Friday Night Wine Tasting Dinner Party
Last night, Tim and I attended a wine tasting dinner party. Each couple was tasked with bring an interesting wine along with a dish that paired well.
We chose to bring a Masi Campofiorin as it brings back fond memories of visiting the winery during our trip to the Verona region in Italy. As it’s a more robust wine, we paired it with Italian meatballs in a fresh tomato sauce, accompanied by basil from our container garden.
We had a wonderful evening that lasted into the early hours of the morning. The wine flowed and the discussions alternated between fluffy and heated (especially when someone brought up O.J. Simpson!). An added bonus to the evening was listening to a very talented couple play the piano and sing.
For the event, I wore a 50s-style Bettie Page dress that I recently purchased from Modcloth. I was inspired to purchase it after seeing it on Tanesha in her Girl With Curves blog. It was a bit long for me so I had it altered and I’d just picked it up earlier in the day. I added Chanel sunglasses, a bright red Fendi bag, and my Guess shoes. It was a fun outfit.
Sneaking Neon Colors into a Conservative Office
I’m a consultant and one of my clients is a very conservative investment firm where jeans are only worn on Fridays and women are most often seen in bland outfits and low heels (gasp). Those who know me are aware that high heels are my thing and I’m rarely seen in anything lower than a 4-inch heel.
I love to use one or two aspects of the current trends in my outfits and I was definitely up to the challenge of encorporating a bright seasonal neon color. Of course, in my case, I still had to remain very professional and corporate.
In this case, I chose to wear a more conservative black Tahari suit and add the color using my Zara heels in bright orange. I love the effect. If you look carefully, you’ll also see that my nails and toenails are painted very bright as well.
Hehe…..What a rebel!
Wearing a Large Flower Print Dress When You’re Petite
I love this flower print dress that I found at Ross for fifteen dollars and I find it so comfortable for a day of shopping or working in my home office. Given the very large size of the flowers on the front and back, I’ve chosen to wear very simple accessories, shoes, and purses so that it doesn’t overwhelm my 5”2’ frame. A simple tank underneath it and a wide belt complete the look.
Dressing for the Occasion
Last night my husband took me out to dinner for my birthday. I blogged about it here. It was a special evening, made even more special since I wore one of his birthday presents to me, a Marc New York by Andrew Marc halter style dress.
I love the neckline of the dress and the fit and flow of the material. I chose to keep my hair simple to compliment it. The only other accessories I wore were a pair of crystal earrings (given to me by my husband for Christmas), a crystal lace bracelet, and a simple clutch with rhinestone accent. Reaching into my vast selection of shoes, I chose these Guess pumps with bow.
I loved the simple, yet elegant look and I thought it was perfect for the elegant restaurant that my husband chose to celebrate my birthday.
Love my New Toecap Shoes!
I recently posted about shoes with toe caps here where I raved about the Louis Vuitton shoes in pastel colors. Sadly, at $1400., they were out of my price range. That being said, I noticed these shoes on Wendy’s Lookbook and decided that they would be one of the classic pairs that I would have for years. At a lower $139.00 price point from Nordstroms, the Classiques Entiers were easily justifiable. BTW. You’d be amazed at the things I can justify. ;-)
The other night, Tim and I met some friends for drinks at our local wine bar. It was pouring rain (we’ve entered the rainy season in Florida) so I didn’t spend a lot of time on my hair (What’s the sense when it will go flat in seconds?) choosing a simple ponytail instead. I did put on a very colorful and tropical dress and donned my still new shoes. The tropical pattern definitely lifted my mood and I had a great time catching up with friends I hadn’t seen for awhile. Here are some pics of the outfit.
Waiting for my Neiman Marcus Santa (the UPS guy)
Today’s one of those days when I wake up so excited because the items that I ordered from Neiman Marcus Last Call are arriving! Here’s what I have coming…starting at the left:
- Donna Morgan bateau dress - What a cool pattern…
- Nanette Lapore shirred dress - Love the soft colors…a gorgeous summer dress
- Robbi & Nikki lace shirt - Love the lace front
- Marc New York halter dress - I might wear this for my birthday dinner (next week)
- Seychelles lace wedge - Again, I’m a sucker for lace
- Pour la Victoire Portia suede platform pump - In a soft blush color - love it
After my husband, I think the UPS guy is the best guy in the world!
Neutral Day Look
Last week I blogged about a color-blocked dress that I purchased from Neiman Marcus Last Call. I didn’t mention it at the time but that day I also bought a second dress, this Di Vinci by Bailey 44.
I’m loving this dress with its attached faux shrug. It provides just enough coverage to my arms to to make it a very comfortable day dress. I also think I can easily convert it to something more dressy just by upping the jewelry factor.
Yesterday, I wore it for a casual day of shopping.
P.S. It was a fun shopping day. Aren’t they all?
Celebrating the End of a Busy Week at Trulucks
As mentioned in an earlier post, by day, I’m a mild-mannered consultant for my own company TSJ Enterprise, Inc. I’m currently working with a client that is doing an internal upgrade to their systems. It’s been a tough week—a week where I’ve worked hard to keep my cool. My motto is work hard, play hard and boy was I ready to play hard.
I met my husband for happy hour at Trulucks in Boca Raton, Florida. We were ready for martinis and some chillaxing. And that we did. The band was enjoyable and so was the people-watching. Boca Raton is known for two types of ladies: Very rich, very old ladies and plastic surgery babes. Yes ladies, we can definitely tell that you’ve had work done…Here are a few pictures of me leaving the bar. I think you can see that I was no longer stressed and well on my way to enjoying a fun weekend.
I’m wearing the lacy Express top that I recently purchased and blogged about here that pairs well with my skirt with a bottom frill. To complete the outfit, I’m wearing my favorite Louboutins, an understated Fendi purse, and Prada sunglasses. The designers were all getting along nicely.
My only regret is that my heels are tall and thin and those cobblestones were unforgiving even before the martinis. I had to walk very slooooooowly. My husband snapped a picture of me at my car just as I was about to swap these magnificent (impractical) shoes for some driving shoes (P.S. My car is a standard and I don’t dare drive her with the tall and tiny heels on my shoes for fear that they will snap off!) I’ve included a picture of the heels so you can see just how tall and thin they actually are. I’m not kidding, am I? Ah, but so beautiful….
Cheers to you and have a great weekend!
Inspired in Orange
Yesterday, my Santa Claus (a.k.a. known as the Fedex guy) arrived with my new Zara shoes. They are a delightful orange, beige, and black combination and I’ve seen them featured in other blogs. Long story short…they are now mine.
As new purchases often do, they inspired me to change outfits and model them around. They work perfectly with the Candie’s skirt I bought on sale from Kohls on the weekend.
I normally don’t go for the maxi length or pleats in a skirt because, as I mentioned before, I’m only 5’2” and they tend to swallow me up and be a little unflattering or matronly. This skirt caught my eye because it only has a half-slip lining which provides perfect coverage where you want it, but allows the skirt to breath more, something that comes in handy in the Florida heat. The half slip and light fabric also give it a more youthful look and I think they stop the skirt from overwhelming me. After wearing it for the first time yesterday, I think it might become my favorite on-trend piece of the season.
What’s your favorite look of the season?
I’m Seeing Spots
I’m always cleaning up my photos to try to keep my hard-drive space available and I recently came across this outfit that I wore for Valentine’s day. Aside from the fact that I love the day, I smiled when I saw these pictures because not only do I love this dress and shoes but I think the smile on my face clearly enhanced the whole outfit. If you saw the quote that I posted the other day, you already know that I feel that the beauty of a person is enhanced by style and fashion; however, how you feel about yourself makes a huge difference to how you look. In this case, there’s nothing like two dozen roses and champagne to light up your look, for sure!
I love this leopard style dress by Tadashi Shoji for many reasons. One being that because I’m constantly watching my weight, I like dresses that are somewhat forgiving and flattering. Tadashi Shoji has a way of creating flattering dresses for women with “normal” figures. This dress does exactly that with the way the fabric gives and gathers in strategic places. I also love the pattern—It’s striking but not overwhelming on my 5’2” frame as long as I use it as the only patterned piece.
And don’t get me started on these shoes! They are one of my favorites because I go crazy for heels that stand out and these definitely do. They are by BCBG Max Azria and my husband bought them for me (making them even more special). I love the jewels. I like to pretend that they’re diamonds. :-)
Antique Lace with an Edge
Last night, we enjoyed a fun dinner out at Saitos Japanese restaurant with friends of ours in the Promenade at Coconut Creek. It’s a hibachi restaurant that is as entertaining as it is delicious.
Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and windy so choosing an outfit was difficult. I decided to wear my hair back as I didn’t think it would hold a hairstyle with the rain and humidity. I also didn’t want to wear shoes that could be ruined in the rain so I decided on a pair of leather shoe-boots.
I ended up settling on this outfit and I really liked the look of the antique lace and hair accessories juxtaposed with a bit of a rocker look when paired with the slightly edgier shoes and jewelry. I topped it off with a black leather jacket (not shown).
P.S. I had a manipedi done yesterday and I decided to stay with the pastel trend. This time I went with baby blue. It takes a little getting used to but after trying out and enjoying the turquoise color last time, I’m loving this baby blue color.
What We Wore Stripe Challenge
I recently entered two outfits in the What We Wore Stripe Challenge. Essentially, entries were tasked with putting together two outfits that make use of stripes and submitting them to the What I Wore blog site. In today’s blog entry for What I Wore, you’ll see a compilation of the many outfits that were entered in the challenge to provide inspiration. I’m happy to say that my two outfits made the cut and are featured on that page…yes, don’t give up…I know there are a lot of entries there but keep scrolling and you’ll find me about three-quarters of the way down, or you can view them at the top of this page.
I had a lot of fun putting the outfits together. I submitted the two pictures at the top of this post. The other pictures on this page are ones that didn’t make my cut but I had fun with them so I thought I’d include them here.
Special thanks go out to my husband, Tim, who is ramping up his skills in photography.
Note: The shoes in the black and white outfit pictures are the ones that I blogged about in this entry. I love the pop of color that they bring to this outfit.
Wednesday Night: A Casual Dinner at Carrabbas
Walking in My Shoes is a creative outlet for me; however, in real-life, I’m an independent freelance content strategist and my current client is keeping me very busy. This week included training a new report, scheduling nine projects, and wearing my editor’s hat for procedures for an upcoming release. Phew! Needless to say, I don’t feel like cooking at the end of the day. Between you and me, this is really just an excuse for not cooking because the kitchen is not my favorite place to be unless I’m keeping the cook company while enjoying a glass of wine and Italian music. But I digress…
Anyway, yesterday my husband texted me suggesting that he treat me to dinner at Carrabbas as they have wine specials on Wednesday nights. I was all over that and I’ve posted a few pictures. This casual event allowed me to wear two new purchases from the weekend. I’m loving the color of my new favorite jeans (NYDJ) and feeling very girly in the lacy top I purchased from Express.
Although it’s not new, I never get tired of this crystal encrusted monocle necklace that my husband gave me a few years back. I think it complements the lace very well.
All in all, I like the mix of the new seasonal mint/turquoise color and pale pink that is so on trend right now. Check out my nails as well!
