Mistakes

Yall will forgive me if, just for today, I don’t talk about sparkles or snacks or sarcasm and just write what I’m feeling, won’t you?

K, good. Here goes.

I have a friend who is making a big mistake. And I am so frustrated I could just scream. I just want to grab him and say “STOP. Look at your life. Is this what you want?”

You see, my friend is scared. My friend does not want to make a tough decision. My friend is so scared, in fact, that he would rather make a decision he knows is wrong, rather than admit it. And I’m not even talking about admitting it out loud. I’m talking about admitting it to HIMSELF.

Because that’s the hardest thing, isn’t it? Admitting to yourself that something isn’t right. No matter how big you smile in pictures and how hard you laugh in public, what you feel deep down inside is the same thing that keeps you up at night and makes your stomach clench -- that oh shit feeling.

Everybody needs someone - a parent, a sibling, a friend - who will be the person to grab you by the shoulders, smack you across the face, shake you til your teeth bounce, do whatever it takes to make you stop what you’re doing and think about your actions. I’m lucky - I have an overabundance of people like that in my life, starting with my opinionated sister and ending with my opinionated mother and spanning the many other opinionated Jews in my life. They know me, and so they tell it to me straight.

But my friend isn’t so lucky. He doesn’t have many of those people in his life. I think I’m it. Just me.

So how do I tell him something he doesn’t want to hear? How do I make him listen to that feeling deep down inside of him that I know he knows is there? How do I stop him from going down a path that I know is only going to end badly?

I was by his side the last time he went down that path. I saw what happened the last time. I don’t know if I can watch him go down it again.

Forget bills and loans and paying insurance - this is the part of being a grownup that sucks. The part where you sit on the side and watch someone you love make a mistake, and you can’t stop him. Because he can’t even stop himself.

The Hostest With The Mostest (Hummus)

I like having guests over. Blame it on my mother – after all, she is Martha Jewart. Ever since I was a kid I was raised knowing that there are very specific ways to throw a party. She has very strict rules about how dishes are arranged, what we’re allowed to serve, how food is displayed, etc. When I was little I thought that was ridiculous. “Show me the guest who gives a shit if I put the ketchup bottle on the table without first scooping it into a crystal bowl!” I would scream.

Of course, now I’ve inherited that behavior. So when it came time to throw a special Shabbat dinner for a group of my friends last weekend, you know I went to town:

Doesn’t that look beautiful? I made it all myself!

Okay, obviously I am lying. Not a chance in hell I could do that :) But it is a gorgeous spread, isn’t it? I ordered catering from Amer’s Falafel – it’s a great Israeli place in the valley – and they gave us SO much food! (Warning: I can’t promise you’ll get this nice of a spread if you order from them. The owner has a MAJOR crush on me and hooked me UP. If he wasn’t 40 and balding I would own that falafel shop right now.)

Anyway, we had a feast – and it was arranged quite beautifully, if I do say so myself :) Challah, 85 tons of pita, platters of hummus, babaganoush, eggplant salad, tabbouleh, tahini, falafel, spinach and potato burekas, you name it. For dessert, special contributors Ashley and GB made some major deliciousness: smores brownies and Halloween-themed cupcakes. And of course, there was wine wine. Lots and lots of wine.

I love my friends. We are so cute and Jewy. Here are some of the girls lighting the candles:

And here are the boys after saying the Hamotzi over the challah:

The night also included an impromptu dance party/singalong to the 90s Greatest Hits and one anonymous guest drinking wine out of the bottle with a straw:

Wanna know the best part? Birthright paid for all of it! Yes, you read that right – Birthright has a special program where if you register your Shabbat dinner 10 days ahead of time, they’ll reimburse you up to $14 for up to 15 people! You can use that money however you want – ordering in, buying food and cooking, you name it. It’s such a great idea – I would have hosted Shabbat anyways, but this gave me such an incentive to do it. All you have to do in order to get reimbursed is send in a photo of all your guests, holding a special Birthright sign. Here we are, in all our glory:

So thanks, Birthright! Shabbat was delightful (and I didn't even have to cook!)

Pink Beauty for the Cause

Good morning!

This is the last week I will be posting pink products that benefit major charities, foundations, and organizations dedicated to fighting breast cancer in honor of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So let’s end the month on a happy pink note, shall we? And what makes any of us more happy than beauty products?!

The Sonia Kashuk makeup line at Target offers a ton of products whose sales benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Whenever I’m in Target wandering the aisles, I inevitably find myself in the makeup section trying on new shades of lipgloss and eyeliner, and her stuff is super cute and so affordable. I am loving the six-piece brush bag, the shimmery triple eyeshadow palette, and the three nail polishes!

Speaking of nail polish, both of my favorite nail polish lines sell a special shade of nail polish dedicated towards raising funds for breast cancer. OPI’s Pink of Hearts was created exclusively for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, while proceeds from Essie’s We Can Do It Pink! are donated to the organization Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

I personally cannot make it out the door in the morning without at least some combination of my blowdryer and my straightening iron, and on special occasions I have been known to toss some hot rollers in my hair, Dallas Beauty Pageant-style! These hair accessories are adorable, functional, charitable and PINK - what could be better?

Don't forget - every penny counts in the battle against breast cancer. I hope you enjoyed some of the products I’ve posted and maybe even purchased one or two of them!

Skin Win

I read tons of blogs everyday. Sometimes, I read a post that makes me want to laugh or cry. Sometimes I read a post that makes me want to run out and buy something I just discovered immediately. And sometimes I read a post that makes me think, “I should share the same thing with my readers!”

And that is why today, thanks to JGIWC’s post last week about her skincare regime, I am here today to talk about the products I use on my own face. Continuing in my efforts to share EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of my life on the interweb, I figured I would lay it all out on the table. Why not? After all, some of the very products I’m about to share with you are products I discovered through other bloggers who posted or tweeted and raved about their finds. It worked for them. Now it works for me. Who knows, maybe it will work for you!

Let’s start at the beginning: I have oily skin. I find that horrific, but apparently having dry skin or combination skin is just as annoying to deal with, so at least I’m not worse off than everyone else. There is nothing I hate more than seeing a photo of myself where my face is all shiny, so I take special care in combating that in any way I can.

Every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to sleep, I wash my face with Chanel System Purete La Mousse. Thats a fancy name for what’s basically just creamy exfoliator. I like it because it smells good, lathers easily, and doesn’t feel sticky after I wash it off. It’s a little pricey, but a tiny bit goes a long way. I’ve used it for years.

At night after I wash my face, I put a little bit of Proactiv toner on a cotton swab and rub it all over my face, and let that sink in while I brush my teeth. Then, right before I hop into bed, I put on a little bit of Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. To be honest, I never used moisturizer before this year - I was always scared that it would clog my pores and make me break out. I got a little sample of this gel in a giftbag earlier this year and I love it - it’s not heavy at all.

When I’m in the shower, I’ll use Clean & Clear Morning Burst In-Shower Facial (which I have blogged about before) two or three times a week, which makes my skin feel all tingly and refreshed. And my newest find is the Boscia Luminizing Skin Mask, which I use at least once a week. This is one of those products that I heard about through the grapevine - tons of bloggers I read daily are obsessed with it, so I had to give it a try. They were right - it’s amazing! I leave the mask on for 15 or 20 minutes and then peel it off - EVERYTHING comes right off and leaves my skin so soft. It’s amazing!

As for makeup? I don’t use foundation or base. If I ever have circles under my eyes, which thank god, is rare, I use YSL Touche Eclat to brighten up my face. For concealer I use MAC MoistureCover, and carry an extra tube around in my purse in case I need to reapply. If I know I’m going to be out all day and not able to wash my face in the late afternoon, I put a tiny bit of Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer on my forehead to cut down on shine. I also carry MAC Blot Film blotting sheets in my purse and in my car for the same reason.

People. I’m not a facialist. I’m a girl who likes to spend all her money on beauty products! I’m not saying that all these products are the be all end all, nor do I necessarily think they’ll work for you. But they work for me, and let me leave the house in the wee hours of the morning not feeling like a horrendous troll, which is always a plus :) So if you’re looking for something new, why not give one of these products a try? It couldn’t hurt.

So there you have it - all my skin secrets! Now I want to know what you use. Tell me your SKINSPIRATION!

Back to Black

I am a colorful person. Given the choice, I would always rather wear something bright than basic black.

Last week, on ONE particular day, three separate people stepped into my closet in my apartment and said "Whoa, that's a lot of color." I like interesting prints and patterns and if they happen to come in colors like pink and red and purple and yellow, all the better. I will never be the girl wearing jeans and a black top out to the bar. I think I'd rather die.

That being said, I have found myself admiring MANY things lately (as usual), but in a strange twist of events, I'm finding myself oddly drawn to things in the darkest shade of them all. Maybe I should blame it on the weather? It has been rather gloomy out....

They say once you go black, you never go back. (Yes, I just went there.) I don't know if that's true, but here's what I'm loving right now!

Earlier in the week, a friend and I set out to kill some time before dinner, and of course that time was spent in the Beverly Center buying things I do not need. After trying on shoes in Steve Madden and Coach, we stopped into Nine West, and I found these insane shoes on the sale rack, marked down to $35! Now, I recognize that the bow is massive. I think that's what makes them so charming! The bow is seriously huge and extends at least two inches off each side of the shoe. They kind of remind me of clown shoes, but in the best possible way. (Do not call me Bozo. I will get mad.)

Oh wait. Those bow shoes may be going back to the store, because I just stumbled upon a situation on Bloomingdales.com, and that situation is called SPARKLY BLACK GLITTER TORY BURCH FLATS. Um, yeah. Gonna need these. This is the type of shoe that I can justify spending more money on, because this is something I would wear every day. And yes, I consider shoes with massive amount of glitter to be every day items. You don't? :)

Every single day of her life, my bestie Rebecca Gerrick wakes up and puts a fucking headband on her head, and every single day, I yell at her. Headbands are a special accessory. They are not meant to be worn with every outfit you own, unless you are a four-year old girl. I stand by this rule wholeheartedly. HOWEVER, I may have recently broken it. While browsing in my own personal Mecca (why yes, by that I do mean a Forever 21 accessories-only store), I found this crochet headband, and the rule flew out the window since I kind of want to wear it every day. It is cozy and warm and fits snugly over my ears, which will keep them warm. This will come in handy over New Year's Eve weekend, when I am skiing in Denver with the besties. I don't plan on taking it off... that is, unless Gerrick steals it from me.

Speaking of things that are cozy and warm, I can't get enough of this star-patterned scarf. It's seriously so freaking cute - I could think of a jillion different outfits it would go perfectly with! I guess that's the great thing about wearing black - it goes with everything and can tone it down or make it fancier. I'm not spending $200 on it, so I need to find a knockoff and get to planning ensembles quick!

Continuing on my quest to mentally redecorate my apartment every other day or so, I have BIG plans to eventually use these amazing little knobs on some sort of dresser or armoire. I am literally freaking out over their cuteness - how amazing would they be on a turquoise piece of furniture (like the one my friend Erica made)? I love the gold detail in the center and the black and white spots... and for $8 I think I need to make them mine. I SENSE A PROJECT COMING ON.

When it gets cold outside, I basically wear the same thing every day - a dress with a long cardigan, boots, and tights. It's my cold weather uniform and it gets me through those long and gruesome LA winters when it's a freezing 62 degrees outside :) Usually, I wear a solid pair of opaque tights from Hue and call it a day, but sometimes when I am feeling like I need a little extra something, I wear a patterned pair. I have fishnets (too sexy for work) and paisley-print (can only wear those with a plain dress), but my polka-dot tights are my favorite - they go with everything and make me feel so sassy! Mine were a limited-edition DKNY pair, but these look almost identical. So cute!

OH TRA LA LA LOVING THIS. This is what I like to call a delightful little treat - a skirt that looks sensible but upon closer look, is actually covered with tulle and sequins. It is also perfect for a holiday party, with a white T-shirt, a sick necklace, black tights, and black booties. Now, I need to figure out how I can get away with wearing this to work, and all will be right and sparkly with the world.

Looking at this list of things I've compiled, I've come to a conclusion. Black is great - it's easy and simple and sophisticated. But I can't even do black without adding a little extra sassy something! Bows, sparkles, stars, glitter... I'm a creature of habit. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Here's to a fantastic weekend! See yall Monday :)

What A Year

I can hardly believe it, but today is my one-year blogging anniversary! One year ago today, I sat down and wrote my first post for Queen of LA.

A year ago, I was an incredibly different person than I am now. I felt stuck in a job that I didn’t love, and every day, all I could think about was how much I missed writing. It’s quite simply, the thing I love to do most. It always has been, ever since I was a little girl.

I needed a change. So I created Queen of LA… and here we are today!

I can’t possibly convey how much this blog means to me. I always loved to write, but I never imagined that this would become such an important part of my life. All throughout this year, while I went on my merry (crazy) way, I felt a wonderful kind of responsibility to take as many pictures as I could, to have as much fun as I could, and do as many interesting things as I could, all so I could share them with you.

I am constantly surprised and happily overwhelmed by how many people come up to me – in bars, restaurants, temple, work, you name it! – to tell me how much they love my blog. I find it incredibly flattering and truly touching that so many people from all areas of my life are able to find humor and entertainment in my daily posts.

So, to whoever is reading this, thank YOU. Thank you for clicking, for reading, for laughing, for commenting, for complimenting, for following, and for always wanting more. Thank you for your words of encouragement and praise, and thank you for coming back, day after day, to read all about me and my misadventures :) By making me a part of your day, you have become one of the best parts of mine.

Here’s to the next year of blogging… and all the adventures that come along with being the Queen of LA! I can’t wait to share them with all of you.

Kitchen Pink for the Cause

Hello and happy Wednesday!

For the third week in a row, in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this month I am posting products whose proceeds benefit major charities, foundations, and organizations dedicated to fighting breast cancer.

Everybody needs kitchen products, right? Right. Even I do, and the kitchen is not exactly my forte, which we are all aware of by now :) But even I can’t resist a kitchen appliance or product when it comes in a gorgeous shade of PINK!

The very first time I ever heard of pink kitchen products benefitting breast cancer was a few years ago, when I was shopping for my new apartment in Target. As I browsed the home section, I came across an entire wall of pale pink kitchen goodies, and couldn’t believe my eyes! This water-filtering pitcher came home to live with me, and I love it. I needed one anyway, and I ended up getting one in my favorite color - that benefits the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to boot!

Check out Target and Bed Bath and Beyond’s websites -- they have tons of other pink kitchen stuff, all of which are super cute and for a wonderful cause. Seriously, they have it all - blenders, coffee makers, food processors, hand mixers, ice cream makers, and more!

I love all this stuff so much. It almost makes me want to learn how to actually use these things! :)

The Furniture Man

I am really jealous of Jacob.

Right now, he is being a very busy and important furniture salesman at the High Point Furniture Market in North Carolina. I’m not exactly sure what he does there, but I am fairly certain it involves him walking around and picking out the new pieces he wants to buy and sell for his store, Samuels Furniture.

Jacob and I both love furniture, but we have VERY different tastes. He prefers things that are brown, wooden, and from the 1960s. I prefer things that are colorful, lacquered, and very modern. We once went furniture shopping together at HD Buttercup and I think the only thing we could agree on in the entire store was a vase. (And I didn’t really like it. I lied.)

This means that he will occasionally send me links to things he likes and I will find them wholly unappealing and respond back saying “YUCK”, and I will send him emails with subject lines like “OMFG I NEED THIS”, to which he will respond “That is gross. No you don’t.”

The man is not a fan of pink. Of this I am well aware. I can do nothing to sway him.

BUT! For the past several days, every time I check my phone, I have a new text, tweet, or email telling me about all the new HOT PINK, COLORFUL, LACQUERED, SHINY, MODERN FURNITURE he is seeing at the market!

the photo that started it all.

emailed at the ungodly hour of 8:45 in the morning.

And I am jealous. So I kind of want to smack him. EVERYTHING he sends me is something I want. Hot pink dining room chairs with matching cushions? Yes please. Colorful patterned upholstered ottomans with secret pockets for shoes? Yes please. Rainbow colored canvas paintings? Yes please. I WANT IT ALL.

photo credit

I am trying to figure out how I can finagle an invitation to next year’s furniture market. Previously, I had less than zero interest in attending, but now that I know there are things that are shiny and pink being sold, I think I am going to need to make an appearance. (I’m sure Jacob and his father will LOVE that).

Anywho. This is just a story I find amusing. But in other Jacob-related news, TODAY IS HIS BIRTHDAY!

Jake is the best guy I know. His taste in furniture may be a little suspect, but he is fun and smart and kind and hilarious. And today he is one year older!

Happy birthday to my best friend. Love your face and miss you lots!

I just bought a brand new Kate Spade bag. For $0.13.

This is a tale of success, endurance, and love. This is also a re-tail. Get it? HA. I am hilarious.

This is what you should know before we begin: I am nothing if not a woman determined. If you need to find something on the internet, BY GOD PEOPLE, I will find what you need and usually I will find it on sale. In stores, I refer to myself as a “digger” - I will dig through bins and piles and racks until I find what I need. On the internet, it is no-holds barred. I will scour the web for HOURS til I am satisfied with what I’ve got.

Here we go. Remember when I first posted about this bag? Well, unlike a great deal of the things I post on here, I didn’t just put it up and then forget about this bag. Oh no. I made it my desktop photo, saved it as a favorite page, and stared at it every day for about 45 minutes total. I was OBSESSED. I needed this bag. Only problem? It was almost $400 - WAY out of my price range. Not happening :(

On Friday morning I logged onto Twitter and saw someone tweet about the Kate Spade Friends & Family sale. WHAT?! My heart started pounding. 25% off the ENTIRE website. That meant the bag was now $100 off! How could I not do it? How could I leave it behind? But $300 is still a shitload of money. I needed the retail gods to smile down upon me.

After work, I dragged my boss to the Kate Spade store at Century City to see the bag. THEY DIDN’T HAVE IT. My heart started pounding even harder. Was it sold out? Were other people snapping them up? I couldn’t be the only one in love with this bag. Was this going to be a repeat of the 2005 debacle with the lime green Prada makeup case, when I hesitated to buy it and it sold out EVERYWHERE? I still think about that makeup case. I was having a retail panic attack.

I got home from the mall, climbed into bed, and got to work. First I tried combining the Kate Spade Friends & Family with the code you get for signing up for their emails, for 15% off. Couldn’t do it - couldn’t combine them. Next idea?

My roommate arrived home and noticed my distress. I immediately told her the problem, and she asked if the bag was available on any other website. It was - I had found it (full price) on the Nordstrom website. Knowing about my MASSIVE Nordstrom gift card (this proves important later), she asked me why I couldn’t buy it from them. I told her about the Friends & Family discount, and she understood - $100 is a lot of money to save! I couldn’t buy it anywhere except Kate Spade.

Then I had an idea. Nordstrom promises to match any price, guaranteed - it’s what makes them have the best customer service, hands down, out of any department store. DING! A lightbulb went off in my head.

I pulled up the Nordstrom Live Help page and out popped a chat box.

“Hi, I’m Clarissa R. from Nordstrom Customer Service! How can I help you today?”

“CLARISSA! HELLO. I need to know if you will match a temporary promotional sale discount from another website if you have the item on your own website. This is not life or death, Clarissa, but it is close. Is that possible?”

I waited. And waited. I saw her typing. My heart rate went through the roof. And finally:

“Yes, we are happy to match any sale price, even if it is temporary.”

I almost died. Literally I almost fell out of the bed. VICTORY! Not only could I get the discount, but I could order it from Nordstrom and have them match the price, meaning I could use my MASSIVE BIRTHDAY GIFT CARD!!!!!

“CLARISSA!!!!!!! YOU HAVE MADE MY NIGHT!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“Thank you. Now how would you like to pay for this item?”

I HAPPILY climbed out of bed and retrieved my gift card to pay for the order. (In my excitement, when asked for the access code on the back of the card, I was too impatient to look for a coin to scratch it off - I must admit to you that I used my TEETH. Rachel was staring at me in honest to god true horror.) After the bag and tax (but ZERO shipping cost), Clarissa announced the total. It was $0.13 more than my gift card. I put $0.13 on my credit card and called it a day.

Now THAT, ladies and gay gentlemen, is how you buy a leopard print sequined Kate Spade bag for less than a quarter. THANK YOU, ILL BE HERE ALL WEEK.

Nordstrom, you have made a fan for life. I now consider you to be God’s personal department store. LONG LIVE NORDSTROM!

Weekend! Woo!

The weekend is finally upon us! Yay yay yay. Today was the last day of my second week of work (I know, I count things like I am a four-year old), and I am very much looking forward to having a few days to do some fun things – like the following…

Sleeping in – um, self explanatory? I wake up at the ungodly hour of 7:15am in order to beat the traffic to get to work. If you replaced the 7 with a 9, I’d be a much happier gal :) but alas, that will not be happening anytime soon. So yes, I will be attempting to sleep late this weekend. Saturday AND Sunday!

Pumpkin carving – I am so excited! I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years. When I was little we carved them every year – we even had special pumpkin carving knives. I’m sure this year I’ll be using my shiny IKEA yellow-handled butter knife to do my pumpkin, but oh well. I promise to post photos (regardless of how it turns out!)

Re-dyeing my hair – Um, yeah. So last weekend, in a fit of my-hair-has-faded-to-orange-and-it-looks-freaking-terrible panic, I purchased a bottle of dark brown hair dye at the drugstore and convinced my mother to dye it in our bathroom. UM, MISTAKE. More dye ended up in my ears, my left eye, and the bathroom floor than did on my head. The result, from afar, is a lovely head of dark brown hair – great. The result from up close is quite a few strands that my dear mother MISSED. Attention mother, it does not look like “highlights”, it looks like I half dipped my head in a jar of chocolate sauce. So I will be spending a few hours in the beauty salon tomorrow, and I am very much looking forward to that.

Buying my new iPod – my lovely and generous grandmother has gifted me with the cash to finally upgrade my iPod. I think right now my iPod is seriously 2nd generation and I’m pretty sure if I took it in to the Apple store they would look at me like I was nuts and then poke it with a stick to see if it was real or not. I am excited for an iPod touch – I want to get my hands on some apps! So if you have any suggestions for good ones, please let me know :)

So there are the special things I’m particularly looking forward to this weekend… in addition to those, I am also looking forward to regular weekend activities such as not taking my pajamas off for hours at a time, laying on the couch watching E Hollywood True Stories, and not combing my hair.

Viva la weekend! See you all Monday :)