B.Cannon Look Book

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on my review for my first exam in grad school. So far my review is 6 pages long, and I'm not even through all of the power-point presentations OR the 7 chapters of text. I have to finish my review today because it's my last day off before my test. I have a feeling it's going to be a looooooooong day!

Other than studying, I went to The Container Store and Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things for the store. Then, when Eric got home, we went to Sushi Zen and rented Drive from Red Box. We didn't know much about this movie, but it seemed like it would be a good action flick that would be worth the $1.12 charge. Well, this movie was DIFFERENT, to say the least. It was soooooo sllloooowwwww for most of the movie, then when things finally did get exciting it was overly graphic and pretty gross. I like all of the Kill Bill movies, and those are really graphic, but this movie had me looking away and nearly gagging. As a whole, it was OK. I'm not mad that we spent $1.12 on it... but I might be upset if we paid $5.00 to rent it through AT&T U-Verse. Haha.

With all that being said, here was my look yesterday... 

Vintage {my late great-grandma's} Ballantyne of Peebles mustard yellow cardigan

Anthropologie paisley a-line top

Zara chocolate brown leggings

Gianni Bini tan slouchy boots

Ann Taylor LOFT burgundy necklace

David Yurman cuff bracelets

Louis Vuitton bow bracelet in Rouge Fauviste

Here's a close up picture. 

This cardigan is super special.

Here's the old-timey label in the sweater. So cool.

Why it Works: 

This look is perfect for a day like yesterday-- studying, running errands, going to a casual dinner, etc. It's extremely comfortable and easy. The color palette is what I love most about this look. Mustard yellow, burgundy, brown, navy... all of these colors are super rich and bold-- they look amazing together. As with the last look I wrote about, this look plays with proportion nicely. The loose fitting top and cardigan balance well with the slim fitting skinnies. This cardigan is truly unique, and every time I wear it I get tons of compliments. It's so fun to incorporate something vintage that was passed down from a family member. To make it even better, this sweater really is on trend. The color, shape, and Peter-Pan style collar are all being reflected in several designer collections right now. As a whole, this look is fun and playful while still maintaining an on-trend appearance.

Style Challenge: 

If you have something vintage in your wardrobe, do some surfing around on the websites of designer collections to see if your item is similar to something currently being shown. For instance, here is a picture I found on Google of an item from the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 Ready To Wear collection...

It's similar to the color of my cardigan, and it features a similar neckline and collar shape. It's fun to wear sentimental or vintage pieces while still making them look current and fresh!

XO,

B.CANNON

B.Cannon Look Book

I can't believe January is OVER and it's almost Eric's birthday and Valentine's day! 

This year is going to fly by... 

I can already tell. 

To give you an update on Grad School, things are going very well! I'm getting the hang of online classes and so far I've had to write 3 papers, participate in a couple online discussions, and take a couple quizzes. Best news yet-- I have a 100% in one class and a 97% in the other class. WOO!! I have my first exam this week, so I'll spend most of the day today creating my review for the test. Wish me luck!!

In other news, my dad turned 50 on January 30th, 

and Eric turns 28 on February 9th! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

to both of you wonderful men!

Last night, Eric and I went to the city manager's house to watch the Superbowl. I loved the halftime show-- Madonna throwback songs will win me over anytime any place. Haha! She's so fabulous. And what's more impressive-- she's old enough to be a mother to any player on that football field, but she still looks absolutely fabulous. Her thigh-high boots were making me drool. Although I was not happy about the Giant's victory, it was a fun evening anyway.

Here's one of my looks from a couple weeks ago. It was actually what I wore to my follow up appointment for my LASIK surgery. That explains why I'm wearing glasses in my picture-- I wasn't allowed to wear eye makeup yet! 

 BCBG Maxazria black, long sleeve shirt

Ann Taylor black cowl neck, sleeveless tunic

Ann Taylor LOFT gray skinny jeans

Louis Vuitton lurex shawl monogram in Amarante 

Nine West over-the-knee black leather boots

David Yurman jewelry

Anthropologie glasses

Why it Works: 

I love this look!! It's super chic but still casual enough for running errands, lunching, etc. The key here, as I've mentioned before, is the proportion. The long tunic with the tall boots gives excellent balance to this look. The monochromatic color palette also helps to make the look feel sophisticated. The pop of color with the deep purple scarf is perfect because it's not too much color, but just enough to give the look a little extra something. The silver lurex threading in the scarf compliments the gray skinny jeans nicely, adding a hint of glam!

Style Challenge:
Try using a single pop of color on a monochromatic palette for a super sophisticated yet very fashionable look! Also, remember to layer and use proper proportion! :)

XO,
B.CANNON

A Merry {Cannon} Christmas

Goodness, I feel like it's been a month since I've written in my blog-- although it's only been a week! I guess that's a good sign. I've been doing a really good job at keeping up with my blog, and it makes me so excited to see a new follower every few days! I'm so glad there are people out there who are enjoying my posts :)

So, let's rewind to a little over a week ago-- and talk about Christmas!! What an incredibly fun, family-filled, whirlwind!!

I worked on Christmas Eve {you may recall my Look Book post from my Christmas Eve look, if not you can reference it here} and then right after work concluded around 6:45pm, Eric picked me up and we drove straight from the Dallas Galleria to Elgin, Texas! Every other year we have spent Christmas morning with my family and then we drive to Elgin in the early afternoon on Christmas, but this year we did the opposite. It was nice to spend Christmas morning with his family {this includes his grandparents, 2 great aunts, his mom, sister, brother-in-law, and 2 nephews} and I know they enjoyed us being there. Around 2:00pm, we headed back on the road to DFW to spend Christmas evening with my family. We arrived back at home around 6:00pm, and then my mom came over for our gift exchange. {This is also when she got me hooked on Words With Friends-- for which I may never forgive her! Haha!}.

We received so many wonderful and thoughtful gifts from our family members, but most of all it was just really nice to see everyone and have a day to just spend with family. I really wish Christmas could last a few days instead of just one day! I love when everything is closed, so you couldn't spend your day running errands or working-- even if you tried!

Last but certainly not least, I must mention my incredible present from Eric-- my Melrose bag in Amarante. I have been in love with this bag for quite some time now, and I did NOT expect to receive this for Christmas.  {To read about how Eric surprised me with this bag, click here}. Although Eric did reveal his purchase about a week before Christmas, I was not allowed to open the gift and start using my bag until Christmas day. I was SO excited to start using my bag-- and I still can't believe it's actually mine! It's GORGEOUS.

My stunning Melrose in Amarante...
the first time I carried it to work after Christmas :)

The beautiful gift that Eric's mom gave me...
I loved how she wrapped it so I had to take a picture!

And just for good measure, here is a break down of my Look on Christmas:

Ann Taylor LOFT tan sweater dress

Zara gray leggings 

Antonio Melani black, suede boots

Ann Taylor LOFT black, brown, tan, and gray feather headband

{The headband was given to me by my Secret Santa  at work-- Jessica! I was so excited to receive this gift on Christmas Eve because I had already planned to wear this look on Christmas, but this headband was an even better accessory for my look than the original headband I planned to wear-- thank you, Jess!! I LOVE it.}

I hope your Christmas was full of love & laughter,

family, friends, food & fun!

...and a little fashion, too :)

XO,

B.CANNON

Merry Christmas!

I'm going to write a more detailed post later, but here are some precious photos from our Christmas thus far...

Wishing you and yours the most wonderful Christmas full of God's blessings!

XO, 

B.CANNON

You better watch out, you better not cry...

Well, I cried. 

I cried happy tears this evening when I came home after a super long, incredibly hectic, and frustrating day at work to find a Louis Vuitton box under our tree!

Eric came to my store this evening "just to say hello because he knew I wasn't having an awesome day"... Well, truth be told, he (with the help of another manager and associate) purchased my favorite bag (Melrose in Amarante) without me ever knowing! I was busy helping clients, trying to break free so I could chat with him, and then after I came back to the floor from making a quick run to the stock room, he vanished! Justin, an associate at our store and one of Eric's partners in crime, told me that Eric said he would "be right back". After a follow up phone call, Eric said he had a sudden stomach ache and had to leave immediately. Gross, but believable. So I felt horrible that he drove all the way to the Galleria (35 minutes) and I never even got to talk to him! He assured me that it was fine, and he was just out and about running errands anyway.

When I finally got home this evening around 11:30pm, Eric said that our neighbors brought us a Christmas present for us to open; he said, "go get it, it's the gift bag under the tree".. So I walked over to the tree, picked up the gift bag without even noticing the large Louis Vuitton box right next to the bag, and brought the gift into the kitchen for us to open. He started laughing, by which I was completely confused. He asked me if there was anything else under the tree, so I went back in the formal living room and immediately noticed the big brown box!!! I was stunned. I just looked at it for several seconds and then, without looking away, I asked, "what's that?" To which Eric replied, "it looks like a Louis Vuitton box!" Then I said, "whose is that?!?" Eric just laughed, then said, "who do you think it's for?"

At that point I knew exactly what was in the box. Pretty much from day one {well, that's a lie, on day one every single product looked amazing to me} I have wanted the Melrose bag in Amarante. And that's what's in the box. He let me take it out and hold it, but then he made me put it back and said I'm not allowed to open it again until Christmas. {Definitely do-able since I've been staring at that bag on the shelf in our store for about 260 days now! Haha!}

I'm shocked, ecstatic, and sooooo looking forward to Christmas day when I can start carrying my new, gorgeous bag.

It's been official for a long time, but now it's even more official-- I HAVE THE MOST WONDERFUL HUSBAND IN THE WORLD!

I love you, Eric!

Thank you for spoiling me :)

Louis Vuitton {Galleria Dallas} Holiday Dinner!

On Sunday night, the employees from our store gathered together for a Christmas Dinner to kick off the holiday season! I was in charge of arranging the dinner {which I was really excited about} so I wanted to make sure we got the most bang for our buck! I was really pleased with how everything turned out!

I chose to make reservations with the restaurant in the Le Meridien hotel. A representative from the hotel came to our store several months ago to tell us about the renovations that have been completed, and she urged me to consider Le Meridien for a future event or party. Well, her efforts paid off because when it came time to plan this party, they were the first place that came to mind. I was hoping that since they have undergone a renovation recently, and they were sending people out to drum up some business, they might be willing to give us a great deal on a pretty fancy menu for our dinner. I was right-- they were absolutely willing to work with my requests, and they created a fabulous menu for us that was exactly within our budget after tax and gratuity. Shall we say-- impressive!

Our meal consisted of: 

• A salad with candied pecans, dried cranberries and crostini, with a white balsamic vinaigrette dressing
• Butternut squash bisque (so yummy-- this was my favorite!!) 
• Steak fillet 
• Seared Atlantic salmon with a lobster and shrimp warm salad with a chardonnay butter-sauce
• Steamed winter vegetables 
• Pumpkin risotto
• Yule log for dessert 
• 2 glasses of wine per person   

Yum, yum and more yum!!

After our dinner concluded, we played Catch Phrase! If you haven't played that game, you need to go buy it right now! It's SO.MUCH.FUN. We laughed SO hard!! It was a wonderful time. In whole, our dinner was around 4 hours long!

Here are just a couple photos... the first one (of the hotel) I got from the Le Meridien website. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and the lighting was dim, so I didn't get many good photos. Although, one of our associates (Judy) brought her camera and took some group photos, so when I get those from her I will post them :)

Le Meridien Hotel

Some of my co workers :)

My favorite part of dinner-- the Butternut Squash Bisque 

Yule Log for dessert!

My favorite Vuittonite, Kyle!

BIRTH-DAY-PAR-TAY!

Wow... I have several things to blog about since my last birthday post!

This time of year always gets so crazy busy! It all starts with my birthday, then a week later it's Thanksgiving, Black Friday (the Holidays in retail are NUTS for those of you who have never had the pleasure of experiencing it first hand), decorating for Christmas, Holiday parties, Christmas, New Years... WHEW!! It's exhausting to just write about!

First things first--- Let's recap my super fun Birthday Party!!

{Really quick-- I'd like to take a moment to say that I LOVE BIRTHDAYS; my birthday, Eric's birthday, your birthday, my parent's birthday, my grandparent's birthday... I love them ALL. I don't understand why some people make birthdays out to be a small occasion that are not worthy of celebrating-- that's just silly. First of all, who needs a more legitimate excuse to celebrate your life or the life of someone else, and secondly, having a birthday to celebrate is much happier than the alternative-- haha!}

With that being said, this year I wanted to celebrate my birthday by having a dinner party with several of my amazing friends! I decided to have the dinner at Javier's in Dallas. {For those of you who are not familiar with Javier's, it's basically a little gem of a Mexican food place right in the middle of Dallas near Highland Park. It's practically famous with Dallas locals and it's been around for over 30 years.} The restaurant offers some really fabulous private dining areas, so I was hoping for a good amount of RSVP's that would allow us to reserve one of the private rooms without struggling to meet the food and beverage minimum of $800.

I made a guest list and Eric sent out email invitations to everyone from Paperless Post... {if you have not used Paperless Post, you need to start. It's amazing. And it has an iPhone ap.} The next step was just waiting for people to RSVP. I think my guest list consisted of around 35 people, with the assumption that probably half or a little less than half would be available to attend. Well, to my very excited surprise, almost EVERYONE was able to attend-- a total of 24 people!! Needless to say, we had no problem filling the private room! Haha!

We had SUCH a great time, and I absolutely LOVED seeing some of my friends that I don't get to see all the time. I'm so thankful for all of the super wonderful people that I have in my life, and I want to thank each person who attended my dinner for helping make my birthday a memorable one!!

Here it goes... Thank you to:
Athena (she told me she wasn't able to come because she lives in Abilene now... And then she came and surprised me!! Best friend ever!!),
Athena's sister Courtney,
Devin and Stan,
Corbin, Jared, Ashley, and Ryan (who all made the hour drive to Dallas from Fort Worth),
Leslie and Keith,
Carly and Ryan,
Kyle, Kellie, and Adam,
Jim, Sean, Bobby, Chelsea, and Ross,
And last but certainly not least,
my wonderful brother, Trevor,
and my amazing husband, Eric!

Speaking of amazing husband, when the dinner was concluding, all of the sudden the lights in the room dimmed and in came the most amazing birthday cake! Eric had the lady who made our wedding cakes (Donna Nino from Opulent Cakes) design a cake that looked like a Louis Vuitton hat box! It was amazing and such a fun and incredibly thoughtful surprise! ...and not to mention, SO YUMMY! It was white chocolate cake with 3 layers of raspberry filling!

After dinner, we went to Corner Bar (walking distance from Javier's) and continued the fun! It was a great night! I'd also like to give a very special THANK YOU to my little brother for being our designated driver! It definitely wouldn't have been as much fun if Eric had to refrain from drinking so he could drive us home.

I'd say my 26th birthday celebration was quite a hit-- I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy of the party invitation from Paperless Post, the private room at Javier's, my fabulous cake, and all of my wonderful friends who attended!

My life with Louis V!

I think it's about time that I give an update on my job!

For those of you who do not know, I was hired as the Operations Manager for Louis Vuitton at the Dallas Galleria in March 2011. It has been a pretty drastic change from any other company I have worked for, but I am really loving the brand and the potential for growth!

The first challenge was just understanding and embracing my new role as Operations Manager. If you weren't aware, I was a Store Manager in my previous job with Ann Taylor LOFT for about a year and a half... and there are a lot of perks that go along with being the store manager! You can make your own schedule, hire your own staff, develop your people to fit your management style, discipline your staff when you feel it's necessary, set your own standards, etc... The list goes on and on. Now, however, the authoritative hierarchy at the store in which I work is as follows:

A: Store Manager
B: Operations Manager & Leather Goods Manager
C: Shoe Manager
D: Accessories Manager
E: Client Relations Manager
F: Sales Staff

As you can see, I'm no longer the head honcho... And while there are many good things that come along with being in my current role, it is a tough transition.

Basically, my role as Ops Manager encompasses everything EXCEPT sales, hiring, coaching/talent development, product knowledge, and training. That leaves tasks such as preparing for the annual policy & procedure audit, executing full inventories semiannually, managing store budget, supplies, uniform orders, shrink, shipping, receiving, repairs, all things HR related, travel booking/expenses, sales audit reconciliation, housekeeping, contracting labor for any store issues (electrical, plumbing, carpet cleaning, fire extinguisher inspection, etc)... I could go on and on!! It's kind of broad, as you may have gathered. I think the hardest part for me, besides the loss of freedom to run things my own way, is not having numerical figures tracking my success. It used to make me feel really good when the store had a profitable month, or when I trained my staff on something new and I could see an immediate increase in sales... but as Ops Manager, there are very few ways to measure my success. I guess if we aren't receiving collection letters, the toilet isn't overflowing, and the lights are all working, it's a pretty operationally sound day! Haha!

Despite the transition, this is a great role for me because all of my previous managerial roles were sales and talent focused, so this forces me to learn all aspects of the job-- which makes me a much more well-rounded manager! :)

Beyond learning my role, I have been learning a LOT about the company by attending some very amazing training workshops in New York City and Miami! Talk about FABULOUS! I have NEVER worked for a company that invests so much time and money into training... It's unreal! And all trip expenses are put on my very own corporate AMEX (and of course paid by the company). It's pretty sweet to have a card that says "Louis Vuitton" under my name... Not gonna lie! Haha!

In addition to my amazing trainings, I have also traveled to Miami for a "Global Store" opening. (A global store is pretty much the biggest, highest level store in our company that carries all product categories.) The big store at the Bal Harbour shops in Miami closed and reopened in Aventura Mall as a global store! I was part of the crew who helped orchestrate the move of merchandise and supplies, and then helped get everything put away in it's proper place before the grand opening! It was such a wonderful and educational experience, and I got to meet a ton of corporate big-wigs! Bonus!

Ok well, I think that's all the news I have on the job front for now... But here are some super fab pictures from all of my LV adventures thus far... Enjoy!! :)