Dress casually chic for fall? No sweat!

We're going into the second week of September and the high in Chicago today was 70 degrees. Labor Day is in the rearview mirror and Target and Home Goods are already Halloweened out. It's dark by eight and all of the above can only mean one thing, my favorite time of the year has arrived.
How I love autumn in Chicago!
And how I love the sweatshirt dress, the perfect option for this time of year.
It's comfortable for running around during the day and stylish enough for the last waning weeks of cocktails al fresco.

Click on price for more info

$18.54

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$135.00

Project Runway, runway, runway, runway, I will follow

I am an admitted reality TV junkie.
You would think with 3 year old twins running havoc in the house that I would spend the few precious quiet, childfree hours away from them doing something productive, or at the least, watching something intelligent.
But you would be wrong.
Real Housewives (all of them), American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Dancing with the Stars, Amazing Race- they're all on my DVR.
And then there's the one I love and wait for every new season with bated breath, Project Runway.
Heidi, Michael, Nina, designers, egos, bitching, tears, Mood, Fashion Week, bad clothes, beautiful clothes, and of course, Tim Gunn.
Is there another more endearing man on television than Mr Gunn?
I watch every season and almost never fail to get swept up in the drama, disappointments, and triumphs.
When Rami Kashou competed on Season 4, I felt as if I had a personal stake in the outcome. You see, I had ordered his designs in the past for my boutique and felt the rest of the world was going to see the talent I had spotted first.
Of course Christian Siriano won Season 4, and rightly so.
I looked on in amazement at Christian's designs week after week, such visionary masterpieces even Victoria Beckham declared she would wear anything he designed.

And then like last year's Versace, (thank you Dina Manzo) something happened to my show.
Season 5 was such a snooze I actually missed half the episodes.
Season 6 winner: Irina, nuff said. Not only was she not very likeable, on any other season she would have been a runner-up at best.
This was also the first season the show broadcast on Lifetime, and the first time it filmed in LA.
If the producers had any worries about viewers following the show from Bravo to Lifetime, well they did not do themselves any favors by moving the show from NY to LA.
Season 7 brought the producers back to their senses and brought the show back to New York.
Seth Aaron was the winner, who cared?

But now there is Season 8 and 4 million viewers (a ratings record) can't be wrong.
On the heels of the Aug.26th episode, one many are calling the best ever, this season is soaring along with the ratings.
You want a villain, well you got two in Gretchen and Ivy.
How about some eye candy in Christopher, momma hen with Peach, little gizmo-like creature Mondo, hapless Michael C, and Casaaaaaaanooohvaaaaa!
Oh it's gonna be hard to beat the verbal smackdown my beloved Tim Gunn gave to Gretchen in the Aug. 26th show, (who knew he had it in him?) but I can't wait to see what the rest of this season's episodes brings us.
Project Runway Season 8, you've brought the fierce back to fashion.

Have Gunn, will travel.

Gonna dress you up in my line, all over, all over

Madonna and Lola have designed a new junior collection, "Material Girl" that will hit 200 Macy's stores on Aug 3rd.

Madonna is following in the stylish footsteps of her great friend Stella McCartney, who last year debuted her line of children's clothing at Gap Kids stores. 

Stella's lookbook for Gap Kids 

Madonna and Lourdes' new collection is described as a mix of soft and tough, ie: combat boots paired with a tutu dress, cabbage roses with black and white stripes, at pricepoints ranging from $12-$40.
All this is good news for this mommy as I found McCartney's collection to be priced out of the range for the average parent.
Will Madonna and child's collection be as big a hit as McCartney's?
After all, it's rumored that grown women such as France's First Lady aka rockstar girlfriend aka supermodel/singer Carla Bruni was buying some of the larger items from McCartney's Gap collection to wear herself!
We'll have to wait for next month to find out.
One thing is for sure, like her style icon momma, Lola has a great fashion aesthetic that's all her own.

Madonna shows how it's done.

Oh but ain't that America for you and me

Happy Birthday USA!

 "We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon."
  Franklin D. Roosevelt

Making lemonade out of lemons, with apologies to Kelly Bensimon

It's been a while since I've posted my faithful fashionistas, and I apologize.
I suppose I could tell you of what is going on and why I haven't felt up to blogging. But this is a fashion blog, not a “feel sorry for myself and throw a pity party” blog.
So let's just leave it at I've been lax and I will try not to take so long between posts again.
One thing I will divulge, I've been feeling a bit unnerved lately. Even more than my usual Type A self feels on a regular basis.
If you recall, back in January I planned to take up yoga again,

Karma chameleon

So this latest bout of anxiety pushed me to take up Bikram yoga, and I am hooked, line and sinker.

This is the type of yoga geared towards stressed out ruminators such as moi:

105 degree yoga studio to sweat out all the toxins, CHECK!

Same 26 poses done every class allowing a perfectionist like myself the ability to master each pose over time, CHECK!

Perfect opportunity to purchase all kinds of cute yoga outfits, CHECKMATE!

When I saw my instructor Elizabeth wearing these yoga pants, I knew I had to have them.

Unfortunately, this is the Boogie crop by Lululemon and is only available in black and only online.

Undeterred, I visited my local Lululemon store and found the Gather and Crow crop.
                                                      

Talk about unlocking my inner bliss! These crop pants are so soft yet they smooth and hug my body perfectly. The slit in the back allows for ventilation which becomes oh so important when you are sweating off gallons during a 90 minute class. I felt a little closer to enlightenment just trying them on. They come in basic black, charcoal, and black with various colored waistbands.
I love them and think you will too.

And finally, I had a fellow student in my class this morning that made me think of the old line about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers:

“Ginger Rodgers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels”

You see this student was Muslim and she did the entire 90 minute class in 105 degree heat covered from her head scarf to her long pants.
This girl was a true Chakra rock star.
If I can achieve just a portion of the mindfulness over matter that she clearly had, then maybe I will finally be on my path to a less bumpy state of mind. Namaste.

Aruba, Jamaica, oooh I wanna take ya..........

There once was a mom who did love

those bikinis that fit like a glove

But the birth of her twins

Put her belly in a spin

So the tank is what she wore most of.

Put Kokomo on the Ipod, make yourself a Skinny Girl Margarita, and dive in to the great sales going on right now on swimwear.

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$20.79

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The party's over.

Facebook is many things:
A way of reconnecting with old friends
An outlet for self expression
A huge waste of time, thank you Betty White

But one unexpected result of being on FB, you get to see what happened to that old boyfriend from high school/college.
If you ever had any lingering thoughts about the road not taken, well odds are that that road is now closed, bulldozed, demolished.
Some memories from the past are best left there.

I bring this up because SATC 2 opens today. (If you do not know what the initials stand for then I must ask you to leave my blog immediately.)

And the reviews ain't good.

Oh, I will see it. Definitely not on opening night, maybe I'll even wait until it's on Dish on demand.
After all, back in 1998 when we first met Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte, I too was a single gal in a big city looking for my Mr Big.
By the time it finished it's run in 2004 I was happily married, opening a business, and like Charlotte, trying to conceive.
But through the magic of TBS these four are still frozen in time, still searching for love, hitting the latest hotspots, and wearing the clothing that was half the reason we tuned in.

I always forgave Carrie for this:

Because I knew she would reward us with a stunner like this:




















I still cry when Carrie tells Aidan she cheated on him, even though I've seen her make this speech at least 10 times.
And I still feel her triumph when she magnificently walks away from Big outside the Plaza, his engagement party just ended.
What about "the new Yankee"?  Dandy Warhols playing in the background, she turns around at the bar and there's Big.
My favorite?  Fashion roadkill.
She gets up off the floor of the runway after falling on her face, and completes her stroll down the catwalk, high-fiving Heidi on the way back.

So thank you to TBS for letting me revisit my favorite episodes over and over.
But just like that old boyfriend who was gonna change the world and instead is changing tires at the local Jiffy Lube, sometimes it's best to not reacquaint ourselves with certain old friends from the past.
Let's remember these four the way they were in their prime, and not now, still partying long after the party has ended.

SATC- The End.