Birthday Celebration - Divafied!

Hi Divas:

My birthday was on Saturday! Like a typical Virgo I planned every minute of my day and I must say I enjoyed every moment! It was most definitely a diva divine day throughout! Since this was a celebration I won't get philosophical but I must say that I combined two of my favorite things, finding peace and hanging out with my friends. Both may seem on opposite ends of the spectrum but they bring me joy...and fun.

Saturday was a day I enjoyed the patchwork that is the Georgetown experience. I started the day canoeing on the Potomac river at 8am. To insight thoughtfulness and meditation, an open expanse of water and a small boat are the way to go. My rowing skill level is way below beginner ... yikes ... but my ability to enjoy my moment on the water did not leave me remissed.

Next I met friends at Baked and Wired for tea and pastries. This architecturally exact and well defined space as my friend V raved offered some of the best cupcakes in the city. I opted for the refreshing hibiscus tea and a pastry and savored every morsel that came with good conversation.

Yoga and spa treatments followed tea time. I spent the rest of the afternoon resting before my night out. Over dinner I once again experience the tremendous joy of having my friends from the different facets of my life meet each other. Simply divine laughs, giggles and tons of glee and fun. Dinner at Bangkok Bistro lasted 4 hours.

A few more hours of clubbing and my special day was complete! Until next year....what shall I plan.

Birthday Poem

A Young Lady looked up one evening. The moon was Full, bright, energized and full of light. Already in a pensive mood,She pondered the uniqueness and timeliness of the lunar and all cycles.She realizes that life is amazing because right as one cycle ends another new and glorious one emerges. The adventure was about to start all over again.Time to Celebrate!

Ciao babes.
(1 or 2 pics to come later)

Great DC Find: Taste of Georgetown

Dear Divas:


On October 13th, Georgetown is once again having its annual food tasting event - Taste Of Georgetown. This should be an exciting event since you can't go wrong with the mixture of food, wine and Jazz. The participants will 30 Georgetown restaurants like 1789, La Chaumiere, Seasons, Mie N Yu, Red Ginger, Fahrenheit and Paolo's and Jazz from Blue's Alley. It's like the perfect dining experience all in one place. Be sure to bring lots of cash! The event is from 11-4pm.

Taste of Georgetown 2006. Courtesy of tasteofgeorgetown.com

Ciao loves!

Hats Essential

Hey Divas:


Ok ... so here and there I've been talking to you about Winter (W-word) and Fall (F-word) but in reality I would as soon toss those thoughts out of my mind because - Summer (S-diva) was still in full force. So imagine my shock (and yours too) when it was close to 60 degrees on Sunday. I actually had to wear a sweater! For the first time I was aware that Summer was over...sad. Ummm...well maybe by next week I will feel better - love Fall - truly, madly deeply. In the meantime, it's all still a shock.


But the presently lowered temperature has me thinking I should start thinking some more about my cold weather wardrobe. And no cold weather wardrobe is complete without hats or gloves as accessories. Like I've said before for the most part during F-word and W-word - all your friends and fellow Divas ever see are you outerwear so you have to make a point of choosing well.


Here are some hats that I think any budget fashionista would love...


Brown Betmar riding hat found at Village Hat Shop for ($52)




Urban Outfitter Heart Pattern beret (24.00)




Proper Topper's Tweed bucket ($45)


Ciao loves.

So Over Wrap Shirts...

Hi Divas:

Like you, some days I enjoy having a "chest" and other days I am just annoyed. Sorry to start off crass but on Sunday when I was trying to wear my favorite red jersey knit wrap shirt - and my "chest" was not making me happy. Don't you just hate that wrap shirts don't always fit right and then you have to either pin the two sides together which is not attractive because the joined section becomes noticeable, stretched, not polished and unattractive. Even more so unattractive if you put a camisole or shirt underneath and the colors don't match. That strategy tends to remove the "sexy" from the outfit especially when you want a form fitted fashionable look. And sometimes you may just want to wear the wrap shirt in an attractive manner that makes you feel less self-conscious and fashionable. So I came up with a new and comfortable way to wear my wrap shirt...you should try it too! I connected the two ends of the shirt with out wrapping.







Although I think this look will only work with upgrading a denim look - I think its worth a try.

Ciao loves. Happy Monday!

Great DC find ... maybe ... Sale at Benetton

So Divas:

I relearned a lesson yesterday that I've known for sometime now ...all sales are not created equal!

After work yesterday, I do the bionic woman thing - I drive back into the city run errands and still make it to a meeting (on time) ... go figure. After an informative meeting, I am ready for home but had to grab my sister from Chinatown when I saw the unbelievable. United Colors of Benetton (UCB) was going out of business. The sign outside the door said 60%. 60% - I really had to repeat for emphasis and not because I am suffering from whip lash because my head spun too quickly.

So I park the car run in and guess what. The store is half empty. What a dilemma?! So I grab and try-on. All is fun until I am standing in line and the sales person says that its not 60% off of everything and the price on the clothing is final...bummer. I still pay for my stash because in the end the deal was ok not GREAT and I needed an outfit for the Runway Africa show this weekend.

Any who the store closes on Sunday so hopefully by then the "going out of business sale" will be better.

Ciao loves. Have a great weekend!

MB NY Fashion Week - Wrap Up

Hi Divas:


Sorry for not posting yesterday. Well fashion week is over and it seems it began just yesterday. The final two days of shows were most definitely a refreshing switch off from the earlier programming. We are met with Zac Posen, Betsy Johnson (kinda tame this year), Marc by Marc Jacobs and one of my favs Monique Lhuillier.


Overall, I felt that the clothes presented were seen before. There were not that many show stoppers - the Marc Jacobs mod look - been there, Zac Posen - Charlize Theron could've worn to the Oscars before. I am just elated that white although experiencing significant exposure this year might is some ways bow at least half of the attention to other more energized colors.


Zac Posen - feminine and flirty
Marc by Marc Jacob - new take on 60's
Monique Lhuillier - timeless
John Varvatos for the guys

Ciao Divas,

-H

NY Fashion Week - Day 5

Hey Divas:

It seems like the second week of the Spring 2008 shows has most notably brought in a bit more color. Yesterday, Philip Lim one of my favs presented his line with mostly my fav color ... yellow! Exciting. His line did keep with the feminine trends that we have been seeing in the previous days - I am so excited to see more wearable fashion. But I have to wonder what the shows are like visually near the stage with no over the top and outlandish designs and creations. But overall there will be tons of variety in the ready-to-wear fashion within the next few months.



I was excited about the strong feminity shown in the Derek Lam line. Great cuts, sharp looks with broad and strong shoulders.

Diane Von Furstenburg was viva glamorous with lovely patterns, colors and full skirts. Love love love the dress below. It looks like an outfit you can wear both during the day and at night. Since I find my shoulders to be my best feature...this outfit is definitely rockable!

Ciao loves, Stay tuned for more fashion updates!

NY Fashion Week...femininity returns

Hi Divas:

It looks like the fashion scene is taking a more feminine turn. Gone are the booty shorts of last years Fall shows. Majority of the designers featured so far at the Mercedes Benz fashion week so far have featured dresses that are feminine but not over the top and form fitting. Are we heading back to the days of simple chic? Maybe.

Badgley Mischka and Lacoste featured slacks but for the most part the shows were pretty tame. Lacoste had lovely dresses like the one below. Overall the theme at the Fall shows seem to have a lot to do with the color white
Akiko Ogawa featured a wonderful mixture of black and white dresses. Her look is overall flirty which is probably my mood nowadays!

Ciao Divas!

My New Coat!

Hi Loves,


Check out my new Coffee Shop Plaid balloon hem coat ($138 - Nordstsrom) . Yikes! Winter is not even here and I can't believe I am already thinking about it. I love the ballooning back hem and the plaid! So chic and divine absolutely great for a budget fashionista.... well maybe not really bargain but not a major splurge I loves it! A winter coat matters because it is "The Accessory" when its cold outside. No one sees your watch or jewelry or even you fashionably slick new top BUT they will notice your coat! Hugs loves.





Ciao ... have a safe weekend!

End of Summer Skin!

Hi Divas:

Hope your holiday weekend was fantastic! If you are like me you were definitely in the water (ie swimming pool) over the Labor Day weekend. Now you are either worried that you had too much sun or you are thinking ahead to how you are going to moisturize your skin during the Fall season. I will definitely be using my all time fav ... Body Shop's Shea Body Butter ($20) to moisturize my skin and get ready for the Fall weather.

You can also try the latest St. Ives Mineral Therapy Advanced Body Moisturizer ($4.99). Its a holistic product with tons of great nutrients.

Two choices to consider!

Ciao loves and stay smooth.

Pat Mcgrath - Diva to Remember

Hey Divas:

Pat McGrath is definitely a name to remember. Few know about her but she has great influence on our everyday lives. She is the (are you ready) Global Color Cosmetics Creative Design Director for Proctor and Gamble - in other words she designs the makeup. She also creates the catwalk look for many top designers such as John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Prada, Christian Dior and many others. Ok so not exactly budget - those shows but Maxx Factor has offerings I am sure you can dig. Here she is below.

And to think she doesn't ever look like she wears makeup! Loves it! Her catwalk looks are creative and artistic. She uses makeup in an imaginative and cutting edge way.

If you like Max Factor you definitely already know what I mean. But if you can't afford Maxx Factor then you can always go to the website for inspiration. They show you various looks and how to create them. Check out the entire website. With ingenuity you too can create some of these looks from finds at Sephora, CVS or even Target. The process should not be difficult.

Ciao loves!

Signals, eyelash batting and more

Hey Divas:

Last Thursday's Washington Post's style section had an article titled "Tapping Into The Secrets of The Stall" by Lynne Duke and DeNeen L. Brown. I was curious about this article especially since the Senator Craig issue that has plagued the news for the last week. I was fascinated by the foot stumping signals and wondered whether or not there was a special guide that told them about these signals.

How the heck do people find out these things!

I was thinking about these signals and became miffed that there were not any for heterosexual women and men. I am sure shy gay guys are happy to not have to go up and speak - like most straight guys. I think that shy straight guys miss out because of their impediment. Like the article says all gay guys do is the 3 second look (1-and-2-and-3), turn to look at the person after they walk by if the person turns they are interested in gay too and interested. Simple ... easy breezy!

I have been pondering this situation for some time now... and thought to myself we - heteros -need signals too. Signals like foot tapping are so universal. So if you have short hair and can't do the flip, or have no coordination and therefore can't bat your eyelashes you can still get the message across.

We too can have a 3 second rule. For example, if you stare at him for 3 seconds that should mean come talk to me and I won't roll my eyes and ignore you. Or if you stare at me and I raise my right hand - that could mean I am interested in talking some more.

If only...Happy Labor Day Loves!