DRUNK ON HELENA QUINN - PART THREE

Part Three

Meet "Ilse".  She is an amazing coat.  She's a care free spirit and gives the greatest hugs.  Hehehe.  I love love love this coat.  The large cropped sleeves are heaven to me.  So easy to wear!  She comes in multiple colors but I went with the gray to pop off against this amazing red wall.  It's actually a fire station right next to Edith Hart.  Did I mention Edith Hart is where you can pick up your very own Helena Quinn Ilse?  I love these set of photos shot by my talented homie Hoang who didn't seem to mind hanging out with a bunch o' ladies all day.  I think he got a glimpse of what it's like to be in girl world.  I'm surprised he didn't run away screaming.  I think he found it very educational.  Hahaha.  I went with the same dress so that you can see how just adding a different spring coat can completely change the look of the same dress.  OORRRRR... I was just too lazy to put on another outfit.  You decide.  And did I mention I've got a thing with hats right now?  Maybe it's because my roots are down to my elbows and I haven't had time to get to my colorist.  I feel like 30% of fashion is hiding all your little imperfections.  Lol.  Regardless, I am loving rocking a hat these days.  I wish I could wear them during work.  I will definitely be trying to grow my hat collection this summer.  

I hope you enjoyed all the photos from my Helena Quinn x Edith Hart shoot.  It was super last minute on my part but I think we got some amazing shots and I took home one very special coat.  Can you guess which one joins my Carolyn coat as it's new sister?  

Coat - Helena Quinn "Ilse"  |  Dress - Bec & Bridge  |  Hat - Nasty Gal  |  Shoes - Shoemint  |  Sunnies - Oliver Peoples Emelita  |  Watch - Casio  |  Bracelets - Stella & Dot

Photos by Hoang Lam of Commonless

xoxo,

DOS

DRUNK ON HELENA QUINN - PART TWO

Part Two

So glad we found these stairs.  One, the look dope.  Two, I needed to sit.  I am clearly loving the cropped coats Helena Quinn is releasing for spring.  This beauty is called "Mel" and she's the cuuuuutest.  She comes in different colors and one with a white outline which is probably going to be my next HQ coveted piece.  Throw it on top of any outfit and you are instantly more chic than before. Add a fedora and STFU... you are werking it!  Been obsessing over these Shoemint kicks lately.  It's an overload of straps and buckles and I adore them!  And because it's me, people think it's some expensive designer brand.  Ha tricked ya REAL good.  These are my fave faux leather leggings from Aritzia.  Although getting into them is what I imagine meat going into a sausage casing must feel like.  They definitely hold in all my wobbly bits.

Sweater - Generation Love  |  Coat - Helena Quinn  |  Shoes - Shoemint  |  Leggings - Aritzia  |  Bag - BCBG (similar)  |  Hat - somewhere in Cali

Photos by Hoang Lam of Commonless

xoxo,

DOS

DRUNK ON HELENA QUINN - PART ONE

Don't you just love when the stars align when you least expect it?  Well that's what this weekend felt like for me for many reasons.  Not only was Andrea Racey, designer of Helena Quinn, in town to present her new line of spring coats at Edith Hart, my friend and avid photographer Hoang Lam was also free to tag along and take some shots for me.  I had been planning on snagging a spring-ish coat for when spring finally arrives in Chicago and a few of my lady friends were free for a girls day around Wicker Park.  Add all that with the lovely ladies of Edith Hart and it's gorgy owner Morgan giving me permission to play with the clothes and coats and it turned out to be an unexpected and fun filled Saturday indeed.  I definitely had a fun time playing dress up and styling a few of the Helena Quinn coats.  I had about zero time to prepare for this shoot and was pulling looks on the fly and as always my biggest challenge is finding my size, so I hope you enjoy the photos!

I needed a prop so obvi I used a macaron that Edith Hart had a bunch of for the event.  LC was getting frustrated that it was taking me forever to actually eat it.  Hahaha.  I held it, I kissed it, I danced with it.  Oh the weird things I do on these shoots.  I finally did take a bite at the end and LC ate the other half.  Hehehe.  Love you Honey Chu Chu!  Biiiiiiiiiiiig shout out to all my sexy ladies that came with me.  Suez, LC, Caroline (plus baby Eli)... xoxoxoxo... and Ash - you owned that reflector shield thing gurrllll.. hahaha.. thanks for your help!

To Edith Hart, thanks so much for letting me rummage through the place with all of my friends.  Sorry it was so hectic and I was all over the place.  I had a fab time and it was sooo amazeypants to meet Andrea!  Oh and muchos gracias for the champagne.  Hehehe.

To Andrea, it was so fun meeting you!  Come back to Chicago soon!  Bring lots o' XS.  Hehehe..  I'm sure I will be collecting quite a few pieces of Helena Quinn.  xoxo

To Hoang, thanks for taking the time out to hang with a bunch of crazy females and taking some fun photos for the blog.  MUAH!  So... when's our next shoot?

CHOMP!

Dress - Bec & Bridge  |  Coat - Helena Quinn "Patty" |  Shoes - Shoemint

Photos by:  Hoang Lam of Commonless (please like their FB pagey page)

Parts two and three coming soon!

xoxo,

DOS

DRUNK ON WARBY PARKER

Hey guys!  Sorry I've been so MIA.  Work has been busy and I've been so exhausted from such a fun filled February.  Being another year older is taking it's toll I guess.  Ha!  NEVER!  I will always power through.  Anyway, March has been spent recharging my batteries and trying to give attention to other projects I've been wanting to complete.  I started sewing again which is very therapeutic for me as it gives my creative side a chance to run free since I don't use very much of that in my job.  Sewing also means getting very little sleep since I usually get so caught up and lose track of time.  Anyhoo, enough ranting.  Today I want to tell you guys about an awesome eyewear brand I've become privy to this past year.  

WARBY PARKER

What makes Warby Parker special enough to mention?  Ummm, they offer some stylish frames at a price that is unreal considering the level of quality of the glasses.  DOI!  If you are anything like me, then you are pretty blind.  And at some point in your life, you have gone and spent hundreds of dollars on prescription glasses at your eye doctor's office.  Often going for the fancy brands because those seem to be the only cute ones available.  Then add on the lenses and you've racked up quite a bill.  Warby Parker's mission is to provide an alternative to these overpriced frames.  Why must you sacrifice fashion and style to save money on fugly and cheap frames?  After perusing all their options, I decided to give their home trial a shot.  When they say it's easy, they mean it.  You basically go online, pick out 5 frames you would like to try and place the trial order.  You get emails during the process so you know when your home trial is on its way and when it's expected to arrive.  Once they come in, you open the box and give each pair a try.  The package comes with a prepaid UPS return label and they request that you return the glasses within 5 days.  Plenty of time to decide on which one you love and ask other peeps for their opinions.  Everything you need to know on their Home Trial option can be found HERE.  So easy right?!  The best part is that the entire collection ranges from $99-$150 depending on the style.  That price INCLUDES the lenses!  Pretty amazing considering I spent around $400 for my current glasses.  If you don't like any of the 5 in your Home Trial, no biggie.  Just return them and try another set of 5.  If you do end up loving a frame, you still send it back with the rest.  You can at any time go to the website and order the pair you want with either prescription lenses, reading lenses, or just plain clear NON-prescription lenses.  What could be easier than that?  Their home trial has no obligation to purchase so definitely no strings attached here.  If you've been wanting a new pair of glasses but dreading the high price tag, give Warby Parker a whirl.  I think I'm going to get two pairs myself.  Hehehe.  I love the frames so much, I think one will just be plain clear lens just to wear for fun.  So get up on it, go on their website, and grab yourself a pair.

xoxo,
DOS

RAINY DAY

Jacket - Margiela X H&M  |  Top - H&M  |  Jeans - Rich and Skinny  |  Bag - Louis Vuitton  |  Shoes - YSL  |  Accessories - F21, NastyGal

I am soooooooooooo over this crummy weather.  The End.

xoxo,

DOS

BIRTHDAY STEEZ

Hi errrrybody!  I hope everyone had a great weekend and is having a great week so far.  This past weekend was a special one since I celebrated yet another birthday  :)   I have so much to be thankful for and as I get another year older, I realize more and more how blessed I am to have the people I have in my life and yet still meet amazing new ones!  The weekend was incredible as I got to see a lot of friends and celebrate in my favorite ways.  I'm going to go into more detail for those who care to know. If that's not you, just scroll through the pictures.  I'll never know.

Because I believe no one should have to work on their birthday, I took the day off.  Hahaha.  For those of you who don't know, my birthday is 2/22 which fell on Friday of last week.  I decided to take the day off and give myself a fun three day weekend.  But let's be real here, being me, my weekend started as soon as I took that first step out of my office building on Thursday.  I had planned a quiet intimate dinner with some of my favorite lady friends at a fairly new restaurant in Lincoln Park... Balena.  It was a little rough with the threat of a snowmageddon coming our way but there's no stopping my ladies from a night of gossip and female banter over mucho bottles of vino.  Thank you my loves for risking life and limb (even tho it ended up not being snowmageddon at all) to have dinner with moi.  I had an amazing time catching up and opening such thoughtful and sweet pressies.  I cherish these friendships so much and I believe if we didn't have girl friends and nights like that, women would go bat shit crazy.  These days I like having smaller gatherings because it's when I feel like I've really caught up with someone and given them the attention they deserve.  So thank you thank you thank you thank you my darlings!  You know who you are.

BALENA

The food at Balena was great.  Even though we didn't really try that much of the menu because all of the ladies just wanted the Uni Pasta.  So we ordered three orders.  Lol.  The actual name of the dish is "Tagliolini Nero, Crab, Sea Urchin, Chili".  And yes, I must say, it was amaaaaazeypants!  I think we all wished we had ordered one for each of us instead of having to share the three orders.  Hahaha.  We had a couple of the pizzas, the Cauliflower and the Brussel Sprout pizzas to be exact, but it was the pasta dishes that stole the show.  The other pasta dish we tried was the Orecchiette and everyone loved it.  Their Italian wine selection can be very daunting since it's pages and pages and pages and pages of wines but our lovely server helped me find some good ones for the table.  Overall I had a great experience.  We had the cutest table which was situated in a little alcove near the back of the restaurant.  It wasn't a separate room but we felt secluded and cozy.  I absolutely fell in love with the venue!  Not to mention the entire Balena team signed a little birthday card for me and it was sitting there on the table when we arrived.  So cute!  Thank you Balena for such a special dinner.  I will be back with the hubby since he felt totally cheated because it was no boys allowed.  Haha.

Friday was also amazeballs.  I kind of woke up early just due to my natural "work" internal clock.  As a surprise, The Hubster planned to work from home to be with me on my actual birthday.  Isn't he a sweet potato pie?!?!  Although an hour later I'm pretty sure he was regretting that decision because like a birthday brat I just started barking out orders as my lazy ass stayed in bed watching Korean dramas and cuddling with my dog.  Just little nuggets like "It's my birthday, I want water!"  "It's my birthday, make me lunch!"  "It's my birthday, bring me my computer!"  "It's my birthday, you're being too loud!"  "It's my birthday, where's my present!?"  Yea, I really know how to milk it.  And that's why I know I married the right guy because he let me be the biggest brattiest betch there ever lived.  =)  And as if right on cue, the UPS guy arrived with my present from The Hubster!  He got me a very nice new camera lens.  The Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens to be exact.  Hooray for wide angle!  Funny how this present is for me but he's the one that has to really learn how to use it.  Hahaha.  Poor guy.

Around about 5pm, I finally peeled myself out of bed to get ready for the night we had planned.  Not sure if you were aware but my hubby was on TV on Friday.  Hahaha.  It was a local show on WTTW Chicago called Check Please!  You can watch him in all three video clips of EPISODE #1213 - HERE!  If you can't tell which one he is, he's the one with the voice that makes the ladies jump back and go "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmm" and the fellas jump back and go "God? Is that you?"  Check Please! is a show that highlights restaurants all over Chicagoland and reviewed by normal peeps.  If you wanna watch The Hubster's episode and spice it up a notch, you can play the game that we played at my place.  I made some insanely strong and gross jello shots for our little viewing party.  And for every time The Hubster said "DELICIOUS", we would take a delicious jello shot.  We got pretty nice and toasty since it's only a 30 minute show.  LOL.  After some more pre-festivities, we all headed to a staple Korean bar  and met up with the rest of the crew.  It was soju shots and kimchi bokkumbap all around!  And to cap off the night, we went right next door and went balls out on Karaoke.  It got madd emo when we hit those Boys II Men songs.  LOL.  I loooooove Karaoke soooo much!  Thanks for everyone who came out that night to support my sexy man and celebrate with me!

WASABI

Saturday was spent with my fam bam.  We ate and this amazing Japanese restaurant Wasabi in Logan Square.  I have finally found THE ramen spot for me.  It used to be Slurping Turtle and Takashi on Sundays but I am sorry to say, they just got knocked down to #2.  The broths in the 4 ramen bowls we had were insanely good.  I had the tonkotsu and it was amazing.  The broth did not seem too greasy but still it was packed with flavor.  The whole dish just warmed me up from the inside and it was like heaven in my mouth.  I absolutely am obsessed with ramen.  I don't get to have it that much since it's not that easy to find and it's usually not anywhere close to me.  I guess now, I will be venturing out to Logan Square more often!  We had some other dishes that were good too but I'm not going to kid myself.  I only cared about the ramen.  Next time I will not be ordering that many apps and I will make sure there is enough room in me to fully finish my ramen bowl.

Being in somewhat of a food coma, we decided to watch a movie.  Ended up watching Beautiful Creatures which was pretty good as I went in with no expectations.  Well that's not true.  I went in to watch it because I love Emmy Rossum.  Sadly she wasn't really in the movie that much.  =(  It did make me curious about the books.  Maybe that will be on my summer read list.

FROG N SNAIL

After the movie it was back to eating again.  Omg I swear that's all I did on Saturday was eat eat eat.  But whatever!  I was determined to try the dinner menu at Frog N Snail.  If you follow my instagram or tweets, you will know just how OBESESSED I am with this place and their brunch menu.  So it was only fitting that I give their dinner menu a whirl.  Dinner was a different experience as it was poppin' and busy.  A lot more lively than the brunch crowd.  And as I expected, I was not disappointed with any of my dishes.  I only wish that there was a larger selection on their dinner menu.  Probably because some of the dishes are also available for brunch and I've had most of their brunch menu.  LOL.  But here are my recommendations.  The frog legs were so good!  I've never had frog legs before but omg it's so soft and moist and kinda tastes like chicken but the texture is better than chicken.  They also throw in some breaded and fried green tomatoes.  GAH!  I could live off of those!  The steamed mussels.. wowee zowee!  It has a spicy kick which I loved!  The BLD Burger.  OMFG... they hollow out the top part of the bun and stuff it with magic, and love, and pixie dust, and things that ooze which make you think impure thoughts.  Genius, just genius!  Everything a burger should be.  Did I mention you can see all of these dishes on my Instagram?  Follow me y'all!  @drunkonshoes.  DUH.  We all each kind of had our own dessert dishes.  I had their classic profiteroles.  How do I describe these nuggets of love?  You know when you take a bite out of something soooooooooo amazingly good, you just want to hit someone or pound the table and go "MMM!!!"  That's what it was like.  So decadent, so chocolate-y, so what every girl who is PMS-ing needs in her life.  I had a few other dishes but these were the ones that really WOWed me.  xoxo.

Sunday was a special date day with just The Hubster and also the day we took these photos.  He got me an additional birthday present bonus and got tickets to watch The Book of Mormon.  I had no idea what it would really be about but I just heard it was hilarious.  And yes... yes it was!  Something about men dancing and singing and bopping around stage is so damn entertaining.  And woweeeeeeee, they can SING!  An amazing musical and a must watch while it's running here in Chicago!

After The Book of Mormon, it was off to Nellcote for their first annual Oscar Party also holsted by Chicago Blogger Network.  I have photos from that so I will save my words for that post.  And damn I wrote a ton already.  I'm sure you all dozed off by now.  If you read it all, THANKS!

Dress - Three Floor  |  Vest - Boundary & Co  (thanks Gracey) |  Coat - ASOS (It actually has a hood but I took my seam ripper to it and hacked that baby off)  |  Shoes - Sergio Rossi  |  Bag - Louis Vuitton

xoxo,

DOS

DRUNK ON SARCA X NIEVES LAVI

Brunch, Fashion, and Bottomless Mimosas... probably the BEST combo ever!  Who do I have to thank for brining all that into my world?  Sarca and Nieves Lavi!  What is Sarca?  Sarca is a fabulous boutique in Chicago which I recently stumbled upon when I was hunting down a beautiful pair of Penelope and Coco wedges, which you will see me rocking as soon as it's warm out and I get myself a long awaited pedicure.  What is Nieves Lavi?  Nieves Lavi is an amazing label from the minds of Sam Nieves Velez and Sharon Lavi.  I had a great time viewing a sampling of their new collection at a gorgeous new restaurant in Chicago, The Boarding House.  It was an intimate setting in their main dining room which made for a perfect place to view the colorful silk and printed fabrics from the Nieves Lavi Spring Summer collection.  So here we go.  Sarca x Nieves Lavi Fashion Show.  

How amazing is the ceiling?  Thousands of dark green wine bottles hang suspended and act like a gigantic chandelier.

Sam Nieves Velez

An amazing apple and greens salad.  The waiter kept trying to take it away from me because I was taking my time and savoring each bite.  Haha.

The show starts and I am instantly engulfed in color and prints.  Made me wish summer was here!

LOVED this one!  The color and detailing is exquisite!

I could not stop drooling over the amazing jewelry from Damen + Division.  How sick is this necklace?!  Ugh.. I NEEEED!

My favorite piece were these adorable shorts.  How perfect are they for a day on the beach?!

Thank you to Sarca and Nieves Lavi for such a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  With spring around the corner, the collection made me want to incorporate a lot more color and prints into my extensive wardrobe.  As I'm writing this, I'm looking at my racks and thinking, why is everything so dark?!  Hahaha.  And I highly recommend stopping into The Boarding House for a meal.  It's so gorgy-pants in there!  Being there during the day with all the natural light pouring in from the giant windows really makes you appreciate the space and the work they put into their decor.  Immediately after walking in, I guarantee you will stare at the over 9,000 wine glass fixture suspended in the air.  The usual reaction is, mouth drops open, "WOW", then out comes your phone, CLICK, and BAM... Instagrammed.  Absolutely amazing venue.  I can't wait to go back and try some more dishes.  

Vest - CFAN Penny Vest  |  Jeans - Pray for Mother Nature  |  Top - Nasty Gal  |  Accessories - Nasty Gal, Vintage Hermes, Urban Outfitters

xoxo,

DOS