Return of the Party People!

It's become somewhat of a "tradition" to wear this shirt from kate spade on New Year's Eve. (Does two years count as a tradition?) I blogged about the shirt last year in a post entitled Party People. I like the print which is designed by Garance Dore because it has random fashionable people on it sitting around, smoking, drinking and talking to one another in French and English.

The skirt I am pairing it with today was bought last week courtesy of a gift certificate I received over the holidays to Anthropologie. The Eva Franco Albastru skirt is fun and quirky just like the top. I love the poofy silhouette which I thought would be a pefrect party skirt for New Year's Eve. Plus it was an extra 25% off thanks to the "tag sale" going on at Anthropologie this week.

So one thing that is more of a long standing tradition than wearing this shirt is throwing an appetizer party to usher in the New Year. My husband and I used to go out with friends but now (in our old age) we prefer instead to stay home, drink champagne and I make a bunch of appetizers. If the appetizers turn out well, I might even blog about them... next year!

Whatever your traditions are and whatever you are wearing or eating, Happy New Year!

Shirt: kate spade "Jessie Top"

Skirt: Eva Franco Albastru from Anthropologie here and on sale!

Shoes: J. Crew satin ballet flats

Bag: J. Crew Little Edie

Watch: Kate Spade Carlyle Bow Watch

Underneath the Tree, Next to Some Casks

I guess I was a good girl this year because Santa, along with myself, brought me everything I wanted. One thing that was on my list this year was a leopard clutch from Clare Vivier. I always wanted a leopard clutch but never found just the right one. I found this one which is made right here in Los Angeles.  Buying things that are made in America is a "cause" that I like to support when I can. Another great handbag maker, Lauren Merkin, also manufactures her clutches in America, but across the country in New York. I like supporting these manufactures as much as I can, so I was happy to shell out a little extra dough for their quality work as opposed to a similar product made in China.

These pictures were taken before the holidays. My husband and I went to a local vineyard (hence the casks) and did some wine tasting. I also purchased this jeweled stripe top before the holidays at J.Crew. It is much lovelier in person in my opinion with the decorative embellishments on the front. I think one of my New Years resolutions is to not buy any more striped items and to not buy anymore embellished items. I clearly have enough!

 

So for those of you who celebrate the holidays, what did Santa leave under the tree for you? Or perhaps a better question might be, what did you buy for yourself? I actually think that William made out better than anyone, as he had quite a few new dog treats to open for Christmas!

Top: J. Crew Embelished Striped Tee (here)

Skirt: LOFT Leather Skirt (similar here)

Boots: CL Cate Boots

Clutch: Clare Vivier Leopard Fold Over Clutch (here)

A Little Holiday Cheer and a Side of Sequins

In the blink of the eye Christmas came and went this year. We went over to my husband's family's house for dinner last night for what turned out to be a whole lot of overcooked food, but regardless it is always nice to share the holiday cheer with loved ones no matter how the food tastes.

None of my husband's family knows that I have a blog, and I would like to keep it that way. Actually one of my aunts tells me repeatedly to take pictures of all of my outfits and I just nod and smile knowing that that's pretty much what I do as one of my hobbies. Given the anonymity of my blog amongst family it is always a little awkward to ask my husband to take a picture of my outfit in the midst of a gathering such as Christmas. My husband said "Well, don't worry about it, they already know you're vain...I mean concerned with your appearance." Well he's getting coal in his stocking next year. Anyway, when we arrived for Christmas dinner at around 5:00 I thought it would be festive to take a picture or two by the tree. What resulted was various family members instructing me on how to pose and smile. They're very bossy!

As you can see I wore a combination of tartan plaid, sequins and bows in what I thought turned out to be a very festive ensemble as shown below:

I added some little holiday details to make this ensemble extra special. These details included my Vera Wang bow tights, my sparkly bow belt from kate spade, and the debut of my birthday gift, which I haven't worn until now, which is a ring from Tiffany's Ziegfeld collection inspired by The Great Gatsby.

On a side note this picture of my legs, now that I keep looking at it, sort of reminds me of that lamp in A Christmas Story! 

As you can see there were lots of gifts under the tree for everyone in the family. One of my favorite gifts is the sign shown below. I was thinking about hanging it on my desk at work! Something makes me think that wouldn't go over so well.

So I don't know how I did this, but as I was uploading these pictures this thing on Google called "Auto Awesome" just made all of my photos either twinkle or have animated snow. Seriously, WTF Google? I didn't do this, but here is what one of them looks like. I would like to know how this happened so if you know more about computers than I do, please explain! 

Shirt: J. Crew Tartan Boy Shirt

Skirt: J. Crew Factory no. 2 Pencil Skirt in Color Block Sequin (here) (lace version)

Tights: Vera Wang

Shoes: CL Simple Pumps

Belt: kate spade glitter bow belt

Merry Christmas, William van Winkle!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Colonel William van Winkle the Bard of Bardstown! William is on his best behavior today in anticipation of Santa's visit tonight. (I think this is why he was relatively good while wearing these reindeer antlers!) Actually, William discovered one of his gifts from Santa a week ago and took it into the backyard to play. Despite his new Christmas toy being all muddy, we will still wrap it up for him to discover again tomorrow morning. Hopefully he doesn't put it all together and think that there is no such thing as Santa!

I am looking forward to spending a nice and relaxing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family and friends, starting tonight with a fondue party. Mmmm... fondue! Whatever your plans entail, enjoy the festivities and Merry Christmas!

Lots of Lace

This post contains it all: fashion, food (cookies) and fur (William). First let me start by stating that I've noticed that I've been wearing a lot of lace patterned clothing over the last week or two. I found this lace peplum top at J. Crew for only $22, normally $98. The sales associate told me when I checked out that I could not use my educator's discount with the top for the current promotion going on, but then I noticed she gave it to me anyway when I checked the receipt. I thought that was a nice holiday gesture.

I had some trouble with the sizing of the lace peplum top because the xs seemed to be really, really tight and short. I didn't take a small in with me to try, because usually small in J. Crew is too big, so I ended up just buying the small without trying it on, figuring it would work. When I tried the size small on at home, it was really big in the tummy area. This dilemma forced me to come up with a creative solution in the form of a belt. This crystallized citrine belt from Anthropologie really did the trick and cinched the waist just right.

So now on to the food. Below you will find my recipe for these simple, elegant and most importantly yummy lace cookies. I made these last year in a post entitled Cookies for Santa. I thought this year I would show some of the process of making the cookies.

First, gather your ingredients. You will need the following:

1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces dark chocolate, melted

Second, make sure your dog doesn't try to eat the cookies or ingredients. I used to help my mom bake cookies as a little girl, but William doesn't seem to understand that his help is NOT needed in the kitchen! While you are yelling at the dog to leave the food alone, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and oats. Set aside. Basically you are mixing all of the dry ingredients and then the wet ones. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter, cream, corn syrup, and vanilla. Mix with the beater blade until smooth. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix to combine.

Drop about 1/4 of a teaspoon of batter onto prepared baking sheets. Try to make the cookies all the same size. Place only 12 cookies on each sheet because the cookies will spread in the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes. Remember that a little dot of dough such as this...

Will turn into these delicate round cookies like this after the 8 minutes are up...

Let the cookies cool for about two minutes and then place them on a drying rack such as the one featured above. Now you have a choice, you can either eat the cookies "as is" or you can do something more decadent and add chocolate and make them into little sandwiches.  I opted for chocolate. I like to use Ghiradelli's bittersweet chocolate.

Melt the chocolate by creating your own double broiler. I place a bowl on top of a steaming pot of hot water to generate steam and thus melt the chocolate. Why not just microwave the chocolate? Well, microwaving usually scorches the chocolate and you don't want to do that!

Last, find two cookies of equal size and brush one side with your chocolate. Place the other side on top and then place again on the dryer until chocolate hardens. Don't leave the cookies out, because we had an incident with William eating two of them which scared me to death because dogs as you may know shouldn't eat chocolate. Luckily he seems to be doing fine!

Geo Jewel Tone

Since purple is my favorite color I was instantly attracted to the J. Crew popover in Ratti Geo print. I like the combination of purple on red, and it fits in perfectly with the rich jewel tone color schemes which are everywhere this winter. I also threw on a purple velvet blazer just to be a little fancy. Purple, being an archetypal symbol of royalty, just has a way of making you feel so regal!

I lusted after the Ratti popover top since the moment it came out. I ended up buying it during one of the numerous extra 30% off your total purchase promotions featured by J. Crew this season. I heard on the news last month that retailers, in anticipation of a lucrative Christmas season, ordered too much inventory and therefore the sales would be really good this year. In support of this prediction, it does seem like J. Crew and other retailers have offered a consist amount of generous discounts and sales. Anyway, the one thing that drove me nuts about this top is that it showed up as being sold out multiple times on the J. Crew website, only to be fully in stock in all sizes the next day. What's up with that?

My review of this top is that it fits true to size. I took my regular size 2 which was just right. Last year J. Crew's tops seemed to run really big, either that or I've gotten bigger over the last year. I bought a few 0 and even a 00 last season in button downs, but this year I am consistently a size 2. 

 

Top: J.Crew Popover in Ratti Geo (here)

Jeans: Old Navy

Shoes: J. Crew Valencia
Necklace: Groopdealz (inspired by the J. Crew Geometric Bouquet necklace)
Bag: Dooney and Bourke
Scarf: Hermes Twilly

Free, Finally

Vacation time has arrived (finally!) and I couldn't be any happier. Well, maybe if I won that huge $500 million dollar Lotto this week I would be happier, but why split hairs? I'll take whatever I can get. So now I have two whole weeks of pure bliss without the alarm sounding at 5:30 in the morning to look forward to. I almost don't know what to do with myself, but tomorrow I think I'll start by sleeping in and then making cookies to get into the holiday spirit. What's next? Who knows!

Today, in honor of the day before break/holiday festivities occurring at work I thought I would wear something festive and fun, like sequins and plaid. Upon seeing my sequin top many colleagues commented on how shinny and sparkly I looked. I love this sequin polka dot top from J. Crew, but it tends to get stuck on everything due to the sequins. For example my hair kept sticking to the sequins and eventually I put it in a bun. As you can see I am not very practical when it comes to fashion.

For those of you who have a vacation to look forward to too, enjoy! What are your plans to celebrate being liberated from work?

Shirt: J. Crew Factory Sequin Tee

Blouse: Ann Taylor Loft

Pants: J. Crew Cafe Capri in Tartan Plaid

Shoes: J. Crew Ballet Flat

A Simple Kind of Solution

If you look closely at my blazer you'll notice some raindrops as a downpour hit Southern California this afternoon. Knowing that this was in the forecast for today, I debated if I should wear rainboots or not. Well, since it wasn't raining this morning, I made the choice to forgo them. It turns out I made the wrong choice!

Seeing the puddles of rainwater building up in massive lake-like formations outside my window at work, I decided when it was time to go home that I had no other option than to get some plastic bags and rubber bands and construct some makeshift galoshes. Just call me MacGyver!

My husband and I often commute together to work and when he came to pick me up he was laughing as I came plodding down the street in my "invention". But hey, these bags saved my boots from the rain which was worth the price of a little bit of humiliation. My boots were as dry as a bone, so I can't complain.

On a side note, the fair isle sweater I am wearing today is from H&M and it was so comfy and cozy on a rainy day like today. I love the green color scheme of the sweater and thought it would be perfect for a little casual holiday cheer. It even comes with a neat-o gift tag attached in anticipation of it being a holiday gift. Personally, I would fill out the gift card as followed: To: Me, From: Me.

Blazer: J. Crew "Schoolboy Blazer" in Navy

Shirt: J. Crew navy check "boyshirt"

Sweater: H&M Fair Isle 

Boots: Zara

Bags: Courtesy of Big Lots and Micheal's Crafts!

Jeans: Old Navy

Too Much of a Good Thing...

Sometimes too much of good thing isn't too much, it's just awesome! Too much chocolate? No such thing. Too much vacation time? Impossible! Too many handbags of the French/Italian variety? Please! So anyway, I figured this would be my philosophy today as I piled on the bows. This sequin bow sweater from J. Crew was yet another missed opportunity of last year, which popped up as a "reissue" at the J. Crew Factory. My love for it was cemented when it made an appearance on The Carrie Diaries which is one of my ultimate guilty pleasure TV shows. You can never have too much of anything related to Sex and the City.

The glitter bow belt from kate spade became an obsession of mine, as I also missed out on buying it when it came out as part of kate spade's holiday collection last year. I tracked it down over the summer and it's one of my favorite accessories, so much so that I bought it in a few different colors. See there's that too much of a good thing again.

One thing that I realized that I have too much of are pencil skirts. Over the last two years I went a little gung ho buying them in a variety of fabrics and colors, so this year I am focusing on only buying new shapes and silhouettes. This skirt from H&M was purchased last summer, but it's accordion shape and midi length fits the bill.

So what can't you get enough of, fashion or otherwise?

Sweater: J. Crew Factory Sequin Bow Cardigan

Skirt: H&M

Shoes: Miu Miu 

Belt: Kate Spade Glitter Bow Belt (similar here)