Archive

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Blogging Again!

March 26th, 2012 Kristi 1 comment


I know it is hard to believe but I’m going to start daily blogging again over at my other blog: www.kristibelcamino.com
Although a lot of it is mystery focused, I also am taking with me one of the categories a lot of you liked: books and movies, starting tomorrow (tuesday). Hope you’ll find me over there.
xoxo
Kristi

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

I have a literary agent!

March 22nd, 2012 Kristi No comments

Good news over at www.kristibelcamino.com. (Doing the happy dance above)

I am thrilled to announce that I am now represented by an amazingly talented literary agent.

This also means that I am going to get back to blogging and hope to keep it going over at my new blog. I hope that everyone who has read me here will pop on over there! Thanks so much.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Sunday Morning Inspiration

March 12th, 2012 Kristi No comments

Some things that inspire me as a writer today over on my other blog.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Books as Art

February 26th, 2012 Kristi No comments

I don’t need (or even want) a big house, but I can’t imagine a home without books. Books are my art in my home. Check out my photos at:
Books as Art.

www.kristibelcamino.com

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

The Chess Pieces: A Tale About Coming Home

February 8th, 2012 Kristi No comments

I’m telling a little story over on my other blog:

www.kristibelcamino.com

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Beauty Found in Tragedy

January 2nd, 2012 Kristi No comments

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.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Christmas Gift Giving Guide for Kids – Timeless Advice

December 24th, 2011 Kristi No comments


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

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Fall Photos

September 30th, 2011 Kristi No comments

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

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen Love and StyleMint Coupon

September 19th, 2011 Kristi 1 comment

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Walking the Walk

August 2nd, 2011 Kristi 5 comments

Random Photo, Wish I Could Give Credit For It

Walking the Walk

Recently, a girlfriend of mine at a pool party told someone, “Kristi’s written a book.”

And I looked at her and said, “Yes, but it’s not published yet.”

“No you know … your other book. The one that I have.”

Oh. That one.

Occasionally, I am a little embarrassed that I self-published a book on living a life of style. Partly because it is very revealing, down to what brand of lingerie I wear, but also because it could have stood a professional editor.

I keep meaning to do a better edit, but my editing and revising time is exclusively for my mystery novel right now. Ah, maybe some day …

But despite all that, at its heart, the book really espouses my philosophies at life. That’s what I remind myself when people bring it up. It may not be high art or literature, but it does reflect my views on living. It is more like my own personal journal of style that I chose to share with the world after some of my wonderful readers told me “You should write a book on all this because I’ll buy it!”

Maybe that why is it embarrassing – what’s in it is a bit more like a private conversation I would have with a friend I know for certain is like-minded. It’s not something I talk about in casual conversation, these deep-felt beliefs of mine. But now it is in print. Some 130 copies have sold in the year since I wrote it, which isn’t a windfall, but isn’t too bad considering the only promotion I’ve done is having a sidebar on my blog.

I haven’t looked at it for more than a year, but I know it still reflects my philosophies. However, I was surprised the other day to find out just how much.

Recently, my family decided we would probably end up moving to smaller living quarters in the next year so we held a garage sale to get rid of some items. We are considering going from a three-bedroom house with a finished basement to a two-room duplex or apartment, so that means a lot of paring down.

Our garage sale went well, but what surprised me was that for the first time in my life, my garage sale items were comprised of mostly large furniture. There were barely any knick-knack type things that you would usually find at a garage sale. As a result, some people would cruise by without stopping. I realized we didn’t have the curb appeal of most garage sales, which are tables of small items, but was thrilled to realize that in the past few years I’ve been walking the walk.

Before my sale, I did a mental list of items that could sell, thinking through my house room by room. In the kitchen, I realized there was nothing … NOTHING … to purge. Everything in that small space gets used.

In the living room, everything is functional except a few sentimental objects I use for decorating and all the artwork. My décor is mainly books, pictures, and candles.

In the bedrooms, same thing. My accumulation of “STUFF” was so minimal that I didn’t have anything small to sell at my sale – just like I tell people in my book. I was happy to realize I truly am living what I preach.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:










What is it about those Italian women? You know the ones I’m talking about: beautiful, sexy, dressed to the nines just to take the kids to the park. They have a certain something that is indefinable. It is in the way they dress, the way they prepare their meals, the way they spend their leisure time.

It is because they know the importance of la bella figura. Roughly translated from Italian, it means putting you best foot forward in everything you do. It means cutting a beautiful figura. The opposite of la bella figura is la brutta figura, which is what someone might say about the falling down drunken guy at the party or the super tackily dressed woman at church. It means ugly figure.

La bella figura is much more than your appearance. It goes much deeper than that. It is about how you act. It is about how you treat others. It is about how you care for yourself, your home and your family. Living a life in line with la bella figura doesn’t take money. In fact, it is more about how to have class without a lot of money. Many guys who aspire to be a PUA are actually pursuing the La Bella Figura Lifestyle.

Someone who exudes la bella figura will have clean, pressed clothes and be well groomed. They will not be rude or sloppy. Their fingernails will be impeccably groomed. Their hair shiny and clean and their shoes will be polished. They will not have stray threads hanging from their suit hems. They will not be driving a car in need of the car wash.

La bella figura means driving that 15 year old car and meticulously cleaning it and caring for it. It means keeping your belongings in good repair. It means taking time to clean your house and not cluttering it up with meaningless objects.

When you focus all your spare energy, time and money on the things that bring you the most amount of pleasure, then you are truly living a life in line with la bella figura. The best part about it is that you don’t have to be Italian to do so. You just have to think like an Italian.

Italian children are raised to present la bella figura in whatever they do. From the time they are small and are groomed perfectly to attend church or school, they know that appearances count. They count because it is the first thing people judge about you. That first impression does matter. Appearances are also important because when you take the time to look nice, you are showing that you care about yourself. When you care enough to look good, it shows you have good healthy self esteem. Nothing is more attractive than self confidence.

In addition, dressing nice also shows respect for others. If you invite people over for dinner and greet them in flip flops, baggy sweats and a stained shirt, it is really disrespectful to them. The same if you dress sloppy to go to church or even to the market. By dressing nicely and being well groomed, you show respect for everyone in your world.

Having la bella figura means presenting yourself in the best light possible in all your interactions.