{I know, not fashion-y at all. But how could anyone resist that face?}

Friends, I hope you have a relaxing weekend ahead, and are planning to relish those last few days of summer. Wear shorts, lounge in the sun (even if it’s just at your neighborhood Starbucks), and read a trashy novel…starting Tuesday, we’ll be in full-on fall mode at long last. I can hardly wait.

Enjoy every moment!

I’m giving myself a little summer vacation, friends. Well, in fairness, it’s not entirely a vacation – other projects beckon – but I do have at least a couple of days in my imminent future that I’m hoping will look a little something like this.

{Praia Piquinia, by Christian Chaize – 20×200}

I’ll be back here next week…I hope you will too!

First, thank you all so much for your wonderful (and kind) advice yesterday – I so appreciate your being decisive when I simply cannot. It was a tough, tough call…but you can see the winner right over on the About page! (Though I reserve the right to switch it up every six months.)

Now, about those Friday Finds. My mama’s in town this weekend, friends – I’m so excited! But that means I’m going to forego this week’s Friday Finds in favor of hanging with her. Can you blame me?

But. If you happen to be in Portland this weekend, don’t miss out on the big summer sale going on in the Pearl District – all of my favorite stores are in the mix (Mabel & Zora, Moule and Popina Swim!), so I know Mom and I will be there with bells on.

Wherever you are, I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’ll see you back here next week!

Good news – the portraits you all helped me with a few weeks ago are in! Though I normally hate any and all photos of me, and will do anything to avoid sharing them (I’ve been known to steal photos of me right out of friends’ albums), I actually love these. Conceited, I know. But, trust me – I give the credit entirely to whatever photogenic fairy dust Ms. Melissa Tomeoni sprinkled over her camera before our session. That girl can work some serious magic with a lens!

So, what do you think?

All images © Melissa Tomeoni Photography. Please don’t take them, that would just be weird.

Not bad, right? Now…what photo should I use on my trusty “About” page? I’m leaning slightly toward the one with that beautiful blue Equipment shirt and my House of Harlow necklace, but would love your input, friends.

Hey all! It’s the big day: time to announce all the winners of our Birthday Bash!! This was a hard one to do objectively, as so many of you dear readers are friends, or have become friends, and I wanted to thank you for that. But then, so many newbies have shown up for the Bash, and I wanted to thank them too. The only thing to do was to reach deep, deep down for my ethics, trust the Random Number Generator, and keep things on the level. And so, I did. Drumroll, please…

Winner, Day 1 – Inhabit NY cashmere sweater: Lisa S.

Winner, Day 2 – Christine Mighion aquamarine earrings: Shirlene B.

Winner, Day 3 – Mabel & Zora dress by Tiffany Bean: Lauren

Winner, Day 4 – Hayden-Harnett clutch wallet: MJ Moore

Winner, Day 5 – Clarins summer skincare collection: Elle

Congratulations!!! I’ll be emailing each of the winners with details, so be on the lookout! And for the rest of you, well, you can shoot jealous dagger-eyes at these lucky ladies for a moment or two (they’re screaming too loudly to notice anyway), but after that, I hereby give you justification to go forth and buy yourself a little something from one of those amazing sponsors.

Thank you again so much, everyone, from the bottom of my designer-loving little heart. The fact that you choose to spend a few minutes of your day here makes me so embarrassingly happy, I can’t even tell you. When I meet one of you, or you email me to say hello or ask a style question, it quite literally makes my day. I’m so looking forward to the next five years!

And a special thanks to the staggeringly generous sponsors from our Birthday Bash: Inhabit NY, Christine Mighion, Mabel & Zora, Hayden-Harnett and Clarins. These are, quite possibly, my five favorite brands of all time, and I’m beyond honored that they wanted to be part of the party. Show them some love, won’t you, friends?

This week has gotten away from me in a huge way, friends.  I’m sorry I haven’t been around.  But I’ll be back next week, with bells on.  And in the meantime, allow me to suggest a few other places to kill time while you’re supposed to be working:

The royal wedding had me completely captivated this week – and This is Glamorous has the most beautiful recap post ever.

Alexander McQueen is on everyone’s mind this week, between Kate’s beautiful dress and the exhibit of his work opening at the Met.  If you, like me, are utterly sad you can’t attend, you should take a look at Racked NY’s coverage – completely with excellent photos.

I honestly can’t remember who steered me toward this new (to me, at least) site, but Tonic has captured my heart in a big way…and I think it will do the same for you.

And last, but not least – you know about The Coveteur, right?  Oh, it’s dangerously beautiful…especially the features on Louise Roe (a favorite of mine) and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who you’re going to love to hate. Make sure you click on the photos to get the detail and stories about the pieces in each picture.

I’ll be spending the weekend with family, as I hope you all are…and debuting my heart-stopping new Rachel Mara dress, which has me more excited than anything else.  Especially since I’m pairing it with my decadent python heels in butter yellow.  I’m swooning already!

Happy Mother’s Day weekend, everyone!

Happy Friday!  It’s been a long week here at SMC HQ, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to save our usual “finds” for next week.  But I did want to share a few pieces of fun news.

First up, the red trousers arrived – and they’re actually pretty fabulous (especially for $39).  They ran very true to size, and are a great color and cut, shockingly.  I wore them to a truly fantastic event last night here in Portland, and they made me feel extremely fashion-y, in the midst of a very fashionable crowd.  There was some drama regarding whether or not to tuck in my shirt, but I’ve officially decided the high waist pant with tucked-in shirt is too high-risk.  The leg-lengthening and waist-whittling properties are offset exponentially by the tummy-enhancing factor.  But, as long as you’re staying untucked (or have board-flat abs), I highly recommend them.

Second, and probably most exciting, check out my score from The Outnet‘s 2nd birthday sale!  It’s a beautiful Valentino tweed jacket, it retailed for $4,505, and I bought it for $2!!  I can hardly contain myself.  I’ve been wanting a Chanel tweed since…well, since birth, probably.  Sure, it isn’t Chanel, but it’s Valentino – not exactly a compromise.  And it was $2.  So, I can happily cross this one off my life list.

{Update: if you’re dying to know how I scored the deal, it’s a long story, but you can get the details here.}

And last but not least, I’d love to have you weigh in on my ramblings over at Shelterrific this morning – I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to decorate my house for Easter without it looking like a Dollar Store delivery truck exploded on my front step.  To be honest, it all started when I started thinking about my Nana’s vintage Steiff collection, and got an inexplicable urge to buy a vintage Steiff bunny for Easter.  Maybe I’ll wait until the week after…

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!  I’m crossing my fingers that my world will be back to normal next week.

Happy Friday, friends!  This list is quickly becoming more of a way for me to close the browser windows I keep open all week so that I don’t forget things to show you.  By the time we’re done here, my desktop is going to be squeaky clean…and I love it!

First things first, friends:  won’t you please come over and “like” my new ShoppingsMyCardio Facebook page?  It will just take a second, and will make me oh so happy.  I promise not to have one of those annoying pages that posts 10 times a day and takes up your whole feed…I hate that.

So, I haven’t been being all that good about letting you know where else I’ve been writing lately, and we should remedy that.  Mostly because I’m quite proud of an interview I recently did with Rachel Gorenstein, a woman who’s both the creative director & buyer for one of my favorite shops in Portland and the designer behind one of my favorite boutique labels, Rachel Mara.  Total dream job!  The feature was for a new print magazine (remember those?) called About Face, but you can also check it out here.  Also, this dress, which we featured in the piece, is my latest stalker-grade obsession.  Must. Have. It.

Also, I did a fun little feature for a local site called Neighborhood Notes, all about locally-made perfumes.  And I’ll tell you guys the joke I begrudgingly left out of the feature…the one about how when they asked me to write about Portland perfumes, I was instantly snickering to myself, thinking that a “Portland perfume” would have to be some sort of body odor/bong water concoction.  The locals would burn me alive…but I knew you’d think it was hysterical (because it’s true).

Anyway…on to our finds!

This week was “Preview Week” in NYC.  For those of you who don’t obsess over these things like I do, this is the week that virtually every brand that doesn’t show at Fashion Week was showcasing their new collections for Fall.  I’ll have more to show you next week, but for now, a little eye candy from the J.Crew preview.  For the full collection, check out the coverage from Racked and The Cut…but these are a few of my favorites:

Good bags, in particular, don’t you agree? And those plum wide-legged pants are mine, people.  If you’re now in a J.Crew mood (sorry about that), the good news is that they’re offering 20% off $150+ purchases this weekend.  The code is SUNNY…hey, here’s hoping.

I’m perpetually in an art-buying phase…right now, I’m getting ready to print some of my talented husband’s photography for our walls.  But I came across artist John Murphy’s collages for the second time recently, and fell in love with them all over again.  I’ve always wanted a diptych of these two, but how could I possibly be expected to resist that elephant, with the little flower poos?  (I can’t believe I just said “poo” on the blog.  Twice.)

Thoroughly awesome.

In the “cheap thrills” department, Lands’ End Canvas is having a ginormous clearance sale right now.  While I didn’t have much luck with their denim when I tried the brand a while back, I am sort of feeling I could use a back-up pair of skinny jeans for spring, and these Super Slim Jeans are $29, which is highly tempting.  This cut has almost 50% spandex, so really, how badly could they possibly fit?  I will warn that, in my experience, their denim runs s-m-a-l-l…so, size accordingly.

Oh!  Remember that pretty green Cole Haan bag I snagged earlier this month?  Well, nab 25% off the entire (full-price) Cole Haan handbag line today only with code…wait, wait, wait. You have to go to my Facebook or Twitter page to get the code.  Mean?  Extortion?  Nawwww…this is creative marketing, people!  Indulge me, won’t you?

And have a great weekend, friends!

can you believe it’s taken me almost five years of blogging to succumb to creating a facebook fan page for shoppingsmycardio?  frightening, i know.  but i’m going to do my best to make it worth the wait, and at least as fun as my twitter feed (you’re following that, aren’t you?).  packed full of deals i don’t blog, links i think you’ll love, and random stories from my day that would almost certainly be entertaining to someone not living them.

come over and join me, won’t you?  i’m thinking it’ll be awfully lonely without you…

i couldn’t resist showing you this gorgeous coat of mine that a local consignment shop has up on ebay.  i adore it more than words, but alas it’s just too big for me.  but if you know any stunning size 12-14 ladies who need a coat to match their otherwise impeccable selves, this is that coat.  it’s burberry, it’s a beautiful pale oatmeal cashmere, and it’s the most wonderfully luxe thing i’ve ever worn.  it goes clear to the ankle (though it could certainly be taken up if you’re looking for a little less drama), and just fits and flatters like nothing i’ve ever seen.

i wish they’d taken a photo of it unbuttoned at the top, as it really shows off the asymmetrical collar and placket that makes this particularly special.

oh, it’s a beautiful, beautiful coat.  spread the word, won’t you? the auction ends this week, and i’ll just cry if this divine little number has to go back to living in my closet, getting no wear or use at all.  make them an offer…i have a feeling there’s a good bit of wiggle room in that price!

(incidentally, they have loads of other designer goodies up for grabs as well…it’s well worth a look.)