flaaaarida.

Just thought I'd also add a wee recap about the fantabulousness that was last weekend in the Palm Bizzy.

The highs (in no particular order):
1. Waking up to this every morning. Glorious, glorious.
2. I did not get sunburned. Don't know how it happened, but I left much more this than this, which is shocking.
3. One of the bridesmaids just finished culinary school in Italy. She's a nice person to have around.
4. Seeing Camille.
5. Spotting Drew Barrymore, Justin Long (the Mac commercial guy), and Peyton Manning all within 10 minutes of each other. Consensus: Drew is teeny-tiny and absolutely gorgeous even with no makeup, Justin is all kinds of greasy and also teeny-tiny, and Peyton is.... wow.
6. The pool. Dear sweet lord I loved that pool.
7. Gin and tonics made with Tangueray Rangpur. So tasty.
8. Fabulous girl time with my sister and her posse!

The not-so-highs:
1. The aforementioned Reggie story. Although it did provide for a lot of laughs.
2. Spinning sharks (I shit you not) led to the ocean being closed. Bummer.
3. The Other Boleyn Girl. Worst. movie. ever.
4. Seeing the aforementioned Valentino bags in person. Le sigh. They were SUCH a dissapointment-- all slouchy and not good. The shoes, however....

this is the best they've got?

After the loss of the Golden Globes this year I was traumatized, but I assumed that the stars and all of the other powers at be would really pull it out for the Oscars. Alas, I was obviously let down by last night's performance.

Before we get to the fashion (or lack thereof) I just want to say how incredibly freaking happy I am that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won. I am so so so obsessed with Once, as I am with the Frames, and this was (in my opinion) the only truly original song up for the award. I had it on repeat for about 2 weeks straight after seeing the movie and never got sick of it. After crying along to their performance, I could hardly stay in my seat when they won. Their acceptance speeches (thanks to Mr. Stewart for letting Marketa say her piece) were genuine and heartfelt. Congrats congrats!

Ok, now to the dresses. I was, in a word, underwhelemed. Apparently the only color choices this year were black, red, and metallics. What, is there a shortage of dyes at the moment? No one could muster a springtime palette, maybe even just a jewel tone? Is it really that hard to step a wee bit out of the box?

Here are my top picks from the evening:

Marion Cotillard in Jean Paul Gaultier.
Although I wasn't wowed by this dress on the red carpet, I thought it was much more stunning when she got on stage with all of the lights on her. It was one of the few truly special dresses I saw all night.

Jennifer Garner in Oscar de la Renta.
The dress didn't do much for me: just a pretty simple black strapless gown. Plus Jen loses major points from me for gushing about Rachel Zoe and her skills as a stylist. Ugh. On the plus side, Jen's hair and makeup is perfection and I am obsessed with the vintage necklace she's wearing.

Nicole Kidman.
Again the dress was nothing special... I even thought it was a good inch too short. Still, this necklace is faaaaantastic and worthy of a mention.

Eva Herzigova at the Elton John afterparty.
I just loved the soft yellow color and the ruffle along the side. Very architectural yet still soft. I'm not a big fan of her hair and makeup, but the dress more than makes up for it.

And now for the worst:

George Clooney and Sarah Larson.
Yes, of course George looks dreamy as always in his classic tux. But that arm candy is just nasty. I'm not sure what she was thinking when she picked out this pastel disaster that smacks of early-80's bedroom drapery, but if she's going to be on his arm, she really needs to step it up.

Cameron Diaz.
You would think that with all of the people that are involved with getting the ladies ready for this night, someone would have thought to press the dress before Cameron hit the red carpet. The wrinkles are just awful and the dress just isn't good enough to be fabulous despite them.

Petra Nemcova at Elton John's afterparty.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeek. Why is she so blonde? And so fake tanned? And so... yellow and shiny. This is all so very very wrong. The dress is gross, the red lips are awful on her, and there's just nothing worse than the slicked back dirty looking hair. Oh Petra, this is wrong. So very very wrong.

Lindsay Lohan and Sharon Stone.
I just don't think anything else needs to be said here, do you?

go me!

Well, apparently I've hit the big time and received a shout-out from dcblogs.com. Hooray! It's a big week for me. In addition to the blog love, I got quoted by a pretty decent environmental org. in some of their workshop materials. I'll keep the details to that one to myself in an attempt to somewhat protect my psuedo-anonymity, but it's all pretty exciting. I'm sorry, just give me a minute to toot my own horn.

toot toot..... toot.

Okay, I'm done now.

For those of you just joining us, stick around a stay a while. I'd love to be able to write something fabulous for you all, but it's 4:00 on the Friday before my gargantuan work event and I'm tapped out. Plus the Chimay and Delirium (on TAAAAAP!) at Matchbox are calling my name.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?!

long weekend.

In Chi-town for the weekend!!

i normally treasure these moments.

Typically, I feel rather flattered/ecstatic when I see a celeb sporting something that I have in my own closet. For instance, Stacey London wore a cardigan I've got on one episode of WNTW and Reese Witherspoon and I have the same running shoes. Woo. Yay for me.


The thing is, I've never had the unfortunate experience of seeing something I own on a walking fashion disaster. Until today.



Those were my favorite summer sunglasses. Dammit.

vogue.

I finished Harry Potter in a mere 52 hours. If you take out 20 hours out for work, 18 hours for sleep, and 3 hours at happy hour last night, that means I really only had 11 "available" hours in which to eat, drink, socialize, and read the book. At 652 pages, I view it as quite a feat, especially when I count in the 10 minute break I had to take in the Potbelly's bathroom to compose myself after a particularly emotional part (I don't give away any details). It was a good warm up for this weekend, I'm sure.

Ok, in other news:
I know it's a little random, but I love Winona. I really do. I mean, Heathers, Reality Bites, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Little Women... such memories of my childhood. She had that little freak-out with the shoplifting thing, but I still think she's fabulous.

No one can pull off a pixie-cut quite like she can and those big brown eyes work perfectly on the big screen. I usually like her style (she's a ridiculous Marc Jacobs fan) although I think she wears too much black, which is why I ADORE this Vogue cover shot. The jewel tones are perfect on her and I just love that she has always embraced her porcelain skin. I recently saw a picture of her with Eva Mendes (they were at Fashion Week together... otherwise, I just wouldn't be able to explain that pairing) and Eva looked disgusting. Ew. As much as I like getting a little color in the summer time, Winona reminds me that pale can be beautiful, too. It's obviously helped her age well: she looks better than she did when she was 25. Welcome back to the celeb world, Noni (get out while you still can!).