Zac Posen Iconic Bag

MUST. HAVE. THIS.

I am not a girl who believes in love at first sight.

I am not a girl who falls hard or quickly. I fancy myself practical and reasonable when it comes to affairs of the heart......HOWEVER......

This bag is courting me, wooing me, romancing me to the core. This bag is making me fall head over (red patent leather) heels in love. I hear Frank Sinatra love songs in my head when I glance at it. It makes my heart go pitter pat and my credit card shiver with exhilaration.

This is the gorgeous Iconic Bag by the equally swoon-worthy Zac Posen. Zac is such an amazing young designer. There are so many of his designs I am not brave enough to wear, but this....yes this....I would wear and adore and lovingly caress and ..... you get the idea.

The Iconic Bag is sure to become an icon indeed this season. I must have it. It comes at a hefty price so my phone and electricity may be shut off, but who needs those things when you have TRUE LOVE?

Find this gorgeous bag at www.eluxury.com .

Graphic from www.eluxury.com .

Have a beautiful day!

Beauty Blender Sponge--Modernize The Way You Make Up.

Behold the Beauty Blender sponge!

At first glance it may look like a simple pear (or tear if you are so inclined) shaped hot pink sponge with no special talents, but contraire my beauty loving friends. The Beauty Blender sponge is magic--or so it seems to me.

The lovely and talented Bridget at Odalisque-(see link below)http://monkeyposh.blogspot.com/2005/10/odalisque.html in Geneva, Illinois introduced me to the Beauty Blender sponge and I was hooked. Do not get me wrong, Bridget is a wizard when it comes to makeup application. She has covered my blemishes, freckles, and all around crazy skin imperfections before -- but this time was different. This time was special. This time Bridget was packing the Beauty Blender Sponge. They truly made the powder application flawless and seem light as air. I bought the sponges on the spot, and have used them every day since. They truly are amazing.

They are easy to use and so soft -not to mention the uber cool bright pink color. The coverage they provide is excellent. If you have not tried them yet, give them a try at THE BEUATY BLENDER WEBSITE , or at www.Amazon.com or www.drugstore.com .

You can also get the official Beauty Blender sponge cleanser at their website.

You will love them, trust me.

(graphics from the official Beauty Blender website--link above)

BLAH-gger

Tired. Frustrated. Overwhelmed. Blah.

These are just a few words to describe my life lately.

I have been traveling some, working on my house and yard, having computer issues, letting all the negative television news (Imus, VA Tech, Baldwin, Anna Nicole's Baby Daddy) get to me, dealing with a gimp dalmation, feeling uninspired to blog, and fighting like mad with Expedia.com . Word to the wise--if you are just flying somewhere close to home-an easy trip with no issue (but I mean seriously people, busy lives sometimes have issues), then maybe Expedia.com will work for you and make you happy and you will love them. However, if you plan to go abroad and you have any kind of issue, they will tell you what you want to hear at the time, then they will LIE LIE LIE and STALL STALL STALL when the time comes to get some action. Everything seems to be fixed now, but I am still angry and frustrated with them. I have been dealing with them for over 3 months to get this issue fixed. I have spoken to Lufthansa, as well as numerous other world travelers and I seem to not be alone in my feelings towards Expedia.com . I will never use them again for travel abroad, and I will advise other world travelers of their antics and poor poor poor customer service. I am channeling my inner Fightin Mad Mary (check out her blog) and just putting bad service out there in the blogosphere. GRRRR!

Ok end of rant, pity party, and all things negative.

How about some pretty stuff? Pretty stuff always cheers me up. All these beautiful items come from INTERMIX .

This is the very cool LaRok Twist Swing Top in navy. I have had a torrid love affair with navy blue for the past year or so. I think it is highly underrated. I pledged to bring navy back, and I am working on it. Here is my plea to designers: Make more navy blue footwear. Please.
Here is my plea to myself: Lift more weights so you can actually wear this shirt this summer. Please. This is the Nadia Roder Wave Scarf. I love this. It looks a little Missoni and a little Pucci while still holding onto it's own flair. I am a bit of a scarf whore, so I will probably be adding this little beauty to my arsenal.

I love these strappy wedges from Michael Kors. They are just the right height and the pop of sueded red makes me happy. I am really liking Michael's stuff this Spring. I also like his new fragrance called Island Hawaii. It is soft and soothing and really beachy.

These are the prim yet minxy Chloe White 60 Circle pumps. They are so European 60's to me. Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour. I am almost positive I could not pull them off, but I love them, and if I ever saw anyone wearing them, I would gush and fall in love. These Missoni flats are very Italian cool. I picture them on a tall, tanned, toned fabulous women wearing a white skirt strolling in Milan. They also look comfortable. I love Missoni. I have talked a lot about Missoni in the past, so I will not bore you with my Missoni love today.

This is the Kenneth Jay Lane Flower Pearl Ring in blue. I love this ring--the size, the shine, everything. It looks so feminine and I am really into the bigger rings this season.

This is the same ring in bright yellow. I posted this one in honor of the funny and beautiful FABULISTA at Beauty Blogging Junkie (check out her blog). Fabulista has a yellow thing. Apparently a mad love of yellow since childhood. Here is to you A!

Here is hoping everyone has a lovely day.

(all photos from www.Intermixonline.com , and all rantings from MonkeyPosh L.L.C)

Beautiful Spring Shoes from Piperlime

Have you shopped at PIPERLIME yet? It is the fairly new shoe website extravaganza from the folks at Gap Inc. Do not let the Gap name fool you, this site has very high end footwear, that is sure to dazzle your feet this Spring. This is the gorgeous Tracey Reese El Abrazo shoe. These are so unique and girlie without being fussy.

This is the Tracey Reese Tango shoe. These are somewhat fussy with the big scarf bow on the ankle, but I love it. Sometimes I like something a little unexpected on the foot. Something with flair.

I LOVE this shoe. It is the Betty Muller Pearl shoe. These are very pin up girl to me. Very Dita Von Teese. I like the pop of red on the strap. Such fun and sexy shoes!

This is the KRIS (Bon Jour WinterWheat) Sandal from Bandolino. Beautiful and practical shoes that look smart and classy, but yet also look like they could let loose and have fun on a dance floor and be a little naughty. Come to think of it, that almost perfectly describes WinterWheat too. HA!

This is the very cool and chunky Kenneth Cole New York Stripeless Sandal. I love the blood red color of these shoes, and I love the structure. I think I will be ordering these today.And because flats are so in this season, I wanted to include a cute pair of flatties. This is the Mia Gabriella Weave Flat. Very cute and very garden party. I love them.

Check out PIPERLIME next time you are in the mood to look at shoes. They have stellar customer service and a good selection. They also have quite a variety of shoes for men too.

Have a lovely day!

(all photos and Piperlime graphic from www.piperlime.com )

BeaverPosh - Cherry Blossom Festival Washington D.C. 2007

As I said in the last post, I recently traveled to Washington D.C. to the Cherry Blossom Festival. I love Washington D.C., and the cherry blossoms are just gorgeous. They are only in full bloom and at their perfect peak about 3 days, so there are some logistics in getting there for optimum viewing. This year was particularly cold and windy, so we missed the FULL peak viewing.
Oh well, it was still a great trip and the blossoms were still gorgeous.

It was QUITE cold. The wind off the Tidal Basin was almost unbearable.

It was so windy that the blossoms were blowing everywhere. One got caught in my hair, and my husband seized the oppurtunity for a very cool photograph.

The Jefferson Memorial looks so regal and dreamy through the blossoms.

Before I knew I was going to be going to see the Blossoms this year, I was thinking about them and I started obsessing about Guerlain Cherry Blossom Pure Parfum. I called Bergdorf Goodman to order it, only to be told that it was not going to be sold in the U.S. at all, period, end of story, and that the European boutiques would not be shipping any to the United States. Well, ahem--one should NEVER tell a fragrance fiend that they CANNOT get a fragrance. Thems is fighting words. Needless to say I found it.

Damn skippy.

I was also able to procure bottle of Guerlain Lovely Cherry Blossom edt. It is indeed lovely, but nothing like the Guerlain Cherry Blossom Pure Parfum. It is lighter and less heady. It pales in beauty to the Pure Parfum, but I do really like it. Thanks Shayla!

I will leave you with a lovely Haiku in honor of the cherry blossoms by Akiko Feng.

Pink like a bush

Sweet scent with petals

falling like Spring.

Have a beautiful day.

(all photos from MonkeyPosh L.L.C.)

Travel, Taxes and Tears (of the canine cruciate ligament)

Hello all!

I hope everyone is doing wonderful. I have not blogged in a while due to travel, taxes (SHUDDER) and my dog Forrest being ill and getting a knee replacement yesterday. Please send him good thoughts. We go to pick him and his bionic leg up this evening. His vet says the surgery went great and Forrest is doing well. This sort of thing is still very stressfull, as Forrest is 11 and that is quite elderly by Dalmation standards.

Things have been crazy.

We went to Washington D.C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival--however the climate was less than festive. It was FREEZING cold. I would have loved to meet my girl Jennipah,(at Jennipah On Tour) but my trip was sort of last minute and very short. I have tons of pictures, but have not been able to download them all. We were able to peruse the National Gallery of Art, but the lines to all the other museums were literally over a block long.

I have been gone on a couple of other impromptu trips due to some neat opportunities in the past couple of weeks, but things seem to be calming down now, and for that I am thankful.

The gorgeous and brilliant K at THIS COOL BLOG asked me to do some posts about mascara, and I am sorry I am so remiss, but I will do that tonight or tomorrow. Mascara and perfume are my crack, so I am ALWAYS happy to post about mascara. K also needs some ideas on some media geared towards children in the 80's for a class she is teaching...so if you are a child of the 80's head on over there and take a walk down memory lane to help her out.

Lovely day to all.

Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Not me.

This weekend I attended a performance of "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by Edward Albee in Chicago. It stars Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. I love theater--musicals, plays, etc. I love it all. We have season tickets to the theater in Chicago, and we frequent Broadway shows in NYC. I have no talent, so I am in awe of people who can sing and dance and act--often at the same time.

This play perplexed me. The acting was great (even though Kathleen Turner is the same in every role) and kept me entertained-- however the plot eluded me. I did not get it. Kathleen and Bill play a married couple fighting, bickering, arguing, drinking, criticizing, tormenting, drinking more, etc. It got old. There was another couple in the play and I do not even know why they were included. They were mainly just background to all the fighting and the drinking.

I was feeling a little lost and disconnected and like the play was not speaking to me until one pivotal point in the play that Bill Irwin said something that moved me. He said: "It is all part of the ritual, Monkey Nipples". At that point it all made sense. It all came together, I felt a light shine down on me, and I knew this play was speaking directly to me. I finally got it.

Thanks Edward Albee.

Have a theatrical day!

Gwen, L.A.M.B., and Harajuku Lovers

I like Gwen Stefani. She is unique. She is funky. She is ecclectic. She knows what she likes, and she does not try to conform to what everyone else is doing. I dig that.

I think she is beautiful in a very unique way, and I like her style. I could not pull off her style, but I admire it just the same. Her music is fun and upbeat--even if I do not understand what she is talking about half the time-I love it!

I have to say, I have not been a huge fan of everything in her L.A.M.B (Love Angel Music Baby) collection. Some of her purses were just too "logo" for me. I did love a lot of her clothing. It is dressy, but with an edge. Very cool. The other day I was at Nordstrom looking for a watch and I came across Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers and L.A.M.B. Watch lines.

I immediately fell in love with this Giraffe Love Watch. I bought it on the spot. I love giraffes, and this watch is cool, and whimsical and priced right at around $56.00. I wear it a lot and people always comment on it.
There are many unique watches in the Harajuku Lovers line. This is another cool one. There are many more that you can check out at The Bunker Online .
Gwen Stefani also branched the Harajuku Lovers line into chidren's clothing. You can find it at www.apothia.com .

Her L.A.M.B line of watches is also nice. They are a bit more pricy and they play to a much different taste than the Harajuku Lovers line. The watch above is the Black Leather Braided Watch and it will run you around $259.00 at THE BUNKER ONLINE .

This is the White Renniassance Leather Watch from L.A.M.B. Very unique. I would have the white leater filthy in minutes. This beauty costs $274.00 at THE BUNKER ONLINE.

The Bunker Online also carries a variety of other items. Their logo at the top of their page is very Bewitched and very cool.

Have a funky, unique and Hollaback day!

All watch photos from www.thebunkeronline.com . You can also find all of Gwen's watches at select Nordstrom stores.

Photos of Gwen Stefani from Yahoo Music and www.Wickipedia.com .