Ciblek Mania

Last week I received the most tantalizing email.  The subject line read "Expedia Class Action Settlement Notification".  My mind went wild with hopeful expectation.  I envisioned a trip to Paris and a pair of new shoes.  Maybe a trip to Paris where I purchased new shoes.

                                                                    (image via quote-book)

Then I opened the email and saw that I had been awarded $2.31 in the form of an Expedia voucher.  Niiiiice.

Like any sane female it seemed only right that I be rewarded for having had my dreams shattered by Expedia.  So I headed out to do a little shopping and ended up in Zara.  I don't know about you, but it takes patience and an eye for me to weed through the stuff in there.  I left with the ka-yoot-est bubble skirt.


What can I say?  There's been a lot of lip biting around here this week.  The skirt is pretty cute though, no?


Check it from the back.  Nice little poof going on there too.  It was a really simple outfit to throw together which means it will be on replay a lot around here.  I paired it with a couple of $10 white gap tanks (tucked in), the dark denim jean jacket, threw on the shoes and ran out the door.


Best $40 I've spent in a good long while.  I've gotta tell you I've been a fan of the bubble skirt since I was a 17 year old girl running through the streets of Paris on a European vacation with my best girlfriends...it was there that I saw and purchased my first bubble.  In fact, if you went to my parents' home and opened up the closet in my reserved bedroom you would still find that original bubble and the peach dress I graduated from high school in - also complete with bubble. This is one trend I'm going to throw down all summer (and maybe in way late fall too with tights in the evening).  Check out this one and this one - Expedia money man?  Are you out there?  I think I've been shorted...

Outfit details:  J.Crew denim jacket (similar just not dark), Gap tank, Zara bubble skirt, Christian Louboutin espadrille wedge bootie, Sorial handbag

Have you tried on or purchased the J Brand Houlihan Cargo Pant?   I have to tell you I was completely resisting this one because of its popularity.  I mean who wants to see a bunch of people wearing the same thing you are?  Well, you can officially consider those famous last words because when Saks had a 20% off deal a few weekends ago I fell off the wagon and ordered the pants online - completely thinking I'd get them, try them on, not understand what all the hype is, and promptly return them.  Right.


FedEx showed up at my door with the Houlihans on a particularly rough day, so I just tossed the box in a corner of my office basically forgetting about it for a few hours.  Then, in a fit of exhaustion, opened it and tried them on when my bf spotted the box and asked what was in it.  Does the word 'elated' mean anything to you?  How about 'dream'? Because these pants are so amazing those words are the best ones I can come up with to describe how I felt when I put them on.  Okay and two more:  cheered up!!

The Houlihans have quickly become my "Pant of the Moment' and I find myself reaching for them just as much as I'm reaching for my Current/Elliott's which is no small feat!  I love that every time I put them on I think of Major Margaret Houlihan from M*A*S*H - she was such a bad ass for her time!  Now keep in mind I'm a little vertically challenged and the pants do stretch out a bit, but you get the basic idea from the following pictures.


Cute or what??  Even better - they are the perfect match for my new Christian Louboutin espadrille wedges - two other things that are synonymous with the word 'dream'!! When I saw the Louboutin wedges I couldn't get them out of my mind for 2 weeks.  Fearing sell out I took the Chef (my bf) with me to the Christian Louboutin store, as a voice of reason, to try them on (and so I wouldn't be uncomfortable around a bunch of people who can probably afford to buy multiples of those shoes while I carefully ponder one pair). 

It was finished before it started.  I put on one shoe and he said, "they're perfect. Get them."  Actually I strolled around in them in the store for a bit, but the proof is in the pictures.  These things really ARE perfection!  Notice I have used that word a lot in this post...


Be still my heart.

In the upcoming months temperatures are going to rise as we go into summer.  If you're contemplating the pants I would say go for it.  The fabric is an olive color (although they also come in several others) and it's not so heavy that you couldn't wear them on a breezy afternoon or cool evening.  With a heel, a flat, or a little flip-flop sandal the Houlihan is a major score!


If you have them or get them let me know.  I'd love to see what they look like on you and find out if you are loving them as much as I am.  Welcome to the bandwagon!

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