Bad-Ass Boo-Boos

Show your kids you really care (hard-core!) with these hilarious band-aids! From the classic Haight-Ashbury store Happy Trails.

Va-Va Valentine's Day Clutch

Treat yourself to this easy-to-wipe-clean-yet-oh-so-fabulous travel purse, perfect for make-up, nail polish, or as a clutch for a party!

Edgy! Be fierce!

Pleasantly Punky: For Your Pirate Prince

Stomp the rainy day blues away! For your swashbuckler, these rainboots are fierce! Don't you just love them? From Chasing Fireflies.

Valentine's Day Party: Edgy + Sassy!

A little punky, a lot of fun! These flirty martini glasses in opaque black glass are perfect for those Valentine's Day cosmos {cranberry juice and sparkling water for the young ones}. Also available in red. Be daring, darlings! Mix them up!

Love This!

Two hearts together, from Betsey Johnson, make this necklace all flare, no frills!

::: Inspiration! :::

CHOOSE COLORS FROM A CANDY PALETTE!

For V-Day, take cues from Coach and make bouquets with gerber daisies mixed with roses. Irreverently cheeky!

Also, mix up patterns on yourself and your table -- for Valentine's Day you don't have to stick to reds and pinks!

Sass is the name of the game, so go for high contrast! { I love the graphic zebra stripes with hot blue, sunny yellow, and rosy pink!! }

Get Ready for a Punky Valentine's Day!

In the next weeks, I'll show you how to take out the FRILL and add some THRILL to Valentine's Day with my punk rock-inspired ideas! { Like these ponytail holders for your pirate princess, from Baby Goth in L.A. on Etsy. }

Stay tuned!

Eco-Fabulous Club

How hot is this idea? Matt Damon recently joined GreenDimes. You can, too.

Here's what it is. For $20, GreenDimes will stop 90% of your junk mail AND plant five trees.

This membership is a gift that keeps on giving!

Banish the Rainy Day Blues: Luxe Perfume

Rid yourself from the rainy day doldrums with one of my favorite brands Creed, a 7th generation perfumer to royalty.

You can layer these amazing fragrances. ( I love to wear the men's scents, too.)

Some of my favs are Millesime Imperial, Himalaya, Spring Flower, and Citrus Bigarrade.

Simply royal!

Eco-Fabulous Tip of the Day

Save the trees! It's SO brilliantly easy.

From now on, whenever you are at the ATM or gas pump, simply decline the receipt. Your transaction is not forever lost. It will show up on your statement!

Original Recipe: Soup That's Smoky Sweet

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This chilly Bay Area weather has us heading for the warmth of our houses. Brrrrrrrrr!

Here's a super easy, super tasty recipe to warm you inside. Yummmmmm!

Smoky Sweet Corn Chowder

{ Grab a yummy baguette or a grilled cheese sandwich and you have a warm, soul-satisfying meal! The sweetness of the corn and the mellow, smoky heat of the chipotle are a favorite combo of mine! Enjoy! }

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 red onion, julienned
2 T olive oil or butter

2 cups fresh corn, (frozen or canned is totally fine!)
2 small can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 c milk
Kosher salt, to taste

Cilantro, roughly chopped, to taste

Saute red onion in 2 Tablespoons of olive oil or butter until translucent. Add corn, chipotle and milk, bring to a boil. Season with kosher salt to taste. Transfer to blender, add cilantro and pulse to roughly chop corn. This will also emulsify ingredients. Ready to serve!

Perfume Now: Love X

This time of year I stock up on my favorite fragrances. (With Neiman Marcus visable from my parents' Dover Shores home, how could I not be a slave to shopping?!)  By far, my favorite finds are by Clive Christian: X and 1872 for women perfume sprays. Sumptuously different, buy X for this winter and save 1872 for spring. Divine!

Fresh Makeover: Ahhh, The Glamour

Last month, I spent time in Newport Beach, haven to The Barclay Butera Home Store. That's where I will shop when my husband finally remodels our home! Butera mixes old with new, pairing Hollywood-glam with clean lines. Oh my god. SO sexy!

Healthy Moms Club: Tip from Reader

LOVE THIS!

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Dear Lisa,

Here's a tip for shedding those unwanted lbs. this new year.

Get a puppy!

Seriously, your puppy will get you (and your kids) outside to exercise. Fun for all!

Nicole S., Glen Park

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Save Trees with These

During meals, use cloth napkins (like these from Gumps) or hand towels for the little ones. If they aren't too dirty, I re-use them to wipe the counters in the kitchen. Double duty!

Eliminating one napkin or paper towel daily is a huge tree saver!

Clean House, Clean Planet

Do you (like me) have any leftover Xmas boxes filled with those ultra-annoying styrofoam peanuts?

Here's what you do:

Return them to UPS or any mailbox service store. They'll take them and reuse them. Simple!

Clean Right: No More Nasty Cleaners

Method is another local company with products I adore.

I use the all-purpose cleaner at my home and commercial kitchen. { Pink grapefruit and french lavender are my favorite scents! }

Clean Right: No More Nasty Cleaners

Did you know that when you turn on the heat in your home, the air can become a cocktail of all the cleaning products that you use?

Not my kind of cocktail, that's for sure!

Now is the time to go non-toxic! Here's a local SF company doing their part:

Shaklee has been selling their products for over 50 years! S.F. young "it" couple, Roger & Sloan Barnett, loved the products so much they bought the company! For the rest of this month, you'll get 33% off their products. Love love love that.

Fashionable Threads: Look Out Momma!

Miss Sixty does it for mom! I love the cut-out (with sequins!) coupled with the graphic black-and-white lines. So effortlessly posh!

Fashionable Threads: Cutest Kids' Jeans

OK, are these not THE cutest girls' jeans by Miss Sixty (made in Italy!)? The yellow zippers!!

Fashionably Lite: Losing Those Unwanted Lbs.

Join me!

Join me!

Join me!

...in my New Year's resolution to lose the last of that dreaded baby weight!!

Dr. Melina Jampolis is helping me for the second time. First before I had babies, I lost 40 pounds and maintained the weight for a year and a half, until I got pregnant with Milan. Now with two happy kids, Mommy is ready to get rid of the excess!

I have already lost 15 pounds and am closing in on my goals!

{ Share Your Ideas! Write to me with your diet and exercise tips that get you to your target or maintenance weight. }

For an Ultra-Fab Community: Ride with Tony!

You absolutely must join me in riding your bicycleta with these, and many more, outrageous and spirited folk for the .::. AIDS LifeCycle Kickoff Party! .::.

It's THIS Saturday.

{ My very dear friend Tony is hosting this. It's his 11th annual Breakfast & Bike Ride. }

He says, "Whether you are considering particpating in AIDS LifeCycle 2008 or just want to start the year off with a group of healthy individuals come tour the Marin Headlines. Ride with us and return to my house for fried chicken and Fat Tire Beer!"

* Date: THIS Saturday, 12 January 2008

* Route: Marin Headlands

* Miles: Approx. 23 miles roundtrip.

* Time: 1:00pm - Bike Ride starts at: Duboce Park Cafe

* Lunch Time: Approx. 3:30pm. (directly after bike ride)

* For directions, RSVP to me at press@jigsaw-bmd.com.

Cyclists of all levels are encouraged to attend.

No one will be left behind!

Fresh Start: For the Kitties and Pooches

GIVE THIS

TO ME!

Here's such a simple solution to all those once-loved towels, sheets, and worn blankets: Donate them to your local vet or humane society! They'll keep the furry friends, like Pixie, so super comfy.

Fresh Start: Share the Warm Fuzzies

I have two kids born 19 months apart. During my cleaning purge, I discovered an excess of 50 gorgeous baby blankets, like this one from minky. Now that Luca is two years old, I decided to set them free!

So I donated them to his preschool. Now there are more than enough warm snugglies for naptimes.

Ahhhhh.

Fresh Start: Give Clothes a New Home

Time to clean out your wee ones' drawers, girlfriends!

Then donate to local charities or give the kids' nice clothes to friends' kids. { People line up to receive Milan's designer duds! }

Fresh Start: Bye-Bye Hangers, Bye-Bye

Here's another simple tip:

After cleaning the closets, return all those dry cleaner hangers back to the dry cleaner! 

Fresh Start: Purge is the Word!

Something about all those new presents needing places in my bulging closets and drawers is enough to give me a nervous breakdown! So, purge is the word! 

Here's a fabulous eco-tip: Take those heavy duty boxes (my favorites: Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton boxes -- yes, Santa rocks!) and store breakable ornaments and family photos that have been shoved in the drawers. (I also put baby books and photo albums in these fabulous and totally reusable boxes. Perfect!)

Fresh Start: Sassy Serving Plates

Whimsically modern serving plates from nonNeutral are fresh and darling. (How perfect are these for serving up wedges of oranges or cookies with frosty glasses of milk?)

Fresh Start: Sassy Wallpaper

Your walls are like serving plates -- they act as a background for the rest of your home. So, if you're yearning for something a little sassy, try this. Wallpaper one statement wall in an irreverently kitsch-for your-kitchen pattern from Bradbury & Bradbury. SO fabulicious!

Fresh Start: Cook in Heels

And, whatever you do, don't forget to add some sizzle to your life at home! WEAR THESE Pucci espadrille wedges while packing the kids' lunches. Aren't these so HOT?

Fresh Start: Get Glossy

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After the cold-weather haze of the holidays, it's time to emerge from our cocoons!

While you might not be heading to more tropical environs, you can still slick this fabulous tip from Vogue Australia for your next non-kiddie soiree: Gloss all exposed skin with non-sticky Clarins Spray After Sun Shimmer Oil.

{ Beware: Husbands may go crazy over this tip! }

~ Happy 2008 ~

From my family to yours, this is going to be the most L U X E year yet!