Vegas, Baby. Vegas.

Not that I was ever a fan of Swingers, but you just can't have lived through the '90's and say you're going to Vegas without that line going through your head. And as it happens, tonight we leave for Vegas.

I've packed a dress and killer heels for each night and will happily post pics upon our return. I tried to switch it up while accessorizing this time. I even bought a fabulous pair of leopard cut-out booties (as you see at the beginning of the post) from the Betsey Johnson outlet for just $60 from $200! Don't ya' just love 'em?

Don't You Forget About Me

So I know it's been far too long (internet time being an accelerated version of dog years and all) since I wrote, and I promise more is coming today. Recent purchases, outfit combinatinations, trips I've taken and ones I'm going on soon.

It's all terribly exciting, well, for me anyway...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Being of Irish Heritage, I have always observed the American celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

On a few points of common confusion that seem to come up surrounding the holiday, I would like to clarify:

Yes, I know that corned beef and cabbage is not a traditional Irish meal, the real Irish meal is ham and cabbage, but it is an American Irish tradition since that was a common meal that the immigrants ate when they came over from Ireland. They couldn't afford the ham from the Kosher butcher (not throwing stones, just sayin'), so they made do with corned beef. It's not authentically Irish, but it's a part of the heritage so I still consider it a good way to celebrate since the whole holiday is an American convention anyway.

No, no one through excrement at me through a screen door, these are freckles and I love them. It's been said that a face without freckles is like a night without stars.

Yes, we are stubborn, but that stems from our passion. Passion for Ireland, our families, and our beliefs. As Sidney Littlewood said, "The Irish don't know what they want and are prepared to fight to the death to get it."

And to clarify one more point on why we wear green, here's a note from Wikipedia:
Originally the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue. However, over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew.[2] Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century.[3] He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day.[4][5] Then in the 1798 rebellion in hopes of making a political statement Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on 17 March in hopes of catching attention with their unusual fashion gimmick.[2] The phrase "the wearing of the green", meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, derives from the song of the same name.

So while I will not be out in NYC today, I am wearing the green and eating soda bread and drinking tea, which I will replace with either Guinness or Smithwicks later because Is d'Eirinn me (I am of Ireland).

Blue-why?

Yesterday I was in Neiman Marcus Last Call at the Tanger outlets by work and I saw a pair of neon Jimmy Choo high-heeled sandals in my size. They were cute and they fit great, but the Lucite heel was in between thick and thin and the color of a tennis ball, so even though they were marked down to about $365 with an additional 25% off, I put them down.

Today I got an e-mail from Bluefly advertising new spring shoes and handbags. As I lazily scanned the selection in my sizes, 5.5 and 6, I noticed the very same neon Jimmy Choos. Only this time they were $900! Granted they were originally $1,125.00, but come on Bluefly, 20% off? That's it? You get that much at most stores just for opening a charge account!

When I first graduated college I shopped on Bluefly all the time. I loved their customer service and thought they had a large selection of affordable pieces from brands I liked, but somewhere along the way that all changed.

My most recent purchase from Bluefly was an ABS dress. It was a decent deal at about 50% off, but I've seen the same dress in different colors marked down in discount department stores all over the place. They shipped it FedEx and even though the dress was at a FedEx location on Long Island the next day, they still made me wait the full 7 days for 7-10 day shipping. Irritated I decided to ask FedEx if I could pick it up, but they said I'd have to have the sender call and give clearance or they couldn't give it to me. Extremely frustrated, but not in dire need of the dress, I decided to just wait.

When it finally came the box looked like one of Kimbo Slice's opponents; battered, bruised, beaten. In fact, the box was so tortured that when I opened it to remove the badly rumpled Bluefly shopping bag so I could retrieve my dress, the plastic hanger that the dress was on was broken in two.

So perhaps my annoyance is with both FedEx and Bluefly, but if that's the kind of service I'm getting for an item that wasn't discounted enough to really be a huge bargain, well it's just one more reason for me not to shop there.

XOXO Gossip... Woman?

So last night was the return of Gossip Girl and the main social event of the episode was dinner at the French Ambassador's... 20 years in the future?

All of the girls were dressed like they were 40! Serena with that awful pill-filled bolero, Blair with her Dynasty-worthy earrings and sequined mandarin collar jacket, and Jenny with her Elvira-style sheer black cobweb neckline.

Did the Dignitary decide he wanted to throw a call-girl themed bash? Or did only Serena get that memo? On the plus side, constant sex with Nate means she can't wear that painfully tight ponytail/braid combo, less it get mussed.

Hopefully next week they'll all go back to being quasi-normal 20 something's. Even UES-ers wear jeans once in awhile.

Obligatory Oscars Post

After tweeting sporadically about Oscar fashions and attitudes last night, I feel that I should at least throw out my picks for best and worst dressed. This blog isn't solely about fashion, but I'd say the majority of the posts are, so how could I neglect to comment on the red carpet?

Best dressed: Rachel McAdams. I cannot stress how much I love this girl's sense of style. She always looks youthful and fresh and appropriate. Last night's Elie Saab Haute Couture gown was no exception with it's whimsical watercolor pattern, flatteringly fitted bodice and flowing skirt. The minute she came on screen I told my roommate that ABS better choose that gown as one of it's Oscar knock-offs. I haven't wanted an affordable version of a designer gown that badly since Gwyneth Paltrow's pink Ralph Lauren in 1999 when she accepted the award for Best Actress.

Worst dressed: Charlize Theron. This was seriously a toss-up between her and Jennifer Lopez, but Charlize's cinnamon bun boobs won out over the bubble-wrap appearance of the fabric that JLo's dress was made out of. It may seem like I'm picking on Vera Wang a lot lately (she's the designer to blame for Theron's gown), but seriously, what look was she going for when she selected this gown? Avant-garde bridesmaid? Not to mention that the whole dress looked like it could use a good steaming. Maybe whoever was dressing her didn't want to make the rosettes on her bust look any more wilted than they already did. This dress did a serious disservice to a striking woman.

One more thing: can someone please give an award to Kristen Stewart's stylist? That girl is miserable and yet each time I see her at an awards show or premier, despite my desire to smack her upside the head and yell at her about how lucky she is and could she please adjust her attitude accordingly, she looks great. Edgy, but appropriate. The midnight blue Monique Lhullier gown she wore last night was no exception. So brava to her stylist... but still blech to her.

Idol Accessories

Who is the stylist for American Idol? As each female contestant approaches the stage tonight I am amazed by the massive amount of jewelry weighing them down.

Back in the beginning AI was sponsored by companies like Old Navy and the kids looked youthful and fresh, if a little generic. Then the budgets got bigger and brands like Salvage, which is more rocker and pricier, made it into the wardrobe room. This wasn't bad, just new, for the most part it actually worked.

This season I'm just confused. The show is bigger than ever, but the apparel doesn't seem to reflect that, so my new theory is that they've put it all into the costume jewelry budget. Each girl comes out with a necklace more ridiculous or mismatched than the next.

3 quick points for the stylist, wherever he or she may be, accessorizing out:

1. One big piece of jewelry per outfit. Do not do an enormous pendant on a dainty chaining and matching (in size and cheesiness) earrings. It looks like you bought it at Kohl's, on a rectangle of plastic, as a set.

2. Either or, neither nor. Patterned top and dresses can be young and fun, but once you've chosen a busy pattern, keep the jewelry simple. If you do both the pattern and the jewelry, they are going to compete and they will both lose.

3. Leave the out-there accessories to Paris Hilton and the Olsen twins. Half gloves are ridiculous. Putting a ring on top of them makes it worse. Plus, they're kind of over. If someone comes out in one of those turban headbands in the weeks to come, I'm going all "Seacrest, out" on this show.

Sure the jewelry is just a fraction of what's wrong with the picture here, but I'm just too frustrated to tackle jeggings and dresses from JC Penny's right now.

Case of the Mondays

Office Space is a great movie, choc full of quotable lines, and every Monday I'm reminded of this as someone on Facebook inevitably sites "a case of the Mondays" in their status. Seeing as how it's become quite trite, I refrained from making it my status today, but I do indeed have a bit of a case.

Today is a day that I will look on Craigslist and Mediabistro and Indeed and whatever other job search websites I think of to look at job postings. As I read each post I will imagine myself in business attire, take the train into work each day, grabbing cocktails at happy hour. I may apply, or I may just print out the description only to throw it in my trash can at home when I clean out my bag next week, but I'm looking.

Last week I applied to an amazing position at a wedding website, which I truly believe I'd be perfect for, but to no avail. The background info I looked up on the company will now just be mentally filed away in my random wedding industry knowledge folder and the excitement I felt will slowly fade into disappointment.

Hopefully this week will bring the promise of a better job search, a position that I'm even more excited and hopeful about, not to mention qualified for, that pays well and is located somewhere convenient. That's not too much to ask, right?

If that doesn't work out, I'll just take a pony. Thanks.