Last night we got a lot of use out of our family membership to the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art– there was a cocktail event hosted by 7×7, which was a nice excuse to get dressed up!

I was actually quite pleasantly surprised at how city-like the event was– the women looked gorgeous, guys were out in style, and the DJ was spinning great tunes all night. Plus the free-flowing wine and cocktails didn’t hurt! I definitely appreciated the walkability of the event; searching for parking in SF gives me a headache, but there was no issue with that last night.

There were some nice Rauschenberg pieces, but my favorite was a painting called “Spleen” by Sam Francis– and that was before I knew the title! Maybe I should take up a career in art based on anatomical imagery… could get pretty interesting, to say the least. Also, there was a Jasper Johns series of bulls that would be ideal for a very cultured nursery.

Ahhh… I can’t wait to have a house to collect art for.

On to less expensive but also drool-worthy things– this was also the perfect opportunity to break out the Trina Turk dress I scored at a sample sale for $65 (retail $298)– hooray! When I first got it, it was a little long (knee-skimming, yes I’m a shorty) so I modded it by using a superskinny piece of elastic at the waist and blousing the top part slightly over it. End result: Hell yeah… slightly shorter hemlines make my legs look longer, and alterations = $0.  (Please ignore the bunchy look in the photos, I was rushing to get hair and makeup done and snapped these before prepping in one of my favorite items of around-the-house clothing, an oversized white tee.)

Before

After

I added Anne Klein gold heels plus a Forever21 bracelet. Love the simplicity of the design juxtaposed with the bling of the gold.

Yeah, the heels look high, but I need all the help I can get, esp when out with my 6’4″ BF. So why not use that as an excuse to look cute?

All in all, quite a successful night out.