loveable monster creatures and more...

i thought i'd take this opportunity to share with you some wonderful artwork that i've discovered online in the past few weeks. their work gives me those good shivers where i get all over-excited and think "OOH! i want these covering EVERY INCH OF MY LIVING ROOM WALL!!!!!!!"

ashley g! you can find her shop on etsy.com.
i bought this one, entitled "windy day," and it now lives on my blue wall, behind my bed. it is too lovely. her works are so precious and fairy-tale-esque and like a link to another magical world. the creatures that she renders are too adorable, like wee harmless monsters that you want to fit into your pocket and whisper your secrets to all day long, knowing you'll get an adoring little squeeze hug in return.

i'm currently lusting after this one, called "party for one."

go and grab one of her prints in her etsy shop now!

another one i'm loving is jennifer's work in her shop, http://stilettoheights.etsy.com. Her collage work has an ethereal romanticism to it that she creates by melding vintage script in cursive, love letters painted all over the canvas with photographs of women lounging seductively in bed or walking down lonely city streets. There is a haunting escapism here that is incredibly alluring, and her work ranges from smaller, affordable canvases to large-scale work.

zexxy vintage listings!

ooooh. posted some new items to me' vintage shoppe, lookielookie!

if you're interested, click on over to tiniest spark vintage (in case i effed up that hyperlink, it's should be located within the links on the right)

yay!!

newsboy cap -->newsies --> christian bale --> ahh.

i have had a torrid history with hats. namely because they never, EVER look good on me. i'm simply not one of those girls that can top an outfit off with a fedora and look wicked hot. just can't. I look like a doofus every time, in every style of hat. So, as le boy and i were breezing thru nordstrom's today, and he stopped at the men's hats and tried on a few newsboy styles (which he looks ravishing in, by the way), i tried one on as a joke. Lo! Behold! I was astonished at my reflection. A navy blue Kangol newsboy cap stared back at me, atop by newly lightened strands of hair and DAMN. I looked good. So good that three passers-by stopped to tell me how much they loved my outfit (black free people mini babydoll dress, white tights, brown boots, and my caramel leather motorcycle jacket i bought in rome 6 years ago) and that I definitely needed to buy the hat. And they weren't even employees!

needless to say, i bought it and am now wearing it, even though i just put it on to take the dog out and am still wearing it in my pajamas on my way to bed and now my boyfriend is turning off all the lights around me and saying "shop's closed, lady," so, guess it's bedtime.

yay! yay kangol! you have a new friend in me! everyone run to your nearest nordstrom's men's department and make a happier, more subtly stylin' you!

birds on boobies.

christmas is a difficult time of year for me.

and not in the "ive got the holiday blues" kind of way (what's that?), but in the "i can't stop myself from buying every pretty thing i see for myself while pretending to shop for others."

ok, that's a lie. i do shop for others, i finished my shopping last weekend and i bought bitchin', thoughtful gifts for my friends and family. but i don't know how to exercise any sort of consumer self-restraint during the normal year, but at christmastime, when it is mandatory to shop and be out in boutiques, malls, record shops, i just. can't. stop.

so, on the way home from the xmas shopping the other day with my bestestest friend juliet, i stopped into electric ladyland, this boutique near the restaurant we work at that everyone has said "OMG! you have to go! they have the cutest things!" for months now. anyway, i decided to pop in, and jesus christ. everything glittered. way too "scottsdale clubby i'm a 45 year old mom trying to look 25 with the help of plastic surgery and army pants with sparkly patches on them" of a taste for me, but lo and behold, nestled between rhinestone-laden halter tops and spandex-chiffon dresses, i found this lovely dress that a girl had worn into the restaurant MONTHS ago that i begged to know where she got it,and the reply was L.A. gah!! shellshock-disappointment followed. it looks so vintage chic, with adorable embroidered swallows on the chest and a rope tie around the waist. and there it was!! in this shiny store!! just one left! in my size! clearly, it was fate. lookie lookie:

the photo doesn't do the dress justice, the girl is kinda skanky and she isn't pulling it off very well. i will sport this dress with my vintage black riding boots. plus my boobs aren't fake like hers. so, yes, i splurged way too much $ on this dress but i couldn't let it go. IT WAS FATE, RIGHT?? i had to salvage it from the glittered creepy forest of "HOT BABE" rhinestone tees and "I WANNA BE SEDATED"-embroidered toddler onesies (fereals).

she's baaaaaa-aaaaaaaack.

god that title was lame. but it's 5pm and i'm in a coffee shop and i stupidly ordered english breakfast tea instead of caffeine, and i had to be up for work at 5 am today, and i'm SO TIRED!

...so, perfect time to jump back into the blogosphere, eh? i promise the rest of the post won't b as lame as the title, mmkay?

so! why have i been gone so long?? a few reasons. BLOGGER WON'T LET ME UPLOAD PHOTOS FROM MY COMPUTER! i don't know why. it says they're uploaded, the photo insert box goes away, and then ... nothing. nada. zilch. no photos. no pictoral mass-web sharings of my: bloated wisdom toothless face; trip up north to prescott; new puppy ramses (AH GOD SO CUTE HE IS!); other random items i would like to share with my beaoteeful readers. lame! so lame. so i'll have to resort to uploading photos from the internet only, i suppose. sigh. if anyone knows how this photo situation can be fixed, i'd love to hear how....

...where to begin? let's start with the surgery. thanks for all the well wishes, it actually went much better than anticipated, considering what a hopeless wimp i am with pain. thanks to vicodin and my mum's superduper caretaking skills, and seasons 1-4 of queer as folk, i was better in no time! it was very nice to be home for awhile and see family and friends. my life is so all over the place, having gone to college across the country, and having spent a year abroad and making incredible friends in europe (european and american friends alike), i now have a collection of friends everywhich way, which is marvelous, but also kind of overwhelming. especially when i'm as shitty at keeping up with communication as i am. ah. gotta work on that.

so, all's well here -- i'm gearing up for THE HOLIDAYYYYYYYYYYS!!!!!!!!!!!!! mum is coming out to visit me for xmas, which i'm oh so excited about. my birthday falls on christmas day so this time of year is extra-fun and special and exciting for me. let's put it this way... will ferrell as "elf" speaks to my inner soul. i feel the same way he does about christmas. 'elation' is a nonchalant term for how i feel about christmas.

speaking of elf, when i saw it with my ex-boyfriend when it came out, and the scene came on where buddy the elf doused a bowl of spaghetti with chocolate sauce, candy, marshmellows, m&ms, and other assorted sugary goodies, i leaned over and said "that. looks. so. fucking.good." cut to 2 months later, for valentine's day, he made me the very same meal, and it was so. fucking. good. sounds gross, but if you're serious about sweets the way i am, i promise you'll like it. try it some time. ferreals.

ok that was a major(ly sugary) segue. basically, i'm superexcited about christmas. now time for a nice CURRENT boyfriend story! (i don't mean current in the "this week's boyfriend" way, but in the "not an ex-boyfriend story, this is my now boyfriend and i love heeem" way)

last nite le boy told me to leave the house for a couple hours. when i got home, he had decorated our place from top to bottom in christmas gear. twinkly colored lights everywhere, gift ribbons scaling down the walls, snowmen, candy, and silver balls and holly branches. so purtee!! the boy knows the way to my heart. whee!

onto the next post...BACK TO FASHION!

yes, this will be me...i'm going on a mini-hiatus from the blogosphere for the next 2 weeks. i'm flying home to chicago so i can have my wisdom teeth (all four!!) removed. why fly across the country to have the surgery, you ask? because no one can take better care of you than mom.

wish me luck. eeeep. i'm suuuuuuuuuch a wuss with pain.

<3

a room of one's own

so i moved in with a boy, and there are two bathrooms, and finally, for the first time since i left home, i have a whole bathroom counter on which to spread all of my products/makeup/toiletries/candy/bobby pins/etc. no sharing with girls, no piling makeup away in my room and hauling it to the bathroom everyday to apply. non plus!



IT'S GLORIOUS!!! a right mess, but GLORIOUS.

can thrift overcome dolce?

so i really really really want this dolce & gabbana silk scarf that i found on overstock.com. lookit! it's so lovely! i hardly EVER wear scarves but lately i've begun imagining myself as a woman who wears scarves, and boy, is she chic. i could knot it around my neck to hide my un-impressive jawline, OR around the handle of my new/vintage leather handbag that is just languishing in my closet, waiting for me to have some official business-y meeting that i can wear it to.

and it's in newsprint! in different languages! and it used to be $200! and now is only $30! i have trouble buying anything online over $15. i think it's because in my recent thrifting overload, i have come to realize that in no way do i have to spend more than $20 to own one rockin' item.

however, that usually doesn't include dolce.

or gabbana.

hmm.

facehunting on a saturday nite

2 posts in one evening! madness! it's called hungover from le boy's 25th bday, people. saturday nite, and too hungover to move anywhere that is over 25 feet from the laptop.

anyhow! facehunter inspired me to share some thoughts with you. i LOVE that outfit (above). ok, this has to go back.
LEGGINGS: they are now the bane of many fashionistas, but a year ago today, i was rocking them out (white sparkly ones) with a denim mini and heels, stumbling drunkenly from bar to bar, when i got a most rude awakening.
"HEY, THE 80S CALLED! THEY WANT YOUR TIGHTS BACK!"
came the challenging and utterly unique yell out of the window of an SUV passing by. i half laughed it off, half sparked a tear in my eye, because, well, i LOVED my outfit. i had spent a long time carefully crafting the rainbow striped collared top with the huge caramel leather belt i bought in italy with the denim mini and heels, to COMPLEMENT the tights. SORRY, I WASN'T WEARING SOME BORING GAP JEANS WITH A TOP FROM CHARLOTTE RUSSE, like all the other bleached and boob-job-ed students by which i was surrounded. le sigh. anyway, after that, my love affair with leggings was tempestuous. half-rebellious, eff you, if you don't understand the utter CHIC and FUN of the leggings, half-aware of the looks i was receiving. phoenix isn't the most fashion-forward of places, and when leggings were just becoming "in," few femmes were sporting them, here.

ANYWAY, blah blah, fast-forward a year later and everyone seems to hate leggings and mock anyone who wears them. especially over at gofugyourself.com. i love them, but MAN do they rip on leggings!

so, my point is, this lady (above), captured by the facehunter in paris, eschews the current distaste for leggings and she, i think, pulls them off quite masterfully with her oversized white linen blouse and floral jacket thingie. and the headphones. and the hair! ooh. so pretty. makes me miss being a redhead. i likey the t-straps, too.

today is vintage day.

well HELLO there! it's been so long! almost a month, in fact, which is an absurdly long time to have gone without posting. there really isn't much excuse aside from the fact that i am currently working 6 jobs (yes. bartending, serving, dogsitting, interning at an arts commission, selling vintage clothes in my online shoppe (with an extra p and e), tiniest spark vintage, and running a local vintage store's ebay site) and am a little stretched for time. un peu.

so! with my first foray into blogging in over 3 weeks, i thought i'd mark the occasion by declaring it vintage blogging DAY. i will hereforth (word? now it is.) share with you, my dear readers, my most favorite of online vintage shops. most of them are on ebay, and offer the amazing potential for incredibly cheap finds -- that is, if your fellow vintage lover doesn't place a higher bid. away we go!!



i just happened across the urban collection this eventide, and have already begun bidding. she's got some pretty cute stuff, check out these hot 70s leather boots! currently running under ten buckaroos.

mama stone vintage is ALWAYS a reliable stop for the bestest of the best vintage finds. the only problem is, so many people already know about her store that the bids go up, up, and up before my paltry wallet has a chance to win. but i'm finicky -- if it's the right thing that i find, i'll spend over $50, but i usually reign myself in. if you're a little less thrifty, this is the store POUR TOI! regarde:

LOVE THAT COAT!!!!!!!!! gah. if only i didn't live in phoenix...i hope one of you win this.

noirohiovintage is a rockin' stop for awesome tops 'n' minidresses 'n' coats...none of which blogger is currently allowing me to upload. the eff!! this happened in my last post, too...are we only allowed two photos per post or something retahded like that? gah, LAME. anyway please go there, her stuff is too lovely, and while the prices do go up, up, up, you're more likely to snag a bargain there than mamastone.

next up, another favorite is cake shop vintage, home of sweet vintage finds. she's not that well-known (yet), so you can grab her stuff for less expensive prices. again, bloody blogger won't allow me to upload any photos, so yer gonna have to click the link and see for yerselves.

starlet vintage is another great stop, she currently has a mad-cute paisley minidress that i quite fancy, not unlike one that's up for bidding in my store, tiniest spark vintage.

lastly, i really enjoy ce petit coeur vintage, not only for her sweet clothes (i bought a gorgeous vintage pink camisole extraordinaire from her), but also because she has the BEST HAIR. and i love her freckles, she has the loveliest complexion. which is obviously not a reason to shop somewhere, but a nice perk when you're browsing the photos.

ok, hope you've enjoyed this vintage round-up! let me know if you win any sweet vintage items from these (or other) purveyors, i'd love to see them!

<3

gain a heart in phoenix, leave it in san francisco

To celebrate our one-year anniversary, le boy and i jetted off to san francisco for the weekend, partially as a mini-romantic-getaway, partially as a means to show him how amazing the city is and convince him to love it enough to move there with me next year. His vote has been for chicago, but since i spent 18 years growing up there, i was looking forward to moving somewhere new once i left phoenix. Part of the Operation Fall in Love With San Francisco involved my two roommates/best friends from when i studied abroad in rome, who currently live in SF with their boyfriends and were jumping at the chance to show us a great time and get us to move there.

Operation: SUCCESS!!

It was great, we walked everywhere, ate everything, and drank a lot. Coming from Chicago, where I didn't get my driver's license until I was 19 because it's so easy to walk and use public transportation everywhere, it's been difficult living in Phoenix, land of strip malls and sprawling suburbia and freeways. People take freeways to get EVERYWHERE. I really miss being able to walk around -- with the intense heat and the fact that nothing here is compact, except for small pockets of downtown and around the university, it's just not a walkable place. So, once we arrived on Saturday morning, we spent the next 8 hours walking from Union Square (downtown) to the North Beach neighborhood, meandering along the Italian and French cafes lining its sidewalks, and perused & bought books at Beat Generation Central (i.e. City Lights Bookstore. ah, my heart flutters just thinking about it, below is a photo from the bottom of one of its steep staircases). i bought a simone de beauvoir's she came to stay for me and kerouac's on the road for le boy.

We drank in old-tymey pubs all along the way, and walked up to the overrated and out of control touristy Fisherman's Wharf, and back again. i felt mildly nauseous all day from our dim sum lunch in chinatown, which at the time was delicious but i became pretty sick by the end of the nite. Happy annivesary, honey! Now pass me the Tums and lights out at 8!

but the next day, thankfully, i felt all better and we met up with my friends and we did some amaaaaaazing shopping in the haight/ashbury district. i got some great finds for my vintage site (tiniest spark) and a lovely satin kimono top/minidress for me at one of the gorgeous little boutiques.

oh, and the heart photo above? le boy smelted, smithed, forged, and fashioned the pendant for me for my anniversary gift. as an apprentice to a blacksmith's girlfriend, i got my very own handmade, custom-designed piece. : )

and, i had lots more photos but for some reason when i upload them and blogger says DONE! they don't appear in my post. grr.

all in all, i had an amazing weekend -- i fell in love with san francisco years ago when my older sister lived there, and everytime i visited her was better. i feel like san francisco, more than any other U.S. city reflects my personality perfectly. i feel like i belong there more than anywhere else -- its layered neighborhoods, its cultural diversity, its hilltop views from every corner, its colorful houses and storefronts, its streets lined with unbelievably charming cafes and restaurants and bars and little shops, its prominently independently-owned businesses and its general city-wide eschewing of corporate, big biz enterprises. i love it i love it i love itttttt!

sigh. one more year. <3

aaaaaaack! gwynnie!

oh, GWYNNIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as one of my most favorite actresses and a style ICON, WHAT HATH YOU WROUGHT HERE?? (fyi photo found on www.perezhilton.com, i had nothing to do with the mini-yoga-convo). first of all, you have a LOVELY, incredible, lithe, long body. even after two children (cue jealous scoff at the knowledge i will never, EVER resemble her after 2 children. although maybe if the father were chris martin....), ANYWAY, even after 2 wee ones, you have a great body and what do you do? you go and throw it all away with this wholly unflattering combo. the light-wash jeans, the oversized jacket, which i realize is the new shape for fall, but simply does not work here, and the ... oh ,the horror of it all... those LOATHSOME BOOTIES. the booties which are so oddly proportioned that even the skinny jeans don't know what the heck to do with them, so they fold this way and that, attEMPTING to cover up the uggo factor, but nevertheless failing miserably.

sigh.
i'm not even going to get into mr. stipe's offensively whiny voice here. another blog, people, another blog.

NEW BLOG coming soon, with much less negativity!! i spilled soy sauce all over my brand new sexy HP laptop before i left for san fran on friday, so it's still in the shop. until i get it, the grandiose san francisco post will have to wait, because i want to show you photos!
it was a glorious weekend. hope that tides you over.
: )

life imitating posters?

i was surfing poster sites because i wanted to buy some fashion posters to adorn my brand-new office with (whoo! i have my own OFFICE now! it's in my new apartment, but still.), and i came across these (allposters.com) :

GAH! is it just me or does anyone else want to be IN these posters? i want to wear that 1940s candy-striped swimsuit! porkchopgirl has had a swimsuit on sale just like it that i've been eyeing for weeks. an the last one! not a fashion poster per se, but the way her yellow scarf flows in the north french breeze, her stylish hat and her bright red parapluie...ah! i want a parapluie, and binoculars that look over to mont st. michel!

there was such a subtle glamour to these old fashion posters, these simplistic old-tymey graphicsand as much as i enjoy some of today's fashion advertising, i'd take these over a naked waif sporting nothing but shoes (a watch, a diamond necklace, a handbag...) anyday. i think i'm going to buy that first one. but first i need the matching bathing suit.

this may be scandalous, but...

i HATE the majority of the shoes that our wondrous forward-thinking top fashion designers have whipped up for fall/winter 06. Leafing through vogue & elle, i recoil in horror at the monstrosities that we are supposed to don on a daily basis. Even as a SPECIAL OCCASION, these are horrendous: BOOTIES??? are you kidding? upscale booties? iiii think not, my friends. and ankle boots (below), well...i am so sick of ankle boots as the new trend -- they have never looked flattering or appealing in the past (cough80s) and they don't now, either. they have a terrible shape and cut your legs off at a very odd place on the upper ankle. kate moss manages to pull them off and look rocker chic and hardcore, but, well, kate moss can pull off just about anything. i know of no real live human (not that kate moss isn't a real live human, but she is too legendary and removed to think of her as an ordinary model pulling off just another pair of shoes...plus that whole pete doherty soap opera makes her that much more removed from real life) who can actually pull these off and look good. or make them look better than, say, a knee-high boot, or an above-the-knee boot (my personal favorite, a pair of mine are just LANGUISHING in my closet, waiting for cooler nites). anyhow these are awful:

and these ugly things...augh. platform-heeled sandals are the worst thing to happen to sandals in a long time. i work in a very money neighborhood in phoenix, and these rich trophy wives come in all the time sporting high sandals like above -- sometimes worse because the heel is actually a thicker platform -- and it amazes me. you have money and you are CHOOSING to dress like that? sigh.

looks like i'll have to disobey the fashion trends of the moment and rebel against these shoes, choosing instead to stand steadfast by my lovely pointy flats, high boots, and higher boots.

you, meet karl lagerfeld. <>

saluuuut, mes amours,

it's an exciting week in the vintage shop, because i just added a vintage nautical-style karl lagerfeld dress!! it is oh-so-gorgeous, see for yourselves in the photos below. i'm pretty insane to give it up, as it looks great not just on me, but on my waifish model/friend as well. it fits most body-types just beautifully, and is the closest i've ever come to owning a piece of such high-end fashion. i always sigh wistfully at magazine pages of high-end designers, and toss them mournful glances (sometimes indulging in some illicit material fondling) in the designer sections in stores, but never have i actually held and owned (!) such exquisite finery myself.

and i'm giving it away. to you. what a fool!

voila: it is gorgeous, non?