Watch’ya doin ?

Last week, on a warm day, I had a day of visting clients all over the city. As I was driving to my first appointment, I pulled over behind a bright orange building that I thought would be great for photos. Then I saw this graffiti garage gate and decided to use that as a backdrop. As I was taking photos on this quiet street, a woman walks by with her dog and does one of those “watchya doing ? ” things. I was so embarrassed, and she did not want to leave. Definitely my most direct run-in with a passerby while engaged in taking photos for this blog.

I previously blogged about my love of green & gray but I also realized how great green looks with tan – especially for a warm Spring day.

Pencil skirt – Club Monaco (old), sim here. Shoes – Via Spiga. Blouse – Gap, sim here. Jacket – Merona, sim here. Belt – JCrew, sim here.

Bag – Tory  Burch, similar.

Linking up with Fashion & Beauty Finds, Transatlantic Blonde, Wardrobe Wednesday, Diaries of a Bargainista, Because Shanna Said So , The Pleated Poppy, Rolled Up Pretty, I Feel Pretty , the Mrs & The Momma, Mix & Match Fashion, Toby’s Tails,and Penniless Socialite

Entryway

One of my favorite parts of my house is my entryway. It’s a space that is often neglected, but it’s the first part of the house that you see, so I want it to be a cheerful welcome to my home. This was one of the first parts of the house that I decorated when we moved in 3 1/2 years ago. It called for a very specific piece of furniture as I needed something slim enough to fit the small recessed space and wanted something with small drawers that can be used for keys, sunglasses and such.

I fell in love with the idea of a painted, distressed piece when I came across some Asian furniture for another part of the house. We painted the walls a French blue and I thought the red would look great against a pale blue. The lines of this piece are very modern but the distressed finish and Asian styling make it a perfect cross-over between modern and antique. To accessorize the area,  I used a brass owl (thrifted), and some metal fruit sculptures that I already owned. Then I found this great blue bird canister at Room Service LA. It pairs perfectly with the walls and the limited edition print above. I don’t really like birds (the live kind) but I love decorating with images and sculptures of them. Strange, huh ?

To save money on framing this print, I asked the local frame store to make me a custom mat that would fit into an  off-the-shelf frame that I bought for $30. Wish I could remember where the print was from. I had found a great list for on-line art dealers from Design Sponge but since then, DS has removed all these lists from their site.

These drawers are perfect for keys, sunglasses and anything else you don’t want out in the open. We live in a permit parking area so we keep all of our visitor parking passes in the center of this table.

Entry table – Legend of Asia. Blue bird canister – Room Service LA. Frame – Aaron Bros. Brass owl and fruit sculptures – old.

Grunge

IF you have seen the movie Singles (1992), then you might know what I mean when I say this outfit takes me right back to the 90’s.  The baby-doll shape of my dress, the masculine (grungey) boots, and general simplicity of this outfit brought me back to the early-to-mid 90’s. I once had a moment with Bridget Fonda when I was at a party for the the movie Inglorious Bastards. Wish I could say I was on the guest list but I worked at the hotel that hosted the event. I was REALLY pregnant at the time and she (Bridget), asked how far along I was and commented about her own kids, but I didn’t realize it was her as I was too focused on seeing Brangelina in person. Too bad because I loved her in that movie. And we could have talked about how important it is for a guy to say “bless you” when you sneeze …

By the way, how beautiful is that bougainvillea that is now in full bloom. It matches my scarf.

By the way, one of my favorite lines from that movie : ” I could not be kidding you less”

Dress – Press (old), sim here . Jacket – Calvin Klein, sim here. Boots –Eric Michael. Scarf – F21. Brooch – MTP Fleamarket, sim here. Sunglasses – Ray Ban Aviators.

Linking up with My Greatest Hits, Plane PrettyWatch ,What I’m Wearing, Monday Mingling , Yolo Mondays,  and GFC Collective, Northern Belle Diaries, Monday Morning Gossip, Sami’s Shenanigans, Style Sessions, Rolled Up Pretty, any My Thrifty Chic

Music Break

I follow a band called CHRVCHES on Facebook. They seem to be selling out every show as soon as it goes on sale, so they may be one of the next big bands. Anyway – they recommend a band from their home town on their FB page and I really liked the song so I thought I would share. Here is PRIDE with Out of the Blue.

Moments

I am really loving doing these blog posts because it makes me capture all the beautiful moments in life and posting the pics and commenting on these images reminds me for a second time how precious all those little moments can be.

Some beautiful blue & white pottery at a store inside the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. The entire store had the most charming French provincial items. Hand made soaps, artisanal cooking oils and marinades, and beautiful dishes and kitchen items.

Shells gathered during our weekend stop at the beach.

My DIY distressed jeans and Converse during a weekend trip to the park with my kids.

Every week, there are more and more signs of Spring in LA. Bare trees are sprouting leaves and dandelions are popping up. Spotted this one on an evening walk.

A flower my son picked for me during one of our daily evening walks. He always asks me to put it behind my ear and to put one behind his ear too.

Sweater Remix

After a few warm weeks, the weather in LA cooled down with highs around 64 degrees. I figured this would be one of the last opportunities I had to wear a sweater, and any other winter wear. So I was happy to have a chance to wear this sweater again for a blog post. I previously paired it with Zara camo pants and blue suede heels.

This time I added a punch of color with these super-cute and comfy hot pink shoes from Donald J. Pliner. The pants I have on are from Boden and I LOVE THEM. They are slightly higher waisted so they are perfect with a slightly cropped or tucked-in top. They fit amazing on my body type ( smaller waist, fuller hips) and I only wish they came in more colors.

Love these new shoes by DJP, which also came in black and a bright teal color. I was on the hunt for red shoes for summer but so glad I bought these in hot pink instead.

Sweater – Zara. Shoes – Donald J. Pliner. Pants – Boden. Sunglasses – Marc Jacobs.

Linking up with Fashion & Beauty Finds, Transatlantic Blonde, Wardrobe Wednesday, Diaries of a Bargainista, Because Shanna Said So , The Pleated Poppy, Rolled Up Pretty, I Feel Pretty  , the Mrs & The Momma, Mix & Match Fashion, Toby’s Tails,and Penniless Socialite

Healthy Buffalo Chicken

If you like (love ?) buffalo chicken wings but don’t love the calories, this easy recipe is for you. To be honest, I found it on another blog but didn’t bookmark it, and cant’ for the life of me remember the blog name, so this is my disclaimer that I did not come up with this on my own.

All you need for this recipe is 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders (regular chicken breasts are fine too, it just saves you some cutting time if you get the tenders). A bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Wing Sauce. Blue Cheese dressing and some Romain lettuce leaves. Below is a pic of what the wing sauce looks like.

All you need to do is throw the contents of the wing sauce bottle in a big pot or dutch oven. I used a Le Creuset. Cut up the chicken into about 2 inch chunks and throw them in the sauce. Get the sauce & chicken to a simmer, cover with lid and let it cook on low (simmering) for about an hour. You can stir it around a few times to make sure all pieces cook evenly. Then remove the chicken chunks and shred on a cutting board. The chicken will be so tender you can use a fork to shred it. Put the shredded chicken back in the sauce (see pic below) and let it sit in the hot liquid a few minutes.

Once that is all done, prep your Romain lettuce leaves by washing and drying them. Scoop the shredded chicken in each leaf and then drizzle with as much blue cheese dressing as you’d like. I used a slotted spoon for the the shredded chicken because I did not want it to be too saucey on my lettuce leaf. I used about 1 teaspoon of dressing per leaf. ENJOY … without the guilt.

Spin!

A few years ago I worked at a place that had a temporary (pop-up) outpost of SPIN! which is a NYC based table tennis (ping pong) club. I love the the logo tee I got from Spin Hollywood and still wear it. I paired it with a pair of Levi’s washed-out black denim jeans that I distressed myself thanks to the tutorial I read about on CBL.  I was also reminiscing how “IN” black denim was in the late 90’s. Pretty much a staple of the going out uniform back then. Oh and leather pants were really in back then too … Grrrroooowwwwl.

Not sure why I look slightly stiff & frightened in this shot but I took it to show the outfit with flats (which I switched into after about half a day of 4″ heels) I am the biggest whimp when it comes to heels, and can rarely manage to last a day in anything over 2.5 – 3 inches.

Jacket – Zara. Tee – SPIN Hollywood. Denim – Levi’s skinny boyfriend. Shoes – Jessica Simpson (heels), and Coach (flats). Belt – vintage.

Linking up with My Greatest Hits, Plane PrettyWatch ,What I’m Wearing, Monday Mingling , Yolo Mondays,  and GFC Collective, Northern Belle Diaries, Monday Morning Gossip, Sami’s Shenanigans, Style Sessions, Rolled Up Pretty, any My Thrifty Chic

Easy Snacking

By the time I get home from work, most days, I am hungry. To avoid over eating at dinner time, I try to have a healthy snack around 5:30pm to get me through two more hours, until I can sit down and eat dinner. One super easy and tasty snack I was recently reminded of is avocado with some hot sauce. It might sound strange but it’s really the same stuff you would eat during most Mexican meals. I love avocado and always have several at the house. I also love hot sauce, and if you don’t already know, there are lots of benefits to eating hot sauce. It revs up metabolism, and keeps you satisfied longer and tastes oh-so-good. You can eat this tasty snack on a slice of toasted bread or Wasa, or even on it’s own.

If you’re counting calories, or trying to slim down, make sure to only eat 1/3 or no more than half a medium avocado as they are full of calories. One medium size avocado can pack as much as 280 calories !

And to be a total dork. the title of this post is a play on one of my favorite musicians of all time – Bob Marley. Most of you have heard the song “Easy Skanking” but just in case, you haven’t, here it is.

Pencil It In

I own a few pencil skirts but rarely wear them, because they only look good with high heels and I can rarely last an entire day in stilletos. Then when the weather warmed, I finally realized I can wear a pencil skirt with open-toe wedges and dress it down a bit. I love these new wedges I got from DSW a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the close up shot was overexposed 😦 The bag I am wearing inspired me to pair my red pencil skirt with a brown cashmere cardigan, over a simple v-neck white tee. Love this color combination and the pencil skirt turned out to be quite comfy & easy to wear with my new wedges.

Cardigan – Zara. Skirt – Old Navy. White Tee – Gap. Shoes – Unisa from DSW. Handbag – Kate Spade (old). Bracelets – Cartier & C Wonder. Watch – Hermes. Necklace – F21, old.

Linking up with  Transatlantic Blonde, Wardrobe Wednesday, Diaries of a Bargainista, Because Shanna Said So , and the Mrs & The Momma