do you cook macaroni?

somebody woke up at FOUR this morning.

it was bitter cold, dark, and deathly-hollows-like. but later, when i stepped out of the cave [not as cool a story as "i spent my morning in a cave" seems like it could be...so i'll spare you] this afternoon:
sun and semi-warmth!

and no better way to reward oneself for a successful pre-crack-of-dawn awakening, but a little bit of shopping on the way home!
i got this tracy reese dress [$5 majr thrift!],
its got that tricky open-back,
fronty-slit situation that is so cute as a concept...
so confusing on a person.

i still like the vibe of it though.
and the flowy cotton, and the oddly long length.
[length in dresses shouldn't be overrated in the springysummer...you never know when you are going to need to jump on a trampoline, and you don't want the whole world seeing your pantaloons in some lil thigh-skimming frock!]

eight is a lotta legs, david.

[senior pic-y cheese...but it just feels good to smile at you today!]

lookit my little lime green boat shoes from the DAV.

got them yesterday.

[i know you probably pronounce the place dee-ay-vee...but i kind of like calling the store "dave". you know, personalize it a bit, since we go so often and he's right down the street...it's the little things, aint it.]

normally i'm not much of a prepster,

[i tend to make even the most elegant ensembles look like i'm running late on a saturday...i should rename this blog SLOP GIRL or something equally well-thought-out and clever. pah.]

however, i find that:

when prepster-boatie-shoes are paired with animal print tees, art-teacher bangles, and ruffly shiny pink boleros [$25 nanette lepore-thrifted, cha ching!], they bring a whole new element to my sloppy saturday whatever-it-is-that-i-do, and preppy boatie shoes can somehow still be "me". my favorite outfits are the ones you can't really place because there are so many different elements going on. like a casserole. o man i'm hungry.

plus has any human being on the EARTH passed up a pair of lime green ANYTHING at the thrift store?

thats what i thought.

no whey.

secret garden/city limit

i always feel kind of aristocratic, being that our backyard IS the line between kansas city, missouri and kansas city, kansas. don't believe me? there is a SIGN on the fence in our yard. [it has been argued that the sign could have been swiped and then hung on the fence in our backyard, like highschool hooligans do with stop signs...but it really is legitimately true that the line crosses somewhere on our street. we live in kansas. cross this fence, and you live in missouri. valid!] never ceases to make me feel cool-ish.

i've got to show you my recent thrifting finds,

of which i am way-out-of-proportionally proud:

1.) the booties i am wearing in these photos***. seychelles, and barely worn! since aquiring them on thurs, i've worn them twice already; to party arty with my twinkly dress, and today!

2) this hobo international bag, (my fave brand of accessories!) $8, in beautiful condition:

the sign says population 448,000.

so it makes me wonder, how long ago was that?

or could it be recently?

guessing populations of cities/countries/colonies/the earth...is always kind of like a shot in the dark for me. i honestly have no idea how many people live in anywhere right now...i go for vaguer descriptors such as "a lot" " and "ish."

***[if you noticed that my pictures look less wonky today, it's because bells, roommate extraordinaire (hair colorist, hair cutterist, business partner, #1 homegirl) took them for me! she's brill.]

flutterby

thrifty stores are the BEST for finding floral chiffon for pre-spring layering. i got that one for $8, and it's really kind of a charmer, in a second-string kind of way. this sweater i also got; thrifted french connection. the sleeves reeled me in and the off-pink mealy color tipped me over. something about pales and neutrals, they get me lately.

i know i look kind of like an arctic-rabbit-banana-peddler...

but i shall wear it with pride regardless! please note the lurking mosie above.

my dear, sweet, crazed problem child...

pastels for spring!

o holey tights

i love stripes.

i haven't always, and i don't know why i do now,

but something about a basic striped dress/tee/tank is so charming.

stripes combine with anything;

other patterns, any accessories, all seasons...

much like olives.

(pizza, salad, greek, mexican, hot, cold, you name it!)

stripes can be sporty.

stripes can be vintagey.

stripes can be modern.

stripes can be edgy.

stripes create a mish-mosh of intrigue!

coicidence that i have been on the phone in my recent posts. it feels natural, to talk as i work on my little hobbies, since i usually make blogs alone because there is no one home to keep me otherwise entertained...or MAYBE i am trying to look like a street-shot taken by THE SARTORIALIST (sigh), since they look so hip and busy in those crowded-street, too-cool-for-life phone-shots. I always wonder when i look at those phone shots: what are those people discussing, all hip and busy-like? probably something really earth-shattering and fabulous such as.... trying to figure out what to eat for dinner and discussing whether or not to watch the bachelor tonight...? surely?

pah.

locked up so tight

[it looks like i have a headache, but i was on the phone.]

today is sun, pop-walks, and pho ga.

i got these prairie boots, see [do they qualify as prairie boots if there are biker-studs on the back? hm].
also i keep seeing florals for spring in the magazines,
and i am getting so exited.
["florals for spring....revolutionary." -meryl streep, dwp]

speaking of spring, the essie spring line comes out feb 1.
i want that lilac color. yum.
buying it for myself on feb 1 is going to be my reward for making it through january, a notoriously difficult month for my spirits. january is a pretty word to say, plus some of my fave people were born during it, but that is all the positivity i can muster towards this barren month.

i wear that flower dress all the time, shoo!

remember to eat chewy candy when there is other noise going on, or you are alone. it's kind of quiet right now, and i am eating tootsie rolls, and the sounds happening in my mouth are quite icky-squish and overall just alarmingly gross. just saying.

olive juice

i think it is important to have a place. a compact, sweet, secret place where you can hunker down, wipe off your makeups, burrow your face in cloud pillows, take off your pants, and do tripods. remember tripods, from gym class? you balance on your head and rest your knees on your elbows? there is a reason they have kids do those. and that reason is: tripods make you look dorkalicious. (teachers love those little satisfactions, it seems to me.) so in my ficticious secret fort where i wear no pants and do elementary school gym exercises, i will also have: music, which i will play on a little sparkly ukelele (which i dont own, and wouldn't know the first thing about playing, even if i had one) and make up my own songs, and it doesn't matter if i sound good cause that is "so not the point". i will eat things dipped in chocolate and sip hot pink champagne. there will also be mini carrots and black olives, for health. i think my fort will be a gauzy velvety (impossible combination party of one?) purple tent. not spaz purple, cool purple. gold accents everywhere, kind of like aladdins lamp i guess? minus the arabian stuff. [not that i mind arabian stuff, it's just not in my vision.] i'll invite my friends over, and some strangers**, and my cat mosie, and we will laugh and try to throw cheeseballs into each others mouth. [we will have those huge sams club cannisters of cheeseballs. oh yes.] i think we should all have a place. if not purple and pants-less like mine, then just something that gives you a little Free.


see because all day long, we spend so much time talking like adults, and making rational decisions, and apologizing for moments when we let our real feelings glimmer out because we didn't catch it in time...and i start to feel all of those days caking themselves onto my face like an ugly extra layer, disguising me and making me ooooogly to encounter.

so i am going to go home today and build that purple velvet fort,
i guess?

**in this case, i will put my pants back on. [but really, pants are so constricting! i can't be the only one who thinks this.]

can't love too much one part of you

one of my fave christmas gifts.
i can't wait until i find the perfect way to wear it.
dreams of dainty doily-necklaces and flowerbuds
are helping to keep me unfroze in the heart.
[pizza, flight of the conchords season 2, and a huge electro blanket: also helping]
winter always attacks me with it's beautiful sadness. and then i just want to curl up under a mountain of feathers and get rescued.

...not likely.
there are no such things as feather-mountains!

ALSO!
i meant to show you this.
those are the top professional wedding images of 2009,
and they are all basically breathtaking.
[even people cynical about love would have to admit that weddings are one of the most absolutely and inarguably beautiful things, i would hope.]

auld lang i-am-wearing-jeanshorts

a confession:

new years eve day, i was feeling pre-sick (you know...you feel it creeping in and your throat is getting scratchy, but for all intents and purposes you are able-bodied as ever?? that.) and so i ate some soup. i got aforementioned soup on my big, black, frump-tastic sweater.

(if you hadn't noticed, frump-tastic sweaters have become my winter staple. not at all unusual to see me wearing one, every single day of The Cold-espec. when feeling pre-sick. i realize this does not attract husbands to me, but it does keep me warm, and who would rather attract husbands** than be warm? priorities!)

a combination of my pre-sickness, the cold, the fact that i haven't done laundry in probs a MONTH, and my laissez-faire attitude about new years (no need to delve any further into that) led me to wear the above outfit that night.

emphasis:

i wore a humongoloid SOUPED-ON sweater and cut-off denim shorts for new years eve. new years eve!! a holiday generally reserved for wearing sparkles (and you know i own sparkles), high heels, silver eyeshadow, and mink stoles. we are supposed to ring in the new year looking the best versions of ourselves, so we can feel hopeful and fabulous or something? but in walks the girl in the granny sweater and jeanshorts. shmurr.

howevs, i love those red boots.

(i have showed them to you before.)

and i kind of loved my outfit that night,

so i had to show you.

i don't really want to think about what it means in terms of foreshadowing for my 2010...so i wont.

**i do not mean the act of attracting existing husbands, like that belong to other people. i mean potential, not-husbands-yet, for me. as if i could wreck a home dressed like that anyway! pah!