Leifsdottir Deal

With summer comes to the end, a lot of good sales are going on.  Remember that beautiful yellow dotted skirt on the cover of Anthropologie spring issue?  

The blue version came down to $49.95 on Leifsdottir's website.  I honestly doesn't know whether Leifsdottir's cloth is worth $198 for a cotton skirt as the price normally deter me from even trying it on. But at $50, it is a bit tempting.

Acadiana Ruffle Skirt $198 $49.95 Leifsdottir

Crepe Myrtle Cardigan $158 $39.95 Leifsdottir

Evelet Petticoat Shorts $188 $49.95 Leifsdottir

When the brainless action become art - weekend DVD recommendation

Happy Friday! If you are like me, tied in with the kids,  or just want to get cozy staying at home, here are some recommendations for some brainless action movies to check out.

District 13 and District 13 Ultimatum

I honestly couldn't decide which one of those two leads are cuter.  Leito is the escape artist.  If you think the beginning of the Quantum Menace's escape sequence is fancy, wait till you check out those sequence pulled by Leito. He is as nimble as Jackie Chan when Jackie Chan is young.   Some of the stuns are almost too funny.  For instance when Daimen gets in a robbed car when he escapes from jail,  he jumped so high with both feet closed together and no knee bend, sticking into the front door of the car like someone throw a piece of wood log.  Hard to visualize that, I know, that is why you have to see the movie yourself.


Equilibrium

This is a relatively old movie. The reason I checked it out is because Christian Bale's voice dubbing at Howel's moving castle had completely transform Howell's wimpy character into a charming gentlemen.  It turns out to be a very entertaining movie.  The setting of the movie reminds me of Orwell's book 1984.  In this movie, the society polices and suppress any human desires and feeling as the root of war.  The idea is not entirely novel, but still interesting and philosophical enough.  The fighting scene resembles the style of Jet Li in First of Legend, which is also one to many in close combat.

Finally, this is the outfit I was going to submit to Cat for her weekly anthro at work, but right after I upload the pictures from my card, I notice she has already post the anthro at work for this week.  Maybe she can take it for next week?

It is the first time I wore the Acting out skirt since I bought it in July with my birthday discount card.  I rarely pay full price on Anthro items.  This one is an exception.  I felt it kind of matches every top I tried in the fitting room so it can be very versatile.  Pencil skirt is usually not very forgiving if you have a tummy to hide like me and this one somehow works.

Top: Anthro Flowing Tiers Tank
Cardigan: JCREW long V-neck Cardi
Skirt: Anthro Acting out skirt
Necklace: Ann Taylor ($20, Yay!)

Design for less, is it really a deal?

Target is the store known for mass producing designer design for cheap.  The big rave lately has been the Tucker for Target.  Every time something like this happen, I really wanted to go to Target store to try it out.  Why not? Who doesn't want fashionable cloth for less, right?  Then every time I was let down.

Last time it was Liberty of London.  I had such a high hope for the home items because the print is just lovely!  I had bought some accessories in the past from JCREW who also use liberty printed fabric.  I love the vibrant color and they were very good for summer and spring.  Target's version? Not so great.  The color come out kind of a muddy.  The lines are unclean and the color not as bright as it can be.  I did end up buying a 3 tiered ruffle dress for my daughter and she got a lot of complements from other parents and teachers.  However, the dress is a mess after a wash. It was so wrinkled that I had to iron it.  OK, a 4 year old cloth needs ironing? That is just ridiculous!

I am not big fan of Tucker for Target this time either. I love the beautiful flower on the orange dress.  I love the polka dot blouse.   They all look very good on the website. I had to find an excuse to go to target store.  But when I went to the store, it is not exiting.  The fabric is so thin and unlined.  It just feels cheap.  The touch and feel is just not right. The price? Not necessarily very cheap.  $39.99 for a polyester dress?  I felt with another $20, I can get much better quality brand when they are on sale. So I guess the question is that do you prefer to get 1 dress that is $80, or 2 dresses but with less desirable quality?

It is not just target.  Other brand like Vera Wong for Kohl has a similar issue. In order to cut cost, dress is  unlined, materials are often of a cheaper type such polyester,  process are simplified with less attention to detail.   I guess the lower price has to come out from somewhere, right?

So I ask myself, am I turning into a snob?  I hope not.  I still love Target.  It is always clean and big and they do have some really nice items,  maybe just not so much the design for less brands.

Nordstrom sale finds

Nordstrom really have a lot of similar items Anthropologie has or perhaps even more? And their price cut are usually pretty aggressive compare to Bloomingdale's or similar. The other thing is their database system and customer service made returning items to store so painless. They offer rebates on store card and beats which made shopping there that much more attractive than anthropology.

I love the soft pink flower print and the drape neck.  The length looks a bit short on the model to be work appropriate however, but it could be that the model is very tall.

Hinge Drape Neck dress $51.90

Really like the blue and gold contrast on this top.  It reminds me a peacock for some reason. 

Filtre Crochet Inset Top $31.90

Peony, the background and title picture of this blog

As you probably noticed, the blog title and background are both fill with peony.  It is my favorite flower.

Tree peony is Chinese national flowers.  It doesn't do me much when I was young.  I have only seen it in Chinese paintings and it is always this big cluster of red/pink, or sometimes even black and white.  It is just too ordinary to inspire any love.  I have never seen a real one as the region we were at is too hot for peony to grow.

Then I visited Yamagami nursery one year when the tree peony is in full bloom.  The flower is huge.  The purplish red flower has a velvet shine to it.  I was in love!  I have never seen any flower s so strikingly beautiful and I understand how it had earned the name "king of the flower" in China.  The chinese paintings,  because of the water color format,  is too thin and watery to capture its rich color and beauty.  To me, the best material to capture this is probably heavy oil canvas painting. We bought the variety call 洛阳红 (red of luo yang) for $200. Luoyang is the city in China that are famous for growing tree peonies.  It was a splurge and it was my Valentine's day gift for that year. (note, the picture doesn't do the flower justice!)

The second year, our gardener mistaken it for a bush peony and cut it to ground.  I was furious and after the gardener was unrepent about his mistake, I fired him.  However, it does not bring my beloved peony back.

Sunset magazine did a feature on Peony this spring and this is how I find out about the Chateau Charmarron peony garden.  The website said it is better to plant the flower in the fall.  I waited till this week to visit.  The road to the garden is a winding one.  Despite the website recommends starting from Calavaras/237 east, I thought it is better to go on from Serra road after i have been there.   We follow the direction from website and there were signs regarding the peony garden all the way.  The road become smaller and smaller and the scenic was quite nice.  There are eagles hunting on the sky and you will see cows and horse along the way.  We got to one point that the road become 1 lane and there were service vehicles to remove branches so we had to wait for a while.  Then we missed the sign for the peony garden and we start hitting down hill on Serra.  It didn't seem right, so I called the garden and confirmed that I had pass it because the garden is on the hill top.

Finally we arrived.  The garden also have a few llama and  my daughter was reluctant to go close by.  After we assure her that the llama won't spit on her pretty dress, she get closer and was very curious about it.

 I chatted with the lady in the garden.  She has most of the variety sold out in the spring when the customer come enjoyed the blooms.  I really should had come then because it must be very beautiful when there are so many in bloom at once.   She is waiting for the new shipment to pass agriculture.  I end up buying a 乌龙捧盛, the darkest red variety that was available. The name translate to  a black dragon holding a blooming flower.  Nothing much to look at this point because they are just 4 stem bare roots, but I do hope they grow to beautiful flowers!

On a different note, I have notice this Tea House Cardi on Anthro's site.  I'm very curious by it as it didn't receive much blogger attention.  However its rich vibrant color provokes the same feeling of a red peony.

Disaster Preparation

It feels the world is coming to the end sometimes.  Earthquakes, wild fire, so many natural disasters and so close to home.  It was freaky that last Thursday night, I dreamt all night about a fire coming our way and I was desperately to evacuate the things.  The next morning, first thing I heard about is the San Bruno explosion and fire that happened the evening  before although I didn't hear the news in anyways

Having a disaster so close to home make me think of how little I am prepared for disasters. I think in the next few weeks I need to:

1. Pack a go bag.
2. Store food that does not require refrigeration
3. Store 12 gallon water in total.
4. Call a handy man to fasten all the bookcases
5. Find a data storage site that is away from our city to upload documents and pictures.

Things in the Go bag:

• Pictures of each family member.
• coins for pay phone and small changes
• flash light
• swiss army knife
• some food/water
• a set of change cloth for everyone
• whistle
• a set of contact lens
• list of emergency contact
• tooth brush and tooth paste
• battery operated radio and batteries
• health insurance card and doctor contact
• first aide kit
• allergie medicine
• duct tape?
• extra keys to house and car

Things remember to grab before we go: 

Security blankets for the kids

Anything I'm missing anything major?

New routine

In my recent trip to Seattle, I  had unexpectedly discover that I gained 10 lbs over the last couple of month.  My first reaction was that the scale was broken until my little girl step on the scale.  I blame this little misfortune on our smaller bathroom after last year's move.  The bathroom was so small that you cannot even open the door without bumping the person inside.  Without a scale, I have no conscience when I over eat and not exercise.

I pretty much had the luxury of not worrying about over weight for the past 30 some years of my life, so I shouldn't really complain.  I was underweight for the most part.  In college, I don't even qualify for blood donation because I fail the weight requirement.  My last weight hike is after I finish college and start working.  With regular meal and less all nighters and no walking around campus, I gain 10 lb in mere 6 month.  Funny that I thought the scale was broken too that time.   Having two children didn't effect on my weight.  I had such bad morning sickness, my weight always drop and then come back up to my normal range.   So the last 15+ years, I fluctuated between 110 and 118, but had never past that.

Well, I must be getting old.  The days of eating without consequences has gone.  So here is what I will do in my morning routine.

7:00 -- Get up, boil water for my tea.  Make breakfast for the family.
7:30 -- wake Evelyn up, while hubby will take Aaron. Help Evelyn with her hair.
7:45 -- Eat breakfast with kids.
8:00 -- Pack lunch for everyone. Pack Evelyn's school bag. Take out the meat to defrost. Write our nanny a note for the day
8:10 -- brush Evelyn's teeth
8:15 - kick Hubby and the kids out of the house.  clean up the table. vacuum the floor. clean up kid's bedroom. make the beds. open all the windows downstairs. take the robot vacuum out for a run.
8:30 - fast walk on treadmill for 20 minutes
8:50 - sit ups
9:00-9:15 shower
9:15-9:30 getting dressed. brush teeth, blow dry hair etc.
9:30 out of the door for work

Now this will get me to work about 10:00 everyday, which is a bit late. But consider A lot of my co-worker go workout in the afternoon, I think that should do for now.  Unless I want to get up at 6:30.  Then I can move 8:30-9:00 to 6:30-7:00.  Somehow getting up at 6:30 sounded very dreadful, especially when it comes to the fall. 6:30 is not even light out.

Do you have any tip for losing weight? Especially the guts?  I hate restraint eating.  I am so into food.  Maybe I will eat less Carb.  I must admit, I do eat more Carb more than I used to lately.

Here is an OOTD that I will submit to Cat on her weekly Anthro at work feature.

Top: Vanilla bean blouse I scored during my Chicago Trip
Bottom: Ann Taylor Loft Marisa Capri
Cardigan: AE aerie cardigan.
Shoes: J-41 slingback

Anthro Palo Alto store

My recent obsession with Anthropologie includes scouting different stores for sale items especially the 2nd cut items. However that is not easy with the store in Santana Row.  I finally got a chance to check out the Palo Alto store. My daughter had a shorter school day and an dentist appointment in the morning nearby.  I have to take the day off anyway.  We went after her appointment.

The store kind of located at a obscure place, near Alma street, which is the extenuation of the Central expressway.  It is not close to any other apparel stores.   The store is a steel rusted red color and has a little water fountain outside.  My 4 year old is quite fascinated by it.  I regard it as good Fengsui practice, blocking the road noise on Alma.  There are lots of street parking as it was a weekday, but the car speed on the road is so fast, it is almost scary. I waited for a long time before I can get out of the car.  Just when I thought the road it is clear,  within the time of unclipping my daughter from her seat belt, there are more cars coming.   As she was slowly getting out of car,  I picked her up and ran for our lives as the newly approaching car are not reducing speed , although they can probably see us from distance away.  The car zoom by within arm's length.  My daughter's sunglasses drop in the middle of the street and I was too scared to pick it up.

There were ample space in the store and almost have a warehouse feeling to it. Maybe it was a warhorse before?   It opens from 10-7:00pm during weekday. If you work like me,  chance of making in to the store during weekdays is small.  That probably explains why there were more left overs on sale items than Santana Row.  I was able to pick up the grand island dress in purple with my size.

I was looking for the best of bunches cardigan but they haven't made it to the stores yet.  Somehow the staff in this store doesn't feel as nice and friendly as the ones in Santana Row or any other stores I visited although they are perfectly polite.   I am not sure why I felt that way.  Maybe because they weren't checking up on you as often or offer to start you a room like the other places.  When I approach the SA  asking about the best of bunches cardigan, they continue talking between themselves for quite some time before took notice on me.   There were also less SA available in general in this store too, probably due to less customers.

My daughter soon get bored because I didn't bring a camera and my phone's battery is dying.  I have to save the last breath of the battery so I can call my hubby to coordinate lunch. So I let her took one picture while I was trying the Pholox and Coral coat. Sorry for the poor quality, her little hand always shakes when she take a picture.  In a low lighting, this is probably the best she can do.  Hey, at least this time my head is not cut off....

As many reviewers had tried on before,  the visual of the coat is stunning.  The flower embroidery is very rich and detailed.  I like the coral red trim and the color of the buttons, but the buttons are plastic, which could be better if they are some kind of coral color stone material. To me this is a statement coat and not a very warm one either, probably a good thing for the mild bay area weather.  I have serious doubt about how versatile can it get.  For me, I'd probably only wear it during Chinese new year or something festive as it reminds me of traditional Chinese brocade coat （棉袄) . The collar can be wear stand up or flat down.  The length is mid thigh. Bottom of the coat flares out a bit.  I don't know it has anything to do with the full skirt I was wearing that day.  but the flare make my hip look very wide.  I don't even have much of a hip to begin with. Size wise, I sized up to a 4 because I want to be able to layer it with sweater in the winter. It fit nicely with room to spare.

I think if you already have a million coats and look for something different, this one surely wins. For me,  I need to be able to get enough wear out of the $288 to make the purchase and it certainly not the case.

If you ask a men for fashion advice

I don't know about you, but I am most comfortable cloth shopping with my hubby.  He is usually pretty honest in giving me his opinions.  Sometimes I try really hard convincing him, but there are a few styles he never liked and I am always a sucker for. Here are some examples

a) empire waist.  He thinks it is for pregnant women and non-pregnant women looks like one when they put it on.

b) silk or anything smooth.  He claims it gives him the goosebump just to hear the fabric rub under the arm or touching it.

c) ruffles on trench or anything fancy.  He clams that jacket should be clean looking.  Here is an shining example of what I end up miss out

ANTHROPOLOGIE IDRA TWO PATHS TRENCH COAT

What is on your significant other's no list? Has his preference significantly effect on your purchase decisions? Have you ever back out of your purchase just because he doesn't like it?