Opening Meet

This past weekend was the opening meet for the Los Altos Hounds. We were a little anxious because it was the first time that CMB's new horse Dancer had been out on a formal hunt. We've had him out several times during the pre-season autum hound training but a full on hunt is a little different and opening meet is a big deal. I am thankful to report that he was very good. The weather was quite warm and dry here in NorCal but we still had a great time.

Hopeful wants out of the trailer! I love the hounds. They are so sweet and darling.

This is our whole group. From left to right are my father, me, CMB, my mom and my sister.

Mom, me and CMB. Getting ready to go!

CMB calls my father Abu. I've been taking this same shot of the two of them every year at opeing since her first opening meet when she was 3. She is 8 now and this is her 5th opening meet.

CMB and Dancer. The begining of a wonderful new partnership. He's about 15 hand high so she ought to do for her for the next several years. By next season they should be ready to go first field and jump.

I love Bobbi Brown makeup. He tinted moisturizer is one of my absolute favorites. I also adore the gel eyeliners and cream eye shadows. Her palettes are also amazing. She has a nack for putting together the right shades so that they all work and nothing is left out. Currently I am loving this tortoise shell palette. The Nordstrom's web site describes it as follows:

"A flattering collection of warm neutral makeup for medium to darker skin tones, this palette lets you go from soft to smoky in no time flat. The eight shadows in the Bronze Tortoise Shell Eye Palette are designed to be layered—there's no blending required. Start with the lightest shade, then layer the darker shades until you get the desired intensity. Tortoise-shell glasses inspire the special limited-edition compact—Bobbi's muse for this collection.Shades include:- Banana Eyeshadow.- Gold Nugget Sparkle Eyeshadow.- Amber Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow.- Copper Cocoa Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow.- Tiger's Eye Metallic Eyeshadow.- Bronze Metallic Eyeshadow.- Olive Sparkle Eyeshadow.- Espresso Eyeshadow. "

It feels like the perfect combination for falls richer colors. What do you think?

Help out San Mateo Park School!

Hello and happy Monday to all my lovely readers. Hope your weekend was fabulous. I wanted to ask for your help. Everyone knows about the dire straights most public schools are in these days. Well, A few months ago our Grant Team (of which I am a member) submitted an entry for a proposed tech lab with new computers, iPads and printers for San Mateo Park School. Voting is now open and the school needs everyone's help to win up to $50,000 in The Clorox Company’s Power A Bright Future grant program so we can do it!

Help us secure funding to "Create a Technology Lab that Empowers Teachers to Engage all Students"! There are two easy ways to vote - and you can do BOTH daily!

We need your votes daily until December 9th!

Text clorox8968 to 44144

AND you can also vote on our nomination web page at http://tiny.cc/votepark
You may vote one time online AND one time via Text per day. Please share this great news with your family, friends and neighbors so they can vote too!

Our school is a wonderful place. The teachers and the staff are truely amazing. It's a math/science magnet school and we want to keep making it even more amazing. If you could spare a moment to help that would be fabulous!

Mad for Plaid

I love plaid and last night looking in my closet I realize that it is possible that the plaid shirts may have taken over from the navy striped ones. J Crew has done several great plaid shirts this fall and most of then have taken up residence in my closet. I really love their "Boy Shirt". It's slim and neat, not sloppy and it has a presence and style, whether worn with jeans or a pencil skirt. What do you think? Are you "mad for plaid"?


I love this navy with cream and red plaid shirt. It has the brass colored buttons too. I am wearing it to work today with dark trouser jeans and ballet flats. I also like the look of it as they styled it on the web site and might try it with my camel trousers. I also plan to wear it under my navy tippi sweater with the cuffs rolled back and my bronze ocher pencil skirt.

I know they have re-released this tartan shirt but I bought mine last winter. Looks great with black pants and is very festive and yet I don't think it screams "Christmas" so loudly that it couldn't be worn other times.

I loved this navy plaid shirt above so much that I also bought it in the red color. This one looks great with cords and jeans and is a weekend staple.

I also bought the fabulous quincy tartan shirt which appears to be sold out on the web site so I can't find a picture. It looks great under the navy Tippi and also under the camel one. I may need an intervention!

What is this?

OK, J Crew has a fabulouse promo going on right now with 25% off (everything) and free shipping with $150 (lower than their usual $175). Anyway, I was clicking around their site, trying to decide if I wanted anything and this, I hesitate to call it a top, caught my eye. More like seared my retinas. J Crew calls this the "Porcupine Popover". The description says it is a merino top with a "chiffon overlay embroidered with fabulous all over jewled fringe." It looks painful, and like it would catch on everything. The best part is that this, we will call it interesting, top can be your for the sale price of $395! Total fail. Would you buy this? Am I missing some amazing trend because all I can say is ick.

Ode to the Cord Blazer

I love a cord blazer in the fall. Some how they are the perfect transition item. The texture gives a nod to the season and yet not to warm for the changing temps. This is especially true here in Northern CA where it was about 55 this morning but will be in the low 70's by afternoon. The true appeal of this kind of jacket is it's ability to go so many places. Yesterday I went as a chaperone on a filed trip to the NASA Ames facility with my son's 5th grade class. I wore jeans, driving mocs and a purple fine wale cord blazer from Nordstrom's Halogen line. Today I am back at the office and wearing the same blazer with a navy blouse, gray trousers and a statement necklace. I also have an older J Crew brow cord jacket that I wear a ton with jeans in the fall and winter. They elevate the look without overdoing it. What do you think? Are you crazy for cord?

The Button Front Skirt

These slightly flared button front skirts are everywhere this fall. This one is, of course, from J Crew but Banana Republic has an almost exact same skirt and I even spotted one at Brooks Brothers. I confess that I love the longer length but just can't make myself buy this skirt, although I have tried on all versions more than once. Why is that? I have tried switching tops, shoes, boots you name it. I confess that they look to much like the dowdy button front full skirts I remember growing up in the 70's. Maybe it was traumatic but when I put one on, I just see dowdy. I also suspect that it's not quite the professional look I am going for. I saw a girl on the street as I walked to the train station the other night and she wearing the heather acorn colored skirt from J Crew with the leopard print Tippis sweater tucked in and some great boots. Really she looked amazing enough that I was tempted to run directly to J Crew and hand over my credit card in a daze but then I looked again and realized that she was at least 10 (if not 20) years older than I was. Hey, at 41 I'm not all that old but this girl looked like she'd get carded at Target. Once again, I suspect that this skirt style proves the rule that if you are old enough to have worn or remembered the style the first time, you are likely to old to wear it when it comes back! What do you think?

Tying the reversible bow tie

I love bow ties on men. Sadly neither Hubby nor my oldest son are reallyinto them. My youngest son, however, rocks them. I think I've posted before with the great diagram below about how to actually tie one (not easy). I found it on www.socialprimer.com. I love that site and also their blog. If you have boys you are trying to bring up preppy it's a great resource. Especially if you don't live in the South or North East. Anyway, today they had a post on their blog about how to ties these great reversible bow ties. Essentially to acheive the two sided look above, in step 6 you twist the tail (the part in your left hand) around as you tie so that the reverse half shows. Social Primer makes these great reversible ties for Brooks Brothers and are avialable for purchase if you follow the linl above!

Weekend Wear Revelation

A while back I posted about the hole in my wardrobe that was casual weekend wear. Cozy cords and sweaters, cute outfits to run errands and the like. Kind of like this darling picture from Loft. They were just missing from my closet. Pencil skirt, button downs, dress slacks and heels? Check. Workout pants, sweatshirts, baseball caps and sneakers? Check. The middle was a gaping hole. Which of course I set about filling. Now I do have a small stash or cords. more casual button downs and sweaters. But you know what? I have hardly worn them. Last night, after a busy yet fairly routine weekend, I had a revelation about why. Let me give you the weekend run down. Saturday morning started early, I dropped AGB off for baseball, while I ran (and I mean actaully ran) over to the bank to meet the little league treasurer (I am the president) to change our accounts. Then after running back to pick up AGB we went back to the house. There, while hubby and OPB were out at the grocery store and picking up his new cub scout uniform I cleaned the house. Then Hubby took AGB to soccer and CMB and I rode our bike to the local high school where she had a tennis clinic and I played on another court with a friend. We rode home, showered before dinner and then watched a movie. Sunday I coached AGB's fall ball baseball game in the morning and hubby took CMB to lacrosse. I did get a lunch time shower and put on a nicer pair of shorts and cute top but most of the day (and all of Saturday) was spent in black yoga pants, a tee and baseball cap with sneakers. Suddenly it all made sense. Kind of like when your kids are small and spit up on you all the time, right now mine are all school aged and still young enough that I am involved in all their sporting activities. Although how I ended up little league president is a mystery. That hole was in my closet for a reason. I don't need many of those things because I don't have that kind of life right now. What do you think? Does that make sense? Do you have any closet holes that are actually serving a purpose?

Seasonal Cocktails

Who doesn't love a good cocktail on a special night out or even after a long day at work. The fabulous Belle over at Capital Hill Style posted this wonderful pumpkin martini. I'm not usually one for flavored drinks but it sounds wonderful! So on a Friday aftenoon, raise your glass and have a wonderful weekend!

Pumpkin Martini

1/2 oz. cream liquor

2 oz vanilla vodka

1/2 oz pumpkin liquor

1 tsp whipped cream and cinnamon sticks for garnish

Pour the cream liquor and vodka into a shaker, fill with ice and shake.

Add pumpkin liquor and shake again. Pour into chilled glass and garnish.

You can rim the glasses with a cinnamon and sugar mix or brown sugar if desired.

Enjoy!

Quality or Quanity?

To me that has always been the essential debate regarding my closet. Some part of me years for more (who doesn't be honest) and would rather buy six ribbed turtlenecks at Old Navy than one perfect cashmere one from say Neiman Marcus. Let me start out by saying that I am in no way intending to disparage or praise any retailer mentioned. I'm just using them as examples. As I have grown older though I have come to appreciate the quality. I am trying to edit my closet so that I have only things I love and want to wear as opposed to tons of things that are only ok. For me this means I need to stop trolling ebay. Now again, don't get me wrong, ebay is a great source for fashion finds but I have more than once fallen prey to the inexpensive copy and been disappointed. This leads to me not only wasting money but looking aweful. I'm going to undertake a massive clean out this weekend. If it isn't perfect, it goes. Stay tuned for the results!

Today Student Counsel, Tomorrow the World

In the 5th grade, the kids can run for the student counsel. AGB has decided to run for Spirit Leader. He has these 4 buddies and they told me they have worked out a plan to run the world (their words, not mine). One is running for president, one for vice president, one for secretary and AGB for spirit leader. I think they just didn't want to run against each other. Anyway here is AGB showing his poster. We can put up two at the school. On Thursday he will give a speech to the school (which he has already written and memorized) and then voting is Tuesday. I'm so proud of him for putting himself out there and taking on the responsibility. So vote for A!

Chicks with Sticks

I've always encouraged my kids to play sports. I think they are a great sense of pride and self esteem as well as learning to be a part of a team. I think this is especially true for girls so I have been encourageing CMB to try new sports as she searches for something she loves as much as her older brother loves baseball. She's tall, strong and fast but wasn't crazy about soccer. She has however discovered lacrosse. Here in Northern California lacrosse is a club sport at the junior levels. I think some of the high schools have programs but not all of them. Here she is on her first day of fall ball under 9 lacrosse. She really loved it and is looking forward to next week. Can't say I blame her, it looked like fun!

Soccer Fun

I meant to post this last week but it took until today for me to get the shots out of my camera. last weekend AGB's soccer coach arranged for the team to be the ball boys for the Stanford mens soccer game versus Vermont. They were able to walk onto the field with the team and then worked the sidelines during the game. The also got to scrimage on the big field during the half. They had a great time and said the guys on the team were really nice!

The AYSO U12 Silver Bullets and the Stanford University Men's Soccer team