i haven't had the occasion to wear a gown in years, but it doesn't mean i can't look pictures from: style
bottega veneta, lela rose x 2
jasmine di milo, malandrino, ports 1961
badgley mischka, j. mendel, lela rose, naeem khan
badgley mischka, etro, j. mendel
giorgio armani x 2, jason wu x 2
zac posen x 2
and time for cocktail dresses for holiday parties pictures from: style
akris, basso & brooke, luisa beccaria, peter som
gianfranco ferré, lela rose x 3
lela rose x 2, malandrino, miu miu
burberry, karen walker, luca luca, michael kors
erin fetherston, emanuel ungaro, naeem khan, matthew williamson
after a couple major rainstorms, i think it's finally officially autumn over here. so with that, here are my picks for fall/winter 2009. pictures from: style
more monochromatic looks: dkny x 2, michael kors, maxmara
prettier pieces: chris benz, collette dinnigan, luca luca, peter som
distinctive coats: adam, elie tahari, marc jacobs, ruffian
pictures from: style
andrew gn x 3, christian dior
chanel x 4
elie saab, valentino x 3
givenchy x 2, requiem x 2
pictures from: style
belt by d&g, luisa beccaria x 2
and now for the pretty stuff ... cynthia steffe, halston, j. mendel halston, l'wren scott, peter som marchesa, pink dress collection, zac posen and some more colorful dresses by: dennis basso, prabal gurung, twinkle carolina herrera, halston, malandrino
the bulk of ny fashion week was disappointing. out of 4000+ or 5000+ pictures, i found not even 30 fun looks. or maybe i'm just getting more critical. i think the winner of the week was peter som, at least for me. really liked the colors and stripes. so i guess we'll start with peter som. allude and geren ford had similar looks as well. alexander berardi and chadwick bell had some work appropriate stuff pictures from: style, elle and mb fashion week
it was a baby-rific weekend! babysat my nephew on saturday and went to a baby shower on sunday. at 14 weeks, he was a perfect baby. the right amount of cuteness. not too much crying. in fact, not enough crying. he poopied his diapers and didn't display any discomfort. didn't realize it until i took a big whiff. blech! changing my very first poopie diaper was definitely an experience. sunday had dirty diapers too. but instead of stinkiness, the diapers had yumminess ... in the form of mystery melted chocolate bars. and a bunch of other fun shower games. i don't think i've eaten more food or laughed harder at a baby shower before. and this was definitely the first one with rum as game prizes. no pictures this time ... unless i get requests to see poopie diapers!
yep, also saw another movie over the weekend: the september issue very entertaining. if you're expecting a deep look into anna wintour's life, you're going to be disappointed. you get some, but not much. the real "star" of the documentary was creative director, grace coddington, who was even featured in a vogue.com interview even though i'm not a vogue reader, i am familiar with her editorials. she's quite talented. and feisty!
pretty good ... did some bike shopping. i think i'm going to pick that up because jogging's been pretty tough on my legs. biking should hopefully have a lot less impact. restricted by my size and my budget, there seems to be a consensus as to which bike i should start with. too bad it isn't as pretty as i'd like. after pointing out bikes on the street, i've come to the conclusion that i prefer the more vintage steel frame bikes. you know, the kind that looks like the actual bike lane/route signs. came across a perfect example in a random japanese bike magazine while we were browsing in kinokuniya ... riteway ... hellooooo, pretty bike! too bad they don't make ones small enough for me though. neither does bianchi nor masi. but then again, those are slightly above my budget. bianchi's dolomiti is at $3300 and masi's speciale bikes at $1150+ ... vs riteway at $760. we also tossed around the idea of finding a vintage bike frame and building it to a full modern bike. but that would be a long shot, considering most vintage bike frames are much too large. hmmm ... maybe we can find a vintage kid's bike frame? maybe one that's not too small? and oh ... i would note that jeans are not the pantwear of choice for test-riding bikes. not comfortable!
so i've been pretty good about using my daisoware at work ... just about every day for breakfast and most days for lunch when i bring something from the market. and it's been great. i tend to eat healthier/fresher now, like the market cherry tomatoes, cowgirl creamery fromage blanc and acme torpedo roll above. instead of, say, a turkey sandwich from a nearby deli or a burger or pizza or tacos with chips & salsa. or just feeling way full after lunch. portions are much more manageable now. and lunch has been way cheaper. it's a win all around ... or so i thought. i went to the cafe across the street for some puree of butternut squash to supplement my leftover savory risotto today. and the guy there asked if i just got back from vacation or something. because he hadn't seen me around in a while. and i told him that i've just been bringing stuff from home lately. and he responded, yeah ... i lot of people are doing that now ... oh man ... i know restaurants in general have been having a tough time. but fidi lunch spots? i hadn't even really thought about them. i don't want them all to start closing. my favorite breakfast spot already shut down a couple months ago. boo ... what to do?
very relaxing ... mostly just watched a bunch of dvds. i love you, man was a really cute bromatic movie. in the same general vein as knocked up and forgetting sarah marshall (starring the same main guys). duplicity with julia roberts and clive owen ... you can skip that one. and coraline. super cute and creepy at the same time. you'll never think of buttons the same way again. also started shopping for a road bike, so i can move away from all the impact stress on my legs from jogging. instead, i'll be putting myself at risk for falls. watch out! too bad most off-the-rack road bikes are so sporty looking. why can't they make more simple ones like muji (as seen in tokyo) ... will keep looking. i'll probably be making a purchase within the month.
as a follow-up to yesterday's post ... not all was lost. i don't do much window shopping any more, nor much online shopping. i just get random urges to go shopping maybe once a quarter or so, usually when prompted by a catalog in the mail. so even though i didn't end up keeping the sensuals, i did find another fun pair of shoes that day. and they were so perfect. when i tried them on, we all said, it looks like they already belong to me. allow me to present ... the dreamy ... not only do they fit perfectly, but it's like they were designed with me in mind. or perhaps they just made a hybrid of two other pairs i already have. the other two are obviously from seasons past, as evidenced by the wear. which makes finding the dreamy so timely! and! and! they already come with a rubber sole, so i don't even have to run over to the cobbler for that. so perfect!
so lv's autumn-winter 2009 shoe collection book came in the mail something like july 31. with some seriously sexy shoes on the cover. like i literally gasped when i saw the cover. see what i mean? so exciting because they've been coming out with a bunch of junk recently. finally, they're back to including at least some more subtle pieces. so 2 days later, i found myself on the shoe mezzanine in maison union square. unfortunately, the smallest size they had in the store was a 6. much too big. but i did try them on just for the look and they looked great. so i ordered them in my size. it took a while, but they eventually got delivered in two and a half weeks. but booo ... the front was pinchy. way too narrow. so i went back to the store, where they had a 5.5. but that was way too roomy, even with two inserts! my goldilocks feetsies wondered if lv made a size 5.25, but no such luck. so we tried stretching the vamp. but even after a few days of that, didn't feel much of or any difference at all. so bottom line ... if you're a true size 5 with skinny toes, you're in luck! especially since i was told that that pair was the only size 5 in the system. so after pulling them out of the system for a whole month, they're back! or at least they were as of a week ago. who knows, someone may have already swooped in on them.
we rode our bikes out to tiburon. i haven't really ridden a bike in a while (not since two years ago actually), so i'm pretty sore. we took a little longer than the guide map said it would take. twice as long, in fact. but we had fun! we took a bunch of photo stops and took a quick break in downtown sausalito to fuel up with "energy bars" and even made a tiny detour to heath's factory store. and then a super late lunch at in & out. and then we eventually made it out to downtown tiburon where we did some post-ride stretching on the lawns and waited for the ferry to take us back home. it was a totally fun-filled day (with a few grumpy moments cursing my ton-of-bricks rental bike), with the best part being that it was pretty unplanned. we initially had nothing planned for that day until, oddly enough, on saturday night, we both thought of bike riding. so that's what we did the next day. it definitely kicked my butt, but i may look into getting a bike, a light (and pretty) one.
i'm an avid listkeeper. i keep lists of favorite restaurants. simple to-do lists throughout the day. meals i eat. daily expenses. data on gas/car mileage ... and long-term to-do's. one (or two) off the list now. the other stuff is blanked out, but will be revealed as they get done. nightly flossing ... it's an on-and-off habit. typically just "on" the month or so prior to a dental check-up and cleaning. but it'd be nice to keep it more regular. so far, so good. it's been about two weeks now. we'll check again end of september. reusable kitchenware for office ... because the volume of paper plates, paper bowls, paper cups and plastic utensils i used to throw away in any given week was getting ridiculous. i'm still working on finding a good set of utensils. i do have a spoon i borrowed from home though. just need a knife and fork. i initially considered getting a set from heath ceramics or mud australia, since i figured having pretty bowls and plates would encourage me to use them more. but the idea of spending $76 or $109 on one simple set of a bowl, a plate and a mug was kind of silly, especially since i would just be keeping them for use at work. what if someone were to steal them! so i settled on ikea or daiso. and since daiso is more convenient, daiso it was. $6.00 flat. not bad. not quite the same, but they definitely do the job. and i'm getting tons of use of them. looking forward to checking more off the list.
(it must have been pretty eventful, because it's wednesday and i still remember it!) it was really nice ... it was my dad's birthday on friday, so we all went out for dinner saturday night. the whole family. including my brother's 10-week old. he was actually really good so it was nice. have you heard of el paseo in mill valley? i feel like not too many people have, but it's definitely worth checking out. it's a french restaurant run by a japanese couple. it's super cute. very romantic. but it doesn't have to be. it's good for family and group dinners too. we also went to see inglourious basterds. i didn't know anything about the movie except it had brad pitt and diane kruger and was about killing nazis. i don't think i even knew it was a quentin tarantino movie. but once i saw his opening credit, i said uh oh! i better finish my lunch. this is turning out to be a summer of good movies. 4.5 great movies. the brothers bloom. up. 500 days of summer. julie & julia. inglourious basterds. do i need to say which movie was only half good?
great ... i hung out with mcdreamy and jay leno and seinfeld. not really. but i did see them. i went down to monterey for a historic car race (monterey historic) in monterey and they were there to race. or at least patrick dempsey and seinfeld were, i think. i don't think jay did. my favorite cars were from the 20s to early 50s. what ever happened to using leather straps on car hoods? i'm going to bring it back, one car at a time.
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