Nathan and his family have moved to Prescott, Arizona in order to live a more affordable life. It's difficult for Californians with families, mostly due to the cost of housing. Doc was a little sad, but I told him that now we have somewhere to visit!
At any rate, we had a combination going away / birthday party for everyone on August 27th. Three family members have their birthdays over Labor Day weekend - Nathan, Benjy and Joseph.
I decorated the newly renovated backyard for the occasion with welcome signs and additional seating. There were eleven of us and we got an 18-piece KFC meal, which was demolished.
On the morning of the party, we got a visit from the wild parrots. I was delighted to see them roosting on our power lines. They are medium sized green parrots. The legend says that they were released up in LA when Busch Gardens was closed. Who knows? Maybe there are just some wild breeds.
As expected, the highlights were diving for quarters and diving in tandem. There was also a water balloon fight. Here are a bunch of pictures from those events:
We had an assortment of cakes. There was a half chocolate, half vanilla traditional cake, and a four-part cake that was carrot, red velvet, chocolate mousse and Oreo cookie.
The flower box on the side of my She Shack does very nicely, even though we had a ten-day heat wave - temperatures ranged from 89 at night to almost 100 degrees in the day.
My in-laws gave us this three-piece bistro set.
On September 2nd, we went up to Long Beach to do some shopping and get out of the heat. I dropped Doc off at the bookstore, and I went to St Vincent dePaul Thrift and Out of the Closet.
At SVDP, I got two pairs of ankle booties. One is black with a lug sole, and one is tan, with laces and a stacked wooden heel.
I also got this cool grey boxy T shirt.
And this studded tunic from Style and Co.
Then I found a navy floral dress that I plan to wear with navy tights and the tan booties once fall weather hits.
Then I found a bronze cardigan from Dana Buchman. It has a covered placket with tiny gold studs.
The best find came from Out of the Closet; I got a merino wool sweater from Hugo Boss for $7.20. It retails for $398.
We have been exploring meat alternatives. We really like this one, Beyond Beef.
I made taco meat from it, and it was delicious. So, we went back to Grocery Outlet and got three more packages. It retails for $8.99 to $10.99 at other stores but GO had it for $3.99. We have tried some other brands but didn't find them good - either the taste or the texture was off.
The dogs did very poorly during the heat wave. I actually expected Kenni to die, he looked so awful. Pandi spent a lot of time splayed out on the tile floors.
She also refused to sleep in bed with me, preferring to lay on pillows near the French doors that lead to the pool. Maybe it was cooler there.
Kenni did very badly. He was lethargic and threw up a few times, so maybe there was something going on besides heat intolerance. But he rallied yesterday. I noticed a nose in the door.
It's our Ken!!!
I asked Doc if maybe Kenni was feeling badly because I didn't have the energy to spend much time with my pets while it was so hot and we were having good-bye parties, but Doc disagrees. He thinks Kenni is not that sensitive or smart.
Now that all the activity has been documented, let's move on to some outfits.
On August 24th, I wore a beautiful silk blouse from Cache. I paired it with a polyester skirt. I love the colors.
On August 25th, I wore a jersey knit dress from Ellen Tracy. It has a very flattering side drape feature. I think these colors are multi-seasonal.
On August 26th, I wore a tennis inspired dress from Tahari. I wore it with my trusty gladiator sandals from Target.
On Monday, August 29th, I wore a sheath dress from Badgely Mischka. It was a little big for me, so I cinched it with a wide belt.
On Tuesday, August 30th, I wore one of my favorite summer dresses from Mary McFadden. I have always worn it with my Target gladiators.
I combined it with a bunch of silver and turquoise jewelry that Doc has gotten me over the years.
On Wednesday, August 31st, I wore a boucle skirt with gold lurex accents from St John. The chiffon top also has lurex accents and is from Ann Taylor.
On September 1st, I wore a blue scuba knit dress from Calvin Klein with Ivanka Trump shoes.
It's hard to see, but the dress has the beautiful seaming details that CK is known for. My crystal necklace is Swarovksi.
After the long, hot weekend, it was back to work on Tuesday, September 6th. I wore gold silk slacks from Amanda Smith with a double layered chiffon top from White House Black Market.
It has an asymmetrical hem.
On September 7th, I wore a pair of sharkskin slacks with a burnout top from Vince Camuto.
I wore herringbone silver and Navajo pearls with it.
On Thursday, September 8th, I wore another favorite summer dress. It has no label. It is a vibrant orange paisley print.
On Friday, September 9th, I wore a shift dress from Weekend Traffic, a local brand. I have the New York version too. This is the Paris version.
On Monday, September 12th, I wore a set from Onque. It is made of black slacks with a black sequin waistband, a striped T with sequin trim, and a coordinating jacket.
Here's a close-up of the pieces.
On Tuesday, I wore a Style and Co tunic that I got in San Antonio, along with ivory slacks from Semantix.
I wore a black suede and gold chain belt and my black plastic waterfall necklace.
On Wednesday, September 14th, I wore a floral sheath dress from Vanilla Bay.
On top. I wore a crepe jacket with a chiffon peplum from Katie and Rosy. I work with a lady named Catie, so we decided that it was our jacket.
I wore rose gold with it. My booties are Halogen, from Nordstrom.
Yesterday, I wore another shift - this one with bell sleeves trimmed in plaid. It's by Sharagano.
My shoes and tights are Gucci.
Most of the jewelry belonged to my mom.
I got a 40% off coupon from Old Navy, so I got two pairs of leggings. These brown ones have split ankles and a center seam down the leg. They are extremely flattering.
My booties are the tan ones that I showed you earlier, and my swing jacket is from Charter Club.
So that does it for the clothes. I got two cosmetic bags. First, from Birchbox:
From top to bottom:
1) Milk Makeup Mascara
2) This Works Stress Check Kind Hands Cream
3) DR Botanicals Sw cleansing Bar in Strawberry and Poppy Seed
4) Hievy Collagen Boosting Oolong Tea Mask.
Then from Ipsy, in a iridescent pink bag:
1) MEG Cosmetics Marine Serum Cleanser
2) Bellapierre Cosmetics Pressed Banana Setting Powder
3) Glow Recipe Avocado Ceramide Recovery Serum
4) IBY Beauty Dream Maker Lush Eyeshadow in Stargazer
5) Laruce Beauty LR117 Angled Shading brush.
We will end with even more pool pix!!
So that's about it!! It's getting cooler every day, thankfully. Stay tuned for more shenanigans!!
