I'm that girl. I'm the one who likes to skip right over the Thanksgiving stuff and go straight to Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love celebrating Thanksgiving. Having an excuse to eat all the food and love on family for a while is literally the best thing ever, but lets get real. Christmas decorations and music are far superior to Thanksgiving decorations.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween, though. Thursday night, I ran the Rankin County Chamber of Commerce Glow Run 5k with these pretty ladies. Except it was more like 3.5 miles than 3.1...
We spent Halloween with the family giving out candy to the little trick or treaters and stuffing our faces. I've felt like death all day. I think I have a Halloween hangover. My body is detoxing all the junk. Yet, I just ate some Reese's Pieces. Crap.
Excuse me while I drink a gallon of water, get back to boot camp, and die tomorrow.
So how do you feel about premature Christmas decorating? For it? Against it? Indifferent? Let me know! I'll just be over here humming Christmas tunes and taking down the Halloween stuff.
/// Chelsea
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What a beautiful weekend of Spring-like weather and quality time with Nick and my parents. Words just can't even explain how much I love those people. They are my rocks. They keep me grounded. God knows I can go spiraling into my craziness--which happens more than I care to admit.They always bring me back down to Earth.
Sometimes when I'm blogging, I wish I had cute and squishy babies to post about. All of my favorite blogs have cuddly little babies on them all the time. So not ready for that though...Can I borrow a baby just to blog about? That's creepy. Nevermind.
Anyway, our Saturday went something like this:
I've been sick for a week, so I woke up around 7 ready to go after falling into a cough syrup coma around 7:45 pm the night before. It was a GORGEOUS day. One for the books, really. I wait patiently until 9:00 am to obnoxiously jump on the bed to wake up the husband. He promptly rolled over in protest. Like a good little housewife, I made Nick some coffee, and he finally stumbled into the kitchen to greet the day.
After much debate on where to spend the day (cause it just could not possibly be spent indoors), we decided to head to the Fondren area in downtown Jackson. We had a yummy lunch at Brent's Drugs (the soda shop in the movie, The Help), and we wondered around town. We got some coffee and stumbled upon this cool new place called Hops and Havannas. Nick is a cigar lover, so we stopped in. Every kind of beer and cigar you could possibly dream of. Nick found his favorite cigar and we sat outside and talked while he enjoyed his cancer stick. ;)
We decided to drive around and look at houses. We've been toying with the idea of buying soon, but we got distracted on the way. You see, the Mississippi Agriculture Museum was right there. If you know my husband at all--you know he's a sucker for a museum. Who was I to deny him the outdoor museum when it was so beautiful out? So we went, and we had THE BEST TIME EVER. I've been to this museum about a thousand times. It was THE hottest field trip location when I was a youngin'. However, Nick had never been. We wondered around the exhibits, drank sodas out of glass bottles from a General Store, played bottle cap checkers, and frolicked in some cotton bales.
What a truly great day with my love. It's a joy to be his wife. I swear I tried to take more pictures of him, but he's just not a fan of a camera in his face. Bummer.
Just in case you've been living under a rock for the past few months, let me introduce you to my latest fashion/model/girl crush obsession, Robyn Lawley.
Robyn is considered a "plus size" model. Crazy, right? She's absolutely GORGE and flawless and there is nothing PLUS size about her. She is an Australian born 24 year old model who has dedicated her life to combating the negative, unrealistic body image that the fashion industry impresses on the minds of women today. She was the first "plus size" model to grace the cover of Italian Vogue and Australian Vogue. She loves food, and she has designed her own line of swimwear for the normal sized woman. (and I want every piece from the collection)
Y'all, this girl is revolutionizing the fashion industry. Robyn is the face of Ralph Lauren and their first plus size model. When she started modeling at age 16, she battled the brink of eating disorders. At 6'2" everyone told her she should model, and she was a natural. However, as she mentions in many interviews, her body was just not meant to be sickly skinny like the high fashion models we're seeing on the catwalks today.
I love this girl. Not only because she's obviously beautiful inside and out, but for the way she makes me feel about myself. My whole life, I have battled body image and disordered eating. Learning more about her and her journey has helped me truly appreciate and love my body. Every woman should love her body NO MATTER her size. Our bodies do so much for us every single day. It is perfectly ok for women of all shapes and sizes to love themselves. Because I come to love my body, I take better care of it. I eat healthy and exercise daily because it makes me feel good and nourishes the body I love.
Women have got to abandon the negative body images. We need to come together to encourage one another and build other women up. I absolutely LOVE other women who love and support other women. We are all special, unique, and beautiful. We are made in Christ's image. By banding together, we can change the media images we see. By demanding we see NORMAL women, it can change the whole body image culture that has been cultivated over the past few decades.
Check out the interview Robyn did with Ellen Degeneres below. It's so refreshing, and I truly love both of these women and everything they each stand for.
One more thing on this subject:
Have you heard about Aerie's new #AerieReal campaign? “Get Real. Think Real. No Supermodels. No Retouching. The real you is sexy.” I love it and will definitely be supporting this brand more!
All of this to say, just love yourself and take care of yourself. There's nothing wrong with being curvy and there's nothing wrong with being skinny. As long as your are healthy and taking good care of yourself, every shape and size is PERFECT.
"And God made man in His own likeness. In the likeness of God He made him. He made both male and female."-Genesis 1:27
Wednesdays always lack inspiration for me. I tend to struggle through the day while dreaming about crawling back into my pjs and bed the moment I get home and wait for Modern Family to come on. I'm sorry, but it's true. It's just struggle bus city on Wednesdays.
Thursday shall be better.
In the meantime, don't forget you can shop my closet onTradesy.
I got so many weird looks from students as work today. By the end of the day, I wanted to yell "THEY'RE JUST PANTS!!" I didn't though, don't worry. They're just children. They've never seen a fine pair of trousers like these before. It's cool.
In other news, Whole Foods opened in Jackson today. It makes me miss living there really bad. I just want to be closer to a Whole Foods. Is that too much to ask?…not that I can really afford to do my weekly grocery shopping there, but it would be really nice to have the option. Maybe some big wig from Whole Foods will run across my little blog and take pity on me. They'll say, "Hey! We should help that girl out. We'll start building Whole Foods Ocean Springs, Mississippi next week! Sorry for the inconvenience, Chelsea!"….a girl can dream, right?
For the record, H&M can totally open here on the coast too. They're opening one of them in Jackson soon, and they just opened one in New Orleans. Something needs to give here, people!!! Help a healthy food and fashion loving girl out, please and thank you!!
One last random thought…I REALLY wanted to wear my black Chuck Taylor Converse with this outfit today, but my Rainbow Bright shoelaces from the 7th grade are still in them. Even though they're extremely faded, I felt a little weird about mixing Rainbow Bright with this look. Thoughts?
Saturday, after picking up my wedding dress only to have my bridal portraits canceled due to rain, I got to spend time with my parents and high school friends. We had a yummy dinner at Ruth's Chris (a rare occurrence for my mom's birthday), then we went to the coolest little new bar in Jackson called, Apothecary.
If you've seen the movie The Help, you've seen the outside of the bar. Some scenes in that movie were filmed in a legendary soda fountain spot called Brent's Drugs in Jackson. In the back of Brent's Drugs, after hours, is Apothecary. You walk through the empty place to the back where there is a door. You knock on it, tell the host how many in your party, and are then seated in the neatest little back room bar. It's all so secretive like during prohibition and really dark and dreamy. I had a drink called a Brown Derby--whisky, rye, and grapefruit. Yum.
It was so good to spend time with great, old friends and celebrate birthdays and all the fun times to come. A very special Happy Birthday to the best mom in the whole world. 21 years young today, and she will forever be my best friend. She's the Lorelei to my Rory, the macaroni to my cheese, and the chocolate to my peanut butter. Love you forever and like your for always, momma!
Fiancé was just too handsome to not document today!
As I was walking one of my first graders back to her classroom today, she pointed out all the things about my outfit that she wanted. First it was my shoes. She really wanted them and did all she could to convince me that they would fit her. Next it was my sweater, then my bracelets, and finally my engagement ring. She proceeded to tell me that she knew who gave me my ring. When I asked her who she thought it was, she replied, "your man." I laughed so hard while I told her she was right. My sweet little first grader then asked me if I had gotten it for my anniversary. I told her no, that it was my engagement ring and that I was getting married in March. As we arrived at her room, she got the dreamiest look on her face and said, "I can't wait to get married."
Lord have mercy they start young, but isn't it every little girl's dream to be swept off her feet by their prince charming? I could see that image in her head written all over her face. I couldn't help but think about how blessed and lucky I am to have found my prince charming. He is so incredibly good to me, and I can't wait to conquer life with him.
A special thanks to him for taking these pictures! I'm going to teach him how to use that camera well if it kills us!…that might be going a little overboard. He's such a good sport and makes me laugh uncontrollably. Hooray for melting ice, by the way!!!
-Day time TV talk shows (i.e. Steve Harvey, Ellen, The Chew)
-When people win the $20,000 on Family Feud (I've obviously been watching way too much TV during these snow days…)
-My super old and worn in Ugg boots. They're ugly and stained and perfect.
-When my fur babies want to snuggle
-Coffee…it owns me, and I'm ok with it.
-The new Budweiser commercial for this year's super bowl. OMG they raised their already ridiculously high bar yet again.
-All the incredibly sweet friends and family Fiancé and I have who are throwing us wedding showers. Seriously, we could not be more blessed.
-Seeing my student's eyes light up when something finally clicks with them.
-Getting to catch up my ridiculously long blog reading list
Today is not my week to be featured, but don't forget to head on over to The Southern Coterie's virtual front porch and check out all the amazing articles. Check out my articles every third Wednesday of the month!
I have been living the life erratic lately. I finally accepted a job last week as an assistant teacher at an elementary school. It's not exactly what I had in mind seeing as how my degrees are in marketing and public relations, but it has been a pleasant surprise. Career wise, though, I'm not so sure where my life is headed right now. It's been a difficult past two months worrying about that, but I've finally just handed it over to the Lord. He will lead me on the right path. I have to trust that.
We did get a snow day today though! Crazy, I know! On the Mississippi Gulf Coast! That's my Vader man up there waiting for it to hit.
Snow Day essentials.
Mashed cauliflower to substitute cold day comfort food.
Layla Bug and my man bright and early.
What I've been reading lately.
Even though my life is somewhat erratic right now, and I am MORE THAN READY to finally be settled down, I know that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be. I have to trust God's timing and not my own, so I'm clinging to this verse:
"And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there."
1 Corinthians 7:17
Everyone stay warm and safe in this crazy Polar Vortex!
xoxo
P.S. I'm not quite sure what direction this blog is headed in. So, for now, blog topics may be very random or simply about what's going on in my life until I find my way back into the blogosphere. Thanks for bearing with me and sticking around.
I needed a break. With so many things changing in my life all at once (and they're still changing) it was just too daunting to constantly be coming up with content. I was trying to please everyone but myself.
What I discovered during my blogging break, however, was that this is my creative outlet. A big part of my life was missing, and I felt lost. So slowly, but surely, I'm back. It might be sporadic because I am beginning a new job, moving, and planning my wedding. (Only 2 short months away!)
I kind sorta love this blog, so I'm ready to get back at it. I'm going to share some things with you that I kinda sorta love!
This beautiful bohemian space that I hope to model my new home after.
A little rosé to get through wedding planning stress.
Tyler Knott Gregson always touches my heart.
The Tone It Up girl's new show, Toned Up on Bravo and their Love Your Body Series!
