This Is How We Do It

At least, this is how I do it in Huntington Beach. This is what I saw out my office window today.

We have been endlessly warned that this huge storm was coming, so I prepared myself with my Newport News coat and my Target umbrella.

Underneath, I have on a very comfy outfit, made from items that I have had for a long time. It didn't photograph well. Doc said I looked like a "sexy ninja". Har.

We'll show some details. The pants are ponte knit from Express, the gold lurex tank is Banana Republic, and the sweater cardi is INC. Let's look at the sweater.

The body is smooth black knit, and it has satin panels along side the zipper. It has a mandarin collar that is embroidered in gold and red. Then, I wore a pair of Speigel boots that I have also had for a long time. I pretty much only wear them when it rains. They are black suede with silver and gold embroidery.

For my necklace, what could be better than my black coral ?

You can see the satin panels and the tank better in this shot. When I leave work, I will wear my hat, because it is supposed to POUR this afternoon, and I won't care if I get hat head.

The flower is red patent leather. For my arms, I played up the red and gold. On the left, my wedding rings and a stretchy crystal bracelet from Saks.

I don't have a horrible disease - that pattern you see on my wrist is from my coat squishing my wrist down. On my right, a ruby cocktail ring, a ruby bracelet, a diamond tennis bracelet, and a diamond dust/gold bracelet.

Onto the links!!! First, Lauren at www.stylelixir.com. It's her 30th birthday. I have shoes older than Lauren :(. Then, Amber at www.induffinitely.blogspot for Tremendous Tuesday. She is celebrating 300 followers!!! Lastly, the lovely Rachelle show how to do fall in Miami at www.pinksole.com. Last week, Miami won a poll for the sexiest residents. One look at Rachelle will explain why!!! Well, here's to me and Elli and Kenni and Vinni staying sorta dry !!!

Laughter In The Rain

Well, today marks my first day back after 5 glorious days off. I managed to get my electrical system replaced, find a few gems on Black Friday, spend lots of quality time with family, friends, and puppers, and have some very nice dinners out. Whew. So what did I wear for this auspicious occasion?

It's the Rhapsody dress I got at Lutheran Thrift on Black Friday. On top, I have the vintage Bullocks Wilshire jacket I found a few weeks back. Remember, it's wool with satin trim on the lapels and buttons, and it has the cute vent details around the hem.

At the waist, I have a Coldwater Creek belt. The back is black leather and the front is a silver design that remnds me of Celtic knotwork. It weighs a lot.

I went with grey tights and some long forgotten shoes by Enzo Angiolini. They are grey flannel-ish material trimmed in black leather. They even came with a purple satin dustbag, which is unusual for this brand, since it's not very high end. But it is a nice detail.

Today, and for the next 3 or 4 days, it will be raining. YAY!!! We need it badly. It rained quite a bit yesterday as well. So I busted out one of my hats - I always wear a hat when it rains. I have a bit of a hike from where I park to my office, and since I use hairspray, my hair can end up a gooey mess if left unprotected. I got his hat at Stein Mart.

Don't I look mysterious? I also carried my new purse - it is made by Donna Salyer, and it's beautiful double sheared faux beaver.

For my necklace, I wore the agate(?) piece I got at the flea market right before we went to Boston. It nicely combines black and grey.

You can see the heathery grey top of the dress better here. For my arms, a lot of oldies, but goodies. Today, I probably have my four favorite pieces of jewelry that I have ever owned.

 

 

On my left, I have my garnet/opal bracelet and my wedding set. My wedding band is also garnet/opal, because those are Doc and my birthstones. On my right, my Swarovksi Nirvana and Platinum Cuff, both in Black Diamond.

Today, I am linking with two beautiful ladies. First, Patti at www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.com for Visible Monday. Today, she has on a killer dress. Also, www.whitneynicjames.com for Personal Style Monday. Whitney does indeed have lots of that!!! Hope you all had a great weekend, and that going back to work is not too rough!!!

This Black Friday Was Pretty Green

I had one mission to accomplish today - Doc wanted a big frying pan. When I was recuperating from dinner yesterday, I saw that JCP had Farberware saute pans on sale for $29.99. So I went over and got one - it's nice and deep, has a lifetime warranty, and was marked down from $80. When I brought it home and took off the wrapper, there was all this advice about how you can't cook with nonstick pans if you have birds. And you especially can't burn things if you have birds. Who knew?

I also got him the big pillow he wanted. I didn't get up early, so I got there around 8. It wasn't at all crowded, but after my trip to Lutheran Family Thrift, the mall was packed on the way home. I heard on the radio that 4 ladies got in fights at Kohl's - one pair fought over panties, and one pair fought over baby clothes. Weird. Find some other outlet for your energy.

So onto Lutheran Family Thrift. It's on Harbor Boulevard, which basically runs the entire length of Orange County, so I don't really know what city it's in. I think it's Anaheim. It could be Orange. I've been there once before, and scored a Dolce and Gabbana belt and a BCBG warm up set. It's a big crammed store and I had to dig. But they sent me a card saying that everything was 40% off for Black Friday, so I figured why not? I looked at some of the stuff in the mall on the way out of JCP, and it all looks cheap. If it's not cheap looking, then it's way overpriced. So off I went, after meeting a friend for coffee.

We will start with the score of the day. This might actually be the score of the century.

This is a boucle knit suit and matching skirt. The sleeves are bracelet length and the buttons are exquisite. Now for the reveal.

OMG. St John. Size 2. And the red tag said $4.94. Yep, less than 5 dollars. I was sure that when I took it up to the cashier, that they would tell me that it was $49.94, but nope. It's in perfect shape and fits perfectly. It's yellow with black and white boucle and black braid and black and white buttons. Even $49.94 would have been a steal. When I got home, I looked up St John suits, and one very similar suit was $1595 at Neiman Marcus. But there's more.

I got another warm up suit. That's what I call them, but I thnik there are different names for them. It was brand new with tags. It's maroon velour, made by Style and Co, and has mesh trim. The trim is around the hood, the pockets, down the side of the legs and sleeves, and on the inside. Here it is.

It cost $10. I looked this up also, and each piece is $49.95. Then I also found a dress that was new with tags. It's made by Rhapsody.

I had never heard of this brand before, but it turns out that it is also sold at Macy's, and the closest one I could find was $129. Doc didn't like the dress - he said it looks shapeless. We'll see after I get it all styled and everything. That makes a difference, but men don't know about that stuff. The last item I got was a Peck and Peck sweater. They sell those at Stein Mart. It may even be a Stein Mart store brand. It's black with tiny pearls on the sleeves. The retail is $59.95, but they are almost never full price, since Stein Mart has continuous sales. It was $2.

So I added it all up, and it appears as though I spent $53 for $1900 worth of stuff, including the pan, which was the most expensive item. I will go to Lutheran Family Thrift again next year. I keep finding treasures there. That's what it said about them on Yelp - if you don't mind spending an hour looking, you can find really good deals.

But that's not all. Back in 2009, I left one hospital to work at the one I work for now. Right as I was leaving, there was a class action lawsuit involving underpaying of wages for missed meals and overtime and such. I got a letter in the mail today telling me that my share of the settlement will be $900. Not bad for doing nothing. I was reading the names of the 5 employees who initiated the lawsuit, and sadly, two of them have died in the intervening five years. One of the dead people had ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and one of my dear friends helped him to the end of his life. So I have to call her and tell her - he had no spouse or children, so somebody is in line to get his share, which is $20,000 according to the letter. Maybe it's her. She took care of him after he could no longer walk, eat, or even breathe, so if she is his beneficiary, she certainly deserves it. If not, that 20k get redivided between all the members of the class. IT would only mean a buck or two for the rest of us. The entire settlement was on the order of 16.5 million dollars. Bad hospital - you shouldn't rip off your employees.

Well, I have no exciting plans for tomorrow, but one never knows what may arise. I'll keep you posted, and I look forward to seeing everybody else's Black Friday scores!!!

An Electrifying Thanksgiving!!!

Yesterday was my first day off in a stretch of 6. I had to hang around a little bit because our electrician put in a brand new breaker and fuse system. While he was doing that, I went shopping for the ingredients for my part of the Thanksgiving feast. I made monkey bread, stuffing and gravy, and warm onion dip. My MIL, Mimi, wanted monkey bread, I wanted cheese dip and Doc wanted stuffing and gravy. Away we go!!!

Here are the ingredients for the dip. Swiss cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, onion, garlic, parmesan cheese and sweet red peppers. Here are the veggies chopped up and the cheese grated.

Then I mixed everything in a bowl and baked it for 30 minutes. After that, I sprinkled parmesan on the top to make a crust.

I baked it in a ceramic pie pan. Remember, I won 10 loaves of Boudin sourdough, so I cut one up in chunks for dipping.

Then I made the sausage stuffing. Here are those ingredients.

I used Mrs Cubbison's Classic dressing mix, margarine, celery, Jimmy Dean sausage, garlic, onion, Knorr chicken stock, dried cranberries, sage and two eggs. Here is the sauasge, celery, onion, and cranberries cooking.

I baked this in a deep Corning Ware casserole, and put more margarine on the top to make it crispy. Then I took Vinni and Elli for a walk. Eric the Electrician brought his dog, Kahlua, with him, so Kenni stayed home and played with her. I took the kidz over to the school to let them run around. It was Vinni's first time. Three teenagers saw us and stopped to talk because they said that Elli was the cutest chihuahua they had ever seen. I happen to agree.

 

Then I made the monkey bread. Here are those ingredients.

Two cans of Pillsbury Grands buttermilk biscuits, cashews, cinnamon, raisins, butter, sugar, and brown sugar. You just chop up the biscuits, cover them in cinnamon sugar, put them in a bundt pan, put the cashews and raisins on top, then pour melted butter mixed with brown sugar over it. Then you bake it and turn it over onto a plate.

Lastly, I made the gravy. I cheated here, because I didn't have the drippings from the turkey to use. So I got three cans of Campbell's Turkey gravy. I spiced it up by adding cooking sherry, sauteed mushrooms, and poultry seasoning. It was pretty good when I taste tested it. After sitting and incubating overnight, it was even better.

So what did I wear for the feast of gluttony? I must confess, that beforehand, I ran 10 miles, so that the gas tank would read "E" when it was time to pork out. I wore my trusty Levi's jeans, a gold lurex henley, and a fabulous velvet burnout poncho trimmed in long black fringe. For shoes, I wore my Mossimo desert boots with the heel and the lug sole. Here I am, in front of The Silver Fox, my Cadillac CTS. Eric's partner said Silvy looks like a shark - all sleek and silver with a fin on his back.

Here's another view. Note my purse - it's made by Donna Salyer, the queen of faux fur. It's black double sheared faux beaver, and it's so luxe and gorgeous.

So we went and ate - Mimi made turkey, stuffing, taters, yams, green beans and biscuits. She also has 3 pies - pumpkin, cherry and mince. It's a good thing her husband Win likes pie. Also, Nathan and Kim and the boys will come over to eat again tomorrow. So when we dropped my mom off and took the dogs for their walk, I had to clean up the leftovers. And I ran over 2 pots in the driveway with Silvy on the way out, so I had to clean that up too. No big loss occured- I was able to repot the survivors. And I made 3 TV dinners from the leftovers.

Elli was soooooo cute - as I was washing up the dishes that the food was in, she licked the next in line. When she got to the pie pan that the cheese dip was in, she actually stood in it as she licked. I couldn't get to the camera fast enough. All 3 dogs got generous helpings of stuffing and some sourdough bread chunks.

Well, tomorrow is Black Friday. I personally love the crowds and the bustle. I am going to JCP to get a saute pan and a pillow for Doc. Then I am going to Macy's to get him some nice comfort shoes. After that, maybe some thrifting or consignments. I will be sure to show you all what I get. I hope that everyone who reads has a lovely, safe, peaceful Thanksgiving !!! See you all tomorrow!!!

Going for The Gold...... Or The Green

Every now and then, the hospital runs a fitness challenge. One of the recurring themes is to wear a pedometer and log over 10,000 steps a day. So we got free pedometers a while back, but mine has been sitting in the drawer of the sideboard at home for quite a while. I got it out on Saturday and started wearing it again. It keeps me more accountable - it's harder to put off walking around when ol' pedo is hanging on my belt. Here is the breakdown of daily steps so far:

Saturday 17086

Sunday 14576

Monday 18726

It's funny - when I do Tae Bo or the Firm or some other type of workout tape, I get less steps even though I work out longer. Yesterday, all I did was walk, since I got preoccupied with the Ferguson riot business.So onto today's outfit. I am going for the green, even though it's not St Patty's.

The pants are from INC, the green brocade Chinese jacket is by Clio, and the blouse underneath is some random thing. Here's a picture without the jacket.

I had forgotten why I never wear this pretty blouse. It won't stay buttoned. I ended up rigging it shut with safety pins. Here's a closeup of the brocade on the jacket.

For a necklace, I chose a diamond and emerald piece that I have had a long time.

If you ignore the pleated neck and the liver spots, you can see the cascade of ruffles on the evil blouse. I rolled the sleeves of the jacket up a little so I could wear bracelets. On my left, I have my Montana peridot ring, an emerald Claddagh, and a gold/diamond dust bracelet. On the right, my creepy green Nordstorm ring,and two Austrian crystal stretch bracelets.

These pants are another pair that are supernaturally long, so I need higher heels to wear with them. I went with my Calvin Klein suede and patent peep toes.

As for today's linkups, since it is Tremendous Tuesday, I am linking with Amber at www.induffintely.blogspot.com. And I am also linking with www.pinksole.com for How I Fall. It's kinda hard to fall, however, since it will be 80 degress today.

So tomorrow, I will be doing a cooking post, as I prepare the vittles I am bringing to Thanksgiving dinner. I am making Swiss cheese dip, Monkey bread, and sausage stuffing. Our friend, who is an electrician, is replacing our fuse box tomorrow. I hope that goes well. I will also be replanting a planter box that has an ugly old Marguerite daisy in there. Play by play action is in store!!!