The Seven Dwarfs as You Have Never Seen them Before

I have to show you this. My daughter received a pack of rubber figures representing Snowflake and the Seven Dwarfs from my parents. I haven't read her the story yet as she's too young and also because I remember that I was still scared to death a week after reading it for the first time when I was little (I think that I couldn't quite make sense of the poisoned apple and I had my first perception of mortality). Funny that my parents sent this, they must not be aware of the scary effect that the story had on me.
Anyway, she doesn't know what a dwarf is, let alone Snowflake, so she calls them "Messieurs" (Gentlemen) and "Dame" (Lady).

This morning she was playing with my jewelry while I was typing on the computer and when I turned I saw what she had done with the Seven Dwarfs and Snowflake. Jewelry Holders! I swear that she came up with this by herself, I think she is an artist:




I would actually use them as jewelry holders but and I'm not allowed to touch the creation ...

I have a very busy weekend ahead of me (we invited friends at home tonight AND tomorrow) so I won't probably be back on the blog before Monday. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Husband's Birthday Dinner Outfit (plus, latest Splurge)

I have mentioned before that last Tuesday was my husband's birthday. To celebrate we had an early dinner at one of our favorite French restaurants in the city, Benoit, which is also kind of kid friendly (but I guess that every restaurant is becoming kid friendly these days).

I would have loved to wear the jacket + tiered ruffle skirt outfit of my previous post but it was unseasonally cold and just about to pour when we were ready to leave. So this is the outfit that I wore instead:



Featuring Jcrew Georgia cardigan in warm blush, ruffle tissue tank in natural, Cafe capri in black. The Georgia cardigan is a good alternative to the warmer Michelle and I really like this color for the evening but I must say that it can't be worn closed with the tissue ruffle tank, there is just too much tissue. I put a little bit of effort in the jewelry:



It was a lovely evening but my daughter, who is usually very good when we eat out, started to say "Andiamo?" (Can we go? in italian) as soon as we arrived at the restaurant and she didn't stop until we actually left. Life with kids...

And now, the shoes. The shoes that I'm wearing in the first pic are not the ones that I wore Tuesday night for the simple reason that I bought them yesterday (I wore my Tory Burch black Reva instead).
Yes, I splurged again on shoes but these are really worth it plus summer sale season is open and I always buy a pair of designer shoes during the sales. I normally buy much later in the season, around my birthday which is in July, because that's when one can find very good deals, but I'm afraid that this year the inventory is going to be much lower and I have an "average" size (a 7) that sells out quickly (I wish I wore a 35.5, lucky you 35.5 ladies).
They are Miu Miu and I have been eyeing them for a very long time. When I got a flyer in the mail from Chuckies, a high-end NYC shoes store, saying that they were having a private sale starting yesterday I knew that I was going to splurge on these. However, even with the % off, the price came with a shock. I mean, I knew more or less what the sale price would be but I always hope for a miracle at the register when buying expensive shoes. Like the price marked isn't the real price and in reality they are much cheaper. Or the SA makes a mistake. Or they were in the wrong box. I always hope because it actually happened to me to pay much less than expected (of course I didn't investigate, by scare that the SA would find out too that it was a mistake).

Anyway, I paid what I paid but I'm absolutely convinced that they will be a classic in my wardrobe. They are luxurious (because of the stones) and wearable at the same time (because they are flats). Here they are:



Like the Reva, they have an elastic all around, but I love that they are open-toe. I also like that the color is between gold and bronze, so it's easier to pair than the pure gold. The stones are absolutely stunning and best of all ... they are my size. Here are in my feet (with the Nars nail polish that seems to be made for them):



They are final sale meaning that I can't return them, so if you really don't like them or think that they are not worth the splurge, please don't comment!!! I mean, you don't have necessarely like what I like but I have just spent a considerable amount of money in these and I'm not sure that I'm ready to hear that I made a mistake and consequently change my mind.

Do you plan to buy earlier this sale season or are you going to wait for the prices to drop further?

The JCrew Tiered Ruffle Skirt: Styling Ideas

I hope that you're not going to yawn at this one, since this skirt has been around for a while and got many reviews when it came out.
The most frequently used term in the blogosphere to describe this skirt has been, I think (I mean, not that I have counted), "fun". It is indeed a fun skirt when you try it on. However, the price wasn't so fun and at $148 I had to pass as it is clearly something that I'm not going to wear that much.
When it went on sale (the last days of the Mickey card I believe) I wasn't paying attention and my size sold out very quickly.

It was around my daughter's birthday and you know when an idea crosses your mind and then you can't shake it off? Now I really, really wanted to wear this skirt at my daughter's upcoming birthday party. After calling every store in the city I was almost sure that I wouldn't find it any longer and guess what? The morning after ordering the Crewcuts dresses for my daughter it popped back on the website in my size. So I grabbed the phone (the SA was kind of talkative and I was like "It's a popback, can we get to the point before someone else snaps it so I don't have to go on another crewsade?" and ordered it among other stuff with one of the free shipping codes, hoping that it would actually ship.
It did, although it didn't make it in time for the birthday party. So, once the immediate excuse to wear it gone, I had a try-on session to see if I could wear it in my day-to-day life.

With all those tiered ruffles I think that the key is to keep the top simple, so I tried it with a perfect-fit tank:



OK, this is maybe too simple but I would wear this outfit for a stroll in one of those hot summer evening (with flip-flops instead of the disco sandals that I'm wearing in the pics). I throw on the tissue ruffle cardigan in slate and it looked surprisingly nice (I mean, I wasn't overwhelmed by ruffles):



Then, I tried on the ringspun scoopneck tee that I had ordered along with the skirt to get the free shipping. I had planned to return this one but I immediately liked it and couldn't part from it (I have already worn it twice with the surplus matchstick grey jeans and got many compliments):



Another tee option that I had in mind is the ringspun abstract maze tee (the real name, I found out reading the new catalog, is "sunbleached crinkle flower") that I've blogged on last week:



I really like it, what a great tee.
Now, for a more elegant look I think I have the perfect jacket. It's strucured heavy-silk jacket from an italian brand (Vicini) that I splurged on last year. I don't own many jackets but I think that this one is edgy and classic at the same time and was worth the splurge:



Buttoned and with the skinny belt in silver it's perfecty put together. Where are the cocktails?




I'm sure that I can find some other tops to wear with this skirt but I think that this is enough to make me that I'm going to keep it. I actually can't wait to wear it. Too bad that yesterday it was too cold because it was my husband's birthday and I would have loved to wear it at the nice restaurant where we went to celebrate (just the three of us).

Do yoiu own this skirt? Do you wear it "relaxed way" or do you dress it up? Which one of rthese outfits do you prefer?

A New Obsession: the Theory Frivan Romper

While I was at Bloomingdales on Saturday morning to see if they had any Longchamp pliage on sale, I couldn't help stepping by the Theory stand in the women's clothing department. If you have been following this blog from the beginning you might know that Theory is one of my favorite brands after Jcrew. I own several (at least ten) items (almost all summer clothes) from Theory that are all great and never go out of style. The thing is, I never buy Theory in store at full price as their prices tend to be CRAZY but I'm lucky enough to live in NY and I always try to go to their sample sale which is held twice a year (in the same location than this year's Jcrew sample sales, with the difference that one can try clothes on).

Anyway, I was browsing the Theory racks when I stumbled upon this romper. Being on the petite side, I've always dismissed jumpsuits as something "not for me" but I had never considered a shorts jumpsuit. Actually I didn't even know that such a thing like a romper existed (I mean for people older than 24 months).
This one, not only existed but had a crisp, ageless look that reminded me of Cameron Diaz in the latest Vogue (did you see it? Isn't she amazingly chic and cool in those organic clothes?)
It comes in white/white, white/kakhi and I believe black/black. I would have loved to try the white on white but it was sold out in my size, so I tried the white on khaki. The fitting room was very dark and these are the only two pics that are not too blurred:





In the pics I'm trying a 0 but actually the 2 looked better as the shorts weren't as fitted. I didn't take a picture though.
I really felt good in it and I think that it's something that I could wear for years to come (I was about to say until I'm 70 but I'm not sure that I will want to show off my legs when I'm 70), what you would call a good investment. I now that people tend to consider winter clothes (coats and jackets) as worth-the-splurge-good-investments but I simply like summer clothes so much better. I always find myself spending much more for summer clothes than winter ones; if I really like a summer dress I go for it, while I can debate for months before buying a turtleneck or winter dress.

Now there are two problems. First is the price: this retails for $295. Second is: the the Theory sample sale was last week and I didn't go (on purpose this time) and now I'm really kicking myself for not going (even if they don't have all the styles and typically not the very last ones).
I would really love to get this but I don't know if I can wait for it to go on sale. The other solution I'm thinking about is to return all those Jcrew clothes that I'm not 100% sure about and get this one instead. So stay tunes for many "returnable items of the week".

What do you typically splurge on? Do you prefer summer or winter clothes?

Memorial Weekend Outfits

So as promised I took pics of my Saturday morning outfit that I got many compliments on:



Featuring Jcrew giraffe-print shorts, Zara shirt from many years ago, Kate Spade "fish" slides fom last summer, Jcrew Thompson tote (I really need to get started with Polyvore). Actually I think this looks even nicer in real life. I had initially put on a Gap navy ribbed tank as a top but the shorts are very short and I felt a little bit naked (especially for the subway), so I changed for the Zara shirt and felt much better.
The day after we went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch (it's greek but quite upscale and it has a nice terrace with teck furniture). I decided to wear my Monterey skirt for the first time, with a Gap tee for a total "khaki" look:



I think that this outfit came off quite nicely, thanks to the touch of color of the necklace:



This is a necklace that I bought some time ago at Laila Rowe, along with the double-strand turquoise bracelet that I wore with the Havona in the Bermuda pics. The prices are already very good (from $15 to $28) but they were (and I think they are still) having a "buy one, get another one at half price" promotion, which makes these a real steal as they are made in real stones (like the Jcrew ones) and not plastic. I you have a store near you, I highly reccomend having a look. The colors are beautiful and it's difficult to just pick two (or four) items. They also make a nice girlfriend present.

Not that anyone noticed, but my self-made pedi with Nars polish in Orgasm complemented the look and I want to show it here (it also gives me the opportunity to make a close-up on the KS slides that I bought on super-sale last year and wear all the time):



The rest of the weekend was disrupted by the fact that my daughter developped a vaccine-induced fever (I'm normally pro-vaccines but I regretted giving her the shot just before the weekend, even if this is the first time that she has a reaction whatsoever), so we had to cancel our dinner plans for Sunday and we spent almost the rest of the weekend at home. Sometimes it's good to have an excuse to just do nothing, especially for my husband who works a lot and is hyper-active during the weekend (he can't stay half an hour without doing something). So my yesterday outfit was pijamas and an old tee shirt, nothing that I want to share lol.

I hope that you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Isn't it great that summer is finally here?

Coming up: a new obsession (non-Jcrew)

How is your Memorial Day weekend so far?

Hello everybody, I just wanted to write a quick post to wish you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, even if the first day is almost gone. I meant to post something yesterday but I got caught up in errands and my hubby came home eerly from work, so I didn't even turned the computer on until now.

We are staying in the city for the weekend, just seeing friends and relaxing. I vowed to stay away from Jcrew this weekend as I placed two Internet orders a week ago and bought the only thing that I kind of "need" at this point two days ago (the lightweight Oxford tunic, review coming up next week). Plus I'm kind of disappointed in the new catalog, I think we had enough of ruffles and I was hoping for some bright colors and prints.

This morning I went to Bloomingdales for a change of perspective on clothes (I tend to go to Jcrew and other few neighborhood stores only) and also to see if they had sales on Longchamp bags as I need to replace an old white "pliage" that is now almost gray.
The sale wasn't that great (and no sales on the bag that I wanted to try) but I got a ton of compliments from sales people and customers on my outfit. I was wearing the giraffe-print shorts (first wear) with an old Zara short-sleeved shirt (gray) and Kade Spade "fish" flats. I should have taken a picture of the outfit but I didn't, so maybe I will do it a posteriori tomorrow and I will post it next week. So, that did my day and I didn't buy anything because I felt so great. My husband says that it's normal that sales people compliment you because they want you to be in a good disposition to sell you stuff, but we ladies know to make the difference between someone trying to flatter us and a genuine compliment, right? And those were definitively compliments!

Sorry, no pics today.

Have a wonderful rest of Memoral Day weekend!

Two New JCrew Ringspun Tees

OK, I'm officially on my way to become a JCrew ringspun tee collector (an euphemism for addict). I don't know what it is but I feel compelled to buy a JCrew tee as soon as see a new one in store and this happens especially with the ringspun ones.

So yesterday I stopped by my local store to return one of the dresses that I bought for my daughter and my eye was caught by a new ringspun tee that I immediately fell in love with. It's another "silk flower applique" tee but the color combination was just beautiful and I had to try it on:



Detail of the flower:



It retails for $42.50 (the style # is 16911). I saw it also with the flower in a papaya color (it's a little bit more elegant) but the "pacific" blue is such a nice color for the summer, especially with a little tan like I have in this moment. I tried a small because I find the crewneck ringspun tees to run a little bit small (compared to the scoopneck ones) but I could have sized down (I didn't try the XS though).

On my way to the register I noticed another tee laying on a table. This one is not new (I think it's called the abstract "maze" tee) but I had never seen it in navy before, only in ivory and grey, that I didn't like (BTW, check the hilarious review by gigiofca in this post). But in this color it looks like a totally different tee. I grabbed it without even trying it on because I have been looking for a replacement of a similar tee (with the same contrasting colors and tissues) that I bought many years ago (in fact I think that it was my first purchase in the US) at AX (incidentally I have to say that I was very excited about AX when I arrived, because in Europe, at least in Italy and France, we only have the high end Armani collections and Emporio). I have worn this tee many, many times to go out in the evening but since my body shape has changed after the baby it doesn't feel right any longer (basically I'm a little bit wider in the hips and it has become short for this fact if you see what I mean).

Anyway, this is the new "maze" tee in navy:



I bought a XS in this one as I wanted it to be fitted and because it's in a dark color the sheerness is not an issue:



Luckely I had something else to return so I could buy the two of them. I know that I'm going to wear the second one a lot, I'm less sure about the first one because the creamish color is not easy to pair with after all as it can't be worn with white which is a bummer. On the other side I'm sure that it's a tee to impress so even if I end up not wearing it everyday it's fine.

Have you seen these new tees in store? Do you like any them? Do you like the maze tee in this new color combination?