Chase Alexander

I am excited about my new business, Chase Alexander Media Consultants. It has been in the works for a little while, and once I officially launched, it picked up business rather quickly. It is the perfect blend of my TV news and healthcare public relations background. I am now representing clinical areas that range from alternative medicine to psychology and neurosurgery. Best of all, I can tailor my hours.  
                   

                  Follow us on Facebook. 

There is another big thing on the horizon, which has kept me very busy this year (thus, the blogging hiatus). It is an exciting time, indeed, and happy that it is all falling into place as planned.

Model Mayhem

Hiatus has been good to me.

It has been a crazy past few months, but I thought I would do a quick check-in.

One thing keeping me busy is my little model, Cameron Alexander. 

Here is one of his latest shots. He is quickly transforming from toddler to "little boy" before my eyes!

While I am still holding out that he will be an entrepreneur or a surgeon, he may just land in front of a camera lens as a future career. As long as he does not land behind a TV anchor desk!

Hello, Hiatus!

All good things must come to an end, even if it is temporary. Like many fellow bloggers, I have decided to take a break after six fab years of various preppy & delightful blog entries. I have a couple of big projects brewing right now, which will need much of my attention for the time being. Of course, I will be back along the way to tell "y'all" about them!

THANK YOU for following me over the years. It has been a wonderful blogging journey and I look forward to jumping back onto the preppy debutante again one day. I have not abandoned all social media and will continue my little updates on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and I recently joined Instagram. Hopefully, I will see you in the other social media circles for now!

-rikki

"I've Been to the Mountaintop" 

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

LIGHTS OUT: U.S. Fashion's Night Out

Many of you woke up to the email below this morning.

For the past four years, women across the country planned their Ladies' Nights Out around one of the biggest fashion events of the year (outside of Fashion Week), Fashion's Night Out. 

I have spent a few years blogging about Fashion's Night Out from Neiman Marcus in the Chicagoland area, to the Dallas area Neimans. 

FNO will be on hiatus this year (insert very long, sad face here) stateside to give retailers the opportunity to focus on other events. Meanwhile, it will continue abroad in Europe, Asia and South America, among other continents, and will be spearheaded by Vogue. 

Fashion's Night Out was always a great event to attend and Neimans consistently did a stellar job. It will be missed this year, but I am sure the Girls & I will simply find another reason to get together for clothes and cocktails. 

Designer shoe...designed by YOU

Some time ago, I was shopping for boat shoes and realized that I had almost every color combination I could think of, with the exception of one. An obvious one to boot...pink & green. I had pink shoes and green shoes, but none that combined the two colors. Then I did some online shopping and came across Timberland's site to customize your own shoe!

I started my shoe from scratch, which stirred a lot of creativity

It is a very simple and easy process, You can choose to personalize your shoe with your initials or your fraternity or sorority letters. 

Timberland provides a step by step guide, selecting colors for the tongue of the shoe, panels along the side, collar and back, as well as the color of the stitch and laces. 

You can finish off your masterpiece with a stitch inside your shoe, showing that they are your creation. 

Voila, in about two weeks you will have your own design on your doorstep and ready to wear. 

The short of it...

After many weeks of uploading various haircuts on my Pinterest page, I finally decided on one and made it happen. I love it! 

I will admit, that I immediately had some haircut remorse and sent a few text messages to my sister asking if I had made a mistake. When she didn't answer me right away, I thought she was agreeing with me. Then I realized her phone had died and didn't get the text right away. (whew)

I put the pic on Twitter and had a great response from friends. 

Here are a few bits of inspiration that I had collected on my board. I was looking for the right color, cut & style where I could be happy with all three. 

Hunting for a Rainy Day

Rain isn't very common in Dallas these days and we welcome it when our skies become grey.

It is a good week to bring out the Wellies, if only for a couple of days. When Cameron was born, my dear friend, Shannon in Chicago, gifted him with his first Wellies. She obviously bought them several sizes up so he could wear them while splashing in puddles. Although they are still just a smidge too big, my mini-me and I enjoyed donning our identical boots. 

Speaking of the Chicago area, this is a photo that C. Alexander & I took during our last visit in Winnetka, which also happened to be a Welly day. My niece, Alex, took the photo and it just makes me smile every time I see it.

Sunday stroll in Winnetka, IL

Junior League's 50 Shades of GOLD

Last year, I blogged about my Junior League's huge fundraiser, BLINGO bingo where some fellow Sustainers and I recreated Breakfast at Tiffany's with our Audrey Hepburn costumes.

This year, as some of the League's more seasoned members, we were a bit more edgy!
With "Fifty Shades of Grey" so popular last year, we had a "Fifty Shades of Gold" theme this year.

                            
Keep in mind that the event warrants LOTS of bling. So much, in fact, that they give a prize to the most blinged out person. Yours truly actually took the honors this year, newly chopped golden locks & all.

                                          

                                             
Once again, we were two tables strong, with ladies in head to toe gold! When I say head to toe, I mean it literally. Five of us raided the Target shelves for their deeply discounted gold glitter shoes.

                                                  

 They were platforms with a four-inch heel and will probably never be worn again. Thank goodness, I stashed ballet flats in my bag to wear immediately after the event ended.
                   
                                

Our group leader, Joyce, helped to accessorize everyone.


We donned gold sunglasses, spray-painted books with the "Fifty Shades of Gold" title and yes, even gold handcuffs. If you read the book, you would absolutely understand the cuffs.

The entire room had bling, thanks to ladies in flashing cowboy hats, 

Sunday Best 

And other themes

As the Bingo balls were pulled, ladies at every table eagerly marked off their numbers.

           
       Somehow, I always end up with the "defective" Bingo cards, which rarely have the right numbers!



I did walk away with the prize for Most Bling, which was fun. I won a nice little package of goodies, including an ipod shuffle, earphones with bling and free facials with microderm.

                                       

We may have made a decision about what we already want to do a year from now. Or at least we are on the path for a decision. It was a great day with some incredible women. The event is open to League & non-Junior League members, so be sure to join us this time next year!

Charm City's Super Bowl Champs

                              

      It is a proud time to be a Marylander. 

It was quite a Super Bowl! Many thought the Baltimore Ravens had lost their "mojo" following the major blackout in the stadium after the half, but I never doubted them for a minute-despite the Niners closing the score gap.

I remember when the Ravens arrived in Charm City. Fans questioned their name (an ode to native Baltimorean & famed poet, Edgar Allen Poe) and their colors. You have to keep in mind, that the Ravens' arrival came after the Colts snuck away in the middle of the night on a Mayflower moving truck....then we inherited a Canadian Football team, also named the Colts, but later changed their name to the Stallions (thanks to a NFL lawsuit). Then, the Cleveland Browns moved into "The City that Reads" and became the Ravens. (whew!) If you can follow that, then you know that Baltimore is doubly excited over a World Championship. I think we ALL need to go to Disney World after all of this. 

           Mazel to the BALTIMORE RAVENS!!

Spirit of Children

As many of you know, our Spirit Halloween stores in Houston & Austin raise money through the Spirit of Children program for two hospitals. In Houston, the hospital recipient is Texas Children's Hospital. Austin's hospital is Dell Children's Medical Center. In addition to throwing Halloween parties for the children at both facilities, customers also donate money to help each hospital's Child Life program. Checks are then presented in January or February.

All of the money for both hospitals is 100 % customer donations and was collected over 60 DAYS! The staff in all of the stores work diligently to collect money for the hospitals. This year, we drove from Dallas to Austin to present their check first. Spirit was pleased to present a check for $110, 670.00 to Dell Children's.

Then it was off to Houston (after a one day detour to relax in San Antonio.) At Texas Children's, we presented a check to them for $107, 330. 

Last year, Texas Children's presented us with a Spirit Halloween bench, which was created and painted by some of their pediatric patients. 

It sits in the hallway near a window on the Child Life floor and we have been told that many of the kids enjoy sitting on it. It was an honor to take Cameron upstairs to sit on it too.

                    We look forward to another successful year, raising money for the kids!