What I'll Be Wearing in Paris

I'm taking a two-week trip to Paris in September and I'm hoping to wear this outfit.

-Black, latex leggings from French Connection.
-Neon yellow shift dress from Old Navy.
-Cinched with skinny belt from F21.
-Black patent Christian Louboutins.
-Beret?

Um...No: The Animal Print Bandeau Top from F21

This is bad, real bad. And it comes in two other animal prints. Eek. Stay away! Do not order or wear! Although, real cougars might be into this.

Cougarmobile

Loving this used car I spied in the window of the Used Car dealership in NJ. If I were a cougar, I would buy this car and tool around my old high school.

Cassette Tapes and Mix Tapes Documentation

This is a shot of my cassette and mix tapes drawer in my old bedroom. Now you understand why I heart that mix tape USB thing so much.

I Will Never Be a Trapeze Artist

This is me at the Trapeze School of New York just before I totally let go of the bar and came crashing down into the surprisingly rough-netting. I am not afraid of heights, but I'm afraid of losing control. Ok, so climbing 23-feet in the air on a rickety ladder before standing on a platform about to swing on a trapeze and just looking down is pretty frightening. Still, I thought I was stronger than this. I managed a second attempt where I just swung for a little while. That was fun....ish. They opened a rig in Santa Monica, maybe I will try it again. I hate being such a wimp.

Deep Desire: Prada's Striped Bag

Prada knocked it out of the park this season from fairy bags to fairy dresses to fantasy shoes and now multi-colored striped bags. I covet this bag today like no other. Am wondering which department store credit card bill of mine is not overdue. Am going to attempt to purchase. No! Cannot purchase. Want to purchase. Want want want. No! It would be bad. But yet so sweet to cradle that soft leather in my hands and...I must stop now.

Image via Blackbook

And I Would Walk 500 Miles and I Would Walk 500 More

Hmm...They Might Be Giants should redo this song and make it about air miles. Then I would have the perfect song to go along with my #4 ranking in the Ultimate Jetsetters: The Bloggers Edition contest. I came in #4 out of a bunch of travel bloggers in a contest to see who has flown the most miles in a year. I tallied up 49,506 miles in a year. I feel like I missed a few trips. Too bad my Australia trip didn't make the cutoff. Anyways, kinda cool.

Deep Desire: Prada Fairies Dress

On my travels, I just happen to end up standing face-to-face with this gorgeous dress from Prada featuring the new fairies design. How did this happen? Oh I was just wandering around the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas which has a three-story Barneys New York department store inside.

This goes behind coveting or wanting. I feel like I need this dress. Yet Prada+Fairies=Mucho Dinero and I didn't even look at what it cost.

Ignorance is bliss.

Been Around the World....

And I am so happy to be in Los Angeles for 10 days. I leave again for a wedding in Westchester, NY then I'm home for another 5 days before spending a weekend in the O.C. At least, I don't need a plane for that one.

My next big trip is Bermuda and after that, Guadalajara in Mexico. I realize that all I know about Mexican geography is that it's below California and Texas. Yikes. So I spent a bit of time today studying a map of Mexico. I am pretty familiar with the territory now just don't ask me directions in Spanish. My answer will be full of this: "Derecho, derecho, izquierda, derecho, izquierda, izquierda, la playa!"

Bought It: Hooded Leather Jacket by Aqua

Aqua is the semi-cheapie brand that Bloomingdale's sells. Most of the stuff is too trendy and silly for me. Also, if I want trendy and silly I'll go to F21. But I totally scored last week at the Bloomies in Short Hills. I found this distressed leather hooded jacket. It's more like a zip-up hoodie except it's leather and totally kick-ass.

I wore this in Chelsea the other night with a Juicy Couture dress. Shocking! I hate Juicy but this one was cute and Bloomie's was having 20 percent off, so I figured I could spring for it. And to be honest, it felt nice to wear something that wasn't F21.

What I Love About New Jersey

After my family,which includes adorable nieces and nephews (no, seriously. they are way cuter than YOUR kids), and the Short Hills Mall, what I love about coming home to New Jersey is Dunkin Donuts. Ok, technically this is available everywhere on the East Coast but there is no trip to NJ without DD. Actually, I think DD surpasses Taylor Ham, which is a very close 4th on my What I Love About New Jersey list. Right now, I'm sipping some iced coffee (milk, no sugar) and chowing down on some powdered and glazed munchkins. Can you say Heaven? Heaven!

The Fifth Season of Dawson's Creek is Bad

My Dawson's Creek obsession is still on. I brought the Complete Fifth Season DVD (bought used thank you very much) with me on my travels. And I am so disappointed I made space for this in my suitcase.

What's wrong? Way too much.

Some thoughts...
Jack joining a fraternity: Wrong. He should have gotten a boyfriend.
Jen and Dawson: I actually liked them together but it went from super passionate to over.
Dawson's dad dying: This was a sad storyline but I was ok with it.
Audrey: I love Busy Phillips but I hate Audrey.
Pacey and Joey: They are WAY too cool with each other dating other people. You don't just get over the biggest love of your teen years in a matter of months. You also would not let your new roomie (Audrey) date your ex-boyfriend and be happy about it.
Joey: Everything centers around Joey and it's quite annoying. Isn't this Dawson's Creek? The episode with her getting mugged was awful. But I did like her making out with her English teacher but that's probably because he was played by The State alum, Ken Marino. "Has anyone see my pants?"

I hardly remember what happens in the sixth season. I think Dawson and Joey finally do it but I doesn't work out. I do know how the series finale played out but I'll probably watch it again.

Anyways, the third and fourth seasons are probably the best. They were so entertaining and had that over-the-top verbose dialog. This season, they are just like self-centered college kids. Booring!

This Sums Up My Trip To London

Taken from the lobby restaurant of the Baglioni Hotel overlooking Hyde Park. It was COLD in London. So cold it snowed two mornings in a row. But the city is so lovely. Expensive but lovely.

The Origins of Tom Cruise's "You're Glib"

Along with jumping on Oprah's white couch, Tom Cruise famously got pissy with Matt Lauer on the Today show while discussing the use of anti-depressants. For anyone who was cryogenically frozen during this time (Austin Powers, I'm talking to you) here's the summary of what went down.

Anyhow, today I was indulging in my favorite guilty pleasure--watching Dawson's Creek on the Canadian teen drama channel, the n.

In this episode, a few of the characters head off to Cambridge University--Joey and Andie tour the college, Dawson screens his Blair Witch Project rip-off, Witch Island and Jack tries to be out and about. Literally.

Joey tangles with A.J. Moller, her supposed host for the weekend if she was a boy. A.J. also turns out to be a teaching assistant in freshman English class and he humiliates Joey in a discussion session. After the class, Joey lets him have it. And guess what she says?

"Don't be so glib."

So Tom must have been doing his research on his future wife at one point by watching her old DC episodes.

Watch the video above. Or read the script. (Scroll way down.)

The Best Monday Ever

I realize that in writing that headline, I may have already jinxed it but I don't care!

Lion-Human Love transcends all!

I got an email from a friend the other day with this description:

A woman found an injured, malnourished lion that was near death. She took him home and took care of him. When the lion recovered, she called the local zoo to give him a proper home.
This was the reaction she got when the lion saw her again for the first time.

I'm sorry. I keep watching it over and over. It's the best!

Vintage Christian Louboutin at FIT

The work of Christian Louboutin is a new exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

SOLE DESIRE: the Shoes of Christian Louboutin
March 13 - April 19, 2008

Sole Desire: The Shoes of Christian Louboutin explores the work of this contemporary luxury shoe designer, known for his exquisite and expensive footwear featuring eye-catching red soles. The exhibition will examine Louboutin’s inspirations, which range from gardens to bullfighters to fetish imagery, as well as investigating the explosive popularity of his shoes in today's unprecedented climate of celebrity influence.

Isn't it interesting how I am actually going to be in New York at the end of March?

What I am very excited for is checking out some of his earlier shoes like this pair to the right, crafted in 1994, which looks perfect for high tea. It's called the Pansy Mary Jane, apparently influenced by Louboutin's stint as a landscape designer. And of course, red soles were present even back then.

What I Love Right Now: This 'Mix Tape'

I found this on A + R Store, a quirky design site and I want. So basically you upload your favorite songs in a playlist to this USB and then you gift it to your sweetie in this old school mix tape packaging. Here's the full description:

Store 64MB’s of tunes on the drive stick—that’s about one-hour of high-quality digital music, just about the experience you’d get on a standard cassette tape. Pack stick in the gift case. Then jot down the playlist and whatever other messages your heart desires. For MAC or PC.

Brilliant. Some songs I would put on this mix tape? Classic faves from middle school: Motown Philly, Kris Kross' Jump, I Touch Myself and Mr. Big's I'm the One Who Wants to Be With You. Oh yeah, 1991 in effect.

Why I Love Cate Blanchett

Not only is she Australian, not only is she an amazing actress, not only is she high-fashion but in an accessible way, she is genuinely happy for her fellow actors.

Cate was nominated in two categories at this year's Academy Award--Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress.

In both categories she lost, but she had the same reaction for her fellow nominess as shown above. This here is the actresses faces when Marion Cotillard won for "La Vie en Rose."

Cate seemed to know before the others. Look she is so excited for Marion and she turns to where she was sitting! She did this when Tilda Swinton won Best Actress too. Julie Christie, well, she looks disappointed. Laura Linney is like, "Well no one really even knew my movie came out or that I was nominated so this is not surprising." Ellen Page is just awkward.

Here's a shot from a split-second later where everyone adjusts their expressions accordingly. (Sorry for the DirecTV stuff, I was impatient)



In short, if this were a beauty pageant Cate would have won Miss Congeniality and would have been genuinely happy about it.

JC IS 4U

Spied on my way down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. This is way better than those "Jesus is my homeboy" t-shirts.

"Umm...No": Butterfly Top from F21

I love F21. I'm sorry, I do. I shouldn't because I'm like totally over the age of 21 and they rip-off other fashion designers and have shady working conditions and a crazy Jesus obsession. But F21 has cheap clothes and since I like expensive shoes I need to balance it out.

I troll the website frequently and today I found this.

Umm...No.

I am going to keep it nice here. So all I'll say is: Who would this look good on and where would they wear it?

A Second Glance at David Yurman

David Yurman, how do I describe thee? An overpriced, overhyped, bulky, masculine, and bewildering line of jewelry? That's what I used to think of this designer but I popped into the David Yurman outlet store in Sawgrass, near Miami, last week and I had my mind changed.

DY actually had some great designs. And not all of them were that chunky twisted silver stuff ("cable candy") that he's pretty famous for. I like delicate jewelry. I'm a big girl and I don't need chunky jewelry making me look bigger.

His Confetti designs are great. They work for everyday and fancy events. If I could, I would take this diamond and topaz ring and make it my wedding band.

Also liking his signature oval rings, the Bijoux line, and his version of the quadrafoil which they had a ton of at the outlet store but not so much anywhere else.

Anyways, I can't believe I like David Yurman now but I do. However, I will only be able to buy his stuff at the outlet stores. It's still ridiculously overpriced.

What Is This? Brokeback Louboutins

When I hit up the Neiman Marcus in Bal Harbour last week, I scoped out the Louboutins of course. And I saw these. What the heck is this?

An ankle-cut, swarovski-studded, pink leather cowboy boot? Yikes. Christian, I love you but I don't love this. And definitely not at $1,800.

Even the NM salesman was like, "Crazy huh?"

By the way, CL's ankle boots are made for gals with extremely thin ankles. Just FYI.

Thinking About It: Prada's Birdcage Slingback Sandals

STATS
Name: Birdcage Slingback Sandals aka Calzature Donna
Designer: Prada
Color: Cipria
Size: 39
Price: $620

If they didn't cost $620 I would be prancing around in these Prada sandals right now.

Why I like them? First off, 3-inch heel means I can walk around in these things. Second, they are just very elegant looking although they do hover near the line of matronly. Third, if I don't wear them down completely in one season, I think the style will stand the test of time.

Fourth and most importantly, they come in this beautiful baby pink color which is ONLY SOLD at Barneys New York in store at Beverly Hills. (I grabbed this screenshot from Bergdorf.) I would only want the baby pink color rather than black.

Indeed I have tried these on in the pink color and they are just perfect. So I'm thinking about it. But I know how this will turn-out. I'll buy a similar design from Target or Payless.

What Is This? Year-Old Wedding Cake

I am not a traditional person but I do like some old-timey traditions especially if they involve food. So on my trip back down to Florida for my one-year wedding anniversary, I had a bite of my wedding cake as tradition dictates couples should do.

My parents kept the cake in their refrigerator in Florida and I was worried that there would be some random power outages in the summer (especially during hurricanes and bad storms) that would leave my cake inedible. But nope! It survived.

Sorta.

Apparently, my mom the cake fiend dug into about half of the top layer of the cake in the weeks after the wedding. (The cake itself wasn't too big because we served cupcakes instead. Also the icing roses were not orange, it was more like a light pink. Blame the iPhone camera.)

So this is just half of my cake. Heh. It was pretty good although I did just have a small bit. You try eating one-year-old cake and tell me what you think!

Speaking in Public Makes Me Nervous

The other weekend I was asked to be a panelist at the LA Times Travel and Adventure Show in a seminar about online booking tips and tricks.

This was the first travel panel I ever participated in and I was extremely nervous. Luckily, I had the best moderator (Jen Leo of the LA Times and awesome travel guru) along with Johnny Jet aka John DiScala) and George Hobica of AirFare Watchdog, two men who have the airfare booking and general travel booking business down pat. I learned so much from all of them.

I hope I was able to part some wisdom on the attendees myself. If nothing, then I did make them laugh with a few of my stories and when I spilled ice all over my lap. Clumsiness is always a crowd pleaser.

The only bummer was that the internet was not working in our room. So people were spouting out websites left and right and we couldn't even show them on the big projector slide for the attendees. Then again, I think maybe that helped moved the seminar along quicker. We only had an hour so it was very much rapid-fire with the tips and tricks. If we had the internet, we might have gotten stuck surfing the web.

Anyways, here are some snaps. The whole convention was pretty cool as far as conventions go.
I mean, it could have been a Library Convention which I have actually once attended. There were reps from cities, countries, airlines, and hotels. And of course, people hawking travel gear. I almost lingered at the Qantas table, but it would have broke my heart as I am dying to go back to Australia.

And I got to hear Phil Keoghan, host of Amazing Race, speak for a little bit. He needs to amp up that Kiwi accent, it makes him a little more adventurous sounding.

The Shops at Bal Harbour Don't Disappoint

I recently spent a week in SoFla visiting folks and celebrating my one-year anniversary. Eeek. One year. Anyways, I almost never not work especially since my work involves travel. Thus I took a trip down to Miami (about an hour and a half from Palm Beach) and toured a new hotel there which I'll write about on HotelChatter shortly.

Instead of taking 95 or the turnpike back, we drove up Collins Ave/A1A just to see the sights. We passed by the Miami Boat Show which was kicking off that night. Now that looked like fun. People were partying off the backs of the double-parked yachts in the marina. Remind me to check that out next year.

After about 15 minutes, I spied a Saks sign through some buildings. Then I saw a Neiman Marcus sign. Finally, I saw the Shops at Bal Harbour sign and ordered my husband to turn in. It was Valentine's Day afterall.

Bal Harbour is one of those storied legendary places I hear about. It has some of the best shopping in the world here. Or as I said to Mike when we parked the car, "This is where J.Lo shops!" And the place didn't disappoint. Aside from the two big department stores, there was every high-end designer store you could want (except maybe Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen.) Even the Gap and Banana Republic are high-end--ie they only sold work clothes and other basics. No underwear or workout clothes here.

So what did I end up buying? Nothing. I know, crazy right? However I did try on some Louboutins of course. And I'm thinking about them.

We capped off the luxury shopping tour at Gouloue, a little French brasserie place which was great. But apparently, everyone was dining at Carpaccio next door--the line was like 10 people deep. So I'll stop in there next time. And yes, there will be a next time.

Julie-Nana

So I went to a shoe signing featuring Christian Louboutin at the Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills a few months ago. CL was there in person and he signed shoes! I was smarter than a lot of Beverly Hills matrons by purchasing my shoes a few days in advance so that I didn't have to get stuck in the madness of buying shoes just because I wanted CL to sign them. And this madness was crazy.

Housewives and some professional types like publicists drove the sales people crazy fetching this shoe and that. I talked up my sales gal and she said the frenzy was totally worth it. They probably did six figures in sales the day he was there.

As for me, I calmly selected two types three days before the event: the eventa in black suede and a simple patent pump. I am still paying them off on my Saks card but of course, they are totally worth it. I actually find these to be the most comfortable of all the CL shoes I own. And I'm not telling you how many I own.

Graciously, CL signed the bottom of my shoes and he even autographed my shoe box. He also spontaneously came up with a new nickname for me: Julie-Nana. I love this man. $800 shoes be damned.