This has been one crazy week.  Work is busy—the days continue to fly by.  And our plans for Thanksgiving have been altered slightly.   Instead of traveling out to Long Island, Bonaparte and I made the decision to stay home and enjoy a quiet dinner in preparation of our trip  to Paris on Saturday.

Yeah. I have a couple of items like my hair and jeans in my carry on.  But I need to focus on three days’ worth of clothing. It’s more of a challenge to pack less than to pack more!

The extent of my packing.  I need to focus. I need to pack more than heels, deodorant and hair!

We were very lucky to have Jake visit us last weekend.

He cut his hair. And mommy loves the Hipster Jesus look but I think the clean cut look fits Jake just fine! It was great to have him home one-on-one!

His schedule with work in NYC keeps him busy so it was nice to let him eat well and enjoy Texas football and relax!

Unfortunately, the wrong team had more touchdowns.  Texas lost–against Kansas no less!!!

The weight loss continues, but now the loss is really slowing down.  My body is getting to a comfortable weight.  From seven to ten more pounds and the job of maintaining the lower weight may prove to be difficult. But—I’ll be like Scarlett O’Hara and worry about it tomorrow. Or maybe when I reach that goal!

I kind of reached my goal for Thanksgiving. So I’m hoping that by Christmas I’m at least two or three pounds down more. As long as the scale doesn’t go up I’m happy!

This is the first Thanksgiving where I haven’t baked anything. At all.  And I’m really not upset about it.  Sometimes it is just good to have a break.

And that break will be good because when we return from Paris, I’ll be going through recipes for cookies to have on hand for Christmas.  Have you ever heard of Chatelaine Magazine?  It’s a Canadian publication but their site offers the best holiday cookies of all time!  (you HAVE to click for the recipes. They are EPIC!! I made many last year and plan on doing a binge biscotti bake next weekend!

I wish Canada would offer subscriptions to us in the States. I swear I would move to Canada just to subscribe!!!!

But now I want to give you a couple of reviews.  It started with my search for a plain black leather belt.  I went to Nordstrom Rack thinking I could find a simple black belt.  No such luck. The store opened less than three weeks ago and not one woman’s belt could be found. Even the sales staff was perplexed.

And since Ulta  was next door, I decided to take a walk over there to ease my frustration.  I spotted mascara by Tarte cosmetics. I’m a big fan of Tarte’s Lights Camera Lashes mascara; and so I thought this “Best in Faux” fiber mascara might be worth a shot.

This is FALSE advertising by Tarte. The purple mascara tube is more like a trial size IRL…see for yourself!

Honestly, I’ve had sample sized mascaras that were bigger.  I’m still annoyed about this one!  

What really pissed me off were the ads. The mascara and fiber tubes are photographed the same size. They aren’t IRL. The mascara tube is small and stingy. Shame on you Tarte for doing this.

The lashes looked fine after applying but the fact that the mascara tube was so small is such a future no-buy for me. You NEED the mascara/gel to apply before and after applying the fibers. Therefore you need more of the mascara/gel and less of the fibers! Not worth the twenty bucks.

Tarte’s “Best in Faux” did give some thickening to my lashes but did not extend the length. The Bella Rose does a better job for less money!

I’ll stick to my Bella Rose fiber mascara that I purchased on Amazon. $14.95 plus shipping. I try to purchase this with other items to get the free shipping. But even with the price of shipping it is worth it. As we age our lashes aren’t what they used to be and that’s one reason I’m a fan of the fiber mascara. The Bella Rose is the best I’ve tried.

The Bella Rose 3-D Fiber Mascara has a larger mascara/gel tube–they got it right. I’m on my second order of this–and will soon be ordering a third. I use it every day! Every day!

My gift of the week was a lip liner from the sales associate at Ulta. She was so nice to give this to me!  I’m not one for lip liners but I thought I would give it a try.  I love it!  The spice color is a neutral that works! I think I’ll be lining my lips a bit more in the future!

I think my only challenge with the Laura Geller lip liner will be finding the right sharpener. I’ve zero luck with sharpeners for my pencils!!

I know. I KNOW. The photo is a bit distorted but I am diggin’ this lip pencil. It kept the rest of my lip color in place without bleeding!

It was a short week. And so, I give you a bit of the offerings that I wore this week on my weight loss journey.

OK. I know it was a short week, but I wore this outfit last Friday for Jeans Friday at the office. The blazer. THE BLAZER!!!!  J. Crew Factory has their own version of my beloved Schoolboy blazer. IN PLAID!! I love this so much that I can’t stand it! The construction is excellent!  The weight is just perfect and I want to marry it! Yes. I want to marry this jacket but the republicans probably have laws against grown women marrying schoolboy blazers!  This will be worn a lot during the Christmas Season!

Saturday I wore this to run errands before Jake arrived. Let me tell you this–the scarf came off quickly because it hit an all time high of 76 degrees here in the Philly ‘Burbs!

No. I didn’t wear this but Sunday after Jake left us, we went to the mall. And as soon as I saw that American Girl opened a store, I HAD to get my nostalgia on and visit. It brought back memories of Oona and her American Girl Dolls. I still have them packed away!  Oh–and Oona thought it was very disturbing that I did this! I don’t!

Monday’s look was “Blassic”. Black and classic!  I wore Old Navy Pixie Pants, a sweater set from J. Crew and J. Crew Gemma flats.  Oh..my fake hair is a bit crooked!

Tuesday’s OOTD is one of my favorites. The blazer is from a few years back –Banana Republic.  I never wore it much but shopping in my closet and the desire to wear a bright top brought it out of hibernation. I love the way everything blends in. Trust me, I’m not overly big on brights but I loved the way this worked. I also loved that my hair wasn’t crooked too!

I also love the brown suede patches on the blazer’s sleeve because the color matches my Longchamp leather bag!

I was too busy putting my fake hair into a messy updo yesterday and forgot to photograph what I wore. I stuck to a simply textured turtleneck and black pixie pants.  Very basic!

Wait. There’s more randomness..

Jake wanted steak for dinner–ok? So I made a bearnaise sauce.  I decided to go with champagne vinegar and purchased THIS at Wegmans. Fifteen minutes of TRYING IN VAIN to open the bottle and two cuts on my fingers later, I had Bonaparte return it and get my money back. I was livid!  Maitre Jacques should be ashamed of himself!  I used red wine vinegar instead.

 I made cranberry sauce. It’s so easy. A bag of cranberries into boiling water. Let boil until the berries pop–about ten minutes. Add a cup of sugar and let it get thick. Take it off the burner and chill in the fridge. 

And I made the cranberry sauce because I cooked a small turkey breast. And I made a bit of stuffing because…….

Since we would not be together for Thanksgiving, I wanted to send Jake home with a Thanksgiving Sandwich! I sliced a baguette, spread mayo on one side, and cranberry sauce on the other.  I made the stuffing in a loaf pan so that I could slice it thinly to put on the sandwich. I layered stuffing and turkey and more cranberry sauce. Thanksgiving on a baguette!!

Oh–and I almost forgot. Saturday’s dessert was the frozen nougatine I made with a salted caramel sauce that I also made. Turned out great–which is why I probably only lost a half pound this week!

Onward and upward. I have to start packing and getting our dinner ready!!

I did a lot this week.  Man! I feel like a very busy woman.

Shania. Shania. Did you hear that?  Here she is…