In my past life I trav­eled to some very exclu­sive and glam­orous loca­tions to shop.. Yes, you read it cor­rectly. Shop. Some one has to do it.

On one of my many surf­ing trips trough the inter­net I ran across a pic­ture of a hotel room in Cap D’Antibes in the South of France. I used to go through Juan les Pins on the way to St. Tropez which isn’t far from Cap D’Antibes (Yes– this is a true story). I’m telling you this to not brag, just as a point of reference.

Anyhoo…I stayed in some very nice hotels. And, although I didn’t stay in this one, I felt com­pelled to share with you a photo of a room in Hotel Belles Rives.

I love the pat­tern mix­ing and airy feel. The nod to a very for­mal past and period décor with a fresh play­ful feel of the au currant.

It just makes me happy.

I stay in a lot of hotels now that are “spa” like with a min­i­mal­ist feel. I like this too..but I fear that I’ve grown used to it as the norm. I long for my Euro days when hotel rooms like this were the norm. It’s not money, it’s taste.

Dec­o­rat­ing a room like this would make me feel more like I was at home — just a bet­ter version.

Okay– the view of the French Riv­iera might cost a bit more…C’est la vie.

You, my Sweet Diva, are smart, savvy, fun & fab­u­lous!
You have a pas­sion for life & liv­ing it with style.
Resilient & bold, you have the courage to chase your dreams & make them real­ity.
You can gig­gle like a girl or strut like a star.
You are true to your­self and your Diva sisters!

Each evening in Rome I usu­ally ended up on the Span­ish Steps at the Piazza di Spagna. It’s a com­mon meet­ing place for tourists and locals alike. I won’t make the catty obser­va­tions on how you can tell the locals from the tourists, the Euro­peans from the Amer­i­cans, etc. Let’s just say it’s a mass of human­ity at around 6:30 pm.

The first impulse when see­ing the steps after a long day trekking around Rome is to grab a dou­ble scoop cup of gelato and set­tle in for some peo­ple watch­ing. You’ll quickly learn that there’s no eat­ing on any pub­lic his­toric area in Italy. The polizia, cara­binieri or just a hired guard will quickly say No! No! while wav­ing his fin­ger back and forth. Bummer.

There are few things in life that never change and one of them is, Yes, you ALWAYS bring a hostess/host gift to a party. It doesn’t mat­ter if the hostess/host is your fam­ily, best­friend or stranger. This doesn’t usu­ally apply to birth­day par­ties– but can. Let’s just stick to the Hol­i­days at hand here: Christ­mas and New Year’s.

First off,  3 DIVA DONT’S:

DON’T bring flow­ers. This causes stress for the host­ess to search for a vase and then find a place to set them. They may not go with her décor for the party and worst of all– you have just taken her away from her guests while she fixes your flow­ers. You are now her unfa­vorite guest.

DON’T bring wine that you expect to be opened and con­sumed. I love get­ting wine for a host­ess gift– but I hate it when the giver then reaches for a corkscrew to open. RUDE. You have just told the host­ess you don’t care about her plans, party or selec­tion of wine–if there is one.

DON’T make big deal about giv­ing the gift..oth­ers may be uncom­fort­able if they did not bring a gift. Make sure to tell them about this blog so they won’t make the same mis­take again.

Okay, now to the gifts…There are tons of spe­cialty stores that have fab­u­lous gifts — if you actu­ally remem­ber to buy them ahead of time.

One of our favorite cus­tomers, Robin who owns
B. Daz­zled in Florida, had the bril­liant idea to use our Spa Take Out Shower Spas as a favor for her lat­est birth­day bash!

Robin was kind enough to pass on a pic com­mem­o­rat­ing the event!

Remem­ber when favors used to be a pleated  cup of M&M’s mixed with peanuts?..We think this is the grown-up version!

Kudos to you Robin for treat­ing your friends like the celebri­ties they are!

As many of us rush to get ready in the morn­ing, we usu­ally don’t give our mas­cara or blush a sec­ond thought. How­ever, makeup has been around for at least 6,000 years and has played a role in nearly every soci­ety. Check out where makeup started, and how it got to where it is today.

Have you noticed that this season’s must have is a flat black boot? There are all kinds. The scrunch, the eques­trian, the cow­boy, the mil­i­tary, the har­ness and the moto, etc.

These terms become very impor­tant when search­ing google for the lat­est boots you saw on a celebrity as I did on my cur­rent style icon, Halle Berry.

I wanted a boot that was edgy, but not like I was try­ing too hard; would look good with jeans, skirts, tights and leg­gings; com­fort­able enough to wear to the mall and styl­ish enough to wear at a trade show. Lastly, they had to be rea­son­ably priced and some­thing that I would con­sider a classic.

I already own a few pair of Frye Har­ness boots. They’re great but a bit too chunky. Doc Martens are way too hip­ster, St. Mark’s Place NYC circa 1984 for me.

I had my heart set on Fioren­tini + Baker Eter­nity boot. 

They are just yummy look­ing. I’m a sucker for great leather. Alas, they are $545.00. I am sure they’d be worth it, but after study­ing the pic­ture and mul­ti­ple views, I decided that I need some­thing a bit less detailed. I loved the cross of Mil­i­tary and Motorcycle..so I had some­thing to start with.