Hooray for Fall (fashion)!

Between the part of my job that deals with the "colors" of each season for home and fashion, and my bi-monthly trips to NYC, I have become very interested in what's "in" in fashion and how it changes with the seasons.  After hearing and seeing many of the plans for Fall and Winter I thought I would pass it along what I have learned about Fall/Winter 2010 as well as a few pieces I've been eying.

Trends that are in for Fall/Winter 2010 

1. Grey is the new black! Shoes and purses in gray are the staple "goes with everything" accessory.

 

     Chloe belted ballet flats                                                                       

Cole Haan Capetown Devin Tote

2. Animal Print.  Done sparingly can make a statement.  Cardigans, shoes and belts for these!

 Ann Taylor Leopard print V-neck

 Marina Rinaldi Leopard print skinny belt

3. Military style.  Jackets with bullet button styles, in greens and khaki's can add style to basic pieces.  Also, camouflage cargo pants are back!

Target - Juniors Military Jacket

4. Belts.  These are everywhere this coming season.  Use them over cardigans, button-downs and even on a dress to switch up your outfits.

 

5. Lower Heels.  That's right, it's a cycle and the lower high heel is coming back. 

Kate Spade New York "bloom"

Elle Tahari "Juliette" pumps

And last but certainly not least we have Jewelry!

Jewelry appears to be the key to fashion this fall. 

Bold pieces that make a statement are at the top of the list.  Large rings, stacked bangles and the biggest piece this fall the bib necklace!

Kenneth Jay Lane - Hammered Bib Necklace

Strong Motifs from nature are also very popular the season - though more for the braver fashionista!

And we have fringe, think metal fringe.

Abs By Allen Schwartz Satin and Chain Bracelet

There you have it, my high points of F/W 2010 fashion. I don't mention everything that is "in" this fall, that would take all day.  These are just the high points and what I've heard about or seen repeatedly.

Now...let's go shopping!

"Let's go back to San Francisco"

After a wonderful time in San Francisco we made it back to the east coast, at least for a couple of days!  We split our time between Napa and San Francisco and loved them both.  Here are a few pics of our trip:

Hiking in Muir Woods to see the beautiful Redwoods

Spending time in Napa

Enjoying the view from Lombard St.

Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge

Alan trying out the facilities at Alcatraz

Hanging out with the Painted Ladies

One of the beautiful views from our room (click the picture to see all of the photos from our trip)

San Francisco

So...our wonderful plans we hinted at last Friday was a mini-vaca to San Francisco! 

We had a wonderful time but are back now and will have pics and details up soon. 

Happy Friday!

We hope you have wonderful things planned for this weekend, we sure do. 

We'll tell you about it, later!

Childhood is calling



Everyday a school bus turns around in the parking lot outside my office window.  In that parking lot there just happens to be a speed bump and everyday that bus comes through the parking lot, goes over the speed bump and from my office I can hear the screams and laughs from the kids on board, as if they were on an amusement ride.  Most days it makes me smile as I know A. it's almost 4:00, which means quitting time is around the corner and B. I imagine the smiling faces on that bus!  Today however, it made me think.  It's a simple speed bump, I go over it at least twice a day and never do I find any joy in it, yet day after day, they do.  How wonderful to be able to get such pleasure out of something so simple and common.  It's ironic (or maybe not) that today's Tiny Buddha post was on the subject of childhood as well and I have to share:


Something beautiful just occurred to me.
I spend so much time stressing over my future adult achievements—a good career, a home for life, getting published, an adult relationship, possibly a kid and a large dog—that I don’t often revel in the things that 7-year old me would have been stoked about.
How many of us do?
I try to treat my inner child with something every week, like painting, playing with my cat or indulging in some candy – a very rare thing! But I don’t often think of achieving the dreams I had as a kid.
You know the type: ride your bike as fast as you can without coming off, climb to the top of that tree, make a mud pie that your parents would be totally happy for you to drag into the house.
Those things seem absurdly simple now, which is all the more reason to embrace and celebrate them as adults.

Around this same part of the day I found out that one of our co-workers received bad health news yesterday and suddenly everything came into perspective (don't you love it when that happens).  Enjoy the simple things in life, the things that bring happiness when you don't take things so seriously, the things that kids don't know any better than to enjoy!  When it all boils down it's really the simple things in life that matter most and joy should be a simple thing!



KEEP CALM!

A while back I fell in love with a rug at CB2 (let's face it I fall in love with many things there!) but since we are "moving" I didn't buy it.  The rug has since made it's departure from the CB2 website but this is pretty much what it looked like, in rug form.

Since then I have seen the message of that rug on everything from coffee mugs to tshirts, even spin offs with cute "keep calm" sayings, so I decided I needed to figure out where this all came from. Turns out it has quite a history.

or go here to read it

The original poster:





What great history for such a simple piece of art that seems to transcend the ages.

You really can get it on everything from beach chairs to cuff links! Not a bad mantra to have around!



I found this quiz on a blog I love called Cupcake Monkey, only to realize it came from another blog I love called How about Orange, small world, huh? It was taken from Psychologies magazine and gives you questions to help determine your creative style.

Here are my results:

Creativity is a release



For you, creativity is first and foremost a form of expression: it creates a special link between the internal and external worlds. It allows you to get a grasp of your powerful emotions, by moulding them into a physical form. In fact, the most important thing for you is to be able to release your emotions. You need to be able to touch them or look at them in concrete form, and to do that you have to find a way to make them come alive. This is how your desires and anxieties take shape. Keeping things bottled up creates a tension that can only be resolved once you have expressed how you feel. This means you have to be strong enough not to let yourself get swept away by chaotic impulses; if you turn your creative urges on everyday life — making a picnic, singing to the baby, choosing what to wear — you can express yourself while staying rooted in reality. Creativity is principally cathartic. It relieves a deep need, an almost primal, archaic impulse. For you, being creative is about having the power to give form to something you feel, to those deep personal issues that are often raw and disorganised. For these reasons you are usually attracted to art that demands physicality, that allows you to express what’s inside, and that unites spontaneity, strength, freedom, power and movement.

It couldn't have been more spot on!  Everything I love about creativity, from painting the walls in a home to creating a marketing piece, to sewing, is that it's all about giving life to all the ideas and visions in your mind.  I have to find creative projects on a regular basis to keep me going, even if it's just blogging!

Take the quiz for yourself and then check out Cupcake Monkey and How about Orange!

Sweet Magnolia's

One of the great things about my co-workers is the love we share for all things sweet and sugary.  Whenever we have the chance to work together (we are located in ATL and NYC) we always plan our days around what we are going to eat and what we can have for dessert at these locations.  My last trip to NYC was no different and on my last day there we actually planned lunch around dessert!  We were good and had a healthy salad for lunch on the way to the way to Magnolia's Bakery - the sweetest place on earth!  From the minute you hit the curb on the corner you can smell the sweetness from the bakery and it literally sucks you in. 

It is the quaintest bakery I have every visited and trust me I've been to more than my share!  With chalkboards displaying all the menu items, large old fashioned canisters holding supplies and the wainscoating all around in a creamy white, the place is more than inviting. 

We were very methodical in ordering our sugary delights and when they came wrapped up in a little box, we were like kids at christmas.

I was able to get one pic before we literally gobbled them up.

Then we went outside and watched through the window as they completed the next set of delciousness being prepared.  We wondered for a minute if they made home deliveries, especially of their cakes.  Then the sugar started to kick in and we could no longer stand still and started the walk back to the office.

Moral of the story: When in NYC make sure you visit Magnolia's!!

Another new recipe

It's a new month and that means I have two new recipes to try out, according to my list of 30 things before Thirty! This time I chose Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken Breasts with Herbed Goat Cheese and was a little intimidated with all the stuffing and wrapping involved.  Basically you saute the shallots, garlic and thyme, combine with goat cheese and basil, make a pocket in the chicken, stuff in the mix and wrap with prosciutto.  Nothing too difficult and let me tell you, it was delicious!  I paired it with some homemade red potato mashed potatoes and it made for a wonderful meal.  This one is a keeper and it will grace our plates again! As always, let me know if you want the recipe!

New restaurant try for August

#29 on my 30 things by Thirty list is to eat at at a restaurant I've never eaten at before, once a month.  While in NYC last month I tried lots of new restaurants and they were all great but this was the only one I visited multiple times and couldn't get enough of!  It's called PUMP and they don't just serve food, they serve energy food. Their concept is that you shouldn't have to ponder a menu to find something healthy, everything on the menu should be healthy! Their concept includes food pairings equaling a healthy combination and fixings that are prepared fresh (nothing processed here!) and without unnecessary oils and fats. You pick your base of a salad, brown rice or whole grain wrap, then you choose protein, chicken, turkey, tofu or bison.  Next you choose your nutrients which include a variety of vegetables and legumes and last you choose your healthy fats, guacamole, skim milk cheese or hummus. You can then add a sauce or topping.  All together they make a delicious and healthy meal.  Of course I also had to try their cookies which are made of oatmeal, fruits, nuts and different healthy goodies mixed in.  They also serve energy shakes and various breakfast items but I didn't get to try those.  I hope PUMP catches on and to eventually see them bring energy food to ATL!

DIY showoffs

We aren't being cocky, really!

Today we are featured on the DIY show off!  It's a blog that features the renovations of do it your-selfers like us.

Check it out here.

A true Labor Day!

Congratulations to our friends Amy and Jay who spent Labor Day bringing baby boy Grantham into the world!  Joseph Michael Grantham IV was born Monday Sept 6th at 11:06pm. Mom and baby are both healthy and happy. He is 22inches long and 9lbs 3oz.

New York, New York!

I try to only post on things that involve Alan and myself, after all the blog is called AlanandVal!  However this past week I was in New York for work while Alan was in Detroit and I have to tell you how much I LOVE NYC!  The first night I was in NYC I spent hours walking 5th Ave., just shopping and taking in all the beautiful window displays that grace this shopping meca.  I took our camera with me, I mean you never know what you'll see when wondering in NYC and this stroll did not disappoint.  With the fashion season changing from Summer to Fall the windows had changed since my last visit to NYC in July.  Prada, Gucci and Cole Haan had windows that made me stop and stare but Bergdorg Goodman took the cake.  Their windows seemed to tell a story where the mannequins seemed like live models and you studied the subject before your eyes fell to the fashion.  It was the set of windows I spent the longest at and I wasn't the only one.

I love NYC for lots of reasons, the food, the shopping, even morning runs are better when they grace Central Park.  It's really the only place I've been that I look forward to go back to, time and time again!  Hurry up November!!

Amazing!

Last weekend I marked #3 off my 30 things by Thirty list: complete an Olympic Triathlon, the amazing part is I finished and lived to tell about it.  This race had been haunting me for weeks and as the starting horn drew closer I started to panic that I wasn't quite ready to run with the big dogs and complete this kind of distance.  We drove down to Jacksonville and met up with Alan's parents who came along to cheer us on. However Alan's mom is a nurse and I'm still not 100% sure he didn't pay her to be there as medical support for me!  We enjoyed a nice afternoon and dinner at Olive Garden, my favorite restaurant and the perfect place to carb-load.  Then we headed back to the base where the race was and where we were all staying for the night.  Up at 4:30, we dressed, consumed our bananas and oatmeal and were off to the transition area to get set-up.  We got everything set-up quickly and headed to the start line.  After the silent wave, which was representative of members of the military that could not be there to participate, Alan's wave was off, 6 minutes later it was my turn.  Let me just tell you 1500 meters of swimming, which is .93 miles, is a long swim.  Despite swimming a minimum of 1500 meters in the pool twice a week, the buoys seemed forever apart and I definitely felt all 1500 meters of the swim.  However, half way to the first buoy I started to get my rhythm and pay attention to my form (something that I don't really seem to have time for in the shorter races) and by the time I rounded the last buoy I was calm, and despite the waves, very focused.  The rest of the race wasn't as daunting as the swim, at least in my mind, however after 25 miles on the bike, my legs weren't so sure about a 6.25 run. Alan finished the race in 2:38 and I finished in 3:12, my goal was 3:30, so I was thrilled with 3:12 and 6th out of 9 in my group.  Alan knocked it out with 13th out of  23 in his group.  We had a great time and are ready to keep training to see if we can improve on our times.  So...what's next??  Well despite all my doubts and fears I am game to do it again.  This weekend we will be signing up for 1 more Olympic Tri for this season.  I promise we aren't crazy, mildly addicted at most!

Pictures from the race:

HOT 8-2010