My Prada Fantasy

I am way to busy putting final touches on a presentation right now, but I HAD to post these. I don’t have a clue where I’d wear them or what I’d wear them with but these over-the-knee (OTK) boots look AMAZING!!! This is the Prada OTK Boot in super soft leather with a 4.5 inch heel… At $1400 I won’t be purchasing them but I can’t wait to see a celeb or two rocking these! OTK boots are in this year so get ready to see them everywhere in the fall! There are plenty more options posted over at Coco’s Tea Party… check them out!

Urban Balcony Garden Update

Don’t have time for much of a post since I’m doing this over my lunch, but I wanted to get these pics up since people kept asking! Here is the before pic from when I bought everything just over a month ago and there were all baby plants stored in this open box…

And now here’s what we have….

My “dill tree” (its growing so fast!), some parsley and the thyme (silver and golden)….

Rosemary, more parsley and basil (the basil is struggling)…

My mint container – orange mint, pineapple mint and chocolate mint… when the girls get in town for the 4th is mojitos for breakfast lunch and dinner every day!!

Romaine lettuce in a pot that is undoubtedly too small… what to do? what to do?

Strawberries…. I am clueless here, I’d be happy if I actually see one grow…

 

My prized Sweet 100s!!! (Cherry tomatoes). I am sooooo excited about this plant!

 

The flowers of the tomatoes,a long with pics of the tomatoes that are growing now!

And since I’m on my green pedestal for now, today’s item of the day is the new Hefty garbage bag made with 65% recycled materials! People always complain that “green” products cost more or are of subpar quality… well not these bags! They are strong, costs the same as other bags (even less the first time I bought them) and are in my favorite color (silvery gray)! I just bought a box at Jewel-Osco in Chicago on sale for $4.99 for the smaller box of about 24 bags! Another alternative that is in the same price range is Seventh Generation, which sells 55% recycled content trash bags. Be sure to keep an eye out for them in your local stores!

 

And while using recycled plastic for trash bags is better than using virgin plastic, if you want to go a step further with your “green-ness” then go with the biodegradable trash bags such as these made by BioBag USA! Reviews are mixed and it seems the bags may not be the best for heavy duty trashing (you can read in the specs that the Hefty bag is .92 mil and the BioBag is .72 mil… its also more expensive with only 12 bags to a box).

Walking for Lupus

I’ve mentioned my best friend Sharon in numerous blogs over the years, but i don’t believe I’ve ever talked about her living with lupus. She was diagnosed in 2002, while we were at the height of enjoying our final year in college. Talk about a life changing disease! I have watched her, strong as ever, fight off random flare ups over the years. The most recent having one of the greatest impacts of all and forcing her to leave the new life she had built on a dream she pursued, to return to our hometown of Detroit where she’d be closer to family.

To help lift her spirits I practically forced begged her to join Facebook to get reacquainted with old friends. She ended up loving it and has some of the funniest status posts and conversations on there (along with that First Grade picture Marquis posted that is absolutely hilarious). April came up with the great idea of signing up a team for the 2009 Detroit Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR) Walk with Us to Cure Lupus Walkathon. To get us started on our “team expansion” and “donor solicitation” we created a really cool blog to tell her story and encourage others living with lupus by showing them they are not alone. If you get a chance, check out the blog at the link below….but we warn you, you may need a few tissues when you read her story in the right column!!

http://teamcakesylupuswalk.blogspot.com

Here are a few pics my Dad took of us playing around on the Riverwalk…

and my favorite photo of the bunch…

Please feel free to pass along this post or the link above to anyone you know that may be interested. The responses have been overwhelming and we’re already getting donations and pledges to walk with us from all over the country.

As for the Item of the Day, I recently made my “investment” purchase of the year. I had been looking for a black purse and narrowed it down to 5 choices. Turned out, one of the choices came up in a Gilt.com sale recently! I was soooo excited! If you haven’t checked out gilt.com yet, its a website where you can purchase high end designer items up to 70% off of retail price. The “sales” are announced at noon each day, include a limited number of hand-picked items from select designer labels, and then last only 36 hours. So my purse that was originally listed at $580 (currently on sale at botkier.com for $297) cost me even less than the current sale price – WITH shipping!!

If you’re interested in checking out the sales on gilt.com go to my sign up link to set up your own account and brose the daily sales.

I am so in love with this handbag, and really happy I got it at half of the price I had budgeted for my 2009 investment piece. I decided to take a portion of my savings (is that really considered savings????) and buy these Coach Gillian gladiator sandals in the color “Sand”, with Gold hardware. They were half off during the Macy’s sale and after trying on nearly 30 pairs of gladiators, these were by far the most comfortable I found.