for the love of fashion, beauty, food, art, music, dancing, people, culture and life!

Hypnotize: This nail art image from Vogue Beauty should tempt you to mix up your mani. Planting the seed and watering it. Jedi mind trick.

I have always been a big fan of Nail Art — what better conversation starters than the mini canvases on your fingertips?  But I am very particular about what looks I love versus looks that I think are best suited for editorial or the Nicki Minaj’s of the world.  These days, there are many options to DIY (do-it-yourself) your nails.  Instead of taking the weekly trip to salon, save some cash-dollahs by staying home on a Friday night, doing your nails whilst watching Never Been Kissed.  Plus, if your nails are wet, you can’t eat that bag of chips in the cupboard.  Beautiful nails, zero calories!

Here are my Top Fall Nail Trends:

Chanel Frenzy Vernis is the perfect greige (Grey + Beige). And the key to exquisite statement solids is 3 coats to make it opaque.

• A Striking Solid – Nail art doesn’t have to be over the top to have a high ROC.  Sometimes a very unusual colour can illicit ooh’s and ahhh’s.  Right now, I love colours that look like Pantone swatches from ELLE Decor.  The other day, I was getting my nails done and I chose Essie’s Glamour Purse (an almond taupe shade) and the woman beside me felt necessary to comment, “The colour looks like it’s fading into her skintone.”  Puh-lease, you don’t know.  Insert eye roll.

Mix up your French Manicure by applying black tips. Very Fall 2012! You heard it here first fashionistah-adventuress!

• Black Tips French Manicure – A MAJOR trend to ignite the runways, this one is very easy to adapt to real life.  All you have to do is take a classic manicure and making it edgier by using black polish striper to finish the tips.  To create an even more daring contrast, you can use a trendy colour (such as a vampy burgundy, a metallic or a tawny shade) as your base coat.  Ooh la, you are so September Vogue right now!
• Colour Block Those Digits – This is the most fun nail trend.  There are number of easy to follow nail polish tutorials on the web to give you ideas on colour blocking.  Similar to the apparel trend, it would be taking 2-3 contrasting nail shades to achieve a Mondrian-effect on your nails.  My favourite is taking 2 of the same hue (a light & its darker counterpart) to do a French manicure.  There is also the reverse Half-Moon where you use 2 solid colours – very dramatic in black and white!

Katy Perry goes ying-yang for nail art on the cover of September ELLE

Cutepolish on YouTube has many easy to follow Nail tutorials – here are my favourite based on the Fall Trends: 

• Chevon Nails - This one takes effort so you may only want to do your thumbs or ring finger. Totally Missoni! 
• Black Lace Nails - Another MAJOR runway trend. Fun idea: Wear a black lace outfit and do black lace on your nails.  It’s another case of life imitating art, imitating life! (micro-macro)
• Half-Moon Manicure - Vintage 1920’s design will be very popular for Fall/Winter as Baz Luhrman’s highly anticipated The Great Gasby will be released in movie theatres inspiring an Art Deco fashion moment

Art history lesson on The LC: Composition A by Piet Mondrian. Inspiration for many a colour block fashion moment!

What are your favourite nail trends for Fall?  What’s your colour of the moment? Do TELL in the comments!

Marie Antoinette loved her macaron! Kiki Dunst in the fashionable Sofia Coppola film of the same name

French bon vivant (literally “one who lives well, good ‘liver’ (living person)”), from bon (“good”) + vivant (“person who is living”), agent noun of vivre (“to live”).  A person who enjoys the good things in life, especially good food and drink; a gal about town.  We are lucky, non?

I subsist on a diet of salad, vegetables, fish and when I’m feeling very naughty, gluten-free hummus chips.  When I indulge in food and drink on the weekends, I love to try new restaurants, share a dessert, let my foodie friends feed me multi-course meals, have a glass of champie here, maybe a cocktail over there. 

Here are my foodie & drink obsessions au moment:

• Fro-yooooo:  There is a frozen yoguort resurgence of late.  Remember when the only choice we had was Yogen-Fruz? Soooo boring!  My cravings started in LA where the DIY fro-yo craze has a shop on every corner.  Lately, I have noticed the Yogurty’s chain popping up like dandelions.  I love dispensing my own red velvet, dulce de leche, swirled with pumpkin, stacked with strawberries, nuts and a dash of Reese bits.  Tummy ache!

Control issues over the fro-yo dispenser much? Swirl to your heart's desire and negate the low calories by piling on the toppings. Cheesecake bits? Sweeeet!

• Lobster-Mania – Lately, I’ve been craving lobster ALL the time.  They make a delicious lobster ravioli at Brassaii (461 King St. West).  I feel like lobster might get all trendy like poutine.  That would be fan-tastic!

Rob Pattinson stays warm in cable knit and takes comfort eating his feelings - a generous helping of lobster and corn on the cobb.

• It’s A-OK to drink at 11:01Am - If you asked for a morning cocktail at 10:59am, well the disgrace on your waiter’s face.  In the summer, I think a morning champagne spritzer or prosecco is quite delightful when lunching al fresco.  There are some lovely patios hidden like secret gardens that you could enjoy one of these refreshing afternoon drinkie-drinks such as Hacienda (640 Queen St. West) or The Harbord Room (89 Harbord St.)

Bellini time! Just muddle some raspberries and pop 'em in some champie. But promise me, you'll NEVER ever mix the Moet or Veuve with juice! Drink the good stuff straight.

We drove into NYC as the July 4th fireworks lit the city skyline. Le sigh!

This blog post is alternatively titled “WWCD,” the acryonym broken down as ‘What Would Carrie Do?’ Get that on your very retro, 90’s throwback, nameplate gold necklace, why dontcha?  I love New York.  Do you love New York?  If you don’t, you should!  There is a frenetic energy that underscores the city, a dash of glamour punctuated with personality, heart and grit. 

Classic Carrie: Did you have a nameplate necklace too? I need to find mine...

OMG, do payphones still exist??! Carrie Bradshaw uses a payphone after throwing her cell into the ocean (rage shame spiral) SATC movie

All of my travels to New York are filled with wild adventure and enough sketchy tall tales to fill a screenplay in which incriminating names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. (Ahem, said film would be directed by Wes Anderson, young me played by Vanessa Hudgens, older me Thandie Newton).  While I would love to share all my secrets, my hair would deflate. 

Here are some fun places to see and be seen, that both Carrie and I quite enjoy….

The iconic Manolo Blahnik shoe. Love this blush satin version of the ones that Carrie left in her walk-in closet.

 Manolo Blahnik (31 West 54th Street) –  My friend C dragged me to the store in search of perfect wedding shoes.  Surprisingly, the store is in a tiny brick building (blink and you’ll miss it) with Manolo’s strewn about on ledges and divans like an Upper East side apartment of an aging socialite.  Apparently, the ladies of Manolo need to take a siesta between 2-3pm.  So make sure you go post-haste, guzzle your brunch Mimosa before they shoo-shoo you out of there.  If you are going to spend a wild fortune on shoes, you should languish in a chaise, take your time and try on high heels a la Cinderella.

BOHEMIAN: Free People gives me crochet and tassles for Summer 2012! I'll have a second helping of that.

Shopping in SoHo – I think this neighbourhood (SOuth of HOuston) in Lower Manhattan has such character with its cobblestone streets, funky boutiques, artsy galleries and cafes.  It is a tourist mecca on the weekends but more casual and chilled out on a weekday.  You can get your boho on at Free People or Madewell, max your credit card at the Bloomingdales shoe department, rock leather and lace at All Saints, run into Clinton & Stacy at Scoop NYC or stalk your fave Kardashian at DASH (mine is Khloe for laughs, Kourtney for clothes).

Madewell: Good enough for It/Hipster Poster Girl Alexa Chung.

Buddakan (75 9th Avenue) – This Chelsea supper club was in the engagement dinner scene of the SATC movie.  The Asian fusion menu is tapas style, perfect for sharing and reasonably priced…until your waiter starts free pouring the Grey Goose.  But it’s ok, you’ve had dinner so the hangover won’t be that bad.

Blake Lively's perfectly "done-not done" hairdo. Oh yes, you can add tiny braids - that makes this look even more Summer-y!

Two of my top read posts, EVER of all time is DIY: Sideways Bun, Zero Carbs & Lauren Conrad’s Hair Made Her a Star.  I am very lucky because JC gave me a thick, long, shiny mane and I enjoy styling it in different ways depending on the occasion and the outfit.  Now that the nights are warm, I like to wear my hair in looks that feel ”done-undone.” Very Serena van der Woodsen meets Lana Del Rey.  It’s a sultry look to be sure.

Will you be mine, will you be my baby tonight? If your hair always looked like that, it is doubtful that you'd have Summertime Sadness. Cheesy joke, I know. Lana Del Rey stares meaningfully at you.

DIY Hairdo:  Loose Summer Waves

Step 1. Talk the bottom half of your hair and twist into a low bun at the nape of your neck.  Secure with an elastic.

Step 2.  Taking 2″ sections from the crown of your head and using a large barrel curling iron, curl from the ends to the top of your head.  Hold for 30 seconds for each and pull the curling iron away from your head releasing on the diagonal.  Repeat for all the sections of hair around the crown of your head.

Step 3.  Release the bun and apply a generous coat of hairspray – I like both Pantene Maximum Hold & Elnett Satin.  To define some of the curls, use a tiny dollop of a molding mud like Sebastian Professional, and twist the curls around your fingers.  Don’t go crazy on the molding mud though as you still want your hair to be lightweight and non-greasy.

Step 4.  You can either take your mane and pull it to your left side so that it cascades down your left shoulder naturally or you can take a few bobby pins and affix them to the nape of your neck for added hold. 

Step 5.  Hairspray all over again!  Hairspray happy.  I am. I am.

Wow, you look stunning!  You could technically curl all your hair, but the point of this is to be “done-undone.” To have put in some effort without any major try.  Now, there’s only one thing to do — get your hair tousled!

Don't leave home without it. Elnett comes in a tiny travel size which you can actually take through airport security. Banish post-flight frizzies with your little can of magic.

The guy that tousles my hair on the regular (literally, not figuratively). I mean, my hairstylist looks like Neil Patrick Harris. It's his brother from another mother (figuratively, not literally).

Pin that to your Bad Boy Board titled "Boys & Hair Tousling." Chuck Bass never gets old for me.

A plethora of inspiration boards.

I like to think of myself as a renaissance woman.  Inspiration for me is everywhere but I do have an abundance of sources… 

On Fashion – Working in the industry, I am constantly surrounded by clothes and accessories.  Like a chocoholic in Serendipity.  I have many wonderful fashionistah friends who always have their own distinct personal style.  Brunch is never just brunch — it’s a lookbook.  Reading magazines (my faves are Harper’s Bazaar & Vogue) and fashion blogs will also keep you up to date on how to adapt a trend. 

Whoa gorgessity! Emma Stone covers July Vogue. As far as I'm concerned, it's the fashion bible.

On Beauty – The best resource for beauty is Allure.  I learned how to apply makeup from reading the tutorials, collecting books from Kevyn Aucoin and practicing on my friends.  I still beg them to let me before we go out; but they willingly oblige because I do a fierce smokey eye.  In my early 20’s I visited my first Sephora in Paris.  As you can imagine, the clouds parted, the rays of sunshine beamed down and angels sang ‘Alleluia.’  Then I entered, sprayed glitter in my friends’ hair, sampled eyeshadows and played with lipgloss for two hours.  A heavenly experience.

The glorious Sephora on Les Champs Elysees, Paris.

To Live Well – As a bohogi, it sounds cliche but I value every experience from having sangria with friends to afternoon walks in the park.  I love to travel and experience different cultures, so I constantly look at Conde Nast Traveller and dream of an exotic adventure.  I never know how or when I will get there, but I put it out there and make a plan to go.  The universe always delivers!   

Read more about finding inspiration on living well on BlogHer and don’t forget to enter the Life Well Lived Sweepstakes.

My absolutely favourite museum Caixa Forum in Madrid, Spain. They have installations, documentaries, live performances and an amazing gift shop.

Hottt guy alert in the kitchen: "Since when did breakfast become clothing optional?" I'm a Zade shipper. BTW, you should be watching Hart of Dixie. Trust.

Lord, help meaaah!  I’m not good with heat but I will take a scorcher to a blizzard any day.  Keeping one’s cool is definitely the goal during these warm summer nights.  I take Summer very seriously – like make the most of it, be prepared for any social situation and take advantage of the warm weather to change multiple times in a day. 

Remember, I’m the girl whose Resort attire disproportionately rivals her work/casual.  Haha.  Laughing at my own joke.  I do that. 

• Never Leave Home Without Your Bikini – As in my mother once said…  Actually, she never said that but I always bring a bikini in my purse or wear one under my maxidress on a hot day.  You never know if someone is going to invite you to an impromptu pool party, ask to meet you by the beach or you accidentally stumble upon a hottt tub.  Think like a Girl Guide.

Flowers, Bandeau & Ruffles??!!! Three of my favourite things in one Ella Moss Bandeau Bikini

• Return of the bustier – In an effort to maintain my youthful karma reverting to dressing like a 20 yr old, I am bringing back the bustier, and her cousin the bandeau.  My favourite are sweetheart necklines which accentuate your form.  These are great for less curvy girls as they add some extra shape.  The bandeau is lovely paired with a flowy chiffon maxi skirt — I support this look for ladies with great abs (do it for the rest of us).

The cousin of the bustier, the bandeau. If you feel more modest, you can layer with a loose fitting cotton tank top. Free People Lace Bandeau in Limoncello. Citrus-y!

• 3pm is Smoothie time – Now that it’s Summer and we’re wearing less clothes, let’s detox and shape up.  A seasonal change is the best time to get your cute @ss back to the gym and start eating healthy.  They say that it is essential to eat at 3pm to stave off hunger and reduce that dreaded sugar high-low.  A refreshing treat is a seasonal fruit smoothie which is filling, nutricious and delicious!  Note: I did not say Frappucino with extra whip and caramel.

Say yes to DIY smoothies: You make them even healthier by incorporating bananas (high in potassium), blueberries (anti-oxidants), coconut water (hydrating) and of course your favourite fruits!