tuck it

I confess, I have a predjudice.
a predjudice I am working to remedy.
because see, I've always scoffed at the concept of "tucking in" ones shirt.
i was always
oh, you're going to tuck that in? to your khaki pleated pants? and go ride on a parade float of school kids/day jobbers/surgeons required to wear uniforms? and then are you going to go to sunfresh on your way home? pick up some dinner? and make your fellow shoppers feel bad for you cause you have that shirt TUCKED IN?

mind you, I am not proud of this.
[I realize it is irrational and based on memories of looking like a week-old fruit for many shirt-tucked-in photos from my adolescent past.]
however now I am learning,
J. crew models can make it look fresh...why not the rest of us!

my suggestion would be:
loosely tuck a not-too-stuffy button-up into unsuspecting pants. (as in; not black work-y trousers or pinstripes. I used cutoff shorts because that is all i have lately been wearing. but also maybe black cigarette jeans, or slim-fitting semi-casual slouchy cotton cargo pants that don't exist but in my dreams.) I think it helps to have the sleeves rolled up a little bit, you still want to look approachable in spite of your polished tucked-in-ness.

[I also love high-waisted pencil skirts paired with extremely casual loose-fitting teeshirts that we all own at least a few of, tucked in. I have seen that some lately, and the girls always look evercool. ]

see how easy!
and kind of cool looking!
the jury is still out, but I don't hate it.




mosie seems to not recognize me in a tucked-in shirt,
same effect as when toddler-moms get nosejobs.

is Fall not just a miracle season?
your whole life could be crumbling into...well crumbs,
but you've no choice but to rejoice because its about to be FALL!
i want to ride bikes around or pull something in a red wagon.

porch-swing babies

I realize I am beating this gossip girl thing to death.
but one last thing:

one of my fave little moments in season 2 happens when blair is standing outside serena's apartment building, spying to see where serena's shady new boyfriend will go when he leaves. she's wearing black, covert-ops like, but you'd never know if you were just walking by. so then chuck pulls up in his fancyshmansy limo and sees her standing there.

chuck: hello blair.
blair: go away chuck! (not wanting to be distracted from her mission.)
chuck: I see you're wearing your beret...who are we spying on tonight?

I just love chuck. he knows her so well, enough to know that:
beret=spy mission.

speaking of berets:
this sparkly number made itself irresistable to me.
[justification: i'll wear it for the holidays***.]

unfortunately: this is the opposite of what one would wear for a spy mission, not to mention a sparkly beret is: of "questionable taste".
(...also I hope I am not making an unintentional yet intentional-looking vulger affiliation sign with my hand there.)


***note: holidays are always cause for wearing sparkles.

****also note: sparkle-wearing is also called for while cleaning one's house or when visiting one's gyno. i plan to wear this hat, should i need to visit the gyno, so it may serve as "distractor" for all involved. thank you.

PS: check THIS out. i think it must be mine!

hairable two

I don't know why they call it "free time."
time spent while not working most always ends up expensive.

today, there are a lot of things I could do. ie:
.get groceries, end up buying cookies/misc. crap.
.sell some clothes, end up buying more than i went with.
.go look at books, end up buying books.
.call someone, end up buying ice cream or coffee or or or or or or.



life is expensive.



so instead of partaking in expensive living, i have been sitting here writing songs (you are lucky i choose to do this as a solitary activity. no ingrid michaelson am i) and contemplating some very important life issues. which is what brings me to the reason for this post.

WHAT SHOULD I DO
with my hair?

[vain, yes, but necessary, also yes. this calls to my mind my 8th grade bible study. some 8th grade girls have serious issues in their lives, this I know. but my particular group, back in those days, was either incredibly blessed, or incredibly narrow-minded, OR just really young, because all we ever asked for prayer about...was our hair. seriously. what to do with our hair. praying it would grow out faster. asking God why we had the hair we had vs. other hair we'd rather have. every week we discussed this in bible study. I think a few times, there were even tears. wish I was exaggerating. I cringe to think about the things that went un-prayed for, trumped by split ends and to-layer-or-not-to-layer. since then, I've thought some about my hair-probably average amount of hair-mindedness, for a girl. I allow myself to discuss it and ponder it. but barring unforeseen circumstance or disease....pretty sure I vow never to pray about hair ever again.]

i used to have cornflower sunshine hair.
then about a year ago, i dyed it; became raven velvet hair.
in essence, i like both.
but creeping into my mind has been the question of what to do next.
go back? stay dark? what looks best? what feels most "me"?

should I just dye it red out of lack of any better idea!?

that would be dark, mature, stark, mysterious-bordering-on-scary.
this would be sunny, blondie, carefree (aka: false advertising).

help me! (a plea is different than a prayer.)

one, two, buckle my (half size too small but worth the pain) shoe

today, I smelled and felt fall in the air.
we actually sat OUTSIDE during lunch, which was a lovely time; me and my two heartbeats/friends that I rarely get to spend time with. and it was [almost] cold under that huge red table umbrella.

so of course, on my way home, i ran into some shoes and:
fell into fatuation.
for the sake of autumn in the air, I think, I had to get them.
aka: I had no choice.
justification:
.i'll wear them with burgundy tights.
.also with tweed pencils skirts (i own no such things).
.I will sew a courduroy romper...just to go with them.
.they are Frye, and only $17 at my favorite super-secret discount-disco.
.they make me feel [ever so subtly] cute like a zooey deschanel cotton ad.


I can see myself now, coffee in hand, buffalo-plaid scarf on neck,
....feet in these:

Lets just take a moment to appreciate mary-janes. they are comfortable. you can't outgrow them, they know no era, and they never try too hard. when you are uncertain...go with the mary-janes. especially in the fall. i'm not the only one that feels this way, am i?

XOXO

I suppose most of you thought that yesterday, August 18, was just another day.
go to work, run some errands, talk to some people.

but NO.

August 18. was. the day I had been waiting for, with the anxiety of children for Christmas day, since last week when I realized that August 18 was:

The Day Gossip Girl Season 2 Was Released On DVD.
I don't really buy movies.
I don't really buy music.
I don't really buy shows on DVD.
(mainly I buy garments and food and coffee and hair dye with what money I have, if you had just mentally wished to ask me: well what do you buy then, spazmonkey?)

But yesterday, August 18:
I scurried, with my heart aflutter, into Target. I pushed past moms with kids (dawdlers! always moving so slow! get a babysitter on days like this!! aisle hoggers.) and didn't even stop ONCE to glance at the handbag displays. Straight to the entertainment department (or whatever it's called?). I thought maybe I was too late, that all the 17-year-old girls had already been there and snatched every copy they had. Turns out, they had about a hundred, so, fears calmed, and GOSSIP GIRL SEASON TWO IS MINE.

that show, I can not even tell you.
it has an effect on me that I should probably be ashamed of. but: i'm not.
So today, I not only own gossip girl season two,

I decided to wear my Blair Waldorf jackety thing I purchased recently SIMPLY because it reminded me of Blair. That's called: blatant and repulsive copy-catting caused by fanatic reverence of a person that does not exist, and even moreso, is mean.
but still....look at the bow for a belt and the large cloth-covered buttons.
Blair would be proud.


if I could be a gossip girl character, I was thinking, my name would be something like Ruby Von Tussell or Soupie Beauregard, and I would wear red lips and carry my fuzzy cat around as I wear chunky sweaters and run amuck on the lives of others. (then, at a very crucial point in the plot, i turn nice.)

in other news, look what my roommate made last night...

[things like seaweed-ramen-with-a-hotdog-octopus dinners gently remind me that my life could not be farther from Gossip Girl, though I love it so. NBD! give me creepy mustard eyes any day.]

from rags to britches

sometimes I wonder:
if you walked with enough confidence (chin up, hip sway, 32-ounce pop in hand),
and you were wearing some rediculous version of something that neither functions, nor makes sense, nor looks extremely cool....
would it catch on?
it's all about the confident stride, i'm telling you.

perhaps if I could perfect The Confident Stride, these denim legwarmers Kelly fashioned from the remaining pantlegs of cut-off jeans could be the next big trend to hit the scene. observe my version:
belly's version:

a very versatile trend, it would be.

in other more relatable news, we went thrifting today for the first time in a good while. I was on the hunt for furniture, but no go. I got these lovely clay-ish lavendar blossom earrings as well as many others with which we will be making our signature rings (more on that latah).

other finds: straw briefcase (creates a laid-back business atmosphere, is my plan) with small accenting pocket, two green frames with nasty dead flowers inside that we will be removing, an alphabet-covered tank and a pretty white frock.

over the next few weeks, we are going to be focussing on decor, really harnessing the personality of our lil bungalow. I'll be scrounging for inspiration and posting things I find and see and things we end up doing...

missing you

my sister got married on saturday.

it was grand.

the entire wedding was so characteristic of my sister; the minimal flowers, the modern lines, the lack of froof, the saturation of the colors. the casual cool. every detail of the day was shouting my sister's name through mini loudspeakers right into your ear. Would anyone want it any other way? It is a harmless but lovely power to have strong style. If you've got it, people have to appreciate. even if they wouldn't do it the same.

Sometimes I don't think I would mind if we lived in a "doug" type of world. Patti Mayonnaise wore that polka dot thing every single day. It's just who she was. I bet it fit well, the colors were nice. Soft fabric. her style. Why take it off if you like it?

I think my Doug mentality has led me to a certain daily uniform of my own...

.straightleg denim.

.black athena dolce vita sandal/boot hybrid-thingy shoes.

.white and black animal graphic tee.

.chunky watch.

.and go.

.easy.

I wear that at least three times a week-

alas I seem to have an odd accumulation of animal graphic tees.

I also have an affinity for those head flower things.

* one of the zeb. shirts is my roommate's. i just steal it a lot...including a giraffe one which I couldn't find. and a bird one that's been MIA for a while.

Moral of the story is not that I recommend animal-face teeshirts.

I recommend people have green skin, purple skin, dogs named porkchop and the same outfit for every day.

(just to clarify)