Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
It's officially summer in my book. I'm missing being at my lake house so much right now. With my European/African adventure this summer, I won't get to go at all :(

With all the people and the dogs and the heat it's amazing that there's a place that can offer so much craziness and tranquility at the same time! I can almost hear the laughter, the yelling, the dogs barking and the splashing.

Bows for your Toes!

 I've been needing a new pair of black flats to replace my 3 year old and dearly loved, but discontinued Ralph Lauren Eliora flats (see left).

They were the perfect shoe quite honestly. They were sturdy and only required 1 re-sole in the 3 years I had them. They're black quilted sides added a fun, but classic texture and their patent toe allowed for them to be dressed up or down.

While I loved the bow, I really didn't think it necessarily 'made the shoe', but as I've begun my reluctant search for replacements I'm kind of thinking it did, because I'm obsessed with flats that have bows!!




 As far as a replacement, everyday shoe, I've narrowed it down to Ivanka Trump's Magnoli flat or Nine West's Cacey flat. I'm a sucker for black patent leather, but there is just something so simple and elegant about Ms. Trump's

Magnoli by Ivanka Trump

Cacey by Nine West

While at Nine West I tried these darling things on and fell. in. love.

Take Note (Exclusive) by Nine West

And, of course, there will always be the classic Ferragamo's and Valentinos! Ugh, a girl can dream right?

Monday Musings

The weather this weekend has me  dreaming of summer and my 2 week trip to Spain and Morocco.
The lovely ladies of Glamourai have been posting pictures of their own recent trip to Marrakech and they have me itching to get there!!

It's Almost.....

Summer.
Laid out all day in the park today and read! Can't wait for summer!

A Friday Favorite

About a month ago a friend told me about The Conversation; a show coming to Lifetime featuring one-on-one interviews with successful women (some celebrities, others not). I had seen a couple previews, but didn't think much of it.

Well, I just happened upon the 3rd(?) episode featuring Miley Cyrus, Diane Von Furstenburg, Glenda Bailey and Megan McCarthy and I absolutely love it. Very enlightening, very real. It's a lot of the same things you hear from most people trying to give you advice, but when they're thrown in with personal anecdotes they really make you feel like you're sitting there chatting it up with DVF!

You can watch last night's episode on their website, which also has a lot of interesting blog posts and clips on life advice from all sorts of women.

Letters of Note

 In the days on a 50% chance of marriages failing I can't help but want to post this everywhere. One of my favorite blogs is Letters of Note. Shaun Usher, the blogger, collects old-school, snail mail letters (one of my favorites) and publishes them. They don't necessarily have to be from anyone particularly special, but his post yesterday was from one of my most favorite people. President Reagan (Governor of California at the time) offers some amazing marriage advice to his son.

Michael Reagan
Manhattan Beach, California
June 1971

Dear Mike:

Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won't.

You've heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the "unhappy marrieds" and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.

Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.

Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Love,

Dad

P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" at least once a day.

Sources: Letters of Note, Photo: Life Photo Archive

Stylish To-Do Lists

I just moved offices at work and after three years of  having very minimal decor I've decided to make myself more at home. I've really only begun the process. I've been scanning Pinterest and Tumblr for office layouts and decor ideas, but I have decided on Navy, White and Pink as my color palate. My room and apartment are primarily neutral colors and I wanted a little more fun energy at work.

Meanwhile, in the  middle of all this moving, unpacking and redecorating I have a job to do. I do most of my time and task management through lists and my decorating bug has inspired me to invest in a notebook that not only doesn't fall apart like the free ones at work, but is also 200% cuter than the free ones at work.  I stumbled upon May Books who offers eco-friendly notebooks that are bound (yup, that means no loosing pages), canvas (yes, you can set your coffee on it an it won't leave a ring!) and best of all Customizable with lots of cute preppy patterns, colors and even your monogram! You can pick 1 of 5 page options, which is awesome. 2012 Agenda,  Weekly Planner, Meal Planner, Grid Lines or Plain Lines.

I picked this one, with plain lines inside:

I love the greek key pattern and the colors match my (imagined) office perfectly. I really wanted the chevron stripes, but unfortunately they don't make them in navy.  You may have guessed that I used their preview tool to make my icon :)

The plain lines will work perfectly for my millions of to-do lists!
First things that are going in there:
1) New Desk Chair
2) New Cover for guest chair (navy and white chevron?)
3) Art and Frames for the walls
4) Cute Lamps