Look of the week: Uptown Chelsea

It has been awhile since I have made a "look of the week" but here is this weeks look! (Im getting a little better at presentation) The dress is Nicole Miller, the rest I am unsure of. This week I chose a friend I have recently reconnected with, Miss Chelsea Ann as my "inspiration" instead of just a picture! I picked out the outfit according to what I think would look good on her, and based on her personality. It's more of a winter look, but that doesnt stop me! ;) Enjoy!

My dream

I have this dream, where I have this beautiful summer apartment in Paris, Amsterdam or another chic European city, with giant windows that open to a small wrought iron fence and a bustling street below. I wake up to fresh coffee with Jason and talk about what lies ahead. I found this picture today and I felt like it was something out of that dream. Ahh..life :)

Braids

It's getting warmer and my natural hair is growing out, so I have found myself braiding my hair more. I love fishtail braids and found a picture of me when I was in 3rd grade with a fishtail braid. I found this picture of some model and I found my newest expedition for the month...figure out how to achieve this look. So cute!

Fabric Vase

So, I couldn't keep up with my Amsterdam journal because so many wonderful and crazy things kept on occuring, so to sum it all up...it was the best trip of my life, and yes...even better than Paris! The difference?Amsterdam was so free. No one judged you or anything. The homeless were treated with respect, the women didnt size you up, flea markets were just as popular among the wealthy, there were more bikes than cars, if you stepped in front of someone they didnt mumble under their breath, the locals treated you like a local. Dont get me wrong, Paris was a wonderful place, but you have to be a seasoned traveler to fit in and not feel intimidated. In Amsterdam, no one cares who or what you are, you are treated with respect and love. If you trip over yourself, the dutch will lend you their hand and help you up, in Paris you would will be stared down like a clumsy American tourist, hah! I guess that is my best analogy.

So during one of the romantic walks through the city, I came across a quaint store selling fabric flower vases. I fell in love! I am going to design a few and start working on them. They are perfect for the smaller flowers from my garden. If you want me to make you one, let me know!

Amsterdam day 3

Today, Jason and I awoke to a rainy morning here in Amsterdam. It was 7AM and Jason already had his whole outfit on and was ready to go. I couldn't pull myself out of bed. The morning haze was coming through the sheer white curtains and a view of De B'jenkorf (An upscale department store in front of our hotel). The sound of light rain and the tram driving by was so soothing. I sat under my down comforter, with the windows open and read my Rick Steve's Amsterdam Tour Guide Book.  This is how all mornings should be done!

After showering and some of my own housekeeping, Jason returned and we headed off to Barney's, an amazing coffeeshop (For those of you who dont understand yet, a coffeeshop is really a pot spot, hah) and we ate some breakfast and smoked some Blue Cheese (Ok, Im not a pot head, I just feel like it's natural and why the heck not? This is life!) It was so much fun and those hashbrowns were killer!

Like I said before, it was a very cold and wet day, so after Barney's we did a little more city exploring and headed back to the hotel. I layed down for a long nap, after I got up, Jason decided he wanted a nap and here I am...spending the night in the hotel enjoying the saxaphone player outside my window and chit chatting with Chelsea and listening to Jason snore. Jet lag has taken 3 days to fully get over, oy!

Amsterdam day 2

This morning, we slept in to about 8AM Amsterdam time. I woke up seeing double and my head was spinning. Jason thinks it was the lack of sleep, but I swear that mary jane was still tickling my brain! I took two "Panadol" which is the Dutch equivalent to Ibuprofen. While I was showering, Jason went down to McDonalds and got me an bacon egg mcmuffin, when I travel, I become a vegetarian because I freak out eating foreign meats (lunch meat is fine though) so I took everything off and left the mcmuffin and cheese. YUM! After, we dressed as warm as we thought we should, and headed off to the Rijksmuseum. We assumed the walk wouldnt be to bad, but when it is 30 Degrees and the wind is whipping you in the face, the walk feels like an entire day and a half. We finally got there and I felt the way I did when entering Disneyland as a little girl. I finally get to see Vermeer and Rembrandt up close! Unfortunately, security is very strict at this museum so we were firmly told to not even think about using our camera. DRATS! Oh well...I respect that the museum wants to preserve the art work as best as possible. I got to see one of my favorites, Vermeer's "The milkmaid" I got to stand in front of it and just looking at the brush strokes made me feel like Vermeer was right in front of me, his work is STUNNING. I love Rembrandt as well, and seeing his signature on the paintings was so surreal. RAH!

Afterwards, we stepped in to a small pub and ate some good food and headed back to the hotel. Jet lag started kicking me in the butt again, so I took a long nap while Jason visited a couple more coffeeshops ;) After I woke up, it was about 7PM and I threw on even more layers of clothing and we headed off to do some romantic city walks. Walking past candle lit windows was a sight I will never forget. It was so beautiful! Everything we saw tonight was so quaint. We decided to just see where the roads would lead us, and ended up strolling countless canals. Ugh, by far one of the most romantic scenes I have ever seen. This is one of those moments that will forever be embedded in my heart.

Good Night!

Amsterdam Day 1

Amsterdam so far is pretty amazing! Anything can happen in this city...within 20 minutes of being in Amsterdam, a homeless man started making these perverted grunts at me on the train and getting in my face. Jason (my knight in shining armor) jumped in and told the guy to back off. The guy then proceeds to threaten Jason's life and call him a "Mudder Fucka" We must have angels watching out for us because the sweetest Dutch woman jumped in and probably saved us from something really bad happening. She pushed the guy and told him to back off as the train stopped, and pushed him in the opposite direction of us while we made our way off the train with our 500 pound luggage. Phew!

So our hotel is within minutes of the train stop, so we walked with our 500 pound luggage to the hotel. It is like 40 degrees here, but Im trucking along, thinking that this weather is totally fine (hah!) and as we are walking to our hotel, a loud ambulance/cop car comes screaming by. What Jason and I didnt realize was that it rained here a couple hours before and there were massive puddles on the side of the road. SPLASH! We were drenched. I thought this only happened in movies? Welcome to Amsterdam!

Our hotel staff is around our age and they are so sweet. There is something about the Dutch that is so endearing. Our room is killer, the view is of Dam Square and the decor is very elegant! Our shower is also a sauna, neat!

In the evening, we headed out for some dinner, took a walk around the Red Light District and a tour of the Marijuana and Hemp museum. The museum is kind of cheesy, but there are still some very interesting things. I enjoyed looking at the ways people "smuggle" marijuana. A dildo, shoe, book...you name it, it has been done!

The Red Light District is everything I expected. The girls stand there, fixing their hair and posing in the windows, winking at every person that walks by. It shocked me to see that a lot of them were my age...I feel bad for them. They all seem to be on drugs much harder than Marijuana. (We were offered some Ecstasy by some guy standing on the side of the road) It's amazing to think that this is in fact, the worlds oldest profession (Prostitution)

After we left this side of town, we ended up at Kandinsky, a Coffeeshop. We ordered some bubblegum mary jane and sat down. Jason tried rolling a perfect joint, but decided to have the guy who worked there show him how Amsterdammers do it. The smoke felt clean and smooth...I took one too many hits and ended up talking endlessly about....NOTHING. It was so fun! We ended the night with a couple of stroopwaffles, and here we are, Monday morning in Amsterdam. Lets see what the day has to offer!

Au revoir!

Today consists of 14 hours of flight, lots of sleeping and reading.Tomorrow I will be standing in a field of Tulips and snacking on some waffles. Ahh...Holland and Belgium. Here we come!

Packing up!

I've been packing for the last week. I guess you could call it preparing because packing in my world is laundry, ironing, house preps, destination reading, gathering necessities and then finally...putting them all in a suitcase! A couple years ago I received a whole luggage set for Christmas, it was hot pink! Of course, my duffle bag broke in LA, my small suit case just doesnt cut it size wise, and what do you know...I lost my full size suit case. How does one manage to lose something so HUGE? Anyway,with 10 minutes before closing time at Marshalls tonight, I managed to find the most amazing Liz Claiborne 28" Suitcase, with pink interior and a metallic navy exterior. Originally, $460...on clearance for $80. WOW! I'm happy with it and just wanted to share. 

I will try to post one more blog before I leave. Our flight takes off at 1PM tomorrow and its spring break...the airport will be packed so we  need to leave here at 10AM. Oy vey!

My yellow rose

One of my favorite treats in life, yummy roses. This winter, I found a baby rose stem at Lowes, the description was "Fragrant yellow tea rose." Of course I had to have it! I planted it in my garden and have been taking care of it since. This morning, I awoke to a freshly bloomed, delicious scented rose! I ran upstairs and grabbed my old camera and snapped a picture. Im giving it a day or two and then that rose will be sitting in my glass evian bottle on the table. La vie en rose ma cherie!

Jessica's look of the week 1

I should be a stylist, but I am a perfectionist when it comes to these things so it would take me forever to find 1 outfit. The selection to the right took me 2 hours. I'm going to try to do this at least once a week. This week, I took inspiration from an image of some Holland tulips. Enjoy!
Dress: Preen
Heels: Marni
Necklace: ELA Designs
Clutch bag: Unknown

Grandma Rasmussen

"A SMALL BEWILDERED GIRL OF TWELVE, WEARING A CLEAN GINGHAM DRESS AND TIGHT BRAIDS OF YELLOW HAIR DOWN HER BACK, CARRIES A BIRD CAGE IN ONE HAND AND HER BELONGINGS IN THE OTHER. SHE LOOKS IN AWE AT THE STATUE OF LIBERTY IN NEW YORK HARBOR. WITH THOUSANDS OF OTHER IMMIGRANTS SHE IS SOON ESCORTED TO ELLIS ISLAND"

So, I have embraced the danish in me and have taken a couple steps forward on finding out my history. My Great Great Grandma came here from Denmark, and has a book written about her life and her journey to America. The above is a passage from the book, which I finally received in the mail!

David Hamilton

After my recent visit to LA, Kara showed me a series of photograph's from the 70's/80's photographer David Hamilton. I was an instant fan. Despite the controversies, I think his photography is some of the best the world has seen. All of his images look like some sort of dream.

Vintage storybook

So, I have this long time obsession with anything vintage, especially the colors! I am looking into my next artistic sort of project and I found my inspiration and I'm totally excited about it. I have found so many vintage storybook images of Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and so forth. I couldn't believe I found these vintage Marie Antoinette (Cinderellaesque) storybook images...Jason was sitting next to me and I said "Umm, I think I just found my favorite pictures ever" If you know me, you know that Marie Antoinette has a soft place in my heart and anything and everything that has to do with her I LOVE. So to sum it up, how adorable are these?!

Heels and Socks

My fashion fav list has a new addition with each year that passes. Last year, cardigans, this year, ankle socks with heels. Knee socks are a little too Holly Madison. Ankle socks remind me of the ruffled white socks I wore as a little girl. Pumps add a certain girl next door sex appe

al to the traditional white ankle sock and I'm all about it! <3