Update: Will be listing more Mike & Chris hoodies, shoes and maybe some handbags. Take a look!
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*Sigh*

So I’m moving! I’ve been apartment hunting all week (which hopefully explains my slight absence) and I’ve slowly come to realize that maybe I do have too much stuff. So, as I try to pack lightly and fit into my next apartment (my fiancee deserves some closet space too, I guess) I will be listing a LOT of new, unused and slightly used items on eBay. I’ve started with some Mike & Chris and denim skirts, will list the rest of my jeans, and then *gasp* slowly go into my shoe and handbag closet.

Help me streamline the moving process by checking out my auctions here. More auctions will be posted throughout the week so check back often!

…is always painful. But it is even more so if it comes unexpected and you are out and about.

I was at the bank the other day, and my faithful silver Havaianas right flip-flop just gave up and died on me. The thong part in the middle just completely broke in half and slipped out, leaving me halfway to the ATM baffled as to what to do.

With the middle part detached, there really is no way to keep the sandal on, not even to push it along. Do I just take the shoe off and hop? Do I try sliding it around anyway? After a few minutes of ungraceful stumbling around, I finally picked up my sandal and walked barefoot to the ATM, finished my business, and walked barefoot back to the car.

It was probably a sign that I wear flip-flops waaay too often, but what can I say? I’m a comfort-over-anything kind of gal. In fact, I’m only going to use this as an excuse to upgrade to the sleeker, slimmer Havaianas I saw at Urban Outfitters. In the same color. =)

How do you come out of a sunny LA weekend looking like you spent a week in Maui? When you’re stuck in a fluorescent-lit cubicle for 50 hours out of the week, this is a very rewarding feat. Lucky for me, Angelenos were blessed with an incredibly sunny weekend a few weeks back and I’m still reaping its benefits.

How did I manage to do all of this in one weekend? My tried and true method of adding color to the legs:

Step 1: At-Home Prep

I started with a Friday night prep — took an extra long shower to do so. First I scrubbed with the only available scrub I had in the house, Blisslabs Super Minty body scrub. I concentrated on my legs since that’s where I’m hoping to add the most color. After a good exfoliation, I shaved. I read somewhere once that shaving after a good scrub can make the shave smoother and last longer. Once I was out of the shower, I moisturized lightly with Dove’s Energy Glow which has subtle self-tanners.

Step 2: Before Sun

Before leaving the house, I put on some Clarins Self-Tanning milk on my legs. It only has SPF 6 so I brought some back-up SPF, but my legs rarely burn so I knew I was covered. I like this self-tanner because it’s very light and doesn’t have the self-tanner smell that most others do. I put on Kiehl’s SPF 30 everywhere else. I’m already naturally “darker” on my upper body so I wanted full protection. This absorbs very fast into the skin so I don’t mind putting it on under my clothes.

I used Clarins Sun Wrinkle Protection Cream (SPF 30) on my face — that’s the only SPF I use on my face. And just because I happened to have some leftover from last year, I sprayed Frederic Fekkai hair SPF on the top of my head and the ends of my hair, but mostly I wanted to protect my scalp since I have a side split and didn’t want to burn my scalp. This spray smells good and comes on light, but slowly gives your hair weight/oil through the day so you HAVE to wash it out.

Step 3: At the Beach

At the beach I spritzed some Kiehl’s SPF 15 spray on every other hour or so, or at least every time I got out of the water. I was at the dog beach so I was in and out of the water all day, trying to get Lulu to swim. This spray is super convenient because it’s not sticky at all. It dries instantly and doesn’t even require a rub-in so it’s just spray, spray, spray!

So after just one day in the sun, I had sunkissed legs. Of course I avoided laying out or over-exposing myself in the sun — sitting in the shade between water runs. Now I use the Dove Energy Glow about once a week now to maintain the color and have upped my moisturizing routine to make sure my skin stays soft and even. I can’t wait for the next beach day!

So I’ve hinted at this a little bit — I’m having major landlord drama and will be moving out this month. Kind of unnerving when you’ve already given your 30-day notice and you haven’t locked in a new apartment yet. Anyways, we (the fiancé and I) have found the the PERFECT apartment in a cute neighborhood in Brentwood just a short walk away from shops/restaurants and a comfortable bike ride away from the beach. It’s also a short block away from the dirt trail I used to run before I moved to Beverly Hills, so I’m excited about being able to do that again.

By the way, I just learned today that fiancé = man you’re going to marry and fiancée = woman you’re going to marry. I’ve always used the same spelling to indicate both and I guess I’ve been doing it wrong.

Anyways, everything about the apartment is perfect except for the fact that it has one sliding door closet for the ENTIRE place. My current apartment has 3 sliding door closets (two are connected side-by-side for a total length of 15 feet, I measured) plus a linen closet which I use to store shoes and gym clothes + sweats. There will either be a major garage sale in my future or I’ll have to find alternative ways to store everything.

I’m hoping that this will be the last “rental” I move into so my next more “permanent” home will definitely have to have pleeeenty of closet space. And I mean, it’s not just for my clothes and such. I like to keep my living area bare and oddities tucked away so I need space for vacuum cleaners, laundry detergent, ironing boards, suitcases, laptop bags — just “stuff”. I went to Ikea and found two solutions, both of which will work well in a temporary-apartment situation since Ikea is great for cheap, disposable furniture that will last you 1-2 years.

ASPELUND, $199.

The first is the more cost-efficient solution. The Aspelund wardrobe is large enough to fit all of my fiancé’s clothes (or so he promises) and even comes with a mirrored door. This leaves the entire closet + dresser for yours truly.

HEMNES, $299.

The Hemnes is the cuter, slightly matchier solution, as I already have a matching dresser. It’s a little smaller (about 10″ shorter) but has knobs on the sides to hang clothes or… (drumroll) to hang up my outfits to snap for wearing today. How freaking convenient is that.

So I guess we’ll be waiting to hear back from the new apartment manager to see if we get it or not before I go too crazy looking into furniture (I’m already researching new bed sheets). This is going to be one busy month. (And you guessed it — all wedding planning on hold =/)

How many of you have the confidence in your art to paint your own Fendi baguette?

I’m such a Fendi-hater. I really think they just need to step aside and take some time to design some new iconic pieces instead of reprising 10-year-old trends with spins that just do not work. I mean, $1,300 to draw your own baguette? I can see where this could come in as a cute gift for the art school graduate or maybe even a wedding proposal hidden in the design if you have a particularly artistic boyfriend but otherwise for $1,300 I’d rather buy someone else’s design.

What are you wearing right now?

I am wearing:

Black C&C California T-shirt dress w/ 3/4 sleeves & grey colorblock bib.
Silver Havaianas Flip-Flops.

I might have taken casual Friday too literally and just realized I have to give a presentation in a little bit, yikes! Not to mention my dress shrunk a little in the wash so it looks a little scandalous for work unless I put my hands in my pockets to stretch it down. Heehee.

I’m addicted to eyeliner. It’s a purely functional thing — in the past year I’ve had to use it everyday to look more “awake” in the mornings for work. I’ve been pretty boring with it and stuck with basic black… and now I’m ready to move onto brown! (Who knows, by summer I might do a shade of navy?)

Anyhow, I’ve always stuck to liquids because I’ve always had a tough time with pencils. The other day I went to Bloomie’s to check out Chanel’s selection of eyeliners because they usually have great limited-edition colors.

I noticed something, when you test eyeliner in a store, do you swipe it across the back of your hand to see the color and consistency? That’s what I was doing the entire time and I realized, the eyelid area is so much softer that this doesn’t really represent how smoothly the eyeliner will apply. I discovered a new trick.

When you test eyeliners (especially pencils and crayons), swipe it in that webbed part of your hand between your thumb and forefinger. That way you get a feel of how bumpy or dry the eyeliner is as it goes across your naturally thin skin.

After a couple of test swipes, I went with Chanel’s Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliner in the Limited-Edition Espresso for summer.

I’ve been pretty happy with it so far… it’s soft and smudgy so it’s easier to get a straight line. Also, it lasts longer through the day than any of my other eyeliners, even the liquid ones. It doesn’t have a fine tip so you can’t do anything fancy with it, but it’s a great definer to mix with eyeshadows in gold/grey tones.

For those of you who start your morning with iGoogle, they are now offering artist themes which include some favorites from the fashion world. I never really used iGoogle before, but Tory Burch might convince me to do so.

Tory Burch:

Oscar de la Renta:

Diane vonFurstenberg:

Just please don’t use the Dolce & Gabana theme:

http://www.google.com/help/ig/art/index.html

So in addition to getting my daily intake of vegetables in the form of a chip, I am now crashing my system with actual vegetables! I’ve always hated my veggies, and my meat-n-carbs-only diet completely destroys my digestive system — so I’m stoked to have found a great alternative.

The Veggie Grill just opened down the street from my work in El Segundo. My co-workers raved about it for weeks before I finally had the time to try it out. Every dish is completely vegetarian, and some items (like the chipotle mayo) is vegan! That said, there are some great “chicken” and “beef” dishes, my favorite being the Santa Fe Crispy Chicken sandwich. The chicken patty is made out of soy, vegetable proteins and peas and tastes just like real chicken. When you bite into it, it even has the fibery texture of chicken breast. It’s amazing.

In addition to the already-healthy vegetable proteins and the absence of animal fat, salads and such are also infused with grains and such. I absolutely love the sweet potato fries. Gosh, with the fully-infused flavor and crispy fries, this has got to be the junk food of vegetarians.

http://www.veggiegrill.com

Locations in El Segundo and Irvine.

White cotton top by GAP.
Lowrise butterfly-embroidered jeans by Frankie B.
Boots from Madison/Fred Segal. (Forget the brand)

These are my favorite jeans to tuck into boots… they were actually full-length flared jeans but irregular, so they had a run at the hem. I brought them into my favorite tailor and had him shorten them up to cuffed capris. Now I wear them in boots, or with sandals on casual days.