My Mini Recap

This may be the smallest yearly recap you read as I only started blogging 4 months ago! I hummed and hawed about starting one for awhile and was a little hesitant. I am quite glad I did now! Not only is it so much fun, but it gets my creative juices flowing. This year I finished my post secondary schooling. I couldn't find a job in my field and starting working at customer service in retail because...well...I needed a job! If you want to have your creativity sucked out of you, just work there! haha. After 4 months I needed to do something fun and just for me. Chesterfield was born! It gets me out in nature for awhile, keeps me practicing my photoshop, and has improved my camera skills ten-fold! Not only that but I've met so many wonderful people with similar interests! Here's to many more blog posts!

Here a few of my favourites: (I picked two from every month)

Yay for my very first post! Look how lovely and green it is! I see leaves! I'm so excited right now.

From lovely green September we go straight into yellowy fall September. Sigh...

October means the leaves are long gone, so sad!

And October brings our first snowfall. I can't believe I've been wading through snow since October! At least it went away for a little while.

I started venturing away from walking distance to take photos...does a 3 minute car drive count as venturing?

And the snow came to stay...

I try to avoid driveway photos but I just wanted to wear different shoes!

And more snow...I hope everyone enjoys snow pictures until May! haha

Not That Kind of Blog!

I really don't want to make this blog into a "Look-at-the-hundreds-of-cute-pictures-I-take-of-my-animals-daily" kinda thing. That's what my facebook is for! I do take so many a day...it's ridiculous. This picture was too cute not to throw up here though. My more camera shy dog and one of the kittens were all tuckered out after Christmas!

I also am dying to get in another outfit post soon, it's been far to long. My manfriend actually suggested that I grab some photos with him on wednesday. His exact words were, "Maybe we can take some pictures for your clothes thing... or blog... or whatever it is... you know." How romantic! He does have a cool idea though, I wont tell you specifically (can't ruin the surprise!), but it involves his nerdy hobby of building robots. Trust me it is cooler than it sounds...

Antique Junction

Before the skiing trip, we found an awesome antique store in Canmore!! It was full of great stuff for really reasonable prices! I didn't buy anything but it was fun to look around in and most of the pieces had dates on them so I was imagining what it was like to have some things back when they were brand new. We spent a long time in there. The lady who worked there knew so much and was encouraging me to take lots of pictures. My friend is going back for the green couch that is in one of the pictures. It was beautiful! I also threw in the classic photo in the mirror...

Merry Christmas everyone. Since we are having our Christmas dinner tomorrow, it was a pretty low key day for me! I enjoyed it though. Got some great presents including a VCR (really excited to watch my old vhs movies again!). I spent my afternoon cookng delicious oreo cookies. My grandma always made them for us and I guess I have to carry on the tradition as my brothers wont...lazy.

Skiing and Snorkeling

Can we all take a moment to admire that athletic pose I have going on there. Yeah, I'm not awkward at all in skis. Especially tiny ones that complete strangers made fun of me for wearing. Who knew snow blading was so frowned upon? And I know what your thinking: red and turquoise look SO good together, right?!! I look like something out of Body Break. Ok, so downhill snow sports are not my forte. In all honestly, this might be the last time I go. I am HORRIBLE at snowboarding, mediocre at skiing, clearly pretty awesome at snow blading but I just don't really enjoy it. I enjoy the gondolas and chair lifts but I spend all my time speeding down a hill trying not to hit anyone or lose my balance and I miss the best part. The view! Downhill snow sports are my new snorkeling. Why did I quit snorkeling after one try you ask?.... Let's take a look at Exhibit A.

Need I say more?!?! That picture is self explanatory!! Snorkeling: I tried - I failed - I don't want to do it again. I am a complete landlubber having lived in Alberta for my whole life. I didn't see the ocean until I was 20 and went to the UK. I didn't go into the ocean until two years later during this snorkel incident. My goggles kept fogging up what little vision I had because I couldn't wear  my glasses. I was terrified a jellyfish was always sneaking up on me and I don't even know how to swim anyways! Essentially: a blind girl, wandering around the shallow area, paranoid of everything. So while I found it bearable, it was not enjoyable. Hence my comparison with skiing. Bearable but not enjoyable. That being said, I quite enjoyed hanging around the top of the mountains and would definitely take the gondola up there again...only next time I'll just relax at the chalet!!

The last picture creeped me out when it was big...

The Rockies

I'm back! Here's a little sneak peak of some random photo's I took on my trip. I will say that taking pictures when your with someone who doesn't care about taking pictures is a little difficult! Needless to say I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted and no outfit specific photos. Which I find a bit of a tragedy given my wonderful surroundings. Oh well! is everyone gearing up for Christmas??

Main Street.

View of the town.     Trying on hats!

More Main Street.

The town from up on a mountain at night... obviously my camera is not cut out for this.

Oddly enough this is the opposite side of the sunset on our last night.

Post Picks

Here are some posts that I've read recently that I really liked...you may even say I loved them...

I found this post by Madeleine of Boulevard de la Madeleine really outfit inspiring. She took many ballerina looks and turned them into completely possible outfits! Great ideas and lovely pictures.

This is one of my favourite outfit posts recently. Cait of She's got a Passion for Fashion makes it look easy in such a cozy outfit! I will definitely need to do an Outfit Shout Out for this one.

This hat on Streethearts is so fun! Enough said!

I'm loving all the DIY's on A Beautiful Mess lately...I'll be making myself some bangles, hair bows, recycled purse bracelets, fur collars, transparent clutches, and so on .......

Late Night Packing

They don't make suitcases like they used to! 

Business Hours are Ova.

I miss my shoes. Just ignore the fact that I have my rubber boots on in every post. I guess you can't see all the way down to my feet anyway but I am a shoe girl through and through! It pains me to wear the same boots over and over. Height and waterproofness win.

I've decided everyone needs a purple crushed velvet coat. Fact. I found it in the closet when searching for warmth this morning... again, it's the mothers. It reminds me of something a vampire would wear. I think I kinda look like one of them today, exaggerated by the fact that I put lipstick on. My extremely pale skin doesn't help either but how am I supposed to get a tan in this weather?! This dress is another one of my Black Friday Ruche purchases. I layered a blouse under it because it's a bit low and I didn't want to flash everyone present here.

Business hours are ova here at Chesterfield! I'll be back on the 23rd. Hope you guy have a good weekend!!

shirt - vintage
dress - ruche
gloves / coat - the mother's
tights - smart set
same ol boots

this photo effect can be achieved by dropping your camera
in the snow and blowing off the snow causing the lens to completely fog over.

I also added a formspring and joined this twitter I hear about! The links are on the right!

The Aftermath

We've had a bit of a blizzard here and I spent all night digging out my car. After, I had a Monkeyface sized melt down about my bald tires. It was not pretty. But I managed to get out today in one of my new Ruche dresses! I'm going to try to get one last outfit in tomorrow before I'm off to the mountains. I can't post from there as I have the worlds WORST laptop that is essentially garbage. I will load up on the pictures though, don't worry!

My dog knows the routine now. Once the tripod is set up she'll come sit by me and face it. Haha! It should be the Shy and Ninny blog!

coat - rummage sale
dress - Ruche
leggings / belt - my mom's
necklace - thrifted
generic rubber boots...again