Summer stripes

Hope you all had a good memorial day weekend!

Hubby started the Memorial day weekend by renting the "Green Zone", claiming it is a "chick" movie because it's got Matt Daemon in it.  I told him he should know that I don't even think Matt Daemon is very handsome.  Did I mention Hubby is a fan of war movie and had watched "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List" multiple times?  I on the other hand, cannot stand any movie base on reality, especially of wars or disasters or suffering that is cause by human stupidity and greed. It stresses me out big time! Needlessly to say I bail out of the movie half way.

I guess by tradition, this weekend is the official start of the summer.  It doesn't feel summer though. Highest in 70 and that is not till the mid day.  This is a half day outfit over the weekend because the other half I changed to Pajamas tot take a nap mid day. Yay! Then I change to  jeans and oversize sweat shirt to work in the garden.  My husband actually felt it very refreshing to see me in those old jeans and sweat shirts because I don't wear that kind of cloth very often any more and it kind of remind him college years when we first met.

Thanks to Jen who eased my embarrassment wearing Junior items.  So here is the debut for the Trixxi Eyelet stripe dress.   I would probably only wear it on the weekend even though my company don't really have a dress code.  My current manager already teased me about needing a curfew last time I got purple highlight, which I return the favor by asking when will he get his social security benefits.  I wasn't his direct report back then.  Things have changed,  I felt I lost a friend when I was told I would report to him because my previous manager wants to be an engineer again.

(Dress: Trixxi Eyelet stripe dress at Nordstrom, Sweater: Anthro 2010, Legging: Zala Denim legging, Belt: Gap)

As for the gardening story, let me tell you, California soil is no joke.  The clay soil dry up like cement and the raining season is barely over.  I dig and dig and dig and couldn't even make much of a dent.  I finally have to call hubby to rescue and he told me not to buy anything over 1 gallon next time :-(

Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale

Nordstrom is having a half yearly sale for women and kids right now and you get double the reward points if you have a nordstrom card.  Here are some of my picks.


Willow & Clay Short Sleeve Print Dress  I like the shape of this dress. It reminds be the Betty dress sold out at Madewell at one point. Carol from In pursuit of the pretty things did a review on this a while back.  I'm not sure how I would feel about the polyester material because I order it on line, but with it on sale, I am going to give it a try.

Trixxi Eylet Trim Dress The dress doesn't look good on the picture and it is not on sale,  but it is super cute in real life.  Our local Nordstrom put it on the manikin and it was sold out within 2 days.  We walked by when we were doing a fitting for my daughter's shoes.  The one on the manikin was the only one left.  I must admit I felt embarrassed buying junior dress. But the fabric is heavy enough and hey, it is got a Bow and stripe and Eyelet, How can I resist? It is a bit on the short side since it is a junior sizing so I will wear legging with it. I took a 5 but I could zip up to 3.

For those of you have little ones who outgrown their shoes in lighting speed, I highly recommend Tsukioshi kids  shoes, especially if they have somewhat of a wide feet.  Those shoes are super light weight and super comfortable.  They are even machine washable!  No break in needed.  My daughter wears them 80% of the time comparing to other shoes she had.  They are a bit pricy and doesn't go on sale very often, but really worth it.  Keep in mind they do run half size bigger than other brand.  Apparently the 40% off Mary Jane for toddler is already gone.  I felt lucky to got 2, my daughter's current size and the next size up, but hey, there are always chance for pop backs.

Anthro Review: Goldfish Bowl Skirt

I tried a few items when I visited Chicago.   It has been oh, a month? Unfortunately my phone is often at a out of battery state, so those are the two items I manage to snap a picture with before the battery ran out.  The timing of my visit is also a bit off too.   Anthro is full of boring stuff at the time, not many exiting item in the store anyway.


Goldfish Bowl Skirt

This little skirt attracted my eyes with the little fish print.  I thought that was pretty cute and fun.  The color is beautiful.  The golden color seem to be what I am drawn to these days.  It reminds me of a chinese fairy tale.  In the story,  a magic baby jumping out of a  fish bowl and fishes out whatever treasure he wish for. Of course there is always evil greedy landlord try to take away the fishbowl and was punished at the end.

First thing about the fit, size up.  I have to go up to a size 6 although I could possibly squeeze into a 4, but I don't like wear anything high waist.  Length wise, it hits on my knee. Fabric is silk outside with lightweight cotton lining.   I somehow like a bit of weight on a skirt, but that is just personal preference, so this skirt is too lightweight for me.  It would make a good summer skirt however.    Judging from the material, it might wrinkle quite a bit at the end of the day.   There are two pockets, but I don't see myself putting anything in there with such light weight fabric. Here is another shot with the cardigan. Love this cardigan, was going to review it but then it is completely sold out so there is not much point reviewing it any more.

Sunrise Shirt Dress-$168
This dress looks very beautiful and delicate on hanger.  It also came with the attached slip which is a nice detail to have.  However I felt like a  Little Bo Peep in it.  I even try a belt with it, and still no good. The fitting is fine.  A size 2 fits snuggly but not too tight.  However, it makes me look at least 10lb more.  It is another one of those beautiful as it is, but not flattering item anthro often has.   For someone needed that extra 10lb, it might work out well.

So here you have it, two not so exiting review.



Here is an past outfit.  With the weather warming up, I was really in a mood for yellow for some reason.

Top: Katie eyelet cam in white (buy it here)
Sweater: Anthropologie Sparrow cardigan
Jeans: J Crew Bootcut
Shoes:  Classiques Entier® 'Tamara' Pump (buy it here. These are great, perfect heel height for me and super comfortable)

Anthro Tag Sale Haul

Anthro had a tag sale today.  To be honest, it was not as good as I thought it would be.  I had a few things that I wished but I guess they are too summer to hit the sale rack.  The sale started sort of early.  I noticed that last night around 11:30, some of the sale price showed up already.  Guess there is some advantage of working late, because I was able to grab a few things before it ran out.  There is just no way I could make it to the store with the meeting and kids drop off and all the next morning.   I am under a bit of stress lately at work: New management, unrealistic tight schedule and a few hundred failing tests that needs to be fixed before 2nd week of June, which translates to impulse buying.

Fantastic Field - OOTD

When I first review the fantastic field skirt here, I had some issue with it. Over the time the bold print grew on me. I finally took the bait and it is even sweeter with the sale price.

Tee: JCREW bike shirt Cardigan: Anthropologie Breezy Polka cardigan Skirt: Anthropologie Fantastic Field skirt

The award goes to.....

 Lisa from Confession of a Call Center Girl had given me the Stylish blogger award last week. I must said it is a real surprise.  Thanks Lisa, you are too sweet.


Now I think I am supposed to give away 15 more awards.  This is what took so long about this post. First of all I don't even go around 15 blogs regularly :-P Some popular blogger probably already have this reward.  If this hasn't come from Lisa, I'd put her in my list too.  At first I attempt to avoid repeat, then it became impossible.  So I'll just put down the blog and not do the research of which blog already go this award.  There should be no harm done with getting the same award twice, right? So here it goes.  The stylish award goes to 

1. Anthrodottir 
2. Respect the shoes
3. Belle Seattle
4. Sweet Laundry Love
5. That damn green dress
6. The Girlest Boy Mom
7. Top Drawer
8. Where the Lights Are Bright
9. Lovely Apidae
10. Adiaphane
11. Love at First Shop
12. Liziologie
13. All Things Aimee.
14. Ro Ro Ro your blog
15. Running on Anthro

I don't know if I need to share something about myself, but I guess it doesn't hurt, so here are some little facts:

• I am an equal opportunity eater.  I am extremely picky in terms of quality of the food, but there isn't any particular ingredient I don't eat
• I am terrible at sport and extremely unfit.  I cannot do a single push up.  However I carried my 35 lb son even when I was 9 month pregnant with my daughter. 
• I love gardening and can tell many plants's names by just looking at the leaves.  My favorite flower is peony.
• I like quirky cars.  I had a SAAB and now drives a Prius. Neither of which has a conventional engine starter.  So whenever I am in other people's car, it takes me a while to figure out how to start the engine.
• The highest place I have been to is Mt Everest base camp.  The lowest? on a submarine in Hawaii -255 feet blow sea level.
• The most beautiful scenery has to be one evening driving towards Monument valley.  The pillar of red orange moutain appears at the end of the road, flowing on top of a layer of purple evening fog.  It was so surreal  I was questioning if I am still on earth.
• My mandarine is very close to standard except for certain word I don't' know wether I should curl or not curl my tongue.  Most time I just randomly pick one and 50% chance I'll be right.  Hubby kept teasing me about it.  He said I also sometime make a pronunciation that is in-between a curl and non-curl sound...

Happy Mother's Day!

Just want to wish every mother and mother to be  and mother to be one day a very happy mother's day!

Tangled

It may be a while before I post any OOTD pictures because I had a bad hair cut recently. I have to figure out how to make it work. I heard a nice blow dry would fix almost any bad haircut, but I am sure how yet.

Getting a hair cut is always risk especially if you are trying out a new hairstylist.  We recently discovery a hairstylist near our home.  The biggest advantage is that she cuts hair super fast.  For men, 4 minute per hair cut and it is cheap.   I had send hubby, my son, my daughter and my mom to her as a guinea pig. All of them were satisfied with her.  So I  gave her a try.  I didn't quite like the way she did it with mine because the layer she did was a bit too harsh.  Hubby had convinced me to go to her again.  He said since she is cheaper and faster, maybe we can afford to tweak it till we are satisfied.  Sounds good, right?  Well, the thing is that once you cut it too short, you can't do anything but waiting for it to grow back. So I am really kicking myself for giving her the second try after not totally impressed the first.

So here is a backlot OOTD picture before the haircut.  It has seem that the navy/martime style is in season now.  This is my take on it with what I have.

(Top: Anthropologie Topsy Henley Bottom LOFT Navy Twill Sailor Skirt Necklace: Kate Spade Seahorse Pendant.)

On the same topic of hair, my daughter is very fascinated by the Rapuzel story even though she hasn't watch the movie yet.

This is actually supposed to be a puzzle, because she hide her name in the picture, Can you spy the letters? She is very pround when my attempt of finding the letter V fails the first few time.  Then of course, I thought the unicorn was the letter E. 

Just a quick edit for today:  Lisa from CONFESSIONS OF A CALL CENTER GAL just awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award.  What a surprise!  Thanks Lisa, I am so flattered.  I will have to wait for tomorrow to do the rest with what you supposed to do with the award, but I am so happy to get this award.  It is a nice pick me up.  

Reinventing from the past?

It is funny how the week back from the vacation is always the busiest.  It is almost like you need another vacation for it.   Here are some pictures from the vacation so I can  take a mental vacation from time to time.

This is my daughter trying to stuff herself with the Chicago style stuff pizza. Somehow watching her eat makes me smile.

This is not the first time, but Millennium park is always fun.

Let's match up our outfit with the color of this tricolor set of sculptures.

On our way, we saw this weird sculptures that look like legs and my daughter insist checking it out. I really don't get the modern sculptures, they are not visually appealing to me at all, but they are pretty fun :-)

OK, Back to today's topic, if I haven't strayed from that far enough.  Has anyone notice that in  LOFT's latest arrival, some of them look really familiar?

First is this dress, does this remind you Anthropologie's  Time gone by dress?

Here is another one, looks familiar? I don't remember the Anthro skirt's name, but I see it in a lot of Anthro's blog. Anyone knew which skirt I am talking about?

LOFT often has things similar to anthro but at a much lower price point.  I am curious enough to take the bait  with this weekends additional 40% off everything promotion. Let's see.