Bubblegum Plastic: Review - Nars Bloodwork

I bought the Nars Bloodwork lipgloss ages agot but I never got around to doing a post of the actual color.

The formulation is very opaque and pigment-heavy. You need to be pretty careful with the application.  The wand has a sponge tip so it does go on smoothly, which is good.

My lighting here isn't the greatest, but you can see that this is pretty va-va-voom.

And while it may seem a bit counter-intuitive, I actually prefer to apply and then blot. 

If you've ever seen an actress in a movie with perfect, seemingly naturally carmine lips, I think this is how they do it.  The color when blotted makes your mouth flushed but without even seeming to have anything on.

Maybe a bit of lip balm for a soft sheen and then a small amount of Bloom eyeshadow in platinum, and you are done for look with kissable lips.

SD Review: Johnston & Murphy Virginia Boots

Sometimes it takes me a while to warm up to something. I resisted espadrilles and open-toe shoes for ages. Now I'm not sure if I could live with out them. It's not that I'm closed minded; it's more like I'm very particular.

One footwear item that I didn't realized how much I loved and needed until fairly recently was the flat boot. I've always preferred the heeled knee-high boot. I have them in several colors but about two or three years ago I really started noticing how much I liked the look of the flat boot, especially with tucked in jeans.

But there was a problem with this. First, finding the right jeans. I've really liked the matchstick jeans from JCrew for this. But then the boots. Buying knee-high boots can be pretty problematic. It adds another layer of complexity to my shoe shopping challenges. Not only do I need it to fit my small foot, but also my calf. I do not have straight calves. Many years of English dressage horseback riding and jumping lessons have given me muscular curvy calves. For some reason shoe companies think if you wear a small size shoe then naturally you have equally small calves. The diameter of the boot shaft will increase as the foot size does even though they are not really related.

Suffice it to say, I've been searching for the right flat boot.

When Johston & Murphy contacted me to let me know they were launching a footwear line for women (in addition to their men's line), I was very excited to try them out.

First I want to express my appreciation of the lovely and thoughtful and clever package they sent me.

They sent me all of their images digitally which was a smart way to ensure I receievd their information without clogging up my email!

But on to the boots, right!?!

They sent me the Virginia boots in black.

These boots are perfectly soft and clean-lined but with a great texture.

You're going to see I was totally smitten with the back zipper and snap tabs because I took a million pictures of them from this angle.

I love the brass hardware and the tabs so much. The shoe is very simple but gives off this strong, feminine yet kick-ass kind of vibe.

ZIPPERS!!!

Almost military but still dressy enough for skirts.

I have been wearing flat boots and jeans all winter but I am loving the look of flat boots with dresses for spring. They are not going away.

While these boots were from the Autumn line, Johnston & Murphy has put out an adorable collection for spring.

They have clothes and accessories too but you have to check out the new shoes. I love the Carmen ankle strap wedge and the Paige red patent driving mocs.


Keep an eye on these folks. They are doing really cute looks and the quality, from what I've seen, is great.

Thanks Johnston & Murphy, for letting me test them out!

Style Tracking

When I was in high school and college (oh, so long ago) I used to track my outfits by writing what I wore each day down on my wall calendar. I think part of it was an early exercise in planning and thinking about fashion but a big part of is was more because it appealed my love of organization.

Not that I had that many clothes to keep track of!

But then I stopped for a while. A few months ago I began interspersing taking pictures of my outfit posts with writing down what I wore. Partly this was because I am not able to take pictures every day and I can't always post the ones I do take right away. So it was to help keep an accurate record.

But then I found I was adding in notes from the day and things that happened. It was becoming more of a mini-journal. And, being a paper/pens/journal junkie I figured I had outgrown scribbling notes on my desk calendar, what better place to look than to my favorite Moleskine line.

When I saw the 12-month Planner set (ooohhhh, pretty!), I new this would be the perfect solution. Small enough to carry around, just the right number of pages and color-coded. I was so excited I bought a set of blue Volants so I could start in November and not have to wait until the new year. I'm also really excited because they are sitting on one side of my desk and then I have rainbow masking tapes on the other side. I'm surrounded!

These are pretty popular already. I know a few bloggers have sparked to them. I first saw them in Barnes & Noble in October and they were running about $36 and that is what they are selling for on Amazon right now. But keep your eye out each day. I only paid $26.

By the way, I'm not using the number and month stickers on the spine. I'm putting a Moo sticker of mine on the cover and then using the month sticker on the inside front cover. But that's what Moleskines are all about, right? Personalization.

But while the planners are going to help me keep track of what I wore, I also want something to help me keep track of all of the outfit ideas I come up. I have a notebook now but it's pretty messy and just a series of scribbly notes. I love the idea of this Fashionary notebook. It's great for designers, of course, but also for people like me who can't draw to save their lives. I'm hoping it will give me enough of a template to work with so I can, poorly, draw out my outfits.

Of course, I really just need to take more pictures. One of my 2009 goals was to begin doing this and in 2010 I plan on taking even more, if only to have a record.

Do you keep track of the outfits you wear each day, why and how?

Image via GalaDarling.com

SD Review: Flojos Flip Flop Sandals

A while back I was contacted by the lovely folks at Flojos and asked if wanted to try out some of their sandals. I'm always looking to try things out so I can give a first hand impression, so I gratefully accepted their kind offer.

Flojos, located in Thousand Oaks, CA, have been around since 1979 and have a HUGE selection of styles for women, men and kids. I told them to surprise me with the styles they sent.

When I opened the package I found a pair of the Zebras in pink and a pair of the Edens in silver/white "snakeskin". The Zebras have a flat padded sole, a bit of arch support and a cushy rolled thin strap.



The Edens have a slight wedge to them and the strap is flatter.



I will be the first to admit that I am not a huge flip flop wearer. In spite of growing up in Florida (one of the official flip flop/sandal states) I never wore the style a lot.

Now this may have been because as a child I wore a pair while riding a bike and happened to get my foot caught on the pedal, knock myself over and scrape up the top of my foot (let that be a lesson to you kids, wear protective shoes while riding a bike). My other theory is that I find this style of shoe to be very casual. And while they go perfectly for a beachy lifestyle, I think they should not be worn to work, the mall etc., like many people do today.

Flip flops are ideal for the summer. Of course, I also tend to get mauled by mosquitoes during the summer so I don't wear these in the yard either.

All that said, I like them! I have found the Zebras to be very comfy and I have been wearing them around the house quite a bit. The pink/black combo is bold and a lot of fun.



The Edens, which are a bit more subdued, have become my yoga sandals. They're sleek with a bit of shine to them. Calmer and more upscale.

Both sandals have held up well from a wear and tear standpoint, in terms of comfort and even keeping clean.

There are lots of styles, colors, patterns and prices, so make sure to check them out!

Luv
Poochie

Come on in!

One of the requests that go around the blog universe is the request to see inside a person's bag. And maybe I'll get around to that, but I wanted to invite you into a bigger world. One of the things I am most passionate about. My home.

When we moved, we moved from a much smaller house that, while nice enough, was pretty generic. Most Florida homes are. So when we moved here we had an opportunity to find a house with some charm and quirks and character. And when we visited this house, on a whim actually, we fell in love with its crazy twists and turns and all the great woodwork and built-ins that are around each corner.

I love my house. Maybe too much. And while it doesn't say everything about me, it does say a lot. And we feel very comfortable here. And very protective of our house and everything with it. I'm going to try and share all the rooms with you and even some of the views from outside because we have a lot of cool trees and a great big yard (we sit on 3 acres here).

What I had first intended to share with you was my closet, but that is going to be a pretty big post so I'm gearing up to it by starting in the even more private room. The master bathroom. This house (at least most of it) is almost 110 years old. So, you can't love this house with out understanding and appreciating the unique features of an old house. And you can't come here expecting to get a big bathroom because you just won't get it.

Some things that are funny about this bathroom are that it sits at the top of our stairs on it's own little level. You have to go up two steps to the level the bedrooms are on. There are two entrances to the bathroom, one on the landing and one going into what was the Master bedroom (although we use it as a guest room).

This picture is taken from the doorway of the bedroom. To the left of the picture is the other door. We painted the bathroom a deep teal color. We have a fair amount of strong colors in the house so this goes along with the other tones, plus it makes the white fixtures and built-ins pop. The tub is an old enamel tub and we added a new shower head and rounded shower curtain bar. Our next step is to rip out the fiberglass stall part and tile in that whole alcove with white subway tile. We also want to add bead-board around the room to about chair rail height. You can enlarge all of these images. And you'll get to see a close-up of that vintage illustration soon!



Our house is decorated in what I call "Streamlined Vintage". What we have done is not period but it's in keeping with the spirit of the age of the house. I don't really like country or Victorian or anything and I really hate to dust. So we try to keep it neat. In the shower we wanted to get a fixture that had more of that English bath/claw-foot tub element to it. And we've always liked the nickel and porcelain fixtures. But we needed to be able to rinse the dogs off during their baths. We were so excited when we found this shower head.



Nothing fancy here. We added new towel bars and ripped out all the old painted over fixtures and hinges and knobs etc. It was a big pain, let me tell you. One thing we are going to leave in are the original honeycomb hex tiles. We have them in the downstairs bath too. You can't find these same ones any more and, although they have some cracks, we just love them.



We recently had to replace the sink that was there, but it was just as well. It was a small wall-mounted one and kind of sucked. Ours is very petite but because of the window and radiator we couldn't get any bigger. So, if you love the house, you have to deal with it. Plus, the radiator is great for warming your towels, especially on a cold snowy day like today (check out the view of the snow on the trees outside! Brrrr!).

The medicine cabinet is original too, we just added new hinges and a latch. We also got a cute goose-neck faucet with the "Hot" and "Cold" x-knobs. I did find a small magnifying mirror to stick on the regular mirror. The lighting isn't that great but most of the time I am using the natural morning light, so it isn't too big of an issue.



What's behind door #1 and door #2?



Lots of stuff apparently! One of the things that is great about this house is the amount of storage from all the built in cabinets that are everywhere (all in various shapes and sizes). We are able to fit all of our bath stuff (and then some) in here. Not only do these go from floor to ceiling but they are really deep too. Because stuff could get buried or lost in the back I have used containers to corral stuff. Sometimes I want to chuck half of it but we actually do use most of this. It's crazy, I know!



So, working our way from top to bottom (is this too much information? Probably, right?) I have some spare towels that I should give away, but they are actually nice. I'll most likely store them for future dog towel needs. The box holds dog supplies like nail clippers and brushes. The electric toothbrush is in here because the bathroom only had a plug on the light fixture (I told you it was old!). We got our awesome electrician to run a line into here which also keeps all this stuff out of sight.

The next shelf down is the "man's shelf" mainly because I'm too short to reach up into it. So, the husband's bin of stuff is there on the right. We also have miscellaneous things like Crest Strips and a small caddy for tweezers, nail files and clippers. Back behind it are band-aids and we actually have the electric screwdriver plugged in there.



The next shelf is mine. I consolidated all my make-up into this case and my bin has my lotions and blow drier and hair stuff. Hey! I just realized I missed a shelf in between there. It has this metal 4 drawer thing that has our cotton balls in one drawer, our q-tips in another. The top right has nail polishes and the top left has stuff like extra razors and sample stuff. Plus it has my soap dish for my Cetaphil face soap. Behind it is my sliver and crystal powder and some bubble baths.

Okay, the next shelf down has bins for general stuff. The left bin has a bunch of travel sized shampoos and shower caps. So if we have to travel or have a guest, we've got plenty of supplies. Oh, yeah, and my pedicure slippers. On the right is a bin for first aid supplies and "extras". Is that a thing of paint in there. I really need to clean this out! Geez!



Bottom shelf is for paper towels, cleanser, a hand-vac and a container of buttons, etc. You can also see our humidifier stored in the back there. That's how deep these things are.



In the right cabinet we have our hampers and keep the towels and sheets. The top shelf has the sheets and the soap we buy from the bee keeper at the farmer's market. That's our stockpile for the winter. The little Waterford clock is the first piece I ever got at 17. I like knowing its there.

The next shelf holds extra TP, as well as lavender delicates detergent and linen water. Plus some of our towels. We bought these huge bath sheets and they are so awesome. Now whenever we go anywhere else those regular towels seem like washcloths.



More towels, and ironstone pitcher/ewer set and a basket for delicates. You'll also see the tissues in there. Our crazy kitten loves to shred any kind of paper like tissues, paper towels or TP. We've had to lock it all up. It's so embarrassing. We have to tell guests that we've locked up the TP so we look like crazy people.



Then the big hamper (Obviously full too! I should be doing laundry instead of goofing off taking pictures all day. Aaack! I know what I'm doing tomorrow.) We also have a really sleek fire extinguisher tucked in the corner. The hamper is sitting on top of a big aluminum bucket which we've used for all sorts of stuff. There is some serious space in here.



But really, what bathroom tour would be complete without a peek inside the medicine cabinet? Until you can stop by to do it for yourself (you know you would, just admit it!), here you go.



Now before I even mention anything in here I'm going to say something you probably are not going to believe. This how it looks all the time. Seriously. I have a thing for organization (a.k.a. anal retentiveness). We have a lot of stuff so it all needs a home and it needs to stay there! Wait until you see the closets. I'm not kidding you. We may have pet hair and some dust but at least it's not on a lot of clutter. Clutter makes me crazy.

Guess which shelf is mine.

Okay, I'll stop teasing you. It's the top one. What do you mean you already knew that? A quick run through, left to right: anti-p, make-up, Prescriptives custom blended base, toothbrush, Proactive 4 pack, Oil of Olay Regenerist serum, Clinique eye make-up remover and eye cream, Burt's Bees Carrot spray, dental floss, Thayers Rose Water witch hazel.

The hubby has so few things he gets stuck with the toothpaste too. But look! He's got Kheils face wash. He's a serious Kheils junkie now. I wash my face with $3 Cetaphil soap and he's using the entire Kheils line. It's so weird.



Were you riveted? Well more to follow soon!