Posted by Monica Danna on Dec 20, 2009 in
Best '09,
fashion As part of the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge I’ll be blogging daily on the bests of 2009. Walking in a Winter Bloggerland.
{December 18 Shop. Online or offline, where did you spend most of your mad money this year?}
Bank accounts don’t lie. And it was no surprise to me that when looking back through my shopping purchases for the year that there was on clear winner: MARSHALL’S.
I’ve never been a big shopper. I despise malls. I try and get most of my shopping done for the season all in one day. Discount stores such as Marshall’s and TJ MAXX have made shopping much more delightful to me. And to my bank account.
Best finds this year: baby blue Jack George Laptop bag, Jou Jou Leather cropped jacket, and too many pairs of shoes that I can count.
Tags: best09, shopping
Posted by Monica Danna on Dec 10, 2009 in
travel If you’re just joining us for the nyc recaps, mayonnaise! mustard! CATCH-UP! nyc: {day.01} here, nyc: {day.02} here, nyc: {day.03} here
snow in soho
By the start of day 4, we were being bombarded by emails and texts from back home about how we were missing the snow. Not to our surprise, we wouldn’t be missing it for long.
We slept in Saturday morning, and headed to Soho for some shopping. Of course, hit up BOTH H&M’s, BOTH on Broadway, and other boutiques along Lafayette, Wooster and Broome: Amarcord {252 Lafayette Street}, Betsey Johnson SoHo {138 Wooster}, and of course did my best Anthony Marentino “Chanello!” into Chanel {130 Spring}. Poor Maggie, had to endure all of my Sex and the City reenactments all week. 
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Tags: adriel harris, brendan benson, cory chisel, hoboken, maxwell's, new york city, nyc, shopping, soho, sushi, the new museum
Posted by Monica Danna on Mar 24, 2009 in
arts + events,
fashion 
Hit up new-ish Contents Boutique in the Heights tomorrow night, Wednesday, March 25th, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. for an event benefiting Dress for Success Houston.
DFS Women of Wardrobe invites you to make room in your closet by donating either a gently worn suit or $20. Sip, socialize and shop spring clothing and accessories – 25% of proceeds go to help out of work women land jobs. For more info, call 713.957.3779.
Women of Wardrobe is a group of young professional women whose mission is to support Dress for Success through volunteerism and fundraising. The membership year starts again in June 2009, and the dues are $75, the cost of a new suit. Members get into all of the year’s events for free, and drinks and bites at all the events on top of that!
Really looking forward to this, a great cause. I feel like I haven’t been out in ages. This no drinking thing for Lent is really a downer. I suppose crucifixtion wasn’t the bees’ knees either.
Tags: charity, contents, dress for success, fashion, shopping
Posted by Monica Danna on Jun 29, 2008 in
arts + events,
fashion,
music I’m used to my weeks being crazy, but this one took the cake. I can’t believe all that has transpired in the last 168 or so hours. Here are a few highlights from una semana loca.
Monday
When your week starts out with an up til 3am Monday night, you know you are in trouble. I had a long day at work, and was looking forward to a night at home. That was until Mark told me about The Tontons last minute show at Notsuoh. Having just seen them on Saturday at Lebowski Bash, I was jonesing to see them again.
So I met Mark for a drink before the show, and he even let me play photog for the night. Hopefully I got some good shots of the band. These guys are incredible. Seriously, if you have the chance to see them live, do it. They’ve been nominated for best new band in the 2008 Houston Press Music Awards.
So after the show, Amber and I stuck around for awhile and hung out with Asli, Tom, and Adam. The old Clark’s, now Notsuoh, has a pretty wicked room upstairs filled with old costumes, records, an old double turntable and music relics from Clark’s and Dean’s. So we hung out up there for a bit until someone yelled, “who are all these people up here?!” We took that as our cue to leave. That was 3am. It was Monday. Dude.
Tuesday
Tuesday, visibly exhausted at work, I was again, looking forward to a quiet night at home. However, I was actually delighted when Laura Mayes and Carrie Pacini called to set up a dinner meeting to discuss a new project. So we headed to Cova in the Village for some wine, cheese, and chatter. We had a great conversation and some excellently selected champagne by the very Italian Carrie.
When we were paying the bill, the waitress looked at me and said, “did you go to St. Rose elementary school?” She was a classmate of mine, a fellow girl scout, from 4th grade. Small world. Reminding me of the time I was in NYC and a girl, Susan, stopped me and Kasey on the street because she recognized Kasey from college, but as we began talking, realized we were in the same girl scout troop. in 4th grade. Crazy.
After dinner I headed over to meet Mark and The Tontons to discuss some styling for their upcoming show on Friday at Warehouse, and a photo shoot that Mark had set up with Jessica Grieves on Saturday morning. Adam ordered a fruity drink. We laughed.
Wednesday
I left work a little early on Wednesday to meet up with The Tontons to do some thrift store shopping in the Heights. We were trying to find them some outfits for their Friday show, and the Saturday morning photo shoot. We first met at Retropolis, where while we had a lot of fun digging, we didn’t really find outfits to put together; unless you count this rhinestone cowboy get up that Justin discovered.
We headed across the street to the new Buffalo Exchange in the Heights and started searching for “glittery” tops to pay off the 3-D glasses theme they were planning for the show. We nixed that idea as soon as Adam almost bought a sequined v-neck cardigan. Not exactly what we were going for. We decided on a uniform look, much like they wore to Lebowski Bash, and headed to Sand Dollar to look for black vests and cowboy boots.
Michelle met us as Sand Dollar to help out Asli with her outfit. Miggy also ripped up the boys old black ties and made new skinny ones for the show. They turned out fab!
After shopping we headed to Onion Creek for a quick bite before the guys headed to practice. Michelle and I headed over to Beaver’s for another successful Green Drinks. Hung out with Ned, Jeff Kaplan, BIll Erickson, Sarah Jones, and of course the uber talented Bobby Heugel. Check out this great article in the Chron on Bobby and his flair for the perfect cocktail. And check out Bobby’s amazing cocktail website, Drink Dogma. This kid is sickly talented.
Thursday
Thursday I made the very tough decision to cancel my scheduled Boulder trip for that weekend. Being that the last month had been so crazy, and so go go go, I was feeling anxious about being away and already feeling the stresses of another weekend of craziness. Also, I was thinking about attending BlogHer in July in San Fran, and I knew I couldn’t make both trips. So I decided to cancel Boulder, and catch up with Gwen and all the ladies in San Fran in a few weeks.
After work Thursday I headed to Big Woodrow’s to celebrate Keisha’s last day at Aker. She’s been there forever it seems! And we are all excited about her new gig at Chevron! Got to hang with MRock, Shek, and my GA, Brian. It was like back in the Ellayess days!
After Woodrow’s I headed to So Vino to celebrate Emily’s bday. I hadn’t been to So Vino yet and was pleasantly surprised. All these new wine bars opening up, it’s hard to tell them apart. So Wino was small, and intimate, and the food we had was great. The waiters were all well informed about the wine selections. I visited with Becky and Seth, and Annie who i hadn’t seen in months and months, and one of Emily’s friends, Paul, who I’m pretty sure I bonded with over Justin Timberlake. JT brings out the best in everybody.
Friday
A quick after work nap was just what I needed to get the energy for the big show at Warehouse with The Tontons, The Riff Tiffs and Fat Tony. Michelle came by, we shared a glass of wine (ok mom, girlfriend jokes!) and we were off to Warehouse to get the Tontons dressed for the show.
Met up with Erin and Groovehouse who were both shooting the show. We arrived just as Lisa’s Sons went on. Not sure how to describe them without being negative. Hmmm, it was high energy.
The Tontons were up next, and the place was filling up. Mark helped hand out 3-D glasses to the crowd for a wicked 60’s affect. I grabbed the glasses and placed them in front of my iPhone camera. I was surprised the effect worked!
Eric’s shots from the show here.
The highlight of the show was when 4 members of the Houston Symphony joined the Tontons on stage for “Syrup.” I think someone caught this on video, and if so, I can’t wait to see it.
We stuck around for the Riff Tiffs, who were also excellent, and ran into Christian from Studemont Project, and Hodge and Cornbreadd from TFT, who we watched Fat Tony with from backstage. A great night for local music indeed.
Saturday
Reeling from a killer hangover from Friday, I missed The Tontons photo shoot with Jessica on Saturday morning. But judging from the amazing pics she took, they didn’t need me there. Check out “the morning after” shoot here.
image: Jessica Grieves, Ecor Rogue Photography
After finally pulling myself out of bed, I headed over to Chris and I’s Vinyl Creative meeting spot, Rudyard’s, for a quick VC meeting of concepting new ad campaign and discussing new clients. Oh, and of course black bean nachos.
I left Rudz and headed to Volcano to help prep for the big Houstonist Crawfish Boil. JB bought 500lb of the crawdaddies and we were peeling, cutting, washing, and boxing for a few hours before the crowd arrived at 6pm. And boy did they arrive. We had a HUGE crowd, almost 200 that came out to Volcano to get some dirty fingers and faces. Some great pics of the boil here.
Luckily, the last party of the night was close. Just down the street at Armadillo Palace, my cousin Adriane’s husband Matt was throwing her a surprise 30th Bday party. Adriane and I were raised together, practically as sisters. It was so fun getting to see her and old friends and family. Always a delight hanging with Rachel and Nate, and the adorable Carly, Thomas’ GF, who solidifed her status when she snapped a pic of dance teacher’s indiscretion.
Lauren Levicki was also having her bday party there the same night, so the entire Houston young socialite crowd was in attendance.
Sunday
Well, it’s Sunday now. And I’m headed out the door to my old roommate Dave’s house for some brunch and soccer watching. Also, looking forward to a meeting about a new project tonight with Joe Litzinger of Baby Crow Productions. More deets on that later! Very excited about it.
Here’s to hoping this next week is a little more calm, with more sleep involved.
Tags: armadillo palace, bars, beer, crawfish, family, friends, houston, houstonist, music, notsuoh, photos, recap, shopping, the tontons, volcano, warehouse live
