Fun in the Sun

Straw hats, cover-ups, swimsuits and suntan --
My uniform for the next few days.

BRB

Travel Room

Finally done with this room and would like to share some pix with you all!

This is our travel room slash office slash guest room...

Photos were taken by the hubz from Paris, New York and London

The map at the far end corner was a DIY project!





Wall of souvenirs.
My fave are these tiny cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest in Germany!


Hope you enjoyed this mini virtual house tour! =)

Summer Uniform #4

I rarely post outfit photos taken outside. I'm too shy to pose for the camera knowing people are looking. Special thanks to my friend and shopping buddy Faye for taking this shot!

-- Marc by Marc Jacobs pink top -- cream shorts from Melbourne, Aus -- F21 necklace and cuff --
-- Linea Pelle jeweled belt -- Dior sunnies --

Skress #3

If you've been following my little blog a while now, you'll know I love the skress look. Skress = Skirt + Dress. See my skress outfits here and here.

And today, another one!

-- Zara halter dress -- Guess skirt -- Mimi di N gold lion belt --

-- Ferragamo "Ribes" peep toes --

Would you believe this is the same dressI wore here, and the same skirt I wore here and here. Yes, that's the power of the skress, it can transform a simple little skirt and dress into yet another fabulous outfit altogether!

A shout out to the lovely Ces of Mom-Daughter Style who's also rocking the skress look!

Try it and let me know if skress works for you too!!

Dressing Room Update

My dressing room is slowly making some progress. I am very pleased with the shelves I got from the very generous folks at CSNstores.com (the one stop shop for anything you could possibly ever need for your home -- from furniture sets to dinnerware sets, name it, they've got it!)

Thank you CSNstores!! With the shelf they sent, all my favorite pairs are now proudly displayed and every visitor we invite over have to endure my senseless babbling that usually goes along these lines:

"Designer pairs are so worth it, there is no turning back once you buy your first one! I had 200 pairs of regular shoes before, and not one I'm giddy about -- design-wise and comfort-wise!! I mean, just look how stylish this is and feel how soft the leather is on this!!! I did not even think I could wear a 4-inch pair until this!!!! (Picking up the Prada booties or the Gucci suede pumps). These make walking 10 blocks easy breezy!!!!! Something that was a torture with ALL my old non-designer pairs before!!!!!!!"

NOTE: The increasing exclamation marks in my monologue above is not a fluke on my keyboard. I do say these lines in a rising crescendo, just ask my friends who've had the misfortune of touring this part of our house with me!! :P

OK, now back to my slowly progressing dressing room. I say "slowly" because until I actually STOP shopping for stuff, then I actually won't have any budget left to finish off this room.

With that dilemma (and OH, what a dilemma! ;), can you just imagine how happy I was when I was contacted again by the folks at CSNstores.com for an opportunity to do another review?!

Right away, I went to their site and searched for things I still need in this room: a chandelier, a chaise, a girly lamp shade, some frames, an area rug and a platform.

A platform??? Yes, a platform! Don't ask, it's a story for another post!

So anyway, I'm still trying to decide what to get for the product review but I promise to post it here as soon as I receive it. Stay tuned....

Summer Uniform #3

Just a quick post to add to my summer uniform series.

-- Free People top -- brown Banana Republic shorts -- F21 necklace and cuff --
-- Banana Republic wedges -- Prada Vit. Daino bag --


I took the photos just as I was about to head out doing what I have been doing best all summer -- shopping!!

vitaMinn P3

Friends, may I present the newest addition to my handbag collection -- the Prada pebbled leather hobo with silvertone hardware! It's P to the power of 3 as this my 3rd Prada this summer and my 3rd Prada bag* from the Vitello Daino design!

I already said this before and I'll say it again, leather Pradas make for a very practical everyday handbag -- stylish and requires no maintenance despite the soft leather. I have been using mine all the time and managed to reduce the cost per use to about .6% of the bag's price. Now that's what I'd call getting my money's worth!!

* The burgundy Vit Daino I got last Christmas by cleverly pulling a Birkin scare now lives in MIL's closet. I decided to give it to her for Christmas! It was so fun to see her expression opening the bag -- she was giddy like a little girl!!!

Summer Shopping

Whenever I go shopping, I feel a surge of natural high, my endorphins shooting through the sky. Whenever I go shopping, I forget about any hunger, exhaustion, aches, pain and discomfort. Whenever I go shopping, I stride like a gazelle, prey like a lion and roar like a tiger in triumph.


Shopping is in my very DNA. It's the only plausible explanation for all that I've written in the paragraph above.

Or in less scientific terms, I am simply born to shop (and have a keychain to prove it). And chances are, you are too, otherwise, you won't be lurking here in my little blog, curious about the recent shopping haul I've got!! ;)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My souvenir from Saks in Chicago, a Longchamp toile shopper tote!
Still available at Nordies, if you want!

Fresh from today's haul at the shopping equivalent of Disney, aka "the happiest place on earth!" :P

Got this Magaschoni sheath dress in black.



And this DvF Roni tall boots.

And this package was waiting for me when I got back!!!

Here's a sneak peak... Any guess on what's inside?
Clue: this makes it for my vitaMinn P3 this summer!


And that folks, is the end of my summer shopping. The next few months will be a period of drought... or so the hubby hopes!

Afternoon Tea at The Drake Hotel, Chicago

An afternoon tea at The Drake Hotel is a must do for anyone visiting Chicago. Visitors who did exactly just that include: Queen Elizabeth in 1958, Princess Diana in 1982, Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra, just to name a few.

Curious, I dragged the hubz to the northern end of Chicago's Magnificent Mile to check this out for ourselves. And we weren't disappointed.

As soon as we got inside the hotel, we were warmly greeted by a hotel staffer who offered to take our photo and insisted that it's a crime to refuse such offer. Not wanting to be dubbed as photo criminals, we happily obliged.

As we headed up to the hotel's Palm Court, the faint harp music was getting more and more distinct and immediately, fresh from reading the Twilight saga, I recognized, ahh Claire de Lune!

As we were ushered to our table, I felt light years away from all of life's worries. There was something about the place that's so calming, the kind that is almost hypnotic. (That, or I was really just overwhelmed with my very first proper afternoon tea experience. :P


Soon after, food came in this lovely 3-tiered plate. We shared a selection of finger sandwiches, fruit bread slices, scones, and a variety of French pastries. They also had this tray of spreads of strawberry preserves, lemon curd and English Double Devon cream. Fancy, isn't it? :D

For tea, I had the tropical green tea while the hubz had the chamomile citrus. Both tasted great! Or should I say, delightful! There, that's more proper. =)

Almost 2 hours passed, which we both hardly noticed. Maybe because of the unhurried and attentive service, or my mind was busy making a mental shopping list inspired by this afternoon's experience - Yes, I definitely need a lovely china service set, a teapot, an ornate tea strainer and antique-looking utensils if I am to host a lovely tea party at home with friends!!

After the tea service, it was back to reality. And reality meant some obligatory outfit poses for this blog...

-- Qi cashmere dress from Neiman's -- Mimi di N lion belt -- Banana Republic thong sandals -- LV speedy30 --



... a little shopping...

... and a dinner of chicken sandwich from Wendy's.

Yes, after all that fancy shmancy afternoon tea, it was the humble dinner that immediately brought me back to Earth. Ah well, it was good while it lasted!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my shopping reveal!!

Chicago Trip

We had a hotel coupon that was expiring soon so we decided to use it by taking a quick road trip to the Windy City!

It was a 6-hr drive and the 1st leg was mine so I had to dress as comfy as I can ever be.

-- Forever21 orange sundress -- Gap tie worn as a belt -- blue swimsuit --

-- Stuart Weitzman wedges --

Yes, you read it right. I wore a swimsuit underneath the dress as a safety precaution -- You know, just in case I won't be able to stand the heat and would need an emergency dive into the hotel pool, the forecast was scorching hot after all! See my skewed definition of scorching hot here.

And speaking of sensible, the wedges were NOT. I realized that quickly, 5 mins into driving.
Flats was a better option if I am to drive us safely, in 1 piece and with all limbs attached.

We had nothing planned except to see the "American Gothic" painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.





Walking along Michigan Avenue, it was such a nice bonus to see Bumblebee, Megatron and Optimus Prime filming an action sequence.

...Except we didn't.
All we saw was this and the crew frantically preparing the rest of the props.





We could have camped out in the street for a few hours to see all the action but someone was such in a rush to see another museum -- ever heard of the Institute of Shoes and Handbags?




Not just an ordinary museum, mind you! You can actually touch and buy the artworks and exhibition pieces here! In my book, that trumps any Camaro-transforming-Decepticon-fighting autobot anytime!
:D

More Chicago adventures tomorrow.
And yes, it involves shopping, as my adventures often do!

One Top, Many Ways - Part 5

To be honest, this outfit might not ever see the light of day -- it's too revealing for what I'm used to wearing. But I'll post it here anyhow. Who knows, I could eventually get some courage someday to step out of the house wearing it. And if nothing else, at least I had fun coming up with this outfit idea.

-- Romeo & Juliet top -- Guess skirt -- belt from Manila --
-- Alaia snakeskin peep toes --

And that ends my challenge to come up with many ways to wear this top!
I hope you had fun as much as I did!

And here they are once more...




Now, the next task is to load these outfit pix to my "StylishGirl" iphone app!
I'm so hooked with this app, it kept me wide awake until 5:30AM the first time I installed it.
I hope to find the time to review it here one of these days.

One Top, Many Ways - Part 4

This is now the 4th outfit idea from the challenge, not bad, I suppose! And it's a work outfit this time. Although, I figure there's some minor tweaking I need to do first before I actually wear this one to work. For one, the neckline is probably too low for what I consider office-appropriate, so might need a cami to fix that bit.

Another concern is the high front slit. I usually pair this skirt with a long cardi to minimize leg exposure but I think this will be OK for those days that I'll just be in my desk all day. Thoughts??

-- Romeo & Juliet top -- Banana Republic skirt -- Michael Kors belt --
-- Jimmy Choo pumps --

Please come back tomorrow for the last installment on my "Many Ways to Wear 1 Top" challenge!