Hobo-Meets-Cowboy-Meets-Native American.

So you've read my schpeal on bad ass black leather... brown leather is a whole different story! Think of brown leather as black leather's sister who's happens to be more hobo-meets-cowboy-meets native americans. Fringe, distressed, suede, stitched, I think you get the picture... if not here's a little something to help ya out!

Please keep in mind that there is A LOT of fringe up there... please please PLEASE do not wear all of it together!!! TRUST ME, it will look HORRIFIC!

Someone Once Told Me That Leather Wasn't Allowed In Heaven, I Replied With "Then I'm Not Interested... In Heaven That Is"

If anyone knows me well enough, then they know that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE REAL LEATHER! I normally have a huge heart for animals and have always been against animal cruelty... however, leather is the ONLY exception to this. The luscious rich smell, the supple soft grain, the way it just gets so much better with age. MMM! There's a few things I can gush continuously about... leather is one of them. I do, however, limit my love of leather to black and brown leather.

This particular post is dedicated to *black leather* and all of its glory! Black leather is the epitome of rock n roll. Slip on a black moto leather jacket and no matter who you are, I promise that you will instantly feel nothing short of a bad ass. Add any of the amazing leather pieces below and you can transform an 'eh' outfit into complete bad ass-ness!

Orgasms in the Casino.

Sounds like a crazy porn title, huh?! Just kidding! I am completely addicted to Nars Blush in Orgasm & Bronzer in Casino. So much so that when I'm all out AKA when I can't get my brush in the corners and edges any more I become a crazy CHEAPO! Seriously though, hear me out on this one.

Here's what you'll need:

• Left over bronzer and/or shimmery blush.
• Your favorite moisturizer (I like a non-scented one so that it doesn't compete with my perfume).
• A make-shift mortar and pestle (a bowl and the back of a spoon should work pretty well)
• A cute empty jar or bottle.

Step 1: Scrape out all of the left over bronzer and/or blush out of its container using the end of a spoon over a bowl.

Step 2: Use the back of your spoon to crush everything up to as fine as possible aka NO LUMPS!

Step 3: Mix your bronzer/blush powder into your moisturizer. Be sure to mix very well!

Step 4: Fill your cutesy jar or bottle with this shimmery moisturizer.

Step 5: Moisturize your gams with this gorgeous moisturizer and go for a night on the town!

I think you get the picture right?! Shimmer moisturize makes legs look AMAZING! Add some pumps and a mini to it and you're good to go!

No Gold Digging For Me, I Take Diamonds!

I have lately accumulated a lot of jewelry and up until this past weekend it has been taking over my desk and my bathroom. So I hit up The Container Store on the hunt for anything that would help me get my catastrophe of a jewelry collection organized. I knew that I wanted to dedicate a drawer from one of the two dressers in my room (yes, 2 dressers... a little ridiculous, huh?!) to my jewelry. Two phone calls (to my mom to meausre the drawer and see how much space I had to work with) and 45 minutes later, I decided on clear hard plastic drawer organizers. Check it out!

Kinda brilliant, huh?! I LOVE IT!

Ring A Ling A Ling.

I normally do not wear rings very often, mostly because I wash my hands at least 20 times a day... However, these gorgeous baubles are too good to pass up!

Of course, I do not have an endless limit on my plastic... YET! The ones above I would be wearing in my dreams for now. So these are the ones I scored recently.

The 80s Called... They Want Their Pants Back.

I have always loved art class and been super crafty... So, of course, I love anything DIY. So I decided to give acid wash destroyed denim a spin. I suggest anyone to give it a try because it definitely was fun. Plus, it's like getting a new pair of jeans practically for FREE99.


Here's what you'll need:

• A pair of jeans that aren't your fave (in case you don't like the results)
• bleach
• water
• a few small containers/buckets (I used medium-sized Tupperware containers big enough to fit your sponge into them)
• 1 pair of rubber gloves
• 1 sponge
• a couple of hair ties or rubber bands
• a utility knife/razor blade
• lots of newspaper
• a well ventilated area (which I didn't have, but I strongly suggest it!)

Step 1: Lay down newspaper on your floor to protect it from the bleach.

Step 2: Stuff your jeans with enough newspaper to ensure that the bleach doesn't soak through the other side.

Step 3: Use the rubber bands to tie different parts of your jeans to create a unique pattern on the denim with the bleach.

Step 4: Put on the rubber gloves.

Step 5: Make your bleach concotions. You will want to have different concentrations of bleach and water mixtures so that you can control how bleached your jeans get. For example, a container with 1 cup of pure bleach and another container with 1 cup of bleach + 1 cup of water.

Step 6: GO AT IT! Use the sponge to rub, drip on and soak the jeans with your bleach mixtures. You can also try scrunching up different parts of the jeans so that you get different effects with the bleach. FYI: they may look kinda ugly while you are having fun, but trust me, after you wash them they will look fantastic!

Step 7: Once you're done creating your masterpiece, run in through the rinse & spin cycle of your washer.

Step 8: Take them out of the washer and lay them out. Then with the utility knife make random, sporadic slashes down the front of the legs.

Step 9: Throw the jeans in the wash with nothing else (use the small load setting to help save some water!) with some soap and then dry them.

Step 10: Go wear your new acid washed distroyed jeans!!! Strut your stuff, baby!

Yep... That's it, 10 simple steps! Enjoy! Below are mine.

Cuff Love.

I love love love accessories. Cuffs being my #1 LOVE. I wear one and I instantly feel like a super hero... possibly like Wonder Woman?! There is just something slipping one on your wrist that makes you feel nothing shy of beautiful and feminine and almost... powerful. Plus, it makes your wrist look oh-so dainty... And I am allll for looking and feeling dainty!

There's no coincidence here that 3 of them are from Alexander McQueen. Hmm. <3

Thank You, Hair God(dess).

I did say previously that I would not post a picture of my catastrophe of a hair cut. Well... I am... Just to show how AMAZING it looks now!

After a few days of the horror that was my hair I decided to call Bokaos. They arranged for me to go in yesterday to see the owner so she could fix my hair. After I explained everything that happened and how incredibly unhappy I was with my hair she started to rummage through her tool chest (it was actually a tool chest, Craftsman to be exact) and pulled out some dirty blond extensions. "How do you feel about highlights?" she said. After I responded with "Please just make it look good." I realized that she was going to put blond extensions in my hair because she didn't have extensions that matched my hair. I was so happy that I wasn't going to left with this hideous hair for another day! Has (her full name is Hasblady, Has for short. Did I also mention that she has been featured on the Style Network's Split Ends?! Yea, she's the shit.) and her 2 assistants started their magic. I felt like I was in hair surgery! Approximately 4 and a half hours later I emerged with an absolutely amazing and gorgeous A-line cut with GORGEOUS dirty blond peek-a-boo highlights and side-swept bangs.

Before & After.

You never know how good a salon really is until they mess up and what they do to fix it. I can now walk... err... shall I say, strut with my head held high knowing that I don't have a hack job for a hair cut any longer!

The Silver... Err... Sequined Lining.

Until I get my horrific hair cut fixed (see: previous blog entry) a la extensions or a correction cut from the owner of the salon I previously went to, I will be sportin' new head gear. A sequined beret! If you haven't noticed by now that sequins are SOO in this season... well, I'm here to tell you. SEQUINS ARE IN!

After a less-than-terrific day at work, I hit up the mall in search of some sort of appropriate head gear. Low and behold, I spot a black sequined beret in the window at (where else?!)Forever 21. After searching inside, I finally asked one of the associates. After rummaging everywhere I had already rummaged though she said that they didn't have any others and that they can't take it off the mannequin (damn those lucky muther effin mannequins!). So... I unhappily strolled around looking for other hat options. Then all of a sudden the associate came up to me and was like "Actually we can take this one off the mannequin because it wasn't supposed to be on there to begin with!" OH MY GOD! She seriously made my day that much better! Mission: Accomplished.

So this little horrific experience hasn't been a complete disaster! This is what I wore today (although, my wonderful sequined beret didn't get added til late this evening):

Hair Drama Part 1, 2, 3 and 4.

I went to get a trim at Bokaos, an Aveda salon in Old Town Pasadena, this past Friday night after work. I've been going to them (specifically Trisha, she is the absolute best! I LOVE her!) for over 2 years now. Unfortunate for me, Trisha's days off are on Thursdays and Fridays which sucks because I always want to get my hair cut on Fridays so I don't have to go during the weekend. My original appointment was scheduled for Saturday... but because I'm that impatient, I called and was able to get squeezed in on Friday... with SOMEONE ELSE! Ekk. I won't mention her name. Anyways, she trimmed my hair wayy tooo short. Now... I am not normally too attached to my hair AKA I don't burst into tears once I'm in the privacy of my car post-salon visit. I didn't shed any tears... But I definitely don't like my hair right now.

Let me give you a little background on what has been going on with my hair. I have had the POB* cut for the past 2ish years, which I absolutely adore! My hair was previously mid back/almost past boobs length. After having the POB for over a year, I eventually got bored with it and decided to get peek-a-boo highlights in April. SUPER CUTE BRILLIANT IDEA.

Fast forward to late May/early June, I decided that I wanted to go more for a Katie Holmes bob with full bangs. So I make my trip to Bokaos and see Monica (also another FAB hairdresser!) and she gives me full bangs (which did look beautiful and made me look SUPER ASIAN)... too bad that they probably lasted about 5 days on me before they got pulled back. Since then, I've been growing them out. :(

August rolls around and, once again, I'm tired of my usual hair and decided it was a genius idea to relax my hair... DIY style. So I made a quick trip to Target and bought Organic ROOT Stimulator Olive Oil Relaxer Kit. Yes... this is made for black hair. I am not black... but my hair is, in both color and texture. I should mention that the instructions on the box state that if you have bleached hair at all then you SHOULD NOT use the product. But of course my first thought was "what do they know about hair?! ha!" So I proceeded without caution...

The results... FABULOUS! Except for the bleached peek-a-boo highlights. In its wet form, it looked like burned cotton, but blond. In its air-dried form, it looked looked like some sort of material a rat would use for a rat's nest. GROSS, I know. Finally, in its flat-ironed form, it looked freaking gorgeous! Now, keep in mind, part of the reason why I relaxed my hair is so that there was minimal effort required in the AM hours of Monday through Friday chaos pre-work getting ready. So leaving my hair to air dry in this case was not an option.

So sure enough... one day I was too tired and lazy to flat iron my hair and I go to work with it air dried. It is then that I fully realize the horrific-ness that was my hair... I went off the deep end and took a pair of scissors (and a mirror that was about 5 inches x 3 inches big) to the blond highlights. Yep, chopped it all off... the blond parts that is. All done in the confines of my cubicle.

Which brings us to this past Friday, this hairdresser that I don't usually go to "fixed" my hair so that there weren't any "bare sections" (for lack of better words, that is) and "blended" everything together. However, the result was an anorexic POB. Now, I can't say it was completely her fault... BUT, I can say that every time I go to Trisha I am always beyond satisfied. Maybe she just knows me and my hair all too well.

So now... I am left with hair that is incredibly too short and a full bottle of GNC's Hair, Skin & Nails Vitamins to help my hair grow. The saga continues... :*(

*POB = Posh Bob a la Victoria Beckham's (formerly known as Posh Spice) a-line bob cut.

My hair timeline.










I will post the last horrific picture of my hair tomorrow. Hopefully, I can work some magic and make it look decent. :(

Edit: I decided that I am not going to post the catastrophe of a hair cut that I got. Sorry... I'm just that vain sometimes.

Blurred Vision = A Blessing In Disguise.

Aside from a decent paycheck, my employer also happens to provide some bomb ass health care benefits. More specifically, eye vision insurance. I happen to be near-sighted*, which used to be a burden.... USED TO BE. I recently got these prescription beauties to help me not only look amazingly cool but I can also see clearly! They also double as a polite do-not-disturb (or start up small talk with me) sign when strolling into work in the early AM hours. These gorgeous Dior Madrague sunnies would have easily been about $295 + extra $$$ for the prescription lenses. But lucky for me, they were FREE99.

*near-sighted = unable to see distant objects clearly... for all you perfect 20/20 visioned people that may not know what being near-sighted means. :)

Everyone Has a Lazy Day.

Mine was today. Today was my dad's 53th birthday so me and my mom and pops hit up Newport Seafood in San Gabriel. Seriously, if you're in the area... hit it up. It was bomb! All I'm gonna say (because this obvi isn't a food blog!) is that their lobster, calamari, and french beef were to DIE FOR! Anyways, this is what I wore.

Cardi-CAN.

There are a few things in life that is just impossible to have too many of... shoes, purses, lingerie, jewelry. To add to the list is CARDIGANS. This little underdog piece of clothing can seriously do some major transforming to any outfit. Now... you're probably thinking "Seriously, a boring ass cardigan is going to transform my outfit?!" Now, let me clarify... we're not talking about your grandpa's old brown itchy cardigan! Cardigans come in a million different shapes, sizes, colors, and prints! Including:

• Animal print (the classic being leopard).
• Floral.
• Polka Dot.
• Stripes.
• Lace Overlay.
• Applique.
• Embroidery.
• Argyle.
• Ruffles.
• Cable Knit.
• Crochet.
• Short Sleeved.
• Long Sleeved.
• Over Sized.
• Extended Length.
• Cropped.

You get the picture. Since we're mostly creatures that rely on visual stimulation, here ya go:

Happiness is Fleeting...

And so are these darn shoes!

During a late night online shopping sesh this past weekend I spotted these little booties and I knew I was destined to have them! So I started my search high and low at a few of the local Forever 21/XXI stores near me and sure enough I could not find them in my size for the life of me! Damn you size 7 feet! I did have a brief encounter with them at the Pasadena Forever 21 (aka THE mecca of Forever 21s with 2 glorious floors). After convincing the super sweet and helpful cashier into letting me try the pair on the mannequin in the window so that I can get a better idea of what size to order online, I concluded that I needed a size 7. I finally get home and onto Forever 21's website and sure enough, low and behold, the only size available is a freaking size 6!

Tomorrow, my hunt continues...

Edit: My hunt was fruitless. I reluctantly gave up once I was informed that these booties had been out for about 3 weeks (where the eff have I been?! apparently MIA) and the likelyhood of me finding them: 1.) in my size, 2.) not on a manniquin, and 3.) in the Los Angeles county was pretty slim. I did, however, find similar ones at Wild Pair for $89! Ugh. Which just so happened to trigger the part of my brain that is responsible for my shopping diet. Boo.

What's the ONE accessory that you CANNOT live without?!

Your BlackBerry, of course!

If you're anything like me then you probably have your Blackberry glued to your hand, almost 24/7. Okay, maybe 24/7 is a stretch... but for sure about 19/7 (hey! a girl's gotta get her beauty sleep!) but even then, it's only an arm's reach away. Okay, back on topic... if you haven't noticed by now that neon pops of color are what the all cool kids are wearing/doing. I, for one, happen to love a splash of bright-ness here and there! So sure enough, my BB (BlackBerry for all you non-BlackBerry users! Shame on you!) is my first accomplice in achieving coolness a la a bright orange gel skin cover! If that isn't a good enough reason... here's a few more:

1.) For the few times your BlackBerry isn't glued to your hand, the bright gel skin cover will help you find your BlackBerry in the deep, dark, unknown depths of your purse.

2.) It's like football padding for your BB... No more gnarly nicks and gashes!

3.) They're super CHEAP via eBay. We're talking dirt cheap. Approximately, $5ish (including shipping!). Plus, who doesn't love getting packages in the mail!

4.) It's so cheap and amazing that you can get a color for every day of the week or every possible mood you may have and NOT break the bank!

I rest my case.

Big Bird Makes a Come Back.

If you're completely obsessed with FEATHERS like I am but don't know where to start to incorporate it into your wardrobe... let me introduce you to this beauty: an ostrich feather skirt! YUM, right?! I saw this super gorgeous-to-absolutely-die-for skirt at Bebe a few months ago and completely fell head over heels in love with it... however, my bank account wasn't too thrilled and due to my shopping diet I reluctantly passed it up. But that doesn't mean I can share the love with you all. If you just happen to be swimming in cash, you can find the booshie* version here at Shopbop.com for a mare $495 (and only comes in black). For everyone else, you'll probably wanna pick this baby up directly from Bebe right here for $59 (for the gray one) or $98 (for the black or white one). Awesome, right?!?

*Booshie = something that is over the top, rich, extravagant, luxurious, and just down right expensive for the general public.