Dress #6 Part 2

On Sunday (8/24), Joe took me to dinner at The London.  It was another birthday surprise.  We had always talked about going there to try a Gordon Ramsey beef wellington and he finally made reservations.  It was so thoughtful of him and I couldn't believe how wonderful it was to celebrate my birthday again.  I think I've literally been celebrating all week with my friends and loved ones.  I love eating good food so a nice dinner out is literally the best gift.

We had tried a few beef wellington's in the past.  We had one in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Paris Las Vegas which was amazing.  To this day we still regard it as one of the best meals we've ever eaten.  Honestly, food is amazing and I honestly think you'll remember a good meal for the rest of your life so I think money invested in a great dining experience is well worth it.  We also tried a beef wellington at Gordon Ramsey Steak in the Paris Las Vegas hotel but it wasn't as good or memorable.  Usually a beef wellington is made for two people but the Eiffel Tower restaurant is the only place I've been that does single serving beef wellingtons.  I really wanted to give a Gordon Ramsey beef wellington one more try and Joe and I had always talked about going to The London for dinner to try it.  Well, I can honestly say it was amazingly good.  Worth the expensive price tag.  It was $100 which didn't include any side dishes.  That's a pretty normal price for a really good beef wellington.  The Eiffel Tower Restaurant's single serving sizes were $50 each.  I can't really compare the two but I am waiting for the next super special occasion so that I can go eat there again.

The London is very fancy so I wore my short black dress.  We ordered a cake for dessert and the waiter put a candle in it and Happy Birthday was written in chocolate on the plate.  After dinner we went up to the rooftop to see the view.  They have a pool and bar up there and a wide view of the city.  I know someone who had a wedding reception up there.  It seemed like the rooftop was closed since it was dark and no one was up there but the door was unlocked so we just explored around for a little bit.  I'm sure it would be really fun to go to the rooftop bar for drinks sometime.

Dress #26 Part 2

Joe and I spent the day running errands.  It was another hot day so I wore my pink Cambodia wrap skirt again.  This skirt is really good for hot days.  We stopped at Second Spin on Ventura to see if there were any good deals on used movies or CDs.  They usually have a buy two get one free or half price sale going on.  I like their sales but you have to buy multiple things to get the deal.  This is the only used DVD store I know of besides Amoeba and this one is in the Valley close to us so we come here whenever we're looking to buy movies or music.  There's a Baja Fresh right next door so wouldn't you know, we had lunch there with our wedding gift card again.  It looks like we'll be able to get two more meals out the gift card so we'll see if I'm wearing this same outfit the next time we stop at a Baja Fresh.

Dress #21 Part 2

When I got home from work, Joe took me out to dinner for my birthday.  We went to an Italian restaurant on Ventura called Mezzomondo.  My friend introduced me to it.  When she had her graduation for her PhD her family took her to dinner there and she invited me and her other close friend.  The food was delicious and I've been hooked on it ever since.  Italian food is my favorite but I'm pretty picky about it because if it isn't fresh pasta with homemade sauce I don't see a point in paying for it.  I can make dried pasta with pre made sauce at home.  This place has a homemade pasta section on the menu that includes a lasagna.  Lasagna is my absolute favorite food and it was really good.  They also make daily specials with homemade pasta and they're always good.  The prices are decent, only slightly higher than what you would pay for a crappy store bought dried pasta dish.  Of course, things can add up with you get wine and an appetizer and dessert or coffee which we almost always do so we only go here for special occasions or if we're in the mood to splurge on a meal.

I really like to get their eggplant in mozzarella and marinara sauce appetizer and I usually order the lasagna.  Joe likes to get their daily pasta special which is different every time.  He's gotten a gnocchi once and an herb pasta another time.  Mezzomondo is on Ventura so parking is always a hassle.  I don't really understand why every business in the Valley decided to only be on one street but it's a pain in the ass.  There is never any parking.  We have to park in the neighborhood blocks away and walk over.  We literally never go out to eat on Ventura because we don't want to deal with the hassle of parking.  It's the main reason we don't go out to eat very often since all the good restaurants are on Ventura, plus any restaurant on Ventura is automatically pricey.  But going out for my birthday dinner was really nice and I wanted to wear a nice dress for the occasion.  The restaurant is nice but not too fancy.  I feel like the atmosphere isn't super dressy but it isn't casual either.  I wore my black dress with the rhinestone pin since it's semi-formal.

Dress #31 Part 2

I decided to wear my favorite birthday outfit on my actual birthday.  I've re-worn quite a few of my skirts and dresses to work for the summer.  It's nice to dress for the weather.  Work on my birthday was typical.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  One of my co-workers brought in cookies for me which was nice.  Other than that things were normal.  Most people take off for their birthdays but I never saw the need.  I'd rather save up my vacation time to take a full week off and go somewhere.  Either way, it felt special to dress nice.

Dress #31

On Sunday night (8/17), I went bar hopping at Universal City Walk with my friends as an early birthday celebration.  We got mani/pedis at my favorite nail place, Nail Garden.  Universal City was nearby so we went over to bar hop.  It was a Sunday night so it wasn't very lively.  We had dinner and drinks at Karl Strauss Brewery.  I really liked their spinach and artichoke dip.  Then we got candy at the huge candy store there.  We went over to Infusion Lounge for more drinks.  The bar was basically empty but I liked the design inside.  We ended the night at Saddle Ranch.  The last time I was at Saddle Ranch was years ago.  My friend and I rode the mechanical bull for the first time back then.  The bartenders flirted with us and gave us free shots and free drinks.  I got pretty hammered.  Both of my friends took a turn riding the mechanical bull.  They said we could ride for half price but ended up letting my friends ride for free.  I wanted a turn too but my friends wouldn't let me.  I had mentioned that Joe didn't want me doing that for fear of injuring my shoulder again.  I'm supposed to wait six full weeks before resuming any activities that might strain it and I've got two left to wait out.  They had fun though and it was fun watching them.  They both lasted the whole ride without falling off.

I wore my tan corduroy skirt with my favorite shirt.  I love that outfit and always wear it on my birthday.  I call it my birthday outfit.  I wore it for my birthday two years ago when we went to Temecula.  I wanted to go wine tasting and Temecula is much closer to LA than Napa Valley.  The first day we toured the little town there and then went to South Coast Winery.  Joe was tipping the bartender really well so he was giving us double tastes.  We tried to eat dinner but I was so drunk I wasn't feeling very well.  The next day I was hungover but we went to another winery anyway called Callaway.  We took the winery tour, had a few tastes and then a tapas lunch.  My friend's mom and one of my other friends met us there for the lunch.  That was a really fun and memorable birthday.

I found my tan corduroy skirt at the end of my sophomore year of college.  The school year was over and it was move out day at the dormitory. I was staying in Boston for the summer and moving into my first apartment.  To help furnish my apartment I basically made the rounds on every floor of my dormitory building and gathered items that students threw out.  There were a bunch of new or hardly used furniture, clothes, dishes, etc that students just didn't want to bother taking with them.  They were all piled up near the trashcans and I just took anything that I needed for my apartment or myself which included clothes.  There were tons of clothes being thrown out and I found this skirt among them.  I absolutely love this skirt and I wear it often.  I used to wear it all the time to the beach with a beat up gap tank top I found with it but I've started wearing it more with my favorite shirt.  It doesn't have info on the maker but it's a size 10.  100% cotton.  Made in China.

Dress #30

On Saturday night (8/16), I went to my friend's art show at Meltdown Comics.  I had to shower all the sunscreen, sand and saltwater off from earlier at the beach.  I changed into my black and white halter dress that I got in Cambodia.  We met for dinner first at Toi.  It's a Thai restaurant across the street from the comic book store.  The food was really good but the bill ended up being about $200.  It was difficult to figure out too because there were eight people.  I had my favorite, Pad Thai but their curry dishes were really good too.  The art show was Sailor Moon themed and there was a huge variety of styles and artistic pieces.  I liked one that looked like an old timey Disney movie poster.  Everyone had their own take on it.  Some were supposed to be funny.  There were a bunch of people that came dressed up to the show.  Some wore sailor outfits, some did their hair in meatball pigtails and some just dressed up in anime.  Unfortunately my friend didn't sell her piece.  She sold one print but not the main piece.  It actually didn't look like too many pieces sold.  Maybe a dozen or so out of everything.  After the show we went out for drinks at The Pikey which was a British Pub.  I think it reminded me of Gaston's pub from the Beauty and the Beast movie.  We hung out in the back room where the DJ was.  The DJ was just a lady pressing play on songs she liked so it wasn't really a hip dance room or anything.  In fact, the bar wasn't very crowded at all.  It was still a good time.  We've gotten accustomed to going out for drinks after my friend's art shows.

I wore my black and white halter dress that I got in Cambodia.  It's black with a white floral outline design and a black belted waist.  It doesn't have any tags or info on it.  I don't remember what I paid for it but I got it super cheap with another dress I bought at Siem Reap's Pub Street back in 2012.  It has an elastic back so that one size fits all.  The top is just a tie halter which is pretty low cut.  I was worried it might be too low cut but I guess it's fine.  The skirt is a little longer and fuller than I would ideally like but it's a nice fun dress.  I think I've only worn it for a night out back when I first got it in Cambodia.  I'm not sure at this time if I'll donate it or not.

Dress #29

On Saturday (8/16), I went to the Santa Monica Pier beach with my friends.  I've only been to the Santa Monica Pier twice before.  The first time I had friends visiting for the weekend from out of town.  I wanted to show them the touristy things in LA so we went to Disneyland the first day and Hollywood Blvd, Universal City and the Santa Monica Pier the second day.  I always felt the Santa Monica Pier was overrated.  The boardwalk has a small roller coaster, ferris wheel, arcade, carousel and carnival games.  The beach isn't bad but it's always super crowded.  The first time I made the mistake of parking in the lot by the pier.  My friends and I put our feet in the water, explored the pier and rode the ferris wheel at sunset.  It was kind of a depressing time in my life and I remember seeing the sunset from the ferris wheel and being sad about the day ending but relieved that it was over.  It kind of sunk in for me the ending of a time period of my life.  The type of people who hang around the pier tend to be aggressive angry people.  I had trouble trying to leave.  I was head in parked and no one would let me back out.  Not a single person.  One of my friends had to get out of the car and hold traffic so I could back out.  Never again will I park there.  The second time I had parked in a huge lot up the street and walked down.  It was a way better experience.

The second time I just went with one of my friends.  We had bought Living Social deals for Color Me Mine.  It's a pottery painting store, so you select your ceramics and paint them.  The store will send them out to be fired and you pick them up later.  I made a fruit bowl.  My friend painted a vase.  We were there with two other girls but they had things to do and couldn't hang out afterward.  So my one friend and I walked down to the beach and had a picnic lunch on the sand.  That's basically the extent of me visiting the pier besides the one time I went parasailing and we sailed up the coast past it.

This time I went with two other friends I hadn't gone with before.  We had bottomless mimosa and appetizer brunch at Zengo.  Our waiter was diligent about never letting us reach the bottoms of our mimosas.  We walked over and laid on the beach.  We went swimming but the waves were super rough.  They literally knocked me over a bunch of times and I was afraid I'd lose my bikini bottoms.  Afterward, we got ice cream nearby and then went to the arcade to play a quick game of House of the Dead.  HOTD is my favorite arcade game and I play it every time I'm in an arcade.  It's funny because my friend loves it too.  When she found out I like it we decided we had to play a game before leaving the pier.  They only had part 1 and part 2 in the arcade.  My favorite is the one with the uzi which I think is part 5 but they didn't have it.

I wore my button down sun dress.  Back in 1999 I got three short summer sun dresses at a store called Fashion Bug in a nearby shopping center to my parent's house.  I wore them all the time back then to school and out to the beach.  This one was perfect for the beach because it buttons down the front for easy wear over a bathing suit.  When I was fifteen I went to Orlando Florida with a friend's family and I wore all three of my sun dresses there.  We were there for a week and the family had rented a house to stay in.  Every day we went to a park, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios), Typhoon Lagoon, Universal Studios, Downtown Disney.  I wore this dress to the water park Typhoon Lagoon.  I liked the weather in Florida, it was warm and tropical.  It often sprinkled warm rain.  Every night we went swimming in the pool at the rental house.  It was kind of the first family trip I ever took.  My parents never went anywhere so I never really had a family vacation before that.  I haven't been to Florida since but I hope that someday when I have children I'll take them on a family vacation to Disney World.

The Fashion Bug I got this dress at had gone out of business during my high school years but I guess it's a chain that's still around.  The dress has a print design that's black with green leaves and green, purple and blue flowers all over it.  It's a v-neck with a button down front and criss cross x's in the back.  It's made by Fashion Bug.  100% Rayon.  100% Viscosa.  Size S.  Made in Sultanate Of Oman.  I don't honestly remember the last time I wore it.  It may very well have been when I was in high school.  It's still a really cute dress and I do like it but I'm definitely going to donate it because I never wear it.  It is a bit junior but that's reflective of when I bought it.  I'm honestly not sure why I've held onto it all these years either.

Dress #28

On Saturday (8/9), I went to the beach with my friend in Santa Monica.  I wore my blue hi-low tube dress.  I hadn't been to the Santa Monica beach before but I do frequent the area.  Two of my friends live right near there so we often go drinking on Main Street.  The beach was nice.  The weather was good but not too hot.  We got in the water but didn't really swim.  We usually go to Hermosa beach.  I like the Hermosa beach area but you can't go swimming in the water because it's too polluted there (I think there's a water treatment plant nearby).  I've also been to Venice beach but I hate it.  It's what we call "the stoner" beach because there's always a lot of potheads and slackers there.  The beach is also really dirty and gross.  Every time I go there's always black tar/oil stuck to the bottom of my feet.  I basically never go to Venice beach.  Santa Monica was nice.  We just laid out for a couple hours sun bathing.  Then we got burgers and beer at Library Alehouse on Main Street.  Not a bad way to spend the day.  I love LA!

The dress is made by Modern Kiwi Co.  I got it off of amazon.com for $26.  To be precise, I had ordered some merchandise off of Amazon but it got lost in the mail or never shipped so I got a credit to my account and I used it to buy this dress.  It's called Women's Eva High Low Dress.  I may have mentioned it before but I really love the hi-low style.  It actually comes in twenty-one different colors but I chose the royal blue mainly because I didn't own any blue dresses.  I obviously got it to wear to the beach and it works perfectly for that purpose.  The tag says that it's 5% polyester and 5% rayon.  It doesn't list the what the other 90% is made of.  Size S.  Made in the USA.

Dress #27

Today (8/5), I wore my black skirt with blue flowers to work.  I was having really painful cramps because of my period so I wanted to wear a skirt that was loose fitting and dark.  I didn't want to wear jeans since they'd press down on my stomach.  I really like this skirt but rarely wear it.  I think it's really pretty but it has major static cling problems.  Plus, it's really big on me.  I had to rely on my tight tank top to hold it in place and I had to keep pulling it up if it fell too low throughout the day or it would fall down low on my hip revealing my underwear.

I don't think I could ever part with this skirt.  Even though I don't wear it that often and it's too big for me, it has sentimental value.  I got it in 2004 in Venice while I was at my college's study abroad program.  My school owned a castle in Well, Netherlands that they turned into a dormitory.  Their summer study abroad program was a five week course about Flemish art, digital photography and web design.  It was an odd course.  The idea was to study art, take digital photographs and create a website about different Flemish artists.  The three components didn't exactly go together but we did it and the website turned out pretty good.  We had two excursions for our art studies.  Bruges, Belgium and Venice, Italy.  I really loved Venice.  We stayed on the Lido (bigger island off San Marco) and took the ferry in to the main island every day. Venice is a maze of small walkways that drop off into the canal so it's very easy to get lost but it's a gorgeous city.  One of my classmates had a beautiful skirt and I asked her where she got it.  She said there was a small stand at the end of the Rialto Bridge that was selling them.  She even showed me where and I got this one.  I really liked the blue flowers on black.

I wore it out that night during our free time to the beach.  The Lido actually has sand beaches and they say the opposite side not facing the main island has clean enough water to swim in which we did during the day.  I didn't dunk my head in but I went in waist deep.  That night there were some bars on the beach and we went out to one.  I didn't really like the atmosphere that much.  It was just an outdoor tiki stand, quiet and boring.  I walked off to another bar next door on my own because the other girls didn't want to leave.  I sat at a mostly empty table (there was one other guy sitting at it at the opposite end) and had a drink.  It got kind of weird because I realized later it was a gay bar.  The other guy's boyfriend came back from wherever he was and kept rudely staring me down.  I'm not sure what he was so pissed about because I didn't say a word to his boyfriend and I wasn't even siting near him.  I finished my drink and decided to leave because he wasn't backing down on the glaring stares.  As I was leaving he following me outside and I realized he was trying to pick a fight with me.  I just walked away and didn't look back.  It was a weird experience.  I just felt bad that someone could be that insecure in their relationship.  The trip was a great intro to Venice for me.  I vowed to go back, which I did in 2011 with Joe.

There's no real information on the skirt.  It only has one tag that says the maker and size.  It's made by Ling Xin.  Size L.  I wore it with one of my black GapBody tank tops.  95% cotton, 5% spandex.  Size M.  Made in Vietnam.  Did I ever mention that I really love Gap tank tops?