Beedle the Bard

Sometimes I don't just covet fashion, I also love to collect books. And being the Harry Potter fan that I am, I was so excited tonight when JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard  arrived home. It's a collection of five little fairy tales...and sure, the collector's edition costs more than all seven HP books combined but it's totally worth it. Look at the cool packaging and awesome embellishments on the book!

                         
                  

Bootlicious

Boot Looks for Less. . .

Ferragamo created these lace-up boots for the Australia movie. . .they were made without zippers, in order to conform to the time period setting of the movie. It would take me like 10 min to lace those babies up! I think with my height, these babies would go above my knee. . .not a good look for shorties. I'm guessing these are >$1000.

Photo credit: AP/Ferragamo

Ta-da! I present to you. . .a more compatible pair of boots (for both my lifestyle and wallet). Yeah yeah, I know. . .they're not exactly similar. And I cheated, because I found the cheaper pair of boots first, then accidentally came across the Ferragamo ones above.

Photo credit: 6pm.com

Anyways, they're from Stuart Weitzman, which I always thought were primarily for old (rich) ladies. I guess this is not the case, since these are some "hot combat boots" (quoting Apple). I'm calling them my "hot granny/ass-kicker boots" haha. They were 75% off on 6pm.com, and I somehow managed to snap up the LAST pair. The leather is so nice & soft that I can't believe they used it on a pair of shoes. . .I'll be running away from crowds, messy kids, dogs & shopping carts, in fear of getting any scuff marks. You know how some families have those clear plastic covers on sofas, to keep them nice & new? I wonder if they make those for shoes :)

Cream Puffs

I learned how to make cream puffs this past weekend...much harder than I imagined! They sort of deflated after I took them out from the oven, but still yummy :)

Have I shown you guys my new ring? Thanks to LBC, I got this cute little John Hardy:

                          

I've been eyeing this Hype tote...what do you guys think? Too orange? Would this color last over the seasons or is it too trendy?

                               

Today's outfit:

Outfit: grey dress (Gap), belt (H&M), jacket (Old Navy), shoes (Circa Joan & David)

Missing Peru

This past weekend, JW and I started to miss Peru. We went on a tour of Peru in July with our cousins and had the best time there. The places we visited were magical and we had some really interesting food.

                       

One of our favorites is the Peruvian version of chicken soup, Dieta de Pollo. It consists of chicken consomme with quinoa, carrots and celery. We tried making it at home and it actually turned out to be pretty yummy!

 

Dresses

Over the weekend, I also bought 3 new dresses, but I need your guys' advice. The problem with these dresses is that they're kinda shapeless and require the person to be slim, unfortunately - I'm not. Sigh...I usually don't even try them on, but I couldn't resist the little details on these. Should I keep them?

 
  

I Heart Argyle

Originally, I was thinking of posting all my argyle sweaters to show how much I love  them...but that would be too nerdy right? I only have 7 argyle sweaters, which some might say is 6 too many...but I can't resist and want more!  Since 90% of my clothes are solid colors, my argyles make up the majority of my patterned pieces (sad, I know). Haha.

Since I didn't find anything for me at BR the other day, I convinced JW to get his first argyle sweater! He also got the green pants and orange sweater pictured below.

Looking to Buy

Hey girls, today JW and I went shopping since I had a 25% off coupon for BR...but I came out with nothing and JW got lots - not fair! Last week, though, I did buy this shirt - but I'm not sure if I should keep it or not. There are lots of ruffles and color is actually deep eggplant, but it looks brown in the pic. What do you think - keep or return?

I'm also in search of a pea coat , since I had to get rid of mine last year, and some ankle boots!

boots & peacoats by ShopaholicHomebodies

Saturday musings

I was feeling grey today, and threw in some androgyny . . .

Old Navy shirt, f21 vest, 7 jeans ($10!), UO shoes

yeah - this is what happens when Shasha has to think up her own poses. Poor K had to take a pic of me.

I really like androgynous looks, especially Kate Lanphear's style (check out the link). She has some more pics on the sartorialist - I love her all black combinations.


Birthday deal @ Loehmann's . . .
Armed with a 10% birthday deal and a mystery coupon potentially worth up to $500, I attacked Loehmann's, and came out with these:

Seychelle's grey platform boots

I'm happy to say that I think I am done with my shoe obsession - thank goodness it didn't last too long! These boots stack up at 3.75 inches - I'm slightly taller than K when he is barefoot. When I wear these, K has to wear his Dansko clogs (his version of high heels).

Etsy
I was reading Dreamecho's blog, and am totally kicking myself after learning that Leanne (from Project Runway) was selling her goods on Etsy. I can't believe I missed the opportunity to buy her stuff - I bet it'll be even more expensive now! Ugh! Check out her beautiful stuff. This convinces me I should go browse Etsy more, and discover some talent before they get famous :)

Handbag Fever

Looking at everyone's collection of shoes and bags make my collection seem weak. :( 

When I get a big fat raise, I will go all out! Haha.

Until then, here is what I got.

My bag collection in no particular order (shoe collection will come later when I'm not too lazy to take all my shoes out of their boxes to take pictures):

1st set:

2nd set:


3rd set (and of course, I have to represent the Disney):

I'm still working on building up my collection. I think a dark purple would be nice. And of course, the burgundy Botkier Sasha Small Duffel, which I'm still thinking about.

And now I'd like to end this post by sharing my favorite bag of all time:

Who is that cute girl? Hehehe. Does she look like the real-life Lilo?

Black Out

Ok, I did not realize HOW boring my shoes are until I took pictures of them. Look! Out of all my regular shoes, I only have 1 silver pair and 1 brown pair (which I just got on Monday - Cole Haan snakeskin pumps). The rest are just black, black, black - I need help.

Don't know if these count, but here are my tennis, running, golf, and hiking shoes...oh and my Danskos (I like them no matter what people say).

And these are to be donated soon, I've had them since college (years and years ago) and rarely wear them. Any you guys think I should keep? For that matter, any of my regular shoes I should donate?

Variations on a vest

So Lilo and I purchased the same vest at UO this weekend. Born with a color-coordination handicap, I had originally planned on waiting to see what Lilo pairs the vest with. However, I was bored home alone (hubby has night shift, Ervy's pooped out), and decided to try out some combinations.

1. Plain & expected - a bennetton purple button up workshirt. I've got like 5 button down shirts I never wear - for some reason, I never feel comfortable in these type of shirts - I always feel messy with them! But wearing them with a vest on top may do the trick.


2. Another variation with a workshirt - also purple, but w/ stripes. I got this back when Macy's was about to close down at Gwinnett Place mall (yeah, it's THAT old!). It's a petite-sized shirt - the sleeves are just a little bit too short, so I roll them up. It's in some kind of shiny polyester so it never gets wrinkled. It's a noisy rustle-rustle type shirt, and I don't think it passes flame-retardant standards!
3. With a missoni-ish top from Arden B. I have had this shirt since 2001 - it is a little too tight & short and I'm too old to wear it alone now. The last time I wore it was on a date with K - that was like 7 years ago!
4. Going a little wild - I was in a rebellious mood, or perhaps I still had my "crazy/nasty non-matching" sickness left over from last week. Click on pic to see details - my momma got me this green shirt with pink flower/sunglasses-wearing giraffes. I always feel weird wearing this giraffe shirt w/o something on top -- it looks like something a little kid would be forced to wear, or something worn by a little blonde old lady w/ bright fuschia lipstick. I need a black jumper to tone it down.


On another note, maybe I should do a blog on my momma's style - she's wilder than I am!

Chicken Fried Bacon

Hey girls,

JW and I visited my cousin in Arlington (in between Dallas and Ft. Worth) this weekend and here are the pictures from our trip.

We started the day at the Nasher Sculpture Center and saw beautiful art both indoors and outdoors.

 

Afterwards, we headed to the Sixth Floor Museum and learned more about the assassination of JFK.

 

For the rest of the day, we spent sweating, eating and walking around the Texas State Fair.

 

We were introduced to the craziest fried food - chicken fried bacon!! It was voted 1 of 8 top tastes of the fair, so of course we had to try it. It was breaded and fried strips of bacon...salty, crunchy and oh so unhealthy! Just a taste was enough.

We also got to see bull riding, dogs dancing, pig races and rabbit judging. For more pics, go here.

Oh, I almost forgot. There was a stall selling jewelry, art and knickknacks from Nepal/India. I got this cool little ring...it reminds me of a John Hardy design.