Great Preppy Giveaway Week 3, Inaugural Dress Update

We must acknowledge acting somewhat like a Pouty Princess over the seemingly never-ending debacle going on here:

Until we realized we get to give away some preppy goodies! It is time to announce the winner of the Great Preppy Princess Giveaway winner for Week 2…. (drum roll):

verybusymomwith4

Whoo-hoo! Some may recall that our Thankful Thursday topic for last week’s giveaway was ‘one friend you are grateful for,” and Miss Lisa, founder and curator of VBMW4, shared this comment as her entry for the giveaway:

“I am thankful for my friend Julie who knows when to help me, when to advise me and when I need to listen. I am in awe of how she just knows how to act in every situation.”

As the winner Lisa receives a treasure trove of goodies from the Preppy Princess, including a Boatman Geller Carrie & Tuck personal stationery station and a fab Madras Refill Set! (This is so fun!)

Now for Week 3, our comment topic is anything for which you are thankful. How easy is that? Just leave a quick comment on something, someone, someplace you are grateful for… and voilà! You are entered!  Wonder what you can win this week? Read on.

Week 3 Great Giveaway goodies include this Perfect Circle Apron….

PreppyPrincess.com

Accompanied by the matching gloves; clearly one cannot risk a fashion disaster in their own kitchen.

PreppyPrincess.com

Of course, if Cook is handling the duties, and you have no worries about keeping the splish-splash off your cocktail dress, then the Apron/Gloves Set always make the perfect gift for someone else.

Also for the lucky winner, the understated elegance of the Trey’s Stripes notecards. Naturally the Princess will personalize the set of 10 cards, per your wishes.

PreppyPrincess.com

Don’t forget that if you mention the Great Giveaway on your blog or home page a Bonus Gift goes to anyone you choose! Because it wasn’t won this past week, we’ll roll over the Week 2 Bonus Prize Pack.

The Bonus Prize includes the Laguna Beach apron, along with one of our favorite books, Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart.

So don’t forget… scroll down and make a quick comment!  “I am thankful for ______.”

Leave your comments before midnight next Wednesday, the 26th, and you are entered in the Giveaway.  And because sharing is caring, *do* think about mentioning the Giveaway on your blog, or your Facebook or MySpace page, whatever works for you (in a good, clean fun kind of way) so you can share the Bonus Prizes with someone near and dear.

Our first comment comes from Legally Heidi, here is part of what she shared:

“i’m thankful for my pal Liz. Her and i have had a rough friendship but we’ve always come out on top She’s the one friend i know i could call at 2am upset and she’d listen to me.”

Do let TP know if you have any questions…that is why we are here!

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A quick update to our most recent post on the search for an appropriate prep school for Malia and Sasha Obama.  We reported that our intuition pointed to Maret being out of the mix, with the choice down to either Georgetown Day School or Sidwell Friends.  The Post (Washington) seems to confirm this:

“… school search appears to have narrowed… and the much-buzzed-about Maret School is apparently out of the running.”

Also, we promised to let you know what we discovered about Michelle Obama’s attire seen in the CBS 60 Minutes Interview:

Aaron Tomlinson/CBS News Handout/Reuters

As speculated, the pieces were by Maria Pinto, who seems to have achieved ‘Most Favored Nation’ status when it comes to the future First Lady’s fashion choices, IOHO.  According to the Trib:

“… wore the “Eme” top and “Rani” skirt in an iris color, designed by Chicago’s Maria Pinto. The ensemble is from Pinto’s spring collection, but rendered in tweed for Obama, a loyal Pinto client. The sleeveless element was retained from the original design.”

We continue to see sketches of possible inaugural ball gowns from varying designers; here is one from Tracey Reese, as seen in this story from the Detroit Free Press.  We simply love that look, the dress is absolutely beautiful.

Tracey Reese

BTW, today’s Times (NY) had an excellent story about price wars between online retailers and the  tactics they employ to move merchandise.  For example, we had no idea Zappos uses a sister site for its discounted and marked down products…did you? (If interested, it is 6pm.com)  And 6pm does carry most, if not all, of the name brands Zappos stocks.

Also, Steve & Barry’s will be gone permanently.  After being bailed out of an earlier bankruptcy three months back, yesterday the company filed for liquidation in New York. We have no news yet on what will happen with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line of clothing, currently sold at the retailer.

Happy-Happy!

Obama Fashion & Prep School Updates, Worst Concealers Ever List

Hello-Hello on a busy Tuesday!

We start with an update to our initial story on the Obama school search.

The ongoing effort to find the best school for Malia and Sasha Obama moved to the next level yesterday when Michelle Obama took Malia and Sasha for a two-hour visit at Georgetown Day School.

Georgetown Day Lower School

Before you know it we may be seeing a run on these:

Georgetown Day School

Today the girls and the next First Lady are expected to repeat that exercise at the Sidwell Friends campus.  Below, a photo from the Time magazine story that says Sidwell is the “…greenest school” in the United States.

PHOTO: David Burnett for TIME

Writer Margaret Carlson has an interesting perspective on the schools in her recent Bloomberg story.

“The car pool line at Sidwell runs to Mercedes and BMWs. At Maret, where journalists’ children abound, and at GDS, where students call teachers by their first names, you see more Volvos and Priuses. At Sidwell you might see a Palin Valentino. At Maret, Banana Republic.”

The article discusses Maret, a school we discussed very little in our previous post, as as we don’t believe it to be in serious consideration at this point.

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The discussion continues regarding the dress Mrs. Obama wore for the 60 minutes interview that aired Sunday.

PHOTO: Aaron Tomlinson/CBS News Handout

Many are suggesting it is another Maria Pinto design, primarily because of the color and lines. When we find out we will let you know.

And the Times has another story about the J. Crew ensemble the future First Lady wore for her Tonight Show appearance.

“A spokeswoman for the J. Crew Group said the company had no idea Mrs. Obama would wear J. Crew until it began seeing teasers of her “Tonight Show” appearance. But it moved quickly to capitalize on it.

Marketers bought “Michelle Obama” keywords on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, built a page on the jcrew.com Web site that promoted her outfit, and told call-center representatives how to handle queries about Mrs. Obama’s fashion.”

For one of our previous posts with photos, descriptions of the pieces and links to those items at J. Crew, just click here.  BTW, J. Crew is now promoting a 25% off regular-priced Women’s shoes through tomorrow night.  The promo code is SHOESALE.

J. Crew

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Ladies, you know we try to maintain proper etiquette standards here in our corner condo at Princess HQ, especially when it comes to issues of bloggage. Therefore TP is a tad timid; we fear we are treading dangerously close to the ‘poor taste’ line with our next topic: dark circles under one’s eyes. Does anyone else suffer from this wretched phenomenon?

The good folks at Total Beauty have a quick little slide show on the “Worst Concealers Ever” that is simply fascinating! We couldn’t not share the link with you! Please don’t think less of us, the UTP (Urge to Post) was overwhelming and we couldn’t help ourselves! We do feel better knowing we are not the only who struggles with this.

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The Princess is Obsessed….and She Has a Confession! Also, Prep Schools for the Obama Girls

It had to happen.  You just knew that sooner or later TP was going to locate something new, in pink, for scooting around town.  We confess we are simply ga-ga over this:

Courtesy Hermès

We present the Hermès Fortwo édition Toile car, unveiled last Thursday in front of the Grand Palais. This creation is in honor of the Smart Car’s 10th Anniversary, and it will cost just under $50,000.

Courtesy Hermès

It wouldn’t be for everyday of course, and only for certain locales, like Georgetown, or the Loop, perhaps Nob Hill. But not on the highway as almost anything else would turn us into Flat Stanley in an instant! Naturally TPC (The Princess Consort) will have to counsel the staff as a few may be concerned about job security if they aren’t driving TP; he is very good and will work with them to assuage their fears.

Courtesy Hermès

Those who regularly punish themselves by reading our mental meanderings know how we feel about luxury brand logos and may be concerned we are off the reservation here. Are you perhaps a new reader curious about our case of LogoPhobia? We shall attempt brevity: we loathe them. They are beyond nouveau gauche, with a very few exceptions, most have been mentioned in this space.  We consider them to be hideous in most circumstances and beyond offensive at their worst. (An egregious example follows; the D&G baby bottle is worse than most because in this instance the baby is doing the advertising.)

eLuxury.com

But back to the car; of course it comes in other colors, like Hermès’ signature orange. Each Smart car will showcase Hermès leather with covered steering wheels, including lime, navy, fuchsia and other colors. But if not in pink… what’s the point?

So be they on apparel (where to start, really?), on luggage (Louis Vuitton anyone?), on eyeglasses or sunglasses (hello Tiffany?), almost anywhere, they are hideous. However, when it comes to the Hermès logo on the Smart Car, it is our understanding it is going to be quite discreet, in Hermès’ original canvas toile there will be the “H.”  What do you think? BTW, our thanks to TrashBagAesthetics.com for their fab photos!

We now know a bit more about some of the prep schools Michelle Obama was looking into while in Washington the before the President-elect arrived in town for their visit with the Bushes at the White House.  One possibility is Georgetown Day; it is co-ed and teaches grades Kindergarten through High School. It was the first integrated school in the city, and also very progressive according to a story in today’s NY Post, with students and teachers on a first name basis. Below, a shot of the school yesterday following Mrs. Obama’s visit. Tuition here would be approximately $27,445 for grades 1-5.

PHOTO: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Other contenders include Sidwell, pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade is actually in the District proper. It is the Quaker school attended by Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton; vice president- elect Joe Biden’s youngest son attends Sidwell now. According to Newsday’s story tuition at Sidwell runs $28,442 for pre-K through 4th grade and $29,442 for grades 5 to 12.

Now it is time for the afore mentioned “True Confessions.” Yesterday we had occasion to spend a good portion of our day in one of the PrincessMobiles, driving halfway across the state. And back again. Having neglected to remember to bring the iPod (a gift from the Princess Consort!) we decided to take our chances with the radio. The buttons are all preset in a plethora of combinations offering a multitude of musical genres. So we reached forward and hit  ‘On” and music filled the air.

Oh yes, this filled the air:

“Have yourself… a merry little Christmas….

Make the yuletide gay…”

And the confession? Yours truly did not immediately push another button, oh no. She sang along with Bing Crosby. And then The Carpenters (honestly) and then Aretha Franklin. And then we turned it off.

The Consort is most concerned.