A Year of Fashion: 12 Looks from 2012

January.

It snowed

February.

We had a strange warm spell. It was very pleasant.

March.

My dark haired days were numbered

April.

Back to blonde!

May.

My hair was almost purple here. I loved it.

June.

I did a local photo shoot!

July.

My cousin got married.

August.

Probably my favorite look from the whole year.

September.

What I wore to FNO

October.

A nice homeless look for Autumn

November.

Election season comes to an end.

December.

Finished off the year with another local photo shoot

What a year!! I hope yours has been filled with love and happiness and I hope 2013 is no different! Here's to the New Year!

♠

Recipe: Mona Kay Cocktail

My experiments with homemade bitters have met with success. How do I know? Well, they're delicious. So delicious that I'm having trouble writing this. Hashtag buzzed.

I decided to try out a version of the recipe I saw in Martha Stewart's Whole Living. I used tangerine and grapefruit peel in place of the orange and lemon zest. My spice mix varied just a little, too.

To make sure my version turned out okay, I developed The Mona Kay. Why the name? While browsing old city documents, I discovered that my apartment building was christened The Mona Kay upon it's construction in the early 1940's. Since the drink and the building are a similar peachy-pink, I thought the name would fit both.

Here's a quick recipe, using store-bought bitters, just in case you're short on time:

-The Mona Kay-

8oz. grapefruit juice, preferably fresh squeezed

½ tsp sugar

2oz. vodka

Fee Brothers Grapefruit bitters, to taste

Ice

Mix the sugar and bitters in a low-ball glass, or whatever you have. Add vodka, juice, and ice. Stir. Garnish with grapefruit zest

Optional: Try a sugared rim instead of mixing the sugar into the drink. It's prettier that way.

♠

Look of the Day: black+blue+fur

What day is it?? Where am I? I feel so out of it! I guess it always like this after the holidays, but I think it's even worse because I've been gone so much. I spent Christmas in California with my husband and our friends. We stayed in San Jose for the most part and then Napa Valley for one night. I ate so much good food and got to spend so much time with some of my favorite people. I wish I could have had my whole family around for Christmas, but there's always next year. I'll post photos from the trip in the next couple days.

How was your  Christmas? Wonderful and magical, I hope!

Rabbit fur hat (similar) - H&M blazer (similar) - vintage sweatshirt - Uniqlo HeatTech shirt - BDG pants - H&M bag - thrifted flats

♠

Look of the Day: Core Strength

As many of you readers may know by now, I've been working with a local eyeglass company, Rivet & Sway. A few weeks back, I got my wits about me and did something smart: I went to the Rivet & Sway pop-up shop at U Village and did some "networking". It's something I rarely do, because, honestly, I'm pretty shy in person. I'm very happy I did because all the people at Rivet & Sway are just as lovely in person as they were over email. The icing on the cake? They asked if I would want to help out with their Holiday campaign!

I said yes, of course, and now have these gorgeous photo to add to my portfolio. We had an amazing photographer, Barbara Kinney, and the fact that she has photographed Hillary Clinton just makes me swoon.

It's sounds funny, but I am the official face of their newest frames, The Core Strength. If you follow the link, you can see what the frames look like from different angles and in different colors. Scroll down for a little mouse-over thingy where you can make me turn my head back and forth!

This image was used in the Rivet & Sway mailer a couple weeks ago. I love their branding so much. Gorgeous typeface, simple colors, and all-around excellent graphic design.

Now to find a camelhair coat like the one Britt let me borrow!

DIY: cheap + chic packaging

Here in Seattle, I'm lucky to have access to shops like Zenith Supplies and Packaging Specialties, both purveyors of nice packaging supplies. I realized, though, that not everyone has access to shops like these and may be at a loss as to wear to find packaging for their homemade gifts and Christmas presents. So last month I set out to find bottles, labels, jars, etc. fit for gifting. I'm happy to report I only had to make one stop at Target to find all I needed!

I turned the above bits and pieces into the festive vessels you see below.

Products I used:

Jars, bottles, and containers (usually found with the travel sized stuff)

Decorative tape or stickers (scrapbooking/crafts aisle)

Good pens (scrapbooking/craft aisle)

White address labels (office supply aisle)

Also useful:

Markers, ribbon, pencil, good eraser, ruler, scissors

I filled my jars with lip polish (get the DIY recipe here) and plan to mix up some bath oil to fill the bottle. Here's a good recipe if you want to make bath oils and here's a recipe for bath salts. I recommend storing bath salts in a bigger container than the ones shown in this post, simply because you use more of it. A recycled jelly jar works perfectly!

Use the tape and stickers to decorate and seal your containers. For the labels, you can either hand-write them or design a label on your computer. The package of labels should have directions on setting up your printer to correlate with the labels. If you like the look of my labels, use your scissors to carefully cut the shapes. This is where a ruler and pencil might come in handy.

If you have any questions on how I did something or where I got a product, please leave a comment and I will get back to you :)

Product Review: The North Face Hoodie

GigaSavvy sent me this North Face hoodie to review, just in time for my trip to England! I was very glad to have it, because it was pretty cold there. 

This is not your run-of-the-mill sweatshirt. This one is heavy duty and perfect for winter. Its stand-out features are the fleece lining and quilted exterior. Throw a North Face jacket over top and you have no excuses for avoiding exercise in the winter! One other thing I like about the hoodie is the subtle branding. I hate having really noticeable writing on my clothes, so the gray-on-gray emblem is perfect. The second emblem on the back is unnecessary, but doesn't ruin the garment, so I'll let it slide. 

As for construction and basic features, this sweatshirt seems to be satisfyingly standard. The zipper works well, the sizing is accurate, and I haven't found any loose threads or seams.

The biggest selling point is just how cozy it is! I think I've worn it every day since I got it!

In Photos: Oh, England.

I'm back! I flew into Seattle on Thursday night, and I must admit, I'm still a little jet legged. I fell asleep at 7:30 last night, woke up at 6am, was up for an hour, then slept till 9:30! My poor internal clock; it's so confused.

Crab apples in Winchester.

My trip was wonderful. Thanks for asking! I really lucked out with the weather. It was incredibly cold, but sunny and mostly dry. I did wake up to a dusting of snow on Tuesday, though.

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I lived in England in 2006, and my dad works over there a lot, so it's like a second home. I stayed with my dad in Farnborough and my friend Abi in Basingstoke. I got to see so many wonderful people that I haven't seen in years! My old neighbor Claire took me to the Christmas Market in Winchester (where Jane Austen is buried). It was fun seeing England at Christmas time. I sampled many Christmas puddings and brought back Pimm's to make a Winter Pimm's, which I discovered at a pub in Surrey. It's a hot drink that involves brandy, apple juice, and fruit & spices

The day before I left, I made a trip into London to see my friend Mike. We wandered around Liberty's, which is quite overwhelming; full of so many beautiful things. Afterwards, Mike gave me a little tour of Soho and took me to lunch at Soho Joe. They make great burgers, if you're ever in the area.

Carnaby Street

My only regret is not being able to meet up with my friend Erin over at 365. We've been friends and penpals for more than 10 years, and have yet to meet up in real life. One day, though!

Marmite Christmas lights in Oxford Circus

Now for my next trip, I want to see Iceland for more than a couple hours! It's so beautiful. IcelandAir has an entire music channel for Sigur Ros, so I listened to it as we flew into Reykjavic around sunset. Sigur Ros really is the soundtrack to Iceland. Flying over the frozen plains and spectacular volcanic land-forms, it just made sense.