the platonic haircut?

Chic frenchie hair like this lady:

or long, mermaidy (and arguably even frenchier) hair, like these two:

Ill never decide!

images via here & here

the best holdiay cards!

I already blogged about the collage work of Amanda White, but I just wanted to tell you guys about this, because shes taken her portraits of various famous authors homes and turned them into the best, sweetest, most non-denominational holiday cards I can imagine. Pictures of houses are always so sweet to me, and these are jolly, seasonal, and historically significant. You can choose from the homes of Virginia Woolf, John Keats, The Brontës, or Jane Austen--three cards for $12. I only wish she did a set with one of each, because I personally think that makes more sense than buying three of a kind. But what do I know?!

ps: Im a blogger now so I have to do a gift guide, apparently. Look for them as soon as its december!

images via here

speaking of pretty things

 Im not trying to get all weird and wedding-y on you guys--and who said rings are just for engaging people anyway?--but these two rings, by Su of Illuminance Jewlery, are the most beautiful rings Ive ever seen. Theyre everything! Shiny, goth, fanciful, feminine... and slightly game-of-thrones-y, no? No one else would have anything like it. And for only $38? Really? Can you even imagine? 

What a dream!

images via here

field of my dreams

On a fruitless e-quest to remember the name of the editorial by Tim Walker that included this photograph--which, incidentally, is featured in the Gypset Travel, the new photographic anthology of 'bohemian wanderers' by Julia Chaplin which, incidentally, and despite its somewhat offensive title, I would like to read very badly--I remembered about this other editorial, also for Vogue, shot in 2008 by Mario Testino. Felid of Dreams it was called, and it featured a beautiful baby-faced Natalia Vodianova  frolicking in a midsummer wonderland with her sweetest baby family. If I could pick any one single editorial to be my life forever, this would certainly and obviously be it. The clothes are beautiful (flowers + stripes + ballet pink, what could be better?), the dappled leafy setting is what heaven looks like in my mind, and everyone looks like a magical fairy elf. It makes me want to have more children? And a parasol. 

images via here

mirepoix

this guy!

hoop hoop

 Ive been wearing my tiny gold hoop earrings all week. Theyre just what Im in the mood for these days, but seeing a baby Kirsten Dunst wearing hers in Jumanji last night made me realize why: Theyre the perfect, 90s, feminine-grunge accessory. Counter-intuitively, grunge as a Look is about appearing not to care about ones looks, beyond a functional standpoint, and jewelry is inherently ornamental/non-functional, which is a problem. But tiny gold hoop earrings have this incidental quality to them that make them look just right. As if youve just happened to have them in your ears for always. You dont ever remember putting them in. You were born wearing them. Maybe its because gold hoop earrings are probably one of the oldest kind of jewlery there is in the world (I assume?). Of course they can look fancy, I think, if you do it right--in fact, they compliment every 90s look, from Elaine Benes working woman, to Hope Sandovals grunge lady-babe, to Angela Chases girlish ragamuffin (a look that comes so naturally in winter)

Plus, theyre perfect with a denim jacket, which thanks to global warming, is still appropriate outerwear in november. Another great thing about them is that, as jewelry goes, tiny gold hoops (I like mine on the smaller side) are pretty affordable. For example, these super cute 14k gold ones are only $15:

You can find them, and many more, on Etsy. Its fun!

images via here here here & here 

oh dear

Felix and I were just doing laundry. We have a problem!

hello, my precious

 I thought Id lost them! But over the thanksgiving break my dear sister Judith assured me that my most precious Hello Kitty Tarot Deck is around, somewhere, and that shell bring it to me for christmas. Its long been a dream of mine to design my own tarot deck, but in my opinion this one is so close to perfect that its almost like, whats the point? I honestly cant think of anything in my life--aside from the bee-bee boy, of course--that I find so simultaneously adorable, precious, magical, and inspiring. Just see for yourself:

Designed by Joe Rosales, and subsequently banned by Sanrio, its obviously not The Thing for every tarot reader, but for me its The Best. Ive had other tarot decks, of course, but this one is obviously the most special and magical--and, I find, the most accurate.You may not believe me, and you may also wonder how I could lose something that I claim is so precious--but thats just a thing about me, I guess. The more I want to keep something, the more easily it gets lost: sunglasses, my telephone, adorable tools of the occult...

 Its a problem! 

images via here

how cute is...

...this 72-year-old Chinese granddad, Liu Xiangping, sole model for clothing label Yeukou, launched in May by his Granddaughter and four other recent design graduates. Adorable. He and his spindly legs have become an internet sensation in China, already--and understandably so. How does he make this silly girly clothes look so good? Hes like, Karl Lagerfeld meets Ana Wintour meets...well, a chinese grandfather. You know? Plus that wig is hilarious. 

via here

haute bebe: heres how

I was just thinking of something, and then I just thought of something...

+

=

...but for babies. You can easily recreate this ridiculously unnecessary but completely chic baby look with this three-pack of mothercare sleepsuits (which felix just received in the mail--thanks granny!) and some of these handy sew-on Play patches. The whole thing will cost you $35 (plus shipping)--thats less than $12 each. What a cute gift they would make for a weirdo like me, if I hadnt already thought of it... 

Too much?

images via here, here & here

ben giles is pretty cool, right?

Remember this Celine ad? I really liked it, but I didnt know who made it. Welp, Ben Giles did, and he has a lot of other cool art, as well! I like the dingy, grainy, national-geographic-esque photographs he uses as the base for his collages--theyre the perfect background for all the bright colors, florals, and psychedelic junk he puts all over them. If you like him a whole whole lot, you can even get his work in iphone case format. The ones with all the flowers and flowers look like those victorian decoupage boxes. Do you know what I mean?

images via here

the hierarchy of adjectives

I read in the telegraph this summer about the natural order of adjectives; it goes opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose. It might sound a little trivial, but if you stop and think, and then try and describe something out of order, it does sound off. For example: today we are driving our white old family cool minivan to thanksgiving dinner... Its wrong! On the other hand, if I had this adorable little cropped black madewell velvet jacket, Id really have it all! 

See?!

via madewell, obv

the platonic striped top

Remember the only striped shirt I have? I like it a lot and people always compliment it, but like I said before, for some reason I feel like its not quite the perfect, platonic striped shirt. Because the stripes are too wide. Ive been thinking a lot about this, and Ive decided that the thickness of a stripe is inversely proportionate to the coolness of a shirt, as the wider the stripe is, the more deliberately 'stripey' the top appears, and therefore less incidentally cool. Also, I think the dark/light stripes should be of equal width, which explains why the top I got from Uniqlo isnt exactly perfect, despite its black stripes being very thin. Incidentally, I used to have one that looked pretty much exactly like the one ol' kurt is wearing, above. Only it was an XL from gapkids--so, while pleasantly boxy, it was not particularly flattering to my ladyshape. So I got rid of it, pre-move. What Im trying to say is, I need another one! Ive learned my lesson about boxy crew-necks (the lesson is that they look much better on a boy) so it cant look exactly exactly like Kurts, unfortunately. The best, most feminine iteration Ive found is this top, which, sorry, I already told you about (twice)--but its only perfect and I cant stop thinking about it:

The peplum isnt exactly grunge, but Im pretty sure I could dress it down... or up! And speaking of perfect stripey tops from JCrew... technically, an ideal striped top can only be white/cream+navy/black, but youre allowed to have more than one top, you know, and they dont all have to be perfect. These comme des garcons shirts are exactly like mine, but in fun new colors, and I want them all! Except that theyre like a million dollars each. Ill let you know when I find them on ebay, which is where I got my first one, for like a fifth of the price of these. Suckers!

images via here, here & here

best movie ever?

felix is napping and Im just drinking a beer(!) and watching a flick with this guy.

I wish we were also on the porch eating cheetos in springtime, but you cant have everything...

french mongolian

My dearest friend Ivy and I once tried to describe our winter 'looks' in two words. Actually, it was more aspirationally prescriptive than descriptive, but it served as good inspiration. A couple we came up with: colonial grunge (that was Ivys, and pretty spot-on, really); disco indian; and (this was one of mine) french mongolian. Actually, my truer, more accurate descriptor was Gypsy Prep, but Ill go into that another time... Anyway. The basic idea of French Mongolian is to wear a lot of rustic, fur-embellished winter layers over striped shirts and miniskirts, plus some gold hoop earrings, braids, and probably some smudgy eye-liner. Obviously, it doesnt really work in the summer time: 

Its a look I still aspire to every winter, and which was captured somewhat perfectly (make-up notwithstanding) in So Fern, So Nah, an editorial shot by Alexi Lumbomirski for the December issue of German Vogue. Honestly? Its more Swedish-Samurai... but the vibe is nearly the same.

What a winter wonderland! Amirite?

collage by me on polyvore; photos by Alexi Lumbomirski via here