Champagne Tastes on Beer Budget…Not so bad, really.

The people who know me (lucky devils!) know that there is one thing that holds constant in my life…my love of sparkling wine.   At 90 calories a glass, champagne just fills me with excitement without completely filling me up.  My other cocktail of choice, the Greyhound, can run me up to 200 calories!  Not I, no sir.  While I don’t plan on filing for divorce from champagne, I think a legal separation may be in order, and I blame my fiancé. Gasp!

Ok, let’s relax. So he and I are both really watching our calories these days and last week I came home to find a fridge full of beer (shocker), but not his normal beer. This beer had 55 written on it. When he came home to a good deal of them gone, he realized I may be hooked.  Clearly I’m not one to abstain completely (I won’t go all GOOP on you), but I would rather not take in 500 calories of bubbly goodness on a Friday night. Enter Budweiser 55. Yes, that’s right. 55 calories and it’s really no sacrifice! I mean, I love champagne so with MGD 64, the pros of champagne outweighed the 26 calories I’d be saving. However, with a 35-calorie benefit I think I’m ready to make the switch…for now anyways.

Want a pretty tip? For me, presentation is key. I don’t want to feel like a man drinking out a beer bottle so I pour my 55 calories of heaven in a gorgeous cut crystal highball glass. Add a hemstitch cocktail napkin and you’re done. Cheers!

Stop Being So Shady. Seriously.

My ubber chic and ridiculously fabulous boss recently came home from a lunch with a pair of Cutler and Gross shades that she borrowed from her super stylish friend. It took me about three minutes until I was manically searching the Internet for stores that carried the British brand, but many only had mens frames in stock. I spiraled into a deep depression until my boss announced she was jetting off to London for a few and “could pick up a few pairs.” She always says things like that with such ease that I have hard time not envying her. She found them over the pond for $400, which is kind of out of my price range… but since we’re in the fantasy world of the internet, I highly recommend you buy them!

These glasses are very downtown, but paired with a perfectly polished outfit they are a firecracker accessory. Literally amazing. You will turn heads…just be sure not to notice.

Saved By the Bell

Manhattan has many girls about town who grace the covers of social pages and blogs, but one such lady has taken Manhattan by storm and ruffled the feathers of the Upper East Side prim and proper.

Born Evelyn Byrd Bell, “Byrdie” has proven herself as both a socialite and talented actress and now has followed the ranks of Hearst and Hilton by signing with Ford Models. Her fierce beauty and effortless downtown style have got people looking, and now there is no turning back. There is one blaring difference, however, between Byrdie and the majority of NYC “society” – Byrdie is actually a societal figure. Born into an amazingly long line of Evelyn Byrd’s – dating back to the daughter of Colonel William Byrd II, the founder of Richmond, Virginia – Byrdie is shaking up the social world and putting some blue blood back into the mix of Manhattan mutts.

The Byrd women were historically known for their unprecedented beauty, and our Brydie is following suit. I don’t know whether it’s her bed head hair or day after eye makeup, but something about her makes me want to light up a Virgina Slim (it’s only fitting to honor her roots), drink some champagne and have some good old reckless fun.

Take a look at our Bell of the ball in action…

In Elie Saab

In Nina Ricci

Epitomizing downtown chic