"Silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things."

I have been a bit remiss lately about regularly updating my blog. I've been spending some time deciding which direction I'd like to take it and, as you can see, doing a bit of a design makeover, which is still a work in progress. Anyway, rather than doing a single focused post today, and since I'm on occasion asked about this, I decided to give you all a glimpse of some of the things I've been obsessing over lately.

What will Kate Middleton be wearing for her BIG DAY?!?!

I am not ashamed to admit I have caught Royal Wedding fever. And as someone who loves fashion, not to mention beautiful wedding gowns, I am dying to see what the soon-to-be princess will be wearing upon her arrival to Westminster Abbey in a few hours. I've heard her mother, sister and bridesmaids are all wearing Alice Temperley for Temperley London, who I love, so maybe she will be, too? I'd say the chances are pretty high.

UPDATE!!:

Looks like Sarah Burton designed Kate's, or Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, custom Alexander McQueen gown (her sister Pippa's Maid of Honor dress, as well). I think she looks stunning and timeless.

The 2011 Met Costume Institute Gala is just a few days away!

The New York Met's Costume Institute Gala never disappoints me. It will be taking place May 2, and hosted by none other than Anna Wintour (with the help of Colin Firth and Salma Hayek) and I cannot wait to see who wears what. Considering the exhibit is called, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, I'm sure there will be a lot of McQueen on the red carpet.

Madewell is FINALLY coming to San Francisco!

As one of my favorite stores since I discovered it while living in LA a few years ago, I have been waiting patiently for a Madewell to grace the halls of San Francisco Center (or Union Square, or Union/Chestnut/Fillmore Streets). I'm not really a huge fan of online shopping (blasphemy, I know) and the last time I was in LA (and forced my friend to go to Century City Mall just so I could go to Madewell) it was closed!! so I was so thrilled to read that there was FINALLY one opening here.

San Francisco is becoming a fashion hub? It's about time!

I love a good fashion blog and I've been so excited over the past few weeks to discover some local gems in a world of predominantly New Yorkers and Angelenos. Here's a few local fashion blogs that have become a part of my daily must-read list:

Refinery 29 (Be sure to check out their San Francisco section!)

Cheetah is the New Black

Atlantic - Pacific

Even though fashion has been taking up the majority of the obsessive portion of my brain lately, I do still love discovering new TV shows and seeing trailers for new movies that I cannot wait to see.

Does it really have to end?!?

The new (and final...tissues, please!) Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, looks absolutely amazing. There really isn't anything to say beyond: Is it July 15th yet?

There really are better singing competitions than Idol!

I am a huge Christina Aguilera fan, and a Maroon 5 fan (don't judge me!), so a singing competition with Christina, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton coaching incredibly talented singers seemed like such a great concept to me. The fact that they skip the initial audition process and only show us actually talented people (are you as over feeling embarassed by the awful auditions on AI as I am?) is so refreshing. I never wanted to skip over any of the blind auditions! Check it out on Tuesday nights and see for yourself how fun this show is!

I suppose that's all for now. I could probably go on and on boring you all with tons of other things, but I won't. Stay tuned for much more fashion (Royal Wedding recap and Met Ball faves) and entertainment coming your way!

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Maria, "The Sound of Music"

"No, please don't kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!"

I have to be honest with you all for a minute. I am more than a little bit excited about tomorrow's release of the long-awaited Scream 4. Something wonderful about Spring is that all the fun movies start to come out. Over the next few months there are quite a few movies that I'm dying to see (can't open soon enough!) and I figured I'd share my top 4 with you.

Scream 4 (or should I say "SCRE4M")

I'm not a huge fan of the horror genre. I prefer Shaun of the Dead over Dawn of the Dead, but Scream has always been able to combine the comedy with the off-the-wall horror to create intensely entertaining movies. Now, I'll be the first to admit 2 and 3 weren't nearly as great as the original, but I still love every minute of watching them (even though they give me nightmares still!). When it was announced that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson were teaming up again for a new Scream movie, as well as Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, I couldn't wait for it to come to the theaters. Plus, it cameos from some of my favorite TV stars from the past few years (Friday Night Light's Aimee Teegarden, Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell, True Blood's Anna Paquin, Pretty Little Liars' Lucy Hale, The OC's Adam Brody to name a few)! Is it wrong of me to hope one of the original 3 is the killer? Or maybe all of them!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I have such bittersweet feelings about this movie coming out. I cannot wait to see how it all plays out (I have been practically holding my breath since the final scene of Part 1) but I am also so sad that this is the final one and there will be no more to look forward to. Since going to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone with my mother back in 2001, getting to read a new Harry Potter book or see a new Harry Potter movie every year is something I truly have loved over the past 10 years. I can say with confidence that the first part of the "Deathly Hallows" was my favorite of all the movies, and I cannot wait to see the culmination of the past 7 years at Hogwarts.

Water for Elephants

Another book being made into a movie that I'm really interested in seeing (Rob Pattinson must really love making movies out of books!). I had heard by friends and by perusing the internet that Water for Elephants was a MUST READ book. When I received my Kindle for Christmas, it was the first book I downloaded. It wasn't my favorite book ever, but I really enjoyed it and it was an interesting story with a colorful setting and characters. Plus, Christoph Waltz was so amazing in Inglorious Basterds that I figured it would be a treat to see him as the villain again in this movie.

Bridesmaids

I must say, I'm pretty surprised that it's taken 2 years for a "Hangover-for-girls" to come out. While when I heard about this I basically thought, REALY!? and just assumed it would be terrible, once I saw the trailer my mind changed. First of all, I love Kristen Wiig, I love Maya Rudolph and I love Melissa McCarthy. Second of all, being a bridesmaid is such a unique experience and is such an easy thing to make a hilarious movie about. What can I say? I love a good wedding comedy! Blame on all the weddings I've been in and to.

Yay for new movies! I really hope that I actually get out to see these in the theater. I already have this Sunday booked to see Scream and I cannot wait.

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Tatum , "Scream"

"The first rule of eye makeup is that you can never wear enough blue eye shadow."

Every girl loves make up, so when my fabulous hair stylist Ron Pernell suggested I come in to his studio to check out the cosmetics line he carries, Becca Cosmetics, and get a free makeover, how could I possibly refuse? Plus, with the new season upon us, it's always a great idea to try and find new spring/summer ready makeup.

Here's how it all went down:

I showed up clean-faced on a sunny Saturday afternoon ready to be made over. Ron immediately sat me down with his wonderful colleague Heath to be made beautiful...they had their work cut out for them (don't worry...I won't startle you all with the before picture)!

Now here's what I love about Becca Cosmetics. I'm a pretty low maintenance gal when it comes to my makeup. During the week I'll usually just do foundation, blush, mascara, lipgloss and be done. If I'm feeling particularly fancy, I'll do a teeny bit of cream eyeshadow or eyeliner. For night's out, I up the volume a bit with more eyeshadow and dark eyeliner, but I still tend to keep it on the natural side (don't let the title of this post fool you! I don't ACTUALLY believe that you can never wear too much blue eyeshadow). I was drawn to the look of their catalog and display...very natural, highlighting rather than covering up, subtle beauty. You can see that immediately when visiting their site : http://www.beccacosmetics.com/

"The whole philosophy of BECCA is about creating a natural, flawless look. It's really about skin looking amazing - everything else is secondary."
- Rebecca Morrice Williams, Founder

One of the main reasons Ron was drawn to this line was the fact that it had a wide range of natural colors so that it would work perfectly for women of every skin tone, which in culturally diverse cities like SF and LA, where he has studios, is an important thing.

Let's get to the make over, shall we? We started with the primer, which is a MUST I've discovered, in order to keep makeup from disappearing halfway through the day - a problem I'm all too familiar with. From there we added the Lumionous Skin Colour Foundation (with SPF 25, which is so important!) and the Stick Foundation to cover up my "problem" areas. Next up, we covered my lids with their #1 seller, Quartz Cream Eyeshadow, and added definition with a darker Cream Eyeshadow. I'm a huge fan of cream eyeshadows, so I loved that they had a lot of options to choose from.

Then we added a teeny bit of the Jewel Dust just to add a little extra definition to the look. Next, which I found pretty cool, we used the 2-sided Line + Illuminate pencil to line my upper lids and illuminate my lower. And then, of course, finished off the eyes with lots of mascara. In my opinion, the more mascara the better, as long as it doesn't get clumpy, which this didn't. Then the icing on the cake (the cake being my face) added some Cream Blush to give me some much needed color and the most important, Glossy Lip Tint . Have a gander at the finished product here:

Now, obviously I wasn't able to try every single one of the products in the line, but I did get to play around with some post-makeover. Probably one of my favorite things is the all in one Beach Tint. It's a lipgloss, cream blush and cream eyeshadow all in one, which is super ideal for someone who loves no-nonsense beauty, such as myself.

Because Ron is the stand up guy that he is, he wants to allow my readers to get a special deal on this amazing make up line. The first 5 of you to purchase anything from the line from him will receive a 10% discount AND the first 5 of you to come in for your very own makeover (he also does makeup tutorials!) will receive 20% off! Sounds like a great deal to me.

Visit his studio in downtown San Francisco here:

Ron Pernell Studio

10 Mint Plaza, 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

Or call him with any questions or to schedule an appointment here:

415-543-5201

http://www.ronpernellstudio.com/appointments.html

Trust me. I walked away with lots of goodies and I guarantee these will become staples in my makeup box!

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Shelly DeVoto, "My Girl"