Happy New Year!

Christmas at the Webers

The happiest moments in life for me are undeniably spent with the family. Fortunately, I have two wonderful families - my Bulgarian family and my American family. Every year, I spent either Thanksgiving or Christmas with my American family in Arizona. Here are some of our annual traditions:

1) Mexican food. Mexican food in Georgia is just not as good as in Arizona. I have never had Mexican food in Europe. I wonder how it is.

Image from ifood.tv but mine looked pretty much the same

2) Bowling. The Webers in Arizona are pretty much professionals. I was able to hold my ground for one game - the remaining three games were total embarrassment. And I thought I looked kind of cool bowling but the picture below proves me wrong!

 3) We watched Sherlock Holmes second year in a row. I have to say Robert Downey Jr. is in his element and I loved the second movie as well. Hopefully, part III is out by year end 2012 :)

 4) In-N-Out Burger. Although not a tradition yet, I think this burger joint should be on our annual holiday agenda!

And here is my Christmas Day outfit:

Dress: Express

Cardigan - Leftonhouston

Shoes - Kelly and Katie from DSW

Jewelry- Charming Charlie

Belt - Armani Exchange

Sunglasses - Kate Spade

Hello, leopard!

I was looking online for ideas how to wear animal print and I got a little confused. Generally, they recommend pairing animal prints with minimal jewelry and solid colors (usually black). More fashion forward looks feature pairing with denim, stripes, and and different color animal prints. I felt most comfortable somewhere in the middle. I can't wait to play more with this skirt from ASOS. How do you style animal prints?

Skirt - ASOS

Shirt -bebe

Sweater - BCBG

Sunglasses - Kate Spade

Shoes - Guess

Jewelry - Talbots, Betsey Johnson

Am I pass the age group for this outfit?

One of my greatest pet peeves is age-inappropriate dressing. With this outfit, I feel like I am on the verge of doing exactly that. Yes, right there in the right sidebar it says it: Fashion Bloggers Over 30.  Of course, I am proud to be in that league otherwise I would not have it there. However, do you think that distressed jeans and slubby sweaters are for girls in their 20's (excluding celebrities as there are no limitations for them)? What are some of your age-inappropriate pet peeves?

Sweater - Free People from Bloomingdale's 

Jeans - Armani Exchange

Shoes - Kelly and Katie from DSW

Holiday Party

Last night, my friend Maria had a holiday partaayyy at her lovely home. We had a great time, exchanged some presents and took some awesome pictures. I wore a very old Arden B. (worn here and here) dress which keeps reinventing itself.

Dress - Arden B, top - Guess, Shoes - Jean-Michel Cazabat, Clutch - Cache

After two healthy portions of home-made mash potatoes, creamy mac & cheese, sumptuous meatballs,  delicious devil eggs, I could not button up my black Guess top from above.

My girlfriends rocked the house with BEBE outfits. Maria, I hope you don't like your blue jumper too much in case it goes missing!

And finally, what the guys wore. Or not! This is what makes secret Santa so much fun!

Mixin' 101

I wish I could say that matching and mixing different colors and patterns comes to me naturally. Alas, it does not. However, since I have started my blog, I have been more willing to dive into the sea of patterns and be more experimental. This outfit is pretty much as far as I would go as of this point and it is something I would have not done before. Specifically, dress shirt in purple stripes and gray sweater with lace. Surely matching gray with black would have made me comfortable back then but sounds quite boring now. What makes mixing patterns easier?

- Mixing patterns from the same color family (blues in this case)
- Looking at small patterns as solids. You know how you can read and understand something written in reverse order. I think the brain works the same way with small patterns and can see them as solids (gray skirt in this case).
- Space out pieces of similar/same color or pattern (white shirt breaks up the gray skirt and gray sweater).

I can't wait to take my outfits to the next level.

xoxo,

Teodora

Shirt - Banana Republic

Sweater - BCBG

Skirt - Target

Shoes - Kelly & Katie from DSW

Jewelry - Betsey Johnson, Talbots

Istanbul

Hello everyone,

I would like to share with you some pictures from my recent trip to Istanbul. I could not have dreamed for a more wonderful trip - with my favorite people to one of the most spectacular places in the whole world. I wanted to post only 4-5 pictures but you understand how this is not possible. What place would you like to visit?

xoxo,

Teodora

White after Labor Day

Hello my dears,

I can't remember growing up if wearing white in Bulgaria in the winter months was ever a taboo. It seems like it is more of a "unwritten law" in the US than in other parts of the world. Besides some practical reasons, I don't see why I cannot wear my favorite colors all year around. Here are a couple of suggestions how:

- Pair white with fall or winter colors - black, grey, earth and jewel tones. It also stands out so much more.
- It is preferable that whites are made of winter, heavier materials and textures such as wool and denim. This also helps with keeping your bum warm :)

 

Sweater - Max Azria

Jeans - Keneth Cole 

Purse - Michael Kors

Shoes - Jean-Michel Cazabat

Perfect Shape

Hello my beauties,

I have to admit that I am one of those people that get tempted by the latest trend and don't always dress with what is best for my figure. I have a pear shaped body and that is wider hips and tights, smaller bust and shoulders. With this outfit, I checked off most of the requirements for a pear-shaped outfit. I wore:

- A top that drew the attention to the upper part of my body
- Additionally, I tried to direct attention to the area below the knee to draw outward and lengthen that mid area
- A top that finished at the top of hips -maybe shorter :) - but manged to emphasize my waist

Do you ever think about what is best for your body shape or are you like me and decide in the spur of the moment if an outfit looks good or not?

xoxo,

Teodora

Dress- Cache

Clutch - Cache

Cape - Twelfth St. by Cynthia Vincent

Shoes - Jean-Michel Cazabat

Jewelry - Coach, Talbots

Little Sneak Peak

Hello lovelies,

I hope everyone is having a great week so far. I wanted to share with you my latest self-made gift - a striking pair of Jean-Michel Cazabat. They are from endless.com. I felt really good about this website of awesome shoe deals until I figured I am one of the last people to know of it. Free shipping both ways - can't beat that:)

In my search for cool shoe blogs, I ran into a story about shoe queen Tamara Mellon. I really get into a motivated mode when I read stories about young, inspiring women who have climbed the success ladder, don't you?

Some will say, "Well, she did not start from nothing, with a hefty loan from dad", but look at the Jimmy Choo brand today, worth almost half a billion pounds. While working for Vogue, she asked Jimmy Choo, a cobbler at that time (cobbler???), to make shoes for her fashion shoots. It was, however, Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw who put the killer heels on millions of wish lists.

Some say her personal life is a little sketchy, but I decided to stick to the good and positive side of the story. I hope your story for the rest of the week is more than good.

xoxo,

Teodora

P.S. Almost forgot, the news is she is leaving the brand. I wonder what is next. Any suggestions?  What would you do if you were in her Jimmy Choo shoes and had millions in your account?