Okay, okay, I broke down yesterday and bought something completely overpriced and frivolous. Granted, the final cost was under $25, but it was only for a pair of tights after all – and not even on sale – gasp! I just had to do it though. You see, the J. Crew herringbone tights that I buckled and bought were the same herringbone tights that made my heart leap two years ago when I bagged my first pair: the year was 2007, I was employed as a fashion editor, and I couldn’t stop wearing my herringbone tights under all my fall dresses. Life was good.

And then, suddenly, life was not so good. December of that year was a craptastic month in more ways than one – not only did our office close down, leaving me out of a job, but my beloved J. Crew herringbone tights became hopelessly frayed when I foolishly wore them with my tall riding boots. Apparently the inside of the zipper at the boot’s top had a rough edge, and when I took them off that day I was dismayed to find the area just behind the knee of my tights filled with irreparably fuzzy, snagged stubble.  I couldn’t bear to throw the tights away, and have attempted to camouflage the surly snaggles by wearing extra high boots and by pushing my tights down super low. Let’s just say it wasn’t quite working.

So when I walked into J. Crew yesterday for a little Columbus Day stroll through the mall (prompted by the hubby, in search of a jacket), I was over the moon to find that the Crew brought back my beloved tights for the Fall 2009 season. I might have gotten a little too carried away, and actually ended up buying the herringbone tights in two colors. But I’ll return one of them… tomorrow. I promise.

I’m a huge fan of mixing high and low fashion. It’s such a great way to pull together a stylish looking outfit, and mixing in the low price items with expensive pieces you own elevates the whole look.  Guiseppe Zanotti’s fall collection includes a pair of black leather peep toes with a zipper-edged rose on the top that are seriously badass and sexy.  Then today I came across a mirror image of the zipper-edged rose… in the form of a $4 ring. How fun and sassy would it be to pair these two together to roughen up a prim and proper outfit? Maybe a ruffled collar, sleeveless button down blouse with high waisted pencil skirt? Or a ruffled white cami tucked into skinny ankle jeans, topped with a colorful sweater? What would you pair this with?

Take a good, long look at these stylish baubles. Lovely, right? If I didn’t know where they came from I probably would have guessed they were sold at J. Crew or Anthropologie and cost somewhere between $40 – $100. I’ve lusted after so many J. Crew and Anthro jewelry pieces that I’ve lost count, yet every one I’ve refrained from buying because they usually cost a pretty penny. If you, like me, are in love with their feminine, irresistible jewelry pieces, you are in luck. Because all of the pretty pieces above are from good old Forever 21.

Ranging in price from $3.80 to $15, these lovelies are so affordable you can snap up three or four and still come in under budget. Speaking of which, I may or may not have made a detour to the Beverly Center this weekend and snagged a few new $4 rings myself. Happy Bargain Shopping!

Tear Looped Jewel Bracelet, $14.80

Floral Hinge Bracelet, $8.80

Anisa Studded Bracelet, $7.80

After my last heavy post, I thought I’d pass along a sunny new blog / accessory line I happened to find. The blog, called Emerson Made,  is mainly a marketing tool for a small accessory company of the same name.  Emerson Made somehow manages to be an incredibly lighthearted, whimsical and intriguing despite serving as a sales catalog.  I don’t know much about the woman behind the line’s signature blooming flower pins, although her creativity, wit and authenticity make me think she’s the kind of person I’d become fast friends with.

She (Emerson, presumably?) models all her own clothes and puts together undeniably stylish ensembles that I want to recreate with my own wardrobe. She stages Anthropologie / J. Crew inspired photo shoots on what seems to be her own rural, verdant farm, complete with an old fashioned wooden porch and spotted guinea fowl. Last, but certainly not least, she creates lovely one of a kind fabric flower accessories in all shapes and sizes that would go fabulously with my wardrobe.

What’s not to love?

P.S. Emerson Made can be purchased through their website, but her photo shoots & musings are found on the blog.

"This as real as it gets" (10 pts for anyone who knows where those lyrics come from). I realize this picture is totally random and does not correlate with the post whatsoever, but I love it. Plus, I really wanted an excuse to make reference to the "I'm on a Boat" music video, hehehe...

I have a confession. I have been putting off my 100th post for over a week now, ever since I realized that it was the 100th Shopaholica post. The enormity of the milestone post weighed on me for some time, and I didn’t want it to be wasted on a random hair piece or a few trivial sentences about eyelash enhancing mascara (which, if you are interested in the topic, is on the posting horizon).  However, as the days dragged on and I grew increasingly busy with other work (you know, the painfully dull kind that pays the bills), I realized that unless I just sat down and started typing, Shopaholica would never have a 100th post.

So it is without earth-shattering news,  stories involving wedding planning hilarity or a fabulous must-have frock that I begin my 100th post. I thought perhaps I’d spend the post reflecting on the twists and turns of Shopaholica and my life, and see where it takes me. Who needs a well-planned post when random musings will do, eh? Well, I suppose I’ll let you be the judge of the method’s success.

February 9, 2008 is the fateful day Shopaholica was born into the webiverse. At the time I found myself newly engaged, sitting at home all day and utterly, hopelessly lost as to what my next career move might be. Just two months prior the fabulous fashion startup company I was euphorically climbing the ranks of imploded with a sudden bang, absorbing with it my aspirations to become a young fashion VP selling the virtues of our blog and trend stores to the retail world.  The first day after finding myself jobless I took out every Manolo, Jimmy and Prada pump in my closet and busied myself by hand cleaning and polishing each one to an impeccable gleam. Career be damned, I was going to step out in style regardless of my employment status.

But then one month turned into two, and two into three. And while I floundered around looking for my next career move, I found it hard to accept job offers (more like job pittances) that involved one third less in salary and ten times the boring corporate culture.  Knowing that I loved to write, I stayed on top of bills by utilizing my stabbing wit and entertaining humor – or at least, that’s how it goes in the glamorous, romanticized version of my freelance writing career. Reality consisted more of a few fun articles overshadowed by the dreary production of keyword-heavy web content for someone random company’s search engine optimization: useful, income generating content… just the type I’d rather gouge my eyes out than spend all day writing.

Shopaholica was, at that time, a breath of fresh air that enabled me to write what I wanted to write about without anyone telling me what to say or how to say it. I began the blog in hopes of adding carefully handpicked retail advertisers whose well-edited inventory would delight my faithful readers, but soon gave up hope that I’d ever have time to manage it all on top of my paid work. Much like myself, Shopaholica stumbled along blindly for a year until I fell in love with weddings and went into further shopping-induced debt thanks to my own nuptials.  Suddenly, instead of regularly gushing about $500 shoes and Net-A-Porter’s latest selection on Shopaholica, I began feeling like a fraud. How could I sincerely write about shopping when my own financial reality barred me from stepping foot into a boutique?

In one year I went from charging Louboutins on my Saks plastic to scouring eBay for $35 Cynthia Vincent (NWT, woot!) dresses.  The only glimmer of hope in my shopping life has been the 70% off sales at struggling upscale department stores, which has allowed me a small amount of wiggle room – not so much in my budget, but in my justification of pulling out the plastic once more to revel in the deeply satisfying feeling that comes from slipping the perfect new dress over my head. Call me crazy, but if you’re a true shopaholic you know what I’m talking about.

So while friends and family who (claim to) enjoy reading Shopaholica are requesting more posts, I am here to sheepishly admit that I’ve been avoiding such posts. Perhaps I’m afraid of opening the shopping floodgates once more, or maybe I’m just using a self-indulgent excuse to avoid blogger accountability. I don’t know, all I know is that the idea of adding new posts to Shopaholica leaves me with a small, hollow knot inside that feels a little bit like regret.  Regret for past purchases, regret for the items in my closet that I’ll never wear again, and regret for starting out this blog so ambitiously while failing to nurture it with fresh content.

I didn’t intend for this 100th inaugural blog to turn into such a pity party of a post, but then I suppose that is what I get for writing this while feeling overworked, underpaid and shopping-deprived. As for the future of Shopaholica, it is undecided as of yet. Perhaps it can move forward as a blog of style inspirations, since I can convince myself that inspiration does not necessarily lead to shopping.  And besides, everyone needs a little inspiration in life, especially the overworked and underpaid, am I right?

In writing this, I am reminded again of the nagging strains of suffering through the Quarter Life Crisis; QLC if you will. My love of writing has lost its Cinderella slippers only to be turned into a dreaded chore that pays the bills, my love of shopping vanished alongside with my corporate aspirations, and I’m left feeling just as confused as ever. I know what I want to do, but now I’m left struggling to find a means to do it.  Just how does one reach their target client base to start a brand new career? Especially when so many newbies are willing to offer their own planning services for nothing (literally, zero dollars) just to get a jump start in the field. Perhaps it’s stubbong 20-something vanity on my part, but I simply cannot reconcile working over 100 hours to make someone’s dream day come true without being compensated.

My only consolation is this: I know I’m great at it, and as long as I keep working relentlessly in the right direction I will eventually be successful. The wanting to succeed feels like a gnawing ache inside my soul, and it’s maddening that I just can’t reach the people I know will love what I have to offer.  I am suffering from a severe case of the Veruca Salt syndrome – “I want the world, I want the whole world… and I want it NOW!”  Cue the tantrum, sending Willy Wonka’s buckets of carefully stacked candy flying against the wall. Or in my case, dogeared wedding magazines, carefully crafted party inspiration boards and my emergency wedding toolkit, safety pins and white chalk gracefully arcing across my apartment as Rambo and Bentley dash for cover.

Does it ever stop, this wanting more? Or is the ceaseless need to have it all just a curse of the mid 20s, stuck somewhere in the middle of having parents hand you the world on a platter and successfully finding your own way? At any rate, both Shopaholica and I are in the middle of transition, doggedly trying to prove ourselves worthy of someone else’s time and money. Never one to slack, I know that eventually we’ll both make it in one way or another. So after a 1,300 word post of self-loathing and mindless musing, my parting question to you, dear readers (if any of you are left after a posting dry spell that rivaled California drought season), what would you like to see Shopaholica become?

… or alternately, Adventures in Wedding Planning. Be forewarned – this post is a wry glimpse inside my personal life, not a fluff piece on fashion, and is much longer than my usual posts. It also – gasp! – doesn’t have any pretty pictures to go along with it.  So consider yourself warned, and read at your own risk.

As some of you may (or may not) know, I have a passion for event planning as well as writing and marketing. When my good friend J – who claimed the title of “Bestestest Friend” in the fourth grade – asked me to plan her wedding, I wholeheartedly threw myself into the affair.  After months of helping her pick the venue and vendors, design coordinating menus, napkins, table numbers, ceremony programs, place cards, stuff favors and create a precise day of schedule, the wedding day arrived last Friday.

After a smooth rehearsal and delightful rehearsal dinner (which actually took place at her second-choice wedding venue), I had just gotten in my car when I received a call from my current best friend and fabulous on-air news reporter N.  Being the excellent news caster that she is, she called to tell me that there was a fire in a neighboring city causing high winds.  After thanking her for the information, I made my way home from the vineyards of Temecula to fall pleasantly asleep in my parents’ San Diego home.  The next morning, however, I was jolted awake by a disturbing nightmare in which I opened the drapes of my bedroom to see leaping, fiery flames licking the hillside across the street. In my distress, all I could think about was the wedding having to be canceled due to the massive fire.  Retelling my parents the story over breakfast, we laughed off the nightmarish dream chalking it up to nervous energy, and I prepared to head over and set up for the big day.

Five hours later, I was no longer laughing. After running around like a madwoman to ensure perfect setup of all the wedding’s lovely, laborious details, it just so happened that the nearby fire had caused traffic to come to a standstill on the freeway.  Temecula, already a distant location for so many of the wedding guests, had become an impenetrable fortress thanks to the parking lot of cars up and down the 15 freeway.  And not only were guests stuck in the traffic, so was J’s longtime mentor who just so happened to be the ceremony accompanist and vocalist.

Which meant that the ceremony could not start without her. (Cue the ominous music: dun-dun-DUN! )

For all my careful planning, hard work and dedication to detail, this stupid fire was going to throw off the entire schedule. Quite frustrated by elements  completely out of my control, trying to think of a backup plan should the accompanist not make it on time, I was tying on pink-ribboned Reserved chair signs when my thoughts were cut short. Out of nowhere, the ceremony keyboard set up for the late sound check started playing and a pleasant singing voice began to serenade.

“Oh, Yelena has a future / In the wedding industry…” began the refrain.  I cocked my head madly to make sure I was hearing right, half persuading myself that the stress had finally driven me mad.  And then to my right I saw the Father of the Bride, seated at the keyboard and belting out my own personal theme song.  It felt like I was stuck inside a surreal universe a la Alice in Wonderland, where I was an unknowing player in a much larger, twisted scheme, or perhaps one of those reality shows where everyone else is an actor and the joke is on you.  After standing there with my mouth agape in shock, my next response was to begin laugh in disbelief as J’s dad continued to sing about my future in event planning.  The spell was broken only a moment later, when my disheveled mother stepped out of the dusty vineyards into the ceremony site, sweating profusely and cursing under her breath.

Spotting me in the middle of the Rose Arbor, she stormed over and began spouting a tirade that was a throwback to my teenage years.  Apparently I unwittingly drove her purse in the car with me to the Rose Arbor, leaving her at the other end of the expansive venue stranded without her cell phone. The Father of the Bride (who has known my family for ages), didn’t miss a beat and aimed his next refrain at my mom: “Oh, Doroteja has a future / In the wedding industry…”  At this point the whole scene was bordering on slapstick comedy, and I couldn’t help but double over in hysterics.  Waves of hearty laughter racked my body until all the stress of the stupid fire and falling behind schedule was shaken free and I could genuinely smile again.    — — —

Yes, the ceremony did begin late because of the fire. But once it began, it was the most beautiful ceremony I’ve ever seen, and the rest of the evening flowed beautifully from one thing on the schedule to the next. J and her fiance were radiant and glowing with love, their friends and family had a ball on the dance floor, and I even got a thank you in the Father of the Bride’s speech for pulling together such a lovely evening.  At the end of the night, as the happy couple was bid farewell through a blazing tunnel of sparklers, I realized ironically that the day ended with just as much fire as it began with.  My feet hurt, my hair was a mess, the makeup had long disappeared from my face, and yet I found myself brimming with happiness and satisfaction from the night. I can honestly say, without reserve, that I can’t wait to do it all over again.

While poring over my Women’s Wear Daily, some gorgeous baubles caught my eye and I wanted to share them with you, my fellow fashion lovers.  The jewelry is crafted by new jewelry company Annoushka, which was founded by the same people who created Links of London.  Though the pieces aren’t in stores yet, once they officially debut at the end of this month there are plans to distribute the jewelry throughout the UK  in stand alone stores and in major retailers like Harvey Nichols.

What I love about Annoushka’s jewelry designs is that they have a very organic, handmade feel to them.  They’re also stylish without relying too heavily on trends, which means the pieces will have a long life in the buyer’s jewelry box.

Since all pieces will be made from 18K gold, they’ll likely cost a pretty penny…. but perhaps it’s worth saving to own special jewelry you’ll keep your entire life rather than buying a million trendy pieces for $30. Thoughts?

So, being the absolute nerd that I am, I’m very excited for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince premiere this week.  Not only do I love Harry’s character, but Hermoine is one of my favorite characters in a series – she’s smart, sassy and brave; the perfect strong female character. Emma Watson depicts Hermoine to a tee, although I think I’d admire her as an actress even without the Harry Potter fame.

She has a certain class and sophistication about her, and doesn’t run around committing drunken debauchery like other young starlets.  Something about her poise reminds me a little of Julia Roberts, although I can’t put my finger on why. And besides, I have a complete crush on her style – she consistently pulls off the perfect ‘classic with a twist’ look that I love.  While I’m sure it helps to have Chanel on your side, not everyone can look so chic in their designs. It’s too bad that Hermoine was never much into fashion… Emma can pull it off so well!

What do you think about Emma Watson’s style? Love it or leave it?

Working around the clock has been starting to get to me. When I’m absurdly busy and stressed to the nines, unfortunately one of my favorite projects, this blog, is the thing that inevitably ends up suffering. I blogged a while back about finding my new path, and it has been the most amazing ride so far. I am starting to book new clients, which is a thrill in itself – I feel so privileged to work with these amazing women to help them create their perfect day. I’ve also already met so many fantastic vendors who I’m brimming with excitement to work with.

However, I’m currently doing a balancing act with my new venture and with writing (until the planning gets off the ground fully), so I feel like I’m working double shifts… and I desperately need a vacation. So when I saw these gorgeous Cruise ‘09 ads for Michael Kors I was basically salivating for a getaway. I think the only thing getting me through the work days is a Vegas trip planned for the end of this month (sadly only 2 days), and the much-anticipated trip to Maui (5 days, woot!)  in September.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with these fabulous Mario Testino shots of the Michael Kors Cruise ‘09 ad campaign. If you stare at the images long and enough and close your eyes, you can almost see yourself in the location, basking in the sun and wearing fabulously chic cruise wear. Or is that just me?

I swooned when I saw the ensemble featured on Shop Bop’s front page today – it looks like something off a Michael Kor’s or Ralph Lauren runway. I just love the American classic style, and have always been a sucker for nautical navy and white stripes. Two items stick out in this styling that really make the outfit – the straw fedora and the unique scarf.

The fedora is by hat-making style maven Eugenia Kim, and features a pleated grosgrain band and eye catching gold metal accent. The bad news is that it retails for $286, but the good news is that I know similar styles can be found for a fraction of the price.

The scarf, which looks like three layers, is actually a triple looped infinity scarf. It’s constructed of soft & comfy jersey and is made by Son of John. Luckily, this summery scarf will only run you $69; a good thing, since finding a similar version would be much harder than replicating the hat.

Straw Fedora, Eugenia Kim at Shop Bop – $286

Navy Stripe Infinity Scarf, Son of John at Shop Bop – $69