Look for Less

A while ago, Carol from In pursuit of Pretty Things brought my attention to these outfit ideas from Nieman Marcus.

Although the featuring shirt is a camp shirt, the Tornado Twisted Henley from Anthropologie gives a very similar feeling with the similar color and neckline and the button front. with a softer twist.  The small ruffles on the shoulder is a more feminine and the cotton t-shirt fabric is more casual. I preferred both feature with the anthro shirt. Another plus? It is on sale for $19.99 as opposed to $$$ from Nieman Marcus.  As usual I am not a tuck in person, but I think it would look good with a red patent belt with the shirt tuck in for a cleaner look.

Top: Anthropolgoie Tornado Twisted Henley (similar here)
Skirt: LOFT Printed Pansy Blooms Skirt

Ski break - OOTD

Happy post Presidence day!  This week is the ski break for our school district.  Funny, right?  We get a christmas break and a ski break then a spring break, and then summer break, you wonder if the kids ever are in school.  So this weekend we took the kids to Tahoe to see snow.

We got a free deal at the Grand Sierra Hotel and I got some discounted lift tickets at Mt Rose Ski area for the kids for $5 each.   Both kids are super exited to see snow.  My son was so exited that he woke up at 4 in the morning and woke everyone else up.  It is interesting that in my daughter's mind that season is a place rather than time.  She suggested we "go to the spring place, pick up a branch so we can use the branch to hang the glove on snowman we make at the winter place".  I guess that time can be shrink with the traveling ability

I am really not a cold place person even though I am born and grew up in a cold place.  I bundle up layers and layers of sweater and fleece with thick down coat. It is almost ridiculous, I know.  I don't know how I had survived the winter in Chicago land for 5 years, but I do know that is the reason I moved to California. 

Mt Rose Ski area has a magic carpet, escalator type of lift.  It is great for beginners to try out the bunny slope.  My son is very natural in terms of skiing. I think it came from walking on the back edge of the couches and jumping between.   He won't fall normally and can naturally shift the weight on his body to avoid people,  but he gets scared when because after he gain some speed.  During that time he want us to hold his hand. Otherwise he did great.

My daughter on the other hand, pretty much turn into a wood block once she had her ski on.  She goes "Mommy, mommy, mommy, no, don't stay too far away from me, no, I am going to fall, no." and she hasn't even move an inch. At first we don't know how to help her, because she would put weight on us if we hold her hands and not using any of her core strength to stay up.  Consequently she will fall backwards on her butt once  the center of her weight is ahead of our hands.  Finally my husband figure out a way.  We would stand in front of her in a short distance and let her push us if she feel it is getting too fast.  With us in front of her, she felt much more secure.  After that she was able to let go of our hands and ski a short distance.

You can probably tell, it was a very tiring trip.  I was exhausted running backwards in front of both kids. Kids tired out too.  Both fall asleep right shortly after they get on the car on our way back to the hotel. Still, it is fun to see the snow once a year so I can appreciate the California weather.

As for the remaining the week,  our child care arrangement didn't fall through so hubby and I had to each work from home for two days for the remaining of the week so we can keep an eye on our son who will be in therapy for a good part of the day.  Today is my turn.  If you know autistic kid, you know they had the ability to escapes like Houdini.  You'll never know what kind of stunt they'd pull on you.  So if I am alone with him, no skirts.

Top: Anthropologie Two-story Cowlneck tee
Cardigan: LOFT Vneck Cardigan
Jeans: Lucky Brand Bootcut Jeans

Valentine's day

Did everyone have a good Valentine's day? Or are you planning on celebrating this weekend when there are more time and leisure? I use to think very little of Valentine's day.  What is up with roses cost $100 for a dozen that dies in a week, right? However when you are older in life, everything became routine and comfortable, it is one of the day that remind you to put some extra thought to it.  You can do that everyday, but one day is a good start. Sometimes when you say everyday, it became no day because there is always other things distract you and prioritize over.

I want to wore something pink for the occasion, but I still have to go to work.   I don't want to look completely business like with the pencil skirt, so I tried out the idea of adding the foolproff slip with a pencil skirt that LC has come up with in her blog Bella Seattle.  You can check out more of her idea with the foolproof slip here, also how I wear it with my jersey dress here.

(Top: Anthropologie Vanilla Bean Blouse, Cardigan: JCREW femme cardigan in deep coral
 Bottom: JCREW double-serge  pencil skirt, Slip: Anthropologie foolproof slip, Shoes: Stuart Weitzman Tipband )

I really want to add the valentine's day gift I received to my outfit, but then it is a bit too shiny.  So What did I received?

Yes, the Katespade necklace that I was drooling over. No, he did not guess it.  Basically I was browsing the Nordstrom catalog and said "This is so pretty.  It is exactly what I want for Valentine's day".  I guess sometime you just have to say what you want :-)  After a long marriage, you learn that men are generous towards the women they love, but don't take hints very well.  At least mine doesn't.

As I mentioned before, hubby and I went to the Ocean Blue Sushi Club for lunch.  It is hard to believe how nice the restaurant from the outside.  It is in a rundown strip mall.  If it hasn't been the high review at yelp, I would have never went in. The interior is very modern and chic with low lighting. There are many walls showcases Kimonos with complicated embroideries.

The presentations of the dishes are beautiful. I came here three times already but this is the first time I remember to take a picture of it :-)

My favorite dish is the grill squid.  This version adds a little bit of Basamic vinegar to the sauce comparing to the traditional way they made it in the Japanese restaurant and I love it.

The sashimi and the rolls are very fresh and portion is generous.

In the evening, after dinner, my daughter offered to play "To love somebody", which was in the practice song list this week.   She kept making mistakes even though during practice she played much better.  She got a little frustrated so I told her that music is something she should enjoy rather than stressed out about.  I asked her to take a break from it and just play anything as if she is some famous pianist.   She started playing something randomly on the piano and insist my husband and I should dance to it.  We slow danced to the soft tune she played.

It was my favorite moment of the day.

Always be beautiful.

Before I start, I want to thank Lisa from Confession of  a Call Center Girl  for the shout out.  When I check on line today and first thing I notice is Laura, who has not comment before.  When you are a  blog that had hardly any followers, you notice a new face :-) I was further puzzled by  Laura's comment "I'm visiting you, becasue Lisa obviously thinks very highly of you." It is only till later when I visit Lisa's blog  that I realized that she had introduce her readers about my blog.  Thanks Lisa,  it is so sweet of you.  I had been doing this blog for a while although I am not always diligent in terms of updating.   Despite lack of followers or comments,  the few that does feel very close and personal to me.

Among the few who I felt close to in this blogging world is Cindi from Simply Cindi.  We came from a similar background. I like reading her blog because I can relate to a lot of things she said.  But I didn't know about that when I first visiting her blog.  What draws me first was her beautiful wedding photos.  They are stunning!  Now she is starting her own wedding photography business with her husband Chris.  They are great! I think a great photography is not only great because their fancy equipment or superb technical skill, but also a great eye for details.  They are able to find beauty from the most common subjects and capture that special moment that flees in a blink.  I think Chris and Cindi are that type of person.  You can just tell by the way they planned their wedding and the shots they have shown us so far.

Anway,  I was reading Cindi's blog on DSLR 101 the other day and find it very interesting.  I was inspired to do some experiment on my own according to her suggestion.  I borrow hubby's Nikon, and set the mode to manual.  ISO 800 because low light, Speed 1/60 and aperture F1.8 which is the max I think.  Here is the result.

The mistake of this experiment? I choose the wrong subject of study.  It actually doesn't matter how the photo turn out.  My daughter will always be beautiful to me so I can't really judge my experiment is successful or not.  Haha! We will just call that a success :-)

Valentine's day is coming up this Monday.  Do you have any special plans? Any special outfit to  celebrate?  Getting any fancy gift?  With kids around, it is kind of hard to do anything but hubby did made reservation for lunch at my new favorite sushi place. So sweet of him!   Of course, what would be Valentine's day without the chocolate, right? These dark chocolate covered almonds from Trade Joe's are divine!  I don't think there will be many left on Monday though. 

(Top: Antro Topsy Henley

Cardi: Lumière ruffle cardigan in papaya 

Bottom JCREW Cord Atlee skirt in brown 

Legging: Madewell Denim )