New Favorite Blazer

Today I stalked off to Zara to check out the fall stock that is slowly trickling in. I did see some crazy wooly Rick Owens/Marni-inspired vests that would be fun to try out, were the prices not out of my range for mere experiments. But I did come out lucky! Does anyone remember that floral blazer I blogged about earlier? Today there were a couple left on the racks marked down by about 70%! I snatched up the last small quickly and traipsed to the cashier with glee.



I also took a couple of photos of some lovely pieces I wouldn't mind having in my wardrobe. Maybe when they go on sale... The shoes are divine!

All Zipped Up

I am a complete sucker for versatile pieces that can completely change an outfit. Susie Bubble's new zippered neckpiece is a perfect example of what I am talking about. I can see it being worn over everything from fitted black blazers, to wispy floral mini dresses. If I had even an ounce of the talent of Outi from Outsapop I'd be on the task as we speak. Unfortunately, I'm far too impatient to properly finish my diy projects. I tend to stick to hemming skirts or taking in large pieces. Fortunately, my two grandmothers are officially moving to Vancouver to stay for good this fall. That means that I'll have two talented ladies with tons of time on their hands to do my bidding. Hehehe. Ideas of beautiful custom-made clothes are swirling in my head.

The Weekend Edition: Dallas Trendy Moms

What: Target First Saturday ~ head to the Nasher Sculpture Center for some family fun. This family event includes family tours, scavenger hunts, and more.

Where: The Nasher Sculpture Center
2001 Flora St.

When: Saturday, August 2, 2008 {10am - 2pm}

Cost: Free

Need More Info: 214-242-5100 www.nashersculpturecenter.org

Fall 08 Picks

Having nothing better to do whilst staying home sick, I browsed through all of my saved images from the Fall collections and decided to take note of what I'd like to look for in these coming months. I don't remember these particular looks being labeled as key trends, but they're definitely something I'd like to try. I've never worn long skirts in a casual way before, but they look perfect for chilly days when tights just won't do. I don't know how practical it would be to wear a floor-length skirt when my campus starts to flood from rain, however. Maybe I'll save them for the dry windy days (if I'm lucky enough come across some this winter).

Rockin' Retro Boys & Girls T's

I was kind of surprised when strolling by the windows of my local GapKids the other day to see the following retro T's - it just struck me as odd as I can't recall a time before when The Gap has sold a product like this...The shirts are really fun...They have TONS to choose from and they are quite reasonable @ $22.50.

They've got Snoopy, Batman, Little Miss Characters, Strawberry Shortcake, StarWars, The Beatles, and my personal favorite Go Go Speed Racer ---- and they are all retro and worn looking. Check 'em out :)

GIVEAWAY: Boutique Bedding and A Whole Lot More!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Ever wonder where your friend of a friend's coworker got that AMAZING bedding for her nursery? We found an awesome online boutique, The Frog and The Princess, where you can find all things luxurious for your precious little one ~ from unique and beautiful bedding to car seat covers, and even hand painted toy chests. This store ROCKS!

For the Princesses we especially love their Magic Garden Toy Chest & if you really want to spoil that little princess in your life their Just Too Cute Teaset is a must see!

And for the little Frogs we love the Barn Dandy Teepee & the Monkeying Around Canvas Growth Chart.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

This boutique has such a wide variety of great items - and the prices range so vastly that any budget is sure to find something they must have here...so take a look and see what you'd use a $50 gift certificate towards if you're chosen as the winner of our next fabulous giveaway!

To enter: Visit The Frog and The Princess - take a look around and leave us a comment letting us know what your favorite item is and we'll enter you for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to The Frog and The Princess. Good Luck! Contest ends at midnight on Monday, August 11th.

The winner of the Bags & Buggies Giveaway is: Ginny who said, "I love your Activities Galore category! Love to see more in that :) "

Insecurities and Comfort Clothing

Have any of you been through this scenario: you're about to make a blog post, you don't have a strong source of light for photos, your camera can't scale focus, your photos end up too blurry, or too dark, or your thighs look a little too round in this photo... You're basically worried that your recent posts aren't up to scratch. I think bloggers need a good amount of self-confidence, not to put up with criticism from others, but to battle that inevitable self-criticism. Does blogging have the tendency to make you scrutinize yourself in ways you wouldn't have done before? Does it make you paranoid about hitting the streets in a mediocre outfit out of fear of being recognized? I am very much interested in hearing about your experiences with these rough patches.

Night time is still rather chilly so last night I donned quite a few layers including a military-style blazer I share with my boyfriend. It fits like a glove on him, but I also like the casual looseness of it on me. It's like my cozy security blanket, with the added bonus of looking great on top of anything.

Is My Kid Ready for Kindergarten?

Information provided by the U.S. Dept of Education

Teachers were asked to complete a survey ranking the most important qualities a child needs to possess to make entry into Kindergarten a success.

The top three qualities public school kindergarten teachers consider essential for school readiness are that a child be:

1) physically healthy, rested and well-nourished;

2) be able to communicate needs, wants, and thoughts verbally;

3) and be enthusiastic and curious in approaching new activities.

More than half the teachers also place significant importance on the ability to follow directions (60 percent), not being disruptive in class (60 percent), being sensitive to other children's feelings (58 percent) and the ability to take turns and share (56 percent).

Of less importance are knowing English (42 percent), the ability to sit still and pay attention (42 percent), and finishing tasks (40 percent).

Of least importance according to kindergarten teachers are good problem-solving skills (24 percent), the ability to identify primary colors and basic shapes (24 percent), the ability to use pencils and paint brushes (21 percent), knowledge of the alphabet ( 10 percent), and the ability to count to 20 (7 percent).

AND Don't forget today is the last day to enter the BAGS AND BUGGIES 3 pairs of BabyLegs contest! {See above for links to all active contests}

Healing

So I was about half-way through writing a long-winded rant about my disappointment with the lack of creativity I'm seeing in resort collections when I decided to reign in the unnecessary negativity and focus on something that I do enjoy. That would be Limi Feu's quirky/cozy fall collection. There's nothing better than wrapping yourself in layers of comfy knits when you're feeling under the weather health-wise. Somehow I managed to catch some sort of feverish cold in the middle of July. All the more reason to avoid letting my thoughts go under as well. There is definitely some truth to healing properties of positive thinking.


Images from tfs.com
(Couldn't find the proper credit)

The Weekend Edition: Dallas Trendy Moms

What: YEEEEHAAW, grab those little cowpokes and head to the Mesquite Rodeo

Where: 1818 Rodeo DriveMesquite, Texas 75149

When: Check their calendar - many dates to choose from http://www.mesquiterodeo.com/calendar/

Need More Info: http://www.mesquiterodeo.com/

Giveaway: Unique Bible Verse Name

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Our next feature is such a great gift giving option. Ashley owner of Jesus Name Designs, creates these wonderful HANDWRITTEN names out of Bible verses. That's right ~ Ashley will take verse and write it in the form of the letters in your child's name.

The pictures just do not do this one justice...we've seen them in person and they are so sweet and special. Definitely something a mother or sister or friend would cherish forever if you gave them one with their newly born child's name and a favorite scripture.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Take a look for yourself....and to all those who visit Jesus Name Designs and leave a comment here - you will be entered in a giveaway for a free Bible verse name. If you're the lucky winner Ashley will whip one up for you with the name and verse you provider her with. Giveaway ends midnight August 5th. Very cool!

Rough Roads Ahead

A couple of days ago the Telegraph posted an article about plunging hemlines, which have historically been linked to bad economic times. I'm not quite sure how strongly the two are correlated in this instance, even though maxi-dresses are definitely an established trend. It isn't as if the majority of the population is out and about in floor-skimming skirts. It's quite the opposite, at least in my city. Not that I don't believe we're in a bad state economy-wise. It's one of those topics I obsessively read about every day. In fact, I think it's ridiculous that I still see newspaper headlines claming that we might be "heading" for a "down-turn". Come on guys, it's a recession okay? Stop with the euphemisms already. Does this mean that we are in for longer hemlines next fashion week season?

Click here for the article.

Shopping Day

Today the boy and I went thrift-shopping. But of course, by thrift-shopping I mean we went to Value Village because of my awesome employee discount. Has anyone else who's ever been to Value Village or Savers noticed that their prices are steadily rising? The pricers are becoming much more efficient at spotting higher-quality brands. Sometimes their decisions leave me scratching my head though. For example, once I was clearing the shoe section to find a pair of old Prada shoes. They looked very dated, almost orthopedic. But they were priced at $34.99! Now just because the shoes were a well-known brand doesn't mean used shoes merit that kind of price. Maybe if they were extremely of-the-moment. Once I found a pair of beautiful buckle boots I still regret not buying.

Anyways, we did manage to score some beautiful items for him. The first blue jacket was his find. I'm in love with the color and shape. It's very streamlined. But then you look at the back... Unexpected for sure.





I put the second outfit together. We were going for an Etro-style pop of color for the pocket square (which is actually a scarf of mine because we didn't find any to our liking today). I like the bookish professorly look to the blazer. It's rather hard to match pants to it though. Any suggestions?





Lastly, we scored a rare perfectly fitted trench. You normally find the most hideous coats in thrift stores. The shoulders are too large and the sleeves are too short (at least on tall folk). This was a lucky find indeed.





We also bought a midnight blue velvet blazer, a black velvet blazer, a few shirts and a pair of wool pants (who knew that small pleats can look quite good?). Alas, there are no pictures of these items because Kevin was getting too hot and tired for more shots. Oh well, some other time.

As for me. Today I wore a light pink dress that I belted up to shorten.



And what's a photoshoot without a few silly moments? Here is a picture of a toy car I picked up from an empty lot...



And here is a picture of me fallig backwards off of the said car. Or acting like a zombie. Whichever works for you.

Update

Update: Everything is fixed! I temporarily upgraded my photobucket to pro, and will be looking for my own domain to store images in the months to come. Sorry for the hoopla!

Bandwidth Exceeded?

To my horror, I logged onto my blog today ready to update and found a bunch of ugle "bandwidth exceeded" warning signs from Photobucket. Does anyone know what this means? Have people been linking to my photos from elsewhere? Did too many people come onto the blog at once? Please bear with me while I try to sort the issue out. Thanks!

Wrap dress in 4 easy steps

Hey all! I think it's time to own up to my unannounced week-long absence from the blogosphere. I've been fighting a tough gaming addiciton. That's right, my inner nerd came out to play for an entire week. I pretty realized I had a problem when I played the same game for seven hours straight on a perfectly sunny day... It's a bit of an embarrassing issue you see.

Anyways, I remember getting being asked how I managed to turn that green sari into a dress a few posts ago. Here's a quick tutorial. The procedure is almost exactly the same as the one I posted with the burnt-orange dress.

Step 1: Start by wrapping the fabric around the body from the back.



Step 2: Criss-cross the corners of the fabric around the front.



Step 3: Tie the ends around the back of your neck halter-style.



Step 4: Add a belt for structure to avoid the beachy sarong look.



And that's it! Easy! This is my new favourite default outfit for hot summer days when nothing else seems to be cool enough.

The Weekend Edition: Dallas Trendy Moms

What: Movies in the Square

When: Every Saturday nite @ 9:00 PM beginning June 7 through July 26

Where: Frisco Square, movie screen will be located on City Hall Plaza

Cost: FREE

Need More Info: These are showings of family-oriented movies. Refreshments such as snow cones, popcorn and nuts are available. Families are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets to enjoy the outdoor movies in comfort.

Movie Schedule: June 7 Wizard of Oz; June 14 Madagascar; June 21 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; June 28 Dreamer; July 5 Spiderman; July 12 Superman Returns; July 19 Bee Movie; July 26 Flipper

Crafty Kids

Wake up the kids, get their creative juices flowing and get them working on a craft project this summer. Oriental Trading has so many to choose from and most are quite reasonable - you can even invite a few of your kids friends over for the fun!

Say Goodbye to JunkMail

We get so much junk mail at our house and it drives me absolutely insane. I used to like going to the mailbox - but the increase in the trash received on a daily basis has turned this once fun excercise into something I dread. The piles that I create all around the house - on the entry way table, on the kitchen counter, on the stairs - JUNK JUNK JUNK! So what can we do about all this unwanted trash we receive daily?

Check out GreenDimes - they promise to reduce your postal junk mail by up to 90%....and they have two ways to do it - they will give you the tools/tips and you can do it yourself for free - or they will do it all for you for $20. I'm seriously considering the $20 option- wouldn't it be nice to not have to deal with all that extra trash??

A Step Up

I usually try to avoid image spamming but I just couldn't help myself this time. I'm completely in love with Etro's FW 08 ad campaign and I had to share all of it. I'm a little confused though. I found the runway show a little lackluster. Where are all these wonderful colors coming from? Just photoshop? Because I found the actual colors on the runway to be very toned-down for Etro this season. This campaign is better than the clothes.


















Images from MaxCardelli.com via idolfan8890 on tfs.com