6 LBS in 5 DAYS

I will try anything for a WEEK so I gave the cabbage soup diet a try. I must admit that I did not follow it 100% but  I was pretty close. It is said that doing this diet you will lose 10 lbs in 7 days and I can honestly say that I am a believer. You should know that this is not a long term diet and you will gain back some of the weight. You will lose mostly water weight, but if you need to shed a few quick pounds and slim down your waist & tummy this diet is perfect. This diet works because it is a high fiber, low fat, low sodium and low sugar diet. I plan to do this diet once more before my mini vaca with the lades and I think I may go the whole 7 days.

Cabbage Soup Diet

Cabbage Soup recipe: Dice all of your veggies and heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add your diced onion, celery, carrots and bell pepper to the hot pot. Sauté  until slightly tender, about 3-5 minutes. Add your roasted garlic and let simmer for about 2 minutes. Add your chicken broth and canned tomatoes and bring the mixture to a boil. Add your seasonings and cabbage to the pot and then reduce the heat to medium low. Let the cabbage get tender, it only takes about 5 minutes or so. Taste the broth and adjust the seasonings to your taste. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage
1 cup of yellow onion
1 head of roasted garlic
1 cup of celery
1 cup of carrots
12oz can of Hunt's diced basil, oregano & garlic tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
4 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
1 tsp oregano
1 tbs onion powder
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs black pepper (optional)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Cabbage Soup Diet Eating Plan

*Do not add any salt or sugar to any of your food for 7 days. No sauces or seasonings that contain sodium. This includes your cabbage soup. 

Day 1

Fruit: Eat as much fruit as you want (except bananas). Eat only your cabbage soup and fruit. Drink at least 4-5 glasses of water and you can drink unsweetened tea and cranberry juice.

*I made fruit smoothies, baked cinnamon apples, and had lots of fresh fruit on hand.

Day 2

Veggies: Eat as much raw or cooked veggies as you want. Do not eat dry beans, peas or corn. Eat only veggies and your cabbage soup today. At dinner reward yourself with a baked potato with butter. 

*I roasted veggies, had organic veggie juices, made a salad, and ate raw carrots and bell peppers. I also made my own roasted garlic butter (search butter on the blog for the recipe) to go with my potato.

Day 3
Mix days one & two. You can have your soup, fruit and veggies today. No potato today… sorry.

Day 4
Bananas, Skim milk & soup. Today you can eat up to 8 bananas and have as much skim milk as you like along with your soup. This is supposed to curb your cravings for sweets.

* I do not like skim milk or bananas very much so I made a smoothie. I used two bananas, almond milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. It was yummy!

Day 5
Today is beef & tomatoes! You can have 10-20oz of beef and up to 6 tomatoes. Drink at least 8 glasses of water today to flush the uric acid out of your body. Eat your soup at least once today. You can substitute the beef for broiled chicken (skinless) or fish.

Day 6
Beef and veggies today. Don't forget to eat your soup at least once and drink lots of water.

Day 7
Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and veggies. Make sure you eat your soup at least once.

*This diet is not recommended for longer than 7 days. Remember to drink lots of water and the more soup you eat the more weight you lose. Enjoy!

Brewers Wives Luncheon

When Brewers wives luncheon, we really luncheon!

I have FALLON in Love

Nothing does it for me like the combo of Femme & Masculine. I love mixing materials, trends and styles to get the best of both worlds. This Fallon collar necklace with a thick masculine chain and very delicate Swarovski pearl beading does just that… and does it well. I am adding this to my list of loves.

Fallon Swarovski Perl Chain Necklace  $169

HAUTEness

I am loving these Ivy Kirzhner boots. I have always appreciated a good statement shoe, but this studded leather boot is definitely speaking my language. Pure HAUTEness!

Bowery Studded Leather Moto Boot $750

What time is it?

It's BUTTER TIME! You guys know that I have a slight butter addiction so don't judge me. I was in the mood over the WEEKSend so I made some garlic herb butter. It was beyond amazing. I had to give some of it away because I would have eaten all of the butter and the entire loaf of bread… not good!

I used the Butter Cup from Williams Sonoma, if you don't have one do yourself a favor and go get one. Keep in mind that this butter is au natural, so it only lasts about 5-7 days in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Heavy Cream
Salt
Roasted Garlic
Parsley
Thyme

Instructions

• Fill the container with 1 cup of heavy cream & let it sit at room temp for 6-8 hours  (I did this overnight)
• Roast a head of garlic & let it cool (for this I used about 4 cloves and used the rest in my spaghetti)
• Shake the container for about 2-3 minutes until it gets really thick & the butter starts to separate
• Strain out the liquid through the top of the jar (I didn't have a lot of liquid)
• Rinse and strain with cold water (repeat this twice)
• Shake again for about 2 minutes
• Poor out any excess liquid through the top of the jar and collect the butter into the attached ramekin 
• Salt to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp of salt) 
• Add garlic cloves, parsley (just a pinch) and thyme (just a pinch)
• combine the ingredients

*seasoning is based on my preference, you can add more or less

What's YOUR accessory of choice?

These days people put actual work into trying to be different, not really sure why because you are the only you there is. While a simple yet complex thought, I can understand the struggle to be different. I am one of the many that don't necessarily wish to be a clone. Fashion is something that lives and breathes, it changes everyday, and the beauty of it is that things are just that… things, until you make them your own. Many people have the same "things," but if done right, those things become "your" things. This statement holds true in day to day life, but especially true in the eyes of a bride.

Many brides end up wearing the same dress, it's bound to happen, but the way you make it yours is by accessorizing it. You can really have fun and make your dress "yours" with the small things; the shoes, the jewelry, the belt and the hair. All of those things should directly reflect your personality and your style. 

I was not the most traditional bride but I did have a lot of very traditional touches; one of my favorite was the "old, new, borrowed and blue". My something old was my great aunt's vintage watch, my new was my Inbal Dror wedding gown. My borrowed was my beautiful jewelry from my Orlando based jeweler; Bay Hill Jewelers, and my blue was the "I DO" stickers on the bottom of my Giuseppe Zanotti shoes. I also added a Swarovski Crystal embellished belt to my ceremony dress, and had blinged out chuck's as my reception shoes. 

The moral of this story is that other brides may wear my dress or have my shoes, but no other bride will have "MY" ensemble. I suggest that whatever your accessory of choice may be, make it "yours" and you will stand out like any bride should. 

The Fragrance of Love

Living in the world of Etsy, Pinterest, Instagram and more it's easy to find great wedding ideas. The influx of information is great, but it can be challenging to have something at your wedding that's uniquely you. So many people gave me great ideas, one of which was choosing a wedding day fragrance. Being so consumed in what everything will look like and how it will feel, I never even considered what I should smell like. It seems like such a small detail but smell is one of the strongest ties to memory. As soon as I had this conversation I thought about all of the familiar smells throughout my life; My grams' hair, my grandmother's house and even the smell of my mother's lotion.

Smell is such an important part of life and incorporating it into my wedding details was one of the best decisions that I could have made. A lot of people wear the same fragrance but everyone's body chemistry is different, which makes even the same fragrances different on everyone. I chose two fragrances, one for my wedding and one for my honeymoon. Valentino was my scent for the ceremony and Ferragamo made the journey with me on my honeymoon. My husband also chose a wedding day fragrance, Victor & Rolf Spice Balm.

Whatever fragrance you choose, make sure that it's one that you love, it will stay with you for a lifetime. I have yet to wear my Valentino again, but I take a whiff every now and then, and it takes me right back to the day I said "I do."

The Death of the Carbon Copy

This past weekend, like every weekend, I came down with a fever… Carrie fever! I am known for watching endless episodes of Sex and the City and I am proud of my weekend addiction. As usual I laughed, cried and laughed some more, but one particular episode hit home for me. Carrie’s wedding… or lack thereof. It feels like just yesterday I was preparing to walk down the isle, and I am happy to say that five months ago TODAY my ending was very different from hers, but the buildup and the process felt so familiar. The excitement in finding the perfect location, the planning, and of course, at the top of the list, was the dress.

Now the details of my fairytale have yet to grace the pages of Vogue… notice I say YET, but watching Carrie receive her Vivienne Westwood wedding dress reminded me of that moment I found the dress of my dreams. There is no feeling like it. I’m sure the only dress-related feeling that could even remotely compare is that of her bridesmaids when they were assured that they would not be in matching bridesmaids dresses.

I, like my beloved Carrie, had the same philosophy, there was no way that my bridesmaids would walk down the isle looking like a batch of Stepford Wives from the 80’s. I know that old tradition requires that the bride (if still pure) wear white, and the bridesmaids match beyond necessity, but let's face it, times have changed and so has wedding fashion. These days a social event is usually held via the net, no one has a paper boy, and marriages ending over affairs with the milkman are extinct. If all of those pillars of the past can become extinct, can’t the matching bridesmaid dresses go with them?

I am seeing a lot more brides choose a different and much more updated look for their maids. I believe that you choose your bridesmaids for their unique friendships and personalities and that's what makes them special. Why would you mask all of their personality with carbon copy dresses? Well there are still a lot of old fashioned, do it by the book brides out there, and that's okay, but I believe that those brides are greatly out numbered by brides that want to do something different but just don’t know how, so they settle for the carbon copy.

I am glad that for my wedding I stuck with my vision, and while my bridesmaids all coordinated, they all looked different and their dresses were styled as uniquely as my girls. For all of you blushing brides that want to go a different route but are not quite sure how, here are a few options to consider:

Same dresses with different necklines

You can easily make the same dress look different by changing from sweetheart to one shoulder, or strapless to cap sleeves.

Different dresses in the same color

Color is one of the first things that grabs your eye, keeping your bridesmaids in the same color provides uniformity while making all of the dresses different keeps it interesting and exciting

Convertible Dresses

These dresses are usually the same in color and length but can be converted into different dresses by manipulating the fabric to change the neckline, sleeves, silhouette and many more options.

There are so many options out there to make your maids look unique but these are some of my favorite. For my wedding I chose a variety of options to make my girls stand out. I went with convertible dresses from Two Birds Bridesmaids for all of my girls. I also went with different colors and lengths depending on their role in the ceremony. I wanted everyone to look different and let each girls' personality show. I was very happy with the dresses that I chose, but I was faced with one small dilemma. I wanted my maid of honor to stand out but with all of the dresses styled differently, and already using two colors, how was I to do that. Well, I chose to have all of the bridesmaids bouquets the same and made my maid of honors' bouquet different, which made it special.

The moral of this story is that everyone in your life is different, unique in their own right. It’s okay to let their individual personalities show. When I look back through the pictures from my wedding day, I love looking at my girls in their dresses, and seeing their individual personalities shine through. I never have to think about which qualities made me choose them… the pictures speak volumes and say more than I ever could. Cheers and best wishes to all of you brides, bridesmaids and brides to be… let's toast to you and to the death of the carbon copy bridesmaids!

Get Minted

It can be a challenge to gift someone something that is unique, personable and hasn't already been done. These days it seems like there is a baby shower, wedding or bridal shower every other weekend, and I was running out of fun gifts to give. I am proud to announce that I have found such a cute idea and I can honestly say that I haven't seen this one done… not to say that no one does it, but at least I will be the first in my group of friends. Drum roll please….. CUSTOM RAPPING PAPER!

I am all about gifting stationery, especially for occasions that require thank you cards… it's kind of like the gift that keeps giving, but I have done that so many times, it's time for a change. Minted, the website full of complete amazingness, has custom rapping paper that is beyond cute. Now just in case you're one of those people that are thinking "What would I use custom rapping paper for?" let me tell you. Rapping paper with a new couples' initials is so cute. I am a newlywed and let me tell you, we love everything with our initials on it, so yes, the gifts that we give this year will be embellished with our crest (don't judge us). If you're attending a baby shower how cute would it be to deliver your gift in wrapping paper that has the baby's initials, or if you're attending a bridal shower, you can customize it with the bride to be's new initials. The possibilities are endless! In case you are not convinced, check out their website and get minted.

Loving this Mark Cross Briefcase. 

http://www.barneys.com $2495

POPSUGAR MUST HAVE JUNE BOX REVEALED

The June box is all about summer fun and gives us many tools to help us relax, unwind and refresh.

JUNE BOX CONTENTS:

EMILY GRIFFIN: THE ONE & ONLY BOOK
SACHAJUAN SHINY CITRUS BODY LOTION
TURKISH-T BEACH TOWEL
YOU SMELL LEMON WET WIPES
LOLLIES HAIR TIES
ONE POTATO TWO POTATO HAWAIIAN BBQ CHIPS
NATIVE UNION GIFT CARD

These Weeks will vaca in style

Since my arrival in the mid 80's I have made claim to the fact that I will never drive a mini van. Okay, maybe I'm pushing it saying the 80's, but you get the point. I always pictured myself way too stylish and furthermore, way too cool for a mini van. Many have told me that I will beg to differ once I have a clan of my own, but I am here, yet again to prove those naysayers wrong. Thanks to the hubby, I have found the WEEKSmobile and it's a far cry from a mini van.

I am proud to announce that we will spend our summer vacations in this decked out bus, (I refuse to call it a van) that is beyond LUXE. It seats 8, has dual refrigerators and has central controls for lighting, shades and TV via your iPad or smartphone. When I have a clan of little Weeks to call my own, I am glad to say that we will be traveling in style via the WEEKSmobile. 

Chanel Sunnies

I have found my latest beach accessory. I would typically go for some sunnies and a fabulous hat, but leave it to Chanel to change my mind. This summer I will be gracing the white sands with these Chanel glasses & visor combo. As if this is not implied and universally understood, these are HAUTE!

SQUARE NYLON FIBER SUNGLASSES W/ FOLDING VISOR $800

Loving this Mens Giles and Brother Nut & Bolt Cuff

Nut & Bolt Cuff $95

Is there such a thing as a fashionable PACKRAT?

Yes! According to this Marc Jacobs Domo Packrat Backpack, you can be fashionable and a packrat… who knew! I'm in the market for a new backpack… this one is a strong contender.

 Marc by Marc Jacobs Domo Arigato Packrat Backpack $198

Chanel Aspirations

I am a girl with many aspirations, one of which is to own a pair of Chanel gloves. These are the perfect accessory, plus they will match the Chanel tweed suit that I don't have yet, but it ranks high on my list of fashion aspirations. These gloves will not only satisfy my longing for Chanel, but they will help me achieve one of life's truisms…

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous"-Coco Chanel

love thy NEXTDOOR neighbor

I have new neighbors all the time, because we move around a lot, but one day I will have steady neighbors and when we do, I will be all about my NEXTDOOR neighbors. Nextdoor is a free (and private) social networking app that connects neighbors and allows them to get social.

 All users must be preapproved (so it keeps out weirdos & creeps) and it allows you to connect with neighbors to share community resources, buy, sell or trade household goods and you can also notify the neighborhood of suspicious activity. This is the NEIGHBORHOOD of the future. It blends Facebook, Craigslist and Instagram and makes it all neighborhood friendly. You can post adds for the next community cookout, donate your old crib or ask about a good lawn care service. This app is redefining what it means to be a good NEXTDOOR neighbor… and making it a little easier if you ask me!

https://nextdoor.com

c'est un selfie

The times of "hey… can you take this pic please" is rapidly declining, and is usually reserved for us ancient 30 somethings who have not perfected the art of the selfie. The good ol' days of asking perfect strangers to take several pictures (because the first one is never good enough) of you and your friends have been replaced by the "SELFIE". Now a days we spend upwards of forever trying to capture the perfect picture on our own, all in the name of the selfie.

Like many others out there, I am no selfie pro and I usually give up after the first 98 bad pics, even though I am very aware that picture number 204 is usually the perfect pic. There is a true art to the selfie approach and serious precision is required. You have to think about lighting, angle, how to get your arm out of the pic, looking at the actual camera instead of the screen and hardest of all looking effortless. 

For us less talented selfie takers, this tool should help us out. The Selfie Snap, marketed as the "solution to bad selfies," is a wireless camera shutter remote for iPhone & Android users. This little tool works on iPhones and iPads and can wirelessly control your camera functions, including switching from front camera to back camera, from up to ten feet away. 

For us less inclined selfie takers I believe this is one small step towards our endless desire of the perfect selfie. I'm looking forward to the day I can take one (maybe three) pictures and say "c'est un selfie!" 

Selfie-Wireless-Smartphone-Trigger $19.99

Why GO to them, when THEY will COME to you

The world is now more connected than ever which gives us easy access to all things luxe, lav & DOPE. The problem is that there are far less luxe things that consume our days… like work. While I may have more of an untraditional job, that doesn't have a definite title, other than wife and blogger, I still "work" and that "work" seems to always keep me busy.

In between my "working" sessions, the combination of travel and great convo with friends, coupled with my extreme magazine and internet addictions, have led me to discover some amazingly dope stuff. Well here is another, that will help bring a little bit of luxe and a whole lot of GLAM right to my door.

There is a new wave of mobile glam squads that are making some serious house calls. Let me first say that I love making a girls day out of any pamper related services, but my ultimate desire is to have someone bring all of that to me… preferably while I sip a glass of wine in my pj's… besides, why go to them when they can come to you. Now for me, getting all dolled up is the perfect start and finish to my night, but for those nights out on the town, wouldn't a mobile glam squad be the perfect kickoff. 

From coast to coast, beauty house calls are being made for everything from blowouts to braids, makeup to manis, they do it all. Check out some of the apps on iTunes like Topcoat, Priv, Blow Me or Glam Squad the next time your in the big apple, L.A. or San Francisco. I am flying the friendly skies and in need of a mani so I will be trying out Topcoat in SF. Then I'm headed to NYC, so I'll check out the services at PRIV. I'll keep you guys posted on my thoughts and experiences with my new and pre assumed amazing glam squad… but the only thought I have right now is… well...AMAZING! 

The New NEW...

The "IT" bag changes like the weather, from Boston's to Birkins, Celiné to McQueen, the bag de jour is relevant to your fashion source. TV, Celebs, Mags and Media all play a part on the bag scene, but here is a new one for you courtesy of the fashion house of le Weeks. According to Elle Magazine the real New New in the bag world is the IV bag. While this bag, like many, are not for everyone, those gals that are still out on the scene and have no time for late nights cut short or early morning dizziness and dehydration, this bag, my friends is for you.

There is  a new wave of mobile IV hydration boutiques that can cure a hangover and beat the alcohol binge in less than an hour. The cocktails that these companies are serving up consist of nausea fighting meds, anti-aging goodies, vitamins and saline. You can hydrate, look younger, feel better and get a glow all at once, and some of these shops will even come to you.

Shops like Hangover Heaven, Reviv Wellness Spa and IVme are popping up everywhere, from the mean streets of NYC to the Sunny blocks of Sunset, which means that the sophisticated party girls can continue to pop bottles without looking… well… like their last night got the best of them well into TOnight.
These treatments can range from $99 to around $300, which if you have ever had a hangover, a $99 fix is well worth it. When you compare this new "IT" bag to the bags of fashions past, this is a definite winner across all categories, plus all girls want that NEW NEW!