BRIAN ATWOOD BIRTHDAY REVEAL!

When we got back from Amsterdam I found these waiting for me in my dressing room!  

What a sneaky hubby!

The Hub's and I agreed that all the shoes I bought during the S/S designer sales would be my birthday present this year.  But what I didn't know was that The Hub's was secretly plotting on surprising me with a pair of shoes himself.

I had been searching for a specific color of pumps for a really long time.  The Hub's had even accompanied me all over Paris (including standing outside of the Louboutin store for over an hour in the freezing cold.. remember this post?) looking for this particular color unfortunately as many of you know I returned from Paris sans shoes.

(He's so cute huh?? :p)

Well a couple of months ago I had seen the perfect pair of Brian Atwoods when we were in Frankfurt however at the time I didn't pull the trigger because this is a very unusual shade of color and I was "FOR SURE" it was going to go on sale. 

Well turns out this color is SOOOO POPULAR NOW that the shoes sold out!!!  I could not believe it.  I comforted myself by saying that it was such a "trendy" color and that perhaps it was all for the best.

Well The Hub's on the other hand would not admit defeat and back in June decided to secretly call stores all over the place to try and locate the shoes.  He called stores across the globe from Germany, France, England and FINALLY located a pair in the US!  And for whatever reason they couldn't ship it to Germany so he had them ship the shoes to my mother and THEN he arranged for her to ship the shoes to Germany on the DL! (Thanks Mom :)!!

Can you guess?? :p

Here they are!!!!

WOOT!!!

Fluorescent Yellow!!!!

(Unfortunately in some of the pictures it was coming up more yellow submarine rather than true neon.. but trust me they're REALLY fluo! Hubs said it was hurting his eyes to look at them bahaha! Which honestly made me love them even more!!!  Not because it hurt his eyes but because it means that they are REALLY neon! tehehehehe!)

These Maniacs are patent leather.

                             They run TTS as are all Brian Atwood shoes in my experience. 

They were reallllllllllllllllllllly tight but considering they are patent leather they will most definitely stretch over time so I would definitely advise against going bigger just because they feel really tight.

I have a couple pairs of patent leather Louboutin's that I sized up a full size because they were SOOOO tight and now they've stretched out and are sadly way too loose so I don't wear them as much these days :( 

Remember these electric cobalt blue's from a few weeks ago and these shock fuchsia's from last Christmas??

Well I decided a little family photo shoot was in order!!  

I mean seriously how often do you have multiples of the same shoe all in the neon family?

Thank you so much Booboo you really understand my penchant for truly obnoxious shoes!!!
muhahaha

Thanks for being such a ninja!

Love you!!

Hahaha now that I have them.. I really hope I can wear these for years to come.. hahaha.. but I don't care because even when Neon goes out I'm still going to love them to bits!!

GUEST BLOGGER: Japanese Curry for Two, Please

By Blogger: Abby Tudela

Hi, my name is Abby and I blog at Dirt on the Rocks. I want to thank Lisa for the opportunity to write a guest post for her blog and readers.

If there is one thing that I absolutely love to do, it’s cook. I learned at a very young age that I did not need to spend a ton of money in order to indulge in my favorite meals. One of my favorite comfort food meals is Japanese Curry, and I’m going to share that recipe with you here.

This is a quick and simple recipe that I love to make at home. I used to think that great meals must take so much time and effort. Was I ever wrong! Perhaps you could surprise your special someone with a homemade international meal.

Japanese Curry | Recipe

Japanese curry is delicious. There are many different types of curried recipes out there, but I believe that the Japanese curry would have to be my favorite. The beauty of this recipe is that exact measurements aren’t important, as it really depends on your own personal preference. To make it even simpler, I use a Japanese curry mix that you can find in your local Asian market.

Ingredients

●     one box of curry mix (Golden Mix is what I use).

●     However, I only use 3-4 cubes depending on how concentrated I want the flavor to be.

●     2-3 cups of water, depending on desired thickness of the sauce

●     Oil or butter, for sauteeing

●     Minced garlic

●     Sliced onions

●     Mixed vegetables. My go-to veggies are diced potatoes, sliced carrots, zucchini, and cauliflower.

●     Optional protein: meat or tofu

●     Spices to taste

●     Salt and pepper

Directions

If you’re using meat, I suggest you boil it down a bit first in order to pick out the fat and have a lower-fat version of this meal.

In a skillet, heat olive oil or butter to medium-high heat. Sauté the vetegables lightly. Next, in a large pot, bring water to a slight simmer, then add your sauteéd vegetables and curry mix cubes. As the cubes dissolve, mix them in with the water. The consistency should be pasty. If necessary, add flour to thicken or water to make thinner.

Bring the water and vegetables to a low boil and mix together. Add desired salt, pepper, and spices and let it simmer for another 9-11 minutes. 

Serve over rice.

Easy enough, right? You don’t need to be a professional chef to get gourmet-style food at home. It’s easy to make, and it’s incredibly delicious. This meal is more than enough for two people and is filling. If you want to spice up your night, this Japanese curry dish will do it. Impress that special someone and make them think you are a pro!

Abby is 23 and a single mother living in Southern California trying to make ends meet. She is a freelance blogger whose clients include UMoveFree.com, an apartment-finding service for locating downtown Dallas apartments. Abby loves spending time with her son and is constantly learning new things about him as each day passes by. In her blog, Dirt on the Rocks Abby writes about food and life. Like many single moms, Abby finds that her life experiences are both daunting and inspiring, and her blog reflects these experiences.

This post is supported by: UMOVEFREE.COM

AMSTERDAM Part 3

The graffiti in Amsterdam is AMAZING!! 

The cat is sooooo cute I wish it wasn't covered ::sadface:: 

Love Fest birdie!! SO CUTE!!!!! 

CHEESEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The Dutch are known for their dairy products and their cheese is no exception.

I seriously wanted to take home ALL of the cheese in this store!!! SOO NOMS! 

They had all different types of cheese but I believe a Dutch speciality is Gouda and their Gouda was BOMB!!!  They also sold various types of sweet mustard and chutney's to go along with the cheese and they were so delicious together!!

See the green cellophane wrapped cheese??  

The cheese itself is actually that SAME green shade and it's infused with pesto it was CRAZY delicious!

Do you see it?? It's the 2nd from the right!

After that we decided to do a boat cruise through all of Amsterdam's famous canals!  I would definitely recommend doing this if you visit Amsterdam it's definitely a very different vantage point of the city  from when you're standing on the street.  But I would recommend doing the day time ones and not the "romantical" night time one that we did.. because after awhile you can't see anything BAHAHAHA!!!

This was so pretty you actually could see straight through 7 different canal bridges :)!!  But was too hard to capture on camera hahah.. it only looks like there are like 3 or 4 but I promise it 7 hahah! 

After the boat ride we decided it would be perfect time to visit the infamous Red Light District.  This was the VERY beginning of the red light district and I didn't take any pictures after this because we had heard many scary stories of not just the police confiscating your camera but of the girl's pimp's coming up to you..... so yeah don't take pictures when you're in the red light district hahah!!

But I can tell you it was a really interesting and somewhat bizarre experience it's literally rows and rows of girls in scantily clad lingerie and bikini's sitting in these giant window boxes!  It's very very rowdy there's lots of dudes obviously but there are also a lot of couples, and groups girls there for their bachlorette parties and even some parents with their kids.. which I thought was kind of odd but to each their own.

After we finished wandering the red light district it was well passed midnight and we decided to take a ride on one of the many taxi bike's that are littered throughout the city.  They are pretty much like tuk tuk's but these are on bike's and I think they are electrical because it goes SOOOOOOOOOOO fast!!!   I had no idea the ride would be so fast you literally go flying through the streets! 

It was SOOOOOOOOOOO SO fun and I really wish we had thought to do this in the daytime because they literally zip you through all the tiny canal streets!

Muhahahaha!!! 

You can tell the Hubs is pretty tired at this point haha. 

Chinatown!

This is supposedly the BEST Cantonese Chinese restaurant in all of Amsterdam.  What was really surprising to us is when we got there we realized there were Vietnamese words on the window!!!

Birds nest noodles w/ pork and shrimp

Sweet and Sour Pork

I know I know I have SUPERRRRRRRRR American taste buds HAHAHAHA.. but their sweet and sour pork was actually really yummy heh.

(*@&$(*@#&$(*#& SOOOOOOOO FREAKIN' CUTE HAHAHAHA

OK this is TOTALLY RANDOM but this is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RAMEN IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!

This brand Mama they make a whole bunch of different types of ramen flavors including different Tom Yum flavors.. but this particular one is CREAMY Tom Yum and it is obscenely disgustingly good.  If you can find this at your local asian store you should definitely try it!!  Crack two eggs and throw in some Napa cabbage and it's on!!!!  Make sure your eggs are runny!  Because the runny egg yolk mixed with the creamy tom yum soup is AWESOME.

I also happened upon these ADORABLE Japanese doll statues.  The brand is called "Kimmidoll" and they make these Japanese dolls in like dozens upon dozens of different colors and styles SOOO CUTE! I really realllllllllllllly wanted to take one home (the pink on in the middle) for my dressing room but I thought the price was crazy ridiculous it was like $75 EURO's which is like $100 US!!!  So when I went home I looked it up and turns out the dolls you see on the left side are the maxi size but they have one that's EVEN BIGGER that literally stands as high as your waist!!! And the EVEN BIGGER one is only listed as $100 US!!! WTF!!!!  That place in Chinatown was a total rip off.. but I'm kind of bummed now because apparently these dolls are produced by an Australian company and you can't order them online and they don't ship ARGH!!! ::SADNESS::

She's so pretty 

::CRIES:: 

Look at her pretty matte pink lips :p

More crooked houses!!

Look at the green doors and then look at the black gate on the right!

ROBOT STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I freakin' love Robot stores!

I thought the furry grass looking pink one with the purple ladybug on it was so cute!

DIEEEE FOR THIS PILLOW!!!! 

But @ $50 EURO's = $75 USD.. I couldn't justify.. especially because I know if my fur babies ever get their hands on it.. it's going to be a ripped up chew toy in 10 seconds flat! hahaha.

This one was so pretty too!!

Public Enemy dolls! 

FLAVAAAA FLAV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

You know you watched his VH1 show.  Don't deny. ahahahahaha.

I'm oddly drawn to these freakish doll drawling by Mark Ryden.. I want some of his coffee table books so bad!! 

*DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL* 

Hahaha does anyone else think it's weird that there's like all these delicious desserts and then random giant pizza pies on the bottom?  The weirdest part was that EVERY single bakery we ran across was set up like this.. desserts and then trays of pizza!!!  Weirdness right? hahaha

Yummy gooey chocolate custardy eclair goodness!

OMG.  This was the best thing I had on our entire trip!!!!!  I was actually really worried that the Belgium waffle part would be tasteless, cardboard tasting and mushy but it was actually crispy and light and dense and delicious all at the same time.  I have nooooo freakin' idea how they did it.  But it was AMAZEBALLS!!

Honestly I would have been happy with just a plain Belgium waffle from this place.. but the chocolate, whip cream and strawberries were like the cherry on top it was SOOO GOOD!!!  The Hubs was actually fighting me for this even though he got himself the chocolate eclair hahahhaha.

Haha Napoleon wouldn't leave the boba shop hahahahahaha

Some of the goodies from the Chinatown grocery store..  The Tako chips are delicious!  I loveeee everything from the Nong Shim brand like their onion chips they're so good!

The Hub's haul from our trip.  Hahaha and yes he went home with the Flava Flav doll.. he says he's on a mission to collect all of them.. he's looking for the P. Diddy one now.. HAHA.

The bullet shaped thing is actually vodka!!  They had this cool alcohol shop that sold all sorts of alcohol in all sorts of crazy shapes even a full life sized rifle!

The Anne Frank huis is a poster of a birds eye view of the city overlooking the Anne Frank house.

My haul from our trip!  I discovered this store called Bershka which turns out under the same parent company that owns Zara.. a lot of the store is very very similar to Zara styling but for a more affordable price and the quality isn't AS good as Zara's.  But the prices are unbelievable.

The tribal print sequin skirt and the faux leather tulip skirt w/ rose gold zippers were $5.99 EU each!! WOOT!!

I've been looking for more of a throw around bag for when I'm just running errands and don't feel like using my Chanel's (because I tend to beat them up when I use them on a regular basis) and I had actually contemplated getting an Alexander Wang studded bowler bag but they are SOOO SO heavy!!  And I have a bad back :( And I tend to overfill my bags as is.. so I just haven't been able to take the plunge with getting an A. Wang studded bag.  

But I loveeee this bag!!! It has the tough edginess of the A. Wang bags I love without the weight because the studs are made with very thin metal scraps and without the expensive price tag either.  This bag was $30 Euro's!! WOOT!!  

They have locations all over the world but I don't think they have them in the US yet!  I tried going onto the Bershka website to look up locations but it seems to be broken :(

I loveeeeee these reusable shopping bags.  These are from Blue Q and I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE THEM!!!  I picked up a few last year and the designs are so cute and I've used them a lot for groceries and stuff and they're pretty durable.

This is the other side of the bag.. it has two pockets on the outside of the bag - one big and one small you could definitely throw your cell phone in their if you wanted to.

That's it for my Amsterdam trip!!  

I hope you enjoyed "visiting" Amsterdam with me :)!