Hot & New

This week is a big week in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. Two hyped Grand Openings are taking place, Analog Bar on 5th & F and Searsucker on 5th & Market. Analog Bar's Grand Opening was last night (Thursday July 29th) and Searsucker's Grand Opening is tomorrow Saturday, July 31st. I am lucky enough to attend both. Let's start with Analog Bar first.

Analog Bar is a new addition to the list of Matt Spencer restaurants. This list includes Firehouse in Pacific Beach in San Diego and Vin De Syrah, also located in Downtown San Diego, which are very successful locations for nightlife sites. Analog Bar brings a new twist to the Downtown San Diego scene as it provides a retro, yet modern environment. Upon entry on the right you will notice the large, vinyl record albums tiled across and on the very top right of this beautiful piece of art you will see the Famed Michael Jackson Record, Thriller.

The place is split into two worlds, front of house you have the bar which spans along the wall with surrounding booths and tables, while the back contains a smaller bar again with surrounded by booths and tables, but towards the entry of the outside area holds the DJ booth and mini-stage. This stage area every Saturday night is home to a Live Rock Band karaoke where guests can sign up and sing a song from their long list of karaoke favorites while the live band plays behind you. At the Grand Opening, the live Rock Band-Karaoke-esque went on for about an hour and half. People were singing along to Weezer, Journey and Sublime. Around 9pm DJ Neil Armstrong, one of Jay-Z Tour DJs, took the turntables and spun until the end of the night. I kid you not, DJ Neil Armstrong was killing it!!

Their motto, Good Food Strong Drinks, is on point. The cranberry vodka which threw me into happy times after only drinking two. I also had a chance to try their (I want to say French Toast Sticks?) which were delicious, they had nice a crunch with the first bite and sweet taste left in your mouth. If you're looking for a new karaoke hotspot or just a new place to hang out, Analog Bar should be on your list.

Searsucker, not the fabric, but the new restaurant which is also in the Historic Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. Opened by Top Chef Season 3 Finalist, Brian Malarkey and James Brennan owner of San Diego's hottest downtown nightlife site, Stingaree has already turned into a local hotspot. Searsucker features a new All-American cuisine which can be paired with one of their specialty cocktails or unique brews. The interior was created by Thomas Schoos who designed the restaurant as large and open environment with a welcoming and airy feel.

Tomorrow is Grand Opening Party. I will be working there, but I definitely will write an update with my experience at Searsucker!

I highly recommend both restaurants as they are both fun & serve great food!

Analog Bar Logo

Searsucker Logo

Editorial Sunday

Even though I just came back from vacation, it's Editorial Sunday! To pre-celebrate the arrival of the January of Fashion, (the September Issue). This editorial is from Elle September 2009 with Jennifer Aniston on the cover. If I end up raising kids in the LA area, I can only hope that I can be just as chic as this mom.

Elle September 2009
Some Kind of Wonderful
A day in the life of the L.A. woman requires a haute Cali style with hourglass evening looks and monochromatic suiting borrowed from the boys
Photographer: Laurie Bartley
Model: Dewi Driegen
Stylist: Samira Nasr

CHI-TOWN

Who doesn't love free Wi-Fi? So here I am updating my blog from beautiful Chicago! The incoming flight was a little unnerving, since the weather predicted thunderstorms. :/ Why am I here? My little brother, Jei (pronounced JAY) graduated Navy Boot Camp this past Friday and my parents, boyfriend and myself were his guests to the ceremony. I haven't seen him since Spring Break back at the end of March. He changed a lot, but for the good! He's slimmed down and happy to be out of Boot Camp :)

Now that he's out and on Liberty we decided to do some Chicago sightseeing. I love the city, any city, but Chicago was different than any other City I have been too. I felt like I was walking on a movie set. I FORGOT my camera, but I used my folks and they own Sony which has their own special memory card, instead of the SD memory card. So I am unable to upload my own pictures :/, but I found this GREAT Chicago images reference Flickr, wallyg Flickr. I will be using these wonderful photos instead.

1.) Gino's Pizza, "the only place to get deep dish pizza in Chicago"
We had the Meaty Legend Deep Dish and it was delicious! Funny thing is the only reason we knew about this place is because Adam from Man vs. Food ate there. haha


PHOTO CREDIT: wallyg Flickr

2.) Navy Pier, Chicago's lakefront playground
It was crazy to think the pier lead into one of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan. It looked like the west coast, if you face out to the lake and turn around the Chicago Skyline is right behind you, that was my favorite part. It was HOT and HUMID.


PHOTO CREDIT: wallyg Flickr


PHOTO CREDIT: wallyg Flickr

3.) Gurnee Mills Mall, located between Milwaukee and Chicago there with over 200 stores
Just a typical shopping center, but this place was HUGE! It had a bunch of restaurant surrounding the outside. This is where we took my little brother to see Toy Story 3.


Chicago, the windy city, wasn't windy at all. Mostly rain, lighting storms, heat and humidity. I wish we stayed a little longer to do some sightseeing. I wouldn't mind coming back here to visit.

Editorial Sunday

Alright. Editorial Sunday, is a test of commitment, every Sunday will be a post of past editorials from fashion magazines I own. Editorials tell us beautiful fashion stories with supporting current trends and designers that we love. You must have the right photographer, location, stylist, models and hair/make-up team. It is more than taking a pretty picture, it's creating a unified theme throughout the X amount of pages. For the very first Editorial Sunday we have Seeing is Believing from Elle March 2010 with Keira Knightly on the cover.

Elle March 10
Seeing is Believing
"Soak up the Miami heat in an artful clash of Rorschach prints, windowpane checks, and technicolor florals."
Photographed by: Max Farago
Model: Egle Tvirbutaite
Styled by: Camille Bidault-Waddington

Jeggings

Love or hate them Jeggings are here to stay. Honestly in the beginning Jeggings were not my favorite, when I first heard my friends talking about them, I asked, "WTF is a jegging?" (You would think I know what that is since my major is Fashion Marketing and Management, but sometimes you just get lost in the trends) Surely they were happy to explain, it's the next craze, so I should probably go buy some. I didn't, instead I scouted mall stores to see what these strange pieces of apparel were. The first place was American Eagle and indeed they had Jeggings. I thought "These LOOK JUST like jeans and shit they were about the same price too." I loved how soft they felt though...yet I did not buy a pair. I told myself, "If I want to wear denim, I have plenty in my closet."

While I was still in school, I complemented one of friends on her super cute outfit and told her I loved her jeans, she was quick to correct me and said, "Honey, these are Jeggings, 12.99, Macy's". What strikes me the most about Jeggings is the illusion they portray of being genuine denim. I was fooled. Another thing my friend mentioned was "It is the perfect lazy piece, don't feel like wearing jeans? Put on some jeggings, they look like the real thing and are just as comfy or more so then denim." After that day it completely changed my outlook on Jeggings. Now I want them.

Today I went window shopping for some Jeggings to put on my "must buy asap list" and I had some interesting finds. Jeggings at American Eagle were in simple colors, dark indigo, black, dark wash...basic colors for any pant and $10 less or the same price as their actual denim. A dark indigo jegging from American Eagle is 71% Cotton, 27% Polyester, 2% spandex. The less cotton there is more polyester making it feel almost like athletic wear, which I disliked. I also checked online at Nordstorms, Macy's, Urban Outfitters, no luck for me to find my dream pair. The ones I favorited are in the collage below.

Dior Couture A/W 10

With Couture Week being over and peeking at all the collections only one stood out, Dior. One word to describe John Galliano's for Dior Couture Fall 2010 line? Brilliant. Recently I thought Couture would slowly lose it's prestigious title due to the lack of interest and buzz around recent collections. Some collections were disappointing as if they were made like a Ready-to-Wear line with black trousers and white blouses (boring). I have always loved fashion and the idea of Couture: intricate, hand-made, custom and more important CREATIVE.

That brings me back to Dior Couture Fall 2010, the words I described couture explains John Galliano's collection on the dot. Fall collections usually are darker colors, wools and wovens. To my surprise Dior collections had floral inspirations, bright and bold colored pieces walking down the runway, I honestly thought I was looking at a Spring line. As I looked at the through the collection, I just kept thinking "WOW this Couture line is one of the best I have seen in a long time." John Galliano thought this whole process through from the large flowers on the stage of the runway and the girl's bulb-like hair and bright make-up, you felt as if you were in someone's floral garden. And you can't forget those gowns...anyone would feel like royalty if they put any of the fairy-tale gowns on. Well you can be the judge of that. These beautiful creations I could see in an array of occasions: cocktail parties, dinner date and of course, the red carpet. I wonder who will be wearing Dior at the Red Carpet, because someone has too, you cannot hate a full bottom evening dress!

I just want to thank John Galliano for making Couture (for me) exciting again. I love all the colors, whimsical feel and details put into this Couture collection. I just hope that the rest of the fashion industry can follow up on that.

IMAGES CREDIT: Monica Feudi / Go Runway.com via Style.com

Cocktail party anyone?

Love the color of this dress

Admire these details!!

The best for last.

My favorite :)

The designer himself, John Galliano

Stumbling Inspiration

The title says it all. Inspiration, I went to an Art School and people ask all the time, where do you get the inspiration for your work? Honestly I read the guidelines of the projects that are assigned me to me *HA jk*. But right now? I get all my inspirations from StumbleUpon.com, it's basically a place where you can pick out tags that you are interested in and the lovely server dishes out the websites that it thinks you will like the best. and I AM HOOKED. The more websites you like, the better sites you will cross. If you get friends to Stumble as well, you can share your favorites and check out what they've "Stumbled Upon" too! WARNING: first time stumble will equal up to 2 hours or more.

Of course one of the tags I've preferred is fashion and I've seen some amazing photography and editorial work. Other than fashion, tags I also preferred are animation, food/cooking and video games. Believe it or not, I'm a geek at best. I landed on this great food cooking site, FoodGawker, and found a bunch of baking recipes that are delicious!! I ended up baking a few of the recipes for the 4th of July Weekend. For the video games tag, I've come across some elaborate game crossovers like Super Mario Brothers Crossover. It's a pretty rad game where it takes the very first Super Mario Game for the Nintendo and combines other notable 80's video game characters. Play it and you'll feel the nostalgia settling in. Hint: It's easier with Mega Man. Lastly for animation, this one is by far my favorite on that I have "Stumbled Upon" is Les Dangereux a cute romance featuring a ninja trying to get the girl ninja's affection.

So what does this have to do with my inspiration? Simple, seeing other people create things makes me want to also create and inspire others around me. It hits me in a way especially when I see a fashion post, "Yes this is what I want, I want to be the best in my industry". With the other tags I Stumble Upon, it gives me the urge to try new things like the baking recipes from FoodGawker. You don't need someone to tell you how to get inspired, you find it in your own way. And right now I find my inspiration and motivation from StumbleUpon.com.



Yummy Smore Cookie Bars, I baked for the 4th of July Holiday! Recipe courtesy of Crepes of Wrath via StumbleUpon.com.

If you happen to start Stumbling, find me: cpascual21