Eddie Bauer recently invited local bloggers to check out their latest cool-weather collections and to put their individual stylist stamp on men’s and women’s looks (and to eat awesomely bad food-court Chinese food, but that wasn’t officially on the docket). I’m not sure that I’d really ever stepped into an E.B. store to purchase clothes for myself, but I’ve been realizing lately that I have very little options in the cute-but-casual-weekend category. As in, I think I own like two sweaters, one ugly pair of cropped (yes, cropped! so embarrassed) sweatpants and my dad’s old Citadel hooded sweatshirt (which is actually very awesome). From there I jump to vintage party dresses. I needed more of the in-between! As it turned out, I walked in and found myself drawn to a number of pieces from the collection, especially the insanely soft men’s quilted sweatshirt I styled one of the models in, which I ended up taking home in a size small (sorry Bets):

I have been wearing it constantly and can’t wait to continue to add to my much-maligned cute-casual wardrobe. I’ve got my eye on these terry pants (would look cute with the boots I wore to the event, no?), a Pendleton-collab shirt, and snuggly plaid scarves to top it all off. Also: this fair isle cardigan looked great layered over a plaid button-down.

There’s an amazing, relatively new art-decoish painted mural on the building that houses the Capitol Pool Checkers Club in Shaw. I’m not sure who painted it, but it was done this summer and is signed RTC.

It reminds me of black-and-white minimalism that always looks wonderful. Here, some similarly inspiring visuals seen streetside, snapped by Style.com’s Tommy Ton:

{For a great look at the Checkers Club, check out DeNeen Brown’s Washington Post article from last year.}

Last night I donned my Favorite Black Wrap Dress (thank you, Mango a few years ago!) and cabbed over to CUSP Georgetown to join my fellow Hosts to celebrate the countdown to Fashion’s Night Out on September 8 in Georgetown. With the stamp of approval from Conde Nast and a bunch of great shopping + events planned (hint: hot air balloon!), the event has me super-excited for the fall season. Last year I left a red-carpet party on the waterfront, hopped a (free!) pedi-cab up to the now-shuttered Proper Topper, and hosted what has become one of my favorite events in the city – an intimate, candlelit fashion chat with Jenn Barger and Katherine Boyle from FW/Express and the dashing and wise Walker Lamond. We were joined by a wonderful group of fashion enthusiasts and a few curious and wonderful neighbors and their dogs. I can’t wait for this year!

So excited that the Grand Opening of Pretty People is here (I announced the soft-opening back in May). I’m personally looking for cool statement necklaces to punch up work and weekend outfits….and Annie has tons of incredible finds. On tap for the weekend, themed according to the “a new kind of animal” credo: “wild card” sale of 15-30% off an item, “jungle juice” and animal themed treats/snacks, a free gift with purchase of $100 or more, and chance to win a seriously awesome Marc Jacons leather clutch that I have been drooling over since the giveaway was announced on the Pretty People Facebook page yesterday.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Banana Republic event last Thursday! I had a blast meeting new blogger friends, playing dress-up and gossiping and bonding over fit in the dressing rooms. I ended up buying shorts in the process (eek).

When I arrived, I had my own special little dressing room.

I was wearing my boots and I tried on this lovely jersey gown with them. We declared the look very Ralph Lauren.

Here are some pics from the event, including some swatches of fabric I loved. Thanks again, BR, for making this happen!

On Monday, I attended an intimate dinner in honor CFDA Award-winning designers David Neville and Marcus Wainright of rag & bone. The dinner celebrated the opening of their first store outside of New York City – right here in lil ol’ Washington, in Georgetown (click it over to Urban Daddy for the scoop and pix). I am excited to announce that I have been chosen as a Rag & Bone “DIY Project” Ambassador. The marketing campaign features a small, hand-selected group of DC’s influential and stylish, and will focus on personal style. Each member will offer their interpretation on how to wear pieces from the Fall/Winter 2011 collection. Here are pictures from the event at Chef Fabio Trabocchi’s delicious (anything seafood is particularly insanely amazing) new Penn Quarter restaurant, Fiola.

I wore blue silk Ralph Lauren palazzo pants and my red Bibas.

Aureta in a tophat from Pretty People

Brooke Kao in a cool floppy hat and TopShop shoes

Annie Lee is back! And better and more affordable than ever – with her new vintage concept, Pretty People Vintage, that just opened in Old Town (yes: Awesome vintage in Old Town!). Those of you familiar with Annie Creamcheese – often overpriced & inconsistent, if you ask me – will see that Annie took her well-practiced eye with her to Old Town when she parted ways with Annie Creamcheese, and has opened a feminine, quirky store with a an appealingly boutique-like feel in a sunny little space just off King Street, near Bellacara and the adorable Misha’s coffeeshop.

Shopping here feels like shopping in your best friend’s closet – the one who has amazingly cool and interesting style. On that front, the store offers contemporary and vintage clothes and accessories, so what you’re getting is a selection of pieces hand-picked by Annie for ultimate personal, wearable style. It is impossible to not find something gorgeous, special and wardrobe-shifting at this store, and typically for around $40. If I hadn’t agreed to help her with promoting the store, I’d want to keep this to myself (but I love you all too much to do that). Go.

On Saturday night, the Corcoran had an opening for its major spring exhibition, NEXT at the Corcoran: BFA Class of 2011. I may be biased, but the work is really, really good. The opening Saturday night found the Gallery FULL of pretty young things — and pretty not young things, and cool children, and cool grandparents, and a performance artist or two….

Last night was the ArtJamz “Top Artista Challenge” at Bloomingdale’s I mentioned the other week and despite being a little intimidated at first – that first stroke of paint is the scariest, I discovered – I won! The event paired each of us with a mannequin dressed in (very covetable) spring dresses and accessories and asked that we paint a complementary canvas while attendees shopped and voted for their favorite work of art.

I used a scalpel-like tool instead of a paintbrush to really layer the paint on and create texture.

A portion of the proceeds of clothing purchased during the event went to Becky’s Fund (if you go today or tomorrow to shop, bring your receipt to customer service and ask that they give it to Heather Guay, and it’ll count); and then two generous supporters/art enthusiasts offered to purchase my painting and the painting Holly Thomas – a close second – did. Growing up and reading Babysitter’s Club books, I always wanted to be like Claudia Kishi, (the “artistic” one) or Stacey (the “fashionable” one) – how fun to have had the opportunity to make that happen!

I spoke to one attendee who, having watched me work, said he thought that he could do it, too. It was really inspiring to watch someone get so excited about letting loose, getting creative and trying something new. Remember when we were little and we painted with abandon? Hey ArtJamz…how about finger painting next time?

I saw this amazing scooter over the weekend parked along U Street near my house. It was amazing–appeared handpainted–a riot of birds and patterns and zigzags right down to the adorable spare tire on the back. My longing for a little motorbike to scoot around town in has been pushed officially over the edge, as has my love for exotic prints this time of year, like these pants (I’d rock them on weekends…..aaand probably to work, let’s be honest), this dress from UK site Skirt, and Madeline Weinrib’s chiffon curtains.