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.