A Fresh Start: February 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

What to Wear: A Night out in Vegas

Since I am in Vegas, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to feature an outfit ready for a night out on the town!

Vegas style is in a category of its own. While it is wild and outrageous, it is still important to not cross the trashy line. From my experience these are important things to keep in mind when planning an outfit.

Show either your legs or boobs, not both. Showing both makes an outfit go from fun and flirty to trashy and desperate
Leave the big bags at home. Switch your bag for a small clutch. Cash, ID, phone, hotel key, and a camera is all you need.
Wear comfortable shoes. Your feet will hurt while in Vegas from all the walking. Find some fabulous but comfy shoes for your big night out.
Add a little bling and sparkle! You are in Vegas after all...

Top- Vanity Top
Skirt- Filthy Magic Black Swan Skirt
Shoes- Christian Louboutin Maralena Flame Sandal
Clutch- Alexander Mcqueen Queen Skull Clutch
Earings- Kenneth Jay Lane Silver Star EaringsRing- Iris Diamond Black Flower Sterling Silver Ring

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Shaving the Strokes

This Christmas I really wanted a putter. I love to golf, but my putting is definitely one of my weak points of the game. I can never see where I am hitting the ball with the putter that came with my clubs. I thought it would be a good idea to get a new putter and improve my game.

My grandparents gave me a gift certificate to Golf Town to go purchase a putter that I liked. After trying a few different ones, and the only advice from the salesman being, "there is really no difference in the putters, just find one that you like.", I was a little lots. Thank goodness for the putting greens in the store, and one hour later I had made my decision.

I decide to go with a Odyssey putter. It is a blade head that makes it easier for me to see where I am hitting the ball. The blade is also "very forgiving" so hopefully that will help my game too.

I will keep you posted if I am able to shave some strokes off my game this summer with my new club!

What to Wear: Jetsetter

Right about now I am stepping onto a plane to head to Las Vegas. One of my pet peeves is people who wear the grosses, ugliest clothes when flying. Just because you are on a plane does not mean that you cannot look great!

Now I understand that on 10+ hour flights comfort is key. For these type flights I encourage dressing in layers. Start with a light weight shirt, a sweater or cardigan, and possibly a light jacket. A larger bag is also important as it gives you more space for carry on items.

For shorter flights, this is where style really should not be sacrificed. A few key things for me is still dressing in layers. This is especially important when traveling to a destination where the temperature is different from where you are coming from. I am also careful of how much metal I have on. Nothing is worse then being late for a flight and having to stop and do the metal wand.

This is a great outfit that I would love to wear on the plane. Looks great in the airport, and you are ready to do anything soon as you get out of the airport.

Jeans- Heritage Bailey Perfect Bootcut Jeans by J Brand
Shoes- Miu Miu Suede ankle boots
Purse- Burberry Bilmore Trench Canvas/Patent Borsa
Earings- Anita Ko Spike 14-karat white gold stud earrings
Jacket- Forzieri Grey Asymmetrical Zip Leather Jacket
Shirt- Steffen Schraut black ruffles sleeve top

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Fashion Week: New York Fall 2011- Part 3

The one staple that you can expect with fall collections are a strong presence of black, white and grey. This year there was a surprising element... colour!

Here are a few of my favorite color pieces from this season.

Diane von Furstenberg

L'Wren Scott

Victoria Beckham

Yigal Azrouel

L'Wren Scott

Costello Tagliapietra

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Calving 2011 Update

Calving is just about wrapped up on the farm. As of this morning there is only 9 more to calf, and 2 of them are gonna pop any day now.

To this point things have went extremely well. We did lose a set of twins early on, but other then that everything has come healthy and alive. With the tempeture swings that we have been having this year (-40 to +10) it is the perfect way for calves to get sick. It is important to stay on top of things, but we have been luck, and have not had to treat many calves at all.

With a good portion of the calves being at least 6 weeks old, you can really start to tell what they are going to look like. Our biggest sired group of calves this year are the Revolutions. Last year we got all heifers, and this year we are getting majority bulls. There is one pretty special Revolution heifer this year, and you will probably see her somewhere later on if she keeps developing as well as she is now.

A new sire group that we have this year is In Dew Time. We have a total of 5 calves out of this bull, 4 heifers and 1 bull. It is a little funny to get a bull calf, as we used sexed female semen. It just goes to show that you can do all the planning in the world, and sometimes things still do not turn out right! I really like these calves, especially the heifers. They have tons of style right now, yet still keep the muscle that Simmentals are known for.

Here are some new pictures of the calves. Out of everyone at the farm I see the most change in the calves as I do not see them everyday. It is amazing to see the growth and change in the calves every other weekend when I am out.

Redman bull calf

This is a Joker x 2N bull. We showed his full brother last fall.

The best ones to see at home are the ones that are still quiet to pet

I love the curious calves.
We have 2 in the 2yr old pen that you can play with

Fashion Week: New York Fall 2011- Part 2

Monique Lhuillier many have been my favorite collection of this season, but there was another that caught my eye. They waited till the very last day, some may say that they saved the best for last.

Ralph Lauren is a classic designer as well. He knows how to switch it up each season from the Mid West to Fifth Ave. This may have been one of my favorite collections ever from him.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Lewis Farms

This weekend we headed to Spruce Grove to Lewis Farms to look at their 2011 Bull Sale offering. We are looking for a new bull and with their sale happening next weekend, it was the perfect time to go check the bulls out since we cannot make the sale.

I always love going to Lewis Farms for a variety of reasons. It was out families home for 7 years, and the first 4 years of my life while mom and dad managed the farm. It is also a place that has so much history and stories. I would venture out to say that it is the most successful Simmental operation still in existence. I also love going to Lewis's because of the people. Crystal had the opportunity to make this video for them last year. I think it really shows what the farm is all about.

Back to this weekend though. All of the bulls are housed at the Bull Farm which is about 5 minutes away from the main farm. While our family was at Lewis's we lived at the Bull Farm, so I have some pretty fun memories of that place.

As you drive into the farm, you are greeted with the bull runs, followed but the big pens. This is where the bulls are kept and fed from weaning until sale time. The pens are large enough to hold a nice size group of bulls. They are sorted into Reds, Blacks, Fullbloods, and Angus.

One thing that I think is really neat about their large pens are the feed bunks. They appear to be the same as any bunk that you would feed with. But when you look closer, they are all actually individual head stalls. They have the ability to be kept open at all times, or close all at once. Dad said these were always great when they used to halter break all the bulls int he 80's.

When the bulls came to eat, he would flick the head gates shut and lock the bulls in. From there he could get close to the bulls, and get them quiet before getting them into the barn to put halters on. I have never seen another place with a set-up like this. It is a pretty slick set-up, and super practical at the same time.

Fashion Week: New York Fall 2011- Part 1

With fashion week in New York City being the pinnacle and so large, I thought that it was only fair to break it down into a few segments. This season I found over 100 looks that I loved, more then any other week before.

I thought it was only fair to start with my favorite collection of the week. This was a no brainer for me as this fashion house is always one of my favorites, does classic work, and is just done to perfection.

Enjoy some of my favorite looks from the Ready to Wear Fall 2011 collection from.... Monique Lhuillier

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Moving Day

This past weekend I headed out to my friend Bethan and Chris's to help them move into their new house. For the past 6 months they have been living in a holiday trailer while they had a house moved onto their farm and fully renovated.

The house is just about complete, and it was to to get things moved in. There items had been packed into a SeCan trailer. It was packed right up to the roof and we thought that it was going to be a long job getting it all emptied out.

Most things just got thrown into the rooms and left to be sorted out later.

All of the kitchen items needed to be washed. So again things got stacked up, and the dish washer began to run non stop.

However, the kitchen is so beautiful! The tile work is unique and her cabinets are not only functional but really gorgeous. They are built to that no matter how hard you shut them, they do not slam shut. A pretty cool feature.

We did get a few of the rooms partialy set up. The sitting room got the floors washed, cow hide down, and the couches some what in place. After all we needed a place to sit and rest after all the heavy lifting we did!

We feature wall in the sitting room is a real stunner. All of the rocks are original, and there are even some neat features in it. There is a piece of pot ash built in, as well as three hammer heads that Chris's grandpa found and had built into the wall.

The last room that we got set-up is the dinning room. The boys kept hitting their head on the chandelier, so we figured that we had better get the table in place so that it was no longer a safety hazard.

The house is just about complete now. I will try to take some pictures of it once it is all completed. They sure did a great job with it. Much deserved for them after living in the holiday trailer for that long!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

101 in 1001 revamp

I have been looking at my 101 in 1001 list and as we are well into the challenge there are just some items that are simply unattainable or do not apply now.

Rather then just giving up, I thought it would be smarter to switch them out for a new goal.

So here it goes! These will be the new 101 in 1001 items added to the list:

#26- Travel to Australia
#27- Travel to South Africa
#32- Travel to South Africa
#54- Find out my credit rating
#74- Win an office pool

Traveling this far is just not in the plans now, but traveling to South Africa was on the list twice. I have decided to spend money on my cow herd rather then traveling far away. I will not be finding out my credit rating, as it actually goes down each time you find out what it is. So there is no point dropping it for no reason. As for the office pool, we actually don't have them at work. It is a little hard to win a pool that does not exist.

These will be the new goals

#26- Flush one of my cows
#27- See the Grand Canyon
#32- Visit Jon and Crystal
#54- Invest into a retirement fund
#74- Get a quarterly bonus

Hopefully this will be the only changes that need to be made to the list and I can successfully complete rest of the list!

The Countdown is On!

With only 8 days till we head out for Vegas, my excitement is pretty much over the top right now. I love Vegas in all it's sparkly, over the top, craziness glory!

This trip it will just be Brett and myself, and there will also be some other people that Brett knows there at the same time. We will be there for 5 days, so it will be a great break from this cold weather that showed up today.

Each time I go to the states, I usually look for some "investment" piece. By "investment" I mean something that is a bigger purchase, a little bit more expensive and from some of my favorite designers. These items are always something that is timeless, will never go out of style, and that I will have for many many years. Some of my other purchases have been my Burberry scarf, my Christan Loubioutin shoes, and my Burberry Umbrella.

For this trip to Vegas I am really debating between a purse or another pair of shoes. I have found a pair of Fendi shoes that I have fell in love with. But I also have a true love for Christian Louboutin shoes like these.

My other option is to go with a purse. I love this Mulberry purse as it is nice clean lines, large enough but not to big. This is a little steap for what I am wanting to spend though. I also love this Mulberry purse called the Alexa bag. The third purse that has caught my eye is this one from Marc by Marc Jacob. It is much more affordable then the other two.

I guess we will find out in about 10 days time what one will actually be coming home with me!