shoe addiction

It has been a while since my last post... I believe it does make it a bit more difficult to take pictures with the time change. Dark at 5:00 PM seems unreal and it give me such a bummer when leaving work Monday through Friday at 5:30 in pitch black darkness. Not to mention, I do believe I am one of those kinds of people who like to be awake when the sun is up... getting up at 7:00 AM with the sun already out and bright doesn't always make me feel like I am starting my day right.


Any who, since outfit posts can't be taken in the dark, I will post about my shoe lust. I have ALWAYS been a show fanatic. When I lived in Maryland in middle school, my shoe collection consisted of Nike Jordans (XVII's were my favorite) and Nike Air Force Ones (and the Nelly song begins to play in my head) in a multitude of colors. I believe I had red, pink, yellow, blue, black, and purple... oh and I forgot to mention my beige Timberlands and my grey Timberlands, along with my white classic reeboks and black classic reeboks. My collection was very well kept. My Tims were kept pristine with a brush and cleaning solution and my Nikes were kept white with shoe paint and kept clean with shoe cleaner (and a tooth brush).


In high school in California, I retired my tennis shoe love for flips flops, sandals, and thongs (the shoe ; P). I had every color of flip flop and tried out every popular brand that could be found in my little town on the Central Coast. 


Now, I believe I have matured in my show collection. I have semi-retired my love for flip flops and tennis shoes and replaced this love for sandals, boots, and heels. 


Since I am trying to save money, I have been online window shopping for weeks now (quite possibly the worst kind of shopping for me because it's so easy to add the items to a shopping cart and look only 1-click away from a complete order). Here are the few I LUST for. 


From Aldo Shoes: HEFTER - Ankle boots (currently $69.99)
I love that I like these shoes in black... and background information to that statement is that if a boot ever comes in a brown or cognac color and black, I am almost ALWAYS going to like in the brown or cognac color over black. I also like that fact that it has faux fur... living on the west coast for so long I have become THE BIGGEST wimp to cold weather (and it is getting pretty cold here). And did I mention I also like that these are on sale!?

Picture c/o aldoshoes.com 

From Aldo Shoes: WOOTAN - Ankle, lace-up boots (currently $140)

I absolutely love these boots. I love the faux-fur, the lace-up, the smallish, stacked heel. I do not like the price tag.

Picture c/o aldoshoes.com

From Aldo Shoes: RATIKOVICH - Ankle boots (currently $62.99)
I often share my lust for any clothing, shoe, or accessory item to one of my best friends Liz. We are like two peas in a pod when it comes to this kind of stuff. So, when I was showing her all these shoes, she actually found me these pair. And I do believe that I love these more than then the above pair because I love the zipper and buckle combo. I am not feeling the heel so much because I have been focusing on a boot with heel that I could walk around in all day (not just 3 hours). I also saw that these are open-toed shoes... which seems like an oxymoron since the show has faux-fur but then an open toe... are we going for warm feet and cold toes people?

Picture c/o aldoshoes.com

From Aldo Shoes: LARNER - Mid-calf, lace-up boots (currently $80)  
I like that these have the stacked heel and the lace-up, no faux-fur though.

Picture c/o aldoshoes.com

 From Steve Madden: TIMBURR - Ankle, cuffed boot (currently $169.95)
My experience from raiding the Steve Madden shoe website is that the shoe pictures on this site remind me of Bratz dolls (the dolls with the obscenely large heads and tiny bodies). These shoes all seem to be picture with HUGE toes and smaller ankle parts... but when I see the picture of the show on a model, the shoes look more normal... weird.

Picture c/o of stevemadden.com

 From Aldo shoes: BOTKINS - Get-em high heels with frills (currently $41.99)
I love the folds on the back of the heel.

 From Steve Madden: CARRYSA - Nude platform pump (currently $89.95) 
There is something about a nude heel that I really like. I don't know if I particularly like these ones so much as I just really, really want my own perfect nude heel.

From Urban Outffiters: UO SUEDE PUMP - Red suede pump (currently $49)

These are perfect. The heel is great. The color pops. They look comfortable. And I have already seen some of my favorite fashion bloggers rock these with a TON of outfits. Here is one of them: kendieveryday.blogspot.com

From Steve Madden: SABRA - Over-the-knee zipper & buckle boot (currently $199) 
I saw these perfect boots in a Victoria's Secret Catalogue and from then on, it was love at first sight (minus the whopping price tag of $299!). Since then, the price has gone down but I still can seem to find a good enough excuse as to why I could/would spend $200 on a pari of Steve Maddens.

From Urban Outfitters: SEYCHELLES PEEPTOE WRAP HEEL - Heel (currently $98)

These just scream to me "wear me now"!

From Urban Outfitters: ECOTE PLATFORM CLOG - Clog (currently $58)

I don't believe I have ever found a more perfect pair of clogs since I first realized clogs were a fashion thing now-a-days. I believe these would look absolutely perfectly nice with a pair of skinny jeans and that nice old t-shirt and a cardigan (basically my go-to style... minus the clogs... since I don't have them... hehe).

And I believe this concludes my shoe frenzy post (but most definitely not my shoe addiction).

What shoes do you like? What do you lust after?

EDIT: And I forgot to mention, I lust a lot of shoes but it takes me forever to actually buy one pair.

favorite beaded scarf

I never realized how much I REALLY enjoy all the colors of fall! I forgot how beautiful it is when the trees change colors and all the leaves start to turn that brilliant red and orange color! I will have to take some photos soon!

I believe today was one of those days where I wished I could have sleept in, stayed at home in bed, read a book, watched a movie and just chilled out. Instead, I went to work like a real adult (I only started my first real job about 3 weeks ago!). This is what I wore.

Head to Toe:
Top: Grey sweater with white trim from Sfera (Spain)
Pants: Forrest green bermuda shorts from Gap
Shoes: Muted pink heels from Nordstrom Rack
Accessories: Beaded pink floral scarf from Stradivarius
Jewelry: Pearl drop earrings c/o ModCloth with purchsase

Location: Mi casa
Music: Lay Me Down by Dirty Heads & Sublime
Extra: The laminate flooring my brother-in-law, sister, amor, and I have been working on is almost done in the kitchen and living room! Pictures to be posted soon!

Thanks for reading :~)

my favorite blue

My casual Friday outfit (posted only a little later than Friday, forgive me, it was my birthday weekend).

Head to Toe:
Top: Urban Outfitters lumberjack button up on sale
Pants: Navy blue pants from Berksha (Spain)
Shoes: Tory Burch cognac leather flats on sale
Accessories: Ray-Ban sunglasses in Demi Brown/Brown Gradient

Jewelry: Jess LC "Be Brave" Necklace and faux pearl earings

Location: Mi casa

Music: Birthday by Kings of Leon (Cause it was my birthday 15 minutes ago!)

Extra: I will be enjoying a free tall beverage at Starbucks thanks to a survey I completed :-) tomorrow morning!

Thanks for reading :~)

Tortilla Española

The Spanish tortilla is one of the great comfort foods of Spain! From my own personal experience, most Spaniards will tell you that his grandmother (or mother) makes the best tortilla in Spain. My experience is that any Spaniard makes it better than me!

Tortilla Española was one of my favorite things to eat when I was studying abroad in Barcelona! When made well, the Tortilla Española (Spanish Tortilla) is a half-inch thick cake of fried potatoes, eggs, and onions. The tortilla is cut like a pizza or cut into bite-sized squares.

Here is the recipe:

- 1 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- 2 Large Potatoes (peeled and THINLY sliced, like <3mm)

- 4 - 5 Large Eggs

- 1 Medium Yellow Onion (thinly sliced)

- Salt to taste

* Optional Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

Directions:

1. Heat Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a 9-inch skillet.

2. Add potato slices one at a time (they tend to stick together if you just dump them in the pan)

3. Add onion slices.

4. Cook slowly over a medium flame. Turn occasionally until potatoes are tender (not brown!)

5. Beat eggs in a large bowl.

6. Add salt to taste.

7. Drain potatoes.

8. Add potatoes and onions to eggs and mix gently so that the egg covers the potatoes and onions.

9. Let sit for 10 minutes.

10. Heat 2 Tbsps of Olive Oil in large skillet.

11. Add potato-onion-egg mix into skillet. Spread to completely cover skillet (like a cake batter in a cake pan). SHAKE PAN TO PREVENT STICKING (IMPORTANTE... or rather IMPORTANT)

12. When potatoes start to brown, place a large, flat plate on top of the skillet and flip on to plate. Add 1 Tbsp of Olive Oil into skillet. Slide food back into skillet to cook the other side.

* You are allowed to flip more than once for better cooking, but the pros only flip once :~P

Here are some picture of mi amor cooking Tortilla Española for dinner.

Additional Notes:

Typically, the pros, when making tortilla have a special flipping dish that is also used as a serving dish.

We don't actually have this or a flat plate. We have used a large plate that has a small lip, which seems to work alright but does make the flipping a bit more difficult. It would be a trip if we had one of these!

My favorite place to eat tortilla was at the university that I studied at. They put a strip of the tortilla on a small fresh baguette (MMMmmm my mouth is watering remembering it!). The best tortilla I have ever had, with the exception of the two Albert made, is the tortilla that my Spanish-English conversation partner & friend's Mom made for el día de los reyes magos (the three magic kings). Mmmmm.

Location: Mi casa

Sounds: Mi amor in the shower and laundry going

Extra: Had a great birthday weekend!

Thanks for reading :~)

Fire Trucks, Pumpkin Patches, & a Weekend of Fun

This past Saturday my sister's family, mi amor, and I went to a Fire House Open House. My brother-in-law volunteers at this fire house (he is a life member, fancy huh?!).

The open house was pretty amazing. The fireman displayed an example of a bedroom that has fire sprinklers and a bedroom without sprinklers. It makes a HUUUUGE difference if you don't have sprinklers (at least according to the demonstration). The fireman also create a car accident demonstration. They used the Jaws-of-Life to cut the car apart and get to the interior to "rescue" one of their Fire(wo)man.

No Sprinklers vs Sprinklers

Jaws-of-Life

These are my style photos for the day :-) Please take note that in the first photo. There is a large fire truck with the number 27; his truck was used in the new Transformers movie!

After the Fire House Open House, my sister's work had a hay ride and bon fire at a local orchard. It was beautiful! The orchard was set on 600 acres. The orchard was stunning. I forgot how much I LOVE the colors of the trees changing colors! The apples in the picture below were given to us by the orchard and let me tell you, I believe this apple is my new favorite kind of apple!

Head to Toe:

Jacket: Leather/Pleather jacket from Stradivarius (Spain)

Jacket 2: American Apparel charcoal/grey hooded zip-up sweatshirt

Dress: Floral black peasant-ish dress from Stradivarius (Spain)

Bottom: Black leggings from H&M (I think); dark grey leg warmers from I don't know where

Shoes: Brown leather boots from J.Crew

Location: Mi casa

Music: or rather television show, New CSI Las Vegas

Extra: SUPER excited for my birthday and for the weekend!

Thanks for reading :~)

2fer1

So I noticed in the documentation of my outfits that I tend to wear at least one piece of clothing that is black, if not more, with every outfit. Hmmm...

Anyway, I was quite content yesterday with my dress choice. I received several compliments on the print of the dress. This made me quite happy especially since this dress purchase was made on the way to the cashier line at Nordstroms Rack (which gets dreadfully long) and I didn't even try it on! Oh, and did I mention it was on super discount!

The next pictures are the outfit I wore today at work. Lately I had been wearing only flats and outfits that allowed me to bend low, stand up on counters and be up on my feet for 8 hours... that sounds odd. Well, this week at work I was in charge of cleaning the Conference Room that we use as storage/work space. This room, I believe, had not been organized/cleaned since like the beginning of 2009. There was a lot to do! I enjoyed cleaning and organizing everything (I love organizing!). And that brings me back to my outfit choice for today, HEELS! Yay! I was able to wear them to work because I had finished all the physical organization. All I had left to do today was to document everything in Excel. Oh, and by the way, the BCBG harem pants I'm wearing are THE most comfortable pants ever!

This weekend should be a lot of fun. I'm actually pretty excited for all the activities. My sister, her husband, her two children, his two children, mi amor, and I will be going to my brother-in-law's volunteer fire house for an open house on Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening we will be going on a pumpkin patch hay ride, which I haven't done in ages. I believe this will mi amor's first time for this sort of thing.

This will be a great weekend to continue experimenting with my new camera. Yay!

Head to Toe:

Jacket: Pea Coat from H&M (Spain)

Top: Floral Lace top from Old Navy & black Costco tanktop underneath

Bottom: BCBG navy blue harem pants with black belt and gold buckle

Shoes: Charcoal heels from Berksha (Spain)

Location: Mi casa

Music: or rather television show, New CSI Las Vegas

Extra: Excited for this weekend

Thanks for reading :~)

Mind the Gap

Have you heard or seen the buzz about the Gap, the clothing retailer's logo?

After a weird logo week for Gap, they decided to stick to the true & old with its decades-old white-on-navy blue logo in the end. The company swapped the classic logo online for a new logo without mentioning a word! I believe it's okay to say that many fans were not just irritated but disgruntled with such an ugly, ill-fit logo. In an uproar many fans (and graphic designers) of Gap took to online to complain about the unannounced change.

The "new" logo displayed black text on a white background next to a little blue box above and below the "p" in Gap (pictured below).

After 20 years, Gap decided to rebrand and introduce a new logo. This has me wondering as someone interested in Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations, how this re-branding can make or break a company. Why change an already classic and well-known logo? And if change is necessary, how to make the change an relatively easy and smooth process?

Additionally, specifically to Gap, why change only the US online store and keep the UK stores and Facebook page untouched?

I understand Gap is moving towards a new modern look with their clothes but should the logo be revamped as well?

Perhaps, this is just a publicity stunt or even a way for free work... create an awful logo and then ask its customers to create something better. In any case, Gap is back to the Blue Box as of last night.

Old Navy

My sister and I made a trip to the local Old Navy store for the sweet sale... the closest Old Navy happened to be opening on 7:00am... and we were on top of it! I believe we made off like bandits!

Additionally, mi amor, Albert got me my birthday present a few days early! The lovely bag you see in the pictures is my new camera bag! It has pretty good cushion on the sides and extra padding on the bottom. I love it so much because it doesn't look like a camera bad at all! It fits my camera, my wallet, my cell phone, and my sunglasses, PERFECT! (The empty space to the right of my stuff in the picture below is where the camera would go but mi amor is using it to take this picture :-) The only complaint I have about the bag is the clasp to close the camera is just a magnetic closure, which makes me a bit uneasy. I'm thinking about going to someone and seeing if they can place buckles that the straps could be put into...

And speaking of Old Navy, has anyone seen the new logo for Gap!? I believe I am not too thrilled with it!

Head to Toe:

Top: Old Navy black tank top on Sale!

Pants: Old Navy jeans on Clearance w/ percentage off that price!

Shoes: Black shiny flats form Nine West

Accessories: Camera bag

Jewelry: Earrings from my grandma and ring from Berksha (Spain)

Location: Mi casa

Music: Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap

Extra: I need to try the Pumpkin Latte at Starbucks

Thanks for reading :~)

Plastic Boxes

Today was tough at work. My hands are proof to that.

Today at work my (and my co-workers') job was to assemble 520 (I think is was only 520) plastic box displays for these perfume box samples/gift cards. And lemmetellyou the plastic can cut you! I think I may desparetly need an at-home manicure this weekend to make up to my poor hands. My cuticles... I have never seen so dried and worn. I have a whole new understanding of manual labor.

Okay, back to this quick-ish posting. This will be my first attempt to recreate what I oh-so-love about all the fashion blogs that I follow. This is my fashion post.

Head to Toe:

Scarfs: Black H&M scarf; White Scarf from I don't know

Top: Yellow Cardigan from Urban Outfitters; Tank from Forever21

Skirt: High-waist and belted shorts from H&M; Tights from I don't know

Shoes: Black shiny flats form Nine West

Jewelry: Faux peral earrings probably from Forever21

Location: Mi casa

Music: or rather sound coming from my amor's playstation

Extra: I checked off everything on my to-do list today Yay :-)

Thanks for reading :~)