What I love right now...

1. New Patisseries in my hood


BTW, if you're in Seattle, the goat cheese and tomato tart at Ines Patisserie is delish.

2. Hubby learning to multitask


3. Walking/running with the Budzor


4. Surprise notes


5. Non-tight-wearing weather

6. The photography and tips at iheartfaces. (I learned how to create a watermark-specific brush in Photoshop! See below for results)

7. Grace Harbor Farms Guernsey Honey Yogurt. SO amazing. Apparently milk from Guernsey cows is sweeter and has more beta-carotene than other milk. All I know is that I had a bowl for dessert... Ev asked for a bite, and then proceeded to serve himself 3 bowls full.

(You can buy this in the Seattle area at these locations or through your Full Circle farms grocery box).

8. Mint green

I've found a new love of mint green (which I'll admit I always thought was turquoise-ish). This love played out in two of my outfits last week! Pardon the pic positioning as I didn't actually look at the pics before running out the door!

Tuesday


Wednesday

Yeah, so you're like 'where's the mint green?' And I'm all like, 'I got your mint green right huuuuuuurr....'

A BIG shout out to Kim at Anthroholic for posting about this Lauren Conrad trench at Kohl's, and for advising me on the fit!

I had never been to a Kohl's before. We didn't have any near me when I was growing up, and I never seem to come across them. It's also not like me to seek out a celebrity fashion line.

By the time I decided I wanted to try this coat, the coat had already sold out in smaller sizes online. I didn't even realize the smallest size in the line was a size 2! Calling around to the nearest Kohl's, I found the smallest size they had was a 4, which I thought might be too big on me. Also, since it's a celebrity line, I worried about the quality. So I gave up on buying it.

But this coat haunted me with it's beautiful unusual shade (for a trench coat) and feminine detail that didn't consist of ruffles at the hips (whih makes me look waaay wide). Finally, I asked Kim how she liked hers. When I heard the size 2 fit her well, I knew the 4 would fit ok since Kim seems to run smaller than me in Anthro clothes.

I was decently impressed with Lauren Conrad's line. I liked the styles of the items I saw at the store. I didn't try on anything else, since I was only there for the coat, but I really like this coat! The pretty flowery lining is a nice touch. And the fact that this detail carried over to line the pockets was a wonderful surprise. It's also the perfect weight for a Spring coat! I may keep an eye on her line in the future.



See the coat on Kim here.

Tuesday OOTD specs
Anna and Frank silk green shirt sz S (thrifted $4) similar here
H&M mustard yellow cardigan sz 6 ($20) similar here
Banana Republic cream wool mini skirt sz 2 (thrifted $) similar here
Banana Republic calf hair belt (thrifted $4) similar on sale here
grey tights
Brown Franco Sarto knee-high boots ($25) similar here

Wednesday OOTD specs
Lauren Conrad Trench Coat size 4 ($55) on ebay here, or similar here, here
Xhilaration lace cardigan sz M ($10) still available here for $10 and other colors for $7!
H&M big pocketed skirt sz XS ($15)
Anthropologie Tellicherry Belt ($15)
black Kirkland tank sz S ($6?)
black tights
black talbots t-strap pumps (thrifted $8?) similar here, here

She's got lips!

Ok, so I know I promised myself I wouldn't take OOTD pics until I caught up with the backlog, but I give up. In my defense, I wanted to document the fact that I actually have lips! I wore RED lipstick today! Snap! Bam! POW!

Some individuals call red lipstick a man-repeller. Ev wasn't so much repelled as... well shocked. I mean, he knew I had a mouth, but I guess he never expected to see it quite so well.

The lipstick is NYX in Snow White. I read somewhere that its blue undertones make this red quite wearable on Asian skintones. For reference, I'm NW20 in MAC.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE NYX lipsticks because 1) they are super cheap. Especially if you buy them in multi-packs from makeup ebay sellers. I bought mine from Joy's Cosmetics on Ebay, and 2) the lipsticks have great color and are super smooth to apply!

Here it is in some other lighting at brunch! This certainly isn't an everyday color (for me). But, it was fun to wear out with friends on the weekend, or I could see using it if I ever got all glam and went out at night (wishful thinking, lol).


excuse the dark circles... and no I'm not naked, lol.
OOTD Specs
Gap jean shirt sz XS (thrifted $4)
Vintage blue pleated skirt (thrifted $4)
grey sweater tights
Xhilaration raspberry pumps (thrifted NWT $7)
Charlotte Russe feather headband ($5)

Target Shoe Review

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments on my hair from the last post. It's such an easy style, that it'll be nice to have that in my repertoire for some variety. :)


So, if you haven't heard, Target has a buy one pair of shoes, and get the second pair shoes 50% off promotion going on. So, I thought I'd check out a few new pumps including a couple nude/blush colored heels for Spring.

Women's Mossimo® Pearce Leather Pumps- -Black

I love these pumps. Of the Pearce pumps line, these were the only ones that were real leather, so I saw them as the best value. I was tempted by the patent camel version as well, but I thought I should try a couple of the other pumps to see how they compared with one another.

The heel on this pump is pretty high for me at 3.25" and no platform. But somehow, IT'S COMFY! I mean like wear-all-day-and-dance-around-in-'em comfy. I actually did wear these all day to my friends' wedding and reception. I even danced around in them a little, and my feet didn't hurt at all afterward. WIN! I have decently wide feet (especially in the toe area), but the toe of the pump didn't squish or pinch or flatten my tootsies. I apologize for not taking a picture of the tread. The bottoms of the shoe are rubber with some tread on the heel and sole. The rubber makes these very stable, so I have no worries about slipping! Sweet.

I took these in my normal Target pump size of 7.5. I highly recommend these pumps. They also come in Camel, Navy, Dove (gray), and Taupe.

Women's Mossimo® Black Versie Pumps - Natural Patent

The Versie Pumps are a pretty light pinky blush color. The shape of these pumps reminded me of the Pearce, so I had high hopes for them. They have a taller heel than the Pearce (3.75"), but they have a slight platform which should help make the heel feel shorter. But somehow the platform or the shape of the shoe made standing in them a bit awkward and squished my toes. The top of the shoe dug a bit into the top of my toes (it may be that the toe box was just trying to reel my wide feet in). I also felt more precarious in the taller height. These would NOT be comfortable for me or a wider footed gal for a long period of time. The fit of the 7.5 was TTS, but it was too uncomfortable for me. Pass.

Women's Mossimo® Peony Pumps - Blush Patent

The shape of these feels much more retro than the standard pumps like the Versie or Pearce. I thought the thicker heel would make these more comfortable. I was SO wrong. These hurt my feet. They were stiff, and squished the top of my foot a bunch. (It appears I'm not the only one who thought this... see them on Stuff Jewish Girls Like).

I also was not a fan of the blush color of these pumps. The Peony Pumps were a darker, muddier pink than the Versie Pumps. I much preferred the color of the Versie pumps (see below for color comparison). These run TTS but are not comfy. Pass!

The tread on the Peony Pumps:


Color comparison between the Versie (Left) and Peony Pumps (right)



In other news, I won one of Tara's (Little Girl Big Closet) Anthro gift cards from her Portrait of a Woman drawing! I'm super excited, this one plus the Anthro gc from my MIL will go toward a new summer dress as yet to be determined :) See some of the beautiful portraits other ladies submitted.

And the lovely Aki! of 7% Solution awarded me a Stylish Blogger award. I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself, and pass the award to other bloggers. But I know so many lovely bloggers out there, it's just too tough to choose. So I'll just tell you 7 things about myself:

1. I love finding gifts that I think are perfect for a particular person.
2. I try to call my Nai Nai (grandma) every week
3. I love to clean and organize
4. Drinking coffee doesn't keep me awake or wake me up (sadly)
5. I'm fairly shy in large groups of people
6. I prefer savory to sweet things, but it's best to have salty and sweet at the same time!
7. Cardamom is my favorite spice

We're off to drive to pick up Buddie soon. Well, we actually pick him up tomorrow, but we need to drive out there tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing him, but not to the long stretch of time in the car!

Here's my outfit from today (it was a wet hair morning :) )


With this look, I was trying to dress this pencil skirt down by pairing it with a t-shirt and leatherette jacket.

OOTD specs
Bebe Mini Studded Shrunken Moto Jacket sz XS ($20)
Green pencil skirt (thrifted $5)
J.Crew flamingo tissue t-shirt (thrifted $3)
F21 necklace
Merona Madalena Suede Ballet Flats - grey ($7.50)
grey tights

Have a great weekend everyone!

Amazon OOTD

From the title where you expecting tropical themed clothing?

Nope! Just a dress I ordered from amazon.com. I found this dress while looking for a new wool coat. Since Amazon is now offering free shipping and free returns on many of their clothing items, I decided to take the plunge to find a new coat there. Well, the coat I ordered didn't fit, and in case you're wondering, it was a slight hassle returning the coat. When I first went through their online return process, they were going to charge me for return shipping. But after emailing customer service I was provided with a link to a free shipping label. Has anyone else taken advantage of Amazon's free return policy with clothing? And has it gone through without a hitch? I'm hoping this was just a fluke.

Anyway, while looking for a coat, I found this strapless nautical dress on sale for $15 (down from $58). The one review said it ran super small, and it was in juniors sizing, so I ordered a large.



The waist was a bit big, so of course, I belted it! :) I bought the dress with the intention of layering tees underneath it. But, I'm still not sure about it. What do y'all think?



Of course I layered on a jean jacket to keep out the chill from our foggy Seattle morning


OOTD Specs
Have & Have Nautical Tailored Fitted Banded Waist Pencil Dress Navy Sz L ($15)
West & Vine white tuxedo shirt sz M ($20)
dark grey tights ($7)
H&M blue elastic belt ($12?)
Merona Madalena Suede Ballet Flats - Mustard (NWT at Goodwill $7.50)


In other amazon-related news.... AmazonFresh (Amazon's local grocery delivery service) contacted me to use my yelp review in an ad campaign. Of course!! I love AmazonFresh! However, I didn't originally realize they were going to use my yelp profile pic. As you might guess, I'm acting pretty silly in my profile pic. But ya know, I often look pretty silly here on the blog too, so I guess what's the difference? see, I was silly this morning:



btw, as luck would have it, my current yelp profile pic has me wearing an Anthropologie shirt! (I'm not sure the name of this shirt):



The full picture is of me with my best friend, Clara. Right before this photo was taken, I had the teensiest bit of a mojito... hence the slight Asian glow :)