Just take a look at all of the wonderful options they have for this holiday season…

Earlier this summer, we were offered the opportunity to escape in September to somewhere we’d probably never adventurously venture on our own initiative… and we jumped at the chance to enjoy a week of relaxation and nature. We expected heat, sand, beer and the company of good friends, but we got so much more.

Tulum, Mexico is about 120 km south of Cancun… but it in no way/shape/form even resembles the beach towns that the Yucatan Peninsula is famous for. It’s truly a sleepy little coastal community with amazing stretches of white sand beaches, insanely good food from around the world, and a true eco-friendly vibe that permeates throughout. I tried to take pictures that would show just how “small” it is, but I think you really have to be there to realize the true scale.

This pretty much sums up a good part of our days in Tulum. Sun, sand and gently rolling waves in the clear blue sea.

Wonder where we were sitting? Under these shady palapas…

And we slept in the far building on your right…

… and woke up daily to this amazing view!

But we didn’t limit ourselves just to pure relaxation 24/7….

We went on an adventurous trip, which led us to happen upon Cenote Zaci…

… and we stopped for souvenirs on the way back.

We watched 121 baby sea turtles hatch and be rescued from their nesting hole and carried out to sea…

… and avoided blue crabs at every turn each and every night.

We rented Jeeps to go on an adventurous trip through the Sian Ka’an biosphere…

… where we chartered boats to get a closer look at the sea turtles, dolphins, and even got to snorkel on the 2nd longest reef in the world.

On our final day, we headed just up the road to explore the Mayan ruins.

The rest of the trip was just us relaxing…

… we mostly had the place to oursevles it seemed… as slow season was really slow…

… and each night we’d invariably end up at the Sand Bar next door for a cocktail or treat.

We also got in quite a bit of celebrating in honor of the birthday girl turning 30… like Mayan coffee all aflame…

… but mainly just good times and giggles 24/7.

Uber thanks to the lovely Miss Cathy for the invitation and allowing us to spend her 30th birthday party in pure sweaty bliss. There are not enough words to thank her for her friendship and generosity and kind kind soul.

[photos courtesy of my camera and that of so smithy design]

The stories on twitter were [...]]]> I’m sure you heard all about the Missoni for Target madness this week… or were even one of the lucky/unlucky few who chose to partake in the crazy that was sold out stores, line-ups at dawn and a target.com website that just kept crashing and crashing and crashing again.

The stories on twitter were epic… and mostly in a bad way. It just goes to show you that there is a market price for everything… and that people crave luxury at lower prices. I really thought Vera Wang was a genius when she marked all of her gowns down a few years ago instead of the trend of ever increasing prices. Her people obviously paid attention to her simple demand curves in economics, and can now ensure that more of her pieces are priced where people can and will buy them.

Anyhow… enough about silly economic market factors on luxury goods… let’s talk about a Friday surprise!

I stopped by Target yesterday morning, and low and behold… there were a few straggling pieces still left on the shelf! So, with the knowledge that I could return them really easily if I needed to, I snatched them up and am having a little garage sale here! But at the normal prices of course!

Zig Zag Pattern Flats – Multicolor 

$29.99 original price + tax + shipping = $40.00-$45.00 (depending where you live)

SIZE 8

SIZE 9

Pleated Knit Skirt – Multicolor Stripe

$39.99 original price + tax + [flat rate] shipping = $48

SIZE: Large

If you’re interested in buying any of these… send me a note at kimberlymichelle.com@gmail.com and I’ll send you the paypal invoice and they’ll be on their way shortly!

I’ll update this page if someone completes the order as well!

Kusmi teas have been [...]]]> Remember when I made that awesome hibiscus mint iced tea a few weeks back? Well, ever since, I’ve gotten myself completely hooked on iced tea! This time around, I decided to try brewing some tea that was intended for ice, and opted for the new Iced Teas from Kusmi.

Kusmi teas have been around for over 140 years, but are just now becoming a more globally recognized brand. You may have heard or seen their “I love Detox” teas in stores… as that’s what always catches my eye in the tea aisle at Nugget.

The mixed box comes with 12 different varieties [Detox (Mate, green tea and lemongrass); Anastasia (Bergamot, lemon and orange blossom); Genmaicha (Japanese green tea with popped rice and corn); Label Imperial (Green tea, orange and cinnamon); Kashmir Tchai (Black tea and spices); Strawberry Green Tea; Ginger-lemon green tea; Spearmint green tea with Nanah mint leaves; Sweet Love (Black tea, guarana, spices and pink pepper); Be Cool (Caffeine free blend, liquorice and peppermint); Green tea scented with rose petals] but I quickly chose the Strawberry Green Tea as my first test case!

Friends… believe me when I tell you that “smell-o-web” should be invented just for me to share the amazing fragrance of this tea with you! Opening the envelope was an absolute explosion of freshly picked strawberry fields… and I think I even got a little sad when I realized that this was my only dose of strawberry iced tea in the box.

The instructions for brewing are quite simple – but in metric units, so don’t be alarmed. Simply place 2 tea bags in 1/4 L of simmering water (aka. 8.5 fl oz.).

Then add that mixture to 1 L of water (aka 34 fl oz) and add ice as needed to dilute it to your preferred taste!

I also whipped up a batch of simple syrup, and added about 2 T of it to the tea to sweeten things up. Efficient and yummy and perfectly sweet!

I’m not quite sure what the next flavor to try will be… but I’m thinking either the Label Imperial (Green tea, orange and cinnamon) or Ginger-lemon green tea.

What flavor would you want to try?

Giveaway: Kusmi Iced Teas

Just follow the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win your own package of Kusmi Iced Teas (retail value: $21.99) to try for yourself!

To enter, just leave a comment with the Kusmi Iced Tea flavor you’d like to enjoy sipping on a hot summer day! Then click on the widget box and you’re entered! (If you’re confused, just visit this 45-second video to see how to enter!)

You can also receive one extra entry for following me on twitter, like-ing this page, like-ing the FB page. If you already do all of those things, then you’re good to go with 4 extra entries!

And, you can get one extra entry daily for tweeting about the giveaway! (just remember you have to tweet from this page using rafflecopter).

The winner will be announced on Friday August 12th at 9am PST!

GOOD LUCK!!!

.
Last Sunday, 7.5 miles of roads in central Los Angeles were closed off to cars from 10am to 3pm. No cars were allowed to park or drive on them in honor of the first “CicLAvia” – an open-street Sunday! People could walk, bike, play and just enjoy the streets for themselves… making [...]]]>

.
Last Sunday, 7.5 miles of roads in central Los Angeles were closed off to cars from 10am to 3pm. No cars were allowed to park or drive on them in honor of the first “CicLAvia” – an open-street Sunday! People could walk, bike, play and just enjoy the streets for themselves… making them parkland in the urban concrete jungle.
.
I hope it happens again soon… because this is just too cool for words. I’m so happy the time lapse video above captures the magical feeling of just how amazing LA is without its car density.
.

.

Legendary concerts are often few and far between. Well, that is unless you’re Cher or Garth Brooks, who hook you into seeing their “last concert ever ever EVER!” and then decide to take up residency in Vegas. (No, I’m not bitter about being tricked at all… at [...]]]>

.

Legendary concerts are often few and far between. Well, that is unless you’re Cher or Garth Brooks, who hook you into seeing their “last concert ever ever EVER!” and then decide to take up residency in Vegas. (No, I’m not bitter about being tricked at all… at all!) A couple of weeks ago, I hopped down to San Francisco with my mom to help her relive HER legendary concert experience. You see, she was lucky enough to see the Beatles on the first stop of their first US tour at the Cow Palace back in 1964. So when the opportunity to see her favorite Beatle (aka. Paul McCartney) in concert came up, she just couldn’t pass it up and decided to take me along!

.

.

Here’s my super awesome and hip mom – beaming when she saw how amazing our seats were (Tourists take note: this is what you wear in San Francisco in the summer.)

.

.
(Just imagine Paul standing right behind us… well.. 20 rows up at least)
.

.
I’m sure you had no doubts in your mind, but the concert was entirely amazing and awesome. He had just come off a 2-week break, so his voice was outstanding, and he just looked like he was having the time of life performing on stage. Sure, there were probably more WINGS songs performed than most people in the crowd had heard during their lifetime, but anyone that can perform for 3 straight hours is amazing in my book!
.

.
The set list for the concert:

1. Venus And Mars
2. Rock Show
3. Jet
4. All My Loving
5. Letting Go
6. Got to Get You Into My Life
7. Highway (The Fireman cover)
8. Let Me Roll It
9. Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
10. The Long and Winding Road
11. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
12. Let ‘Em In
13. My Love
14. I’m Looking Through You
15. Two Of Us
16. Blackbird
17. Here Today
18. Dance Tonight
19. Mrs Vandebilt
20. San Francisco Bay Blues
21. Eleanor Rigby
22. Something
23. Sing the Changes (The Fireman cover)
24. Band on the Run
25. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (HIGHLIGHT of the show!)
26. Back In The USSR
27. I’ve Got a Feeling
28. Paperback Writer
29. A Day In The Life / Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon cover)
30. Let It Be
31. Live and Let Die
32. Hey Jude
    Encore:
33. Day Tripper
34. Lady Madonna
35. Get Back
    Encore 2:
36. Yesterday
37. Helter Skelter
38. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
39. The End 

.

.

..
And when the show was over, we all piled out of stadium in jubilant awe of what we just saw. Old and young alike, we all had a blast and stayed up way past our bedtime and got rained on by the fog to see a legend in our midst. The guy in aisle next to us paid $650 for his ticket. I heard from others in rows ahead of us that they had spent over $1000 each, and they remarked at the bargain they had gotten. In all, it was pretty darn awesome and I’m happy that I got to enjoy Sir Paul w/my mom!
.
If you want to see a glimpse of the concert experience, I mashed up the little video clips I took during the concert into a movie below. Enjoy!
..

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. M and I trekked to Emeryville for yet another one of our silly adventures… this time we were off to hang around PIXAR Studios for the annual Cartoon Art Museum fundraiser. Getting inside the gates at PIXAR is difficult to do, unless of course you’re really good friends with [...]]]>

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. M and I trekked to Emeryville for yet another one of our silly adventures… this time we were off to hang around PIXAR Studios for the annual Cartoon Art Museum fundraiser. Getting inside the gates at PIXAR is difficult to do, unless of course you’re really good friends with an employee or you happen to get an invitation to a soiree of some sort, so we took full advantage of the event and signed up early on! We met people who had traveled from all over the country for the small event … all of whom were fully intent on filling their Christmas stockings with PIXAR-labelled everything from the exclusive gift store! We walked away with a bit of swag ourselves, but nothing that burned the bank too much (I’ll share photos later this week).

At the event, we got to mingle with PIXAR artists, explore the multiple art galleries on site, watch Toy Story 2 in 3-D in their main screening room (complete with an accurate LED starscape above) and interact with some of the production team afterwards, bid on original art in a silent auction, and eat lots and lots of petit fours and grapes.  But rather than ramble on about the awesomeness, I’ll share a couple of photos and hopefully they will tell the story instead:
.

.
Mr. M starring up at the atrium above… with his favorite piece of UP concept artwork behind him.
.

.
The large atrium at PIXAR (the main theatre is at the bottom of the screen) … with me standing right in the middle!

.

.
Our new family portrait!  [p.s. funny story about that Sully statue... I actually had my picture taken with it back in the fall of 2001 before it was ever released. I thought he was adorable... and he was set-up next to a lifesize portrait of Kim Possible... also before it debuted on the Disney Channel. So happy to meet its acquaintance again!]
.

.
Coffee is nice and cheap at PIXAR… I wonder why???
.

.

.
Two of the pieces of original artwork available for bidding. I really liked the birdie… but Mr. M wasn’t wild about him so we passed.
.

.
We bid on #160… and were the high bidders until the last 15 minutes of the auction. At that point, a woman came over and bid $5 over my previous bid (nevermind that the rules stated she needed to bid $25 more). I proceeded to bid again, which I guess truly upset her. She decided to camp out at the bidding table, take the pencil from the table, and tell anyone that came near the sheet that, “this is for my 2 year old daughter’s birthday – I want it.” Luckily we had reached our maximum bidding level… but it was still extremely tempting to incite her with a yet higher bid. I still think it would have made the perfect nursery artwork… but Mr. M and I refused to play the pity game at the silent auction, and just let it go.

The painting on the right of Carl (from UP) was Mr. M’s favorite piece, but the bidding went above our limit early on. It sold for $2350.

I guess there’s always next year?

.
Mr. M joins up with the Incredibles!
.

.
And I do too!
.

.
This is like looking at the backside of water… but so much cooler!
.
So that concludes our afternoon at PIXAR. There were lots of cool exhibits and areas where cameras weren’t allowed, so I’m sad I can’t share, but I can tell you that it would be a very cool place to work!

Here’s a couple of the deals that you might want to look into… just in case you [...]]]> It’s that time of year again… time to shred the guilt about shopping for the fall because the prices are low BEFORE the products hit the stores. Yes, yes, it’s time for the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.

Here’s a couple of the deals that you might want to look into… just in case you had an itch to get a bargain outside of online sample sales:

Like… this new version of my pink HOBO INTL wallet… only $68.90 (instead of $108 it will be priced at this fall).

Or some super comfy flats like these Cole Haan ‘Air Penny’ mocs for $129.90 (instead of $198).

Maybe you need a super awesome baby shower gift…. and splurge on a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag for $99.90 (instead of $167).

Perhaps you’re just looking for some of the beauty exclusives, like these MAC eyeshadow palettes for $35.

Even if you don’t end up splurging on anything… have fun looking at everything that will be out in the stores in the fall! The click over there is worth it just for that!