Winning.

I am stuffed to the gills with Thanksgiving dinners. Yes, plural. I was a glutton for pumpkin-ment/punishment, only it was pretty much a mountain of mashed potatoes and gravy, and various side dishes, including my boyfriend's nearly world famous green bean casserole. Oh, and I've learned that CIDER is what the pilgrims probably drank on Thanksgiving, so that too, became my bevvy of choice. ALL DAY LONG. I had quite a fun day- sans family drama, just me and the boyfriend, squirreled up in our nest watching a marathon run of House of Cards. Eating, lounging and laughing make for quite a good time. Hope your T-day was a good one, too. 

#ShopSmall and Sparkle Big

#SHOPSMALL: Beats and Bohos has big plans for your holiday shopping.

This holiday season, you're gonna want to #ShopSmall, but SPARKLE BIG. Think outside the box (as in big box stores) and support your local and friendly small businesses in your area. As you're digesting your Thanksgiving meal, you're going to want make your battle plan for your impending holiday gift giving, so this season, please pledge to #ShopSmall, and support your peeps.

This Black Friday, seek out GREEN. Search for eco-friendly businesses and product options while you "get your shop on." How about some clever up-cycled record bowls for your cousin who loves all things vinyl? Uncommon Goods sells a few, and there are probably a few Etsy-ians who are busy spinning old Cheap Trick and Herb Albert albums into the perfect vehicle for your Auntie Ethel's famous onion dip. Topping my personal Xmas wishlist is this "Clean Coffee" travel bag made from recycled coffee bean bags and leather by designer Alfonso Velasquez.  I adore the shape and the clean modern lines- this chic and savvy green bean deserves an extra buzz. Also,  a little local shout-out to Seattle Sundries, for making the perfect stocking stuffer, a "Happy Hands" Lotion Bar Sampler Gift Set(available on Amazon) offering up a handful of cute tins of solid lotions, utilizing my favorite beauty ingredients: beeswax and shea butter. Eco. Friendly. And awesome. 

Speaking of awesome and BLACK FRIDAY, and local, we've got a BIG, BLACK sale a brewin' for Beats and Bohos. This Friday, November 29th, step right up to our Escalating Sale! The more you buy, the more you're going to save. Store wide, it's 10% off when you buy any item. However when you buy two items, you get 15% off, three items are 20% off, up to 25% off. You can do some serious damage to that holiday shopping list, save a pile of moolah, AND feel good about supporting small businesses, all in one fell swoop. Talk about elevation- this is Black Friday shopping at its peak. 

Get FIRST DIBS on our best holiday sparklers this Saturday at Beats and Bohos.

Nipping at the heels of viernes negro, is Small Business Saturday, the American Express way of supporting the little people that make this country great: small business and shop owners. You can take the pledge to #ShopSmall here. Beats and Bohos are hosting a very special trunk show that day, so you can #ShopSmall and sparkle big! We're pulling out our most special holiday vintage for a sneak peek and first dibs to the creme de la cream of Seattle vintage. 

Special vintage pieces ranging from the 1930s to the late 1980s will be presented, including the launch of Beats and Bohos own Black Label vintage. It's the best of the best- and specially curated for your holiday social season.  If it's sparkly and phenomenal- we'll have it. I'll personally be offering up some of my favorite holiday sparklers, including my some fantastic sequin tops, sparkling lurex and velvety dresses. I will be also milling about, sipping a hot bevy, and offering up my opinion to any who listen about whether or not tartan plaid makes your butt look big. (And, for the record: NO.) For more details on the event, click here. 

Oh, and I LOVE what Trove Vintage is doing for Black Friday and Small Biz Saturday- they will be linking up with Ballard Food Bank, and offering a discount to all their shoppers who donate goods. You can read their fine print here. You just can't go wrong with shopping vintage in a gorgeous shop for worthy cause!

PLEASE take a moment to enter my Shabby Apple dress giveaway. The contest ends this Friday, and I will be announcing the winner in a special post on Saturday, November 30th. Be sure to LIKE Shabby Apple on Facebook and follow them on Instagram to be eligible to win. Contest open to US residents only.

Enter to win to a vintage inspired dress by Shabby Apple now

Song of Man: The Art of Dressing

"Ceci n'est pas une robe."

This is not my dress.

This is my life.  Are we destined to run the rails of our lives as passive passengers or can we take the helm, steer the wheel, and see where LIFE takes us? Can we craft our lives as boldly as an artist crafts a painting? If your life is your work of art, how will you dress it? 

You are not your dress. However, how you dress changes who you are. I don't for a moment, confuse my way of dress for my identity. My true self lies in deeper waters than that that can be caught on the casement of a wardrobe. My life is more than what I wear, or where I shop. Who I am is etched far deeper than the topical (yet true) tropes of "the clothes make the man"  variety. But I can, and do celebrate who I am, and where I'm going, in a very deliberate cultivation of what I wear. 

Sharing the Love: Love, Love, and Peace

Two Sues, one LOVE.  Last week I was delighted to open up an email with a picture of a happy customer showing off her Citizen arm candy that she had just received. It was a LOVE bangle with the word "Love" emblazoned in a cursive scripts. A great piece. Very similar to a piece I had sold nearly six months before, to an old college friend of mine, who also happened to be named Sue. I texted her, and ask her if she still had her LOVE bracelet. Oh for sure, she replied- she wears it nearly every day. She shot back a quick pic from her iPhone, showing the LOVE in the driver's seat. Gotta love LOVE in the fast lane!

I also adore the Peace bangle I recently sold to a friend. It's a vintage metal bangle from Avon, and says Peace in various language. It made my day when she sent in a picture of her arm showing off her new trinket. I like the way it looks with her henna adornment. 

I also like the way my folks love sharing their Citizen finds! Thank you Sue, and Sue and lovely Noel for your support, and for sporting your love and peace so nicely.

A gentle reminder to my US readers to enter the Shabby Apple give-away! You've got one more week left to enter, and a really great dress to gain. Enter via Rafflecopter widget here. You can like them on Facebook, and follow them on Instagram, here and here. 

Thank you all for your love and support- I appreciate each and every one of you, coming here for a read and a visit. I truly couldn't do this without YOU!

Wishing you a wonderful Friday, and week-end! -Bella Q

Falling for a Shabby Apple

#shabbycitizen: Falling for a Shabby Apple. A Citizen Rosebud product review.

One doesn't name one's blog, referencing a rosebud, without having established a ferocious love of a good rose print. So one would not be surprised at all, that one would love this dream of a dress from Shabby Apple. This Made in the USA cotton frock is from the Tartan + Tweed collection. I love the "red-head hues" of a soft martini green olive and 1960s lipstick pink. Bonus points for it being well made, and quite the comfortable stunner. 

Inspired by vintage clothing, Shabby Apple designs a great collection of dresses, skirts and tops, and while they are retro in feel, the fit and cut is quite modern. My speaking in the third person seems to stem from how aristocratic I feel in my new Christie dress from Shabby Apple. At first glance, I felt it too summery, but the warm pastels make it surprisingly easy to style in a Fall setting. The colors and the pattern, remind me of elegantly fallen, Autumn leaves.

Like my instagrammed photo above, of a lovely array of yellows, greens, rusts and red leaves,  this dress has a similar quality to it, both unstudied and at ease, with just a whiff of the prim and proper. I need a good chintz porcelain tea cup, filled to the brim with tea (and a touch of cream) to sip (pinkie carefully extended just so!) whilst I remain in this frock, and if anybody were to present me with a tiara of gold stars and soft brilliance, I would most likely accept it. 

Outfit Post: Clowning Around

It all started with the shoes. 

A strange pair of hand-tooled leather brogues in a very 1970s fashion. I liked the mushroom detail on the toes, and they looked my size so I got them. When I shared them on my Facebook page, I loved the comment made about them by an old buddy, Grant. He called them clown shoes. And I kinda saw it. 

A new pair of checkered shoelaces later, I came up with an outfit to uh, highlight the shoes, and my inner clown. Which probably looks like this: 

Bloggers Share-in-Style: PLAID

Bloggers Share-in-Style: PLAID. 
Today we celebrate bloggers sharing in style, as dictated by the magnificent Sacramento of Mis Papelicos. So perhaps it was fitting that I share two plaids meeting up on a rainy day in the Pacific Northwest. I wasn't dressed for photographs, or public consumption- it was cold, I was chilled, and pretty much just working out of my house, so I was uh, a bit, casz, as in casual. I put on my galoshes, when I left the house to meet a local yokel, who happens to be a very stylish Seattle blogger. 

She too, showed up in plaid.

Shoe Shine: The Anatomy of a Shoe Fiend

The Shoe Fiend is at first possibly difficult to recognize. Until you open the closet and settle your gaze upon what looks to be a dragon's lair for shoes. They may be in a big pile, or most likely carefully stored and archived. Shoe boxes, shoe bins, shoe caddies, the the storage options are varied, but the result is always the same: a woman (or man) obsessed with shoes. 

Are YOU a shoe fiend?

Street Feet: Meow Mix

Street Style SACRAMENTO, 2010-2012. Photo Credits: Bella Q

REMINDER: Shoe Shine, our Rosebud community group event is scheduled for this coming Wednesday! Every 2nd Wednesday of the month, the Citizen hosts SHOE SHINE: SHARE THE SHOES THAT MAKE YOU A STAR, and Wednesday, November 13th, the spotlight is on you and your shoes! Be sure to bring your stellar self to the party and post you in your favorite kicks of the season. See you then! 

The Catwalk: Animal prints as kicks make you Queen/King of the jungle. It's a bit silly to call it a "trend," when it's been going strong since, well, forever. But animal prints, namely leopard and cheetah show your call of the wild, any time, any year. The pictures above were gleaned from the Sacramento street style blog, Street Style SACRAMENTO, from my days as an aspiring style hunter, when I, along with a friend, started the ambitious street style website, in the determination to capture the diverse and colorful character of our fellow Sacramento denizens. As you can see, the "trending" spots of the jungle were hot back in 2010, 2011, 2012, and I venture to say, are still be "spotted" on the streets even today. 

Picture Perfect: Thinking Cap

Outfit Post: A Modern Old Fashioned

I'm a thoroughly modern woman, who is by all accounts, more than a little old fashioned. At least when it comes in being inspired by dress. I LOVE "Old Timey." Which, if think about it, was the epitome of MODERN, back in its day. What I look at fondly with a nostalgic glance, was once the rude cut of progress with more than a whiff of future written all over it. 

I've been watching my boyfriend play BioShock Infinite- perfectly post-modern in its gorgeous graphics and content, but such a marvelous mix of steam-punk aesthetics with sharp socio-political observations that hang from its storyline like a great science fiction novel.

And possibly the tiniest bit of an inspiration for today's outfit.

Sweater Weather

 

Who am I kidding? I've been fussing over finding the right top to wear, but with a Fall chill in the air, and a pack of clouds overhead, prowling and howling, what I need is to pull out my arsenal of sweaters! Cardigans, V-neck pullovers, crew necks, Fishermans, cable knit, 2 ply cashmere, merino wool, sleepy acrylic, and mohair- what is better than a snuggly sweater? 

You stay warm in a sweater. You layer chic-ly in a sweater, and you feel sexy in a sweater. NEVER UNDER ESTIMATE THE POWER OF A SWEATER. 

Ok, I'm changing my outfit right here, right now. I may  show it off to you in my next outfit post. Meanwhile, we've got a big Tuesday tag special in Seattle, over at Beats and Bohos. Storewide, we are offering 20% off ALL SWEATERS. Just for TODAY. Just because. 

So, if you are in the neighborhood, come by and shop, and grab yourself some warm and fuzzies.

Beats + Bohos is located at: 

7200 Greenwood Avenue, N

Seattle, Wa 98103

For those wonderfully warm souls who live elsewhere, please use coupon code WARMANDFUZZY between now and Friday to get an 11% discount off anything in the Etsy shop. ANYTHING. Message me if you're looking for something special- because I just might have it.

Outfit Post: Nineties Legs

Thoughtful in Seattle: the thinking girl's neutral, grey is a smart move for a Monday.

Grey Matters: A quiet palette of grey and black blends into the Seattle landscape. Or does it? Feeling quite visible and pow-pow-pow in my grey sweatshirt and cut-offs ala grunge. As someone put described it, I've got "nineties legs." 

And yup, I did dress like this in the 1990's, so perhaps I am breaking some fashion rules (you know the one, if you wore it the first time, you shouldn't be wearing it now.) But let me tell you,