My Spring Fashion Picks

With warmer temps around the corner, it's time to get out of the winter woolies and into something more figure flattering. Here's what I'm loving right now.

A nice business look from Ann Taylor.



This cool purple jacket is from J Peterman. A nice transition from Winter to Spring.



This gray wrap dress is a traffic stopper. It's from Spiegel. I haven't shopped there in years but I do love their catalog.




This dress is called Sutton Place amd it's by J Peterman. I think it would be flattering on most body types and you can twirl in it!




I would wear this on the weekends. Casual but not sloppy from J Jill.

Guess I'm not into the bright colors of Spring quite yet. It takes time to transition.

So which item would you buy for your wardrobe?

Live Event Painting- A wedding in Newport, Rhode Island

Just thought I would share another one of my sister's live event paintings. For any of you who are new readers, my sister paints at events like weddings and parties.

She paints most of the event as it is happening and then puts the finishing touches on it in her studio. The recipient receives a painting depicting their wedding, party, etc.


This painting portrays the wedding of Serena and Jonathan, a young couple who got married in Newport, Rhode Island last Fall. I took a shot of the entire painting so you can see all the goings on at the reception.



This style of painting is not supposed to be detailed. But as you look at the various sections of the painting you will see many details. Look at the clothing.
the glasses of wine, food on the plates.



I like the blond woman's hair and the man next to her. He was looking down when my sister was painting the guests at that table.



The bride and groom dancing their first dance as husband and wife.



And a man tries to capture the moment with his camera. Nothing escapes my sister's eye or paintbrush!




Even a waitress carrying plates is added to the scene.



One of the bride's sisters and her flowergirl daughters. I love how my sister captured the dress. You can see shadow and light, you can tell the bodice is pleated.




The band is, of course, in the painting.





And a closer look at Serena and Jonathan.



Another one of Serena's sisters and other family members.



A snippet of one of the tables.




A broader view.




And again, the finished product. To learn more or inquire about live event painting for your special event, please email me at chatelaine08@gmail.com .

Bath product addiction

I admit it! I have a bath product obsession.

My favorite and everyday-go-to-product is Philosophy's Amazing Grace shower gel and shampoo. It smells clean yet has a bit of girliness to it. Most days I will reach for this bottle. This fragrance and the other 2 listed below are my personal favorites because their scents are not overwhelming. I think I previously mentioned that I have a bloodhound sense of smell and most fragrances give me a headache.



Occasionally I will treat myself to a bottle of L'Occitane's Green Tea shower gel.
This is another clean scent and I love it.



If I want a little variety I go for Moonlight Path by Bath and Body Works. I layer the shower gel with the body lotion for longer lasting fragrance. This reminds of the Sunshine shower gel Bath and Body used to carry but discontinued many years ago. I loved that fragrance. Moonlight Path is a close second. I even have some wall plug ins with the Moonlight Path scent.

There you have it, my top 3 fragrances. Care to share your faves with me?

Mosaic Monday- Winter, Goodbye to You!

1. Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, 2. Drummer, 3. Wakefield , 4. Shelter from the Storm, 5. Downtown Melrose this morning, 6. Midnight Velvet Cake, 7. January 2011 snowstorm , 8. January 2011 snowstorm , 9. January 2011 snowstorm

It's officially Spring, yeah! So where are the warmer temperatures? When I woke up this morning it was 29 degrees outside!

Here's my ode to Winter, goodbye to you! It was a brutal season, the snowiest I can remember in my lifetime. We had ice storms and snowstorms and thundersnow. It cost my little condo association loads of money. About $1000 in snowplowing bills, $400 to have the flat roof shoveled, and another $750 in roof repairs. At least, our roof didn't collapse.

Still, newly fallen snow is one of the most beautiful things in the world! But I've seen enough of that kind of beauty and I am looking forward to the warmth of Spring.


Check out Mosaic Monday at Little Red Schoolhouse and view other participants' mosaics.

Chilling out on the weekend

Last week had been very stressful. Lots of stress, at work and home. So I just wanted to chill out over the weekend.

I started chilling on Friday night. Coffee with a friend at the local Starbucks. My friend Kim and I both wanted decaf drinks. Our barista, Julio, suggested something called a steamer. Just chocolate syrup and steamed milk and I think that's it. He said it was less caffeine than a mocha or a cocoa cappucino. I ordered it and he delivered this to my table. I love the flower he made for me. He is the best!



Jump to Sunday breakfast. Met my sister at our favorite haunt, Aroma Cafe in Reading. It's funny because neither one of us had said we would go there today. But we both showed up. And we both had the eggs in the hearts. So cute but a little blurry with my camera phone. I will master this phone camera someday!



Here's what Percy did this weekend! He's looking for trouble to get into.



Here's what Molly did on Saturday.



Here's what Molly did on Sunday!



Oscar relaxed this weekend too!

Saturday night, I went out to dinner with friends to Absolutely Fabulous in Melrose. I had won a $100 gift certificate to this restaurant. We split an appetizer, each of us had an entree, one person had wine and we split two desserts. My two friends paid the tax and tip. The food was excellent amid a nice atmosphere. It was fairly busy but we were not rushed. We would definitely go back.

So I had a nice weekend, how about you?

Social Media obsession

There's me! That's the photo you will find if you are looking for me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter and it's also my blogger profile photo at the moment. I use FB for personal purposes, LinkedIn for business, and Twitter for both. My blog is just for personal use. I read that it's important to be consistent with Social Media, hence the same picture is used for each site.

I've been doing a lot of research on Social Media lately, mainly because I am going to need to ramp up my sales at work. You may know that I work for a bank but you may not know that I am a Residential Mortgage Lender. I have kept this private because lenders got a bad rap during the Mortgage meltdown and I did not want any negative comments about the mortgage crisis on my blog. I hear enough of it at work. Enough about my job.

My social media statistics should be better than they are but in my defense I totally neglected my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts until recently. I concentrated in the past two weeks on LinkedIn and I now have 91 connections and 3 recommendations. I read somewhere that it's imperative that you join groups on LinkedIn and I have to say it was a good idea. I have connected with a lot of people and learned so much from my groups.

I try to Tweet every day. I started to follow more people and now I follow 88 people and I have 51 followers. Some of the people who follow me on Twitter, well I just don't know why. They have nothing in common with me, personally or professionally.

I enjoy Facebook and I almost always upload photos with my post. My cats are a weekly occurrence on FB. I am also a FB admin for one of my community groups so I am on Facebook frequently. I have 62 friends but I know all of them! I don't need to grow that group but if my readers friend me I will friend back.

Of course, blogging is my favorite form of Social Media. I have the most freedom with blogging. This is my online diary. I post when I feel like it, no obligation and it is fun. Today I have 125 followers and I would love to build the traffic on my blog. It would be great to be a blogging superstar and have businesses pay me to place their ad on my blog. I feel this is light years away but we shall see.

Was there a point to this post? Oh yeah, I've told you my stats, now I want to know yours or at least tell me your feelings on Social Media. Are you Social Media obsessed? Which Social Media network do you like best? Do you use it for business or just personally? And lastly, did you get business from your efforts?

Chatelaine Style

Hey look, I'm a designer! I just joined Olioboard and designed a bedroom. I'm calling it Chatelaine Style.

I know the scale is way off and the wallpaper print behind the bed is way too big but I think it came out ok. It's very gray with pink/rose accents. I even picked out the pillows on the bed! ( You can click the photo to enlarge)

Of course, there has to be at least one kitty in the bedroom. Even her bed is gray and pink! Can you tell I like gray and pink? Just look at my blog header!

I am really looking forward to exploring Olioboard and I hope you do too!