Fashion. Music. Family. Life.
Hello 2011! We had a fun New Year’s Eve with the family at my cousin’s house. My son got to ham it up and played with all of the kids while I sat down and chatted with various cousins throughout the night. My husband and “the guys” enjoyed another poker game and then we rang in the New Year. Hope everyone had a great time ringing in the new year!
Pictures 3 & 5 by Fong Ladao. All others by Cyrillynn Chen.
This has been a spectacular year, and I have so many wonderful memories that I was able to capture in pictures. Having a son means documenting his every move, which means that I’m capturing everything around us as well. Also having this blog has me thinking in terms of pictures, locations and how to style myself and what I’m photographing. So my last post of 2010 will be a year in review in pictures.
Some pictures I haven’t shared yet (I started this blog in July of this year, so I included some from my trip to NYC and other events prior to July). I also included pictures from my favorite outfit pictorials. I also included my most viewed post, which happens to be the recipe for Lauren Conrad’s Eggnog Cookies!
(Next highest viewed posts were all the ones featured on IFB and all posts on Depeche Mode.)
I want to thank you all for stopping by and reading my humble little blog about so many of my favorite things and happenings in my life, and I hope you continue to follow along. I also want to thank my friends and family for all of your support, especially my husband and my son. I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2011!
I have yet another confession that I need to make here and now: I love Juicy Couture. Ever since I first saw the iconic velour track suit at Fred Segal on Melrose, I’ve been hooked. When I need a soft and comfy yet put together look for weekends or travel, I throw on one of my many track suits (I have quite a few in velour, terry and fleece). I practically lived in them when I was pregnant with my son. But for me, the appeal is much more than that. The Scotty dog, the cute little charms, the Day Dreamer purses, the infamous pink and brown boxes and shopping bags, it makes me feel like Barbie at play, but all grown up. I included a picture that I took of my growing collection while I was on maternity leave. I even had socks and bibs for my son, as you can see at the bottom of the picture.
Every year, I think that I just can’t possibly buy anymore Juicy Couture, but every year I do. It’s usually during this time of year that the obsession begins and I dive in and submerge myself in all things Juicy. I just purchased this dress and ring a couple of weeks ago (both are now sold out, so I did not include links). I’ve worn the ring already in a few pictorials.
Now that Juicy Couture has teamed up with Erin Fetherston, the compulsion to drape myself in Juicy has gone up a notch. The online store just had an additional 50% off all sale items this past week, so I indulged a little more. I bought the Erin Fetherston dress (in black instead of the pictured African Sun), plus the velour dress and studded earrings pictured below. There is a Juicy Couture store close by at the Fashion Valley Mall and an outlet store at the Carlsbad Company Stores that I’d like to venture into, but I think these purchases will be my final ones for the end of the year. I know my husband will be very glad to hear that!
(Click on the images for a link to the items)
I got the chance to use my new tripod and was inspired by yet another Duran Duran song with my outfit. I felt my jacket was quite androgynous with the pin-stripes, so I kept it simple with a white sweater and black skinny jeans. I had the hat on, but felt better holding it to give a hint of Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur” without going overboard (the title of this post is a line from the song).
I’m also loving the “Walk the Walk” boots that I bought from Modcloth.com (sorry kids, they went on sale and suddenly sold out!). They are quite comfortable and flattering with everything from jeans to dresses. I have worn these boots everyday since I bought them.
I always get asked where I bought this distressed white sweater. It looks like it’s been sliced or run all over like stockings, and has loose threads on the sleeves and on either side of the sweater, giving it an almost spiderweb look. Believe it or not, I bought it at an “Everything $5.99” store. We went in the store, looking for little knickknacks. I walked over to the 99 cent rack and found this sweater. The best dollar I’ve ever spent!
Outfit: Anna Sui jacket; Guess skinny jeans; “Walk the Walk” Boots from Modcloth.com; Unknown brand sweater; H&M hat; Juicy Couture ring; Burberry sunglasses; Charm bracelet was a Christmas gift from my niece
On Christmas Eve, I tried my hand at these “Pumpkin Pasties” that I first saw on WordPress’ “Freshly Pressed” as “Two-Bite Pumpkin Pies”. I used the recipe from “Three Baking Sheets to the Wind” (seen here). Thinking I only had to use the canned pumpkin (complete brain lapse), I didn’t actually buy all of the correct ingredients on the can to make the pumpkin pie filling. I was lucky that I had been baking quite a bit for the past few weeks, so I had additional ingredients at my disposal. I only had to make a few substitutions: nutmeg for the ginger and whole milk for the evaporated milk. It ended up just as good! I also didn’t have a cookie cutter to cut out the pie crust circles, so I just used a glass with a 4 inch opening which yielded 8 circles. I rolled the remaining dough and was able to cut out 4 more circles. I brought the pasties to our family Christmas Even get-together and served it with Cool Whip. It was a holiday hit!
We had our traditional Christmas Eve get-together on Friday night which went into Saturday’s wee hours. It was a potluck, and I made “Pumpkin Pasties” served with Cool Whip (I will put up the recipe tomorrow); my mom brought a baked ham; and my sister made amazing chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies (baked with Splenda).
Every year, one of us dresses up as Santa and distributes the gifts at midnight. Until then, we had plenty of activities to keep everyone busy. My cousin has a great little entertainment “nook” where he has reclining theater chairs where one can either watch TV, DVD’s or play video games. In the garage was a poker game and this year, my cousin added a Bingo game with prizes brought in by married couples.
For a long time it was my father who did the dressing up. When he passed away, we all took turns being Santa. I had my turn last year, which really confused my son. This year, it was my cousin-in-law, Robert. Once it hit midnight, Santa came down and the kids all went crazy because they knew it was time for the gifts! I love the picture of my husband and son sitting on Santa’s lap. I was amazed at Dominic’s ability to stay up late and keep up with the older kids. One of the last pictures of the night was of my great-aunt holding my son.
We arrived home around 3am, only to wake up by 8am so that Dominic could open up all his gifts. I’m always thankful that we can have a relaxed Christmas because all of the activities take place Christmas Eve. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
Photos of Santa with Deon and Dominic and my great-aunt taken by Phong Ladao. All others by Cyrillynn Chen.
I wish everyone a safe holiday with your friends and family, and that you get all you ask for. I’ll be making merry with my immediate family (mom, husband and son), my sister’s family (sister, brother-in-law and niece), and lots of extended family (aunts, uncles and cousins).
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I’m going to admit right here and now that I watch “A Diva’s Christmas Carol” every year right around Christmas. It’s not the best version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, but I think it’s one of the more fun versions.
If you haven’t seen it, I think it’s worth a viewing. It solidifies the fact that Vanessa Williams makes a great diva (as further evidenced by her “Ugly Betty” character Wilhemina Slater). Let’s face it, she’s good at being bitchy, and there is plenty of that for most of the made for TV movie.
Williams plays Ebony Scrooge, a famous pop-singer who started out in a trio called Desire. But she ended up more successful as a solo artist, stepping on practically everyone she cared about along the way to diva-ville. Because of her wicked ways, she is warned by the ghost of one of her former band mates (played by Chilli from TLC) that she will be visited by 3 spirits in the hopes that she can mend her diva ways. Hilarity ensues, you get the picture.
My favorite parts of this movie come in the form of those spirits: Kathy Griffin is the awesomely snarky ghost of Christmas past; John Taylor of Duran Duran is the ghost of Christmas present (who plays a has-been rock star spirit with and exaggerated cockney accent); and finally, a “Behind the Music” VH1 special featuring Brian McKnight and Niles Rogers is the ghost of Christmas future.
I don’t care what anyone says, I love John Taylor’s rendition of the ghost of Christmas present. It looked like he had a lot of fun playing that part, and I’m glad they cast him. Just by the premise of the movie, this wasn’t going to be a Golden Globe or Emmy winner, so I’m taking it all for what it is. It’s also not the most clever part (those all go to Kathy Griffin), but my inner Duran Duran fan goes all a flutter when I see him on the screen.
This has now become a holiday tradition for me and my sister, who called me last night to inform me that it was on TV so that I could be sure to catch it again. Yes, there are much better versions of this classic Dickens tale, but the holidays are all about happiness and good cheer, and this movie always gives me a good dose of both.
On December 21, 2010, Duran Duran dropped their new album entitled All You Need is Now. The last Duran Duran album, Red Carpet Massacre, spawned one of my all time favorite songs Nite-Runner, and the concert was just as fantastic. The concert was full of their classics, songs off the newest album and included a stunning rendition of The Normal’s Warm Leatherette (which Alan Wilder also included in his most recent concert). The fact that it fell on my 38th birthday back in 2008 just added to the overall excitement.
Since I enjoyed Red Carpet Massacre, I definitely had certain expectations for this new album. I was very anxious to hear the evolution of the Duran Duran sound. Are they going to continue on with the RCM sound, or maybe go back a little to Astronaut? I started to read the reviews before I listened to the album myself, and so many out there say that this album really dips far back and recalls the Duran Duran of old. And you know what, they’re right. I think Duran Duran hit the target when they teamed up with producer/DJ Mark Ronson.
“We all wanted to get a little bit more experimental with this record. We wanted to reconnect with fans, on the territory on which the band, and Mark Ronson who is the producer, felt we should own. And that was this kind of modern synth, dance, experimental, pop music,” (Simon) Le Bon told Reuters.
from ABC News article “Duran Duran Goes Forward on New Album by Going Back“
Some reviews say that this new endeavor sounds like the Rio album, but I think it fluctuates between the first self titled white album and Seven and the Ragged Tiger. If there is a song that sounds like it would be taken directly off of the Rio album, it would be Runaway Runaway. It’s so happy and bright that you can almost call it Rio Part 2. I do hear their more current vibe in Leave a Light On, which really reminds me of Falling Down or Ordinary World.
But when I listen to the songs Blame The Machines and Being Followed, I hear twinges of Faster Than Light and Sound of Thunder. I hear I Take the Dice and Crimes of Passion in the title track All You Need is Now and Girl Panic!. I miss this Duran Duran sound. This is what I fell in love with back in the 80’s and I’m glad that they decided to reach back and recapture that sound that they crafted so well.
All in all, I really love this new album. This album will definitely get heavy rotation in my iPod and in my car. Cheers to Duran Duran for knowing that you can still move forward even if you look back a little for inspiration.
When I put this outfit together, my Mod Cloth package had not arrived yet. My husband and I went out to a company holiday dinner and returned to find the package at my doorstep. I wore the clogs because I liked the height, but I wasn’t sure how much they kept in the “rocker” feel of this outfit. If I had my “Walk the Walk Boots”, I think it would have complimented this outfit just fine.
No matter what, I’m always going to love my rock t-shirts. I have so many from dozens of concerts that I’ve attended over the years. Back in the 80’s, I bought them large to cinch them a bit on the side or wear them long with leggings. Now I wear them more fitted and with everything. I wear them dressed up or down, and even to bed (my older shirts that are bit too big). My all time favorites are my first Duran Duran concert shirt from 1984 and a Depeche Mode one from 1985. They’ve worn over the years to that soft vintage feel. My more recent favorites are Joy Division, Recoil, a limited edition John Mayer Trunk shirt, Marc Broussard, and the Billy Idol one I’m wearing here. Music is a big part of my life, and I don’t mind incorporating it into what I wear.
Outfit: Forever 21 sweater; Billy Idol concert shirt (2008); Hudson bootcut Jeans; Hot Topic pyramid studded belt; Gifted Union Jack belt buckle from Bristol, England; Burberry scarf; Juicy Couture sunnies and ring; Jeffrey Campbell clogs
Photo by Deon Chen
