To all the girls

This was my outfit to a fun fashion bash with the girls.

The outfit was inspired loosely by this post of Bee from Atlantic Pacific:

The concept of wearing all black mini skirt outfit with edgy booties and accessories:

Jacket, Top, necklaces and bracelets - Forever 21

Leather mini - BCBG (great thrift find by my mom)

Booties - Michael Antonio

Purse 6951 (I probably always get this brand wrong cause I can never remember the sequence and too lazy to get up and look)

Here is a group photo of us at the Fashion Bash event:

Left to right: My mom, my sister, sister's friend, my girlfriend, girlfriend and me!

Since I always post so late in the day I decided to do my

Fashion Beauty Friend Friday 

post today.

Hosted by Katy from

Modly Chic.

This Month's Topic is:

TECHNOLOGY!

1. What are the tools you use to blog?

Not quite sure what this means but I use google's blogspot. For someone who is not tech savy google sure makes it easy to create and format a blog. I strictly use my sony vaio laptop (which is pink by the way). I do use my iphone to read blogs but never to post. I have a canon SLR and a big tripod and take my own photos 90% of the time. For editing photos I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager. If I only had photoshop!

2. What technology item is on your wish-list?
I would love to have photo shop to make my photos better. But then again if I had more time to actually pick better locations and lighting they would be better naturally then again I do the best I can with two kids.

3. Through the barrage of posts, tweets, pics, poses, messages, etc... how do you avoid becoming a slave to the constant infiltration of information?
This is tough. I truly love writing my blog but what I love even more is reading the blogs I follow or the excitement I get when I find a new blog I like. But life is always priority and most days I barely get a chance to post let alone visit the lovely people who have commented on my previous post. I try at least once a week to go back and visit my favorites. And I draw the line with blogspot. I do post on chictopia but I rarely am able to visit the ladies that comment or check out the gallery. I use twitter strictly to tweet that I have a new post and same goes for my facebook page.
I simply do not have time and am OK with that.

To see all the other answers please click HERE!

I haven't earned my wings yet

Today's outfit was inspired by the October 2011 issue of People Style Watch Magazine:

I realize this is the second time I am wearing a striped top under a jacket this week but to mix things up a bit today I wore my short sleeved longer top instead of the long sleeve one.
I don't think I would have ever thought of mixing a tie dye blue scarf with a striped top and army green jacket which is why the photo caught my attention.

 Added the angel wing earrings...

Jacket, Top, Jeans, Scarf - Forever 21

Boots - Via Spaga

Earrings - Thread Show

TODAY:
Had a very nice Thanksgiving potluck at PreSchool today. I stayed true to my diet and ate my turkey/celery rolls. Kids made the cutest turkey hats:

Unfortunately my daughter took almost 2 hours to go down for her nap and only napped for 30 minutes. So we were quite late leaving the house for Sea World Member night. Picked up my step dad as my mom was working and went together. Got super lucky finding a parking spot of someone leaving, got into all the shows last minute and found good seats. Kids loved being out in the dark. Their favorite was the short 3D Polar Express movie. It is just amazing seeing everything from their eyes. Makes everything so much more special.

 Top of her 'panda' hat!

After getting the kids to bed half hour late. We started our 'Turkey' project. Re-arranged the shelves in the fridge to fit a big size cleaning bucket filled with a 20lb turkey and salt water brine! Tomorrow, I am hoping my husband can take the kids to their gym class and occupy them for a few hours while I get the turkey roasted with this herb paste I am going to make, bake my sweet potato casserole, set the table for 14 and take out appetizers! Somewhere between this will be getting ready myself!

Also participating in the 

Friend Friday, 

hosted by the lovely Katy of Modly Chic blog 

discussing what we are thankful for.

Needless to say and not caring how cliche it sounds I am truly thankful for my wonderful and dear friends and family. Without their love and support life would be so hard and dull. Which is why I constantly create get together's to invite our friends and family or do events with them. I love the memories we create!
And not a day goes by where I thank God over and over for my kids. Because they are the true joy in my life and I truly cherish every moment I spend with them and wish time can stop and they can stay this cute and innocent and loving. Although I also look forward to the changes each age is going to bring in the future.

Click HERE to see what others are thankful for!

Shopping for Dad and Visual FBFF

 Today's outfit was inspired by a magazine photo but I forgot to take a picture of it. I wouldn't have though of pairing animal print scarf with stripes but it does work. The forecast keeps saying the weather is supposed to be in low 70s but honestly we do not feel that way so I continue to dress for fall and feel perfectly comfortable.

 This ruffle trim trench is soft and comfy...

Trench - Guess

Striped top - From Turkey

Scarf - TJ Maxx

Jeans & Boots - Forever 21

Today I am also participating in the 

Visual Friend Friday 

hosted by 

Franca 

at

Oranges and Apples

 We are supposed to post a photo of ourselves with no make-up and talk about our 'relationship' with make-up.

Here is my 'natural' face photo:

 As you probably noticed this is not really that different than my look on any normal day. Hence why I pose with sunglasses so frequently. I 'love' make-up but I rarely 'use' make-up. I am somewhat obsessive about my facial routine and cleansing and when I put make-up on I just can't wait to take it off and clean my face. So, my daily make-up routine consists of a moisterizing primer, concealer for under eyes, a mineral powder that is barely there (my mom is not sure why I bother with it) and a bronzer used as a blush.
If I feel adventurous I might add some eye shadow.
I only wear eye liner and mascara if I am going out at night on a special occasion.

To see others' natural faces click HERE!

TODAY:
Since today was Veteran's Day here in USA no pre-school, so we went to the indoor play area and met 2 other friends there. Of course it was a zoo but the kids had fun. After naps we drove up north for my son's T-Ball. But we didn't stay and hang around like we normally do afterwards and had dinner with friends. Instead we rushed home and had the dinner I had cooked earlier in the day. Then I picked up my Dad to do some b-day shopping for him. He obviously had not idea when he agreed cause he was overwhelmed with all the sifting of clothes, looking at everything trying on so many things. But we did have fun especially with the hats. Since chemo he wears a hat all the time which looks great but for going out or special occasions we were (well 'I') was trying to find a hat besides the 'charges' or the 'usta' baseball cap. These were the only ones I could convince him on.  And I used my new i-phone to take some photos and it takes quite amazing ones.
Here are some outfits we got for Dad. I can't get them to rotate for some reason even though they are rotating on my computer.

And here is a photo of my little monkey as I was testing the phone camera...

Books, books, books, oh how I love books

When I woke up today as I was washing my face, my son ran up to me (he gets up an hour earlier with my hubby) and said 'it is no joke mommy, it is raining so you can't do photos outside!' I told him he was right. But after I got dressed and was ready to take photos I thought it would be cool to place the tripod under the covered area and stand in the rain with my umberella which happens to match my pants perfectly!

The outfit was inspired by the lovely Bee from the insanely popular (and well deserves the popularity) of Atlantic Pacific Blog.

 Since I bought these magenta colored denim pants I always look for inspirational outfits I can wear with them... And this was perfect since I owned very similar items.

 These are my very old shoes. I haven't worn them in ages. Didn't really wear them today either with all the rain and plus they are not your practical pre-school carry two kids and diaper bag kind of shoes. Wore my same colored (cognac) uggs instead!

Umbrella - Coach

Jacket, Pants, heart necklace - Forever 21

Denim Shirt - LC Waikiki from Turkey

Belt - H&M

Chain necklace - Off Fifth 

Heels - Charles David

And I have to share the kids excitement today at the sight of the rain and finally an opportunity to use their umberellas and wear rain boots:

The fact that all of our clothes match to our umbrella's I swear was not planned!

 Her outfit came out so cute this morning! This jacket which so resembles mine came in a set with skinny khaki pants which are also adorable. The Calvin Kline outfit retails at a stupid $50+ but of course I got it for under $20 at Marshall's. The tutu is from Costco, the skinny jeans are rocca again from Marshalls. The adorable hat is from Children's place. She is wearing a hello kitty tee under from H&M and the boots are target!

For Friend Friday 

hosted by 

Katy at Modly Chic 

We are talking about our favorite BOOKS and/or most recent reads. I am definitely no writer but am an avid reader of fiction. I absolutely love books. Always have and always will.

• I love books written in first person and take me to a different land, time and/or era. 
• I love books that are slow reads where you can read a chapter and be satisfied and put it down. I have read the popular page turners but find them addictive and not as pleasurable as the slow reads. 
• Since I didn't grow up or go to school in this country (except for college) I was not required to read any of the classics in English Literature. So for years since moving here I have made a rule to read a classic every 5 books or so. I am always moved by those classics where the authors somehow managed to write in a way that a person can still relate to hundreds of years later!
• I also enjoy beutfiul writing. Not complex writing where the sentences are a paragraph long but writing that gets the emotions and feelings across in such a concise and beautiful way. 
• I have nothing against Kindle but it is not for me. I am one of those old fashioned people that loves to hold an actual book, smell the paper, turn the pages and hug it when I close it if it made me feel something. 
• Plus I love to build a library. To remember some of my favorite books and authors for this post I went up and looked through my shelves. I love owning the books I read and going back to them. Since I am obsessively organized all my books are displayed in alphabetical order by author's last name like a bookstore!

With that being said here are my all time favorite books:
1. Jane Eyre by by Charlotte Brontë

My absolute all time favorite!
If you have never read this I would highly recommend it. It has this 'suspense' element that I would have never anticipated. The characters are so complex and well thought out. The writing is ageless and beautiful.







2. Ahab's Wife by by Sena Jeter Naslund

This book is about the wife of Captain Ahab of the famous novel Moby Dick. Which I have bought but have not read the actual Moby Dick yet. This is also the book that got me to fall in love with Light Houses. I would highly recommend it.




3. Away by Jane Urquhart

 
4. These are a group of books all covering a similar theme: A Woman who is stuck in a marriage or a relationship in a time where having affaris is absolutely taboo but falls in love with someone else anyway and their struggle with this. And from the era and the name of the authors that have covered this theme you can see the issue applies to any century.

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (don't let the size or the author's fame scare you. It is a pleasant and very interesting read)
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Falubert -A bit harder read but the story is captivating and once again ageless!
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin -Super short but amazingly powerful.
• Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller - One of two books that have made me cry and I rarely ever cry!

5. Just when you think you get my tastes I will surprise you with this one and am not ashamed to admit it but I am an absolute die hard fan of the Twilight books by by Stephenie Meyer !

I have read all 4 cover to cover 3 times. The first book probably 5 times. These books are totally addictive and page turners but there is just something about the chemistry and love between the main characters that I am strangely drawn to and whenever I want to loose myself in that I open any of the books in any section and start reading. The movies are just 'OK'. They don't even come close to the books but I have to say Kristen Stewart is exactly how I envisioned Bella so I think that was a perfect casting. 



I have so many more books that I loved. Then there are authors that I love and have bought and read every book they have written. And those are:
1. Margaret Atwood (you might know her by her award winning 'The Handmaid's Tale')
2. Charles Dickens ('Great Expectations' is another big favorite of mine)
3. Jane Austin (absolute love 'Sense and Sensibility')
4. Emile Zola
5. Toni Morrison
6. Amy Tan
7. Erich Segal (the author of the famous 'Love Story')
8. Rebecca Wells (ya ya sisterhood author)
9. Naguib Mahfouz (Fascinating look into the Arabic culture)

Here is a weird observation. I spend a huge amount of time when selecting books to read. I love to go to the bookstore (alone) and spend hours browsing through the books. I read reviews in the back (look for NY times book review the most) and read the summary of the story and also read the first sentences of the first page to get a feel for the books. I have a neck for selecting books that become super famous and get movies made of. I am not kidding. Books I have read years later become a big hit over and over. To proof of this theory that you can see I own these books in the original cover and in the year they were published.
Some examples are:
1. Memoirs of a Geisha

2. The Joy Luck Club
3. Invisible Circus
4. Water for Elephants
5. White Oliander
6. The girl with a pearl earring
7. The Reader
8. The Help!


And here are the last 5 books I have read/reading:
1. Currently reading: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by by Ken Kesey and Robert Faggen

2. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

3. Help by Kathryn Stockett

4 & 5. 'Dead as a Doornail' (book 5) and 'Definitely Dead' (book 6) by Charlaine Harris from the Sookie Stackhouse series which is the HBO True Blood series is based upon.

 To see others favorite reads click HERE! 

And let me know do you recognize some of these book have you read them? What is your favorite?