Give Me A Break

According to columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin, Rachael Ray was recently sporting "hate couture" in the form of a paisley fringed scarf in a recent commercial for Dunkin Donuts. She called Ray "dumb" and "clueless" in a recent blog post for wearing the scarf. Here is a picture of the offending accessory:

Rachael Ray wearing a silk paisley scarf.

Yasser Arafat wearing his trademark keffiyeh back in the day.

Malkin contends that the scarf resembles a pro-palestinian jihadist keffiyeh. Uh, ok. A stylist put the scarf on Ray, I don't think she is promoting jihadism through a donut commercial. Ms. Malkin may be stirring the pot here to garner some attention, no? The thing is, she stirred the pot so hard that DD pulled the national ad spot. Because of a scarf.

Folks, sometimes a scarf is just a scarf. Rachael Ray is not supporting terrorism with her choice of fashion accessory. Get over it.

Read all about keffiyehs at Wikipedia.

Read Malkin's take on "hate couture," Rachael Ray and Dunkin Donuts.

Shopaholics Beware!

I know we're all eagerly awaiting our "Economic Stimulus" checks so that we can fritter them away at Anthropologie (at least, that's what I'll be doing with mine), but I wanted to alert you to a phishing scam related to the distribution of these checks.

This is from the FBI's website:

The FBI warns consumers of recently reported spam e-mail purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which is actually an attempt to steal consumer information. The e-mail advises the recipient that direct deposit is the fastest and easiest way to receive their economic stimulus tax rebate. The message contains a hyperlink to a fraudulent form which requests the recipient's personally identifiable information, including bank account information. To convince consumers to reply, the e-mail warns that a failure to complete the form in a timely manner will delay the issuance of the rebate check.

One example of this IRS spam e-mail message is as follows:

"Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush's program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.
The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit before May 10th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on May 10th, 2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.
To access Economic Stimulus refund, please click here."

Consumers are advised that the IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications via e-mail. In addition, the IRS does not request detailed personal information via e-mail or ask taxpayers for the PIN numbers, passwords, or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank, or other financial accounts.

Please be aware that this is happening. These types of emails are "phishing" for your information so they can access fraudulently access your bank account. Do not ever give out any sort of bank account numbers, your PIN numbers, your social security numbers, your credit card numbers, your bank name or any personal identification information over an email.

If you receive an email like this you can notify the FBI Cyber Investigations division by going to http://www.ic3.gov/ and filing a complaint.

Thanks to my bro-in-law Brian for the heads up!

Get Thee To A Marshall's Store

I was in our local Marshall's today and I noticed that they had a whole mess of Ed Hardy tees and tanks for $29.99. These are tops that probably retailed originally for somewhere around $80. If you love Ed Hardy get down to your local Marshall's and pick some up. Can't beat that price.

Lookin' Good For 50...

Hard to believe but Mad Libs, the party game where you use random nouns, verbs and adjectives to compelete a story, is turning 50. The first Mad Libs book was published in 1958 and is still in print today, along with many, many other editions (Napolean Dynamite Mad Libs anyone?). In honor of the 50th anniversary of that first printing, Price Stern Sloan has issued a 50th Anniversary Best Of book that includes over 125 of the funniest Mad Libs in a deluxe oversize edition. The book also includes a history of the game as told by the creator Leonard Stern and stories filled out by celebrities. At only $6.99 this is one affordable and easy way to liven up any party or family night.

It really is the world's ___________ (adjective) word game!

Get Down To Starbucks, STAT

Starbucks is giving away free cups of it's new Pike Place Roast starting at 9:00 a.m. PDT today. Get down there, they don't give away coffee very often!

How Very Braid-y

Thanks to this video from Who What Wear Daily we can all have cute and stylish braided hair a la Nicole Richie:

This and That

Hello dearest readers! I don't now how many loyal visitors we have to this blog, but I apologize to you, whomever you may be, for my lack of posts recently. Many little things in my life have added up in recent weeks leaving me little time to type quietly away at my laptop. Also, much of my blogging time has been taken up by another blog that I write devoted to (now this embarasses me a bit) American Idol. If you watch AI you know that the show is in full swing right now and I try to keep up with it on the blog. If you are interested you can read it here.

I have had a few shopping discoveries lately that I've been meaning to share with you, and so may go on at length here. I'll try to be succinct, but God knows I can ramble.



Anyway, my girlfriend and I recently made a brief shopping trip to Fresno's Fashion Fair and we got there before Macy's was open. We were wandering about and noticed that the only store open was Forever 21. I had never been inside a Forever 21 and neither had Diann, mostly because we are now past our 20's and feel a little over the Forever 21/Wet Seal/Brass Plum hill. We just feel old inside these stores. But on this day we had no other stores to shop at and so gave it a go. I for one was amazed by the size of the store and sheer abundance of $20 and $30 tops. It was overwhelming. We finally left without buying anything, but later went back and tried on a bunch of stuff and I got two really cute tops for under $40. I don't know how long they'll hold up, but for the price who cares? Can't beat it.




That same day we were up in Impulse at Macy's and I found 7FAM Ginger wide leg jeans in a really cute wash on the clearance rack for $111. I took a pair in my regular size into the dressing room, but I was really bloated for female reasons, and also I have put a few lbs on over the winter, so they just didn't fit well. There weren't any pairs in the next size up for me to try, so I had a delimma. I felt like I should get them because they were so cute and the price was great, but what if they didn't fit even when my bloat was gone? And even if there was a size up, they would fit that day because I was retaining water but would be too big a week later. So I left them in the dressing room. When my friend went in to try on some tops I grabbed those jeans off of the dump rack in the dressing room and made her try them on. She complained because she says she hates 7FAM, they never fit her, blah blah. As soon as she put them on she loved them and ended up buying them. I was happy for her, because she found great jeans, but I would have rather been the one to take them home. And I can't even borrow or steal them because she's a couple inches shorter than me and will have the inseam taken up.



I also have to tell you guys to pick up a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser the next time you're at Wal Mart or Target. If you have never tried this nifty little product, you must. It cleans smudge marks off walls like nothing I have ever seen. We love them because it cleans all of our 2-year-old's crayon and pencil drawings off of the walls and doors around our house. I always keep them on hand now.

That's all for now, expect more posts related to housecleaning and potty training soon!

I Need a Starbucks Intervention

Yesterday I was near one of my favorite little coffee drive through's and I zipped in for a small mocha. (Yes at this place the sizes are actually denoted by the words "small, medium and large.") This place is so far out of my usual driving pattern that I hadn't been there in at least a year. So I take my first sip and something seemed wrong. I continue to drink and it starts tasting more and more off to me. This is a mocha that I used to live for when I went to the nearby JC. Then I realize, I have Starbucks Syndrome. I drink so much Starbucks that all other coffees taste weird to me. I buy it for our home coffepot also. Starbucks has ruined all other coffee for me. I wonder if Starbucks Syndrome is a documented phenomenon? Someone should do a study.

The problem for me is that Starbucks dominates the coffee landscape in our area. When we lived in Sacramento we were always switching up our coffee routine. We drank a lot of Java City and Peets. But here the Starbucks are everywhere. Even in our little town there are now 3 of them. All within a 1.5 mile radius. All near where I live and work.

Damn you Starbucks, damn you straight to heck.

I Heart iTunes

Read This Book

Well, I spent the last couple of days ignoring my kids because I couldn't put Atonement down. Luckily for them my husband is pretty helpful. It is a wonderful book. I cannot get the characters out of my head and I went to sleep at night and dreamed about the story. I don't want to give any of the plot away, and I am definitely not much of a book reviewer, but I will say that it is haunting. When I read Ian McEwan I feel like he is what good writing is all about. His use of language, his storylines, the themes and underlying message of the story are all done so well. It makes me want to write and makes me feel like I could never write anything good all at the same time. Amazing. Now I can go see the movie.

My Next Juicy Read

I have to read Atonement before I end up seeing the movie. I think I'll head over to Border's sometime in the next day or two and pick it up.

I loved Saturday, it was amazing, and Ian McEwan calls this his Jane Austen novel, so I have been dying to read this for some time. Then I will watch the movie and compare.

My New Year's Resolution

I generally try not to make any resolutions at the New Year, because I know I'm just setting myself up for failure. Especially when they are related to health issues (diet, exercise) or financial issues (curbing my spending, saving for the future). But I have an issue this year that I really want to work on, and I think it will be easy and good for mankind. I am going to start taking reusable shopping bags when I go grocery shopping. That's it. Not too difficult, right? This idea crystallized in my head last night when I left Target with 12 items and 14 plastic bags. Maybe that's not quite right, but the checkers there will put 1 to 2 items per bag. It's such a waste and it's irritating to get all of those floppy bags in the house. I utilize our city's recycling program, but it is still troubling. So I am going to beef up my collection of reusable bags and put my resolution to the test. I may take a peek at the b.happybags that Jennifer P. wrote about a few weeks ago. They look cute and functional. I will keep you posted as to my progress.

Hello, It's Me

You may notice that the site looks a bit different. I have changed hosting sites from Squarespace to Blogger. Squarespace was actually a good hosting service, I liked the features and it was pretty easy to manage, but it was kind of expensive. Blogger is free and I actually get extra features, plus it is very easy to use. So I am pretty happy. The only bummer is that there is no way to import the blogs off of Squarespace into Blogger, so I have had to manually cut and paste all the journal entries. So for the moment there are no links or pictures in the older posts. I will work on getting those all added back in, but it may take a few days. Thanks for sticking with me during the transition. I know that I have been slacking a bit with posting entries on the site, I have been busy with sick kids, my shop, and working toward world peace. I hope to post more often as the New Year progresses.

"Tanks" A Lot!

As some of you may remember, I recently posted quite a long entry about sequin embellished tank tops. I won't lie to you, it took a little bit of time to research the tank tops and then write up what I found. Well, yesterday I found my November issue of People Style Watch in the mailbox (yesterday was December 12, so I guess they're a bit behind). One of the first things I noticed as I was flipping through the issue is an article all about, you guessed it, sequined tank tops. And some of the tops I mentioned in my post are also in the article. So I guess I just want to say, "Thanks a lot People magazine. Had you delivered my magazine in November I could have saved myself some time and simply pointed out the page number to my readers."

Also, in another follow up to that post, I did try on the sequined body shaper at New York and Co. and it really did not work out for me. It was super tight, apparently to shape the body, but all it did was force my tummy bulge down around my hips. It was not flattering.
Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 12:07PM

Misadventures in Target

So I stopped in to our new Super Target yesterday for milk, and while I was there I tried on a couple of Target Couture sweater dresses that I though could be cute for wearing to work, or out to dinner. I go into the dressing room and immediately notice that they have upgraded their dressing room setup a little. There is a nice little footstool and some extra hooks. It isn't just a box with a mirror. So I get undressed and prepare to put one of the dresses on when I realize that I am seeing myself from all angles. I turned around and saw that there is a second mirror, hung at an angle, so that you can see front and back, side to side, all at once. Well, it was horrifying. I haven't seen myself at every angle all at once for several years. I was finally able to see clearly a scar on my back from a mole removal last year. And it is ugly. And my back side area is just, well, I am tearing up at the thought. I need to jog several hundred miles to get some of that jiggly off.

Why, Target, why? You are not a fancy department store. I really didn't want to see all of that. I was quite happy pretending I didn't know what condition my tushy is in. Aaaaaarrrgghhh!
I did end up taking one of the dresses, plus some tights and a few groceries. I go through the checkout line and pay, and not until I was back at work did I realize I had forgotten to use the $5 off coupon I had put in my purse as I was walking into the store.

Also, I knew as soon as I drove out of the parking lot that I would take the dress back. I really wish I had just grabbed milk at Longs and skipped Target altogether.

Speaking of milk, I have found that it is almost $1 cheaper at Longs than at any grocery store here in our town. Just a little tip for the local folks.

It's Sparkly Too

Stacy London from TV's "What Not To Wear" says that the best way to dress up a pair of jeans for a night out is to add a sequined tank top and a great pair of heels. I happen to think that this is great advice. If I ever managed to have a night out on the town I would follow this advice. Alas, my nights out usually involve book club or dinner at a local steakhouse and they always end by 9:00 pm because we have to pick up the kids. So no way to really work a sequined tank into either of those scenarios. BUT - Christmas season is upon us and we usually have at least a couple of parties to attend. So this year I am determined to buy something shiny and sequined to wear out. I have been perusing the internet to see if anything jumps out at me and actually I have found several tanks that may fit the bill.

First, in the great buy category, is this little number from Wet Seal of all places. It costs a whopping $15.50 and comes in 5 colors. I haven't actually stepped foot in a Wet Seal since I was 17 but I may have to take a trip down memory lane for this tank top. My only reservation is that it may fit too tight because of the junior sizing. But at that price I will at least try it on.

I then looked at the Express site and found a couple of things that I love, including this adorable 3/4 sleeve sequin tee for $49.50. I am seeing myself wearing this with some wide leg jeans and gold strappy shoes or peep toes. They also have this very cute sequin tank for $39.50 that would be so great for a party. Of course Express doesn't have a shopping cart on their site, so I will have to venture over to our mall and see if they have the gold top in stock. Oh wait, I just did a zip code check and apparently we no longer have an Express in our mall. Figures. I will have to go to Fresno if I decide I really want that top.

New York and Co. has a cute sequin body shaper tank that would be cute under a jacket or sweater. It is $29.50 and I know for a fact we still have a NY and Co. in our mall, but it is not quite what I am looking for.

Also, Arden B. has this more seductive looking tank for $88. Cute, but again, not quite for me.
I also did a quick search of EBay by typing the keywords "sequin tank top" into their search engine and I actually found some really cute stuff. I found some tanks by Tory Burch, BCBG Max Azria and Express for under $30.

And if you do find your perfect tank and want to dress your pooch to match, you can pick up one these adorable sequined dog tanks at Trixie and Peanut. Too cute.

I Know What I'll Be Watching Christmas Day

Wood burning fireplaces have been nearly outlawed in my little corner of the world. Many people have converted over to a gas log type of fire rather than give up the warm and cozy altogether. Some just suffer through the winter without the joy of those flickering little flames emanating from a whole in the living room wall. Not to worry, I have found a little product that is perfect for the fireplace deprived among you.

It is the Fantastic Instant Fireplace DVD! This DVD is guaranteed to "transform your boring old TV into a fabulously stylish, roaring log fire...No mess, no fuss!"

It is environment and toddler friendly, and will instantly warm up any holiday gathering. This genius little item is available at Fred Flare for $14 plus $7.95 for ground shipping. Check out Retail Me Not for Fred Flare coupons.

Thanks Jen P.

A friend gave me a belated birthday gift over the weekend, and it is too cute not to share. It is a hilarious message tee shirt from the online store Threadless. The message on the front reads, "Haikus are easy /But sometimes they don't make sense / Refrigerator." Funnier than it sounds from me just typing it out. I loved it!

Threadless is a great site for hilarious and offbeat tee shirts. They invite their shoppers to be part of their little Threadless community. You can submit tee shirt designs, rate other shirts, and send pictures of yourself wearing their shirts that they post on the site. One note is that the shirts run a bit small, at least the women's do. The size medium is very fitted.
Anyway, thanks again Ms. Pinheiro, I love my shirt!