A Walk Down Fashion Lane

As I've started to really get settled into our new home, I've come across a few big boxes with all my old modeling photos & portfolios.  I need to organize them in some manner.  That'll be a fun project for a few rainy days.  It's really fun to have a visual catalog of my life pretty much from age 14-20 something.  I was the 2nd child in our family, so before that there aren't many photos of me.  My mom took tons of my older sister but not much of me...she laughs and tells me that I made up for it later in life by modeling. 

These photos were taken by a photographer named Joseph Berard.  I really liked the soft quality of these photos.  Gosh I was such a baby. I think I was about 17 in these photos.  And I hated my short hair but now, I'm thinking it looked pretty good!  :)

A MUST Read

A few years ago, I took this book with me on a family vacation to Hawaii.  I have to admit that I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to books because if they take too long to get the storyline going, I won't keep picking them up.  Life's short!  I'll find something better to do with my time!  But THIS BOOK WAS FABULOUS!  I'm serious.  I couldn't put it down the whole vacation.  I've recommended it to a ton of my friends and now that the movie has been made with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, then I really have to give a shout out to all my new blog friends as well! Here's a synopsis of the plot:
Veterinary school student Jacob meets and falls in love with Marlena, a star performer in a circus of a bygone era. They discover beauty amidst the world of the Big Top, and come together through their compassion for a special elephant. Against all odds -- including the wrath of Marlena's charismatic but dangerous husband, August-- Jacob and Marlena find lifelong love.


So go get it and read it before the movie comes out!  Then we'll all convene here to discuss how the movie didn't compare to how fabulous the book was, like we always do! :)

A Reason To Buy New Shoes

I just spent the afternoon at DSW looking for just the right new pair of black strappy heels to wear to a function I have tomorrow.  I didn't find just what I was looking for, but left with a cute pair of Coach cork shoes anyway.  Purchasing a new pair of heels for no special reason is a non-issue for most Americans.  But,  unbelievably, for hundreds of millions of children, shoes are something that they simply can't afford. In many developing countries, even right here in the United States, children walk barefoot everyday.  In countries such as Africa, children have to walk for miles to get to school or to gather water for their families, risking injury, infections, and exposure to soil-transmitted diseases. In some of these countries not having shoes poses another problem because many schools require shoes for attendance, giving children without them absolutely no opportunity to learn and become educated, which, of course, continues the cycle of poverty. And as TOMS states, "some soil-based diseases not only cause physical symptoms, but create cognitive impairment too, crippling a child’s long-term potential."

What is TOMS?  TOMS is a company that is doing something to get shoes to the children in need!  I love this company, started by the very handsome, if I may say so, Blake Mycoskie.  Wait...let me show you~~

See what I mean?  Yeah, I  know.  Anyway, I got off track, Blake is the Founder & "Chief Shoe Giver" of TOMS Shoes. He's the man behind what they call the One for One movement. "The One for One" movement means that for every pair of shoes you purchase, a pair is given to a child who has never had a pair of shoes!!  That very slogan is actually written on every shoe.  Yeah, it's kinda amazing!  They say that "as of April 2010, TOMS has given over 1,000,000 pairs of new shoes to children in need through giving partners around the world."  They also have shoe drops that you can sign up to go on.  These are the trips they take to deliver the shoes to the children.  It's sort of on my bucket list to go on a shoe drop but even though I've entered my name on their website many times, I've yet to get a call to go on a shoe drop.  :(  Maybe someday. 
So I really encourage everyone to go buy a pair of TOMS.  They are super cute and comfy~~awesome for travel since they slip on and off really easy.  And BEST OF ALL, every time you buy a pair, you know a child will get a pair!  How cool is that?  You can find them at Wholefoods, Whole Earth Provisions, Nordstroms, Bergdorfs, Amazon.com, online at TOMS.com or I think even Neiman Marcus has them now.  We've purchased at least 10 pair so far. They're a little pricey at around $50.00 for most pairs but when you know you're buying 2 pair of shoes~it makes sense.  Our last pair was the new pink glitter TOMS...my daughter gets compliments on them every time she wears them!  So YAY!!  There's a great excuse to go shoe shopping!  Let me know what pair you get!

                                                           http://www.toms.com/

*Much of the information for this post was found on the fabulous TOMS website!

Feeling Campy

Good Golly folks, what have I just done!!  I just clicked the "Verify" button to register my youngest at a 2 week summer camp that's she's been asking to go to with her friends!  I know it's a wonderful place and a lifetime experience, but I've never been away from either of my girls for 2 WEEKS!!  OK...I'm taking deep breaths.  She's going to have a ball but what about me!?  I'm going to be a mess for 2 long weeks!  This is true love people.  I don't do well with shipping my younguns off to camps with no phone call rules.  What's with that??  Why can't she call home?  Maybe I should plan a trip to Paris or something while she's gone to preoccupy myself.  I know I sound like a kook but seriously, 1 week, I could handle, but 2 weeks is a looooong dad blasted time.  It's a wonderful Christian camp that has horses and her friends and all kinds of cool things to do all day...truly, it's kid heaven!  Oh, I can't wait for her to get home from school to tell her...she's going to be SO EXCITED!!  :)

Gustavian Design

As I've been looking online for ideas for my living room, I've come across the most gorgeous rooms to use as inspiration.  These room as soft, monochromatic, weathered yet elegant.  I love the ease and comfy feeling these rooms have.  I would want to lay on that couch and get lost in a wonderful novel & never leave!

Notice the beautiful woodwork above the door frame!!  What a lovely touch!  Everything is whitewashed for a clean feeling!  And I love the chandelier!!

Here is another view of the same room above.  The reclaimed wooden doors are gorgeous.  There a simplicity about this room.  It's so elegant yet easy and unpretentious.  I'm ready to move in!!

Photography by Gilles Trillard

Drape Dread!!

We've been in our home now for almost a year & I have to say, that while decorating has been fun, there's one area that I really have not enjoyed doing...drapes!  I find drapes to be so tricky.  I'm not a professional decorator, so the measurements, choosing a fabric & having them installed...it's all a little intimidating to me.  And for good reason ~  I had custom drapes made for our front dining room & the creamy color fabric, when turned into drapes & hung up, showed way more yellow than I expected.  They don't work in the room.  Let me tell you friends, that's an expensive mistake.  So now I need to figure out what to do with these beautiful, yet too yellow for my paint color (Linen Weave) drapes and have new ones made. 
I tend to be drawn to serene rooms.  The drapes I'm seeing lately that I like are pretty simple, so I really have no idea why I'm torturing my self over this aspect of decorating my home, other than the big mistake of the last drapes turning yellow on me! I'm such a silly goose!  I know what I love.  I like monochromatic, quirky, elegance.  Comfort is Queen!!  I lean very far towards Swedish/Gustavian decor.  Let me show you:
This is what I'm aiming for~~
This house was from the Fabulous movie, "Something's Gotta Give"  I love the color palette of this house.

                       Photos from the fabulous http://hookedonhouses.net/                      

Pedicures, Pastels, and Pilgrimmages

This post was one of my 1st posts I wrote when I started this blog last year.

I thought it would be fun to reprint since I've found new readers since it was posted a year ago!

Enjoy!

I really usually enjoy this time of year...the week the majority of my friends head North to conquer the great antique hunt in the big city of Roundtop, Texas/Population: 77. It's a time to get out of Houston and weed through piles of junk & jewels to find just the thing you never knew you couldn't live without! To meet up with all the gals you see all the time in Houston, but still want to stop to chat with in the tents of Marburger. And for all of us natural born bargain hunters...well, it's just plain fun! Alas, this year I have other things in the stars for this week and none of them include traipsing through fields looking for diamonds in the ruff. I'm in the midst of wading the perils of interior paint! So while the majority of everyone I know was perusing Ironstone and vintage linens amidst the tents, there I was the other day, standing at Benjamin Moore waiting patiently to get my glaze, when an adorable young preggo walked up beside me with 2 little toddlers in tow. She was dressed in a pastel Lilly Pulitzer-esque shift dress with the fabric stretched waaaay out over her baby bump and looked ever so fresh and adorable...very ready for Spring! As her 2 crayola toting tots sat on the floor coloring away as mom made her order, I made note of the fact that I was still dressed in my NYC head to toe black. Now make no mistake, I make no apologies for my love of black. I'll wear black anywhere, anytime, in any degree of heat. I LOVE it. It's comfortable & I'm a big believer in uniforms. "No brainers" I call them. Good ol stand by's that require little brain power and can be grabbed, thrown on and get you out the door in a flash. Einstein also was a devotee to the uniform. It's even been rumored that Einstein wore the same thing everyday to save precious cerebral energy for more important things. So you see I'm a lot like Einstein! Einstein and East Coasters... and each year there comes a time when I have to weigh comfort against conformity and I think the time is upon us. Usually for me, comfort wins! So as the steady flow of Houstonives cram their SUV's full of newly found treasures from Round Top and dash homeward through the bluebonnets this week, I can't help but take stock that Spring has Sprung...it's time to dehusk my hooves with a serious pedicure, get out my sandals and make plans to put at least some of my black away. It won't be easy though. Maybe there's a 12 step program somewhere? Oh well ~ parting is such sweet sorrow. I'll miss you my dark friend....if only for a few days before I pull you back out!