Corporate Holiday Party Dress

So I promised my friend over at The Working Wardrobe that I would post a pic of my final decision for the semi-formal/business-attire company holiday party that was held last month! I was so "rush-rush" after a couple of weeks of finding nothing that truly inspired me. At 1PM the day of the event I tried on a beautiful dress and made my final decision!! I had some photos take for my birthday and wore the dress in a few shots. Check it out!



Dress: Trina Turk (on sale at Macy's for 60% off!)
Shoes: Mui Mui (bronze leather with rhinestone heels, a Christmas gift from 2006)
Makeup: Me - Dior Addict high Shine in Chestnut Chic
Nails: OPI - Meet me on the Star Ferry (the new Hong Kong collection)
**The pics are still raw so just ignore the barely-there Spanx line to all of you over-critiquers... LOL

Von Maur Shoe Room - Great Find!!

For the past 2+ years I had obsessed over buying myself a pair of Frye boots (or per the pic on the post I did a while back, the Amelia Airhardt boots, as Bobby refers to them).

With the approach of my most recent birthday I decided to go for the splurge and buy the Frye boots, with a purchase price of around $300. Before I had the chance to order them, I was on the hunt for some dressy shoes for a work event. A co-worker told me to check out Von Maur, DSW and Nordstrom, in that order. Of course, I went in reverse and after no luck at Nordstrom or DSW, I walked into Von Maur and decided to browse the clearance room racks.

Lo and behold, there were quite a few pair of frye boots in there, on sale! I was so excited, but the thing that really caught my eye were these Coach "Whitley" boots in a nice chestnut color. Having seen the boot at regular price ($398) I didn't have much hope for those being on the purchase list but tried them on since my shoes were already off. It fit like a GLOVE!! The boot shaft was perfect over the skinny jeans I was wearing and the color was exactly what I wanted. Not wanting to get my hopes up, I turned the boot over the check out the price.... then I quickly found a sales person to bring me the mate. Can you believe the markdown was $99?!?!?!?!?! I almost forgot I was supposed to be looking for dressy shoes! I boxed those babies up and called it a night! What a birthday!

The item of the day is the Gucci work bag. Not one in particular, but a friend was saying that she wanted to invest in a Gucci bag that is corporate office-friendly and would be a great long term investment at under $1,500. Since Gucci is usually significantly out of my price range, I only check out the bags when I'm "online play-shopping" or reading TPF or sites like that. Always one to share my personal shopping services and skills, I decided to put together a few options that I would recommend.

Gucci Bamboo Bar Medium Tote $1,250

Guccissima Bronze Tote (great for people who like to keep their work bag and purse separate) $1,260 (SALE)

Gucci Icon Bit Large Tote $1,600

Key factors for me when finding a work-worthy bag are:

1. papers/binders should fit comfortably in the bag should I have a meeting to attend
2. leather, structure and quality/durability are key
3. select a color/shade that is versatile. 

I have a black bag and a burgundy bag which typically take turns serving this purpose for me when I have to meet with executives or am required to wear a suit. The black goes with almost everything, the burgundy goes with everything else. LOL! If you REALLY want to splurge, try this Gucci Crocodile tote bag for $29,900

What a bag!!!!

Hot new magazine - Swaggr

Its late and I'm tired... but I wanted to make sure I gave you all a heads up on a magazine I came across in an email link. I was just about to hit "delete" then paused and decided to check out the magazine, in case I saw some interesting clothes for future blog posts. Imagine my surprise when music began to play and the on-screen magazine pages came to life with interactive advertisements and awesome photographic images. I immediately sent the link to a few friends, all of whom has proclaimed this to be one of their new favorite magazines!

Check out Swaggr.com for the online issues, which take magazine reading to a level I've never seen! The articles cover hip-hop artists, new products and technology tools, industry related fashions and accessories, and plenty of other cool topics.

Check it out and I hope you enjoy it!
**watch the volume if you're at work, the music plays when the page opens.

FREE Birthday Food

I am ALL ABOUT free food! And your birthday is the best time for it. Last year I was in the middle of a no-spending challenge so the free certificates really came in handy. This year, they are just as great! When the emails come in I print them out and put them in my purse. So when I am driving around and pass one of the places I just stop and eat!

Earlier this week I enjoyed a delicious (FREE) meal from Noodles & Co, where the waiter made the great suggestion of the Pasta Cavatappi dish with a bowl of Tomato Basil Bisque soup. Very tasty!

Today I ventured out solo to use my Benihana coupon which entitled me to 1 free entree. I normally do the hibachi style chicken and shrimp combo and figured that would be a great lunch on a cold day. Since it was lunch the price was reduced to around $11 or so. When I placed my order the waiter said "That is cheap for lunch time. You get up to $30 for a free entree. Why don't you get something bigger??" I said , "Ok, maybe lobster? I dunno... you have any suggestions?" he immediately suggested the $35 Benihana Ocean Treasure which includes hibachi style lobster tail, mussels, scallops and jumbo shrimp. As a seafood lover, I was sold from the jump....

And it was AMAZING!!!!!!!! I snapped a pic on the grill. Can't beat that!

Up next: I still have Braxton Seafood, Maggiano's, Brio Tuscan Grill, Cold Stone Creamery, FlatTop Grill, Applebee's and a couple of others!

The item of the day just earned me the official title of Girlfriend of the Year!! As a gadget geek, I am pretty sure Bobby loves not having to ever research anything electronic, because he knows I already have and can run down the list of features, how it works and why I/we need it. Bobby has a huge TV and last year I won a BOSE stereo system, which I donated to his entertainment center and hooked up to a receiver a friend of his gave him which gave an almost ultimate experience. The downside, was that Bobby loves his music. So in order to play the music from his macbook through the speakers, he had to hook the macbook to the receiver and essentially leave it there, since the cables weren't long enough to keep the laptop on the couch. He had to get up and hunch over the mac to change songs/albums and after weeks of watching this I decided to make his life easier for Christmas....

So I bought him an Apple TV.

FINALLY (over a month after Christmas) he opened the package and hooked it up to the TV today. You would think he won the lottery as he so excitedly called me to run through all the features (which I of course already knew, LOL) and the simple setup (which was a huge selling point for me). So what does all of this mean, in a nutshell??

- he can use wi-fi to connect to the sound system and doesn't have to hunch over by the receiver. Now he can control it from the couch.
- beyond the couch, he can actually control the music wirelessly from any room in the house.
- he can rent movies in HD without us having to get calls from Blockbuster asking for the movies we rented weeks ago.
- he can watch the videos from his and his friends YouTube channels on the big screen. In HD.
- I can rest until next December knowing I accomplish my goal and my title still stands! :-)