For the Discriminating Eye

Of course you know Portland's Queen of Luxury Tile, Ann Sacks
(www.annsacks.com) Well now clever Ann has started an eyewear company that delivers the same quality, creativity and style we have come to expect.

After 20 years in the tile business, and selling her company to Kohler, she launched a new stylish eyewear company named after her daughter. Amy Sacks sells an upscale, high quality line of eyewear for reading and sun along with a cool selection of optical accessories to compliment.

Amy Sacks eyewear is sold around the country in boutiques and upscale department stores (like Neiman Marcus). You can find her glasses in Portland at:

Eyes on Broadway
2300 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 284-2300

Mario’s
833 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97205
(503) 227-3477

Reynolds Optical
625 NW 23rd Avenue
Portland, OR 97210
(503) 221-6539

Oh Baby

Our favorite lingerie store, Oh Baby, is opening up on Northwest 23rd tomorrow!

Oh Baby lingerie has you covered, well, a little. Remember, your significant other might scoff at the grocery bill, the Nordstrom bill, the doctor's bill, but he'll always support your lingerie habit (or maybe its his habit), either way take advantage (we've made this into a bit of a mantra).

Okay, your idea of lingerie may differ a little from his but just tell him you’re off to a lingerie store Opening and he will run for his wallet and grease your palms ever so generously. Oh Baby has some of the finest lingerie in these here parts. Upscale, incredible quality, sexy and romantic, only the finest designers. So get your booty shopping, young lady!

And here's your exclusive invitation:

Oh Baby - One Luxurious Lingerie Boutique, Two Fabulous Locations

• We are proud to announce the Grand Opening of Oh Baby's Second Location 722 NW 23rd Avenue

  Celebrate with Us June 11th, 11 to 7pm Sparkling Wine. Special Sales. Enter to Win a Date Night

  We will be unveiling our elegant new silks by Patricia Fieldwalker, Leigh Bantivoglio, Hush Hush, Jonquil and Julianne.

We love sweet Jillian With a J. She bathes us in sweetness and spice and everything nice. Her philosophy is: A bath a day keeps the dry skin away. And you smell so delish too.

Jillian, and her online local boutique, sent us the most adorable Chinese take-out boxes with her darling logo and chopsticks and seeping with yummy smells. We tried the Peppermint Pedicure Bombs, which were of course, the bomb. (Our feet thank her!) And all kinds of tantalizing bath goodies.

Jillian With a J specializes in all-natural, cruelty-free bath and beauty products. They also offer adorable bath kits and funky accessories for your best gal pals.

Check her out at www.jillianwithaj.com and enjoy your succulent bath time feast. You deserve this.

Try and Contain Yourself.

We are organizationally challenged. We are actually banned to a windowless jail of an office because "others" don’t want the outside world to see what a mess we really are. Remember the 70s fad of having a couple live in a shop window, that would not be a good venture for us. The stacks of papers alone would have us evicted.

Though we are really organized in our own special way. We are List People and have to write our To Do list at least 7 times on various small pieces of paper before we actually do it. After the list comes the stack and the stacks are to be tackled immediately but are occasionally hidden in their original form far from eye. The evolution of a stack, sigh, is something we know too well.

Lets face it, we will never be organized no matter how much we write it down on our Resolution List. Who are we kidding? But now there is hope.

We need to pay a visit to the new Container Store opening at Bridgeport Village. And then we can have containers for all our lovely and vital…stuff. A container for our To Do Lists. A container for our To Do piles. The mail, the magazines. The children’s school work that we really mean to get to one day and scrapbook beautifully with clever stories about their advancing intelligence to impress our mother-in-law. The right containers can make a closet look pristine, providing no one looks inside.

Their Grand Opening is August 7th. During opening weekend they will donate 10% of sales to the Portland Art Museum. They are also hiring NEAT people. Well so much for us, but maybe you!

Bridgeport Village is at I-5 and Lower Boones Ferry Rd.

There she goes again

Tumbleweed reminds us of those birth control ads where the pretty girls are frolicking with their wispy locks in their wispy frocks, by a brook of course. "There she goes, there she goes again" (that’s you!)

Kara, the designer and store owner creates ultra feminine, earthy, romantic, timeless dresses that make you want to twirl around in your perfectly manicured bare feet while music plays in the background as the theme music for your very perfect life.

Kara Larson began sewing in her sister’s garage, selling her dresses from a clothing line in her back yard or out of a suitcase while on the road. Nothing is traditional for this gal.

With a flair for making dresses, Kara created an entire line for women, and the Wild Carrots line for little gals (and guys). She runs Tumbleweed and Grasshopper, a whimsical off beat children’s store inspired by her son for kids and babes.

If you haven’t lately, be sure to check out her stores and designs.

Tumbleweed
1804 NE Alberta St.
Portland, OR 97211
503.335.3100
www.tumbleweedboutique.com

Grasshopper
1804 NE Alberta St
503.335.3101
www.grasshopperstore.com

Eliminate the Season of Dread Title 9 Sports is coming to Portland’s Pearl (moving in next to Pearl Nails and Cheeky b)

Regardless of how hard we prepare for summer’s bikini season, there’s never enough prep time to get us where we need to be by the time the sun comes out. We never quite get the bod we thought we should have, the bod we’ve been sweating over for months. No fair. But, to hell with it, you have to get outside and you can’t cover up.

Well Title 9 Sports will make you look cool and sporty while not exposing too much of you. Instead you can look like a surfer chick, a board head, like you’ve just climbed off the wakeboard. Their adorable Boardie skirts cover the right amount of your rear view and work like a great cover up. Whether you’ve been surfing or swimming or just plain sitting in the sand, this is the skirt to pull on at the end of a long, hard day of play.

Their line of aptly named Drop-the-Dread tankinis and boy-shorts are just plain cool and perfect for swimming, water sports and beachin’ it. With Title 9, you can eliminate the season of dread, and instead just look like the cool, sexy sporty chick you are (or pretend to be).

They also carry great yoga wear, fitness clothes and bras that ‘ban the bounce’, not to mention their line of fashionable every day active wear they call Fashletics.

This is going to be another great addition for Portland’s fitness femmes.

Viva Las Hair!

It's a big scary birthday with a sprinkle of a midlife crisis on top. Well not "crisis" per se. Such a negative word.

We're just going to embrace this new found age and stage and accelerate our Joie de Vivre, cause you never know. And to start, we're going to wear more hair. Sounds like a good place to start to us.

And maybe we'll wear more hair in Vegas and pull out all the stops, invite our alter ego out to play.

And then after we're done, maybe we'll just leave our big scary birthday there...but not our hair. We'll bring that back.

There is the coolest store that just opened up downtown called Madame Bouffant. Their window is so enticing, their store is a blast, their motto? -- ours too!

Life is short. Wear more hair.

1130 SW alder street
Portland, OR 97205
503.219.WIGS

A Boutique, indeed

It’s so fun to discover a little boutique, off the beaten path, that has unique one-of-a-kind designs. It’s so fun to discover a boutique that’s bright and colorful and fancy.

Especially when they just carry a few of each, so you won’t be caught looking like a copycat of someone else. After all, you are unique and the clothes you wear should be all yours.

There is a new unique boutique (say it 10 times fast...unique boutique, unique boutique...) in Lake Oswego that is so female friendly, so colorful and beaded and inviting. It’s called A Boutique, and if you blink you can miss it. So we’re here to tell you, with eyes wide open, its on A Ave in LO (right side near Tillamook across from Lakeside Village).

They carry independent designers that make the most fab scarves using old traditional garb from India. They have independent dress designers that make gorgeous dresses from vintage fabrics.

They have bright basket bags, and accessories, purses, jewelry, all embellished and adorned. They carry Mac and Jac and tons of bright floral cotton Lily-esque dresses. They have our favorite Hanky Panky line of sexy tops.

They have tons of these amazing sleeveless tanks that are out of this world! And when you visit, you’ll have to pet their Fashion Hound, Suki Sue. Stop by and make yourself at home, and stay awhile.

A Boutique
149 A Avenue
Lake Oswego
503.675.0072

How often can you say your shoes were hand made? Not very.

But if you get your cute hiney to the newly face-lifted Dazzle you can be one of the few to boast hand made shoes from New York! They remind us of something out of Louis XIV’s time.

Think haute couture, powdered wigs and Dangerous Liaisons (or are we mixing up our history lessons??). Dazzle had a tuck and a lift and some Botox shots.

This fifteen-year old staple of a NW 23rd Ave store redesigned the interior and now boasts some flashy clothing, tons of gorgeous hand-made jewelry, and beautiful house wares.

You can’t miss it; it’s the store with the wooden horse out front wearing 15 pieces of flair.

Dazzle
704 NW 23RD Ave
(503) 224-1294

Honestly, Lisa Schroeder should run for Mayor. She runs two of the best restaurants in town - Mother’s Bistro (down home Jewish cooking) and Mama Mia Trattoria (Southern Italian fare).

She knows how to delight a crowd, brand herself (like Sunset, Bon Apetit, the list goes on!), and she cooks like nobody’s business.

Mama Mia is THE downtown, reasonably-priced, cozy Italian restaurant. With dark purple walls, old-fashioned chandeliers and mirrors covering every inch of wall, you will quickly settle into a lovely evening.

The wait staff is extremely personable (not to mention, there’s a hottie or two!) and the atmosphere is casual, warm, and relaxing. They have a late night $7-10 menu, a hearty cocktail menu (how about a Grapparita??), regular Italian fare and pizza!

Mama Mia Trattoria
439 SW Second Ave
(503) 295-6464
www.mamamiatrattoria.com

Kick Back and Cook

We hate to cook, as you know by now. If our husband or kids say, "This is good," that will be all we serve for days. Recently I found myself at the grocery store and my husband called on the cell phone. In his most polite voice he asked, "Can we have something a little more creative for dinner?" This bold question would never have been delivered within swinging range (or we’d pull a Russell Crowe) and he is quite fortunate that I didn’t immediately hang up. Imagine, ‘more creative’! What a cheeky request.

We just can’t get creative with everything else going on, and we can’t spend a hell of a lot of time on it. Though, don’t get us wrong, tasty and nutritious meals day after day are important, and we know that man cannot live on mac and cheese alone.

Luckily for our children, we’ve discovered Kick Back & Cook, which makes the daily chore of meal preparation (and meal thinking up!) something you actually look forward to (or at least check off your list).

With a subscription to Kick Back & Cook, each Thursday you will receive an email containing five recipes & menu ideas, plus a complete weekly shopping list.

The recipes are delicious, nutritious, easy, and perfect for family and guests. Making use of seasonal and whole-food ingredients, you will create meals that everyone will want to gather at the table to eat!

Kick Back & Cook will give you fresh, new ideas to spice up your weekly meals and take the thinking and the pressure out of every stressful dinner.

Just Beachin’

Bobbi Brown Beach Shimmer Body Powder is an easy alternative to the spray-on tan. Indeed a must for summer, and beats the tanning booth.

Just dust on this luxury powder with a beachy scent reminiscent of suntan lotion and wha-lah! A bronzed glow that rivals an authentic tan. You are so hot!

Price: $35

Available at Bobbi Brown counters and www.bobbibrown.com.

Okay, for real.

Ginko biloba and other fancy ingredients form an invisible girdle to slim that bod, and suck in all your jiggly, wiggly, floppy, flabby parts to make them firm and fancy.

There! You are a model at last. And who needs exercise?

Available at www.benefitcosmetics.com.

When you find your place in the sun (when it eventually arrives), get your babe-alicious self into this sexy itty-bitty bikini. It’s the bikini of the year (itty bitty that is).

The teensy bikini goes perfectly with your jiggle free abs and thighs with bright sunny hues and a sexy silhouette -- after of course you’ve worked your bum off and added that little wonderbod gel, no prob.

That ethnic thing has carried over to every little accessory. Including Beaded belts from India.

The crazier the belt the better. The fancier the pants the better.

Get fancy girl, down to the slightest sparkle!

Halters abound this season.

Fitted halters that show off your shoulders are out there in force.

Go wild or keep it simple, an easy summer outfit in a blink paired with your favorite jeans.

Nouvelle Vague

Wanna funky Bossanova twist on some old 80’s faves?

Look no further than Nouvelle Vague’s latest compilation of New Wave wonders with a smoky lounge feel and breezy, sultry vocals to match.

Whether it’s Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, Making Plans For Nigel, or Guns of Brixton, this easy listening and festive CD is the perfect way to get your party guests in the mood.

Good golly, Miss Lolly! We are amazed at how you made us laugh and cry over that man who broke our hearts. We were crushed every time that happened, and absolutely knew there were more than just the five stages of grief that our therapist told us about.

Oh, no, in your novel GOOD GRIEF, you identified fifteen stages of grief – we knew it! Our favorite was number two – Oreos! And, the seventh stage of grief was even more delicious – Lust! (Don’t tell Mom.)

As we read, we identified completely, although we had to change the details! At first, we thought a novel about being suddenly widowed at the tender age of thirty-six would be terribly sad.

But, in the book, even though Sophie Stanton is trying so hard to be like Jackie Kennedy, she is more of a Jack Daniel’s kind of widow. Sophie gets canned when she shows up at work, still wearing her bunny slippers, and, since her life is already ripped apart, she decides to move to Ashland and start over – mentoring a teenage pyromaniac, and dating a married guy who swears he’s single (you know that old story).

And, then, Sophie bumps into a gorgeous dork who may be Prince Charming after all. There might just be a Happily Ever After, but, may we suggest Miss Lolly add one more stage of grief -- Haagen Daaz!

Book Review... by Diana Jordan

Girls Kick Ass

Sign up for a summer program of Tae Kwon Do at The Yong-In Tae Kwon Do Academy, and start kicking ass. Well at least know you can if the situation arises.

This site allows members to log in and get all the moves with video help. There are also audio tracks to learn the Korean terms.

If you have kids, they offer great family and/or children's classes. It's located in Northwest Portland up in the Barnes Miller Village Shopping Center near Forest Heights.

Sign up today at www.yong-in-oregon.com

Designers and Shop Owners,

Thinking about how you're going to get your product or shop into 2005 Holiday Gift Guides?

At a time when hoping to catch even local press seems challenging; the thought of tackling Condé Nast, Fairchild, and Hearst seems inconceivable! Yep, it's no easy task! Have you ever tried to place a call to a high profile editor?

Lets just say that there's a perfectly good reason that publicists are in demand these days! So unless you've got Cloutier & PMK programed into your Blackberry, consider letting hard-charging publicist Mag Resources put a new spin on your fabulous product by helping you:

• Develop your pitch!
• Build your look book!
• Make presentations!

Jump into bed with stylists, agents, and publicists! Mag Resources will open the doors to change your life! Our Northwest-based team has just opened its newest office in the heart of New York City's pulsing fashion district - to better to shine light on Portland's phenomenal talent.

Mag Resources has a knack for spotting diamonds in the rough, and our Rolodex is absolutely unbelieveable at opening doors - editors from top american and european magazines, celebs, top models, buyers, and the most influencial pubs. We can introduce you to the people you've only dreamed about meeting!

Call today to schedule an appointment 646.539.9099

Mag Resources will be meeting wih designers and such in Portland, Oregon June 13-16th Email magresources@aol.com

Just in time for Fathers Day, give the Daddy in your life a helping hand with a Chic Papoose baby sling.

For the month of June they are offering a special price of $45 (with free shipping!) on their MILO "Papa Pouch" designed with a man in mind- it's useful, it's masculine and it helps out Mommy--what more could he ask for?

It helps Daddy share the load and get some good bonding time in with baby. Their slings accommodate infants through toddlers, with a variety of carrying positions. Choose the size according to the size of your man, not the baby.

To take advantage of this special offer, visit www.chicpapoose.com and place an order for a MILO sling. Please type "PP05" in the Comments box to receive the discount and a special tag on your sling- just for Dads If you want the sling for Fathers Day, you must order by Monday, June 13. This offer extends through the month of June and is not applicable on any other styles.

At Chic Papoose, they have lots of stylish slings for Moms and Moms-to-be, so stop by and take a look around and free a hand or two while keeping your tyke snug as a bug!

The twelve best-dressed Super Pugs from the Fifth Annual Pug Crawl will strut their stuff at PGE Park at Pugs at the Park, a pug-a-tastic fundraiser for the Oregon Humane Society on Thursday, June 16th.

• What: The 12 best-dressed Super pugs from the Fifth Annual Pug Crawl will fly through PGE Park on Thursday, June 16 at Pugs in the Park, which will donate $1 from every ticket purchased to the Oregon Humane Society.
• When: Thursday, June 16th at 7 p.m.
• Where: PGE Park, 1844 SW Morrison St.
• Admission: People only! Only the twelve best-dressed winning pugs will be admitted to the event.
• The Timbers: Portland Timbers soccer team will play against the Puerto Rico Islanders.
• Bonus: Receive a discount by ordering tickets online at www.bluto.net/timberspugs; Password: pugs
• The Pugs: Cowboy Pug, Senorita Pugilita, Cowpug, Pug-a-jawea, Wonderwoman, Re-pugznel, Fishing Pug, Yoda Pug, Lady Bug Pug, Scuba Pug, Super Stinky, and Camo-Gen. Patton Pug.

Sneak Peak

On First Thursday, a select few were invited to attend a Sneak Peak of the new Madame Bouffant retail space before the "beautique" was officially unveiled to the public on Friday, June 3.

Local media, designers and neighboring businesses were on hand mingling, chatting and toasting pink champagne to welcome MB to the neighborhood and to wish Stefanie Pinniger, the store's owner, a successful journey.

As the guests approached the space, they were greeted not only by a vibrant, outspoken member of Portland's Punk Drag Troupe, Sissyboy, but also the engaging and eye-catching front window. "It looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland," one of the guests was overheard saying in regard to the storefront display. "It certainly grabs your attention from the street!"

Once in the space, attendees knew immediately what the vision of this store is: FANCY. Trimmed in fur and with 14-foot Pepto Pink walls, you can't help but feel as if you've stepped into an alternate reality. The outrageously colored wigs, handbags and jewelry along the walls only add to the effect of bright but comfy colors in the space.

Madame Bouffant will be throwing another soiree on Thursday, June 16 from 7pm until? The gathering is open to the public, will feature DJ Fly, libations and surprise makeovers.

The Madame will be open for business during the event in case you don't come properly accessorized.

1130 SW alder street
Portland, OR 97205
503.219.WIGS