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Saturday

February 20th, 2010 Kristi Leave a comment Go to comments

navy tee (Gap) -- Black sweater (Gap, thrifted) -- Levis -- Boots (Etienne Aigner) -- Silver Hoops

Menu:
Breakfast: dish of whole milk plain yogurt with homemade granola; cafe au lait
Lunch: banana and peanut butter sandwich; leek with olive oil and lemon juice; small dish with marshmallows and raisins (don’t ask)
Dinner: chicken breasts with molasses marinade; roasted rosemary potatoes; green salad; wine

Today we had a lazy Saturday. The most exertion I did was taking the kids to swim lessons, but spent most of my day working on freelance writing assignments on the computer. If it weren’t for the swim lessons, I may have stayed in pajamas all day!

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  1. Heather Byrd
    February 21st, 2010 at 18:20 | #1
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    I just have to say this, and perhaps I’ll be the first one daring enough to comment on this… I LOVE YOUR HAIRCUT!!! It suits you perfectly!

  2. aaonce
    February 21st, 2010 at 19:04 | #2
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    I really like the turtleneck + jeans look, very nice! Chicken breasts with molasses marinade? Wow! Do you mind sharing the recipe for that and the rosemary potatoes they both sound delicious.

  3. Kristi
    February 22nd, 2010 at 07:23 | #3
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    Heather, Nancy and Aaonce,
    Thanks for the comment on the haircut. I’ve been debating whether I had it cut a tad too short for my style or look or whatever … I’m very lucky my niece is an Aveda trained stylist who works at a chi-chi salon but gives me a special rate to do my hair off hours (I pay $10 salon fee and whatever I want to tip her. I respect her abilities so this is usually between $30 and $40)
    She gets training sometimes from Federic Fekkai, who of course, I am in awe of.
    I decided when I turned 40 that haircuts were something I could not afford to skimp on, but I do have a problem with not getting them often enough and letting my hair start to look like the wicked witch.

  4. Kristi
    February 22nd, 2010 at 07:24 | #4
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    Aaonce, I’ll try to post that today. It is actually a recipe from my husband’s P90x workout program recipe book ….

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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.

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.