Steven Alan Sample Sale and Style Comparison

Steven Alan plaid boyfriend cut shirt, Current / Elliott Yellow Stiletto Jeans, River Island Wedge Sneakers, Rayban Wayfarers (stolen from K)

I'm a relatively new convert to Steven Alan; I bought my first shirt in the reverse seam style a few weeks ago at the outlet in Los Feliz, and picked up another shirt in the boyfriend cut as well as a shirtdress from the online sample sale last week. Reverse seam and the boyfriend cut are the two main styles for Steven Alan's womens shirting. Now that I have both and can compare, I prefer the boyfriend cut; I like the longer length and overall fit. It seems to fit me better all around, whereas the reverse seam feels a little tight in certain areas, particularly shoulders and chest, and loose in others, like the body and arms, which is why I took a larger size. I'm wearing a size S in the boyfriend cut and a size M in the reverse seam, but the boyfriend cut still feels more loose and casual, which is the look I'm going for anyway. The price for both shirts was the same, at about 70% off, so a really good deal. A complete sample sale outfit; worn with some blindingly bright highlighter yellow jeans from Current/Elliott to avoid looking too preppy or corporate. I like the folding Wayfarers as well; I'll have to steal them more often from K.

Steven Alan Reverse Seam shirt

End of Season Sales Purchases

Etoile Isabel Marant Hana Romper. Image from net-a-porter.com

I've managed to do a good amount of damage at the spring 2012 end of season sales without leaving house. It's what happens when you are sitting in a chair for long periods of time with nothing much to do but surf the web on the iPad. Timing has been perfect (or bad for the wallet), as it is peak time for end of the season sales as well as sample sales. I just can't resist a good deal. Plus since its mostly spring 2012 clothes, its stuff i can wear right away, so instant gratification. So far, I've done damage at Zara (sale just started last night), Barneys for some Isabel Marant, the Steven Alan online sample sale last week. I am really happy about all my purchases, they are all items that I have been eyeing since they've been full priced, so I am even more excited at a discount. The discounts have been really good too, at 60-75% off for Barneys and Steven Alan, and 40% off at Zara (which is cheaper to begin with anyway). Since I'm up at all hours, I'm often able to catch the sales right as they launch, which is usually in the middle of the night, and I'm able to grab my size before they sell out by morning, which is often the case by the morning west coast time for the more popular items. Pics to come!

June 2008 and Now

June 21, 2008

June 21, 2012

The four year anniversary gifts are flowers or fruit. These peonies fit the bill perfectly, as they are not only my favorite flowers, but they were also the flowers (in this same shade) in my wedding bouquet. We opened a bottle of 2005 Chateau D'aiguilhe Bordeaux last night as well which is our wedding wine; we have a tradition of opening a bottle every single anniversary. Happy to say that 2005 Bordeaux are still holding up well! We usually also open a bottle of our wedding champagne, 2005 Schramsberg's Blanc de Noirs, but my drinking is more limited these days so another time. Usually we celebrate with a roadtrip up north, including meals at Passionfish and Jockos; year 1 we did Santa Barbara / Big Sur / Monterey, year 2 we did Sonoma / Monterey / Pebble Beach / Big Sur and year 3 we did Carmel / Monterey / Muir Woods /  Point Reyes. This year we kept it low key and stayed at home and made some pizza. Time flies; happy fourth K!

Marni x H&M by the Beach

Marni x H&M T-shirt, Current/Elliott Beatnik Jeans in faded blue, purple Maz sneakers, Prada sunglasses

It's a nice change to be back in my regular clothes now. I've been wanting to wear this Marni x H&M t-shirt for awhile now, since JK picked it for me up at the launch back in March. It was a little too short to wear back then, but now it fits perfectly! I'm really embracing fun patterns and color for the summer, it's a refreshing change after wearing mostly dark neutrals for the last few months. Worn with faded blue Current/Elliott beatnik jeans from the recent sample sale. The Current/Elliott jeans definitely run big and stretch out with wear. I think they need significant hemming to look more like they do on the website models.

Sweets by the Beach

My sweet tooth has definitely subsided a bit but not enough to resist an afternoon cupcake snack at yummy cupcakes by the promenade. I really like yummy cupcakes, their stores and offerings may not be as pretty as say Sprinkles or Susiecakes but the cupcakes are delicious. They're super moist with interesting flavors that change on a daily basis. I had the raspberry red velvet which was a daily special while K. had a classic chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Loved the raspberry jam filling of the red velvet. A sweet treat to accompany a nice day and stroll on the bluffs by the beach.

iPad3 Love and Plug for Amazon Prime

I got my first iPad earlier this week. I love my iPhone 4s but I was finding that the small screen was straining my eyes, especially now that I was using it so much, spending so much time confined to the nursery. I went with the 64 GB iPad 3 as I expect to use it a lot for photos and basically replace my really slow and memory constrained laptop. It took a little longer than I expected to set up and get used to the iPad (I thought it would be easy since I had an iPhone 4s already set up but turns out many apps are iPhone or iPad specific so I had to get a lot of new apps. Plus transferring pictures took forever since syncing with my slow laptop took forever plus I was putting a lot of additional pics on given the additional memory of the iPad. For the most part, I finally have the iPad set up the way i want and its been great. Only big remaining thing is to set up our bew western digital drive that should get us a lot more organized as well as efficient with backup and syncing. I also wish that google related programs and apps such as photos were and importantly blogger were a lot more user friendly and as easy to use in their web versions, but they aren't. It's still easier to blog from my laptop.

After much research I bought some non-Apple accessories, including the Duo case from Monoprice for about 18 bucks and a five in one card reader from some Chinese company but fulfilled by Amazon for about 3 bucks. So far they work great for much cheaper than anything sold by Apple or other mainstream brand. I've used the card reader to download pics from my dslr as well as connect a keyboard via usb for my more lengthy email sessions.

We bought the iPad from B&h Photo in New York in order to save on sales tax. Had to delay instant gratification as we had to wait a few days for shipping (which was free), but it was tolerable as every penny saved counts! Speaking of instant gratification, Amazon Prime is such a must have, especially for someone somewhat restricted from traveling outside the house. As a first time parent, there's lots we need that we didn't realize we needed (ie, diapers. We didn't realize we would go through them so fast). Amazon has the best price anyway, plus combined with 15-20% off with amazon moms subscribe and save as well as quick shipping, it's saved us time and money. It's nice also not to have to think about the $25 minimum order. We've gotten multiple shipments per day from amazon, for things as varied as a new external hard drive, iPad accessories, last minute fathers day gifts and of course stuff for small fry like diapers and the increasingly important waterproof pads.

Three Scoops of Happiness at the Brentwood Country Mart

Cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip and salted caramel in a waffle cone from Sweet Rose Creamery. Been cooped up in the house too long; a walk to the country mart and some small batch ice cream is the perfect remedy. I love being walking distance from the country mart, I feel like I live in a small town, where I can walk to my local post office, bank and grab a bite to eat or some coffee. Just a slightly Hollywood version with expensive but delicious $5 scoops of ice cream (sweet rose creamery), $15-20 brunch entrees from a French laundry expat (farmshop), shops selling mulberry, helmet lang etc (newly opened intermix), and celebrity sightings. It is possible to get a cheap and filling bite to eat though, I usually turn to fridas tacos in the central food court-ish part of the mart. Brentwood country mart is a good place to take small fry because even though it's a public space with lots of people, there are plenty of quiet nooks with tables and benches for us to hang out in to avoid germy crowds. I can have my ice cream and eat it too.