A Much Needed Break

For many of us, the extended Thanksgiving weekend marks the beginning of the holiday season. A time to share a good meal, spend time with your family, and shop till you drop. It is a time when we give thanks for the simple things - a healthy family, warm shelter, and a good meal. During this time, we often think of those that are less fortunate, families who have a child struggling with cancer, or those wondering where they will sleep for the night or from where their next meal will come. It is important to remember that each of us can make a difference during this season. Donate your time to a worthy charity and help serve meals at your local shelter. Or if your time is limited, donate money to causes like Second Harvest, or to children's organizations like Make a Wish or your local YMCA or community organization. The ideas are endless and every little bit counts. We can all benefit from being kind to one another and offering our helping hand during the holiday season. We are thankful for all of our readers and customers and wish you and your family a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

The Look For Less...Much Less

Check it out...Lady Language has a very comparable version of Anthropologie's Shoe String Cardigan.

Just as versatile, comfortable and perfect for your layering needs...the Holiday Swing Cardigan is half the price!

Holiday Sweepstakes Week 4

We enjoyed reading all of your comments and thank you for participating in our sweepstakes - it was really hard to randomly pick a winner. We wanted to give all of you a red party dress! So we picked two winners from our blog commenters only (congrats to Jessi and Sassy).

For the upcoming holiday week, we will be giving away a black sweater dress (pick a size from S, M, L). This is a great dress for the holiday season - wear it with tights and add some sparkling accessories or a great belt. We will pick the winner next Sunday evening and all you have to do is comment on any blog post or sign up for our newsletter. Good Luck and have a safe holiday!

Note to Self

Ugly shoes = Ugly dress. Seriously, your shoes can ruin the whole look of your outfit. I came across this lovely while browsing the Couture In The City blog. This dress was a winner from Project Runway, Rami Kashou. The shoes and the dress are both quite nice on their own, however, together the ensemble is a disaster. The chunky front strap and heel distract your attention away from the beautiful draping and also make the model look a bit planted. Maybe the stylist was going for the Grecian sandal look. I would have paired this goddess dress with a sleeker heel or at least one with a smaller strap. And, I would rock those heels with a mini. But then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Speaking of beauty - our weekly sweepstakes drawing is tomorrow for that fabulous red dress. Good luck to everyone (we are going to give away two this week!) and there is still time to comment and win!

To Vest or Not to Vest

We are seeing a lot of vests on the fashion landscape lately. My pal Amber seems to like them and most recently thrifted a blue beauty and layered it over a cowl neck tunic. I have seen them layered on top of one another, and I have also seen them worn over a skimpy tank top or with nothing at all. I must admit, the vest reminds me of 80s alternative rock bands, but I was unable to find a good picture, so check out this 80s cover band I came across for a really good laugh. Vests are popular again due to the strong menswear influence this season but don't invest (ha,ha) too much as this may be a passing trend. Here are some of my current vested inspirations:

I could work this - vest over big warm turtleneck sweater. I love the shoes and doesn't yinse resemble Hillary Duff here?

Little black shortie vest worn casually with a white tee, jeans and black pumps. So chic and pulled together by thoseshoes.aremine

Polished yet feminine - love the neutrality, the layers, a la The Coveted.

So how do you wear your vest? Or is this a trend that you will surely pass by?

Weekly Dose of...Spice

Need a little extra spice in your life? I certainly don’t, especially not after seeing the new Spice Girls video - friends forever or whatever it's called. Don’t get me wrong, I like each spice girl as an individual, but collectively, I can’t stomach them. My 4 year old daughter has more talent than these five put together. But seriously, the song is insipid and the video is bordering on lesbian-eroticism (not that I even know much about this subject). Of course, only the skinny girls get to bare it all, hugging the walls in their bra with that come hither look. In reality, it seems that these lovely thirty-something gals are feeling the aging effects the same as the rest of us (thank you make-up and lighting!). And where did Victoria get that bondage outfit from - surely Marc Jacobs would think twice about using her as his runway model if he saw this. And what does Mr. Beckham think about his wife portraying such a slut - she has three children for pete’s sake (now I sound like my Mother). I actually like Victoria Beckham - I don’t know her, but she seems like a nice English girl who is just trying to live life and get paid. I admittedly liked the other Spice Girl songs back in the 90s and they really could have left it at that. BTW, my laptop speakers stopped working right after I launched this video. Coincidence? I think not.

7 Weird and Random Facts About Me

I didn't realize that joining NaBloPoMo would put us on the spot, but I have been tagged by Nancy Waldman, a wonderful writer in the NaBloPoMo network.

So my apologies to Jessica and Stephanie - I won't drag my beautiful sisters down with me, so I will post the facts about myself - yowza!

1. I only have half of my thyroid gland (I thought this interesting because the gal who tagged me, Nancy, stated she didn’t have a thyroid gland) - weird connection.

2. I own a clothing store yet my favorite outfit is sweats (you won’t find me ransacking the stockroom).

3. I like to swing (on the playground, in a swing)

4. I had a miscarriage - my very first pregnancy.

5. Some say I look like Helen Hunt? I’ll take it as a compliment, she’s alright.

6. I can go days without a shower and rarely wear makeup or fuss with my hair.

7. I am a very shy and private person and don’t like to talk about myself so it has been difficult coming up with these random facts!

So what happens now? I have to use the mysterious randomizer to choose seven lucky NaBloPoMo participants and they must come to me. Once they arrive, check out their responsibility:

• Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs. You have to use this randomizer, no, you can't choose your friends - go meet new ones!
• Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Whew! Thats a lot of work for some of us, so good luck to ya'll and I am sending some blogging love your way: Starland, FruComerci, City Mama, Maria, ljcfyi, Babblative and GummieSpazz