Monday, June 29, 2015

Happy Birthday to Me!! + Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link Up


So if we are friends on social media then you know that last Tuesday was my birthday! Yayyyy!! I kept it pretty low key on my birthday, I just went out with some of my friends.( The weekend before I celebrated with my honey but I will blog about that later :-) )We went to my friend's new spot Basic Cafe which was really nice. They have a killer warm kale salad and a great mimosa sampler, the apple flavored mimosa was my favorite. After we hung out at small neighborhood bar that makes great drinks for only $4. Can't bet that!!! :-) ... Even though we were keeping it pretty low key for my birthday I still wanted to have the it's my birthday pizzazz. I started off my getting my make-up done at the Mac counter. Blanca did an excellent job. For the outfit I opted for a cute little skater that I have had for a long time (this style works excellent with my body shape) and paired it with my new lace up gladiator heels.

Dress - Forever 21
Heels - JustFab
Clutch - Cole Haan




Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link-Up


I love hosting this link up. It is meant to be a way for bloggers to share their person style, connect with other bloggers, and gain new followers. Bloggers can submit a link to one of their fashion posts using the Inlinkz widget below. I will share a couple of my favorites on social media and in a blog post. Link up will open on Monday and remain open throughout the week.

Featured Fashionistas from last week's link up...

There were so many great looks from last week, it was really hard to pick 2. Here are the two lovely ladies I picked for this week's featured fashionista



I want to thank everyone who linked up last week and can't wait to see your outfits for this week!! Share your favorite outfit(s) post of the week.

Rules:
1. Follow your host on InstagramFacebook, and/or Bloglovin.

2. Use the widget below to link to a specific outfit post, not your homepage

3. Visit and leave a comment on at least 2 other links, preferably one from before and one after your own 
(This is the most important rule. The point of this link up is to network, become better, and help grow our blogs. The only way this will work is if we start by connecting with and supporting each other



   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Monday, June 22, 2015

Black White Blue and Red All Over + Fashion Link Up

Red tank top, Cobalt blue strappy heels, Black and white plaid pants, DIY crocodile print clutch handbag, African American Black Plus Sizer Fashion Bloggers

What do I get when I combine my favorite pants with one of my favorite color combinations??? This amazing look! lol You may remember when I wore a similar color combination here or when I wore these pants before hereThe shoes have an interesting story because I ended up paying $0 for them. Yes free! I went to my local buy sell trade store called Cross Roads in Berkeley, CA and traded in some clothes I had that I wanted to get rid of. What I traded allowed me to get these shoes and a lil cash in return. Not a bad deal in my book.  

Tank Top - Old Navy 
Pants - Ross
Shoes - Cross Roads Trading Company
Clutch Purse - D.I.Y. (yup, I did that :-) )
Earrings - Were my mom's





Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link-Up


I love hosting this link up. It is meant to be a way for bloggers to share their person style, connect with other bloggers, and gain new followers. Bloggers can submit a link to one of their fashion posts using the Inlinkz widget below. I will share a couple of my favorites on social media and in a blog post. Link up will open on Monday and remain open throughout the week.

Featured Fashionistas from last week's link up...








I want to thank everyone who linked up last week and can't wait to see your outfits for this week!! Share your favorite outfit(s) post of the week.

Rules:
1. Follow your host on InstagramFacebook, and/or Bloglovin.

2. Use the widget below to link to a specific outfit post, not your homepage

3. Visit and leave a comment on at least 2 other links, preferably one from before and one after your own 
(This is the most important rule. The point of this link up is to network, become better, and help grow our blogs. The only way this will work is if we start by connecting with and supporting each other

   

   

Monday, June 15, 2015

Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link Up


With everything going on with work, the kids, and my dad's health, I have been feeling like I haven''t been a able to give my blog the time and attention it deserves lately and I have been feeling bad about it. But school is out and I am off of work for the summer!!! (Yayyyyy!!!!!!) Which means I will have more time to devote to my blog. Well first I plan to do almost nothing for about a week to help recuperate, but then I am committing to really spending time on Mahogany Closet and working on making it better. Do you guys have any suggestions? 

I kind of just threw this outfit together, but I really liked how it came out. It all started with the shoes, I bought these on Shoedazzle and fell in love. I really wanted to find a great outfit to wear with them. Before I go on, can I just say that I think my online shoe shopping may be getting out of hand. Hi my name is Melissa and I have a problem. I have been getting amazing deals, which it what keeps pulling me back in, but I have bought so many shoes lately that I have boxes and boxes of shoes that I haven't worn. More shoes keep coming before I can wear the last pairs. I think I need someone to just take my computer away lol. Seriously though, I am really going to commit to not buying anything new for a while. Nothing new until I at least wear everything I have bought so far ... Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled outfit discussion. The striped pencil skirt and tank top I got from Old Navy like 3 years ago, but I hardly wore it because I stayed away from wearing fitting clothes. I didn't like how my stomach poked out, even when I wearing control top underwear, but now that I have figured out a good under clothes control situation I am starting the love these kind of looks. The sunglasses I got on eBay for $2 (boy, I love a good deal) and the purse I made. When I went to go pick up the purse, my 10 year daughter told said "Mommy I don't think that matches your outfit". It may not exactly match, but I really like how it goes with the outfit. It's not matchy matchy and I am kind of dinging the mixing of prints and the vibe. What do you think?

Mahogany Closet American American Black Plus Size Bloggers





Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link-Up


I love hosting this link up. It is meant to be a way for bloggers to share their person style, connect with other bloggers, and gain new followers. Bloggers can submit a link to one of their fashion posts using the Inlinkz widget below. I will share a couple of my favorites on social media and in a blog post. Link up will open on Monday and remain open throughout the week.

Featured Fashionistas from last week's link up...








I want to thank everyone who linked up last week and can't wait to see your outfits for this week!! Share your favorite outfit(s) post of the week.

Rules:
1. Follow your host on InstagramFacebook, and/or Bloglovin.

2. Use the widget below to link to a specific outfit post, not your homepage

3. Visit and leave a comment on at least 2 other links, preferably one from before and one after your own 
(This is the most important rule. The point of this link up is to network, become better, and help grow our blogs. The only way this will work is if we start by connecting with and supporting each other


   


   


Monday, June 8, 2015

Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link Up #20

Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link-Up


I love hosting this link up. It is meant to be a way for bloggers to share their person style, connect with other bloggers, and gain new followers. Bloggers can submit a link to one of their fashion posts using the Inlinkz widget below. I will share a couple of my favorites on social media and in a blog post. Link up will open on Monday and remain open throughout the week.

Featured Fashionistas from last week's link up...











I want to thank everyone who linked up last week and can't wait to see your outfits for this week!! Share your favorite outfit(s) post of the week.

Rules:
1. Follow your host on InstagramFacebook, and/or Bloglovin.

2. Use the widget below to link to a specific outfit post, not your homepage

3. Visit and leave a comment on at least 2 other links, preferably one from before and one after your own 
(This is the most important rule. The point of this link up is to network, become better, and help grow our blogs. The only way this will work is if we start by connecting with and supporting each other

   
   

Monday, June 1, 2015

Free/Cheap Wine Tasting in Sonoma County - Healdsburg, CA + Fashion Link Up


You know I love a good deal and when it come to wine tasting there is no difference

If you plan on visiting Northern California's super popular

wine country but would like to save a little money, going to Sonoma County instead of Napa is a great solution. Many of the wineries in Napa now charge $10 to $20 dollars for a tasting, which starts to add up if you plan to visit multiple wineries.  It can also get pretty crowded in Napa, which can be a pain in the tuchus when you are trying to get in and out on that 2 lane highway. 

Sonoma County has several wineries where you can taste for free! The Sonoma County official website has list all of thee wineries that offer free tastings, there is also a travel
brochure that they will send you in the mail to help you plan your trip. Looks like they recently updated the list, but I would still suggest you check the websites of the wineries you plan to visit or call. Most list their tasting fees right on the website. Many of the ones I checked did still offer free tasting and most of the ones that didn't offer free tasting had only gone up to like $5 a tasting, although some had gone up more. Also at most wineries if you do end up buying a bottle they will take your tasting fee off the cost of the bottle. 

My honey, Daryl and I took a trip recently up to Sonoma County for some wine tasting. I had plans on visiting a

couple different cites in Sonoma County, but we started in Healdsburg and never quite left the city. Sonoma County is so big and has so many wineries, if you are taking a day trip, I think it is better to just pick one city and explore. Each city usually has their downtown area with a bunch of tasting rooms in close proximity and then their more rural area where you enjoy the beautiful scenery, walk around the property and sometime go on an organized tour.

I had big plans on documenting the whole trip and taking pictures of everything so that I can share it with you guys, but somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd winery things started to get a little hazy. lol So, I will share what I have and I promise to do better next time.



Williamson Wines


This was my favorite of the day in terms of experience. They are located in the downtown Healdsburg area. Their employees are super knowledgeable and teach you a lot of about their wines and wine in general.  For each wine they not only give you loads of information about the wine but also offer a small pairing to show you what types food goes best with each type of wine. And the tasting was free! If your a nerd like me and want the education experience when you go wine tasting, you should definitely visit Williams Wines. I would almost suggest that you visit this one last so you are not disappointed with other wineries you visit that day.


Alexander Valley Vineyard 

We ended up rushing out of Williams Wines because were trying to get over to Alexander Valley Vineyard to make their last cave tour of the day. We called and they tried to tour it for us a little, but we got a little lost on the way (we passed it without realizing) and by the time we got there the tour had already gone and been going too long for us to join in. Alexander Valley Vineyard is about 15 minutes from downtown Healdsburg. The people were really nice there. We tasted I believe 6 or 7 wines, they have a couple good Zinfandels. They also have a Gewurtraminer for only $10 that is pretty darn good. We ended up buying it. I like sweet wines, I'm a Moscato, late harvest, port kind of girl and this was the sweetest wine that they had. The people were so nice and sweet they made us want to buy something. The guy even threw in a cork opener for free. After our tasting we went outside to look around and was looking around by the caves taking pictures. The guy who had done our tasting saw us out there and was nice enough to take us on a impromptu tour of the caves. So we ended getting to go anyway! They had excellent service and the tasting was free! Can't beat that.





We ended up visiting here because I had told the people at Williams Wines that I liked sweet wines and they told us that this place had a sparkling wine, Risque, that we should try. So after we left Alexander Valley Vineyard we headed back downtown to the Toad Hollow tasting room. The tasting was $8 per person, you taste 10 different wine and like most wineries they will take off the cost of one tasting for each bottle you buy.We ended buying the Risque. It was nice and sweet but not super sweet (even though I don't mind super sweet lol). It also makes the excellent momosas, yummm.


Windsor Vineyards

I honestly don't remember a whole lot about this places because I was a little inebriated by this point, but what I do know if they had my favorite wine of the day. Their Moscoto was sooo delicious. Not only did I revisit it a couple times, during the tasting, but we of course had to take a bottle home.


Mahogany Closet Mondays Fashion Link-Up


I'm super excited to be hosting this link up. This link up is meant to be a way for bloggers to share their person style, connect with other bloggers, and gain new followers. Bloggers can submit a link to one of their fashion posts using the Inlinkz widget below. I will share a couple of my favorites on social media and in a blog post. Link up will open on Monday and remain open throughout the week.

Featured Fashionistas from last week's link up...






I want to thank everyone who linked up last week and can't wait to see your outfits for this week!! Share your favorite outfit(s) post of the week.

Rules:
1. Follow your host on InstagramFacebook, and/or Bloglovin.

2. Use the widget below to link to a specific outfit post, not your homepage

3. Visit and leave a comment on at least 2 other links, preferably one from before and one after your own 
(This is the most important rule. The point of this link up is to network, become better, and help grow our blogs. The only way this will work is if we start by connecting with and supporting each other