Writing about covering the crime beat over at
www.kristibelcamino.com

The lovely A from here visited me over at my writing blog and inspired this post.

I know this is a bait and switch move, but I’m trying to gradually move over to my new writer blog and so I posted this fantastic article there on what kids really need for Christmas.
Hope you check it out and have a wonderful holiday!
xoxox Kristi

My last post about why I chose to write about kidnapped kids and serial killers is up on my author blog at www.kristibelcamino.com. The book is not gruesome. I hope it is touching and tried to include parts of my world from this blog, some style and food, even recipes. But essentially it is about a reporter’s struggle to find peace.
If you like to read, check out the post.

LESSONS FROM MADAME CHIC:

Thanks to everyone for entering. The comments on what chic was were fantastic and I really enjoyed reading them. I used the random generator to pick a number between 1 and 25 to pick my winner. The first person to enter the contest (after me and stephanie commented) was considered 1 and then so on down the line.

We had 25 people enter the contest. If you count down from the top (skipping the first two comments by me and Stephanie), you come to Kristina! at number 16. Congratulations! You’ll love Jennifer’s book.

I'm trying to look tough like Skully from the X Files

Please pop on over to www.kristibelcamino.com for Part II of why I wrote “Blessed are the Dead.” You can also click here.

AND IMPORTANT – IMPORTANT – IMPORTANT: Today is the last day (until midnight) you can enter the drawing for a copy of Lessons from Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott. Just enter a comment here to quality. I’ll announce the winner in the morning.
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It seems like such a stretch to my readers on this blog why I would go from writing about style and European chic to serial killers and kidnapped kids. Well, here’s a bit about why:

www.kristibelcamino.com

I had been eagerly anticipating the publication of Jennifer Scott’s “Lessons from Madame Chic” for months, so as soon as it became available on Amazon I snatched it up. It arrived in the mail on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning I had tore through it.

Not surprisingly, within a day of its release it hit #2 on the Amazon list! Congratulations Jennifer!

The inspiration for her book stems from a series of posts on her blog, The Daily Connoisseur, about living in Paris as an exchange student. The series was so popular that readers, such as me, clamored for more. In response, Scott wrote this book. It was all I had hoped for and more.

Well, dear readers, the good news is that the lovely and talented Scott has offered to give away a copy of her book to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment on what chic is to you and I’ll enter you in a random drawing. You have until Dec. 5th to enter.

(PS If you don’t you see your comment posted immediately can you please email me at mammaitaliana23@gmail.com. For some reason I get several hundred spam emails a day and would hate to miss your entry.)

Below is the review I posted on Amazon and a link to purchase this little lovely yourself if you don’t want to wait and see if you have won. I have a huge collection of books on French Chic and this little gem has a prominent spot on my bookshelf among them.

This is the type of book I want to give my daughters on their 16th birthdays – a guide to living with passion. It is a beautifully written how-to manual on squeezing every last drop of pleasure out of life. This little book is chock full of relevant details and advice on the secrets that make Parisian’s so confident, content, and chic.
Every single subject in this book is something I want to teach my daughters.

Brava!

I was just poking around my Lulu page and noticed that my book is now available in an ebook format.

One week into the Project 333 (read about it here), I have a revised clothing list and plan to stick to it for the duration. Despite my goal (and resolve) not to purchase new clothing items during this six months, I fell in love with a little turquoise top at a garage sale and for $1 added it to my arsenal, replacing the cabernet red tee from Stylemint, which was just too difficult to incorporate into my wardrobe.

Also, let me apologize if the photos appear stretched out on your computer. They look distorted on my laptop, but fine on my desktop, so go figure.

I included the close up of my outfit (above) even though I have a goofy look on my face!!!!

So here is one of my favorite outfits from my 33 items. I am wearing a brown top I bought at the garage sale where I found these super comfy Adriano Goldschmeid velvet jeans. My garage sale outfit cost about $7. I am also wearing my non-garage sale Madden Girl sandals and toting my Army bag, which is still stamped with the name of the guy who used it during Vietnam. I have a real love for this bag, which I picked up at the local Army Navy surplus store and brings me back to Los Angeles in the 1990s when my super, uber chic Danish friend and I both used these types of bags while attending L.A. City College and taking Spanish classes even though we both already had college degrees.

To me, participating in Project 333 means a few different things. It means a shopping moratorium on clothes for three months. I’m not a big shopper, so it also means cutting out making dream lists of items I need or want and knowing that for three months I will be making do.

In addition, Project 333 means a more intensive and reflective analysis of what works in my wardrobe and what doesn’t. It has only been a few short days and I’ve already learned some lessons that I will share below.

One exercise I encourage everyone to do is to really analyze how an outfit makes you feel. That can be as simple as saying, “This makes me feel good.” Or as thoughtful as saying, “This makes me feel dark, brooding, and sexy.” Or maybe it is “I feel drab” in this outfit.

Here are some conclusions I’ve already come to:
* I adore chocolate brown clothes.
* My new white tee is unwearable. It is so large that it falls off my shoulders and swoops beneath my bra!
* My straight leg black jeans are too tight right now and therefore, not flattering, so I won’t be wearing them.
* My new red tee is really tough to pull off. I dislike a red tee and black pants. I also realized I don’t like it with my brown velvet pants, either. Basically, it works somewhat with my blue jeans, but I’m realizing a red top doesn’t really go with my other clothes in a way I find aesthetically pleasing.
* My dolman sleeve tops I loved last winter only work with my black jeans tucked into my Frye boots. As I’m not wearing my black jeans for awhile, they are really useless. When they are worn with my other pants, they make me feel dowdy.

I’ll try to post some outfit photos. Meanwhile, the temperatures soared to nearly the 90s here, nearly foiling my 333 wardrobe plans. Velvet pants are not good on a hot day. I decided to wear one of my LBD and dug out my summer flip flops and my husband’s cowboy hat.
I never bought my navy converse tennis shoes, so the flip flops will replace that item and the cowboy hat will replace my white tee.
Voila!

PS. Check out The Closet Therapist. She is also undertaking the project for the same time period!

I’ve gone trigger happy. I keep snapping photos at every turn. And they are all about COLOR. It must be because I loaded my Holga with black and white film! Thank God for my cell phone and its awesome camera.

Here are a few more here at www.kristibelcamino.com