Shopping spree

I was walking around downtown with my girlfriend who was in town on business when we discovered the cutest little boutique. "Let's go in" she said... OK! CATCH22 is such a cute little shop with a young female owner. It has a men's side and a women's side, with of course most of the inventory dedicated to women. Man there were some cute stuff in there, and stuff I'd never seen before; very innovative and creative clothes. I wanted everything in there. Dresses, trousers, jeans, tees, et cetera, but not your typical style. I loved how they placed throughout the store framed pictures of celebrities who don some of the purchasable items. I also loved that the price points were from the low end to kind of pricey. A little something for everyone. My girlfriend purchased a really cute bag. She was hesitant to pull the trigger initially because it was a big bag (I love big bags) and it was silver. I convinced her to buy it and she did. Did I mention that I wanted everything in there? Reality set in and I only purchased a few tops that are so cute that I'm already planning their reveal. I also picked up a pair of Kasil jeans designed by David Lim. The tops were reasonably priced, but the jeans were a bit up there. There were many other items in the boutique that I wanted to acquire but I decided to be relatively good. There was a bright red dress and I keep thinking about it. It did not come in small and I could have tried on a medium, but was advised against it. It would have been a great addition to the wedding invitation wardrobe, but oh well. I'm quite happy with what I did decide on.

The Bachelorette week 5

I know why I am obsessed with this show - the guys are unbelievably hot! Kudos to ABC for selecting this crop of smiling, olive skin, 12-pack having male suitors. I don't know where these guys are from and what's in the water there, but I've never met 30-year men with normal jobs that have bodies like this. Jeremy is a Real Estate Attorney. I know for a fact that this profession puts in numerous hours at the office, so where in the world does he find time to look like that?! ABC lists Graham as a professional basketball player, which would explain the body, but he clearly states that he is a business professional living in New York City. I guess the basketball thing didn't work out. Jason is an Account Executive, and the guy I find most attractive. Like I said, normal jobs right. Jesse is a Snowboarder and is probably the least physically fit (but still not bad), which is ironic considering his profession. In last night's episode DeAnna mentioned how she found herself suddenly attracted to Jesse for the first time during their group date where they each rode an all-terrain bike. I have to say that I concur. The way Jesse handled the bike was pretty sexy, but then he takes off his helmet and displays his timidness in front of her - not sexy. Sean gets a one-on-one date with her where they enjoy dinner from atop a mountain. Sean is my kind of guy in that he really cares about his appearance and also cares about having the finer things in life. While they were hanging out and conversing, I could tell that it was not there for DeAnna. The only other one-on-one date this week rests with Jeremy. In my opinion his personality seems a little stiff and lacks a sense of humor, but then he disrobes to get into the pool... Whoa, incredible! Pick him, pick him! Graham is still displaying arrogance with his feelings presuming he is the front runner. He actually mentions this in so many words when DeAnna and Jeremy leave for their date. Graham and DeAnna grab a little time together during the group date where it was obvious to all watching how into Graham she is. He, on the other hand, barely touched her, and I don't think I saw him look into her eyes even once while they were talking. But as usual he got a rose at the rose ceremony and she offered it to him with an astronomical smile on her face. Can you say shoo-in. This week was important because the four she chooses get to take her home to meet their family and friends, which tell a lot about a person. I'm glad she chose the four she chose: Jason, Jeremy, Jesse, and Graham. The saga continues.

The Bachelorette week 4

At the risk of sounding psycho, I have to say that I just love this season's Bachelorette! I'm actually pretty darn obsessed with the show. DeAnna Pappas, who was one of the rejected girls from last season's bachelor, gets to choose a man out of 25 who she hopes will propose to her at the season finale. I just love the way she handles herself on this show. Typically with the bachelor, the men go around getting to know his female contestants by seeing how many faces he can suck on. Out of 25 men, DeAnna has "made-out" with only 3 of them: Graham, Jeremy, and Jason. I have to commend her for being such a lady on the program. She speaks her mind, pours her heart out and looks graceful while doing it. If she were to behave any other way, the criticism would be overwhelming I'm sure. Can you say double standard? Honestly, if you've seen most of these guys you'd have to ask yourself, how the heck does she control herself?! There are quite a few guys on the show who are so amazingly aesthetic that no one would blame her if she were to disregard the cameras and put on her mischievous cap. I mean some of these guys are smokin' hot, and you know how some of us woman can be around a hot guy! DeAnna is no exception; she is so so so into Graham and not holding those feeling back in any way shape or form. On this past Monday's episode she clearly expressed her interest in Graham. On their one-on-one meeting she came right out and asked him for a kiss. His response: "I don't want to be one of a bunch". What? Yeah that was her response too. Dude, are you nuts? The rest of the episode was filled with drama mostly due to her feelings of rejection induced by Graham. The tension throughout the episode was so abundant and emotions just as potent that I was trying to Will her to dismiss Graham this week. Who goes on a dating show, meets a hot girl, and refuses to kiss her but expects to stick around? An arrogant jerk that's who. DeAnna and Graham did not even speak the remainder of the show until Graham finally decides to pull her aside just before the rose ceremony. Again tension existed, but somehow the conversation ended with a kiss...NOOOOO! Girl, he is not that into you can't you see! At the rose ceremony it came down to Graham and Brian and there was one last moment to hope that she'd do the right thing now and save herself the heartache later. Not so much: "Graham will you accept this rose?" Boooo! Anyway, this is still one of my favorite shows this summer so I'll keep watching despite disagreeing with the bachelorette's decisions sometimes.

Where am I?

I took a plane last weekend to Columbus to see and hang out with some old friends just because. My girlfriend and I went to the spa for deep treatment facials, which I was really looking forward to and boy did my skin need it. I did some shopping (of course) at some local boutiques. I also went out both nights last weekend and I have to say that I was sort of confused. What were these girls wearing? I felt like I was in Miami or Las Vegas somewhere. I mean these girls wore zero clothing! Granted it was probably the hottest night of the year; the humidity was excruciating. I wore a spaghetti strap v-neck below-the-knee jersey dress with silver 4-inch strappy sandals. My crew and I were simply cute, but the Columbus girls last weekend looked like they just stepped out of a music video or a XXX club. Heck had I known Columbus was getting down like this these days I would have been happy to oblige. Out were short-shorts, midriffs, cleavage, heels high as mountains that made my platforms look like those stupid crocs. I own such attire but they are usually reserved for places where nobody knows my name!

Missed it

Did anyone check out the MTV Movie Awards last night? Yeah neither did I. I was unaware that they were even in the vicinity of airing; I suppose part of that is due to my lack of interest in the channel these days. Since The Hills season finale a few weeks ago, I haven't tuned in to MTV at all. There's absolutely no show of interest on that network these days, and God knows they play no music videos, at least not at a reasonable time. Anyway, lucky for me if I do decide that I'm interested in viewing the movie awards, MTV will air them again about 10 thousand more times.

RiRi is lookin' good

I am obsessed with Rihanna's haircut. Not too many domes can rock this short look and she is wearing it very well. You definitely need a cute small head and face to pull it off. I think I qualify so I'm breaking out the scissors! Well not quite, my bangs have a little more growing out to do.

Are you not entertained!?

Over Memorial Day weekend there were plenty of places having major sales, so I made it my mission to make that Monday economic stimulus injection day. My girlfriends and I got in the car and headed to the mall with a note pad listing our must-have finds. On my list was a yellow skinny belt (I'll post about that later) and red peep toe pumps. Not much on the list, but there was plenty of room for growth. I must say the three of us would have done Ben Bernanke proud, we cleaned up! I found my yellow skinny belt and also that trench I've been going on and on about. I never found the perfect red peep toe pump, but I found the best Gladiator (hence the title) heel. Oh my God these are so beyond hot I can't even speak, I'll just show them to you. They are the Heech by Nine West and come in black and camel; you can't go wrong with either, but I acquired the black pair. These are so sexy, I cannot take my eyes off them; hey that's how I felt about the bartender last weekend. Anyway see for yourself; How smokin' are these wedges!

The perfect red lip

My latest task, i.e. obsession is to find the perfect red lipstick. It's a trend this season that keeps coming back and it can be such a classic look. I loved it at the Spring shows like at Louis Vuitton and Lanvin where the eye is done very minimally and the lip just pops in bold red. There are a ridiculous number of shades of red and it's been difficult to find the right one against my skin tone. I've been finding them to have too much pink base or too orange base or just too dark. Where is the basic blood red lipstick? I went to Nordstroms' Mac counter and purchased a color called Diva. But now that I look at it on me, it looks too orangy and not deep red enough; back to the drawing board. Weeks later after my lack of complete satisfaction for the Diva color, I took a trip to Sephora who has tons and tons of different brands to choose from and test out. This trip turned into a vacation after the amount of time I spent in there. I ended up buying a color named Dakota Red by Vincent Longo, which wasn't cheap by the way. I wore it, but when I looked at myself in normal lighting (because lets face it the lighting at the make-up department is skewed) I was not impressed. So back to the search. Now I'm thinking something a little less extravagant. Maybe I'm giving all of the high priced designer choices too much credit. I'm now making a trip to WalGreen's drugstore to check out the selection by the commercial masses. Wish me luck.

How do you do it?

Often Harper's Bazaar covers a story called Eating Diaries on semi-celebrity women who live relatively healthy lifestyles. They look to be in great and healthy shape, which makes many other women curious to know how they do it. I often receive compliments on my health conscious lifestyle, which inspires me to reveal my daily routine here in the format Bazaar does it in.

I'm genetically thin, however thin does not always equal healthy. You hear about thin, healthy-looking people having heart attacks and strokes, and people respond in a surprising manner. But how were they eating? How were they really living? I try to eat right. I don't count calories at all, but I do look at the label for nutritional content. I eat a lot of fish and chicken, but shamefully I do not eat enough vegetables. I also tend to eat a lot of pasta just because it's so easy to make and so so yummy. Nowadays you can buy whole-grain pastas, a significant difference in calories and carbohydrates. I also work out three days a week.

9:30A.M. I have a bowl of instant oatmeal made with whole grain oats with raisins, dates, and walnuts in my office. Instead of mixing with water, I mix with 2% milk. I drink distilled water throughout the day.

11:00A.M. I have a cup of Hazelnut coffee with sugar and cream, mainly for the taste over the caffeine.

1:00P.M. I'm usually starving by now, and admittedly I eat out every single day. I'll have a grilled chicken sandwich on whole grain bread, honey mustard, lettuce, tomato, and red onions. If I do a whole sandwich I won't do a side, but if I do a 1/2 sandwich I'll have a cup of chicken noodle soup or lobster bisque or a small bag of kettle potato chips. Then top it with a daily multi-vitamin.

4:00P.M. I have a banana and a cup of caffeinated tea with sugar and cream.

6:00P.M. I work out on upper and lower body with weights for an hour.

9:00P.M. I love salmon and think I could eat it everyday. Plus it's so easy to prepare. I'll have that with a side of seasoned pasta or wild rice. Lately I've been getting my vegetables by eating raw baby carrots. I found that it's the easiest way for me to work it into my daily routine.

12:30A.M. I finally get to bed, maybe even a little later.

Off 5th

I'm sitting in my office at work and I can hardly contain myself. I just discovered that in my town resides a Saks Off 5th! For those who think I'm speaking French right now, Saks Off 5th is a discounted Saks Fifth Avenue store! You get the designer label at less than designer prices. It's where Saks Fifth Avenue drops off its out-of-season products to make room for the new (expensive) stuff. It makes no nevermind to me if it's in season or out; I'm there... Designer clothes, bags, shoes oh my! They also have designer items for your man and kids; even your home according to the website. All I know is that over the winter I was eyeing a $250 pair of Anne Klein brown booties that I never pulled the trigger on, and now they are discounted at Off 5th! I'm also excited about the rows and rows and rows of sunglasses that are there. I am never one to pay top dollar for shades especially when the "cheap" ones have UV eye protection just the same, but at these prices I must repeat myself - I'm there! If you're a sucker for designer jeans like Rock and Republic or True Religion but don't want to pay marked-up prices, this place is for you. I hear they have mad shelves of them. Me? I'm a sucka for handbags, so I am interested to see which designers they carry and how reduced they'll be. God, hopefully I exercise some self control.

April showers bring more shopping

In an earlier post I mentioned spotting a cute little trench at H&M but letting it pass me by. I have no regrets about that, however I just opened my April issue of Lucky magazine and the trench on display kicked me in the face. Partly because I'm a label whore, the other part is that this Kenneth Cole Reaction trench is listed at only $128. Sounds like a steal to me. It lead me to go on a little trench online search. There are so many to choose from and at many price points. This Kenneth Cole one really caught my eye so I'm off to Nordstorms to check it out.

The young and the (please) suckless

God could these soap operas be any more terrible? I'm sitting here catching up on a week's worth of the daytime drama, only to continue to be disappointed from the lack of. I thought the writers' strike was over. If they think this is titillating drama they are sadly mistaken. The loyal trait in me forces me to continue to watch these dreadful soaps, but there comes a time when frustration kicks in right? But I just sit here wasting 5 hours of time all while rolling my eyes and hitting the timer to see how much is left of this vile episode.

I like boys who wear Abercrombie and Fitch

Dang it why does Abercrombie have no inventory down here. I went to the mall all ready to spend a week's pay at Abercrombie only to be madly disappointed. As I walked around and around desperate to find something in there to purchased, I asked myself how long before I give up? I mean the only things in there are rows and rows of jeans, like I need anymore jeans, and racks and racks of zip-up fleece. I just wanted to purchase come cute tops, casual pants, tees, anything?! Well I settled for a couple of long sleeve tees, that if I'm being honest look like I'm headed for bed, but cute enough for my dollars nonetheless. Anyway I had to get outta there, my ears were starting to bleed from the insanely loud music. Don't get me wrong, I still love Abercrombie. I'll head back from time-to-time hoping the inventory in this location improves. I know what you're thinking, and so what if their target clientele is in preschool, a girl can pretend.

Victoria's what?

Someone please buy me this dress from Victoria's Secret. It's strapless and only comes in navy, which is the perfect color for this knee length striped cotton blend. Pleated at the waist and hip with trendy front pockets. I must have it.

Day 26

Crappy name, but whatever. Diddy's boy band released their highly anticipated debut CD last week. I've been a crazy fan of the reality show Making the Band, but was not too impressed with the product. My sisters picked up the CD and they both say they like it. I've listened to a few songs from their myspace page, but hardly enough data to make a decision. Who has heard any of the songs or has purchased the CD? Worth it?