day.to.night.

Have a date after work or going to meet up with some friends at the bar later and have no time to run home to change? No worries! With just a few touch ups, that day outfit can become the prefect night outfit. 

The best base for this transition is a great pair of black or gray slacks. Most of us in corporate world rock those a few days a week with a cute button down and cardigan. To spice this up for the evening do the following: change the boring black pumps out for ones with a fun pattern or color. Whip out a belt with color or sparkles and tie that round your waist right where your curve is to show you have a silhouette. And last but most important: jewelry! Change those stud earrings over to fun dangly shinny ones, add some long necklaces, if your hair has gone flat toss it up or throw on a fun headband with a bow on it. Top it all off with a dab of perfume! This same quick change can be done if wearing a skirt. For shoes thought if you got fun hot boots rock them if it works, other wise go with the previous stated color or pattern shoe. 

If wearing a dress to work. Maybe one of those jumpers with a collared shirt under it. A quick fix would be a belt with a splash of color. Once again place around waist where it shows off your curves the best. Roll up your sleeves and relax – think sexy librarian!! We don’t need to look like boring sacks! Same rules as above apply for shoes and jewelry. 

The really tough after work event to dress for is a sporting event. For this all rules go out the window. Just bring a bag of clothes to work and get changed there! Jeans, cute flats, and a casual cute top. If it’s cold rock that pea coat with a colored scarf! 

If you’ve learned nothing from this, at least remember this. No solid black outfits!!!!! As much as we’ve been told it’s a slimming color it does not mean you need to look boring. Guys are just depressed by black, that whole slimming thing will backfire on you! 

Note to Self: Channel that inner sexy librarian and run with it!

new.year.repeat.say.what?

For this coming new year I have been planning on attending Veronica’s party, and Blair and I planned on being each others dates. Most of those attending the party are her boy Darren’s married friends. Sadly Darren has no single friends that are either Italian or Irish for Blair and I. As for Veronica’s friends… she does have single ladies but not all will be attending. Mainly just the couples are coming. So not leaving me and Blair a huge pool of men to kiss at midnight. But with the year we’ve both had, just having survived the year is more important to us than a kiss. (but don’t get me wrong it would be a huge bonus!)

We did think of some possible dates and ran into a few candidates along the way, but non showed promise. Then one day while hanging out with Nate (yes remember Nate from last years new year adventure???!!!) mentioned how he had no plans this year for new year because they weren’t throwing their annual party because 2 of their roomies were moving out. BELLS WENT OFF IN MY HEAD. I then decided to mention Veronica’s party. Told him how most of the people he met at my birthday would be there so he’d recognize some faces. (p.s. I failed to mention how it was all couples and lied saying yes Darren’s friends are married (actually true), but Veronicas are a nice mix – oops?). He said he’d think about coming.

Once Veronica was informed of this pending date she was gun ho get, him snatch him, kiss him. So our mission for the week prior to Christmas was to get him to give us an official yes. Thankfully he and I have offices very close to each other and one day while bored at work I asked if he’d want to meet for lunch. He agreed and we met at a diner around the corner. We chatted about Christmas plans and thankfully that flowed nicely into new year plans. He brough up her party and said he’d like to join. SCORE!!!

FLASH BACK: Ok so this true excitement leads back to about 2 weeks before that when he came over for dinner & to watch some football. We made dinner together & had some drinks. This was new for us as we usually meet at bars after work about once a month and did drinks, but we changed it up because he wanted to see my new place. Well after dinner we hung out on the couch to watch the Eagles vs Giants game. He’s a Giants fan and I’m an Eagles. Well we started on opposite ends of the couch and then broke out the blanket because we were cold and before you knew it we were cuddling the rest of the night. Like arms around each other cuddle – not just sitting next to each other cuddle. So while at the hockey game with Trevor, I asked for some guy opinion on this one. He said guys don’t just cuddle with anyone. After hearing that I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have another fling with Nate.

Ok back to present-day. So Nate is coming with me and Blair to the party. Blair is cool with this and plus the girl is just excited to get out of the house after all her studying. But come midnight I’m pretty sure both Veronica and Blair will be very interested to see if there will be a new year repeat kiss with Nate – I’m interested to find out too!!!

Note to Self: Prepare for the worst, hope for the best – cheers!

bostons.top.5.winter.activities

Sick of staying in your apartment because its just too cold outside to think of leaving the couch? Well bundle up and gets some friends together and try these activities out! 

1. My ultimate favorite thing to do in the winter in Boston is ice skating on frog pond in Boston Commons! It’s pretty cheap too. Its $7 to rent skates and I think about $5 to skate. They play great music and if you need to rest your feet you can grab a hot chocolate and relax on a bench.  It’s a great day or night out with a group of great friends who enjoy letting loose and don’t mind if their friends laugh at them when they fall on their asses. When skating is over scoot on over to Finale for some dessert and drinks to finish the night off!
2. A trip to a local brewery! Another great activity for a group of people. Sam Adams & Harpoon both have locations in Boston. And you get free beer at the end if 21+. They give you coupons for local restaurants so afterwards you can enjoy m ore beer and food with your friends.
3. Enjoy a day trip to the Institute for Contemporary Art. They usually have very unique shows running there. It’s also located right in the seaport district so the views are amazing. Right next door is Atlantic Beer Gardens and further down the street is Legal’s Test Kitchen.
4. Visit the Aquarium! See some of winter’s creatures – penguins and seals. And while you’re there you can man handle a starfish. They also have fun IMAX movies that play there. Once done with your day under the sea, head on over to the shops and bars around Faneuil Hall.
5. Finally, and might be most fun & guaranteed to warm you up – a pub crawl scavenger hunt! You can make up your own and set your friends loose or you can Google around and download one from the internet. Sure to be a crowd pleaser and pair your friends up in odd combos so everyone can really get to know each other and hopefully make some new friends!

Note to Self: Bring a camera – fun events need to be documented!

signature.style.

Make your mark ladies! Think about all your friends… you probably have descriptive words for them that work for them and only them. Do they have any for you? All my friends know me for cute blazers, headbands, gold jewelry and flats – oh and if there is a collar it will be popped!

Veronica loves her riding boots & leggings. Blair has the classic looking accessories & cute dresses. You get the point. Find what you love and rock it all the time. If it looks good on you – why wouldn’t you want to wear it?

Signature accessories should be meaningful pieces. I always wear my grandmothers gold cameo ring. I love the history behind it and knowing that she once wore it means part of her is always with me. Don’t be afraid to ask your grandparents or parents about any rings or necklaces that they’d like to pass down to you. Chances are they’d think it’s cute you want to rock some family history!

Other signature pieces should just show your personality! My headbands show my girlie side – especially the ones with bows on them! And I’m Italian and obsessed with gold so pretty much everything is gold or has gold in it. I love my long chained pendent necklaces. They go with everything I wear and I just can’t leave home without one.

Also know your colors! Our skin tones are different which means red might look good on me but not on Reese. Find your color scheme and work it into your accessories! Show it in shoes, belts, cardigans, scarves, headbands… what ever you can think of. I love red and gold so most of my accessories revolve around those colors, and so does my wardrobe. If my outfit is more gold based I’ll pop it with some red shoes or a red scarf. You’ll notice once you find your color scheme it will be a grouping of colors that help pop and balance each other. Trick: if your eyes have blue or green in them – that usually is a hint to what your colors should be.

We’re women of our twenties! Break out of those teenage trends and find your own personal style. Once you have a style that is completely parallel to your personality your confidence will show even more brightly through your clothes.

Note to Self: Black will never be in anyone’s color scheme!

cheers.favorite.new.years.memory.

Favorite New Year memory? HANDS DOWN LAST YEAR! Blair will hate me for this but I can’t help it, it was amazing. She and I had recently become single and we were thrilled 2008 was over and excited to bring on 2009. And more than anything we needed a kick ass start to it! Thanks to a bad timing blizzard that hit, Blair’s adventure out to me was a complicated one, but she made it alive and I’m just glad she didn’t bail! Our destination for the evening thankfully was in walking distance. (No cabs or a car needed!) My friend Nate was having a house party around the corner, and Blair and I were in as Nate & his boys are hot. All her and I could think was that we have great odds here in finding boys to suck face with.

My sights were already set on Nate! Back in college Nate and I had a fun fling during the school year and picked up again over a summer. We faded into friends mainly because he was 2 years ahead of me and moved after graduation. Eventually he came back to Boston and found me and we’ve had just begun to hang out again. Due to my recent break up I decided Nate was the prefect rebound.

Ok so out in the snow Blair and I go to the party. We brought our poisons for the evening – me 3 bottles of champagne (its not New Years with out it!) and I forget what Blair had… We arrive and realize we don’t know very many people at all. As we put our drinks in the fridge we meet the twins. Vicky and Ronny were our age and also, like us, didn’t really know anyone else. So the four of us became new BFFs. Ronny was seeing one of the guys in the house – Mark. At this time in the kitchen Blair also spots a boy! Chris is so her type too, good looking tall Irish boy (note: he is the older brother of the twins). So the 4 of us worked with each other and before you knew it we pretty much knew everyone and it was time for drunk fun. Everyone was playing card games, flip cup and of course taking shots off the ice luge. Nate was cute; he kept checking in on us to make sure we were having fun and getting to know everyone.

As midnight drew near everyone was just dancing in the living room and watching the Dick Clark New Years Special. Nate and I keep close to each other and chatted. I’m about 1.5 bottles of champagne in at this point (aka drunk). Come midnight everyone screams Happy New Year and kiss and hug all their friends. Nate and I made out with each other. And from that moment on we never really left each others faces. The drunken mess hook up had begun! Pretty much the only time our faces were apart was to get more booze or to smile for pictures we knew were being taken of us (many would pop up late on facebook of us making out). Nate was obviously fun to kiss or I’m sure I would have stopped- maybe.

Blair also had some fun while I was attaching my face to Nate’s. Not sure how or when it happened but she scored her Irish hottie, Chris! Those two were making out on the couch. At one point me and some random guy from the party (only memory of him was that he was tall) took Blair’s camera and began to stalk them as if on safari. We took a good 5 minute video of them making out on the couch. Good thing it was on her camera and she was the proud owner of this incriminating footage and not anyone else – yeah I’m an amazing friend… Any way I guess they got sick of all of us stalking them that they decided they could run and hide. The bathroom is not the best place to do this – not to mention it was a very very tiny bathroom. Everyone kept knocking on the door and annoying the crap out of them that they shortly came back out and resumed their place on the couch sucking face.

Three bottles of champagne later at around 4 in the morning. Nate and I found a way to pry our faces off each other so I could take a very drunk and tired Blair back to my place for sleeping. Also if you noticed once we found our men, we completely lost all contact with the twins – opps. Some how Blair and I got our snow gear on and with 2 bottles of water we’re off on the walk home. How we made it alive I do not know. All I remember is Blair kept dropping her water and at one point almost took a face plant onto the sidewalk… thank god for snow!!!!! As we made it into my house we both had to pee desperately. Blair went first and I shut the door behind her. Almost the second after I shut it I hear the loudest crash! I quickly open the door and find Blair has taken out my shower and is sitting on the curtain in the tub. I help her up and then she does her thing and I do mine. The smartest thing we did before we left the house that night was set up the areobed!!! Blair passed right out on it, clothes and all. I pretty much did the same thing in my bed.

Come morning I was highly impressed that neither of us got sick from all the booze that we had drunk. HIGH FIVE for that!!! As Blair and I begin our morning recap of the night I start right off with how happy I was we both succeeded in our goal to make out with boys!! Blair has the biggest confused look on her face and the words “we did?” came out. The poor girl forgot making out with the hot boy!!! We then quickly broke out her camera and reviewed all our blurry memories of sucking face. She was very happy at least to see it was the hot boy she spotted when we first walked in. Oh and I completely forgot about the video till she goes “What’s this?” Then it quickly all came back to me. It was hysterically funny to watch I even had the safari voice going on. Please readers note: Blair never drinks like this, never forgets what she did, and is just 100% never like this! So this is just pure gold on film. And she’s freaking out that she did this, yet excited she did this all at the same time. I think more excited because the guy was really hot. The girl can trust her drunk goggles! It was just one of the best recap mornings ever. Blair and I truly had a kick ass start to 2009!

Note to Self: Champagne is my friend!

music.side.note.

my current music infatuation is with Citizen Cope. if you haven’t heard of him you must go google and check out what ever you can find! listen for yourself – you’ll love as well.

thank.you.thank.you

hey friends! so its only about a week into my whole new blogging world but you guys are actually reading it! Keep spreading the word to your friends. And remember if you have any juicy deets or favorite hot spots to add – share them! xoxo h

out.of.the.blue.

Ever have one of those slow guy weeks? I did! With all my creeps out of the picture I’ve been on the hunt for new prospects. But along the way an old boy friend popped up from high school for an interview in Boston. I haven’t seen him since my 3rd year of college (5 yrs ago). And we’ve both definitely changed. And he has a girlfriend so there was obviously not going to be a hot and steamy fling.

Daniel and I are not the same Dan and Le from high school. He looks a bit manorexic now. And way to skinny for a boy I would ever date. My rule of thumb: If  I put their pants on and they are tight on me, I break up with them. He’s very much into his career as a soon to be official Doctor. But his life also is 100% med related. He spoke of nothing else – just all med stuff I did not follow. We were supposed to meet for drinks Saturday but thanks to the incoming snow storm we just left it to a few moments at Macy’s finding him a tie because he forgot one. That 20 minutes was more than enough for me.

As great as it was to see an old friend, it confirmed that he is exactly that – an old friend. Best of luck to Daniel with his hospital hunt, but I not so secretly hope it’s some where other than MA.

Along with a pop in from Daniel there was a surprise email from an old college boyfriend Xander! Seriously whats up with flash back stuff? Xander and I were your typical frat boy/sorority girl cute couple. All our friends dated each other and it just was at a time when college could not have been more fun. We ended because I left Boston for 6 months for an internship so we faded. We actually stayed friends after all was said and done, mainly because we saw each other whether we liked it or not. He and I had another fling at the end of our senior year. But again faded because school was over and he was heading down south.

Xander and I were in touch over the summer as I was planning a visit down his way for job interviews and to see family. Sadly our attempt to meet up failed due to bad timing with his business trip. After that we didn’t really talk much again. Until NOW with this surprise email.

The email was mainly asking where was I (I forgot to fill him in on the fact that I did find a job here in Boston). And if I was down south why the hell haven’t I contacted him. And if I wasn’t when is my next visit. Nothing really romantic at all about this email’s contents but isn’t it nice to know that an ex still thinks about you? I love these stupid emails. Just when you think you had a slump week these friendly emails from old flings kind of renew your spirits! Thankfully I am due a visit back down there in February so maybe we’ll work something out.

So ladies, when you’re in a slump and least expect any thing fun happening, maybe you too will get a fun spirit reviving visit, email or call from an old flame. As non romantic as it might be it will always make you smile.

Note to Self: Repeats don’t count 🙂

singing.loud.for.all.to.hear.

The easiest way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear! I’ve begun listening to Christmas music at work. After I saw an older woman in a very tacky Christmas sweater I decided it was allowed. Also one of the assistants completely decorated the front of my desk. Guess she thought I’d like the gold pinecone Christmas tree… secretly I do like it because it’s gold! The first work Christmas card fell to my desk yesterday and I received another today – scored a $5 gift card to Dunks! And today is our holiday bake off! I’ve attempted a new recipe and made a peppermint & marshmallow brownie. If it wins I’ll post it! But from what I see, mine is totally the best! I need to throw my Christmas mix back onto my iPod as well. It is fun to cook to, and will lead to some good car ride sing-a-long moments.

You guys ready for the holiday? Incase you forgot its next week!!! Personally this is my favorite time to be at work because no one else is there. I can rock jeans and not do work! I can pretend it was like the good old days when I was able to watch TV at work because no one could see me. I find that even if I have stuff to do, I find a way to be ubber productive for just one day and get it all done so I can just play around the rest. Why waste a vacation day when work is like a vacation?

All time top favorite Christmas songs (in no particular order):

• Christmas Wrapping
• All I want for Christmas is You
• Dominick the Donkey
• Baby its Cold Outside

Note to Self: I don’t care how old you are… ugly Christmas sweaters should never be worn in public unless at an ugly sweater party

baby.its.cold.outside.

On days like today when it’s just a mear 9 degrees outside and feels like -6 degrees with wind chill. One must take precautions and bundle up! But no worries even with all those layers you can still find a way to look more like a lady and less like a snowman.

One thing I can not live with out on cold days like today are my j.crew earmuffs! They are just the perfect winter accessory – functional and pretty! They are white with a red and black plaid. Pair that up with a cute and warm red scarf and black gloves – I feel like a lady again! Also my jacket has a belt so it shows off that I have a waist and I’m not a box.

Note in weather like this we must moisturize!! This weather will dry your skin right up and give you man hands – yuck. If that hot guy says hi to you on the T he’ll think ew man hands and he’ll dart to the next car at the next stop. Carry around a little friendly purse sized lotion with you and spread some goodness on your hands every now and then. Don’t forget to protect the money maker – your pretty face. If the wind is blowing at you, throw your scarf up over your nose and cover up! We don’t need red noses and chapped lips.

Be brave and beautiful out there in this cold cold cold New England weather ladies!

Note to Self: Warm boots for outdoors and bring a change of shoes for when indoors