FemmeJolie

Textures, materials, patterns--all of these are changing with new technology, and some of the looks are really extreme. For now, I think I'll opt out of black with white tips for my next formal gig, but silver and gold foil? That's intriguing... Read on to find out more.
--B.B.
Beauty: Twentyfirst-Century Style

You're walking down the street and you see your best friend and your boyfriend walking out of your favorite coffee shop. What do you do? The answer to this question probably depends on how high you score on the envy-o-meter.
--A.T.
How jealous are you?

I'm going to get on my soapbox now, and give you some serious advice: Forget your diet for once, get your girls together, and blow your paycheck on a really fine meal. I promise you won't regret it, or forget it. The last time I went to Europe, I earmarked a ghastly sum of money to spend for MY HALF of a spectacular meal at a restaurant my best friend had told me about. Much to my dismay, when I got there, the restaurant we were planning to visit was closed for the Christmas holidays. Rather than settle, we skipped the outing.

We finally got to go, and it was truly amazing. The chef comes to your table and asks if there is anything you don't like to eat, and then goes back into the kitchen and cooks you a "surprise" meal. It was an experience I'll never forget. Why am I so obsessed with fine dining? Some people would argue that it's better to spend your splurge money on something tangible, like a fabulous purse or a great jacket. I suppose I'm operating from the exact opposite philosophy. If I spend too much money on food, I don't have any tangible reminders to feel guilty about, only the wonderful memories of the food I ate. (I still remember the white bean soup we ate in Northern Italy when I was 13 - this has been a thing with me for a long time). Besides, it's only one meal. And even if you "spend" all your fat grams for one week on that one gorgeous dessert, you can skip sweets for the rest of the week to make up for it. No doubt about it: controlled splurging is the way to go. How to find the restaurants that will satisfy your urges? Here's one site that's a sure bet for just about anyone, anywhere in the U.S.
--B.B.
CuisineNet

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, Bruce Willis, Britney Spears, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr...What do all these people have in common. Yeah, Yeah, it's pretty easy to tell, they are all celebrities, therefore they are always providing us with hot gossip topics. Find out what your favorite Celebs have been up to lately.
--A.T.
Celebrity Gossip


10.12.00 Howdy all - hope the week is going well for you. It's Thursday, which is Girl-Night for me. I either go to dance class (intermediate! I'm moving up!) or go out with my girlfriends, and make sure I get my nails done so that they look good for the weekend. As much as I do with my hands (cooking, typing, etc.,), manicures rarely last me more than about 5 days, no matter how careful I am. That beats my friend who just got married - she had acrylic tips put on the day before the wedding, then broke one that night. Fixed it the next day, then broke it again right before the wedding. Poor thing - she felt totally weird with those long tips on her fingers. Anyway, speaking of nails, I've included a little musing on nail trends, and a link to an article that talks about them in more detail. Hope you enjoy it. The friend who got married is one of my best dining companions. Last weekend, we finally went to this FABULOUS restaurant we've been trying to go to ever since she moved. The fun we had, eating and talking and laughing, was a memory I'll cherish for a long time. I just know we'll still be eating like that--just us girls--when we're old and grey. That got me thinking, so I included an article to encourage all of you to go out and do something similar. If you have any great sites to recommend or comments on what you would like to see in this newsletter, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Betsy Boyd & Amy Taylor Co-editors, FemmeJolie Quick - look at your hands. What do your nails look like? Mine are a basic red, comparatively short. I stick to simplicity when it comes to nails. I've always known that there are a lot of trends in fingernail fashion--this season we'll see a lot of return to the 80s, I imagine. But trends go beyond any one year, or season. Experts predict big changes in nail fashion over the next decade, and it was all new to me. I saw a young woman in Detroit this weekend with a tiny die (singular of dice) embedded into her acrylic nail. I wondered if that got in her way when she was counting money. A French magazine I saw recently showed a picture of pink nails with gold tips. Interesting, I guess, but in the lighting for the picture, it looked dirty. I say, use caution if you want to follow that trend. Those kinds of advances are not particularly new. I lived in Texas for a while, and a good friend of mine used to wear charms dangling from her acrylic pinkie-nail, and sometimes she'd get appliques...but the stuff in this article makes those innovations look primitive.		Textures, materials, patterns--all of these are changing with new technology, and some of the looks are really extreme. For now, I think I'll opt out of black with white tips for my next formal gig, but silver and gold foil? That's intriguing... Read on to find out more. --B.B. Beauty: Twentyfirst-Century Style You're walking down the street and you see your best friend and your boyfriend walking out of your favorite coffee shop. What do you do? The answer to this question probably depends on how high you score on the envy-o-meter. --A.T. How jealous are you? I'm going to get on my soapbox now, and give you some serious advice: Forget your diet for once, get your girls together, and blow your paycheck on a really fine meal. I promise you won't regret it, or forget it. The last time I went to Europe, I earmarked a ghastly sum of money to spend for MY HALF of a spectacular meal at a restaurant my best friend had told me about. Much to my dismay, when I got there, the restaurant we were planning to visit was closed for the Christmas holidays. Rather than settle, we skipped the outing. We finally got to go, and it was truly amazing. The chef comes to your table and asks if there is anything you don't like to eat, and then goes back into the kitchen and cooks you a "surprise" meal. It was an experience I'll never forget. Why am I so obsessed with fine dining? Some people would argue that it's better to spend your splurge money on something tangible, like a fabulous purse or a great jacket. I suppose I'm operating from the exact opposite philosophy. If I spend too much money on food, I don't have any tangible reminders to feel guilty about, only the wonderful memories of the food I ate. (I still remember the white bean soup we ate in Northern Italy when I was 13 - this has been a thing with me for a long time). Besides, it's only one meal. And even if you "spend" all your fat grams for one week on that one gorgeous dessert, you can skip sweets for the rest of the week to make up for it. No doubt about it: controlled splurging is the way to go. How to find the restaurants that will satisfy your urges? Here's one site that's a sure bet for just about anyone, anywhere in the U.S. --B.B. CuisineNet Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, Bruce Willis, Britney Spears, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr...What do all these people have in common. Yeah, Yeah, it's pretty easy to tell, they are all celebrities, therefore they are always providing us with hot gossip topics. Find out what your favorite Celebs have been up to lately. --A.T. Celebrity Gossip