Anne Taintor love

I really love Anne Taintor's humorous vintage products. She cracks me up to no end. And while I am a Yale fan, she IS a Harvard grad. Props to her! Here are some of my most recent finds on Google Image:


"I dreamed my whole house was clean..."



"Why do dishes when you can do daiquiris?"



"Make your own damn dinner."



"Honey, you couldn't handle half of me."



"I'm so happy it's happy hour."


And the funniest one I found - not for the faint of heart:


"...and best of all is the matching thong."

Aren't they hilarious? Looooooove them! Meanwhile, I am working on a great entry on a very well-known fallen woman in the C'ville area... woohoo!

All images property of Anne Taintor

The Cricut Create

Another big gift that I got this Christmas was the Cricut Create by Provo Craft. I originally had asked for the Expression, but seeing as I don't make big posters an awful lot, this similar tool certainly will come in handy while in my office at home. M really is trying to get me to do things I enjoy more often.



When you open it up, this keyboard appears to match the cartridge you placed within the Cricut, and this area is called the Dashboard.



The Cricut used to come with the cartridge called "George" but it now comes with the cartridge "DonJuan" instead. It includes both letters, numbers, short phrases as well as graphics.



As the Cricut serves many different purposes, they recommend that you purchase Replacement Blades and have a tool kit to really enjoy everything the Cricut offers.



So, M got me two replacement blades and a spatula, to lift graphics and letters from the paper!




Does anyone else have a Cricut Create or Cricut Expression? I would love to hear people's opinions on the Cricut and what cartridges they have gotten the most use from, as I hope to use mine to make cards, packages, decorated boxes for my jewelry, posters--- any sort of thing I think of, I guess!

XOXO

Bialetti Hot Chocolate Maker

This gift, the Bialetti Hot Chocolate Maker, is one of the ones I received this Christmas. I have not taken it out of the box yet - snowed in at the parentals - but I cannot wait! M purchased it for me, and it is a very thoughtful gift so then I don't spend a ton of money at Starbucks buying Venti Peppermint Hot Chocolate, no Whip, Whole Milk.

One of the many reasons I love Williams-Sonoma, how-to videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbyxZP8jc8c

(W-S is lame, however, by disabling embedding videos!! BOO)


[photo by http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/]

Places in Paris, like salons de thé "Angelina's", serve their hot chocolate with low-fat milk in it. I normally drink whole milk, but I may get a jar of 2% milk for this product as it is designed (I think) for the lower-fat content of other milks.


[photo by http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/]

At Angelina's, you order a hot chocolat and they serve it to you in a pitcher with a tea cup. Next to that is a bowl of fresh whipped creme and a glass of ice water to cleanse your palate of the richness.



As an unexpected surprise, My Grandmama and Grandpapa gave me the Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Hot Chocolate shavings as well, so I am ready to go with setting this baby up when I get back to the house in a few days! They did not know M was purchasing this item for me, small world.

As Williams-Sonoma writes:
* Our peppermint version adds triple-distilled natural peppermint oil for the cool, clean taste of fresh mint.

* We've chosen an artisanal bittersweet chocolate by Guittard, San Francisco chocolate makers since the 19th century.

HEAVEN!!!

Martha Stewart Show

I am not sure if all of my readers like Martha Stewart, but I really enjoy her as a teacher of food, crafts, and homekeeping. She has taught me a lot over the years, and I really appreciate what she is doing in the world of more eco-friendly home products. Her Homekeeping Handbook has been such an asset since I bought it at the beginning of this summer.

She recently moved networks from NBC (where for many DirecTV customers, among others, we could not watch her show due to local programming and the 5th hour of Today) to the Hallmark Channel. She is on M-F at 10am EST, and helps start off a wonderful series of Home shows that run from the AM to early afternoon hours.

Now that she is on Hallmark, I am really happy, as I haven't been able to watch her show for the past two years. I have missed a lot of great episodes, but yesterday I saw one that was one of the funniest I have ever seen. It was actually a "Bonus Episode" that aired on Monday at 4pm (so during the Oprah show). It had an opening that was hysterical and featured Martha Stewart and Darcy Miller (her Editorial Director of MS Weddings) wearing gorgeous gold outfits for the "Glitter" segment. I cannot believe no one has this on YouTube yet! Anyway, they open the show with a big, black shimmery confetti pinata, and proceed to FAIL at cracking the pinata open for the entire 5 minutes of the opening segment. At this point they are hysterically laughing and out of breath, so Martha's producer comes and has to RIP IT OPEN for the thing to actually work.

To make up for it, I found a few of my favorite clips of Martha Stewart on YouTube that are hysterical:

As a sidenote: I DIE everytime I see the clip with incredible glass maker DALE CHIHULY and she completely ruins a perfect glass orb. And then asks, "is that bad?" [its around 0:32] And her April Fools-ing her set staff. So messed up hahaha. Lastly, Conan O'Brien on the Martha Stewart Show. I mean, really, how did they figure that out? Him looking like Fabio is amazing.



More Bloopers:


Martha's BFF Snoop Dogg comes by to make Mashed Potatoes:


All photos and videos original property of © 2010 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.

Quick Grilled Pizza from Cook's Country magazine

My blogging colleague, Hopsy @ Kappa Prep, and a new friend, Wears With Heels saw me post my dinner on Twitter and wanted the recipe, so here is my information on it!



Tonight, M and I each got to have our own 12-ish" pizzas, based off of recipes for dough and sauce, from Cook's Country magazine (the same people who do America's Test Kitchen on PBS on Saturdays). The issue is their August/September 2010 edition, which may still be on newsstands (I always see it most prominently displayed at Whole Foods), but we subscribe to it.



This recipe says the dough makes 4 nine-inch pizzas... but we like our dough a little on the thick side so keep that in mind.

Sauce:
2 (14.5 oz) cans of diced tomatoes. We like the brand San Marzano, or Cento if we are in a bind.
2 tablespoons of fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons of EVOO
2 minced garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon of salt (not sea-salt, unless ground up finely)

Pizza:
about 2.5 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of water, at 110 degrees
1 tablespoon of EVOO, plus extra set aside to brush dough on the grill (we use a silicone brush when brushing dough since it is so sticky at first)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 envelope of rapid-rise, or instant, yeast (1 envelope = 2 1/4 teaspoons). We tend to use Fleischmanns. Also, make sure the date on it is good, otherwise it is a waste!
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of salt (not sea-salt, unless ground up finely)
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese


1. Make sauce: combine tomatoes, basil, oil, garlic, and salt in medium bowl. We like to place it in a small saucepan on the lowest setting to warm it up.

2. Prepare dough: Whisk water, 1 tablespoon of EVOO, sugar, yeast in large liquid measuring cup. Let it sit 5 minutes (this prevents the need to use baking powder, lightens the crust and prevents dough from being gritty). Pulse flour, Parmesan, and salt in food processor until combined. With machine running, slowly pour in the water mixture and process until dough starts to pull away from the sides and forms a shaggy/hairy ball (normally takes us about 1.5 minutes). If your dough is coming off sticky, gradually add flour in. Flour a clean work surface and take out the dough, kneading it 3-4 times until it becomes cohesive.

3. Shape pizza: Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with flour. Wax paper is okay, but know that the dough will stick to it if not floured enough!!! Divide dough into 4 equal pieces (M and I did, again, two pieces). Work with one dough piece at a time, using a rolling pin, pressing dough into a small circle, and stretch out. Transfer to a baking sheet and dust with flour. Repeat with each dough piece, and you can just stack them on top of each other, divided by the floured paper.

4. Heat grill: Meanwhile, heat your coals. Or turn on your gas grill. We use a classic charcoal Weber dome grill. Just be sure to set your grate in place, and heat your grill -covered- with lid vent open completely for 5 minutes. You want there to be a cool spot on the grill and a hot spot for cooking. Also, be sure to scrape and oil cooking grate so dough doesn't develop burn marks too charred, and prevent sticking.

5. Grill pizza: Brush tops of dough lightly with EVOO. Peel off of parchment and place, oiled side down, onto the cool side of the grill. Grill pizza covered until sides are spotted with a golden brown, which may be easily found by lifting the sides and finding firmness with your tongs. The tops may develop bubbles, which is normal, but be sure to poke the larger bubbles (but not enough to tear all the way through the dough!!). Brush the uncooked side facing up with EVOO and flip with tongs. Top each with sauce to taste, and the mozzarella cheese. If you want additional garlic like I do, this is where I added it. I added the sauce, then the crushed garlic, then the cheese. Cook for at least 1.5-2 minutes. At this point, feel free to move pizza over to the cool side while adding your toppings. Then you can move it to the hot side to crisp up to taste.

Enjoy!

Tips from our experience:

*It is better to have a thicker pizza than a thin pizza when grilling. You can completely destroy a pizza in less than a minute if it was too thin when placed on the grill. Likewise with fire temperature. If cooking with coals, feel free to cook down the coals to a fine gray ash on the tops of them.

*M likes Boar's Head pepperoni, which comes in 6-ounce containers. He got about 3 ounces on his pizza, because he likes to layer the edges together.

*Don't move the dough until it starts to firm up on the grill, or it will tear, and then you have to deal with charring.

*I kept my pizza dough warm in the microwave. But for a crisp crust, a warmed oven may be a better bet.

*Make sure you have a plate, platter, or cookie sheet to set a finished pizza on while outside grilling, otherwise you may burn it just by running in to grab something!

*I enjoy my pizza with prosciutto, pineapple, crushed garlic, bacon leftover from this morning's brunch, oregano and heirloom tomatoes.

VF survey a la Ms. Mindless and JGIWC

Thanks for Ms. Mindless doing this post originally - I love it! [which she got from JGWIC who was copying Vanity Fair]


I N S P I R A T I O N S

FAVORITE DISCOVERY fashion and decor inspirations from magazines
NECESSARY EXTRAVAGANCE hair trimmed
FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD Corolla, NC or Greenbrier, WV
FAVORITE CHARITY Riverkeeper, Nature Conservancy
FAVORITE MOVIE A Philadelphia Story
FAVORITE VINTAGE STORE my Mom's closet - with her permission, consignment places
STYLE ICONS Mommy, Grandmama, Coco Chanel, Katharine Hepburn


C L O T H E S

JEANS DKNY, Seven
UNDERWEAR oh, I could go on for hours about my lingerie... Primadonna, Chantelle, Hanky Panky, Fantasie, Fleur't, Marie Jo
SNEAKERS Puma
WATCH Coach
T-SHIRT J. Crew
DAY DRESS J.Crew, Lilly P
DAY BAG Vera Bradley
EVENING BAG Coach, Lilly P, J. Crew, vintage
FAVORITE ACCESSORY my pearls


B E A U T Y P R O D U C T S

LIPSTICK Clinique All Heart
MASCARA MAC Plush Lash in Brownette
SHAMPOO Paul Mitchell Awapahui Shampoo
MOISTURIZER Burt's Bees Beeswax and Banana hand creme
PERFUME Chanel Coco Madmoiselle
SOAP Bulgari Eau The Blanc (its Tea in french, don't feel like playing with the keyboard!)
NAIL POLISH OPI
WHO CUTS YOUR HAIR Diva's Hair & Day Spa


H O M E

WHERE DO YOU LIVE Goochland County, VA
CAR Ford Focus Centennial Edition
FAVORITE ART Alexander McQueen Fashion Week Fall 2006 show with Kate Moss hologram
SHEETS SFerra Celeste and Lindsay border sheets in white and blue
STATIONERY Boatman Geller
PETS Lily Anne, a cocker spaniel/golden retriever mix
COFFEE TABLE BOOKS african odyessey: 365 days by anup and manoj shah
FLOWERS pink peonies, pink carnations, freesias
FAVORITE GADGET iTouch
FAVORITE COCKTAIL French 75
FAVORITE DESSERT dark chocolate raspberry truffles from Cocoa Mill Chocolates of Lexington, VA
FAVORITE SNACK Cheese Its

Be Part of the Story

My brother and I in the locks at Colonial Williamsburg, 1995 or 1996.



This ad has been running recently throughout Virginia. I am completely, 100% in love with it's simple message. It is part of our nation's history, there is no reason why every American in their lifetime can't make it to Colonial Williamsburg:



Doors. Have you ever thought about them that way until after this ad? It is just gorgeous. I cannot complain about the colors in those historic buildings, either. Thank goodness for the Rockefellers, hmm?

"In 1926, the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Bruton Parish Church, shared his dream of preserving the city's historic buildings with philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., and the restoration began.

Dr. Goodwin feared that scores of structures that had figured in the life of the colony and the founding of the nation would soon disappear forever. Rockefeller and Goodwin began a modest project to preserve a few of the more important buildings. Eventually, the work progressed and expanded to include a major portion of the colonial town, encompassing approximately 85 percent of the 18th-century capital's original area.

Mr. Rockefeller gave the project his personal leadership until his death in 1960, and it was his quiet generosity of spirit and uncompromising ethic of excellence that guided and still dominates its development. He funded the preservation of more than 80 of the original structures, the reconstruction of many buildings, and also the construction of extensive facilities to accommodate the visiting public.

In the preservation of the setting of Virginia’s 18th-century capital, Mr. Rockefeller and Dr. Goodwin saw an opportunity to ensure that the courageous ideals of the patriots who helped create the American democratic system live on for future generations." [http://colonialwilliamsburg.org/Foundation/cwhistory.cfm]



This one is called "Streets" I haven't seen it on TV yet:




To look into vacationing at Colonial Williamsburg, please go to http://colonialwilliamsburg.org/

Dining Room... wallpaper?

Inspiration: The Greenbrier, my Grandmama, myself, and the http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2009/08/handpainted-wallpaper-gorgeous-dining.html.

I do not know about y'all, but my Grandmama is a big fan of Wallpaper. She isn't a huge damask person, so much as some chintz here and there as well as birds and florals. She has immaculate taste, so I look up to her when I think of putting my first home together.

I recently was looking at the Carleton Varney wallpaper website [http://www.carletonvltd.com/] and saw some gorgeous damask pieces. I then realized I could possibly do the dining room in grey ABOVE the chair rail, and grey damask below the chair rail and above the crown molding, or vice-versa. What do y'all think?

This is the Carleton Varney Raj Damask in white-blue:



This is the Cole & Son Ilena Damask:



Would LOVE input!

Dining Room project

Dining Room

The dining room color is Woodlawn Colonial Gray, another NOVA plantation (seen here behind the couch)!:

**Our dining room looked like this when we visited it - they "gave" us the "window treatments" AKA lengths of fabric stuck through plastic-finished hooks in (eww):



Our plan with the dining room is this:

Ethan Allen - Townhouse Rectangular Dining Table


It has drawers on either end to store serving pieces, etc, and can extend to being 120" long! The legs are fluted and just amazing!


For chairs, we are planning on going with a chippendale side chair of about 5 on either side, so 10 total, and then 2 host/arm chairs. We may over time add a few more to fill in the wall spaces left!


The bay window has a space which would be sweet to put a couch/loveseat in but there is no room. So, our best option is a storage console piece which we could move during the holidays to stick a tree in. This is the one we have been going with - it is from the same collection as the Ethan Allen Dining Room table:


My mother was incredibly kind and gave us her old display case from her first marriage. It was used for storage when I was growing up on our farm, in the barn, for I believe horse accessories/etc, and now has a neat shabby-chic wearing to it. The pecan has withstood time well (as good pecan should), and has an older grey-ish finish on it, which we look forward to sandpapering off a good bit, to really make it look even more antiqued. There are two lights which need to be replaced on the inside, and the shelves are made of glass. I am on the fence about this, but I am thinking maybe replacing the glass and their holders with a grey-covered velvet would make it better for fine display pieces - wedding china/silver, antiques from my family, collections of my grandmama, etc...

For looks, it is very similar to this china cabinet and display piece by Ethan Allen (Maison), except flat across the top - and the pecan is marbleized underneath the fading finish:



Lastly, we want a blue and gray oriental carpet with touches of ivory, rose, and champagne tones for the dining room.
So, here are some inspirations on those lines...


Or





What do you all think? Draperies are natch our last thought, as these pieces are much more significant in the order presented!

Living Room project

From: thetearoom.typepad.com, a more minimalist look. We want something dressier. Like the shelves though.


PBF and I will soon be doing major decorating for the house. Not just because it is the holidays, but because we will be starting on the major painting. Why are we doing it in the winter, you may ask. Well, because where we live in VA you can leave the house open all day long, and in the Summer that = HUMIDITY. Not good when spending a bunch of $$ on high-quality paint that could bubble, get dust on it, or just look bad. So, we have been waiting for this dry/low-humidity weather to kick in and it has in the past month. By the time my exams are over it will be perfect.

Living Room

We plan on painting the living room a deep dark forest green. Maybe a dark polo green is a better way to put it, as forest green has more brown in it. This isn't that kind of color. We will be purchasing the paint for Lowe's and we/I will be doing it ourselves. I have seen jobs at friend's houses that professionals did and they completely destroyed the crown molding. To be honest, this painting job feels like something I should do as I am worried they may "screw it up"... so I would rather screw it up myself than have to be concerned with someone else.

The living room color is Montpelier Palmetto Green, named for Montpelier in VA:


A lot of people - parent included - have questioned this choice, but the room is the length of the house, has a TON of crown molding, plantation blinds in white, and gets a TON of natural light, so the light won't be sucked out in a bad way.

This is what the living room looked like when we visited it the first time:


You can see that they had professional window valences made, but they did not really "work" with the rest of the Living Room. It was a mish-mash of things, understandable as they were recently married AND the husband was relocated out of state during the time the house was on the market - but not in our taste design-wise at all.


A more formal version of French Country.
From: FineLiving.com

Our plan with the living room is to be minimalist (as in few things that are key pieces, not as in a Modern look). We hope to keep the look of French Country consistent in the house so we are going for classic, home-y, and traditional, without being stuffy. Our house is a colonial so layout-wise it is perfect. This is also so when I inherit items they can be placed throughout the house without looking out of place (my parents and grandparents have dozens of antique furniture pieces and collected pieces of artwork and figures from Europe). For example, my great-grandmother had a gorgeous Gold oval mirror which my parents currently have in their living room and I would love to have it for over the fireplace when it is my turn. It would be perfect there.

We were given as a housewarming gift from my Grandmother and Grandfather a beautiful sofa table:

It is from Ethan Allen, the Maison collection (perfect name!), and is in the finish Rustique.

We plan on recovering the couch and sofa my parents had in the farmhouse I grew up in this fabric pattern - yellow background with red and green diamonds within it:

This fabric is from Ethan Allen.

With a few throw pillows done in this pattern, which I love as it picks up the colors from the sofa and is a bit whimsical and 19th century at the same time:

This fabric is from Ethan Allen as well.


I cannot wait to take all of the silver/brushed nickel fixtures including the living room ceiling fan and replace them with brass ones - such as the one below:
This is a Hunter Bayport 42-inch four-blade ceiling fan with antique brass fixtures:

This photo was taken from Amazon.com.

We are debating closing up the open "TV shelf" space above the gas fireplace and turn it instead into a real fireplace mantle with a family painting above it (not a portrait, a piece of artwork from my family, obviously). We'd get a media center to house our entertainment center, etc.

We have already ordered a large bookshelf from Ethan Allen to be delivered next month so the room becomes more library-style as we hope it will be used as such. It is large but we want it to look classic and still be functional (we have a TON of books between us). The shelf will go between the windows facing the front porch. Again, less floor space taken up because this shelf is TALL:


The collection is called Tango at Ethan Allen. (This bookshelf is actually 3 shelves, so use perspective in that regard).


Here is another photo of the living room (Thanks, Blackberry Tour!), including our goofy Halloween decorations! haha:




All Historic paint colors are shown here: http://www.valsparatlowes.com/explore-colors/historic-colors/paint-colors.html.

You may find that choosing Lowes for paint is a poor choice, or, at the very least - random. Well, originally, I was going to get the paint there because of my father's discount but now that doesn't apply (this Fall he went back to being an Executive Sales Manager at Pitney Bowes). However, they carry Valspar which is incredibly high in quality, and they have a relationship with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is an organization I have a great deal of passion for - as they have assisted with many projects near and dear to me. Currently, a major project of theirs is the Miami Marine Stadium, a unique structure to say the least:



Check out the NTHP at: http://www.preservationnation.org/.

Tequila and Limes

I so love margaritas. This summer, with Michael and I being all over the place, the best thing at the end of the day was to head home and make a tasty margarita. However, my "sin" of the summer was this: no margarita glasses. My personal goal is to really get a nice classy bar going. For now, the display case I inherited from my mother (made of maple, needs to be refinished for the dining room, but currently has a nice shabby-chic look to it - do I need to post a picture of it?) has our "nice things that can't sit out" at this time. For example, plain glass champagne flutes from my Grandmama, cut glass wine goblets, a cute polka-dot chip dip holder, my sterling silver wine stopper and plate, etc, are all in there. Oh, and PBF's pilsners, etc. ANYWAY, on to my wish list:



Recycled glass & a great price! How fabulous is that? It reminds me of the old glass bottled Cokes I could buy in the Pruden basement at Chatham Hall. Yay!



I am happy to have tried Grand Marnier in my margarita, as a bartender at a hotel I was at this summer served it with a citrus mix, yum! Then again, I was like 3 cocktails in so it may not have been so great if I was having it as my first drink, not too sure.



From my experience, you have to add this winner to make it a true Mexico margarita, with Patron of course... It is made by Patron, but it is also without any added fillers or flavors, so it's really lush and fruity but not as syrup-y as Grand Marnier (in my opinion)... but this is a great addition of more orange if you want - which may be prefereable, depending on if you use the traditional Key Lime with tequila (which has a yellower juice) or the regular lime which is more obvious in how green it is!




Lastly, the bar tool set. How the hell PBF and I have survived without one of these babies is completely shocking to me. We need to have one, pronto!! This one is the Faces Bar Tool Set from Williams-Sonoma. It is a 8 piece set and fantastic: ice bucket, storage rack (removeable), jigger, strainer, tongs, stirrer, bar knife, and bottle opener. I keep going back to it, hoping Mike will splurge on it for me, but, of course, he would rather buy me dinner out and a bottle of Chanel Coco Madmoiselle instead (like last weekend). It retails at $99 on their website.




Oh! And a shaker. Duh. Here is a great one I have been eyeing for months!! Again, Williams-Sonoma. Guess you guys know where some of my registry will be when I finally get engaged!! It retails for $32.

Life

So, where have I been for the past few months?

Well, to put it simply, I haven't had ANY internet at my house. We had HughesNet which was the devil, and over priced, and just all-around bad. So, we recently realized with school starting back up again I would NEED some kind of internet. We decided to get me some NetZero dial-up.

Woohoo! AOL-style dial-up circa 1994!! I live 20 minutes from Richmond, VA and this option is the only one I have besides HughesNet... WOWWWWW.

Work is great. I am still working in lingerie but retail isn't suffering for us as badly as the nightly 6:00 news every night would make you think. I average around 300-500+ in sales everyday, and multiply that by 3-5 employees and you get our daily sales. So you could really get why I don't really believe that there is a recession going on so much as a paranoia from corporate overspending.

Then again, I work at a boutique, not a retail box establishment....

I start back up classes on August 31. However, for the first time in almost 6 years, I will be back at a 4-year college. I will be working on my Bachelor's! I am completely ecstatic and grateful to be given another opportunity to finish what I started. It has given me a huge sense of pride and happiness in my day-to-day life. I am just beyond excited as it is a great school and is a old Liberal Arts institution in the south... and Mike is supporting me every step of the way!



More later! Bedtime for now!!

Tory Burch love!

Okay, so of course, I got one of my daily Nordstrom emails and it definitely grabbed my attention as it mentioned Tory Burch and Milly - two of my favorite brands! So I decided it had been a while since I had perused one of my choice shoe brands, and I found 5 styles that I think are super hot for Spring/Summer 09! I was incredibly inspired today because, thank goodness, it is finally warm-ish outside again, it finally stopped raining (of course the day AFTER we finished moving things into the new house), and there is a soothing breeze which inspired me to open up the house!

1. Tory Burch "Francesca" Gladiator sandal.
What I love about this shoe is that it isn't that regular S&M look that other Gladiator sandals have, I really find that the brown and gold softens it into a much more prep-friendly wardrobe piece, which is especially nice if you desire not looking like a Carrie-Bradshaw-SATC-Movie-from-last-year-poser (you know what I mean, that Gucci gladiator was EVERYWHERE!)!!

At Nordies it retails at $425.00.

2. Tory Burch "Holly" Patent Leather Sandal.
What I like about this shoe is that it looks like a Wedge on first glance, when in all actuality, it isn't. The shoe has a really lovely height that makes it hot-date or un-air-conditioned church service -friendly, not even 3", and has a good neutral color that makes it summer dress friendly... or, if you are tall like my lady Zazu Pitts, you could wear it with some uber-cute colorful cropped pants. Plus, the organic look of the wood-like stacked heel is incredibly big this year.

At Nordies it retails at $265.00.

3. Tory Burch "Reva" Patent Leather Espadrille Flat.
Pink ladies, rejoice! This cute pink patent leather flat with espadrille detail is available at your local Nordies! Patent is big again this warm-weather season and the roping of the espadrille is enough for you to look on-trend without looking like you walked off of an American-Indian reservation (there is nothing wrong with that, of course!!!). I, for one, love this Hibiscus Pink color but I think there are a handful of other Fashion colors to fit whatever wardrobe one chooses!

At Nordies it retails for a mere $165.00!

4. Tory Burch "Dewie" Logo Pump.
For those ladies who work indoors for most of their summer, with a more Professional dress code, I have a fantastic Tory Burch shoe for you... this "Dewie" is sleek, cool, but shows that you have incredible taste. I love the dramatic contrast of the gold-on-black look, but I also like the chunk in this 3.75" heel as well. Trends this Spring is all about accessories, and this investment piece is a no-fail number. What I love the most about these shoes is the adorable patent-leather piping along the leather top of the shoe. It whirls around and that plus the gold logo medallion and the gold around the base of the heel, really gives a special shine to the shoe... it shows you aren't wearing a dull pair of ordinary stilettos!

At Nordies it retails for $335.00.

5. Tory Burch "Reva" Ballerina Flat.
You cannot go wrong with a classic. It is incredibly ironic to call something classic, when they have only been made since 2006, as an original 7-piece shoe line. However, all doubts go out the window when one puts on the comfortable rubber-soled shoe with the chic upper -- it is understandable as to why that makes it a prep/socialite/fashionista go-to piece. It really is a lovely shoe. The Tory Burch Reva shop really proves how far a good style can go: leopard print, black, medium brown, lime green, navy, mustard, equestrian orange, grass green, banana yellow, masaai red, metallic silver, distressed gold, hibiscus pink, sand, and mocassin...

At Nordies, retailing for $195.00.