Morocco, Baby!

I'm off to Marrakech tomorrow for a little over a week so I will be totally and completely unavailable to blog! But I am sure I will have lots of good stuff to tell you when I get back.

In the meantime, my suitcase has grown beyond my control. I started out so well, taking pictures of outfits, eliminating too many pairs of shoes, being very practical. But then the weather turned unseasonably warm there (97 degrees tomorrow!), and I have to be somewhat covered up but I don't want to be wearing jackets in that kind of heat so... blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the clothes I'm bringing will pretty much cover any situation in heat, cold, desert, city, camel ride or taxi ride. Seriously. I am very prepared.

Can't wait to share the pictures!

Laila Tiaba!

The Dress Was the Winner!



Me and My Love



Last night, Josh and I went to the HRC Annual Dinner. It was a wonderful night where we made some new friends, saw an outstanding performance by Cirque de Soleil, and listened to some AMAZING speeches. If you haven't yet heard of Corey Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, you will soon. Wow! If he ends up in the White House, I wouldn't be one bit surprised. I hope all of my friends from New Jersey vote for him in his race for the Governor's seat. The summation of Mr. Booker's speech is this- Amercia has not yet realized it's goal of liberty and justice for all. We are still working towards that. And the sooner people stop thinking of this battle as a "gay rights" battle, the better. This is a HUMAN rights battle.

Needless to say, the night was emotional. However, on a more shallow and superficial level, I was having fun because I got to dress up- and you know how I love a fancy party! The dress was the winner. I chickened out on the sequin tube top, mostly because I had eaten four pieces of pizza at my son's birthday party earlier in the day. Hahaha! Anyway, it's hard to see because the pictures are a little dark but here I am. The dress is by A.L.C.. The CRAZY GORGEOUS shoes are by Miu Miu. Around my neck was a vintage necklace by Judith Leiber and a 19th century pearl necklace to name two. (I had a little soiree de cou goin' on!), and lots of bracelets by Alexis Bittar, Ben Amun for Isaac Manevitz and more. I was heavily jewerly laden! Finally, the black fringe jacket is by BCBG.

I'm already looking forward to next year!

ahhh....the shoes.




 

Comfy, I swear!



What To Wear to the HRC Annual Dinner?

I have been so remiss with blogging for the past month. Frankly, I just ran out of steam. Not about ideas for things to wear and there certainly is no shortage of content from all the fashion shows. No... I just got tired of having to do it all the time. Sorry about that. But I'm going to try and make a comeback so bear with me.

Up next in my life (not including the YMCA Alexandria 5k race and my son's 4th birthday party on Saturday) is the HRC Annual Dinner on Saturday night! I LOVE any chance to dress up so of course I've been obsessing.

I know what I'm wearing... but you don't. Here are two looks that I've tossed about and one of them (well... a close version of it) will be walking in to the most fabulous party of the year. Take a guess which one it will be. I'll post a picture so you know if you guessed correctly!

Which To Wear by milkbreadfashion featuring sequin tops

Alice + Olivia alice olivia / ASOS sequin top / Mango straight jacket / A.L.C. slim fit pants / Miu Miu platform booties / Charlotte Olympia platform pumps / Erickson Beamon rose earrings / Kenneth Jay Lane emerald earrings

The Fashion Show!

To say that I'm tired would be an understatement. The Fashion's Night Out Fashion Show at the Torpedo Factory on Thursday night was a huge event, took a huge amount of time, but, most importantly was a smashing success and worth every single minute. There were a couple hundred people in attendance and the vibe was festive and exciting. Monte Durham from Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta was our emcee and what an emcee he was. He was the most sincere, hilarious, happy-to-be-there celebrity emcee I've ever experienced. He was great. The models were out of this world. I mean that truly. Our celebrity models included Dr. Katy Nelson (@drkatynelson), Tommy McFly (@tommyMcFLY), Sonya Gavankar-McKay (@SonyaTV), Pamela Sorenson (@pamelaspunch), and Britt McHenry (@BrittMcHenry). They were such a nice group of people, all beautiful (and handsome!), and all willing to help out however we needed. Our professional models were gorgeous. They were total dolls and I appreciated how laid-back and cool they were. Maurisa Potts made this entire FNOAlexandria thing happen, big time. Maggy Francois was a fantastic show producer and her assistants, Ariella Faith and Joel Cas were SO helpful and had great insight. Tara Zimnick-Calico from the Torpedo Factory is my new favorite person in the world- she was a beautiful model, worked incredibly hard to make this whole thing happen, and was very supportive. Love her! Finally, the stores. What can I say but that the beautiful clothing, shoes, and accessories came exclusively from the FABULOUS stores in Alexandria. If you want to look as good as ANY of the models, visit all of these stores. I mixed and matched from a lot of them and created outfits that were as fashionable as you'll find anywhere. So keep shopping and support our local boutiques. Oh, and if you feel like you can't quite put those outfits together yourself, call me. That's what I'm here for!

Tonight Twitter Made Me Really Happy

I'm kinda sorta new to Twitter. I've been signed up for about a year but I've really only been using it for about 4 months. Hilariously (or perhaps embarrassingly) the reason for my delay was that I didn't understand I had to get a separate app for my phone in order to access it from there. Which is actually the only place that I access it. Then again, I didn't have any apps until about the time I figured out the twitter app thing so that just goes to show that this whole social media thing is not exactly second nature to me.

All that said, now that I'm in to twitter, I'm really IN to twitter. It is tough not to check it constantly. Really, you have to check it constantly for it to be relevant. And of course I have to tweet. That's been a learning experience too. You have to be careful about what you put out there. For example, one night at the beach after one too many glasses of wine, I thought somebody in twitter land might be interested in a picture of me with a sunburned forehead and nose. The cold light of morning made me quickly realize no one wanted to see that so I deleted it but it goes to show how easy it is to get yourself in lots of trouble real quick.

Anyhoo, this is way too much about twitter and not nearly enough about what I saw on twitter today that made me so happy. This bracelet by Venessa Arizaga. (ness218 on instagram tweeted a pic of this fantastic bauble and I added pics of a necklace and another bracelet.)

Venessa Arizaga by milkbreadfashion on Polyvore

I hadn't heard of Venessa but I am totally in love with her stuff. So thank you twitter person who tweeted this picture! Being obsessive has its benefits.

Seeing Red

As a blonde, red is not my favorite color. Generally speaking, I think it is a tough color for my light hair and fair skin to pull off, especially in a dress. Lucky for me, the huge red trend for this season embraces all shades including deep burgundy. No matter what shade you love, you can find a piece that works for you. Coats, jackets, pants, dresses, shoes, bags... all have fantastic options in red. Happy days!

Seeing Red by milkbreadfashion featuring high heel pumps

Joie v neck dress
joie.com

Burberry long sleeve silk shirt
$855 - farfetch.com

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania coat
net-a-porter.com

Theory blazer
theory.com

J.Crew side zip pants
jcrew.com

Gucci high heel pumps
net-a-porter.com

Diane von Furstenberg hobo shoulder bag
dvf.com

Solange Azagury Partridge red jewelry
$1,570 - astleyclarke.com

Dannijo and Shoes? Thank You Lord!

So, today I'm wrapping up pulling clothes from the amazing boutiques for FNO Alexandria and I make my last stop Bishop Boutique. Of course there were lots of gorgeous shoes and jewelry for the show but, in typical fashion, I found a little something for myself. You know how much I love the jewelry design duo known as Dannijo?... Well, today I found out they collaborated with Matt Bernson and one of the fruits of their labor was THESE BAD-ASS FRINGE BOOTS! Oh yeah! Calf hair, suede, and fringe down the side. It's pretty darn cool.