Rough Week

People, it's been a rough week.

Work has been crazy and we've been busy, busy, busy.  And then this happened...

I was kind of hoping for the apocalypse.   I'm a sad panda.

Holiday Sparkle

Work is insane and we have a million things to do every night.  So I'm sorry for being so sporadic with the posting.

Just wanted to share a quick Party Outfit snap.  I wore a light aqua cardigan embellished with crystals over a tulle skirted dress.  Curly hair and a tiny crown matched with sparkly glitter Miu Miu heels helped me to feel festive.

I hope everyone is having a fun holiday season.  I know this is a tough and busy time of year for many, especially in light of the recent tragedies.  But I'm hoping that sending good thoughts out to the world will help.

O-M-G!

To say that I gasped when I saw this would be an understatement.

OMG!  I need to buy this, right???

Jingle All The Way

Charlotte Olympia is a woman after my own heart.  I love a good themed shoe.

And how adorable are these Christmas Pudding-tastic flats.  I would wear the heck out of these and even pair them up with a red and white reindeer sweater.

But even better are these sexy mistletoe platform pumps.  Simple, elegant but just a wee bit quirky.  Too pretty to be tacky but almost wanting to be.   I love them.

Her Christmas collection even includes a Christmas Pudding clutch, Jingle Bell ankle strap heels and glitter kitty flats.  It's too much goodness!

Now I must talk myself out of a bow-adorned Pandora clutch!

Breaking up is hard to do

How do you know when it's time to give up a pair of shoes?

I am a notorious saver.  Not a pack-rat or hoarder but I don't willfully give stuff up.  I'm acquisitive.  If I liked something, it's going to take a lot for me to send it away, especially shoes.

But when you look down at your feet and say "I don't think you look good anymore", it's time for them to go. Maybe they are beat up beyond repair or damaged or, in the case of these Nine West camel heels, they just don't look "right" anymore.

When I break it down, I think it's mainly how high up on my foot the vamp goes and the length of the toe box.

They just look out of date.

I like the heel but, it's time to go I think.

Now I'm going to have to find a new pair of camel heels.  Crud!

Classy, Sassy & a bit Smart Assy

Yeah, I couldn't resist this shirt...

I HAD to buy it.

Classy, Sassy & a bit Smart Assy-tee - $31.99, from Skreened.

Dotty for BB

Manolo Blahnik's BB style is fast becoming one of my favorites.  Not only is the design and heel shape perfection, but he's mixing it up with different fabrics and embellishments.  There's a gorgeous black lace version, leopard print and now a playful Italian canvas with bouncy black and red polka dots.

The BB has a great classic shape and, when combined with crisp dots, you get a perfect show to wear for work and into the evening.


Manolo Blahnik BB in dots - $654 at Saks Fifth Avenue

5 Years of Thanks

This year is going to be our 5th year having a vegan Thanksgiving.  And I'm thankful for that every single day!

Turkeys are such wonderful, sweet, compassionate animals.  It's so horrible to think of the abuses they go through - not only through genetic manipulation but how they are forced to live, that they are killed early and the actual gross physical abuse they are subjected to at the facilities.

I'm so glad we have our beautiful boy Jake with us.  He is a great reason to be thankful too!

Each year about 45 MILLION turkeys will be killed for this "holiday". That's a lot of violence on a day when we are meant to be expressing peace and gratitude.

The great thing about traditions is that they are so easy to change and/or create. Do something more than once and you have a new tradition!

We've had a compassionate, no-turkeys-or-other-animals-killed meal for going on 5 years now. Our

 meal includes: stuffing, root veggie mash or mashed potatoes (or both!), asparagus, Brussels sprouts, salad, pumpkin-herb rolls, gravy, fresh orange cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie and ice cream. Our "centerpiece" food have been Field Roast's Celebration Roast and their Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute. This year we are going to add stuffed, maple-glazed roasted acorn squashes.

Just sub out a few ingredients and 1 item and your celebration becomes thankful, caring and compassionate. A TRUE celebration for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Silver Slippers

After getting black oxfords and gold loafers, I decided I had to have a pair of silver oxfords too. And this picture from Loeffler Randall convinced me it was their Joannas that I needed to have.

Shiny.  Sleek. Casually grounded.  Love them!

I actually waited so long to get these that they sold out on the LF site and I had to go to Farfetch.com.  I hope the are as stunning in person as they seem here.

Nope, still not feeling it.

I miss the days when I loved everything Jimmy Choo had.

 Now it's just too "Vegas-y" and I can't get into it.

Is it me or are they really as flashy as I think they are?

Especially the Cruise 2013 collection.  I can only picture these with too tight mini-dresses.  They just don't appeal to me at all.

Maybe I'm just too old for Jimmy Choo now.  What do you think?  Is Jimmy Choo targeting the 20-something bombshell market or have they just lost their way?

Cooling My Heels

I have to admit that I've been making goo-goo eyes at the mesh and dotty Kate Spade heels since July.

But I know that they I had other shoes in the same color and that I really should hold off.

As the months passed I would stop by the site every so often to look at them and would see that most of the sizes were still available.  After a while I began to hope that they might possibly go on sale and I could snatch them up.

So last Friday, I popped onto the site and saw they had gone down by 25%.  Very very tempting, but I held out.  And literally the next day, there went another 25%.  Sadly, I couldn't get onto the site until Sunday so I ended up with a slight larger size than I would have preferred, but I got them!

Love the navy Lisa pump.   The color is awesome, the dots are fuzzy and the bow is perfection.

And the candy pink Mildred kitten heel is the sweet sister, with its patent cap toe and flirty color.

When they arrived they were even more adorable in person. In fact, all the girls in the office were equally smitten.

Can you blame them?

Formal Snuggie

I was looking online for formal dresses (and let me tell you, I'm not finding anything I like), but somehow I came across this Viktor & Rolf dress on Shopbop.com and I stopped short.

Are snuggies formal wear now?  Seriously, this is just a fancy snuggie, right?

That's all I have to say.

Flutter into my Dreams

The borders between whimsical, quirky and odd can be pretty thin. Especially when you are dealing with concept work.  But I love that Alberto Guardiani and i-D Magazine are open to exploring in that region.

Last year their Cinderthriller design contest brought us the lipstick heel.  I especially love the mesh version with the crystal embellished tube.

And this year's judges made a great selection in the Flutterby pump created by Lady San Pedro.

These heels are adorable and I can't wait to get my hands on them!

Now take my money!

Happy Halloween!

Autumn Goodies from Sugar Bean Bakery

Equal to my love of shoes is my love of baking.  And what's as much fun as accessorizing is picking out all the displays I want to use and my packaging.

In the Spring I did a booth for my bakery, Sugar Bean Bakery, and this past weekend was the Fall event.  Spring was all pinks and yellows and mint green but Fall calls for a different color scheme.  So I went with orange, creme, gold, dark brown and green.  This leads to new signage, vintage tablecloths and matching cake stands.  And the flavors included cinnamon, pumpkin, walnuts and nutmeg.

I ended up making:

Pumpkin whoopie pies
Apple Oat muffins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins
Vanilla cupcakes with autumn leaves
Cinnamon coffee cakes with walnut crumble
Spice cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting
Brownies with and without nuts
Spooky chocolate cupcakes
Lollipops in orange, lemon, chocolate and butterscotch
Rock candy sticks in orange and apple

We even served hot mulled cider and lemon-thyme water.

Admittedly, I do get a bit out of control with the decor (mini-topiary price holders!) but it's such fun I can't resist.

We had a great event and nearly sold out.  All the proceeds are going to The Gentle Barn (we do a different charity each time) and I can't wait until the Spring show!

More pictures on Flicker.