Shhh…

Bubble Dress, $21.99

<<Don’t tell anymore but I’m wearing a strapless sundress at work! Ha! This is how I get back at the forces of the world for bringing me yesterday a tough day at work. Good thing I stopped by Target a few days earlier and found this beautiful dress. With a cardigan, it kinda sorta passes as work appropriate, right? >>

58!

Tread Exotically With Cynthia Vincent for Target

OMG! I have 58 dresses/skirts/fancy shorts but only a few (OK! 10!) pairs of dressy shoes. Time to shop!

Cheap Chic with a Conscience

H&M

Recycled, organic, and because it’s H&M, cheap chic for sure! But wait, there’s more! Taking a page from Polyvore, H&M offers its own mash up opportunity, and of course, I couldn’t resist. Blame it on H&M’s excellent Facebook feed.

Where I’ve Been

kgirl24 @ polyvore

Shopping for new ways to pursue the cheap chic life. This one’s free!

Inspiration

Koolau Mountains

Today, tomorrow, then the Liberty of London launch. As I look over the collection shown at a New York City preview event, my eye is drawn to the peacock feather pattern. The colors, curves, whirl. I never thought of myself as having a design identity or aesthetic, not until we decided to paint our entire condo this past summer. Then, despite having no design skills whatsoever, I had to somehow drum up the ability to select colors for walls and trim. Sometimes it takes someone outside your life to see that you really do have an identity beyond the most obvious. By that I mean an identity beyond the roles you play. An identity that combines your roles, experiences, even upbringing. What our prescient painter was able to see is I tend to reach back to my childhood, to the greens, blues and grays of my hometown, our humble neighborhood nestled between tumbling waves and towering volcanic mountains eroded over the millenia to a smokey hue much like the Blue Ridge of my college years in Virginia. Punctuating this palette — bright tropical flowers and leaves, and deep brown tree trunks soaked by tropical showers. These colors (my inspiration) bring me all the comfort others seek from the maroons and tans more commonly associated with earth tones here on the mainland.

Surfboard, charity auction, $2,000

I am experiencing technical difficulties. For real! Trying to assemble a bunch of photos in one post, and it’s not working right. Will try again tomorrow, when I also hope to attempt some iambic pentameter so that I can comment on the early delivery of selected Liberty of London products to my Target! I will tempt you now with just one photo. Stay tuned faithful readers!

5 Days & Counting…

Leaf dish, Target, $5

I’m going to blame it on my cultural heritage, on my mixed bag of ethnicities. Everything goes together in my house. Even Thanksgiving and Easter. The richer the colors the better. That’s the combination you see here. Thanksgiving dish, Easter eggs. The dishes are from Target. The eggs from my kids. Housewares instead of fashion today since the Liberty of London line includes items like blankets, pillows and, to my sister’s delight, even a teapot! I first saw these dishes in a Target catalog we received in the mail (does everyone get these, or just people like me whose purchases practically pay the utility bills for their neighborhood store?). Though I immediately fell in love with the dishes, I talked myself out of buying them — not very practical! But once I saw them on sale, while I was strategically cruising the end caps at the store, I had to get them (two, the other is slightly larger, the price is an estimate). So glad I did. Treasures. When the kids came home, they were so glad to see the Easter eggs, which I saved from last year (yolks removed!). It’ll be years before they figure out that only their mom throws them in a Thanksgiving dish, and then the Thanksgiving dish on a Christmas tablecloth, a bright red one from Target that still adorns our dining room table.