Shopping - National Archives

so long for now!

I read a quote recently that went something like this: "There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop your story." Those words spoke to me, because that's exactly what I'm doing with my beloved blog. I've received dozens of sweet notes over...

in Shopping - National

chopped

I'm a sucker for gizmos. Especially for kitchen gizmos. Especially for kitchen gizmos that chop things up into perfectly beautiful, symmetrical chunks, dices, and rounds. This might have something to do with my youth, when my mother--an artist and a perfectionist--would ask me to cut up...

in Home Design, Shopping - National

in a huff

Wrote a story for the Weddings section of Huffington Post this week called The Top 10 Beauty Products Every Bride Should Have In Her Bag. Want to know something? I own and use them all. (And I haven't been a new bride since...

in Beauty, Shopping - National

punch it up

Being a Seattleite (read: It rains a lot here), I’m always a sucker for those bright, happy, spring clothes that start showing up in March and April. And I buy them, all the while thinking to myself, If I wear them, it will come. (Sun—not...

in Fashion, Shopping - National

gelling with this mani…

When I was growing up, a really revolutionary manicure was...

in Beauty, Shopping - National

oh joy

The Grinch may have stolen Christmas, but you'll want to steal these DIY holiday ideas...

in Food, Home Design, Shopping - National

hold on!

So I’m at a national sales meeting for a major hair-care company a few weeks ago, where, in the name of beauty research, I’m ushered into a series of “sessions” (code for: my turn to hear really technical industry explanations of all the new products,...

in Beauty, Shopping - National

chasing skirts

My friend, Ali, wrote a cool book about skirts. It seemed an odd subject for her first publishing venture. But sure enough—there was something to say. Like: The “hobble” skirt was the cause of countless deaths in the early 20th century. (Apparently, the thing shackled women...

in Fashion, Shopping - National

neiman’s-for-all

You know what I consider fun during the holiday season? Checking out the most expensive item in the annual Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog (which is now actually referred to as “The Book”). One year, the big-ticket item was a million-dollar, diamond-encrusted bra from Victoria’s Secret....

in Fashion, Home Design, Shopping - National

primed and ready

Years ago, when we bought our first house, an exterior paint job was at the top of the to-do list. Being a) ambitious b) naïve and c) broke, we embarked on this DIY project by heading to the paint department of our local hardware store....

in Beauty, Shopping - National