modern take on the three stone ring. 14k white gold set with diamonds in a cluster form in the center and around the cluster. This ring looks simple and elegant and definitely looks lovely once worn. The diamonds catch every possible ray of light and shines like crazy.

 

What a beauty! Yellow sapphire ring set in 14k yellow gold with small white diamonds set around the center stone as well as pave set diamonds on the band. The center stone is almost 3 carats! The basket setting also has an art-deco inspired carving throughout but I forgot to get a pic of it... D'oh!

 

Multi-colored pearl necklace with pinks, peach, and white pearls. It also has one very beautiful tahitian black pearl hanging on the end of the strand. This necklace is interesting because the snap is adjustable so you can adjust how long or short you want the center piece to be. So unique and beautiful!

 

My mother's shop always has at least one simple, statment diamond bracelet/bangle. This is one of them and is a timeless design. This design is nothing new but used frequently since it showcases the diamonds and their quality so well.

 

Last but certainly not least.... Jade earrings. These babies are a bit big for my taste but they are stunning because of the quality of jade. They are such a vibrant green and the pieces are large but not paper thin. The diamonds set on the sides in 18k yellow gold help accent it with the antique design. The setting of the earrings are reminiscent of a lot of older chinese jewelry and is often re-used since it showcases the jade so well.

Phew! Thanks for letting me share a bit of my obsession with jewelry and that you enjoyed the little peek into the treasures at my mom's boutique. :)

Neon Coral Leaves

     My title is a little simple. Just basically the key elements of an outfit. It was gloomy and supposed to rain but I was tired of wearing my dreary grays and blues. Plus I never like to wear all black so I thought... Pile on the color! Everything I have on has been featured on the blog before except for the boots and white leaf necklace. I love remixing, its so much easier on my wallet. I did recall that when I wore this sweater last time, I wanted to belt it and I have to admit that it looks way better belted. Yay. Comfy, cozy, warm, DRY. I think dressing in brights is like having an all day boost of caffeine! Sometimes I thought the spring in my step was eeking people out around me... oh well.

 I definitely like belting the sweater but I think a wider belt would have been more flattering. Must find a wider gold belt... Suggestions?

 Not one... but TWO leaf necklaces. :)

These boots were made for walking in the rain! They're comfy and water proof. Plus they fit over my calves. Yay!

Button Up Shirt: F21
Sweater: F21
Pants: H & M
Boots: Irene's Story
Belt: F21
Necklaces: Rosebowl Flea Market, F21

Tree-like

     Looking back at these photos I definitely think I resemble the trees that line my street. Lots of deep greens and browns. I love the street I live on. Every house has a tree or two out front and usually a few out back so there's plenty of green and lovely plants everywhere. If my dad could open an arboretum/zoo... he would. He has tortoises, turtles, koi fish, canaries, parrots, dogs, lizards, over 50 bonsais, 40+ orchids, banana tree, pumpkin plant, tomatoes, lemons, oranges, and 50+ cactus plants. Throughout our time at this particular house we have also had rabbits, chickens, snakes, hamsters and lots of uninvited guests including deer, raccoons, squirrels, hawks, rattle snakes, coyotes, opossums and skunks. We once discovered that a skunk family was living in the crawl space under our house. Weird.
     I think most people will read this and think that this isn't that significant at all but when you live in a bustling city, it's often a surprise to discover so many animals roaming near your house and that with a two minute drive you are back in the city where twigs trees are planted in 3' by 3' dirt plots, have yet to sprout more than ten leaves, reach a height of 4' and whenever you look around it looks like a concrete jungle. My point is that it's convenient to be able to go home to such peaceful surroundings yet not have to travel far for all my city needs. I am so very fortunate. Done rambling. Onto outfit pics. :)

 The whole outfit is inspired by colors found in trees except for the gold in the necklace. I think that it actually reminds me of the rings of the tree trunk though, no?

 The belt came with the dress and is super stretchy. Bonus points for being able to eat lunch comfortably without having to loosen my belt. :)

I don't really like this last picture of my outfit from the side but I had to include one with my maltipoo. Besides outfits and food, my maltipoo has taken over my camera phone albums.

Dress & belt: Ross Stores
Necklace: Foreign Exchange
Shoes: Kenneth Cole from Ross Stores

Fancy Schmancy

     Hello There! So very very sorry for my unplanned bloggie hiatus. I definitely did not plan to take such a long break but I also definitely needed it. Truth be told, I was feeling a little uninspired and so to save you from the horror of lack-luster outfits, I'll just leave you with a snippet of my daily uniform: black skinnies and a clean top. Yup. simple and boring. I have no idea what got into me but I can tell you that food is responsible for rekindling my interest in putting outfits together again! As if there would be anything else as inspiring... oh well except maybe art? photography? books? Nah. Just food. More specifically, dessert. I'll be sharing these outfits soon hopefully unless I take on another self-imposed blogging vacation. There was one outfit that I managed to snap a few pics of that I can share today and mind you it is nothing of special note, it is a dress that I love because of the fit. I was planning on wearing it to a mad men premier party at a friend's house but alas, party was cancelled. This is my fancy schmancy work outfit... :)

Dress: Ross Stores
Necklace: Anthropologie
Shoes: Payless
Rings: Mom's shop

Comfort and Warmth

     I'm sure you can deduce from the title what my main focus was getting dressed this AM to go to work. The oversized sweater is one of my favorites and since I was wearing so many warm colors, I decided to keep it in the same family when it came to my shoes. Of course I spared you all the whole matchy-matchy by using similar colors and not all ONE color. I will never be able to pull that off but am very impressed when I see others do it in a not-so-tacky manner. I also included a bunch of shots of the shoes because well... it's all in the details isn't it?

 My maltipoo now knows exactly how to take outfit photos. He's mocking me by standing sideways too.

What a sassy little furball!

I love how this photo really highlights all the colors I had on today.

 Shoes...

So adorable! *sigh

Sweater & Top: F21
Pants: Nordstrom Rack
Shoes: F21 (I also found them on Modcloth too)
Scarf: World Market
Purse: from a trip to Hong Kong
Necklace: F21

Chicken Dinners...

I know there's no picture of a chicken dinner. But that was what I had last night at a union meeting for work. I may have been a teensy bit underdressed for the Hilton and had planned on wearing an awesome deep purple dress but... well laziness hit. So I just decided to wear what I had on for work earlier and swap out the shoes and earrings for a fancier option. I looked trendy but maybe not so event appropriate. At least I was comfy. :)

Trench: Covent Garden
Top: F21
Jeans: BDG via Urban Outfitters
Earrings: Anthropologie
Necklaces: Gift (Name Necklace), Anthropologie (Seashell)
Ring: F21
Belt: Vintage
Shoes: Aldo