Fabulous Find: Colored Jeans

Colored Jeans are all the rave this summer season. I'm not sure I could pull off the look. I do love the photos I keep seeing, maybe I just need to keep seeing them enough to finally try the look myself. What do you feel about the colored pants? Are you rocking a pair? Considering buying a pair? Below are some options and ways to wear them:

Berrysa

Target

Express

Nordstroms

American Eagle

The complete look:

Drop Dead Diva

Wendy's Lookbook

Be Mod

Fashion Gal in DC

Love this one!

Lucky Magazine

Fashion Bomb Daily

Fashion Worship

What color would you wear: mint, coral, yellow, blue, or purple?

Recipe: Tacos

Shredded Beef Tacos

Tequila Lime Shrimp with Chipotle Cream Sauce

Baja Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken Tacos

Weekend Recap: Memorial Day!

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend. Yesterday and Monday were perfect weather wise. Saturday morning Erica, TJ and I went to the Farmer's Market for maybe a half hour before it started to rain. We went to Erica's parents house for Erica's bday dinner and then we went out to Barleycorn for a fun night of dancing. Sunday I went over to Erica's apartment to go swimming and then we went to the Schaumburg Boomers baseball game.

How did you spend your Memorial Day weekend?

TGIF! Memorial Day Weekend

Have a wonderful long weekend everyone! Don't forget to wear your red, white and blue. This just made me think about when my mom used to buy matching tops from Old Navy for my family to wear! Did anyone dress up for Memorial Day when they were younger?

Handbag Fairy

My Fashion

Kissed By Fashion

Etsy

Etsy





Examiner



Happy Birthday Erica!

Happy Birthday Erica! I'm glad I was able to sing to you this morning on the phone! :) I hope you have a wonderful day and I can't wait for this weekend. I just know the weather is going to cooperate with us so we can go to the beach or pool.

I just want to thank you for being transferred to the Walgreens I started working at. Thank you for being the BEST Manager! I always had a blast working with you... well actually the nights we were together I'm not really sure we worked to much! :) Thank you for being such a great friend.

Great photo of Erica!

Wood Fired



Recipe: BBQ

Ahh summer is approaching and that means baseball games, boating, lounging by the beach and BBQ! Memorial Day weekend is the perfect time to get out those grills.

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Punchfork

Pink Parsley

Opera.com

Booked My Flight to NYC!

Yesterday I booked my flight to New York for work next month. I can't believe it is almost here. I found out a couple months ago that I would be joining my boss Pam and my co-worker Sheila to New York for HBA Global and our Annual Meeting/CITY Awards dinner. We fly out Monday June 18th and stay at the Blakely Hotel until Friday the 22nd. We will have a booth at HBA Global Tuesday to Thursday. Our Annual Meeting/CITY Awards dinner is Wednesday night. There we will announce the winners from each category in this year's Cosmetic Innovator of The Year (CITY) Awards. We changed the competition a lot this year with: new categories, new judges, opened it up to non-members and increased the exposure they would get out of entering. The event will be bigger and better and I can't believe I will be there to see it all. Attending this event will make all of my hard work contributing to this competition worth it.

A few wonderful products who entered the CITY Awards:

Clever Girl Innovations

Dr. Dennis Gross

Naked Princess

e.l.f.

Besame Cosmetics

Iredale Mineral Cosmetics

My whole week will be full except Thursday night/Friday morning. I've only been to New York once and that was the Canada/New York border so that technically doesn't count. So blogger friends what do you suggest are must see's that I can squeeze in Friday morning until about 3 or 4pm before my flight?

Weekend Recap: Park with Teddy

Happy Monday! Did anyone catch the eclipse last night? I wasn't even able to find the moon near my house. The sky was too bright and cloudy. Thank goodness for the Internet you can view photos here.

Huffington Post

Back to my blogging world boring weekend- Friday night my friend Nicole and I went to Durty Nellies for Happy Hour. Saturday morning I woke up early to go to the Farmer's Market. It was a little smaller than I was hoping and I was camera shy so sorry I don't have any photos of the amazing bakery items, gorgeous flowers and cheese! I then met up with Erica and TJ and went to the park by Erica's place. I stayed at her place the rest of the day/night and we rented a couple movies. (Rum Diary and In Time.) Yesterday I went for a long walk and then worked at Fieldwork.

Someone please tell me about their fun weekend. And yes Taryn you can rub it in my face that I made the wrong decision and probably should have gone to the Brewer game with you. :)



TGIF! Farmer's Market

It has been a couple years now that I have wanted to go to a Farmer's Market in Illinois. Tomorrow is finally the day I will wake up early and go check it out. I don't really have any plans tonight so there is no reason I shouldn't be able to wake up early! I thought about heading into the city this weekend and then remembered it was NATO weekend and will now steer clear of that!

Trib Local

Northern Illinois Homes

AgriHappenings: A full list of Farmer's Markets in Illinois!

It's supposed to be a hot gorgeous weekend! I hope you can get out and enjoy it! :)

AMA Event: Beyond the F Factor

Yesterday my office gave me the day off to attend the AMA Chicago's event Beyond the F Factor: New Rules and Tools of Social Media. The guest speakers were Adam Lilly from Goose Island Beer Company and Nader Ali-Hassan from Razorfish. I took the train in and decided to walk since it was such a nice day and I thought it was relatively close. The location for the event was at "The Loft on Lake". It turned out to be quite the hike to get there! I made it with about fifteen minutes to spare. The Loft on the Lake is a gorgeous building with exposed pipes, brick walls, and a skylight ceiling. I can see how it would be a great location for a small wedding. The only minor flaw of the location was the noise from the train that interrupted the presentations a few times.

Now for a recap of the event and the notes I took:

Adam Lilly- Goose Island
http://www.facebook.com/GooseIslandClybourn
@GooseIsland

- The message is as important as the medium through which you tell it.

1. Celebrate People
2. Go Behind the Scenes
3. Make time for one on one conversations

"Social Media can't fix a bad product."
"If Social Media doesn't run a grain through the entire company... it won't work."
For hiring someone "Someone who is willing to learn the story and embody your voice."
"Every company has craftsmen." -Referring to how anyone in your company can help with social media, because everyone who works with you should be passionate about the brand.

*What story am I trying to tell via Social Media? *

___________________

Nader Ali-Hassan- Razorfish
http://www.facebook.com/Razorfish
@nadees

-Social Media is the need to create, to connect.

5 Themes to Consider:
1. People first, content second
2. Rumors of Facebook demise is exaggerated
3. It's easier to share
4. Influences infiltrate all
5. Measurement: Listen, Mine, Monitor, Ladder Up

"Don't think about you... think about your customer and what they want to hear."
"It's all about testing and learning" and "Fail Fast!... don't fail slowly."
"The ones that listen and answer WIN! Don't jump onto the next campaign."

*Things that Nader said that I wanted to check out:
http://www.motivequest.com/  What motivates someone? It’s a simple question that often defies explanation. Most researchers focus on “what” – we focus on “why”. Finding the reasons why something is said, enables you to change that online conversation – to change chatter into advocacy.

http://edgerankchecker.com/ EdgeRank is an algorithm that ranks objects in the Facebook News Feed. Pages with high EdgeRank Scores will be more likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.

Ideas that I want to implement at ICMAD:
1. Talk about the employees
2. Talk about the Board Members (with the new fiscal year coming up this would be a great way to showcase the new Board Members.)
3. Talk about our Companies
4. Use the Facebook Timeline to showcase what we have been doing the past year. (Topics that will be in the presentation at the Annual Meeting.)

Recipe: Hellmann's Chicken

I have been craving chicken lately so I grabbed some tenders, a frozen bag of mixed vegetables and cheese spread. I swear almost anything tastes better with cheese! I think my craving has something to do with that Hellmann's commercial I keep seeing. Let me see if I can find it and plug it in here so you will want to make it too! Ok I couldn't find it but now that I said something if you haven't seen it you will start to notice it!

Blue Suit Mom

PARMESAN CRUSTED CHICKEN

Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Mayonnaise transforms your chicken into a juicier, crispier, more delicious meal.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/4 lbs.)
• 4 tsp. Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise with cheese in medium bowl. Arrange chicken on baking sheet. Evenly top with mayonnaise mixture, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.
3. Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

• Also terrific with Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Light Mayonnaise or Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Canola Cholesterol Free Mayonnaise.
• Hellmann's

My friend Lindsey came over last night. We had a little wine on the porch while to chicken was baking. The whole meal was really simple and tasted amazing!

The Hellmann's website has a lot of great recipes on it you should check out. Chocolate Mayo Cake?!

Fabulous Find: Air Plants

I don't think I blogged about this already if I did.. I'm hope you enjoy it again! :) I found these air plants on Etsy:

I thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread! I kept saying that I would buy one and put it on my desk at work. I have yet to buy one. I know I know I should do that. Every office needs a little life, color, and interest. Remember I wrote about how the color green inspires creativity? Everyone needs a little green in there life.

Air plants are known as epiphytes...plants that absorb what they need from the air through their leaves, not through their roots.

They are unusually hardy, surviving temperatures from 35 to 120 degrees.

They are able to tolerate long periods without water, but it is also difficult to over water them.

They do not need direct sun.

Their flowering process is very colorful...Some airplants turn pink, red or orange prior to blooming.

After blooming the plants reproduce 1-8 offspring from the side of the mother, which can later be separated.

You can put them in anything...seashells, teacups, empty vases, driftwood...many people like to hang them on fishing line. These truly are a perfect gift for plant lovers and for people who can't grow anything. Airplants

Etsy stores to check out on air plants:
Tortoise Loves Donkey

MIDNIGHTinSEATTLE

BloominHappy2009

The Tropical Garden

My cousin Rachel would love this!

Captive Creativity

I can't decide what I like better- the fact that you can't kill them or the awesome containers they come in. Probably the containers!

Weekend Recap: Housewarming Party

Good Monday Morning! Who was able to spend a gorgeous Mother's Day Sunday with their mom's? I wasn't able to go home to see my mom, but I hope her hanging flower basket is blooming! I had a great weekend.

My housewarming party was great. I had a good group of eight girls. I'm not sure anymore would have fit in my living room! I did a really bad job of taking photos. We had plenty of wine and appetizers. Nicole went through her Mary Kay presentation, and showed us how to get dolled up. We did our Mani's and pedi's. A big thank you to Tiffany who brought all of her pedicure tools and fun nail polish. Who knew there was glow in the dark polish? I may have to ask Taryn or Christa to send me a photo so I can post it on here! :)

The next craft I want to make: DIY Coasters like the ones at Kim's Blog. I tried to make a set out of pine squares from Michael's and scrapbook paper but I guess I should have stained the wood because mine have warped and they just look bad now.

TGIF!

TGIF! I barely made it through this week. Tonight I'm going out for a friend's leaving one job and starting another get together. Then tomorrow is my housewarming party and sunday is Mother's day. I won't be going home so I don't know what I will do that day. Sorry for the short post. Super super busy today. Have a great weekend!

Frayed Laces

Love: Feathers

I love the airy, whimsical look and feel of feathers. The pattern and textures of flowers. Their flair for the dramatic. I tried to select a wide variety of feathers to share. Do you share my love of feathers? I recently bought a pair of feather earrings, but other than that I don't really own anything feather related. I haven't tried the feather fad in my hair either.



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Etsy

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Etsy

Beautiful photo

Etsy

Apartment Therapy