Cheap Chic by Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy; foreword by Tim Gunn

So, I'm like most people. I'd love to have a killer wardrobe but not interested in spend thousands of dollars doing it. When I saw I could review Cheap Chic, I was pretty excited. When I got it in the mail later, I started to leaf through it.

I think that there are really great tips in here. This edition of Cheap Chic is the 40th Anniversary so there were some things in there a little funky like a pair of four dollar sneakers. I didn't mind though.

The book is divided in to clothing articles such as jeans and T shirts, then sweaters, then coats, then things like shoes and accessories.

Despite the awesome tips in this book, I was appalled to find nudity in the book. I really don't understand why they needed to put that garbage in there, but it ruined it for me. I really think this would have been a great book for anyone to read, but after that, I think no one should read it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I was provided a free copy of this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion 

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Dolly's Pix turned one!!!!! I'd like to thank all my readers; without you there would be no Dolly's Pix. God bless!

Reservations for Two by Hillary Monton Lodge

Juliette D'Alisa loves her French and Italian family roots. On a trip with her boyfriend, Neil McLaren, she visits her family in France, eating all the pastries she can handle, and visiting Italy, while celebrating her nonno's birthday. During her time in France at the family's chateau, she finds some of her Grand- mere's letters to Juliette's grand- tante and a mystery man.

Reservations for Two is an endearing story of food, love, and history. It is the second book in the Two Blue Doors series.


When Juliette begins to go through the letters, she finds her family history was not as well defined as she thought.

To compound her confusion, Neil and Juliette are becoming increasingly serious, but she lives in Portland, and he lives in Memphis. Her mother is seriously sick with ovarian cancer, so she can't move to Memphis.

Also, her brother Nico, just opened a new restaurant, and needs Juliette's help to get it going.

I thought the premise of this book was excellent. The ideas were complete and succinct. However, there were some many plots in this book, it was confusing. The characters were "alive" on the page, but it really needed to be cut down to two or three plots, whereas there really was more like six or seven.

Also, I felt that the book could have had more spiritual influence. She rarely goes to church, there are barely any scenes of prayer, and they never have conversations about God. For a Christian book, it felt incomplete.

As for grand- mere's letters, I loved them. They were true to the era (the early 1940's) and she has a sense of humor. Unfortunately, they were finally brought in halfway through the book!

Other than these errors, I thought this book was heartwarming, delightful, and had the perfect amount of surprise. I think this book would be very good if it was just went back to the editors office for a little bit of polishing.

Cool: Not Another "Reasons Why Cool is Dumb" Talk

Cool. What does that even mean? Technically, it means chilly, refreshing, cold. However, we usually use the word as a positive or as a state on the high school food chain. "That movie was so cool!" "Cool! We get to go to the mall!" "He is so cool."

Everyone looks at the cool kids in disgust, with cut-downs on how shallow they are, the dumb things they do, who's dating who and if they are cheating, all the while we worship them and want to be them. Can anyone say, oxymoron? 

I've always been perplexed by the meaning of cool. Can anyone one really explain what it means? It usually is associated with popularity, but who can explain that either?

That fact is that coolness and popularity take you only so far in life. When you are working in an office building as an adult, do you think anyone will care that your blouse is from (oh my goodness!) last year? No one will care if you have a (gasp!) last generation smartphone! And (God forbid) you didn't make it to Jen from Human Resources's biggest bash of the year! 

As I promised in the title of this post, this is not another "Reasons Why Cool is Dumb" talk, but what God wants for your life. God doesn't want you drinking underage, doing drugs, having premarital sex, etc. We try to tell ourselves that we can walk through mud and not get our feet dirty, but the truth is you can't be "cool" without doing the aforementioned things. It is impossible. High school lasts only four years, but the things you do right now will last you for the rest of your life.