When the weather is perfect, you find reasons to be out and about with friends. With many people working various hours, it's fun to reconnect with those you work with or never see at some type of an event or a regular hangout. The 1st Annual Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival takes place every Tuesday through August 11th and is not only a great time to hang out, but from 5 - 7pm, you can enjoy music, bbq and of course wine that is brought to you by City Winery. It's a fun block party that you can always head out to before you head home or continue the night! Take some time to check out who will be performing each week and note that other vendors will be at this event as well so you'll want to check them out as well!

I love a great find and there is nothing like sharing it with others! This week I have a lot of goodies to share with you and I am kicking iit off with the Fundraising in Style. Being a designer myself, I love supporting those who put themselves out there and with 10% of the proceeds of your purchases going to support music, art and more - your affordable splurges will go far in maintaining those who wish to remain creative! Take a peek and I hope to see you there this Thursday!

This morning, I got up with a huge agenda of things to do and of course, I needed some music to set the mood. Via Twitter, I had the opportunity to meet @KevinWhalum who has an amazing jazz sound that's great to wake up to, work with and more. Of course, he is available on iTunes but you can also visit Kevin Whalum, to learn more about him! His new CD, One Life to Live has so many great songs on it! I love his rendition of 'How Sweet It Is To be Loved By You' and I also love 'I'm In Love'. It's great music that's easy to listen to and definitely sets the mood! Take some time to check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Ah the Christmas Albums, the other week I talked about Sheryl Crow and today I bring you Amy Grant! When I think about the holiday CDs, I do think of Amy Grant as she has made previous CDs within this genre. This CD is actually a best of holiday collection with four additional songs that have been added! If you have been collecting her music for years, you'll enjoy new song and if you have yet to include her within your collection, you'll love seeing what everyone has come to love about her gift. I love the fact that Amy comes back with her 25 year career to bring her spin on Christmas songs! Take some time to check out some of her songs and also visit her website to learn more about what Amy is up to.

This morning Sippin Saturday is up a bit late as we are removing our old bed and bringing in our new one. So to assist with this change, we decided to listen to something new and I came across Manze Dayila and the Nago Nation who does World, Afro-Beat and Reggae! For a quick introduction, you can go here and then to learn a lot more and to see a very interesting website, you can go to her home. I love the use of all the instruments throughout her songs. Manze can be compared to a number of people but most closely to Nina Simone her voice is one of authority and an intense need to share her messages. Arriving to this country at the age of 19 from Haiti to Miami Beach and years later she would be discovered in a NY subway station singing.

I love the fact that she has such a distinct sound and as I sit and watch people putting our new platform bed together, it creates a very chill vibe around the condo and is also very inspirational. Definitely check out more about Manze Dayila and her bandmates!

Yes we are in day two of Fashion Week but if there is one thing that you notice besides the clothes, it's the music. I will be tracking down the playlist of most of these shows as I have really enjoyed hearing it! A few days ago Girls on Film contacted me wanting to be included in this week's Sippin' Saturdays focus on indie artists! I love that this female group is all about style and is a blend of new wave, dance tracks, 80's pop. It's quite a combination and a lot of fun to listen to as well. I am sad to hear that they don't tour a lot up here but if you're in Florida, you stand a very good chance at hearing them sing! One of my favorite songs, is Distressed. Very fun song and you can click to hear a snippet. It definitely gets you moving and it iPod worthy as well. Check out the various CD's they have released and their site as well!

LISTEN ~ VERTIGO

If you have known me since I have been out in the East Coast, you know that I began working in music and of course with those that were indie's. I have always had a passion for this and although I have spent a large time of my years here in fashion, I never lost site of that other portion of my creative side. The original Kitten Lounge that started years ago, was an Internet radio show that blended my love for music with fashion tips for 6 seasons. When I launched Kitten Lounge in the blog form, I wanted it to be a great platform for fashion, entertainment, food and so much more. Sippin Saturdays has now completed yet another element of my vision for Kitten Lounge, performing artists! Each Saturday you will find who I think is amazing on these posts with links to find out more information about them. In addition, keep your eyes on the sidebar to see which artists I have on my iPod as well so that you can add to your Kitten Playlist!

Rachael Sage released Chandelier after the success of 8 previous solo albums, on June 10th, 2008. With a fanbase that's continues to grow, I was very interested in getting introduced to her sound and vibe. Currently, Vertigo is available as a free download and I have to say that within the first bars of the song, I was hooked! Rachael Sage is an NYC artist whose newest CD is self-produced and is billed as a mix of Torri Amos, Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles and Alanis Morissette to name a few. I have to say that she even reminded me of the She as in She and Him and also had elements of Kate Nash. I love that she is a great blend of rock, pop and folk sound that is easy on the ear; moreover, listening to her lyrics she has the ability to talk about life's bumps along the way without depressing her listeners. Take some time to check out Rachael Sage and to get acquainted with her previous albums. Sign up on her email list as well and I also suggest to look at the video for Vertigo as well! To kick off our music segments, we will have a giveaway that includes 2 Rachael Sage Gift Packs which include her current CD and also Blistering Sun in addition to a lot of other goodies. We will kick this off in the next few days - stay tuned for details.

Today if you're in NYC or simply are a huge fan of the Giants, you can enjoy Super Tuesday AND the parade of our newly crowned Giants. In that vein, I had to share one other Super Bowl commercial that I absolutely loved. It tied together one of my favorite songs (Michael Jackson's - Thriller), Naomi Campbell and of course a tasty beverage. I loved seeing the dance moves from the lizard and Naomi and it was so catchy that it defintiely became my favorite commercial of the night. All of us should think about looking this glam when we're out and about and shaking it up no matter who's around (without carrying how we may look when doing this). Take a look at this commercial from SOBE's Life Water and thanks for the person at You Tube that put this out there as I was looking for it last night!

As many of you may know, I spent my Saturday morning at the Lacoste Fashion Week Show. I have to say that I LOVED the show for many reasons. I loved the end of the show which was like a breathing ad with everyone doing their best ski bunny pose. It was definitely a dramatic way to close the show! In addition to the end of the show was the Jamaican inspired portion of the show with amazing music to match. As a whole the show was a lot of fun and since I watched the show with various members of Lacoste/Samsonite, I enjoyed tuning into the fun bags that this runway. Courtesy of Coutorture, I have the runway show for your review. For those of you that may not have been at the show, I loved the collegiate style wool bags that were given out - yes there will be a pic of this soon! Whether you get this in grey or in the maroon color, this is definitely something that will be super cute in the fall to sport around the city or wherever you happen to be.