And SO, without further ado...
NOT UNRELATED:
Sunday, April 17, 2011
We're All Mad Here...
This is more of my work with Liam of Blackrose Photography. Again, he did the photography and the basic edits, I did the wardrobe, modeling, makeup, and the edits you see here (yes, including oversaturating the third photograph, but I LOVE the way it looks).
And SO, without further ado...
And SO, without further ado...
Herbie the Love Bug Nails
Hey hey, everybody--
this is what we call a sneak peak of better things yet to come:
<3 Lovely Wednesday
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Down the Rabbit Hole
Okay, so--I recently did some work with the amazing Liam of Blackrose Photography. The wardrobe, modeling, and makeup are done by me, Liam took the photos, the editing was a team effort--he sent me edited photos with permission to keep editing, and so I did. He's doing a compilation of various models' interpretations of the Wonderland characters, and we shot four characters together in one day. We had such a good time of it that the next morning we both got up and shot a whole new concept! I'll show you the rest later, but for now--Alice.
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy- chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat- pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again....
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
'Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top
of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat- pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
'Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost!
(Text from chapter one of Lewis Carroll's fabulous book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. If you haven't yet read it, you ought.)
("Down the Rabbit Hole" graphic from here.)
Hey Daisy Darling...
Okay, so Thursday was Dia del Oso. Explaining what that is could be a long story, plus I'm not really qualified to explain since I only went for food, for a grand total of about 30 minutes. For me, Dia del Oso pretty much just meant no classes on Thursday.
Since there were no classes on Thursday, that left me with a couple things to do:
If you don't know what water marbling is, it's pretty awesome (and messy), and this is the tutorial I used. You'll see soon enough what it looked like on me. I picked out the three colors I wanted to use--Snow Me White and Black On Black by Sinful Colors Professional, and Morning Breath by Sinful Colors Nail Art (if you ask me, that's an awful name for anything, but it's a very pretty yellow color). On my left hand, I was really good. I taped off all my fingers and dipped them carefully one at a time, and when I had to clean off the excess, it was pretty easy. On the other hand (on the other hand), I taped off my thumb, dipped it, decided that not using the rest of the pattern was a waste of nail polish, dipped two more fingers without taping them, cleaned up the excess, and dipped the last two tapeless fingers in the next marble. I promise, I have learned my lesson--TAPE OFF YOUR FINGERS!! Or, actually, I'm probably going to try vaseline next time. In any case, because I was impatient and I didn't tape off all my fingers, I spent at least three times as much time and effort taking polish off my fingers as I spent putting polish on my nails, and it really shouldn't be that way. Anywho. In my opinion, 6 nails turned out fabulously, 3 were disasters, and 1 was meh. Proof:
And so she did.
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| I have a daisy in my hair!! Also, I curled it (the hair, not the daisy)--yay! |
Since there were no classes on Thursday, that left me with a couple things to do:
- sleep;
- finish sewing the set-in lace into my Gibson Girl blouse pieces;
- clean my room;
- try out water marbling on my nails.
If you don't know what water marbling is, it's pretty awesome (and messy), and this is the tutorial I used. You'll see soon enough what it looked like on me. I picked out the three colors I wanted to use--Snow Me White and Black On Black by Sinful Colors Professional, and Morning Breath by Sinful Colors Nail Art (if you ask me, that's an awful name for anything, but it's a very pretty yellow color). On my left hand, I was really good. I taped off all my fingers and dipped them carefully one at a time, and when I had to clean off the excess, it was pretty easy. On the other hand (on the other hand), I taped off my thumb, dipped it, decided that not using the rest of the pattern was a waste of nail polish, dipped two more fingers without taping them, cleaned up the excess, and dipped the last two tapeless fingers in the next marble. I promise, I have learned my lesson--TAPE OFF YOUR FINGERS!! Or, actually, I'm probably going to try vaseline next time. In any case, because I was impatient and I didn't tape off all my fingers, I spent at least three times as much time and effort taking polish off my fingers as I spent putting polish on my nails, and it really shouldn't be that way. Anywho. In my opinion, 6 nails turned out fabulously, 3 were disasters, and 1 was meh. Proof:
The iridescent silver glitter is an OPI topcoat. It's missing its name sticker, so I can't help you there, sorry! I also used Revlon Colorstay Always On Sealant.
Anywho, so having experimented with that, the Crazy Little Girl resolved that her outfit Friday had to match her nails.
"Who will help me find something to wear tomorrow?" asked the Crazy Little Girl.
"Not I," said the Invisible Roommate.
"Not I," said the Long-distance Boyfriend.
"Not I," said Arnold the Pygmy Puff.
"Then I will do it all by myself!" said the Crazy Little Girl. And so she did.
She went through her closet, came up with her Tim Burton-y secretary dress, two striped black and white blouses, a floaty black knit top, a zebra striped skirt, 3 pairs of fishnets with different designs, her yellow banana heels, black flats, gogo boots, white platform demonia mary-janes, a pair of yellow shorts, zebra leggings, zebra rainboots, a black and white checked scarf from Charlotte Russe, a top hat, and a couple of hair flowers (don't worry, she didn't wear all of these at once!).
Then, the Crazy Little Girl said, "Who will help me go through my folder of makeup ideas?"
"Not I," said the Invisible Roommate.
"Not I," said the Long-distance Boyfriend.
"Not I," said Arnold the Pygmy Puff.
"Then I will go through it all by myself," said the Crazy Little Girl. And so she did.
She eventually came upon a butterfly-y type thing, and decided to be a yellow butterfly for Friday. Then, she took a shower and put her hair in pin curls (yay!). Then, after the Invisible Roommate, the Long-distance Boyfriend, and Arnold the Pygmy Puff all neglected to help the Crazy Little Girl get ready in the morning, she went about her day like this:
And so she did.
So, somewhere during the day, I ran into Dr. Hanks (a professor of English who taught in large group cultures last semester--and whose son was my small group professorr--with whom I attend a weekly Friday afternoon chat about some current event or NYT article or some such thing) and Dr. Antoninka (my rhetoric professor) in the mailroom of the SUB, and it came up in conversation that my shoes were put out by a company that manufactures stripper shoes. While this is true, I maybe should have left that part out, but the consequent eruption of laughter from both professors made it well worth it either way :).
- Xhiliration black knit oversize shirt
- yellow short from Target
- rhinestone belt from Target
- roses from Joann's, daisy from Michaels
I positively love this picture.
My roommates need not know I used the counter for this sort of thing.
It is, after all, in the interest of art.
- Diamond Net fishnets by July Women
- White Platform Mary-Janes by Demonia
Alas, some smudging seems to have occurred since the morning, but nevermind:
- Barry M. dazzledust in yellow
- MUFE gel liner, black
- awesome opalescent glitter from a forgotten source
- Scream Queen Mystical Butterfly lashes by Fright Night Cosmetics
- Kirkland lipgloss--they call it clear, it looks white to me, but I love it either way.
- Barry M. eyeliner crayon--black with silver glitter
- Clinique blush, can't find the name
When I came to post this, the outfit and subsequent Friday brought to mind a favorite song of mine, Daisy, by Karine Polwart. It is positively lovely, and you really ought to listen to it. To make it easy for you, it's right here:
That said and sung, have a good weekend!
<3 Lovely Wednesday
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Oh What A Beautiful Morning!
Oh what a beautiful day!
I've got a wonderful feeeeeeeeeliiiiiingggg!!!!!!!!!!
Everything's going my way!
I've taken to sleeping on my bed in my dorm upside down. That way, if I have the window open (and I ALWAYS have the window open, it's an absolute necessity in this weather with the temperature set to however high it's set), I fall asleep and wake up with a lovely breeze blowing right across my face. The last two nights I've done this, and determined it to be a good idea because
Sometimes, outfits are all thought out before hand, or there's a concept, or something. Sometimes there's a new piece of clothing I really want to wear or new makeup I really want to try and an outfit gets built around that.
And then, sometimes, my haphazardly arranged closet arbitrarily points out to me that two unexpected items look great together. If my life were a manga, the two items would shimmer and glow in my closet for just a moment, leaving me wondering if they really did just shimmer and glow. This is what happened today.
It was my lime green sequined sash and my black-and-white houndstooth scarf, so I promptly tied them around my head, and the rest is history. I almost clipped the bird in and glued on the false eyelashes before I pulled off my pajama shirt.
I've got a wonderful feeeeeeeeeliiiiiingggg!!!!!!!!!!
Everything's going my way!
I've taken to sleeping on my bed in my dorm upside down. That way, if I have the window open (and I ALWAYS have the window open, it's an absolute necessity in this weather with the temperature set to however high it's set), I fall asleep and wake up with a lovely breeze blowing right across my face. The last two nights I've done this, and determined it to be a good idea because
- it felt wonderful;
- I woke up around 7:00 or 7:30, long before my alarm went off, both days;
- though the cool breeze is lovely and refreshing as I fall asleep and wake up, it is certainly no motivation to stay in bed all morning, so I've had plenty of time to get dressed, ready, and catch up on work.
Sometimes, outfits are all thought out before hand, or there's a concept, or something. Sometimes there's a new piece of clothing I really want to wear or new makeup I really want to try and an outfit gets built around that.
And then, sometimes, my haphazardly arranged closet arbitrarily points out to me that two unexpected items look great together. If my life were a manga, the two items would shimmer and glow in my closet for just a moment, leaving me wondering if they really did just shimmer and glow. This is what happened today.
It was my lime green sequined sash and my black-and-white houndstooth scarf, so I promptly tied them around my head, and the rest is history. I almost clipped the bird in and glued on the false eyelashes before I pulled off my pajama shirt.
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| No, I'm not wearing shoes yet. As a side note, I can't remember where any of these clothes are from, so I won't list those. |
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Love ya!
<3 Lovely
Monday, April 11, 2011
Confidence: "I Love That, But I Could Never Pull It Off..."
...yeah, you damn well could if you wanted to.
People always tell me, "I love how you dress every day, I could never pull that off." Or, "I wish I could dress like that, but it just doesn't work for me."
I'm sorry, does this look work for me? Yeah, I pay it a monthly salary of--No. No, that's ridiculous. It sounds awful, but this look does slave labor for me--I make it work for me, because I know that if I tell it, "Shut up, listen, and sing your lungs out to the sky," it will do just that, and it's not like I have some super magical powers. It's just my body, and they're just my clothes, and I just make them do what I want them to do. And it's not like I have some crazy fabulous body and that's why these work for me and you "could never pull that off." That's even more ridiculous. I love my body, so I'm going to tell you straight up that I'm 5'6"ish, weighed in around 147 last time I checked, and measure at 38-28-41.5 (I honestly just got out my measuring tape, just for you, because I love you that much), so don't go making excuses like "I don't have a good figure," "I'm too thin," "I'm too fat," "I'm too short," "I'm too tall," "I'm too round," "I'm too square," "I'm too red," "I'm too blue," blah blah blah, because you are 147% beautiful.
Look, I'm a girl who has been through a lot of fashion trauma. I had David Wolfe tell me personally that my hemline was too high for the coming season. So? The fun doesn't come without mistakes, and it's not like everybody likes what I wear. I certainly don't necessarily like what everyone else wears, and often I will tell you something you're wearing is cute (and mean it), though I would never wear it myself. You don't find your balance on a bicycle without scraping your knee, and you don't find the fashion you love without realizing at least once that your underwear is showing, or some such thing.
I've gone entire days in some outfits, making a different verdict at every reflective surface I passed whether two pieces worked together or not. I wore my hair up under a pillbox hat once only to decide when I got home that I'd looked like a chemo patient all day--nothing against chemo patients, I wish you all the best of luck and happiness, I have in fact spent some time in a lab building antibodies to cure cancer, it's really nothing personal, also there are many people and hats that can rock the bald look, but that hat on me that day was a bad decision, end of story.
I have had too many bleeding and flaking lipstick situations to count, and please don't make me tell you about the first of my makeup days. They were bad days, and sometimes confidence is a curse--where some people think they can't pull off anything, I tend to think I can pull off absolutely anything, and I have been wrong more than a few times.
I, too, have bought too-small dresses only to try them on a hundred times, each time convinced that it will look good, each time wrong. I, too, have bought too-big clothing "to grow into" that I never managed to fill out (shh!! ;-) ).
Somebody once said (and if I could figure out who I would tell you, but I can't find it online anywhere): "I've found that, often, the secret to 'pulling it off' is not caring about whether or not you can pull it off." I've found this to be true, as well. There have been days when I've decided halfway out the door that my outfit doesn't work, but instead of freaking out all day I just let it go, and people still complimented my style and no one seemed to notice! Of course, there have been times when people did notice, but if you have fun and just be yourself, people will remember the good and the YOU and that light in your eyes much more than they will remember that time you wore that awful shirt... or whatever it was.
I'm not trying to tell you that you should dress like me all the time, or, in fact, ever (unless you decide it'd be a great Hallowe'en costume or something... hehe). That's my style, and you have your style. I guess that what I'm trying to say here is that if you really want to wear pink sparkly falsies, do it. If you really want to wear a big petticoat, do it. If you really want to wear black lipstick, do it (just ask me about good brands first, you'll save yourself plenty of time, money, and embarrassment--I've made too many mistakes for you to make the same ones). If you really want to wear turnips on your head and sweet peas on your toes and a big red foam Rudolph nose, DO IT. And if you do that, send me a signed picture and a narrative of your day, please. Plus, while you're having fun and being yourself, you'll be helping the world, because at least the way I see it, the root of almost every single problem in history is insecurity, and we're all guilty of it.
Okay, I'm done being all inspirational and whatsit for today.
I love you to death, but even I get beat tired.
Good night, or good morning, or good whatever time of day it is where you are when you read this,
Lovely Wednesday.
People always tell me, "I love how you dress every day, I could never pull that off." Or, "I wish I could dress like that, but it just doesn't work for me."
I'm sorry, does this look work for me? Yeah, I pay it a monthly salary of--No. No, that's ridiculous. It sounds awful, but this look does slave labor for me--I make it work for me, because I know that if I tell it, "Shut up, listen, and sing your lungs out to the sky," it will do just that, and it's not like I have some super magical powers. It's just my body, and they're just my clothes, and I just make them do what I want them to do. And it's not like I have some crazy fabulous body and that's why these work for me and you "could never pull that off." That's even more ridiculous. I love my body, so I'm going to tell you straight up that I'm 5'6"ish, weighed in around 147 last time I checked, and measure at 38-28-41.5 (I honestly just got out my measuring tape, just for you, because I love you that much), so don't go making excuses like "I don't have a good figure," "I'm too thin," "I'm too fat," "I'm too short," "I'm too tall," "I'm too round," "I'm too square," "I'm too red," "I'm too blue," blah blah blah, because you are 147% beautiful.
Look, I'm a girl who has been through a lot of fashion trauma. I had David Wolfe tell me personally that my hemline was too high for the coming season. So? The fun doesn't come without mistakes, and it's not like everybody likes what I wear. I certainly don't necessarily like what everyone else wears, and often I will tell you something you're wearing is cute (and mean it), though I would never wear it myself. You don't find your balance on a bicycle without scraping your knee, and you don't find the fashion you love without realizing at least once that your underwear is showing, or some such thing.
I've gone entire days in some outfits, making a different verdict at every reflective surface I passed whether two pieces worked together or not. I wore my hair up under a pillbox hat once only to decide when I got home that I'd looked like a chemo patient all day--nothing against chemo patients, I wish you all the best of luck and happiness, I have in fact spent some time in a lab building antibodies to cure cancer, it's really nothing personal, also there are many people and hats that can rock the bald look, but that hat on me that day was a bad decision, end of story.
I have had too many bleeding and flaking lipstick situations to count, and please don't make me tell you about the first of my makeup days. They were bad days, and sometimes confidence is a curse--where some people think they can't pull off anything, I tend to think I can pull off absolutely anything, and I have been wrong more than a few times.
I, too, have bought too-small dresses only to try them on a hundred times, each time convinced that it will look good, each time wrong. I, too, have bought too-big clothing "to grow into" that I never managed to fill out (shh!! ;-) ).
Somebody once said (and if I could figure out who I would tell you, but I can't find it online anywhere): "I've found that, often, the secret to 'pulling it off' is not caring about whether or not you can pull it off." I've found this to be true, as well. There have been days when I've decided halfway out the door that my outfit doesn't work, but instead of freaking out all day I just let it go, and people still complimented my style and no one seemed to notice! Of course, there have been times when people did notice, but if you have fun and just be yourself, people will remember the good and the YOU and that light in your eyes much more than they will remember that time you wore that awful shirt... or whatever it was.
I'm not trying to tell you that you should dress like me all the time, or, in fact, ever (unless you decide it'd be a great Hallowe'en costume or something... hehe). That's my style, and you have your style. I guess that what I'm trying to say here is that if you really want to wear pink sparkly falsies, do it. If you really want to wear a big petticoat, do it. If you really want to wear black lipstick, do it (just ask me about good brands first, you'll save yourself plenty of time, money, and embarrassment--I've made too many mistakes for you to make the same ones). If you really want to wear turnips on your head and sweet peas on your toes and a big red foam Rudolph nose, DO IT. And if you do that, send me a signed picture and a narrative of your day, please. Plus, while you're having fun and being yourself, you'll be helping the world, because at least the way I see it, the root of almost every single problem in history is insecurity, and we're all guilty of it.
 |
| Luna Lovegood, one of my favorite people EVER. |
Okay, I'm done being all inspirational and whatsit for today.
I love you to death, but even I get beat tired.
Good night, or good morning, or good whatever time of day it is where you are when you read this,
Lovely Wednesday.
My Nails Look Like a Budget Car Rental Advertisement
So, the other day (Saturday morning, to be precise), I sat complacently in bed and painted my nails, experimenting with masking tape and the complimentary colors of blue and orange. I'm not the only one who likes the combination of blue and orange--Blogger.com, for example, you may notice, has picked blue for it background and orange for its logo--they go well together, it is true. I paraded around all day Saturday (not so much paraded as navigated the swarms of freshmen-to-be on campus for Spring Premiere) blissfully ignorant and proud of my first ever effort at painting interesting nails.
However, come Sunday morning, as I was talking sleepily but cheerfully to my darling boyfriend via my 1960s AT&T corded phone that, however much I may like it, is probably better termed "used" than "vintage," it hit me. Yes--it hit me, and it pretty much ruined my entire day:
My Nails Look Like a Budget Car rental Advertisement.
This troubled me, for as I was so adamantly reminded by my high school economics teacher, Mr. Stahl, BUDGET IS EVIL. NEVER RENT FROM BUDGET RENT-A-CAR. It was even a test question. I don't remember why Mr. Stahl had decided that Budget is evil, to be honest, but chances are it was for the same reasons that other large global corporations are also evil.
So, come Sunday night, as I lay beleaguered staring at the sky and complaining to my kind, caring, and understanding gay friends, it hit me (a different "it" this time, don't worry). I would dress up fantastically tomorrow (today) in such a manner as would correspond with my Budget nails, in order to convince myself that the so-painted nails served a higher purpose.
You guys, at least, got the full story. So did my classmate, Anna. One guy who asked me over lunch at Memorial, "What's the occasion?" drew the answer, "Today! It's today!"
"Okay. Have a happy Today, then!" he said.
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| On my lips, white glittery Kirkland lipgloss patted with Barry M. Orange dazzledust. On my cheeks, Covergirl blush in 590 Soft Mink. Rainbow hair extension from vivka.etsy.com. Orange feathery hair comb: feather piece from JoAnn, dyed goldy-orange at home, hot glued to comb. |
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| To paint the stars on the left side of my face (my left, your right), I cut out two different star shapes from a piece of construction paper and alternated painting through each stencil with my turquoise gel liner from Coastal Scents. |
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| This is one of my favorite tee-shirts. Target came out with a set a couple years back, and they all had cute drawings on them with one applique to add to the effect, and I snatched up two of them. The other one I got is yellow with two giraffes kissing, and the applique is a red gingham heart over their heads--so cute! |
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| I picked this orange ribbon out of my bag of hair-doo-dad-making-stuff--it worked perfectly! |
Well, have a good today, then!
<3 Lovely Wednesday
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