Layered Lace

When it comes to style, I've always felt like I've ran to the beat of my own drum. I've always been drawn to classic colors and silhouettes, and occasionally a fun pattern or two. Recently though I was completely inspired by Miss Elsie with her layered lace outfit she posted and instantly wanted to put my own spin on the look.

I have this creme lace vest that Scott so sweetly bought me last summer while I was away in Colorado. Since short sleeves have been far and few between lately, I thought it might be fun to layer the lace with a more winter (Arizona winter that is) style look.

I also wanted to style up the outfit with simple accessories since I would be spending the evening in an uncomfortable grad school chair. I'm really loving these velvet loafers from Wanted Shoes. I've been eyeing a pair of loafers for months now, and this pair is quite darling (perfect for walking around campus).

Today I have a lot of catch up work to do. I pretty much spent the school week working finishing up a big paper for one of my classes, and simultaneously ignored my other homework (oops!). Happy Friday everyone! Have any fun plans for the weekend?

-Chelsea xo

Outfit details:

Cardigan: Target

Vest: TJ Maxx

Shirt: Target

Ring: Vintage

Jeans: Levi's

Velvet loafers: c/o Wanted Shoes

PSC Launch Party: The Main Event

Once the sun starting setting our guests started to arrive. It was a beautiful night in Phoenix (chilly, but not too bad), and we were so excited to have everyone there. For the first hour everyone mingled a little bit and enjoyed a few delicious treats. It really was so awesome to meet so many sweet blog readers, and also to see a few familiar faces.

About an hour and half into the party Courtney, myself, Katherine, Kara, and Josh took to the patio and gave a speech about who we are as a collective, what we want to do in the community, and also a little bit about ourselves personally.

I feel like I should tell you that I'm a horrible public speaker. My chest gets really red, and I tend to stumble over my words. Courtney was a real trooper and did most of the talking, but when it came to talking about myself I was quite nervous. Overall, my speech went over well and I was happy that I got to introduce myself.

After we talked everyone had more time to mingle, buy tickets for the raffle, and play around in the photo booth. We had a really awesome photo booth set up in the dressing room of The GrowOP, complete with silly props and chalkboard speech bubbles. Thanks so much Brenda Eden for taking our photos!

Aren't the girls of Superstition Vintage too cute with their red frame!

Remember how I had mentioned that Brendan did such an amazing job with all of our snacks for the night, well he also made these amazing custom buttons for all of our attendees with their name on them (think chic name tags!). Thank you, Brendan!

It was really great having Kenny there to support our event! Kenny is a co-owner of The GrowOP, and sweetest guy! Thank you Kenny for lettings us have our event in your wonderful space!

I was so excited when I saw the lovely Nadia of Nadia Shea, and Kristine of Kristine or Polly at the event. I swear, these two are the sweetest and I was so happy that they were able to come out! Also, I'm SO exited that Kristine is an official Arizona resident again, and I can't wait to meet-up with her again.

A little after eight we announced all of the raffle winners. Courtney did a great job at announcing all of our sponsors, the lovely prizes, and the winners. I swear, she has more charisma and spunk than anyone I know (and I love her for that!).

Overall, the night was a complete success and we couldn't have asked for anything better. Thank you so much again to everyone who came out to support, and to all who were with us in spirit. If you're interested in keeping up with us, you can check out The Phoenix Style Collective blog, and Facebook page.

-Chelsea xo

PSC Launch Party: Pre-Party

This past Saturday was The Phoenix Style Collective launch party. Overall, the event turned out better than any of us could have hoped for (honestly, the support we received was amazing). After going through my photos from the evening I realized that I have so many photos and little stories I want to share, so I've decided to break up the whole experience into two posts: the pre-party, and the main event.

It's amazing to think that a little over a year and a half ago that The Phoenix Style Collective was just an idea that Courtney had about something that we could work on together, and here we are (well, there we were) at our first event. What a dream come true!

The GrowOP was truly the perfect place to have our event at. The vintage/handmade shop is owned and ran by one of the collective's co-founders, Josh, and all of us knew that our first event had to be (after all, the raffle we had was entirely benefitting the shop!). We also really loved the idea that it would get some of our non-downtown dweller friends out to the area, and maybe even open their eyes to the beauty that surrounds our amazing community down there.

Myself, Katherine, and Kara talking and more than likely tweeting/instagraming right before the party started.

Inside the shop we sold raffle tickets for a slew of amazing prices! We honestly had so many amazing sponsors donate items for the raffle, and it really was such a blessing to have all of them want to support us and The GrowOP. Thank you SO much to all who donated. It would have not been the same without your support and kindness!

We all wanted to have a way to get in touch with everyone who attended, so we thought what better way than to have everyone feel out a card to let us know who they are and how we can get in touch with them (big thanks to Kelsey of Roofresh for designing them for us!).

Our party also wouldn't have been the same without all of the delicious treats that our amazing friend Brendan made. We had mini cupcakes (peanut butter & jelly, lemon meringue, and vanilla with strawberry), the most delicious popcorn and nut mixes, and also the tiniest, cutest little sandwiches. Brendan really went above and beyond and I feel like we can't thank him enough! Thank you SO much Brendan for making our evening that much more magical!

What would a party be without homemade iced coffee? Scott and I made this batch the day before and it turned out SO yummy! I really need to make iced coffee at home more often.

We were also very fortunate to have an amazing food truck at the launch party. Luncha Libre is a fairly new food truck to the Phoenix area and we were so excited to have them parked outside of The GrowOP. They served up some delicious mexican food during the party, and they were super sweet to everyone. Thank you so much Luncha Libre, we love you!

Street tacos from Luncha Libre! Throughout the night I sampled a handful of bites from Luncha Libre, but these seemed to be the only ones that I got a picture of. Their churro was by far my favorite dish (ok, I might have a little bias to treats, but still!).

The sun began to set and our guests began to arrive. I will be back with part two of our launch party very soon, and I already can't wait to share! XO

PSC Launch Party: Another View

It's always neat to see such a fun night from someone else's perspective. Here are a few photos I've been seeing popping around the interweb from our Phoenix Style Collective Launch Party.

(sources: one, two, three, four, five)

Thank you again to all that came out to support! My post on the event will be up soon!

-Chelsea xo

Under The Weather

And it's February! Just like that. January went by immensely too fast, and February is proving to do the same. The winter chill doesn't stick around much longer in the morning, and the afternoons are getting warm. February is always kind of like the calm before the storm when it comes to weather around here. I'm not ready to give up my sweaters and layers just yet. I hope the warm weather stays away for just a little longer.

Right now I'm currently sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops getting ready for a busy day of school work. I have this paper that I desperately need to finish, and I'm stressing about it. I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the concept/style of my paper, and I'm only hoping that the ending result is something that is comprehensible. Right now the coffee shop is full of medical students and everyone is talking about fungi and I'm feeling a little queasy. Scott may have passed his cold on to me, so that might be adding to it, but really, I might have to put in my headphones to avoid more fungi talk.

I'm still loving my Ugglebo Clogs so much. Last night I stopped by my friend Courtney's house to pick up a new Moleskine planners that she had so kindly ordered for Scott and I (thank you Courtney!), and I spotted these pretty Ugglebo Clogs in her living room. I can't wait to see her style them up! PS Ugglebo Clogs is having a pretty sweet sale on boots right now!

What are you up to today? Is the chilly weather sticking around your parts, or has is packed up and moved out for the season already? What's your favorite sick day treat? I think I need a treat today! XO

Outfit details:

Cardigan: c/o Jcpenney

Shirt: Levi's

Bangles: Vintage

Jeans: Levi's

Victoria Clogs: c/o Ugglebo Clogs

PSC On My Mind

(The founding fathers as Courtney likes to say: Josh, Courtney, Kara, myself, and Katherine.)

I've fallen a little behind this morning, but I just wanted to stop in and say that you can expect a full report on The Phoenix Style Collective Launch Party soon. I really want to make sure I do the event justice and write up something great, so it may take me a few, but I promise that a full review post is coming!

Thank you so much again to everyone who came and supported! We love you and we're so grateful for your support!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

-Chelsea xo

PSC Launch Party: The Outfits

What does one wear to a party when they are playing co-host? This question plagued me for days, and with all the ideas I came up with, I reverted back to my favorite classic red, black, and grey combo. I always feel great (and very much myself) in this color combo, and that is exactly how I wanted to feel on such an exciting night!

Scott also put on his Friday best and looked so darling (feeling a little mushy here) in his tie and tucked in shirt. I swear, he really is the best sport!

We took these photos about an hour before our first guests arrived! All of us at The Phoenix Style Collective where feeling antsy and ready to get the party started! So much planning went into this one night, and we were just so excited to see all of it come to life.

To say we were happy with the turn out of the launch party/benefit would be a major understatement. When you plan events like this, you never know how things will really turn out, so it was amazing to see many people show up and enjoy their night with us!

I can't wait to share photos from the actual event! We all had such a great time, and it was SO amazing to see so many sweet people come out to support The Phoenix Style Collective and The GrowOP. I truly feel blessed to call Phoenix home, and to be able to surround myself with such thoughtful, creative, and encouraging people. I really am one lucky lady!

I kind of love this photos of Josh (a fellow PSC member) running through the garden back into The GrowOP. He totally photo bombed me haha!

If anyone that attended the event has photos they want to share (who am I kidding, most of our attendees our bloggers themselves!), please feel free to comment with a link to your photos/blogposts so I can see the night from your perspective. XO

Outfit details:

She //

Cardigan: Target

Shirt: Target

I HEART Ronson skirt: c/o Jcpenney

Black tights: c/o We Love Colors

Purse: Vintage Coach

Melissa Button boots: Frye

He //

Button up: Levi's

Tie: Nordstroms Rack

Pants: Levi's

Watch: Fossil

Shoes: Clarks