Gorjana Bracelet Giveaway!

I am honored and thrilled to be announcing my first blog giveaway today! Yahoo!!!

A little background - from all of my time as a buyer and store manager for bop (shopbop.com's only store in Madison, WI) I managed to make a lot of friends and acquaintances in the fashion world. Probably my most valuable friendship has come from the makers of the jewelry line Gorjana.

I remember I met Gorjana (that's the designers name, and the name of the line) back in 2004 right before my wedding (aak! a long time ago!) when I was in NY on a buying trip. My associate and I loved the line upon walking into the booth, and immediately placed an order for bop. Gorjana performed amazingly well in the store, and then online as well. I was so happy that the line was doing well, and over the course of the next few years, I got to know the designer and her fabulous husband Jason even better. We (my husband and I) love getting together with Jason and Gorjana, and have shared a lot of great times together - hopefully lots more! Another odd thing we have in common - our sons share the same birthday, 1 year apart.

Anyway, they have been gracious enough to let me host a giveaway for one of my most favorite items they sell - their Graham leather wrap bracelet. Exciting part is - there will be TWO winners! Two of you will win a bracelet, not just one.

These retail at $55 a piece, and wrap three times around your wrist. They come in an amazing variety of colors with either gold or silver studding & hardware - see above. I must confess my favorite is of course the coral color:

But I also LOVE the fuschia - will add a little 'pop' to an LBD or jeans and a white tank:

I own a few of these myself, and have been wearing the heck out of them all spring and into this summer already. They are the perfect bracelet to layer - with each other, or with bangles, or whatever! They don't fall off (this is key, as some bangles might) or jangle annoyingly - basically the best bracelet for a girl on the go. One thing I love too about these is that as a Mom, I can throw these on and look stylish all day without even remembering they're on my wrist - well, until I receive a compliment - which I almost always do. I know that's kind of a hard feat to accomplish (looking stylish/wearing jewelry while chasing your kids around), and sometimes I just want to wear no jewelry, but then I remember the Mom I saw not too long ago in a Pittsburgh park in her pajamas with her hair a tangled mess and no make up. She was a GREAT reminder that getting up and looking nice always makes you FEEL nice!

So, if YOU would like to be the owner of one of these fabulous bracelets, all you have to do is:

• leave a comment on this post stating your favorite color (from the ones pictured above), and whether you'd like it with gold or silver studding/hardware.



• OR leave a comment on my facebook fan page (and become a fan!) - just click here Mascara Meets Matchbox, or when on facebook type Mascara Meets Matchbox in the search box.



• leave your email address so I can contact you



• commentary needs to be in by midnight this Saturday the 3rd, and I will announce the winners on Sunday the 4th of July!



• Winners will be picked randomly

And, if you simply must have one of these RIGHT NOW (I wouldn't disagree), I recommend shopping on either http://www.gorjana.com/, or http://www.shopbop.com/. Both sites have a great selection and a beautiful representation of all of the colors available.

Ari's Back!!!!!

Is anyone as excited as I am that Entourage returns this Sunday the 27th?!! I think so.

Does anyone love Ari Gold as much as me? I think so.

And what about the clothes, the fashion? I mean, part of the fabulousness for me is watching what Perrey Reeves (Ari's wife) and Emmanuelle Chriqui (Eric's ex) will be wearing - from the shoes to the jewelry, they're always dressed to the nines.

Here are a couple of sneak peek clips from this season:



What is Turtle's new job?

http://www.hbo.com/entourage/index.html#/entourage/episodes/7/79-stunted/video/ep-79-turtles-new-business.html/eNrjcmbOUM-PSXHMS8ypLMlMDkhMT-VLzE1lzmcu1CzLTEnNh8k45+eVpFaUsDFyMjKySSeWluQX5CRW2pYUlaayMQIAUmYXOA==



Oh Drama.....

http://www.hbo.com/entourage/index.html#/entourage/episodes/7/79-stunted/video/ep-79-drama-talks-to-lloyd-and-ari.html/eNrjcmbOUM-PSXHMS8ypLMlMDkhMT-VLzE1lzmcu1CzLTEnNh8k45+eVpFaUsDFyMjKySSeWluQX5CRW2pYUlaayMQIAUmYXOA==



Tune in on Sunday, June 27 at 10:30/9:30 Central.

Darling Baby Books!

I'm on the homestretch - only 2 weeks left! I scheduled a c-section for July 9 (for those of you who don't know, Griffin was a c-section and 9 lbs, so I opted for it again). Wahoo! I am READY. However, I realized when I was visiting my sister in law Angie in the hospital a couple of weeks ago that I don't have a baby book for this baby! Yikes. Angie just had her second little girl, Sienna, on June 4. She's gorgeous, and I haven't gotten to see her enough, that's for sure.

So even though I had kind of forgotten to get a baby book, Angie inadvertently did the homework for me and found an adorable one - which I ordered too. Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? Thanks Ang!

The brand of the book is Rag and Bone. Not the same as the clothing line (which we had originally thought), but equally as fabulous.

Here are 3 of my favorite cover options - and there are many to choose from:

Dizzy Birds

Park Ave

Jungle Book

All of the books feature 24 fill-in pages featuring 'How Mom and Dad met,' 'How we picked your name' and 'The big day.' And, they're all bound with this pretty ribbon on the side....

You can find these books on the Rag & Bone website, www.ragandbonebindery.com, or I found them on www.babysakes.com for a tidbit cheaper. I ordered 2 books - the 'Dizzy Birds' if we have a girl, and the 'Jungle Book' if it's a boy. Usually Baby Sakes charges a re-stocking fee, but I told them since we don't know what we're having we'll have to send one back - so they waived it. How great is that?

Hope you've been inspired - and I wish I had known about this company/website the first time around!

Better Late than Never

Happy Father's Day to 4 of the best Dads I know!

Of course, the most 'grand' of them all, my Grandpa.....

And my wonderful Dad.....

My father-in-law.....

And finally my amazing husband...

Griffin has some pretty great role models, eh?

We love you all!

Toning, toning, toning

So I keep seeing these ads in all of my magazines for the Reebok Reetone shoes. They totally have peaked my interest, as it seems like they would be a great way to kind of ease yourself back into working out after NOT working out for say, 9 months. Yikes! Ok, I did do the Tracy Anderson video (thank you for the GREAT recommendation, Style Scout) up until about month 6 of this pregnancy, but after we moved to Pittsburgh and my life turned upside down the working out ended pretty quick.


I know they're not an insta-weight-loser, but the fact that I need new tennis shoes and the fact that apres-bebe I will probably have 20 or so lbs to lose makes me very very interested in these! After all, a good diet & the belly slimmer I am forcing myself to wear are probably not going to do the trick on their own.....right?


Reebok's statement on what they do is this:

"Reebok uses unique balance pods with moving air built into the shoe that provide natural instability with every step, which forces your muscles to adapt and work harder."

And here's how:

"Compared to a typical foam based walking shoe, EasyTone footwear with balance ball inspired technology generated 28% more gluteus maximus muscle activation, 11% more hamstring activation, and 11% more calf activation."

They have three options:

Easytone - These shoes seem like they're aimed at sort of every-day, run around town use. Perfect for me when running after Griffin on a daily basis!






I'm of course loving the gold (I know, not for everyone) but they also have them in pink, blue, black, all white, etc. The gold are $124.98, but all the other colors are $99.98.

They also have the Easytone Flipflop, which I'm a bit skeptical of - I mean, $59.98 for a flipflop? You have to really love wearing your flipflops (which I do) and hope that these bad boys don't give you blisters!

The 2nd item they offer is the RunTone Shoe for, yep, running. Here's what Reebok has to say about the RunTone:

"You asked for it – you got it: the muscle-toning shoe you can wear while running, training and working out. Compared to a traditional running shoe, RunTone, a close cousin to our EasyTone shoe, encourages more activation in key leg muscles like the calves and quads and reduces overall body stress."

So if you're a runner (which I wish I was, but I'm just not), not a bad idea!? They're the same price as the EasyTone - $99.98. On the Reebok website they only have two colors available right now - blue/white & green/white.

Finally, there's supposed to be a TrainTone coming out - I saw an ad for it in a magazine, but I can't find them on the Reebok site - for shockingly, training.

Probably my favorite part (aside from that pesky fitness aspect) of these shoes is that you can, for a little more money, customize your Easytones! Fun fun! The fashionista in me is all over this. You get to pick your colors on every single designable aspect of this shoe. Here's where you'd go on the site to do this - it's only $125.
https://www.reebok.com/US/custom-easytone-reeinspire

So my question to you all is - do you know anyone who has bought these? Do they like them? I would love some advice on whether or not to spend the money!

Peter Rabbit

I'm back! After a long couple of weeks of packing, moving, and dealing with life in general upheaval, we are finally in Chicago and feeling somewhat settled. Yahoo! It's so good to be here too. The neighborhood we moved into is so cozy, there have already been some nice neighbors introducing themselves, and my Mom and Joe's parents came to help unpack (which was totally necessary because if they hadn't I may have had some kind of breakdown trying to do it with just Joe).

We've also already been welcomed by the 12 year old pranksters in our neighborhood by getting ding-dong ditched 2 days in a row. Ha! The first day it happened, I wasn't sure who rang the doorbell - no one was there! However I was not happy about it - they decided to do this during Griffin's nap time, and my dog Bella enjoys pretending it's a 4 alarm fire every time someone rings the doorbell. Thank goodness Griffin didn't wake up - Mommy would have REALLY been mad then! So the second time the pranksters struck was yesterday, while we had a house full of people, and my Mom and Mother in law actually saw them run away from the door and hide behind a car. We sent Joe out to tell them to cut it out. Hopefully it won't happen again - and hopefully my sweet little Griffin doesn't do this to people when he gets big! Ugh!

So I don't know if I'm the last to catch on to what Starbucks has been offering lately for kids, but I thought it was worth telling you all about. My mom and I ran into the very close to our house Starbucks (I am so excited we have one so close, and a Dunkin Donuts...it's a little slice of heaven here compared to Pittsburgh) the other day, and found the cutest & healthiest little snack for toddlers and kids I've ever seen. They're called Peter Rabbit Organics Fruit Snacks.

A few of the reasons they're fabulous:
100% organic fruit, with no artificial ingredients or added sugar
-they come in a darling little squeezable pouch that is fun for the kids to squeeze and relatively mess-free. The pouch also has a resealable cap if they don't finish it all at once.
-no need for refrigeration
-they come in three yummy flavors:

Apple and Grape

Strawberry Banana

Mango, Banana and Orange

Griffin likes all three, and every time i have gotten him one he says "mmm! yummy mama!" So much better than getting him the typical chocolate milk at Starbucks. Less sugar, and the 3.5 oz size gives him one of his fruit servings for the day. Sometimes the only fruit serving he gets for the day depending on his level of stubbornness! ;-)

I ordered a couple of 10 packs off of Diapers.com the other day for $16.90 each, but also found that you can get the 10 packs on Amazon.com for $16.50. A lot cheaper than buying at Starbucks, and great to throw in your diaper bag for a snack in a pinch.


Looking forward to doing a bunch more blogging in the next month before baby - only 1 month left!

Signing off for a week.....

So - this week we're making the big move to Chicago. I don't know why I'm calling it 'the big move' as we just did a 'big move' from Madison to Pittsburgh only 3 months ago! So I guess it's just another move. However we have both decided that this is the last 'big move' for a long time. I am ready to be settled on one city, that's for sure. And I'm super excited that it's the stomping grounds of my early 20's, Chicago!

Anywho - we'll be disassembling our computer tomorrow so I thought I'd say goodbye for about a week. I promise I'll be back with good stories.....

But today, here's a little picture-tribute of our ENTIRE 3 months in Pittsburgh.....tears. Just kidding.

Just after we moved here in early March, at 21ish weeks pregnant

Papa came out to visit our first week here in Pittsburgh and help Mommy unpack boxes - and he did a LOT of Griffin maintenance........Thanks Dad!

We squeezed in an amazing trip to Hawaii at the end of March....here's a beautiful rainbow that you see there probably once, daily!




We took a fun trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo with Griffin's cousin Juliana who flew in from Chicago just for his 2nd birthday celebration! They are so cute together....




While at the Zoo, we came across this beautiful peacock - not in an exhibit, not in a cage, seriously, just HANGING OUT by the main walkway! It let us get within a couple of feet and we took tons of pictures. Look at those feathers! Another GREAT reason to buy faux, people.



And here I am at 29 weeks prego, with my sweet Griffin 'giving the baby a kiss.'



In early May, we took a trip to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum


Just this past week, Griffin's two best friends here in Pittsburgh came over for some fun in the backyard, Harrison and Jackson. The amount of screaming that goes on when these kids see each other is hilarious. Here, they're playing ring around the rosie (Griffin's the meaty one in the green shorts).

Finally, yesterday, we took Griffin to his first baseball game - Pittsburgh Pirates vs. the Chicago Cubs. Go Cubs - see you in Chicago!