The DC JCAs Go Legal

Saturday night, a group of DC JCAs decided to gather for dinner, even though it was technically a few days before the next JC release. Plus it was Slastena's birthday (see her post here - I feel honored to be a part of the best birthday ever). And we do love to celebrate...

Let me say, first of all, major kudos to Legal Seafood at Tysons Galleria. I love them anyway because they have the best rolls and they are the *only* place around here where I can reliably find steamer clams on a regular basis - and they are probably my fave seafood ever from years of eating them at the Lake in CT when we would visit my grandparents. It was the Friday night standard...steamers out on the big picnic table, overlooking the lake.

But back to Legal...we had originally planned to meet at Coastal Flats at regular Tysons until I called and the hostess told me that they can't accommodate a party of 9 at 1 table. So we pretty much switched to Legal at the 11th hour. When Rosa and I got there at 4:30, they were able to give us a table for 9 at 5:00, our meeting time. Then, when Slastena arrived with 2 more friends in tow, they expanded our table - graciously and smoothly and without complaint.

Summerilla needed to be gluten-free. Not only did they have a gluten-free menu, they had gluten-free rolls, the manager served her food personally just to assure there was no cross-contamination, and she even had gluten-free croutons on her Caesar salad. (See her post for pics.)

Then Cleo had some issues with her fish being overdone, and they were actually, *gasp*, interested and concerned. Speaking of Cleo, she (finally) just started her own blog, which we are all very excited about. Check out Trousseau Adventures here.

And at the end of dinner....the checks...yes, I just said "checks." With an "s" at the end. The waitress, without us asking, gave us all separate checks (except for me & dinagideon, since we split the Dover sole). How easy for us!!!

So again, not to fawn too much over the restaurant, but steamers & rolls aside, that was one of the best customer experiences I've had in a while. Bravo! I'll definitely be back.

Outfit-wise...charcoal cashmere turtleneck, black TALL Minnies (how I adore thee), gray fireball beaded necklace (aka the Ugly Betty necklace), gray beaded bracelet, clementine pearl garden bracelet, and Born Lovely flats. Comfy outfit for the evening. And blah, blah, blah...back to the outing.

And what JCA meal is complete without a little shopping? After dinner, we headed right across the hall to J Crew, natch. Once in, dinagideon spied the Crystal Rock Necklace discussed, I mean dissed, on the mothership last week. (#26074, $128) Well, of course she had to try it on. Not only were the proportions *perfect* on her frame, but the colors were absolutely gorgeous with her outfit. Simply stunning in person, the picture doesn't even do it justice. Granted, if we put this on darling, petite Rosa, she might have tipped over. But don't let me talk you into it...dinagideon is hoping you stay far, far away so that this necklace will go on sale and she can scoop it up for a deal. Now shoo...all of you.

The canvas shopping totes were hot items for purchase this time. Me? I picked up an Anthropologie top on sale that I tried on when Rosa and I popped in there before dinner.

And of course, there's always time for a group picture after shopping...

From left, Cleo, Kelly, Rosa in DC, 3-Penny Princess, dinagideon, me, Summerilla, Drewablank.

Thanks for a great evening, ladies!!

Polyvore from Saturday:

02/20/10 by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew

...And How Have You Been?

Whew...December starts at a full gallop, no? I feel so lame, constantly apologizing for the absences - and oh, am I reaping what I sow because I have so much blog reading to catch up on...

But here's the thing...the holidays are meant to be a time of joy, of family, of love, of fun, of peace, of reflection, of giving, of just being in the moment. They are not supposed to be a time of rushing, craziness, aggravation, frustration, getting sick, missing out on the small moments, and all of the bad stuff that we often associate with the holiday season.



Oh, the wisdom of Linus...So I have vowed to *not* let Christmas get me crazy this year. I am not going to over-do, over-buy, over-commit, over-party, over-spend, over-eat. That "over-commit" part? Harder even than the over-spend part. And so, I have been pretty absent in the blogosphere for the past week as I was decorating and working and mothering and all that. Bear with me...and in the New Year, maybe my resolution will be better & more active blogging, hehe. (that would be easier to keep than others)

What else has been going on? The fabulous bichonluvr headed up to MD last week and we met up at (where else?) my local JC to shop a bit and then have lunch. It was so fun to meet her IRL and hang out. And 6 degrees of separation and all that, it turns out that the only other person she knows in MD is the husband of one of M's teachers since they went to high school together in a whole other state. Small world, indeed. I figured we'd have some sort of Richmond connection, since that's my hometown...but no, the Maryland connection. She was so fab and so fun - and it was a great afternoon!!

And otherwise most of the rest of the week was work, helping out at school, and decorating for Christmas. (All done but the tree - which is up, waiting for hubby to get back from business trip so we can decorate it Wed night.)

But...fun fun fun...work holiday party on Thursday. (and getting to dress up is, yes, still part of the fun) I got to wear the fantastic JC wool shift dress that the equally fantastic dinagideon gifted me that I also wore here. For the holiday party, I wore the dress solo, with tights & heels and then added some gold & gray sparkle. The Ugly Betty gray fireball necklace (retail only), the gray beaded bracelet (again, retail only), and the clementine garden pearl bracelet. Plus the Dina hoops. I loved the gold/gray mix of thew jewelry and the 2 bracelets really complemented the necklace, IMO. (and when Patina asked if I'd been "patinalized", I knew the jewelry was spot on...)

Looking at this picture made me realize I really needed to trim my bangs...so I did the next day since my hair cut got cancelled. But I do need to reschedule that hair cut as I am finding myself sporting a ponytail more often than usual...and that's always my sign that I need a cut!

Polyvore from Thursday:


12/3/09 by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew

Items in this set:
J Crew Wool Shift Dress
80 Den Opaque Tights, 6 GBP
Movado Two-tone Watch, $600
Large 18K Yellow Gold Hoop Earrings - Forzieri, $449
Women's Cotton Sweaters & Cardigans - J.Crew, $75

So...how have you been?

Like the Tango Tank Actually Needs *More* Layers...

Told you I would be catching up... starting with today's outfit.

Ok, totally honest...I was going to just go with my tissue turtleneck and Chico's boyfriend jeans with a statement necklace to break up all the blue. (you know me and my simple, I mean, classic, outfits.) But then I thought...what if I added a statement top...on top? I know the tango tank will be just fantastic in spring & summer, but I'd like to try to wear it more now since 1 - it's cute, 2 - I like the shape and thinks it's pretty figure flattering, and 3 - trying to use what I have and stop buying all new stuff, you know.

So, attempt #1 at layering with the tango tank. (I have a M in both of these tops, btw.) Navy tissue turtle under the gray tango tank. Then gray fireball necklace, Dina hoops, and gilded daisy ring. And navy patent flats.

What did I think of this outfit? Ummmm, ok. It looks a little heavier in the picture than I thought it did IRL. Maybe that's because my hair is down. I actually think this would have worked much better with hair up. And I kept feeling like I should be layering a navy blazer on top for some reason...hmmm, I'll have to work on that since I don't actually have one.

Next time, I'll try this with a regular tee underneath. Have you done any creative layering with your tango tank?

Polyvore of today's outfit:

11/25/09 by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew

Items in this set:
J Crew top, $50
J Crew top, $40
Current/Elliott jeans, 243 GBP
Maloles flats, $130
Forzieri earrings, $449

A Little Fun with Blogging...And Some Blogging Questions

I will be trying to do some catchup blogging this afternoon, and since I'm not planning to take my laptop when we head to the river for Thanksgiving, I'll probably advance-post it so it trickles in over the next few days.

Sometimes I'm good about blogging. Sometimes I'm slack about blogging. I know, I know. I just tell myself that I'm saving people's Google Readers from getting over-clogged. (yep, that's right...I do it just for you...)

How do you handle it when you get too overloaded? Do you stop blogging? Do you stop reading other blogs? Commenting on other blogs? I am still trying to find the balance here. Because I do enjoy blogging, but I don't feel it's right to just blog and not ever read/comment on other blogs. And when I'm not reading, I do miss all the other bloggers I read. And I seem to just keep adding blogs to read (they're all so goooood!) But most important to me is for it to be fun. I never wanted blogging to feel like a chore or something I *had* to do.

There's fun to be had in the daily outfit posting (which I realize has dwindled to weekly outfit posting...)

Fortuantely, the shoes didn't really matter that day... They weren't the killer detail in the outfit - not that there really was one. (real quick - cashmere femme sweater from last year, chico's jeans, ON cami, gray ribbon fireball necklace - retail-only) I don't even think I Polyvored this outfit since I still don't have the necklace on PV, so here it is for the clipping...

Winnie Love

The J Crew Winnie coat (#16729, $245)...just pure deliciousness. This yellow - the "bright butternut"? How can you not just love it?! I have been in love with this coat since I tried it on back in August. And just as sure about that fact that I just couldn't quite justify paying full price when I already have a closet full of coats. So I was fully resigned to the fact that the Winnie would probably not be mine...at least not until many months later on a lucky popback.

Then, out of the blue, I got a call from the dear and darling dinagideon, who had just scored Winnies (bbu, natch) for both of us and the fabuloso JC clearance center in Arden, NC. Here is her full post on this little patch of JCA nirvana, as well as her other may-jah scores. So, $90 for the Winnie? Oh yes, please. Isn't she a doll?

Let's talk about the fit of the jacket. I have an 8. Yes, imagine my surprise that there was enough room in the shoulders in the 8. And the sleeves are pleny long - no cold wrists in my future. And for you JCAs with the smaller frames, it does come in petites as well. Oh, and it also comes in navy, and I am a huge navy fan, but this may be the one case where I just go "Navy? Whatever..."

I think the jacket works fine buttoned or open. So far the most I have layered underneath is a merino turtle, but it seemed plenty roomy. And the jacket is so warm, I think my medium weight sweaters will be just fine with it, and keep me toasty (i.e., cambridge cable turtle, cashmere long sleeve tee, etc.)

So what do you wear with Winnies? Well, Minnies, duh... Ok, they actually go with everything. As you can see in the pic above, the beauty of this coat is that it jazzes up anything you put underneath it. And with my usual classic, simple style, it's perfection. I get so many compliments every time I wear it. Walking around Annapolis this past weekend, I had people asking about my coat every time I stopped. Then again, it is a "Navy" color. (Go Navy, Beat Army!)

But for my inaugural Winnie outing, I went with a black bateau neck long sleeve tee from Target (last year) and skinny jeans & ballet flats. And a way cute retail only gray ribbon necklace with gray stone fireballs. dinagideon got the same necklace and I have one waiting for Summerilla when she stops by on Saturday. (she's going to a baby shower at the clubhouse at my pool, how random is that?) Dina got pics of Ugly Betty wearing it - how fun is that?


And I can't end the post without this note - anyone else think "Winnie the Pooh" when they see this coat? Seriously? The color? The name? If you have kids and you didn't make the connection, then you have no soul. Or Disney is coming to haunt you. I kid, I kid.

Polyvore from Winnie (the Pooh)'s first outing:

11/10/09 by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew

Items in this set:
J Crew t shirt, $32
J Crew jacket, $245
Chicos.com jeans, $69
Target.com flats, $20
J Crew tote bag, $150

Now I just need that black bucket hat to go with it...