Goodbye September!

I can't believe September is almost over! Where did it go? It has finally cooled down in Los Angeles and I am excited for pumpkin spiced lattes, more blankets and Halloween Decorations! What are your favorite October traditions?

The Hunger Games

Ok. So. I've put off posting about this for a while because I simply couldn't put into words my love for this book. I have settled down a bit since I've read it and feel the need to tell everyone I know to put down their newspapers, turn off SURVIVOR, get onto your vespa's and take yourself to the nearest bookstore to buy yourself a copy of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This book will probably be in the young adult section, but don't' be fooled.


There is some heavy stuff coming your way. HG is sort of A Lord of the Flies mixed with Battle Royale and topped with a kick-ass female protagonist named Katniss. I read this book in 17 hours (I didn't even sleep) and have started a book club since then just to make sure all those I care about are reading it! A bonus: The Hunger Games is part of a trilogy and the 2nd book, Catching Fire, came out last week which is equally as awesome. I promised I'm not getting paid to promote this book. Just got buy it. Or rent it from the library. Or read it on your kindle. It will change your life - promise!

Ella Moss Give-Away Results

Congrats to Ms. Ella Soup for winning the Ella Moss Pink Shirt give-away! (it must have been fate!) Ella's name was chosen by an online random number generator.


Ella said:

ella soup hearts ella moss

Look forward to some more great giveaways in the near future! xx!

Old fashion Classic: The Mint Julep

Mint Juleps are the perfect drink. They remind me of sitting on a porch swing at dusk in the south (preferably North Carolina) with cut off jean shorts on and no shoes. I think that if my life were a drink, it'd be this one. Check out the awesome recipe below!


Recipe

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) club soda
2 heaping teaspoons superfine sugar
15 fresh mint leaves, plus 5 small sprigs for garnish
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) Bernheim or other high-quality whiskey
2 cups crushed ice

1. In julep cup (or any 10 oz glass) stir together club soda and sugar until sugar just begins to dissolve

2. Add mint leaves and using glass muddler or back of large spoon, gently press leaves into sugar syrup until slightly darkened but not completely crushed

3. Add whiskey, then fill cup with crushed ice and using long spoon and stir briefly

4. Tuck mint sprigs into top of cup and insert short straw

Cheers!

{thanks to eat.make.read for this excellent recipe!)

Happy Weekend!

Happy Weekend to you all! I will be celebrating my Birthday tomorrow and can barely wait for the dancing, drinking, and Polaroid taking to begin! I'd like to send a special birthday thank you to my best gal Bree who created my rockin' bday invitations. Isn't she amazing? I feel very lucky to have such a talented and amazing friend! {Much love to you, B!} I look forward to posting to you all on Monday a year older and hopefully, a bit wiser! Enjoy your weekends!

Fall in love with Sretsis!

As the first official week of fall comes to a close, I'd love to shed a little light on one of my new favorite clothing lines; Stretsis. Their new fall collection epitomizes the surprising oppositional aspects of the collection, juxtaposing acid pink, electric blue and lion gold against soft pastels like lilac and faded rose. They have a wide range of new items including classic cocktail dresses, acid zipper trompe l'oeil jeans, scalloped rib skirts, oversize knitted blazers and tuxedo tail jackets. Check out some of my favorite pieces below and get excited for fall!



p.s. If you didn't figure it out already, Stretsis spells Sisters backwards and was in fact, created by a group of 3 sisters. How cool!

Friday Give-Away!

I have a fantastic give-away for you all today! Throughout the month of October,Ella Moss is offering a limited-edition tank top sold to raise funds for clinical and translational research to prevent and cure breast cancer. $5.00 from the sale of each Ella Moss World Pink tank is donated in support of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. To win this adorable great-cause worthy tank, just leave a comment below and I'll choose a name at random on Monday!

Many thanks to Jackie, Brooke and Mallory for hooking us up!

Remember my name

The remake of Fame comes out in theaters on Friday and it has become the latest and greatest guilty pleasure in my world. I had the pleasure of meeting the very talented director yesterday, Kevin Tancharoen, and I ran into the premiere at the Grove complete with a live performance of "fame" (which I totally downloaded off itunes when I got home later that night - shhh, don't tell) All signs are pointing me toward the theater!



I think this movie will be so much fun. At least as much fun as the classic 1980's classic version. Enjoy the trailer below!

Vintage Free People

The Gods have listened!! Free People has just announced their new fall vintage line called Recycle USA. All the pieces in this collection are hand sewn and reconstructed from vintage garments. I am drooling over everything but especially the items below!




1. Vintage cutoff cowboy boots - $248
2. Vintage Crystal Cocktail Ring - $248
3. Freecycle Blazer - $98

The Big Apple

I don't know if it was my recent dinner party with natives from the big apple, the fact that my office window looks out onto the fake New York City back lot, or if I've been watching just a litttttle too much Sex and the City and/or (yes, I admit it) Felicity, I've decided to take my vacation this year to the greatest city on earth, you guessed it, New york!


This time however, I want to do new york a little differently. I plan to spend a day with day with each of my friends, seeing their new york; their favorite cafes, bookstores, parks, flower shops and patisseries. I'm swapping tourism for hedonism here, folks. On my short list of things I must do on this visit is a trip to Coney Island for a vintage roller coaster inspired Polaroid photo shoot (like the one one hot child in the city posted recently), as well as Serendipity for their infamous frozen hot chocolates! If you have any NYC gems that I must see, please please feel free to leave a comment below. See you in October, New Yorkers!

p.s. I will be staying with friends in both Brooklyn and the East Village so anything's really a go!

J. Body Soundtrack Give-Away Result

Congrats to Ms. Nancy Weiner for winning the Jennifer's Body Movie Soundtrack!! Nancy's name was chosen by an online random number generator.


Nance said...
I'm in like flynn! xo

Stay tuned for more free give-aways in the near future! Thank you all so much for commenting!

Friday Give-Away!

Happy Friday! In honor of the release of JENNIFER'S BODY in theaters today, I'm going to give way a free copy of the awesome soundtrack. The movie features songs from great bands such as Little Boots, Sivlersun Pickups,and the Black Kids. Leave a comment below in order to win! I'll randomely choose the lucky winner on Monday and post the results. P.S. The movie is actaully awesome and I urge you to go see it this weekend! Check out the trailer below!

Love times 3

the yeah yeah yeah show was amazing. . there was pink confetti and beach balls shaped like big eye balls. karen o is a warrior princess goddess. she had approximately 4 costume changes including a full on native american headdress and kimono made of feathers. they ended with an acoustic (i'm serious!) version of maps and i fell in love all over again. why am i not in a band? in short, the yeah yeah yeahs = love love loves.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

Tonight I am going to see my very first Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs concert at the Greek Theater in L.A. I'm so excited I may explode! They are one of my all time favorite bands and I can't wait to watch the bad-ass Karen O strut her stuff on stage! In case you don't know their music, here are some of my favorite tracks you can listen to below. As a side note: Karen O independently recorded the whole WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE soundtrack. Awesome, right? Enjoy!


P.S. Thanks to Miche for this early birthday present!!

Julie & Julia

After recently seeing JULIE & JULIA in the theater, Ms. Child inspired me to host my very first French dinner party in her honor. As a child growing up, my parents used to host these parties annually and I would help by serving frozen grapes to the guests and occasionally stirring a souffle or two. Now, ten years later, I couldn't wait to get into the kitchen to start cooking! Here is the menu and some snapshots of le dinner extraordinaire! P.S. Thank you to all the magical elves who cooked, cleaned and entertained with me last Sunday! (And Mr.Fickes for the great photos!) Julia would of been proud!

Le Menu

Chilled Grapes
Australian Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Apricot Rosemary Marmalade & Crackers
Carrots and Hummus
Scallops with swiss cheese
Beef Bourguignon
Hericot Verts
Chocolate Souffle, Vanilla Bean Ice cream & fresh raspberries

28 is gonna be great!

As my last few weeks of being 27 comes to a close, i've been thinking a lot of my 28-year-old resolutions. Here is what i'm going to attempt to accomplish during the next year! (I am posting this list so that my friends will kindly peer pressure me to actually do these!)


28 things to do at 28

1. read a Haruki Murakami novel
2. get bangs
3. learn to garden (thanks in advance - lil!)
4. visit Austin, TX
5. take a photography class
6. D.J. a party
7. beach cruise more
8. learn how to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies
9. drink more water
10. write a musical
11. ride in a hot air balloon
12. learn to drive a stick shift
13. take vitamins every day
14. learn to trapeze
15. adopt a puppy
16. start an arts and craft night
17. save more and spend less
18. recycle everything
19. send more snail mail
20. visit a foreign country (preferably India!)
21. actually learn how to straighten my hair
22. think harder about getting a tattoo
23. host more dinner parties
24. attend a roller derby game
25. swear less. that's a lie. stop lying about pretending to stop swearing. (better!)
26. start wearing sunblock
27. rock a pink streak in my hair for at least one month
28. take tap lessons!

♥

Whip It: Remixed!

What the what? I just stumbled upon this awesome interview with Drew and Ellen in the latest Marie-Claire magazine. How amazing is this photo spread of them? I've already seen this movie twice but will fully go support it in theaters opening night - due to it's full-on cuteness!

Balloons, inspired by: Balloons!

Is it obvious that I'm in birthday party planning mania? Balloons are my favorite part of decorating. How cool are all of these?

Happy Friday!

Happiest Friday after this amazingly short week! This weekend is filled to the brim with parties for me and hopefully a little bit of quiet time to finish Catching Fire (which I just can't put down!) A trip to the rose bowl flea on Sunday as well as my very own first french dinner party should wrap up the weekend nicely! (hopefully all done while wearing tights and a top hat!) What are you doing?
P.S. Happy Finale to all you True Blood watchers, to boot!

Office Decor

I'm in the middle of re-doing my office work space in my apartment. Here are the three images that are my inspiration!

Invitations!

As far as birthday's go, I love sending out homemade invitations instead of a computerized evite or email. It makes it so much more fun and personal and sets the tone for a very special event. Last year I created a roller skate shaped invitation for my disco 70s rollerskating party and the year before that was an 80s inspired concert poster for the pop princess dance party! I recently stumbled upon this adorable Swedish invite and can't wait to re-create it for my next event!

La Petite Choue hits 100!

Happy 100th post, La Petite Choue! Thank you all so much for continuing to read and spread the la petite choue love! It gives me so much joy and I am filled with love and gratitude for you all. And because I'm sort of in a cheesy lovey mood today, I'll share with you a great photo I found and a great song to go with it ( that I can't stop listening to) Muchos amores to you all!



Love will tear us apart by Broken Social Scene (Joy Division Cover)

Digital meets Analog

WHAT? How much do I wish that I had an ipod Nano right now? These ipod holders are made from reconstructed cassette tapes by contexture design and are so fantabulous! Buy them here!

Happy Friday!

Happy long Labor day weekend! What plans are you concocting? I am laying low in L.A. and taking a mini road trip to explore San Diego on Sunday (I've never been!) Last night I was out dancing and heard this amazing song by Passion Pit, which I thinnnnnkk may be my new favorite band! I had to share it with you! (Thanks Miche for sending the video!) I am definitely determined to recreate the intro girl's sparkly pants outfit!

Blackberry Bomb

Whoa. This looks like the perfect fall-i just got back from the library and don't want to clean my house-it's too cold outside to go for a walk-lay around in blue opaque tights while sipping- sort of drink! Plus, ginger liqueur? Divinity!


Ingredients

3-4 blackberries, plus 1 for garnish
.5 oz Domain de Canton (ginger liqueur)
1.5 oz vodka
1.5 oz lemonade

Recipe

- In a cocktail shaker, muddle blackberries until they’re broken down.
- Add ice, Domain de Canton, vodka and lemonade and shake well.
- You can either strain the blackberries when you pour or just pour them straight into the glass, making sure to strain the ice.
- Garnish with a plump blackberry and call it a day.

Thanks to eat.make.read. for this great recipe!

Tilly and the Wall

Tilly and the Wall is one of my favorite bands and reminds me of the confetti that comes out of one of those metallic poppers we see on New Year's Eve.(which I promise I came up with before I choose this confetti inspired picture of them!) Whenever I'm in a particularly grumpy mood I put them on and they immediately lift my spirits. In short, these five Omaha natives are a part of the rockin' indie label, Team Love (along with others such as Rilo Kiley , Of Montreal and The Go! Team) and have produced 3 albums to date. The girls dress in bright colored tights, sparkly tutu's and their stage is always covered in balloons and beach balls. It's sort of like a dress up dance party but the best part is that there music is actually good. Really good. My favorite Tilly quirk is that instead of a drummer they have Jamie, a girl who tap dances the percussion like no one's business. Check out my favorite video of theirs below.



Other favorite songs include " Lost Girls", " Beat Control", and "The Freest Man". Enjoy!

Whip It!

Raise your hand if you're excited to see this movie? (PS I've seen it twice already and can tell you it will make you want to quit your job. Buy purple ripped tights. And become a roller derby girl!)