Viva Italia!

Ciao Grand Rapids! Sorry it's been awhile since my girl Eloise and I have made an appearance. We were just spending our summer in the French Alps, site seeing, eating delicious food, I was chasing after hot European men, Oh and of course wine tasting! Wait did I mention hot European men? Well any way we thought it would be a great time to come back, because it's obviously one of the best nights of the year, Grand Rapids Fashion Night out! We made our way over to Leigh’s to help set up before the big party. 

Why of course, I'd love some Prosecco!

Because its been so hot lately Eloise and I decided to just stick to the basics of fashion while we helped Jacob the new intern and the rest of the Leigh’s team set up! A simple top by Michael Stars matched with a pair of Leigh’s new denim that just came in by J BRAND Oh! and I almost forgot about my amazing scarf by Italian designer Etro and our adorable shoes by Tory Burch.  

Doesn’t this food catered by Saburba look delicious?  

Ok, enough of this heavy lifting, a girl can’t be all sweaty before a huge party like this, we need to look fabulous

Don’t we look favoloso!

Because the theme tonight is Italian fashion, Eloise and I decided to both  wear one of our favorite Italian designers. Leigh’s just received this amazing shipment of Armani that we just had to try on. I of course picked out this gorgeous sequence jacket, matched with a pair of skinny coated denim by Rich and Skinny (Don't they look just like leather??) and these sexy black heels by my favorite shoe man Stuart Weitzman. Eloise went for this extremely elegant navy dress, also by Armani and these adorable gray heels by Cole Haan, adding a chunky gold bracelet by Karine Sultan only completed her look even more! We were the best dressed girls there (If we do say so ourselves!)! 

Where are all the Italian men?

The night was filled with amazing music, food, friends and of course fashions. So many great people stopped by, who would have thought that Brangelina would fly in from LA for Grand Rapids Fashion Night out! And we can't forget about Lady Gaga who, took time off from her world tour to try on some our new Valentino Red we just received earlier this fall!

Watch out Grand Rapids here we come!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out last and made it that much more fabulous. Oh, and a special thanks to Harold Zeigler who brought over the adorable Fiats, the amazing Elieen DeVries for driving over that gorgeous Ferrari and to our amazing DJ Adrian Butler for making us all bust a move! 

The Ice Skating Adventure

Debating whether or not ice skating was a good idea!

Eloise and I had lunch together on Friday and decided to walk over to Rosa Parks Circle and ice skate! We were fortunate and had an awesome day that was full of sun! Because of the nicer weather in the middle of winter, we had some trouble deciding what to wear! Luckily, Leigh's had the perfect outfits! Eloise and I decided to wear our new favorite trend, colored skinnies. Leigh's had so many different brands to choose from...Seven For All Mankind, J Brand, James Jeans, but we finally decided on these great ones from Sold Design Lab which I paired with a Magaschoni cashmere sweater, a scarf from Theodora and Callum and fab boots from Stuart Weitzman! Eloise opted to go with a Michael Stars tee and jacket with her skinnies. Of course, once she saw I was wearing a scarf, she had to copy me (of course) and threw on a cashmere one from Claudia Nichole. If we must say, we were the best dressed there!

Eloise posing with her ice skates!

After much debating, Eloise dared to give skating a try.  She hasn't been skating since she went on vacation in Minnesota when she was 10....good luck Eloise!  We went inside and picked the most fashionable skates to go with her outfit! We thought these skates matched her orange skinnies and black jacket nicely! Eloise took a little while to warm up to skating (she might have been a little rusty or it could have been one too many sips of wine at lunch), but once she got going she was a pro....at falling!

So many kind people were skating and willing to help Eloise back to her feet!

Eloise skating around the rink!

After skating a few times around the rink with a limited number of sprawls on to the ice, no one commented on how bad of an ice skater she was!  Instead, they all wanted to know where she got her outfit! There were so many mothers out with their children and we both couldn't stop talking to them about Leigh's! Eloise even posed for pictures with their children!

Some cute girls posing with Eloise! We loved their hats!

More children having fun and posing with Eloise

Besides mothers, there were also many single gentlemen ice skating. I took this as the perfect opportunity to find a date for a later trip back to Rosa Parks Circle. I found this nice gentlemen and he seemed to really enjoy hugging...kinda cute, huh?  Bye, bye Match.com, hello Rosa Parks Circle!

Me hugging the nice gentlemen

Us posing in front of the GRAM and getting exciting for our visit!

Once Eloise had enough of ice skating, we took one last walk around the area. We walked right past the GRAM where we will be this coming Friday! We will be attending Friday at the GRAM in some very fashionable Leigh's clothing (come see us!). We just love downtown Grand Rapids and there are no better days spent there than those with friends.



New Friends, Volleyball and Fashion

Remember when Eloise had mentioned we'd met some new friends last week at Robinette's? Well, I just couldn't wait to tell you more about them! Our intern and friend Lauren is much more than a fun fashionista, she also spends much of her time devoted to collegiate athletics as well! Eloise and I never would have guessed she was so athletic, but many of our new friends are a part of the Cornerstone University Women's Volleyball team! We felt overjoyed when they invited us to come and spend some time with them before one of their games!

beautiful girls with beautiful smiles!

Abby (left) & Ali (right) we believe they are trying to be as poised as we are!

the beautiful Jodi!

The thing I was most nervous about was trying to figure out what to wear!!! Eloise and I have not attended very many athletic events in the past, let alone a volleyball match. Patrick at Leigh's luckily came to our rescue! I decided to go with a comfortable Autumn Cashmere sweater with leopard imprinted leggings by Margaret M. To top it off, I added a silver bracelet and a pair of Stuart Weitzman boots! Eloise looked marvelous in her new outfit as well! She casually, yet elegantly wore a fur vest and striped sweater by Le Phare De La Baleine with a Michael Stars henley underneath. On bottom she chose flare jeans from 7 for all Mankind and some cute Cole Haan booties!

We were so impressed by what these girls could do. They jump, swing, squat, dive and roll like monkey's in a zoo! It never dawned on me how fast paced volleyball could be. Even with our flawless figures, Eloise and I gave these girls props for being so dedicated to such a competitive lifestyle. Now, I cannot speak for Eloise, but I instantly became frozen when they asked us if we wanted to play with them! I quickly declined as I knew it would be foolish of me to even try! Besides, after taking the time to get ready sweating was the last thing on my mind!

Lauren, Jodi & Heidi. They represented the Seniors for their last home game!

"Put the WILD Back in Life"

After Eloise continually promising her little ones a trip to the John Ball Zoo, I finally got on her case as well, and off we went. Auntie Lola really pulled through for the group, plus our friend Annie got to join, as well as our new friend Brittany; we couldn't have had a better group! Right upon entrance there is a large sculpture of John Ball, the quintessential photo-opt location we wasted no time to climb at our own risk and pose!

Something about the zoo’s aura brought out the child deep within us, Eloise and I posed for hours! After our photo shoot, we immediately got distracted by the funky gift shop- we had yet to enter the zoo, and we were already having a ball! Check out our fun masks that made us instant friends with some youngsters and slightly embarrassed Eloise’s little ones…they were just jealous in my opinion!

Walking through the zoo I could not help but admire how amazing all the different fur coats were of all the different animals…and think how amazing they would be as a coat!! PETA would not be pleased with me, oh my!

Also, little did I know until I reviewed my photos that Eloise REALLY embraced the “Put the Wild Back in Life” motto, while I was off petting pygmy goats and taking a camel ride- take note following the rules! Eloise found herself in a much more “wild” position; just take a look at the pictures, they speak volumes more than I ever could.

Later on that day, Eloise mentioned she does not highly recommend any mothers or children follow in her footsteps and I am sure the John Ball Zoo employees would second that! She was simply inspired by the Louis Vuitton and Chanel ads; they have beautiful clothes, models, and elephants…so she went for it, somewhat regrettably.

All in all what a great day at the zoo, sporting such labels as Lilly Pulizter, Stuart Weitman, Valentino Red, Michael Stars, and Donald Pliner! A special thank you to all the helpful employees; what a great staff they have!

Bizarre Bazaar

This past weekend Lola and myself had a great time in the "bizarrely" cold, summer weather visiting the hippest neighborhood in Grand Rapids; that is Eastown of course! We started our day at Leigh's, I just had to see the new Tory Burch and Lilly Pulitzer merchandise that just arrived at the store! This early agenda required me purchasing Starbucks for Lola to get her up and out of bed. Apparently, for Miss Socialite old habits die hard. Then we made our way over to Bizarre Bazaar. It was a great day for walking around the eclectic mix of hand-made works of art, while listening to live local music.

We started at the Eastown Information booth to devise our plan of attack, where to go and what to see? Destination number one; Reb Robert's booth. He had a great mix of pieces! Lola was so captured by his use of color and entertaining folk art style. All the work within his booth was represented by either him or his wife, Carmella Loftis. I ended up purchasing a piece entitled "Fish Boy" for my little tyke back home.

Next up, right across the street was Feathers by Carisa. She had a bunch of unique hairpieces made up of bright feathers, we continued leisurely walking along Wealthy Street bopping around booths.

I wore my favorite new RED Valentino dress, with a bright green Love Quotes scarf, and beautiful Stuart Weitzman wedges. Lola claims I wear them better than Jennifer Aniston, she's sweet but clearly has a biased opinion. Lola also representing RED Valentino with her ribbon detailed top; worn with J Brand skinny jeans, 3.1 Phillip Lim wristlet, and Cole Haan black slide heels.

Not only were we fashionable, but we had fun and met some new friends as well! A special thanks to the Eastown Community Association and Pam for such a warm welcome.

An Evening at Reserve

Yesterday we stepped out to Reserve to catch up over a few glasses of wine. With over 100 wines by the glass and more than 200 bottles to choose from, we knew it would be the perfect place for our first night out in Grand Rapids.

Eloise reached for the Smoked Fish Trio complemented by a glass of Josmeyer, 'Le Dragon', Riesling 2006. I opted for the Manila Clams and braved a Blind Flight wine flight - white, of course.

Read on for more photos!