Fashion Forward Fridays: ShoeDiva Boutique & SIP SHOP SHOES

Honestly, where have I been with blogging recently? This is a serious promise that I'll be back with it and I just need you guys to hold tight while I get some of my plans in motion to make Chels & the City better. In the meantime, I could not pass up the opportunity to bring you a short interview from shoe designer, Janelle Cutler, the owner of ShoeDIVA Boutique. If you know me, you know shoes are my #1 obsession. Next Sunday, November 24th, Janelle, and the fabulousness that is the ShoeDIVA collection, will be hitting Pittsburgh in an event called SIP. SHOP. SHOES. that you do not want to miss. Details of the event are below, but here's your Fashion Forward Fridays inside peek at what to expect from this unique collection!

How would you describe the Shoe Diva collection?
I describe ShoeDIVA's shoe collection as stylish and flashy. They stand out and draw let's of attention to the feet of our divas!

Fashion Forward Fridays: ecoChic Resale Boutique

Hey everyone! Today I am really excited to bring you an interview from owner Terry Chesky and an inside look of her fabulous resale boutique, ecoChic. This wonderful boutique is located at 401 Home Drive, in front of the Best Buy and Home Depot in Robinson, and hopefully this post encourages you to take a trip there soon! In Terry's interview for Fashion Forward Fridays she explains how ecoChic came to be, how you can become a consignment partner, and how this store is helping transform the fashion scene in Pittsburgh! You guys know that I am all about saving money and still wearing great clothes, thrift shopping is my favorite hobby so you know that I am all about helping out a locally owned consignment shop. Plus, Terry is a great woman who seems really interested in meeting the needs of her shoppers, how could you not want that kind of loyalty to you as the customer while shopping? 

Outside ecoChic in Robinson - all photos provided by Terry.

How did ecoChic get started? My mom and I had been in the consignment business for almost 20 years when we opened ecoChic resale boutique in 2010. We loved second-hand ANYTHING.... antiques, thrift stores, flea markets, and consignment shops. Our first shop, Consignment Cottage, located in Moon Township, is a great store, but off the beaten path. We opened ecoChic with the idea of creating a smaller, boutique resale experience in the heart of the busy Robinson shopping area. We hoped that it would appeal to a greater audience by being in one of the busiest shopping communities.... and it has! 

Chels Wears: Owls

Beanie: Charlotte Russe | Colored Denim: Target | Glasses: Rue21

Owl Ring, Necklace & Sweater: Charlotte Russe

Shoes: Sperry's

Okay, friends, I know owls are "on trend" right now so you all think I'm stylish with all my owls, but I'll have you know, I've always been obsessed with those birdies. I recently found out that one of my aunts actually collects these little guys too, which just makes perfect sense. I got my looks from her, I might as well get my taste from her too! (Hi Aunt Karla!)

In other news, this week has been pretty rough. (As you may or may not have assumed based on my lack of posts.) If you've followed along here for a while, then you know of my love for Seton Hill University (where I went for my undergrad degrees) and this past weekend, our little community has suffered another tragic loss. The former President of the University passed away and while that might not seem too important, especially if you went to a big college, it really hit each of us pretty hard since our littler community is so small and close. She was involved in the University (from a student, to professor, to President) for the last 50 years, so it's hard to think of anyone who wouldn't know of her and how truly wonderful she was. I was able to make a trip to campus for her memorial service and am so thankful because she will always be one of my greatest influences. Her ability to be present and live in the moment by focusing on whoever she was talking to always amazed me. She actually cared about each student enough to get to know us and I'm sure she got to know each person in our community. I loved her wit and ability to just relate to anyone, her sense of humor and grace are unmatched and I hope to someday be half of the woman that she was.

Taking that trip to campus also made me remember how beautiful it is in the fall. There is no campus like Seton Hill and it is so breathtaking to actually be there when the trees are in a full range of colors. Which made me want to get these photos taken with some real fall colors - though these are taken in the woods by my house, you get the idea...I love fall, I love owls, I love Seton Hill.

Chels Wears: Remixed Hipster Grunge

Pants: WalMart | Chambray & Cardigan: JCPenney | T-Shirt: Mumford & Sons

Scarf: WalMart | Fork Ring: Festival | Telephone Necklace: Wet Seal | Leather Cuff Bracelet: Charlotte Russe

Shoes: Payless (Brash)

I'm not really sure if I'd consider this look to be really "hipster" or "grunge" but it's certainly remixed. If you look at previous Chels Wears posts, specifically, Double DIY and Breaking Fashion Rules, you can pretty much come up with this outfit and I thought this basically condemned building in town made for the perfect backdrop. Please excuse the pile of trash that I am clearly offended by in the first picture.

I wore this to see the War of the Worlds show at Bricolage (which by the way, you still have a chance to win tickets to: see how here) last Thursday and it was freeeeeezing. I had my trusty photographer (my dad) take these as I was on my way to the show and wished that I remembered to grab a coat before leaving, but alas, I froze instead. In case you were wondering, the later half of fall has certainly arrived here in Western Pennsylvania, which I am not a fan of since it leads to winter. The season I love to hate. Looks like it is time to stock up on some desperately needed new boots. Four Pittsburgh winters will certainly test the quality of your footwear and after last year, basically all of my boots have had more than enough.

Bricolage PGH Presents: War of the Worlds (...& A Giveaway!)

I'll admit that when I was first invited to go to Bricolage for their "midnight radio show" of War of the Worlds, I was a bit skeptical. Considering I had to attend in person for a radio show, I was confused from the get-go. And knowing the history of the original War of the Worlds scaring the pants off of people in 1938 because so many people thought it was a real news broadcast over the radio, not just a show, I was very concerned about what would be going on, but as this blog claims, I'm up for anything that promotes Pittsburgh and well, Bricolage is in the heart of downtown, so off to this interesting event it was.

If you follow me on Twitter, then you already know that I was also asked to live-tweet the event, which made the experience all the more exciting, because I very much love living in a world where everyone can read my sometimes witty comments as they come to me in 140 character increments. Sorry to anyone who was thoroughly confused about my reporting of a meteor hitting McConnell's Mill and martians invading Pittsburgh. 

Anyway, Bricolage put on a damn good show. All skepticism out the door and excitement for the next show is within me. Honestly, this was AMAZING. For those of you (much like myself) who think watching a live radio show would be boring, hold up, there are plenty of visual aspects to this performance. Not only can you quite obviously see the actors and the band, but there is also a large screen behind them for full visual effects of the story, and the commercials, which were hilarious and probably my favorite part. (I'm biased, I just finish two years of non-stop analysis of advertisements and now appreciate a little commercial parody more than the average person. Thanks, grad school.) I also very much enjoyed the ability to see exactly how the sound effects were made for this story and am always charmed by people having fantastic radio voices. 

More than anything the amount of humor and overall fun in this production is really what sold it for me, and the fact that Bricolage has adapted the script to be very much Pittsburgh-based. The original script, if you never heard it, would have been pretty terrifying if you tuned in to the middle of it didn't know that is was just a story. But hearing it set in and around the Pittsburgh area, while sitting in a little dark theater in Pittsburgh, was also slightly scary. Trust me, it's something you do not want to miss!

And here is your chance to win two tickets for yourself to Bricolage's War of the Worlds, with a Pittsburgh twist, on the night of your choice (Friday or Saturday, November 1st, 2nd, 8th or 9th.)

Here's how to enter:

• Like Chels & the City on Facebook.
• Like Bricolage PGH on Facebook. 
• Email the correct answer to the following question to chelsandthecity{at}gmail{dot}com : In 2005, Steven Spielberg directed a film adaption of War of the Worlds, in which the fabulous, Dakota Fanning stared as Rachel Ferrier, daughter to Ray Ferrier, portrayed by Tom Cruise. The, then eleven year old, won what awards for her performance in this role? 

Simple enough in this age of technology, right? The winner will be selected at random from the participants who submit the correct answer and like both pages on Facebook but 10pm on Thursday, October 31st! The winner will be emailed back with details on how to claim their prize! Good Luck!

This is a sponsored post, I received tickets to attend this show 

and for the giveaway for this post, but, as always, all opinions are my own.