JET SET CARRY-ON

Many of my readers often share their lost luggage stories with me, and I can feel their pain. It's truly the pits when you jet set somewhere and your luggage doesn't make it to the destination. (I'm freaking out because I'm jet setting this weekend and since it's going to be such a long trip, I think I might have to check my luggage...fingers crossed that it gets to where I'm going!) Anyway, the more and more I hear the stories, the more I think that carry-on is the way to go (not to mention the expensive checked luggage fees many airlines have recently added). So, here are five affordable spring/summer candidates that are cute and can hold a lot!

Topshop's Large Exotic Flower Holdall for $70.
JCrew's Overnight Canvas Bag for $36.50 Lands' End Ragtop Stripe Tote for $34.50
Roxy's Daybreak Bag for $115 Le Sport Sac's Large Weekender for $108 (My personal favorite...and the one I own!)

FASHION FRIDAY: EAR FLAP HATS

When I jet setted to Iceland in November, I noticed that many people were wearing earflap hats to keep warm. Since it was chilly, my friend Laura and I went ahead and each bought a furry earflap hat from the popular store there for cold weather gear- 66* North.Their slogan is "Keeping Iceland Warm since 1926," and they live up to their words. They carry hats, gloves, scarves, coats, etc., and you see people all over Iceland wearing their stuff. My friend Laura and I couldn't resist when we saw almost every woman walking around downtown Reykjavik in one of these hats. It cost about $70USD for one, but we both wore ours the entire trip, and we figured, even if we never wear them again after leaving Iceland, who cares? We've gotten our money's worth.

Well, fast forward a month- and here it is now freezing in New York, and I'll tell you I have not taken this hat off! Walking around the city these days, you will see everyone (women, men, and even kids) wearing furry earflap hats. My sister told me that my 8 year old niece even wants one. So I went on a search to see what cute styles are out there and this is what I found:

1- Free People has this cute Faux Fur Hat: $68

2- TOPSHOP has a couple of cute styles and colors: Around $35













3- Forever 21 has this adorably cute Pom Pom beanie: $8.80
4- Eddie Bauer has a Faux-Fur Bomber Hat: $39.50
5- And for the kids...Gap has this cute Furry Trapper hat: $19.50
(Gotta find this one for my niece before X-Mas!!!)

FOOD COMA SATURDAY

When it's raining outside and you have friends visiting New York City from Texas, the only thing to do is to spend your day at a movie, in a mall, or inside restaurants all day. We skipped the movie and mall part and instead spent our day eating!
For breakfast we headed to Permanent Brunch. This place is teeny, tiny inside, and doesn't take reservations- so be prepared to wait, but know that it's definitely worth it. We ordered the Baked Eggs with Braised Short Rib Ragu and fries for $14, the Pan-roasted Chicken & Waffles for $14, and French Toast for $13. They are also known for having different kinds of bacon on their menu, so we tried an order of the Smokehouse Peppered bacon from Texas (how appropriate!).< Afterwards, the guys went to watch football, while the ladies met up with some old friends at Via Quadronno on the Upper East Side for some cappuccinos. This is where we saw Alec Baldwin having lunch (see Sunday's post for more)...that was pretty cool! Becca & I headed down to Soho afterwards to shop at one of my all-time favorite stores- TOPSHOP. When our feet got tired, we ducked into Keith McNally's (great name!) Balthazar- a brasserie that is reminiscent of Paris inside.We ordered their Homemade Pumpkin Ravioli with walnuts, sage, and brown butter for $13...so good, I'm drooling just talking about it.For a little dessert, Becca and I went to Rice to Riches- the best place in the world if you are into rice pudding.This place has your standard old fashioned, traditional pudding, but it also has every interesting flavor you could imagine from pumpkin to chocolate, to the one we had which was mascarpone cheese with cherries...yummy! After that it was time to meet up with the boys for dinner. We went to The National- a gastro chic restaurant downtown. This place is casual, fairly inexpensive, and the food is great.I highly recommend their Lobster Roll served with french fries.We also got to meet the the head Chef, Zoe Feigenbaum, who is currently on Bravo's Chef Academy! She was so cute...and quite a good cook I might add! :-)As you can imagine, we were stuffed by the end of the day! It was a Food Coma Saturday for sure! We burned it off walking around Brooklyn and Manhattan the next couple of days...I'll have more on that tomorrow!

FASHION FRIDAY: TOP CITY, TOP SHOPPING

It's a rainy summer day here in New York today- and in fact, it's supposed to be wet most of the weekend. While most people hate the rain, I love it because it reminds me of another great international city...London!

London, England has so much history (Tower of London, Palace of Westminster & Westminster Abbey- to name a just a few), it's completely walkable, has a fantastic metro system to get around called the Underground, and it's so hip and trendy when it comes to fashion.

Now I know some of you may be thinking- to heck with London right now, the U.S. dollar isn't worth anything to the British pound! And in fact you are right so I won't argue with you about that. However, I would say it still may be Smart to Jet Set there now because there are some inexpensive airfares and some good deals on hotel rooms. In fact, I just looked and there are flights for the month of September starting at $180 round trip (not including taxes & fees) on Air Europa.

But, if it's not for you at the moment, you can still shop like you're in London without having to hop on a seven hour flight. TOPSHOP started over in the UK, and now even has a store in New York. It's my new, all-time favorite store because you can get "High Street Fashion" without breaking the bank. The Brittany2 over the knee boots and navy lace blazer are just two of my most desired things from there right now!

{photos: wikipedia}