High fashion McDonalds? Say it’s not true!  Yes, McDonald’s Tomato McGrand commerical is so glammed up it will be hard to not be "lovin’ it". Enjoy this You Tube…

Colin Cowie Chic: The Guide to Life As It Should Be is an all-exclusive manual for being prepared for entertaining at your household with the upmost appropriate paraphernalia of this modern time. 

This ‘chic’ book sets an incredibly high and trendy standard for household events that most of us will find the Guide is more for how we would “want our lives to be.”  If you don’t keep up with the “IT” style in your living room or haven’t done your fair share of entertaining then I highly suggest buying this book in order to get an idea about what “going all out” looks like. 

But it you’ve entertained before I suggest you flip through this book  to see what Colin Cowie’s got and then go home and creatively create your own chic.

~ Nicole, guest "it" writer.

I’m hyped that The It Lists is nominated in the LIFESTYLE category for a Fabbie. It’s the first fashion blog awards ever, and I’m plain proud to be in the company of some amazing peers in the fashion beauty and lifestyle blogosphere.

Besides your comments and emails (which truly mean a lot to me) there’s not a lot of props given back for the work we bloggers do behind the scenes. So this is a:  wow.

Yes, it really is an honor just to be nominated!

There are 12 categories:

    * Shoes
    * Men’s Fashion
    * Fashion
    * Lifestyle  (VOTE FOR THE IT LISTS)
    * Beauty
    * Best Newbie
    * Accessories
    * E-Zines & New Frontier Publishing
    * Indie & Niche
    * Parents & Pets
    * Shopping
    * Streetstyle

Just sign up, log in to vote before midnight GMT April 30, 2008.

I can’t believe a year has flown by!

Thank you for being loyal readers of The It Lists. Your letters and comments make it all worth while: How a busy mom devours my latest season’s trend list, and makes it her own personal shopping list. Or to hear how I helped you find that "perfect" lip gloss that you now can’t live without.

I love sharing my favorite things and to hear how you make them yours too.

The It Lists will be on holidays until the first week of 2008.

Happy Holidays! Felize Navidad (because of my love of Bony M’s Xmas)! Shelley

Need to work off Christmas turkey and baking? But don’t want to fight the gym crowds that all have the same idea.

About 5 years ago I discovered the “adult’ benefits of hoola-hooping when I bought a kooky gift of “his and her” hoops as a wedding present. It thought the glittery rings were so fun I got one for me too - and with just 10 minutes a night in under two months I’d knocked 1.5” of my waist. Serious!

The rockin’ ring works your rear, burns fat and speeds up your metabolism. For hoola help there’s the first in a series of "How To" flip books by new Aussie publisher RayPress, How to Hoola. Or even better check out the DVD series and special hoops from Hoopnotica or  Hoopgirl.  You’ve not seen hoola like this!

And if you become a real hoola-hoop addict there’s a whole fan site on the trend.

Source [Image]

Marie Claire has the best Halloween tips the ask you NOT to do for Halloween fashion.

Do NOT…

• * Dress up as a naughty cat, bunny, nurse or nun.
• * Carve Monet’s Haystacks into a pumpkin because Martha told you to.
• * Ride public transportation in your Amy Winehouse wig.
• * Dress up like a bad pun - like ‘Gold Digger’.
• * Give out healthy treats like raisins. In a few years the recipients will return for revenge with eggs and toilet paper.
• * Serve guests drinks with aggressive names like ‘Witches Tit’.

 Happy Halloween!

Image: [Mac Cosmetics]

I just don’t get it ~ how can a trend this dead (and meant to stay dead) be haunting us? Shoulder pads belong hung up with good old stretch stirrup pants. Unless you’re totally reminiscing 1980s power dressing, or want to resurrect the cast of Dynasty this trend doesn’t belong on your shoulders.

At Fall 2007 shows in London and Paris designers such as Gareth Pugh, Vivienne Westwood and Balenciaga featured shoulder pads throughout their collections, prompting a prediction of shoulder pads return to mainstream fashion. Sigh.

Photo Source [source]

W magazine announces the first ever I-List in its October issue naming the most influential people and places shaping today’s fashion and style. The list includes actors Scarlett Johansson and Anne Hathaway, digital innovator Steve Jobs, designers Tory Burch and Vera Wang, and musicians Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.

W magazine’s I-List sampling…

• * Throwing Curves - Scarlett Johansson: maintaining her bombshell proportions that set her apart from her cookie-cutter contemporaries
• * The Anti-Lindsay - Anna Hathaway: emerging as a wholesome, elegant young role model and living a radically alternative lifestyle by modern Hollywood standards
• * It Guru - Steve Jobs: creating most desirable accessory, the i-Pod, as no it-bag out there has come close to achieving its cultural resonance 
• * High-Low Queen - Vera Wang: first designer to ink an ongoing deal with Kohl’s to carry her new label, Simply Vera Vera Wang, for budget conscious consumers
• * Partners in Power - Marc Jacobs & Robert Duffy: bringing Marc Jacobs brand to the top despite major obstacles including failed financial backing and Jacob’s battle with substance abuse
• * Net Effect - Natalie Massenet: creating the luxury shopping site Net-a-porter.com where women can have whatever they want overnight
• * Mass Marketing - The Oscars: increasing designer-brand awareness exponentially around the globe
• * Green Goddess - Linda Loudermilk: pioneering the concept of environmentally conscious fashion
• * Franco Fabulous - Nicolas Ghesquiere: turning Balenciaga from a sleepy couture name into an electrifying luxury brand for the modern age
• * Hair and Now - Orlando Pita: being the hair genius sans-attitude that sets the standard
• * Eastern Bloc Party - Grace Models: finding the next generation of super models who have stampeded out of Eastern Europe and onto fashion runways.
• Source & Image [W Magazine]

I’m hope, tanned & jetlagged!

Not all of Indonesia is magical, but Bali sure is. I love the people and the extremes it has to offer. Our friends Taro & Kristy celebrated their vows in a Buddhist ceremony on the beach at sunset (complete with ice sculptures - very decadent in that heat, and DJ Tsuyoshi).

Best is the ability for this fashionista to escape to the thatch hut bungalows on the sleepy little island of Nusa Lembongan, but jump on the hydrofoil to the main island and catch yet another day’s sunset at Super-model, Alessandra Ambrosio’s closing party for the season. There was enough paparazzi at the wedding, clubs, and other parties our crew did - so I didn’t want to look like a big boob snapping pictures myself, but wouldn’t you know the one shot I took of Alex (bro to the groom), Alessandra, and Rama (local celeb) - Alex’s eyes are shut!

 

I can’t believe I’m about to defend: Paula Abdul. But yesterday I tripped over my 25 pound dog (meet Theo - our Basenji).
 
While the gossip pages are all over her chipped broken nose and speculating that she must have been drunk when she tripped over her dog - well, I was sober and in my bathrobe when I emulated her gymnastic maneuvers sprained both my wrist and ankle, and today realized what I thought was a sprain finger is actually fractured!

So while I type here with nine fingers and a silver (useless and ugly) splint to challenge this fashionista with her blogging - I lift my head from shame just long enough to "straight up" tell you Paula just might not be hiding a nose job.

Are black, blue and purple in this season? Well if I‘m slow to respond to u over the next few days u’ll know why. And u’ll have to excuse a few typos for the next few days. Sigh.

Two sides of the Paula Abdul dog story: NY Post and Film.com

This is fun!!  The Budget Fashionista’s own PROJECT BLOG has decided that The It Lists is kinda awesome. We’re their "Awesome Blog of the Week." Check it out.

Project Blog’s new feature started featuring themselves - at project blog you’ll find the coolest user submited blogs about shopping, fashion, and more.

And now The It Lists is the next to be honored! That’s AWESOME.

The world’s most coveted handbags not only come with a hefty price tag, they also possess an inherent allure defined by their design and cachet.

Answer five quick questions to see which haute purse best fits your personality  - click here.

I hate Halloween. Why? Maybe my core group of friends embraced the ‘costume change’ at our theme parties and it’s lost the novelty. Maybe mixed childhood memories of fluffy bunny costumes that took weeks to sew, but only minutes to be teased at…or the year mom put cocoa paste on her face and went as Aunt Jemima (so politically incorrect) and escorted me trick-or-treating. Maybe it’s that I got sick of going as a witch four trillion times.

In the last few years I’ve been warming up a little as I appreciate the creativity of people letting out their inner bunny or vixen. Let’s talk about vixen – I get it that Halloween represents “… a night when even a nice girl can dress like a dominatrix and still hold her head up the next morning,” said Linda M. Scott, the author of “Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism [via New York Post].”

Hey, the only original costume I’ve done in my adult years was dawning a teal blue slip and putting on a name tag that said: Freud. 80% didn’t get that I was a Freudian Slip, but I got to wear my negligee in public and not be a witch for once. Good luck figuring out your perfect costume that won’t get you called out as jail bait or get you frost bit.