Does it really have to end?!

Tonight at midnight marks a bittersweet end to a decade of magic and mischief from our favorites wizards and witches at Hogwarts.

In celebration of this monumental occasion, I decided to pick 5 of my favorite scenes from all 7 films, thus far. Apologies in advance for the video quality, etc...who knew so many HP videos on YouTube would have embedding disabled!?! You get the idea though :)

Harry, Ron and Hermione's first meeting on the train on their way to Hogwarts for the first time in Sorcerer's Stone

Harry and Hermione using the time turner to save Buckbeak, et al in Prisoner of Azkaban

The Yule Ball, where we see all the kids all decked out in fancy dress in the Goblet of Fire

When Harry takes the Felix Felicis potion in the Half-Blood Prince

Harry and Hermione's heart-breaking dance (I know this isn't in the books...sue me!) in the Deathly Hallows Part 1

My tickets for tomorrow night are purchased and my tissues are in hand. Are yours?

Until next time... xo

It's been too long...

Hello Blogosphere! It's been about million years since we've seen each other. I blame it on the craziness that is the summer of weddings. But I'm back and happy to get back to what I love - sharing my thoughts with you all!

Since I haven't posted in a while, I figured I'd ease my way back with a top 5 list of what I'm currently obsessing over - from TV to fashion to books. Ready, set, go!

Pretty Little Liars

Currently my favorite, guiltiest pleasure, Pretty Little Liars brings us some of the most fun entertainment of the summer. Currently in season 2, and no closer to finder out who the hell A is!, the ladies of Rosewood, PA more than curb my evening soaps craving while the rest are on summer break. If you aren't watching, you probably should be.

The Glitter Guide

Ever since Refinery29 has an article on local SF fashion bloggers, I've become obsessed with finding inspiration from Bay Area fashionistas (you can see some of my faves in my "What I'm Reading" section to your right). I have been loving the frequent tumblr posting's on http://theglitterguide.tumblr.com/ so I couldn't wait until the actual Glitter Guide launch...which it did a few weeks ago and I LOVE it. Check it out! http://theglitterguide.com/

2011 - The Year of Weddings

Between May and October I am attending up to 9 weddings - acting as a bridesmaid in one (picture above - check out some more beautiful pics from that wedding here) and maid of honor in another. Due to this, I have become obsessed with all things weddings. From browsing J Crew, ShopBop and BHLDN constantly to find dresses to checking out wedding blogs (http://www.stylemepretty.com/ and http://mapevents.wordpress.com/ are faves) to help brides with inspiration, I feel as though I've become an accidental wedding expert. Which I must say, I don't mind at all!

The one and only Cat Deeley's new web series In The Dressing Room

I've never been shy about my obsession with So You Think You Can Dance's hostess with the mostest Cat Deeley (both her sparkling presence and amazing fashion sense). So I was beyond excited when she announced she would be having a behind the scenes web series about how she styles herself for each new episode. She really needs to win an Emmy or something (eat your heart out, Ryan Seacrest!)! Check out the whole series thus far here.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

I had been reading on entertainment news sites about casting for some new big movie based on a young adult book series and I thought to myself, I suppppppppppppose I should check them out, just so that I'm in the know. And, let me tell you, I'm so glad that I did. Completely addicting and disgustingly shocking, I quickly became obsessed with the books (reading all 3 in about a week) and cannot wait until the movie comes out in March. Read them, you won't be disappointed. I wonder what the next YA trilogy will be...

There you have it. My top 5 obsessions of the moment. Of course, I hate to leave out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 BUT I would feel remiss not dedicating an entire post to that, so stay tuned...

Until next time... xo

"We're in business baby, the pilot's on."

It's been a very busy week in TV land. All the networks had their upfronts over the past week and announced not only their Fall 2011 Primetime lineups, but also which pilots they picked up. There are quite a few that I'm excited about so I figured I'd go ahead and post the trailers and let you decide what you think.

Here they are (listed by day of the week)!

Hart of Dixie - Mondays @ 9 on the CW

Ringer - Tuesdays @ 8 on the CW

Up All Night - Wednesdays @ 8 on NBC

Free Agents - Wednesdays @ 8:30 on NBC

And coming midseason:

Apartment 23 - on ABC

Awake - on NBC

There you have it. I am so excited to see so many of my favorites in these new shows. Christina Applegate is always amazing. I've always loved Sarah Michelle Gellar, even before my Buffy obsession. Rachel Bilson was arguably the best part of the OC. And Krysten Ritter is so fantastic and really should be a lot more famous than she is. Hopefully at least a few of these actually turn out to be good and make it through their rookie seasons. Is it Fall yet?!

For the full Fall 2011 schedule click HERE.

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Jerry Seinfeld, "Seinfeld"

"Spotted on the steps of the Met: an S and B power struggle."

Sarah Burton is having a crazy busy Spring, isn't she? Not only did she custom design multiple wedding dresses for Kate Middleton (excuse me, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge) and her sister, Pippa (how AMAZING did she look in her white gown for the ceremony?), she, as the Creative Director of Alexander McQueen again had all eyes on her this evening at the 2011 Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala, Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty.

The Met Gala, also known as the Oscars of the East Coast or the Super Bowl of Fashion, always serves as a sartorial highlight of the year. I'll admit that I was glued to my computer, refreshing my fashion blogs constantly trying to catch a glimpse of my favorite stars dressed to the nines. While I'm surprised there wasn't more McQueen catching my eye (I do tend to LOVE him on the red carpet), my eyeballs were still treated to some luxurious, envy-inducing gowns on some of the most beautiful ladies of Hollywood.

Here are my favorites, in no particular order:

Coco Rocha in Alexander McQueen

Isla Fisher in Tory Burch

Evan Rachel Wood in Gucci

Bar Rafaeli in Reem Acra

Dianna Agron in Michael Kors

Zoe Saldana in Calvin Klein

Penelope Cruz in Oscar de la Renta

Nicole Richie in Jason Wu

Margherita Missoni in Missoni

Lea Michele in Escada

Kristen Stewart in Proenza Schouler

Gwyneth Paltrow in Stella McCartney

Gisele Bundchen in Alexander McQueen

Diane Kruger in Jason Wu

Ashley Greene in Donna Karan

Seeing all these stunning gowns has really gotten me excited to glam it up this summer at all the weddings I'm attending. I wonder if any of these designers would want to lend their dresses to me... What do you think the chance of that would be?

Maybe I'll have a chance to visit the exhibit when I'm in New York next month. If nothing else, the Balenciaga exhibit at the De Young Museum here in San Francisco.

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Gossip Girl, "Gossip Girl"

"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"