missed connections

Summer hairstyle inspirations! Click the photos for their original sources - thank you kind people of flickr for the endless amounts of inspiration you've shared. I made a little gallery featuring more summer hair-dos to inspire. I've also been keeping a tumblr (late on this bandwagon) account to fill with various photographic inspirations here.

I answered a few questions that were asked in my last post here. Thank you for all your kind comments! Also like to thank the lovely ladies over at BALLAD OF for their kind comments and featuring this blog amongst such a great lot of inspiration. Check out their magazine and contribute to their next issue!

One last thing before I get back to working on getting future Ebay store sorted (will keep you abreast of any news regarding the shop). A few months ago (thanksgiving day to be exact) Landon, Rebecca and I were at Whole Foods in Union Square and a beautiful girl in a brown dress approached us and confessed to reading this blog. Are you still reading this blog beautiful brown dress girl? Cos if you are I'd like to be your friend. Landon was harassing me to approach you for a number (I feel like such a creep as lately Landon has been trying to set me up on dates and nudging me towards young ladies at our local watering hole) but I was too shy. So, if you happen to read this rather belated missed connection leave me a comment and let's have a date!

all those quick recipes

Saturday Landon and I attended the Chictopia10 summit, it was, put delicately, interesting. I was very flattered that we were invited but couldn't help the feeling that we were terribly out of place in this crowd of fashion blogging enthusiasts. I was shy and stuck mostly in my seat next to Landon occasionally making my way through the crowd of pretty ladies to fill a plate full of delicious snacks. The organizers had the best intentions but not exactly the best execution for those intentions as the conference suffered numerous technical difficulties and delays. I've no doubt though that their next conference will be a great success and I'm grateful that they considered us to join them. It was neat to see familiar blog faces in the flesh like fellow Canadian Lydia, California girl Erin, Quiksilver friend Taghrid and Susan of ModCloth. The day has left me with plenty to think about and I've decided to make a few changes to this blog. So as I start anew I want to share a few things about myself you may (or may not) know!

1. I am 25, I have been married for almost four years to my best friend Landon. We are, at present, without babies or kittens, we plan to remedy one of those things shortly, can you guess which? 

2. Landon, while a bit beastman looking, is the most kind, peaceful and enlightened being I've had the pleasure of knowing. He also has incredible gap teeth (of which I am quite envious as my snaggle tooth is every day inching it's way out of my mouth). 

3. We are rich in love but not in dollars. The result has made us thrifty shoppers leaving us with a home (and closet) full of priceless oddities. About 98% of my closet is made up of goodies I've found digging through smelly, often stained, occasionally peed hundred pound bails of clothes at raghouses. This glamorous shopping method has found me face to face with bloody bandaids, insects of all varities (one that hitched a ride home on my boob once) large crates that have fallen on me and a decapitated mouse head (and later the body). I'm a bit useless at shopping in the traditional manner now - there is no adventure in it! 

4. This year I started my own vintage buying company with one of my greatest friends who lives on the west coast. My fingers are crossed as we shipped out our first order last week. It's an exciting and gratifying feeling to work for yourself (but scary when there is television, food and eventually a kitty or two to distract you). 

5. I love women. When someone with the same bits as mine expresses affection towards me I am ebullient, I am as a result quite shy around the fairer sex at first which often sends the wrong message. I am caught in a highschool boy's cycle of affection. 

Feel free to ask me some questions of your own! (perhaps while you are thinking of some you can pop over to Alex's blog and send her a picture of your rump! For rewards, of course.)

my first love

A little bit of candy for your eyes on this day of mandatory candy consumption.

a love/hat kinda thing

Newest additions to the hat collection! Many thanks to these two phoenix vintage shops for keeping my head happy - Hollywood Regency and MacAlpines (if you stop by to hunt for your own dream hat make sure to taste one of their delicious soup/sandwich combos! your belly will thank you.)



Thanks for all your dress voting! I've decided on the peach dress for tomorrow (after unsuccessfully trying to squeeze into the wee black and white prom dress - you lucky lot, my gain is your gain as I'll be putting that one up on Ebay). However, I've not yet decided if I want to be "the girl wearing multiple shades of pink sneaking cookies out of her purse" at my first New York fashion week. Need to find the right coat now!

It is definitely time to retire my digital camera, though I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the strange facial warping effects that leave me looking like a not so distant relative of Jocelyn Wildenstein.  Hopefully our camera woes will be remedied shortly when we are able to afford film and developing again.

If you're planning on attending either the Chictopia10 summit or the afterparty give me a tap on the shoulder and I'll share some secret snacks out of my purse with you!

02/11/1862

Today we lost a great artist and inspiration. The blogging community has done a beautiful job celebrating McQueen's work and lamenting his early departure so I thought to share with you another artist who passed away on this date, Elizabeth Siddal. Her story was one that I read over and over again as a young one with my nose stuck in my mum's art history textbooks. The following is taken from LizzieSiddal.com:

Elizabeth Siddal (July 25, 1829 - February 11, 1862)
While working in a millinery shop, Lizzie was discovered by the artist Walter Deverell who painted her as Viola in his depiction of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Lizzie went on to model for other Pre-Raphaelite artists and is most commonly recognized as Ophelia in the painting by John Everett Millais. But it was the charismatic Dante Gabriel Rossetti who not only drew and painted her obsessively, but encouraged Lizzie in her own artwork and poetry. Their relationship was intense and rocky, with an engagement that lasted a decade. Sadly, their marriage was short. The couple suffered a stillborn child and Lizzie was seriously addicted to Laudanum. She died in 1862 due to an overdose. The rest of Lizzie’s tale is eerily famous for its gothic Victorian morbidity: Rossetti, in his grief, buried his only manuscript of his poems with Lizzie. The poems, nestled in her coffin amidst her famous red hair, haunted him. Seven years later, he had her coffin exhumed in order to retrieve the poems for publication. The story was spread that Lizzie was still in beautiful, pristine condition and that her flaming hair had continued to grow after death, filling the coffin. This, of course, is a biological impossibility. Cellular growth does not occur after death, but the tale has added to Lizzie’s legend and continues to capture the interest of Pre-Raphaelite and Lizzie Siddal enthusiasts.




one of her drawings, "The Lady of Shalott" (another favourite that needs its own post)


Wombat enthusiast, poet, painter and, well, babe Rossetti. (perhaps another reason i was so bewitched by her story? loved by a man with long locks?)

What of her glass without her? The blank grey
There where the pool is blind of the moon's face.
Her dress without her? The tossed empty space
Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away.
Her paths without her? Day's appointed sway
Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place
Without her? Tears, ah me! For love's good grace,
And cold forgetfulness of night or day.
What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart,
Of thee what word remains ere speech be still?
A wayfarer by barren ways and chill,
Steep ways and weary, without her thou art,
Where the long cloud, the long wood's counterpart,
Sheds doubled up darkness up the labouring hill.
-- From Without Her

zit remedy is here

Thank you all for your incredibly helpful responses regarding skins. I've begrudgingly removed all traces of corn (and therefore all delicious cheesy covered piratey snacks) from my diet and that seems to have done the trick! Here are a few that I especially enjoyed (though I highly recommend taking a gander at all of them):

jordan said...
In a teacup I combine milk, honey and a tablespoon of sugar. Rub it onto your wet face. It's a great exfoliant, and makes your skin incredibly soft!
You can also just add the sugar to your normal cleanser, it's easier.

Diana said...
There are TONS of amazing home remedies and beauty treatments you make with ingredients in your pantry at PantrySpa.com
A couple that I really love for oily skin and pimples are: Acne Dermabrasion Treatment with Eggs.

Rosie said...
i love home treatments. my favourite is a green tea face scrub. you make a cup of green tea, but only fill about a third of the cup with water. then put 3 tablespoons of sugar into a bowl, and add a tablespoon of green tea. then add a teaspoon of lemon, and viola!! green tea face scrub. you can also use it on you lips, which works really well. it makes my skin super soft and clear, and i get terrible skin at times! the scrub lasts for a week in the fridge, and you can use the left over green tea as toner. hope this helps!!

But of course, the best advice was the one I was hoping not to hear (curse you delicious foods!)

meet me in japan said...
Forget the topical treatments for your skin. It's breaking out because of the foods you put inside. Eat fresh fruit, juice fresh fruit and vegetables (if you can) - DON'T EAT LATE and drink lots of water with a normal sleep. Skip the breads, starch and junk for a few days. Eat salads.

You're breaking out in the chin area because of yeast or sugar overdose probably.

If you want a topical treatment, let your skin breathe for a couple of days without products and you can steam it with a clay mask after, fresh aloe vera or whatever you've got.

(Honorable mention goes to strange spam that recommends to "Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you will not have a leg to stand on.")

Landon and I have been invited to attend the upcoming Chictopia10 conference! Even more exciting than my own invitation was seeing that my beloved and talented friend Alexandra Grecco has been selected along with four other designers to showcase her beautiful collection! I'm very excited as this will no doubt open the floodgates to much deserved success for her. Many congratulations Alex!

Now that we're back in wonderful, blizzardy New York I've begun unwrapping all of the goodies amassed while away starting with these five dresses that I'm trying to pick from for Saturday's events.











what's your pick of the pack?

taking care of business

Hello friends! I apologize for disappearing yet again. I'm still on the west coast and have been running (or rather, sitting in traffic) around like madwomen finishing up an order due for shipping this friday (super exciting stuff happening over here - will have lots of neat things to share with you upon my arrival home). I will have to introduce you to my wonderful hosts in a separate post and to their jewelry, hat and girly mag collections in another. The weather is unbelievable and though I groaned over the monotony of california weather while living here I'm happy to be away from the east coast for the dreary post-holiday january chills.

I have a question to ask of you! My skin (particularly the chin - allergies and hormone region) has gone bonkers from all the travel and the junk food that inevitably accompanies airport and automobile dining. I'm a big "at home remedy" enthusiast and am curious to know what secret recipes you ladies (and lads) have up your sleeves for skin savers (am familiar with the oil cleansing method and would encourage you to take a gander at it). I keep to a pretty strict regime of all natural products and when I'm following my no corn (TERRIBLE, love popcorn) no chocolate diet I stay pretty clear but right now things are going pretty wild down there (no thanks to my curious fingers). So share! I'll try out the most delicious sounding recipes and tell you all about it!

The above two pictures are part of a collection I've been building up for ebay (coming soon) that I'm super excited about sharing with you! I plan to launch the shop by the end of the month, will keep you posted!