Heading to the Summit.

Whooo weeee! I'm Summit bound! Alt. Design Summit, that is. It's a super groovy lifestyle and design conference happening this weekend in Salt Lake City. A tad geeky for sure, but in all the best ways. I'm super excited. Boatloads of awesome bloggers I love will be there: dooce, design*sponge, notcot,

sfgirlbybay, oh joy, making it lovely....the list goes on and on! I'm totally looking forward to hobnobbin' about with my lovely pal Leslie. She and I are going there to soak up some knowledge and , ya know, pimp out Modern Kiddo a bit.

But now the big question—what to wear??

Style Files: Morton Salt Girl Edition

OH

MY

GAWD

IT

IS

RAINING

CATS

AND

DOGS

!

!!

!!!!!

Seriously, "torrential downpour" is being kind. These photos are a bit of a sham. I took them several days ago when there was a hint of rain—fast forward to the past two days and lawdy, Noah build me an ark!!! It's that crazy windy rain, with the water falling in hard jagged sheets....where your pants are soaked front and back and an umbrella is pretty much a moot point. Let's pretend it was a few days ago, shall we? When sneakers were an option and a peek of sun behind the gray clouds gave us all a glimmer of hope!

The details:

+ Vintage bubble umbrella (thrift store many moons ago)

+ Jeans (Ze Gap)

+ Mod plastic raincoat (Target)

+ Converse sneaks

+ Green tee, black cardigan and vintage necklace hidden underneath

Cafe OLE!

Some people are tea people and some people are coffee people. Just like some people are cat people and some people are dog people. I've been fighting The World's Worst Cold Known to Mankind (4 weeks and counting people) and as a result I am forcing myself to become a tea person. In fact I'm enjoying lovely cup of Vanilla Honey Chamomile right now. But really? I'm totally a coffee person.

Just so ya know, I never liked coffee and cigarettes and I'm not, like, promoting it or anything—I just thought that picture was sorta cute.

Oh, and my new tea discoveries that I'm loving: Tazo Vanilla Apricot White Tea, Bigelow Green Tea with Blueberry, Lipton Black Pearl (comes in a fancy little cloth tea bag) and of course Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile. None of these is excessively fruity or sweet, just cozy and yummy. Liberal squeeze of lemon and dollop of honey to seal the deal! Any tea people out there with more recommendations??

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Iris Apfel: Style Icon.

There is something about an snazzy older woman that is just so awesome. I saw a photo of an older woman and thought "WOW, whata dame!" That woman was Iris Apfel. I am embarrassed to say I had never heard of her before, and yet she is rather legendary. Talk about flair. This lady didn't shy away from style but really embraced it. She was (and is still) known for her flamboyant wardrobe and passion for accessories. She's also known for her trademark saucer-sized glasses. Though she ran in exclusive circles, her taste was very bohemian and wild. Iris effortlessly mixed Dior couture with flea-market finds, which I'm sure was a bit scandalous back in the day. Iris was more than simply a fashion maven, however, she was an extremely shrewd business woman—she and her husband Carl had a fabulously successful textile company that led her to travel all over the world.

Iris is 88 years young and has led an incredibly rich life. In addition to her jaunts around the world to exotic ports, Iris has been featured in Paris Vogue, hob nobbed with designers young and old and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a standing exhibit of the contents of her Park Avenue closet. I think she's puttin' us all to shame.









As Iris says, "You only have one trip....you might as well enjoy it!" Here is a short but fun little video interview with the lady herself. Did you notice that even the tiger was wearing Iris glasses??? And by the way, I'm soooo getting some of those glasses when I get older.

Style Files: New Years Eve

Oooh I haven't done one of these in a awhile. I really loved the new Rodarte line for Target, but wasn't sure what the pieces would be like in person. This lace-print dress is pretty awesome! I added a belt & some bright tights for a lil color, because we all know I love me some color. By the way, this was outside the studio where Greg's band The Time Outs (a kid's rock band) was doing their "early count down" show for the kidlets—that's why there is a random neon sign by me. I was kind of over dressed for a 4:30 show, but that's how I roll, friends.








Despite his expression, Wolfie had a fabulous time. I, on the other hand, felt like death warmed over. My nasty bronchial thing was in full swing....but sometimes you feel a little better if you put on something perty. It worked for a few hours, then I was pooped!

Here are the details:

+ Rodarte for Target lace-print dress
+ Vera Wang for Kohls cardigan
+ Purple patent belt
+ Purple tights, We Love Colors
+ Vintage rhinestone necklace
+ Gray booties, Kohls
+ Cheapy New Year's tiara ( i love those things!)

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow...

I'm baaaaack! Lawdy this cold has kicked my booty. 2010 has had a crazy start, but I'm feelin' much better. We had a really great vacation in Michigan and were thrilled with the beautiful snowfall. Now, I know if you're livin' in the Land of Snow you're probably thinking, "Yeah Alex, you love it because you got to LEAVE IT for sunny California!!!" And you're probably right....I know it's been a rough winter for everyone, but I still think the snow is really beautiful. Especially at Christmas time. My parents live on a lake and it's was gorgeous.
OK, so this is a bit of a time warp, but this was Christmas Eve. So pretty!





While visions of sugar plums danced in his head...so sweet.

Here is our beautiful lakeside. Hard to believe that only 4 months prior we scooting around the lake on our little pontoon boat. It seems impossible that it would be cold enough to freeze it, but frozen it was! We walked on it and pulled Wolfie on a little sled. It didn't click until he saw the dock and realized "Whoa, wait a minute. This is the LAKE mommy??