Project Runway – Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family

Media Monday: Final Just Fab post!

Published on November 2, 2015November 1, 2015 by Live Vi-Carrie-ous2 Comments

Well, it’s been a month since my Project Runway viewing party sponsored by JustFab and about three weeks since my products arrived for me to use and evaluate.

I think it’s safe to say both are a hit.

The party turned out to be a blast! I sent out 96 invitations, which I know is crazy, but I also know you have to plan big to get a 12093760_438981109607373_2083831485_n good turnout. We ended up with about 20 women here. In our 1200 square foot house. And it was a hoot. We were cozy, for sure, but there was still room to move around and in fact, the floor area in the living room was pretty much empty so we could have fit another five or six women easily. 🙂

About a week later, my first products arrived. A purse and a pair of boots. I had also ordered a necklace and it was listed on the packing slip but it wasn’t in the box. It must have slipped through the cracks somewhere. But since these products were pretty much free (I did purchase a product at a discount offered to first time users of the website), I didn’t complain or request a new one. I may still order it in the future.

A few days later, my last product arrives, a pair of flats. I’ve worn the flats and the boots a couple of times each and I’ve been carrying the purse for about three weeks now.

I was surprised at how well the shoes fit. Both the flats and the boots. I have a hard enough time finding shoes that fit when I go to a store and try them on, that I really didn’t expect mail order shoes to work the first time out of the box. But they did. They’re both very comfortable with minimal “break in” time. They felt good the first time I put them on.

The bag is big. Bigger than I usually carry. But I love the shape and the color. The quality of the leather and the hardware seems to be fine. Both are holding up to my everyday wear and tear without a problem.

So I’ve been a JustFab member for a little over a month now. I skipped a purchase in October since I had just ordered these at the end of September. I’m ready to try another product in November. Probably something from the jewelry line this time.

Stay posted for a review of that in a month or so.

Media Monday: Project Runway and JustFab wrapup

Published on October 12, 2015October 11, 2015 by Live Vi-Carrie-ous

Well, it’s been a week and a half since my Project Runway viewing party sponsored by JustFab.

A fun time was had by all!

I sent out an evite to 93 people. That’s pretty much everyone I know who lives in a 50-mile radius and that I had an email address for. I do know a few more people, but if I didn’t have an email address, I couldn’t invite.

Stud Muffin freaked out a little when I told him I’d invited 93 women to our 1250 square foot house.

I did it for several reasons:

JF1 — The swag JustFab sent. Sketch books, gift cards, favor bags, wine, catalogs!

JustFab committed to sending favors, buying us some food and drink, and supplying gifts. I owed it to them to make it the biggest bash I could.
My hostessing experience tells me that if about half to seventy-five percent of invitees actually attend, so my guesstimate was I’d have closer to 40 than 90 attendees.
My real life experience of living in the country has taught me that people think driving twenty extra minutes is no big deal until the time arrives for them to climb in the car and they change their minds. And it was short notice, so I knew a lot of people wouldn’t be able to make it and some would have something come up at the last minute. So I wanted to have some padding against the inevitable fallouts.
It promised to be a really fun evening and I wanted to share it with all my friends.

In the end, I had about twenty women come. We ate the food JustFab and a few of my friends provided. I set up chairs in the living room, dragged the dining table out of the way and we got cozy. I could have fit a few more on the floor in front of the television.

In all, it was the perfect viewing party. Even Stud Muffin ended up agreeing with me.

We watched the show. We chatted during the commercials about which designs we liked and why. Just like the judges, we were widely divergent on the runway designs. We agreed that the red dress was fabulous. We also loved Ashley’s motorcycle jacket.

That was beyond adorable.

We discussed if Tim would use his Tim Gunn save. We agreed that it depended on who was “out.”

Those of us who watch the show regularly knew that Laurie and Merline were on thin ice.

In the end, Laurie just couldn’t get past the double failure of her bottom finish the week before along with the JustFab challenge.

We agreed the judges made the right decision on who was out, but we weren’t unanimous on the winner. Some of us felt Ashley deserved another win. She completely recreated her look when Tim suggested the fabric suggested a hospital gown. She “made it work.”

A few more pictures of our evening:

JustFab has sent me a few of their products to try out. And they sent some gift cards for three lucky attendees at my viewing.

Next week, I’ll talk about what I ordered and what I think of the products.

Media Monday: Project Runway, Part 2

Published on September 28, 2015September 29, 2015 by Live Vi-Carrie-ous

So, after my post about Project Runway a couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by JustFab, the accessoreis sponsor for the show this season. They asked if I’d like to receive a couple of products for review and to giveaway to readers.

Um …Yes!

And would I like to host a viewing of the episode airing October 1 and JustFab would supply some fun giveaways.

Again … Yes!

Which is how I came to invite 94 of my closest friends and family to my 1200 square foot house this coming Thursday.

Basically, I invited everyone I have an email address for within a fifty mile radius.

Stud Muffin was a little freaked out at first. “You … do you know … where are you going to put everyone?”

Silly man.

Women watching fashion television don’t care about something as silly as having a seat.

I hope.

My party plan:

Invite a bunch of people. ✔

Tell JustFab how many I expect. ✔

Order a couple of products from JustFab. ✔

Pick up the food JustFab is ordering for us.

Vacuum and dust.

Set out name tags. and a sign asking that gals in their 20s and 30s please sit on the floor. 40s and 50s get the dining room chairs and plastic patio chairs. 60s and 70s get the couch, love seat, and recliner.

Set out napkins, paper plates, plastic cups.

Watch a fun television show and party with all my friends.

There are a few things I love about this opportunity. And it’s not just the prospect of free stuff.

First, there’s going to be a great cross-section of my friends. Church friends, writer friends, family are all coming. Many have never met because my two worlds seldom intersect.

Also, I love that this is about accessories. I love that Ashley is doing such a great job with her designs. She’s proving that women of all sizes can enjoy fashion and looking good.

And of course, friends, food, fashion, all in one place, under one (fairly small) roof.

Media Monday: Project Runway and What Not to Wear

Published on September 14, 2015September 13, 2015 by Live Vi-Carrie-ous2 Comments

Labor Day is a holiday with a strange tradition in our family.

In 19 … 89? 90? we lived in Southern California and all of the Southland was gripped by a horrible heat wave. One similar to what they’ve experienced the last few weeks. Stud Muffin worked most holidays but for some reason he was off that day. We tried to do some sort of “family” activity. We went to a local park we hadn’t visited before. But it was so hot and miserable, we couldn’t have fun. The slide was too hot for the girls to use. All the equipment sizzled every time we touched it. We returned home and all of us got into the inflatable plastic pool for some relief. We had a water fight and cooled off and ended up in the living room under the air conditioning watching a movie.

Fast forward a decade or two. We were all living in different cities but somehow we were again gathered at our home on Labor Day during a heat wave. A Project Runway marathon was on. I’d never watched the show before, but somehow after hours of seeing designers agonize over unconventional fabrics, crazy design parameters, and short deadlines, I was hooked.

I’d seen America’s Next Top Model a time or two and didn’t love it (sorry, Will!), so I expected more of the same from Project Runway.

I was wrong. Project Runway is about the clothes. Not who’s wearing the outfit.

In my humble opinion, Project Runway and What Not to Wear are a perfect pair of fashion shows.

Project Runway spotlights high fashion, the avant garde, the crazy. What Not to Wear is for us people in the real world. WNTW isn’t filming new episodes, but for those us who were faithful viewers, we now know how to dress ourselves. We know to avoid pants with front pleats, and skin-tight stuff, and to emphasize the narrowest part of our bodies.

In 2011, we visited NYC as tourists. We stayed on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey and rode a shuttle bus into the city. The first morning, the bus let us out near Times Square. We looked around and the very first landmark I saw was the Parsons New School for Design, the home of the NY seasons. The next day, we walked by Bryant Park, home of many of what-not-to-wear-stacy-clinton the NY Fashion Week runway shows.

A friend who visited NYC a few years earlier happened to see Stacy and Clinton from WNTW on the street filming an episode.

Another friend recently moved to NY and she’s constantly posting pictures of the style icons she spots.

Which means you can’t visit New York without seeing someone/something from the fashion world. It’s a given.

But until I make it back to there, I’ll make do with the current season of Project Runway (I’m on Team Ashley and Team Edmund) and reruns of What Not to Wear.