Have You Met My Husband??

I just want to take a minute to talk about my husband, Mr. Benjamin Soto.

I'm almost 2 years into this blog and I still think of it as just a conversation between my friends and I. I often forget that there are countless strangers passing by, and though I truly consider my readers my friends- I realize that many of you don't know me in "real life".

That being said, you don't know much about my husband and I often just assume that you do.

Those of you who DO know me, feel free to skip this post because I'm sure you're tired of my gushing about Ben by now. ;)

Ben is a ridiculously talented ______. I don't want to say graphic designer or artist or t-shirt designer or inventor or painter... he's all of those things and more. He's currently working at Disney as the art director of a new cartoon show.

ANYWAY-

My Benjamin does things like this, just for fun:

He is so silly! I was in NY when he sent this little doodle over and it just made me so happy!

Then- he does things like this:

Yep. He takes pictures of his outfits every day. (hopefully he forgives me for showing this!)

He doesn't do it for blogging purposes, he just does it. I had no idea he was doing it until I heard the timer beeping on the camera one morning (he leaves the house super early while I'm sleeping) and went to investigate. BUSTED! He has tons of them too. Amazing.

Check out his website! www.benjaminsoto.com You'll probably be surprised at how much he's done that you'll recognize.

Just wanted to give a little shout out to my baby. Here are some of my favorite pictures of us...

Skeleton Arm and a Leg

OMG. When I blogged about that amazing piece yesterday I had NO idea it could ever cost so much!

Thanks to reader Amanda for sending me the link to this:

First of all- It's even more beautiful than I originally thought. It's amazing! But still, at an almost $30,000 I can't even imagine ever owning it.

It does however, make this amazing (100% more wearable) skull and bone themed necklace by Wendy Brandes seem much more attainable!

I WILL own this someday. I will I will...

~~~~~~~~~~ ♥ ~~~~~~~~~~

Oh wait... what's that you say? Import fees and shipping are INCLUDED in the price???

Well then, that's a different story! How kind of you Luisaviaroma!! I'll take two!

What's the most you've ever paid for an amazing piece of jewelry??

Pirate Skulls and Bones...

I saw this in Vogue Nippon (I think) and effing love it. I can't read Japanese so I don't know where to get it or who makes it but I'd love to rock this with like, a super girly dress boots. All 90's style.

yay!

You like?? Too much?? Read Japanese?

Me on Your TV?

Yep- that was me!

Thanks to everyone who emailed, texted, and Facebooked me last night to tell me they thought they saw me on TV. I was out to dinner with our friends the Walkers, when both Christie's and my cell phone starting blowing up at about 8:10pm (Christie was with me at the taping).

I just got around to watching it and I am somewhere between embarrassed and excited. Probably embarrassed that I'm excited...

Here is the first shot of Christie and I... I was surprised to see myself on TV for a good solid 4 seconds (14 minutes and 56 seconds to go?) looking bored and tired- which I was NOT, even after a long 4 hour shooting time. Even though they showed it in the beginning, this was shot towards the end... but anyway, here I am. They told us not to look into the camera but it looks like I kind of am? With my right eye anyway.

THEN... after the first or second commercial break- there I am again, only this time I look happy and it was a a quick second.

Did I mention I love Cat Deely? Well I do. And here she is looking stunning, and ever so leggy as usual in a Christopher Kane for Topshop dress.

And Mary Murphy... as charmingly annoying as usual.

My sister was on too! Aint she cute!? Haaaay sissy!

And finally- a couple more shots at the end...

It was a fun day, though super tiring. We went to Swingers after for some vegan nachos (amazing) and way too many french fries!

I learned an important lesson for anyone living in the greater Los Angeles area... if you're on a TV show where they show the audience, and you may be on... try less mouth open "woooooooo"ing and more smiling and clapping.

HI MOM!

(sweater- JCrew, top- Joie, shorts- F21,)

Secretly Slutty!

I call this Marc by Marc Jacobs top my secretly slutty top. From the front you see me and you say to your self... "Wow, what a nice wholesome girl. I'll bet she has strong moral character and great values!"

Then, you pass me and turn to look at my seemingly modest derriere when WHAM!

Slut.

The girl you thought was just a sweet fully clothed member of society is a harlot. A back skin showing degenerate. (you may need to click the image to get the full effect)

Ok not really. Isn't it cute!? I love little surprises like that! And best of all- I got it on sale at the Marc store in Hong Kong! YAY!

Here's a little dance for you....

1 2 3... kick!

(top- Marc by Marc, skirt and belt- Urban Outfitters, shoes- LAMB)

And yes- I'm wearing flats which technically I do not condone, but I secretly love these a lot.

Hey... at least they're not crocs?

Sketching All Day...

I've been sketching all dang day and will continue to do so tomorrow and I'm pretty burned out.

Sometimes I like to sketch things that I know won't get made, like this spiky boot with metal toe. It's nice to kind of doodle mindlessly to keep from wanting to shoot myself.

Anway- I rarely post sketches so I thought I would.

When I'm designing shoes I pull inspiration from shoes I like. For this boot, I thought of these types of shoes and pulled elements from them.

... Just an example of how it works for me in case you wondered. I think it's always interesting to see people's process.
I love when I'm out shopping vintage stores and then months later I see a shoe "inspired" by a shoe I liked in the store, only on a runway with another designer's name on them. You may be surprised at how often it happens. ;)

Now back to the drawing board...

Bunnies and Kitties and Unicorns!

While online shopping for my Fifi Lapin top at Forever 21, I came upon this sweet little satin dress. I can't believe the quality of it for a mere $29.00!! It has this great vintage silhouette and adorable print. I love it.

(dress- F21, shoes- Christian Louboutin, lips- NARS)

Ahhh so cute! I love cutsie little animals!

Oh, and hello! Have you met my friends Maggie? Officially the coolest shoes on the block. Plus if someone gets out of hand I can REALLY hurt them with these toes! (including myself by the way) They are definitely NOT comfortable, which really bums me out... but they're pretty enough to save for non walking special occasions. ;)

How dumb is that? Haha.

By the way... do you guys like the new layout???

xox

Fifi Lapin at F21!

I was so excited when my friend Jen told me about these adorable Fifi Lapin tops at Forever 21, I had to have one!

I also busted out these Betsey Johnson oxford pumps. Oldies but goodies! I can't believe I almost forgot about these!

Fifi makes a girl want to spin...

Look at my crotch Stella!? Haha.

I'm going to make an updated version of these in my upcoming Betsey line. Girls always love a good oxford pump!

NYC for FREE??

I love contests and giveaways and frankly, wish I got to do more of them (hint hint to whoever is in charge of those!) so I'm happy to share this pretty amazing one with you guys :)

The people at Rowenta are giving away a trip to New Your for Fashion week in February 2010!! Including airfare, 3 nights in a hotel, plus meals and a makeover package worth $1000!! Yippee!

This prize is valued at almost $5000. Awesome.

Just go here and enter!! GOOD LUCK!

Me and Wendy B

So I was in NY last week for a Betsey Johnson meeting and while I was there I had the pleasure of taking the beautiful and talented Wendy Brandes on a date. ;)

Well... she was my date to the FFANY and QVC Shoes on Sale event anyway.

My camera was dead and Wendy's was halfway there so we only got ONE picture together in which I look like an over excited weirdo... which I kind of am I suppose.

If you guys think she's cute and sassy on her blog, you should meet her. So much fun and impossibly gorgeous!

Wendy wore this Jean-Charles de Castelbajac motorcycle-zipper dress and vintage motorcycle jacket...

I wore this amazing D&G dress (thanks for the dress loan Amita!!) and my favorite new YSLs, plus the chains I had been wearing all day and my leather jacket.

I laughed when I met Wendy at the bar and we both had our bad ass jackets on. I should have known we were in for a good night. ;)

At the shoe event we rocked out to a loungy version of Gold Digger, ate semi crappy hors d'oeuvres and made fun of bad footwear and old shoe dogs (a term given to men who have worked in the shoe biz for years)

Wendy met my dad and a few other dudes from Titan- all of whom made sure to let me know how pretty they thought my friend was.

Then it was off to Matsuri for some sushi and gossip. We ordered WAY too much... as the Germans say, our eyes were bigger than our stomaches. Hahaha

Good times. I'm very excited for our next adventure together.

And in case you were wondering- I am wearing my bra on my head as I write this post. It's just been one of those weeks so far. Don't believe me? I'll prove it-

xoxo