Weigh in

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I had a great day yesterday. I wasn't able to host Thanksgiving, because my dining room furniture arrived damaged and had to be returned. The location changed to my parent's house and it was perfect. My mom found recipes on Oprah's website and decided to use them for the Turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes. We all kept joking that if everything turned out bad it was Oprah's fault and we were going to write a letter.

Everything turned out wonderful and then the joke turned into we are eating exactly what Oprah's is eating right now. How cool are we.

This morning I woke super early. Must be due to all my little cat naps yesterday and I had the pleasure of a leisurely morning reading all of my celeb filled magazines.

I found this latest website in my reading this morning and I don't know whether or not to think this site is cool or completely horrible.



You can now log on to Weight View and upload a picture of yourself for free and this site will make your image thinner by 50 pounds. Part of me thought it was a clever tool to try and help you lose weight. Instead of posting pictures up of models you want to look like. You can post a picture of the new you to help you maintain your goal of weight loss. Another part of me was completely out-raged over how obsessed we are with weight and the issues that woman have with their bodies.


I'm still not sure about how I feel about it. I haven't logged on to check out my pic, but I'm still tempted to do it and see what I would look like 50 pounds lighter.

Way to mess with a girls mind.

Much Thanks

Taking a blogging break today to cook, eat and be thankful.

I hope you enjoy your day surrounded by family and friends.

xoxo

Camila

LINDSB Come on Down!

Pop the champagne, let the confetti fly, because we have a winner for my "Do you love it?" Pass it on give away!

I held a lovely ceremony this morning at my desk. Placed all the names in a wine glass and pull out a ticket. Ta da we have a winner!

One of my favorite reads from the Boston Area: EVERYTHING LBD is the winner!!!!



So please email me with your contact info and I will send these goodies on their way.

Thank you to everyone for playing and your many great ideas for getting my name out there!

Ah, nuts!

Hazelnuts to be exact have been entering my thoughts this week. After my post on Italian get-aways I started to reminisce about my vacation last March to Italy. One of my favorite treats from Italy apart from buying a great pair of shoes in Rome was the excitement I saw of getting Nutella everywhere! Who needs butter in the morning when you can spread chocolate sauce on your morning toast instead! This week while doing my Thanksgiving food shopping I made sure that a little jar of Nutella made it home with me as well. (They make awesome thumbprint cookies.)

Then last night in adding to my infatuation with hazelnuts I was introduced to a shop in Brooklyn called Noisette. This Brooklyn boutique was started by a Parisian transport named Stephanie Deleau and she decided to name her shop Noisette (French word for Hazelnut) due to her love of Nutella. In knowing this little fact I knew I was going to fall in love with her shop. The store is filled to the brim with off the radar Parisian labels. Perhaps if you purchase some outfits from here you'll get
The Sartorialist's attention.

Not only do all of the items radiate a hip vibe from them, but my favorite part of the shop was not the handbags or shoes, but this great doll cut out with clothes and accessories.

* Don't skip past the intro on the site. Their illustrations are beautiful. Worth a peek!



It really is the little things that make me happy. I can't wait to print some out and play house with my sisters on Thanksgiving.

We're off to see the wizard...

Lately I've been feeling like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz. All he wanted was a bit of courage and he knew that the wizard could hook him up. In the end we all know that it's doesn't quite work out that smoothly, but none the less the Lion emerges with more courage from within.

Starting your own business can cause for some stress. I'm constantly second guessing myself. It takes me an eternity to make a decision and of course I'm completely scared of failure. But since you can't succeed without trying. I'm finally now feeling a bit more sure of myself and enjoying the process of it. I don't have an all knowing wizard in my life to help sort out the in's and out of this process, but I do have a great support team in family and friends that are helping me along the way.

Additionally I just found out that I can order a little Comfort,
Vigor and even a little Forgiveness (For those times that I'm completely stressed and become a big meanie) from New Tree!

Right on TARGET

I'm in the midst of making many finishing touches in my home in order to have my work photographed in order to use these images as examples of my work. Do to the decorating in me it is taking me quite some time to commit to anything I purchase for my home. I think I have my mind set of one thing and then a day later I'll see something that inspires me to go in a completely different direction.

When I first painted my bedroom I was in love with the result. I used Benjamin Ashley Gray and then used a Ralph Lauren CANDLELIGHT technique to give my bedroom a romantic feel and an aged look to my walls. Along the way I ordered some curtains and decided upon some mirrors for the room, but because I felt loss over what direction to go in. I had hit a stand still with it and have become quite stressed about. Had a lost my design MOJO?



This weekend I was going through some old magazines in order to de-clutter, but before I could let them hit the trash I had to give them all one last look thru.

It was in doing this that I realized that the bones in my bedroom where on their way to building a bedroom that looked like this:


Georgina Chapman's Apt via InStyle

The wall colors are practically identical with the help of my
Candlelight technique.

I ordered similiar curtains in Ivory when we first moved into the house:


Curtains from JCPENNY. I orginally paid $34.99 a panel and they are now on sale for $19.99 a panel.

Mirrored vanity, mirror and ottoman already reside in my lovely room courtesy again of
JC PENNY.



I wanted white bedding for my bed and I was having problems finding anything in a good price range.

Ideally I was in love with the Cirrus Bedding Set from Anthropologie, but at over $300 that wasn't going to happen.



Not one to give up I had been searching for alternatives for quite some time. This morning it hit me to try Target and voila I was able to order a similar style by Simply Shabby Chic for $79.99!




I was also able to score some fabulous gray/blue and gray/beige TANGO pattern pillows at TJ MAXX for $14.99 (set of 2)



* I'm not sure if the pillows are actually going to fit in with my the style of my bedroom, but I couldn't pass them off at the price. I even snagged a pair in the beige/brown combo for my sissy's apt re-do.

I'm so happy to finally be on track again with my original room vision.

The day has come...

I'm so excited! Twilight is officially out in theatres and hopefully I'll be seeing it tonight. I'm not in charge of getting the tickets, but fingers crossed that we'll be able to get in and see it.

I'm beyond giddy with excitement and feel like a teenage girl all over again. Good thing that I'm feeling young, because I have I feeling I'm going to be on the older side of the viewers of this film.

My sister sent me an article a couple of days ago about all the Twilight mayhem that has been going on. The article was describing the recent crowd at King of Prussia mall for a meet and greet with Robert Pattinson. Who was in the crowd you may ask? Well it was, "little girls, moms, goth teenagers, mall rats and even the occasional emo boy."

Perhaps I'll go as an emo boy tonight to fit in.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it

Image via Flickr by Beboplar

Do you have a writer inside of you that is dying to get out. Whether it be your ramblings on your blog or a full-on romance novel with a cheesy Fabio cover to boot you can now log on to Blurb and make yourself an author!

I know we have probably all used sites similar to this to make vacation books of our most recent trips, but BLURB takes it to a different level.

You can fill one with custom recipes and pictures of the recent treats you have made. Or you can write up a Christmas Tale and make a book for all the little ones in your family. You can even use it to promote your business and have examples of your work in book format that you can bring along with you when you meet with clients. There is even an option for a dust jacket, which to me makes it seem more like an actual book and you can even upgrade and add your custom logo.



Prices start at 12.95 for a 40 page soft cover book, $22.95 for a hard cover book with dust jacket and 24.95 for a hard cover book and image wrap.

P.S. Thanks so much for everyone that has made comments for the give away. Keep the ideas coming! I'll be putting all the names in a hat and drawing a winner on the 25th!

Recess Time

One of my favorite times of day during school when I was much younger was Recess. You got to go outside and play and see all of your friends. It was so nice to have a break in the middle of the day to just get all of your energy out.

These days work isn't nice enough to give me recess time. Yes I have a lunch break, but that is normally where errands get run and then it ends with me getting a sad sallie or sammie (These are my sisters pet names for salads and sandwichs if you didn't already figure it out. Weird I know, but it's rubbed off on me) from the office cafeteria.

These days playgrounds also represent something much different to me. I have lived in NY for all of my life. I started out a city girl and then got transported by my parents to the suburbs at around 6th grade. So I didn't venture off to one of my now favorite stores until my early twenties.



Henri Bendel's is known as the ultimate NYC girls' playground. Long gone are the days of monkey bars and swings. We now get to have fun trying on bangles, make-up and getting a treat at their Chocolate Bar Cafe.

From the very beginning Henri Bendel makes an award winning first impression with their fabulous brown and white striped awning. This color combo has always left a sophisticated and chic vibe in my head. Walking into HB's is like getting free room of the coolest, hippest girl in town. She is the life of the party and everyone wants to be her friend. Floor after floor you get to ohh and ahh over all the lovely baubles, bags and bras. oh my!

Not many of the items at Henri Bendel's are really in my price, but since I rarely like leaving a store empty handed I stock up on my staple make-up items there. My Tarte lip-gloss costs the same there as it does at Sephora. This way I get to make a purchase and leave with a chic brown/white striped bag swinging from arm.



If you are ever in NYC you should go and take a peek inside. From the man that first decided to sell Coco Chanel designs this is a store with a history of being in the know.

"Do you love it?" Give-Away

Until recently I had never won a contest. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon Half of VAMP's blog and boy was I a lucky girl. Not only is her blog wonderfully written, funny and full of great recipes, but on the day I happened to find her she was hosting a "Pass it On" give-away. I decided to participate and a couple of days ago I was hit with the news that I won! So now I have a lovely prize on the way to my home, but the most exciting part for me is that I now get to host a give-away!

So here is how it works:

If you read my blog on a daily basis you know that I'm in the mist of starting my own interior/event styling business. Yay for me! I really do feel that sometimes things do take a village and I would love to hear some wonderful words of wisdom from you all. That being said in order to participate leave me a comment with ways to help get the word out on my new business and drum up some clients. It can be anything you like. Be creative!

If you are at a loss of words then just leave me a comment with one of your latest finds that you are currently obsessed with. I always like to be in the know.

This is a great opportunity for 1st time posters, because you all have the opportunity to win some great prizes.

I will draw a name on Nov 25th!



Here is a run down of some of the current items I'm in LOVE with:

1. Since we all know and love Rachel Zoe you will get this cool chunky Lion's head ring so you too can pretend to be RZ. You will die!

2. I'm a huge tea drinker, but I never really enjoyed the taste of green tea. In order to be healthy I decided to give it another try and I bought a box of STASH FUSION GREEN & WHITE TEA. It tastes amazing and is good for you. I love it and I tell everyone about it.

3. I posted these cute PANTONE cups and saucer the other day. I think they are a great gift for someone that is design obsessed like yours truly. Plus you can use to drink your tea.

4. I love paint chips. Going to Benjamin Moore and buying a paint fan deck was one of the high-lights of me becoming a new home owner. I really believe that the color choice in a room makes a huge impact as to what style the room is going to be. So I thought it was only fitting to add this House Beautiful Colors for your Home book. My favorite section in HB magazine is where the design professionals discuss their go to colors. Now you have all that info in one place.

5. I'm a make-up junkie and I have a slight obsession with lip balm. I'm always purchasing new things to try and this latest find is my favorite. It's a MARY KAY combo set with a lip mask and lip balm. As you we get into the winter season my lips tend to get chapped quite a bit. This set helps resolve all those problems. My lips feel brand new after I do this treatment.

6. Woof woof, Foo Dogs! Enough said. Love them. Now you will get to love them as well!

7. ??????? I'm not exactly sure what this surprise element will be, but trust me it will be great.

I hope you all enjoy this. I love being able to give back to you all. I only started blogging a couple of months ago, but it has been a fabulous journey. Getting my first reader comment was so exciting me to. I had to call everyone I knew and give them the great news that someone actually read what I wrote.

Thank you all for taking me in with open arms.

Roman Holiday

Last March I took a trip to Italy to visit the sites along with visting my sister while she was studying abroad. Our trip started to Italy started in Rome with a long stop in Florence and a jaunt to Venice.

Everyone knows the Italy is the birth place of many of the designers that we know and love. I personally adore many of the handbags designed by Fendi,Ferragamo and Bottega Veneta little did I know that had added interior designer to their resumes.

I recently found out that the designers mentioned above all had a hand in decorating some Roman hotels.

FENDI'S VILLA LAETITIA

Owned by the Fendi family and carefully restored by Anna Fendi Venturini this beautifully decorated villa along the Tiber river offers 15 thoughtfully designed rooms. The perfect get-away for the fashionista in your life. Each room has a unique theme such as the Karl Lagerfeld suite. The design aesthetic or a balance between traditional Roman culture and 20th century modernism.

Here is a sneak pic at some of the suites:





FERRAGAMO PORTRAIT SUITES HOTEL

Leonardo Ferragamo launched his own lifestyle and hospitality brand, Lungarno Hotels, in 1995, and it's most recent project is Portrait Suites hotel in Rome on Via Condotti. Right outside the Spanish Steps you can help yourself to luxury shopping at Ferragamo's flag ship store and then go upstairs to the townhouse in which the hotel resides. Designed by Michele Bonan, each room incorporates luxurius materials like wood, marble and even ultra luxe boar skin.








BOTTEGA VENETA SUITE at the St. Regis Grand Hotel

This amazing suite consists of a foyer, three bedrooms, three baths, and a living room with a fireplace and three large windows overlooking Rome. They used very light colors like uniform khaki, linen, parchment and taupe that make the room chic and sophisicated. Alcantara, leather, linen and all signature elements in Bottega Veneta interiors are used as upholstery and window treatments. The room is also furnished with pieces from the Bottega Veneta furniture collection.







Ciao Bella! I'm in the mood to plan my next vacation!

Snack Away

I love chocolate. I can't help it. I would eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could. My expanding waist size would be quite the problem. Which is probably why I've started to watch what I eat. I use to be able to eat anything and never gain a pound. Now that the years are starting to add up I'm having to be careful about what I eat.

Enter Mrs. Freshleys and I am now a happy lady. Their cupcakes are amazing! They are a normal size not some mini version of a cupcake and they have a high amount of fiber and low calories and fat.

Woo hoo!



I urge you all to go out and buy some and snack away.

P.S. I just found out yesterday that I won a give-away from Allison at Half of VAMP. I'm super excited. I've never won anything before. So it is now my turn to Pass it on. I've been busy at work all day trying to figure out what my give-away prize is going to be. I'll be posting details later on tonight when I get home.

Get excited!

You'll sleep like a baby

For the past couple of months I been receiving Serena & Lily catalogs in the mail. Why I'm not sure. I'm not expecting nor do I have any children, but the front cover always gets to me and I immediately get comfy and ohh and ahh over the latest in children's furniture and bedding. Who ever does their styling has a great eye and you get amazing images of stunning rooms that aren't the standard pink nursery for a girl and blue for a boy.

I always thought I would have to wait till I had a little bundle of joy before I would purchase anything from Serena & Lily, but they want my money now. In this latest catalog I feel in love with numerous bedding sets and was happy to read that they now offer their duvet covers from Twin to California King.

Here's a peak at some of my favorites:

* I so want to purchase this set for my bedroom!








They even offer signature paint colors that coordinated with their bedding sets:

She-bangs

Last week I was flirting with the idea of getting bangs. I always want to change my look up a bit and since I didn't want to color my hair again my mind wandered to bangs.

I've never had full on bangs, but they were calling me. I discussed it with my sissies on Friday via a massive email discuss and we decided that it would look good.

Since my latest endeavor is being a do-er I wanted to strike while the iron was hot and I called up my hair salon right away. It must have been fate, because they had just received a cancellation Saturday morning and I was able to get my hair cut to start off the weekend.

I got bangs a la Victory Ford from Lipstick Jungle:



I will try and take pictures tonight so that I can post the new me.

Take a seat

Since many of us live our lives revolving around the world of design. We would all jump at the chance to snatch up our favorite designer chair on the cheap in a heatbeat. My number one chair crush would be the Ghost chair, but since I don't think I'll see one of them under the Christmas tree this year here is a much cheaper alternative to get my fix:




Check out Avrilloreti's shop and either pick some up for yourself or the decorator in your life.


Another cute gift idea for your decorator would be these lovely Pantone Coffee cups and saucers for coffee time in the office.



Plus they are on sale now from $14.95 to $3.74!!!!

It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely!

Lately I have had baubles on the brain to an extreme. Put something shiny and sparkly in front of me and you have my undivided attention. Due my recent infactuation with all things that bling my holiday wish list keeps growing and growing and getting more expensive by the second.

My latest must have is this fabulous ring by Ashley Morgan called, Delight.



Oh I'm in love, but don't mistake Ashley Morgan for Ashley Madison, because then you are in a huge ball of trouble. I was a bit shocked when I read about Ashley Madison, but I guess it's just the world we are living in today.

New to me

Not sure if this has been around for awhile and I'm just the last to know, but I'm in love with Starbucks new stoppers.

Not only are they quite stylish, but they helped me keep my coffee warm and prevented spillage on my drive back from lunch.

If it makes you happy

It is a pretty miserable, gross and rainy day today in NY and my temperament is mirroring nature today, but this image just put a smile on my face. I love the green, and the stripes on the walls are amazing!

I'm not brave enough to put something like this in my home, but it makes me happy.



Image via Jennifer Newman take a peek online at some of her fabulous furniture pieces!

She sells sea shells by the sea shore

By she I mean, Mesi Jilly and by sea shells I mean her amazing jewelry in which she uses sea shells along with fabulous semi precious stones and by sea shore I mean super exclusive stores like Bergdorf's, which means I just get to view these babies from a far.

I'm currently lusting over these great rings which would look perfect with a cocktail dress for all of our Holiday soirees, which I'm sure are going to start adding up.


I'll take one of each please:

MONACO


SANTORINI


GREEN BALI


Here is a better view of the rings:


I also wouldn't turn down trips to the Namesake inspirations of my top 3 rings.

Face Painting

UPDATE: Ladies, I'm going on two days now with the new AVON product and so far so good. Works just as well as Smashbox. I would totally order a bottle and check it out for yourself.

Hi my name is Camila and I'm a make-up product junkie.

I swear I am a marketer's dream client. If it's in cool packaging preferably pink and has a snappy name then I'll be sure to pick it up. I'm always trying new products out and when I find something I love watch out. I become the PR ambassador for the company.

My latest great find also comes with a thrifty option as well. So depending on your price point you have your pick.



A couple of weeks ago while at Ulta I had a complete impulse buy at the register. I had always wanted to try Smashbox's Face Primer and they had a trial size version right within my reach. The primer goes on before your foundation and it helps smooth out your skin along with having SPF 15 and helping your make-up last longer. I fell in love with it and have been using it everyday. My only problem is that I would love for the price to be bit lower. My small bottle was $17 and a normal size one goes for $42. In the grand scheme of things that's not that bad, but I was on the search for a thrifty option.

Enter Avon. At work we had an AVON catalog doing it's rounds. I had never ordered anything from Avon, but decided to give a couple of things a try, because the prices were unbelievable.




I jumped with excitement when I saw their latest new product: MagiX Face Perfector! It claimed to do everything that Smashbox's Face Primer did along with a higher SPF. What's not to love? I ordered it and received it a couple of days ago. I decided to try it out this morning and so far it's perfection. Plus the price is amazing! Only $10 bucks and right now they are having a buy one, get one half off promotion, which means you can order 2 for $15.

I'm one happy lady with my latest find.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very bad day!

Talk about a case of the Mondays!

I spent 7 hours yesterday working from home. Today I get in and I'm met with another huge pile of work, which means I'll be working from home this evening. Plus I have yet to be told what my actual title is here and I'm going on almost 6 months but since I'm a little lady I must be an assistant. I feel like I stepped into an episode of Mad Men (without the cool wardrobe),because in this company I totally have the wrong equipment.




Only plus side is that I'm trying to do something to actually start the interior/event styling business I want to run and I ordered business cards. I haven't picked out a company name yet, but at least they have my name and what I do on them. I totally need help from someone to show me the ropes, perhaps I can bribe Erin with some brownies and daily praise to be my uber cool mentor.

So now I'm just excited to hit the ground running and make a name for myself, which is making coming into this office everyday feel like torture!


I picked out the last one.

So deep cleansing breath. I must calm down. Posting will be very light today. I hope to have something new posted this evening.

I hope you are all having a better day than me.

Green Acres is the place to be...

Many of the people in my life would probably think that me and my husband are very alike to the couple from Green Acres. My husband loves everything outdoors from hiking, to fishing, to camping. (You get the picture) Me not so much. I'm getting much better at it, but I'm more about the modern comforts in life and would normally rather go shopping than schlepping through the woods. Since marriage is a partnership I've been warming up to my husband's idea's of fun and have started to take part in activities my husband enjoys instead of just sending him off with the boys.

So, I think since I'm such an awesome wife I deserve a new pair of shoes for all my recent outdoor activities.

These shoes are are a perfect mix of a little bit of nature life with the straw used to form the bow with a little whole lot of glamour with the patent and the heel height. I'm in the love.




So to my husband I say, "Darling I love you, but give me Park Avenue." and these shoes!