Tag Archives: cocktails

alt. design summit 2013 {day 2}

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swan

On day 2, I spent most of the morning sitting in on a round table discussion involving a new project hosting web videos! I made a submission video yesterday and am keeping my fingers crossed! I will keep you posted! In the afternoon, The Land of Nod took over one of the lounges and threw a tea party with a swan theme. How fun is this photo op?

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These black swan floral arrangements rocked my world, and the black and white napkins…just stop it! Too cute!

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At Alt., it is all about the business cards. The card wall is filling up! There were 650 attendees this year.

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OK, Fridays lunch and keynote speaker Stephan Sagmeister blew me away. You can imagine the rooms surprise when his naked photo appeared on the large screens next to him a few minutes into his talk. He is a world-famous graphic designer, has given TED talks and wrote a film called…The Happy Film. He was hilarious, captivating and super inspiring!

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How adorable is this candy table by Kara? Just incase you needed an afternoon pick me up! The style and attention to detail at Alt. is spot on. It’s like a fantasy land.

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Jessica Alba was there talking about her brand The Honest Co. It was cool to be in the same room with her again! I just adore her and she is so sweet. I met her last year at The Lucky FABB event.

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This was a giant cork board map of the US and everyone tacked their cards to the area they were from! Look, there I am!

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Ahh…the beautiful Grand America Hotel at night, and no, that deer family isn’t real!

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Myself and the lovely Tamera Beardsley at the Friday night mini suite parties. The entire 3rd floor of the hotel gets taken over by sponsors who create themed mini parties in the suites. It is so much fun! This year Better Homes & Garden hosted the Color Pop Dessert Bash, Blurb hosted a Reunion Class of 2013 party, Flipboard’s theme was Rolling Out the Red Carpet, Go Mighty + Red Envelope had a Crush on You Party, Hayneedle hosted a Great Gatsby Lawn Party, Method + The Girls with Glasses hosted an It’s a Mod Mod World dance party, Vecco + Brita Olsen had a Tinsel & Timber party and Weathermob had a Weather With Style party. It was an amazing evening of food, fun and lots of giveaways!

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This was the photo booth at The Hayneedle party where we ran into Lia Griffith of ellinée.

So, who wants to come with me to Alt. 2014??!

alt. design summit 2013 {day 1}

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book

I just spent time in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Alt. Design Conference, which is a magical couple of days full of bloggers, networking, classes, parties, dinners and a lot of business cards, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Heck, even if I didn’t have a blog I would want to be there! It all started last Wednesday night with a kick off dinner. There were several restaurants around town hosting small groups of bloggers. This year I chose a cozy little old school spot, Lamb’s Grill. They are known for their rice pudding (which I loved) and a friend commented that her grandparents had dinner there on their wedding night, too cute. The evening was sponsored by Blurb, an awesome company that prints books, magazines, ebooks and much, much more. They gave me the opportunity to create a book from my blog (above) and it was incredible to see my photos come to life in print. I was so impressed with the quality compared to other photo books I have made. I can’t wait to get creative and maybe make a cookbook or Lipstick & Leopard Print the magazine? The possibilities are endless!

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Every year Alt. SLC is held at The beautiful Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. I was thrilled to be able to stay there this year. The rooms were gorgeous and this was our view! Wade makes this a ski vacation during the day and then comes out to party with me at night. It’s perfect!

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Alt. began on Thursday morning and I just couldn’t help myself…first stop, the HP booth. You know how I love a silly photo op!

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For my first class of the day, I chose The Reality of an Everyday Video Series with Sarah Carey from Martha Stewert. I thought this would be interesting because I have a lot of recipes on my blog but have never thought about doing a cooking video…until now. Sarah Carey was hilarious and I left the class feeling totally inspired. Later in the day, I was approached by a woman who was interested in having me host a web show. Crazy! More to come on that soon!

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On Thursday and Friday, Alt. hosts a formal lunch in the Grand Ballroom and the food is delicious considering they are feeding 650 people at the same time. The keynote speaker on Thursday was best-selling author Chris Anderson, who spoke about the power of invention. I really enjoyed his presentation, especially when he showed us what a 3-D printer can do! You can make just about anything with one of those. Now I want one!

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Thursday evening was the Clue themed party complete with taxidermy animals as you entered the event. I searched high and low for the right outfit and ended up as Professor Plum and felt fabulous! Wade looked pretty darn handsome in his suit and Professor Plum tie too!

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Wow! Look at those teeth!

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I found another Professor Plum with the same fluffy jacket!!! The lovely Lia Griffith of ellinée. It was fantastic and everyone at the party thought we had planned it!

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These ladies looked perfectly themed together. I especially loved Miss Scarlett and her matching hair! We have Lindsey of lindsey bee as Colonel Mustard, Patti of Patti Murphy Designs as Miss Peacock, Allessia of Little Lessy as Professor Plum and Laura of the lbeau room as Miss Scarlett.

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Look! It’s me and with one of my favorite LA food bloggers Kristin of The Cuisinerd.

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I just loved meeting Amber of damask love, she was so adorable and full of energy. I was also thrilled to see Rachel from Handmade Charlotte again. We met last year at Alt. Summit 2012 and she was one of my faves!

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Meet Tamera Beardsley. We bumped into each other on the elevator the first night and it was a girl crush at first sight! I am a sucker for bold jewelry and tulle and she had it all. We couldn’t get enough of each other and had Wade take our pic almost immediately! Wait until you see us the next night!

More of Alt. Summit to come this week…stay tuned!

the gin ferguson

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We named this drink The Gin Ferguson after our friend and cocktail guru, Matt Ferguson. It may look fresh and spring like but the ginger and pecan bitters makes it perfect for those cold, winter nights. It would be a fabulous beverage to have at a Golden Globes Party this weekend! Cheers!

Gin Ferguson
2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. ginger syrup (see recipe)
soda water
1/2 lemon juiced
lemon twist
mint sprig
3 dashes of toasted pecan bitters

Pour gin, ginger syrup and lemon juice into a collins glass or tall glass filled with ice. Top with soda water and bitters. Stir and garnish with lemon twist and mint sprig. Enjoy!

Ginger Simple Syrup

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 pieces (about 10 inches long and 4 ounces; or use several small pieces) fresh ginger,  cut into very thin rounds
1 teaspoon black pepper corns

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add ginger and peppercorns and simmer 1 to 2 hours adding more ginger if necessary to make it very spicy. Pour syrup through a fine sieve into an airtight container; discard ginger and peppercorns. Refrigerate up to 1 month.

toasted pecan bitters
Bitters have become super popular again thanks to the craft cocktail movement and there are many artisanal producers popping up all the time. Miracle Mile is an awesome example and the one we used in the making of this cocktail! Check out the wide variety of bitters and take your cocktails to the next level. You won’t be disoppointed!

happy anniversary

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Lipstick & Leopard Print turns 1 this month and I couldn’t be more excited!
What a year it’s been! Below are 12 of my favorite posts of the year.
1yranniversary
1. grilled peaches with burrata
2. integratron
3. au revoir foie gras
4. altitude design summit 2012
5. the bubbly granny

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6. lemon twist
7. the best bloody mary

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8. homemade pho
9. valentine’s day dinner
10. a girly-girls guide to backpacking
11. fresh faced for nye
12. altitude design summit 2012

It has been a crazy year of blogging and I couldn’t of done it without the love, support and enthusiasm of my readers, friends, family and most importantly my photographer, chef, “editor in chief”, and husband Wade, AND my dear friend Carrie for all of her help getting this thing up and running! Thank you all for helping me grow Lipstick & Leopard Print this last year. Like my friend and fellow blogger Gala Darling says,”it is hard work, hard work, hard work”. This is very true, and going through this amazing journey has made me realize my passion for writing and sharing my experiences. I have had a lot of fun and unique opportunities this last year and I am so grateful. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Cheers to another great year ahead!

girls day out

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My friend Mary and I recently spent the afternoon shopping our way through the LA Ultimate Women’s Expo. There were a bunch of Keynote speakers like Niecy Nash (one of my faves…she is hilarious!), massages, haircuts, wine tastings, crafts, workshops, cooking demos, giveaways (we still have our fingers crossed for that trip to Paris!!), and a ton of shopping! Check out some of my favorites from the day…


1. I entered to win this hilarious box of sexy stuff from TABOO. They made sure to let me know that the copy of 50 Shades of Grey was not included. Haha! 2. Yes, those are breast implants. They insisted I hold one and wow are those things heavy. No thanks. 3. Teeth whitening anyone? 4. This coat and purse by Virtuarte are made from can tabs.


These are my 2 scores of the day. I love how tough this bracelet is, it fits my small wrist, and it was only 10 bucks! The clutch is inspired by Alexander McQueen and I have always wanted one. This one, with it’s leopard print and skulls, was perfect and just $35!


1. I would love to rent this furniture from Lux Lounge EFR and throw an extravagant party! 2. Too cool…get pampered in an Airstream by VOTRE VU. 3. Colorful, all natural body scrubs that smell delicious, by Bon Bliss. 4. Get crafty with Professor Pincushin.

Thanks Mary for a super fun girls day out! There were so many amazing speakers, things to see and products to try that we could of spent another day here. Check the bottom of the website as they also do this in Arizona, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Georgia! I’ll see you back in LA next year!