Style Files: Vintage dressie, how I loved ya....

This is a truly vintage Style Files....this photo is from last year. "Um Alex, so why are you posting it?? Isn't that kinda breaking the rules?" Hold yer horses my pets, there is a point to all of this I promise!





So, I loved this outfit for a variety of reasons.

+ The dress was the perfect length. It was long enough that I could wear it with bare legs and not worry about looking too hoochie but it was short enough that I didn't feel dowdy.

+ The dress and sweater are vintage (thrifted) which always things feel special. Bargain prices! Amazing patterns! What's not to like?

+ I love cardigans and finding a short sleeved GREEN cardy had me doing cartwheels.

+ I wore this outfit when I met Fergie the first time (yes, the humpolicious Dutchess—she spells it wrong on purpose. Not sure why?) and she told me I looked cute. Whoo hoo!

+ The shoes are sassy but actually soooo comfortable. No really. They are Aerosoles and I could truly walk for hours in them.

+ The necklace is a groovy fluorescent "cameo" pendant that Greg got me. It's so cute and cool. I love it.

+ The bag is an authentic Louis Vuitton that I scored at a thrift store. It has a busted zipper which was why I think it was discarded, but I love it!




Alas, this is where the story takes a sad turn. My favorite sassy summer outfit no longer exists. I wore the dress when I was flown up to Portland for a job interview (loved Portland!) and accidentally left it in my hotelroom...I didn't realize this until weeks later and the dress was long gone. Waaah! A few weeks ago the necklace that Greg gave me broke. I reglued it, but the charm keeps popping off. Waah! And now the shoes, the comfy cute yellow strappy loves, were peed on by our obnoxiously adorable cat Tuxie. DOUBLE WAAAAH!!!! (the cat has a major shoe fetish, loves rolling around on my shoes....I just discovered yesterday that he peed in my closet and now five pairs of shoes are grody and stinky.....not fun!!)

I know it's silly to mourn an outfit, but I do miss that little dress. It's weird how sentimental we get about our clothes. Have you ever lost a treasured item? What was it?

Summer is winding down.

Lawdy, I can't get enough of these amazing photos by Victor Eredel. The colors are so brill. Autumn is my favorite season of the year and these images are such a lovely take on the usual shots of leaves turning. 

The rest of his work is pretty gorgeous too (be sure to check out his "Fog" series, super dreamy).

Images: Victor Eredel Photographer.

Mystery Letters.

It is a cheesy missive, but certainly true, that if we all just took a moment to smile or be kinder to one another the world would be a better place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a goodie goodie who wants everything to be sunshine and roses—hell, I love me a good smart ass! But I also really enjoy hearing stories of cool people doing nice things. Like this, for example.
Two artists, Lenka + Micha, decided to send a hand written letter/postcard to every single person in the small town of Cushendall. Every single resident got a note. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.






"In April 2009, we sent a personal, handwritten letter to each of the 467 households in the small Irish village of Cushendall. We hoped these unsolicited letters would prompt neighbourly discussion, spreading across the town, promoting community curiosity." — Lenka & Micha




Pretty cool, no? It's funny, on the one hand technology is keeping us more connected than ever before: twitter, facebook, blogs, email, text, IM. Yet it is precisely these things that are keeping us disconnected as well. We have created so many ways to avoid seeing one another (meeting for lunch suddenly becomes less pressing when you've had a juicy IM session). Letter writing is pretty much a lost art form. That's why this project seemed especially cool. What about you guys, when was the last time you wrote a letter? Do you remember?

Images: Mysterious Letters Blog

Gettin' Twiggy Wit It.

Aw, the slender little Twigglet! She was the ultimate mod darling with those huge luminous eyes...I tried to find images that weren't about her being so impossibly thin and more about her FACE FACE FACE. She really did have an amazing face...and I love the pixie hair do. So androgynous and yet so sassy. The moped bike shot is my favorite

Vintage Children's School Book: Adelaide Hall

I'm loving the cute and proper people in this book. They remind of a hipper version of Dick & Jane. This fun book is part of an Encyclopedia Britannica series of school books that have names like Learning About Shapes and The Magic of Everyday Things. This one is The Thinking Book and its pretty darn cute. Wolfie likes reading it, but I have to admit I just love to look at the pictures. The last two, with the black and white line work, is one of my favorites.












Text and Images by Adelaide Hall.

Beautiful Animation for Grizzy Bear's Two Weeks

I think this is quite possibly the prettiest fan video ever....Gabe Askew, whoever ya are, I loves ya!

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

Image: Thanks to my girl Jessica for tipping me off to this piece of fabulousness.

Ground Control to Major Tom

4,3,2,1 Earth Below Us
Drifting falling,
Floating weightless
Calling home....

(shout out to Majors Tom both Bowie & Peter Schilling)

And finally, I think this gorgeous video of the Milky Way is pretty astounding.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Images: Some from carabaas and some from msbojangles. The others, apologies I can't recall from whence they came.

Where Have you Gone Mrs. Robinson?

Aw, is it really over?? I had a super fun birthday weekend (thanks for all the happy wishes!). In a highly unusual fit of practicality, I had told Greg I didn't really need any more "stuff."  So his present was both clever and perfect: a relaxing day at Ze Salon. No stuff cluttering the house and an awesome treat fer me. I was so thrilled to go get my crazy mane pruned and excited about adding a lil color. It was a super relaxing day, but here’s the thing. I can’t decide if my stylist was a genius or the worst ever. On the one hand, she didn’t do anything we had talked about, and yet it turned out exactly as I wanted it. Let me explain.

I knew I wanted a bit of a change…I just wasn’t sure what. For some reason I started Googling images of Anne Bancroft in The Graduate. I’ve always loved her hair— you know, kinda 60s mid length brown with dramatic ashy blonde swoopies. Then I thought “Eh, maybe not.” So I go to the hair salon with photos from my back-up idea (don’t laugh)— a photo of Vanessa Hudgens (yes, from High School Musical. Yes I’m aware that she’s, like, 12). She was in this months In Style Makeover magazine and I liked the scraggly long layers she had and side-part bangs.  I showed Daisy (my sweet stylist) the photo. We talked about adding highlights….maybe taking my nearly black hair a little lighter…. definitely not losing too much of the length. The final result? It looks NOTHING like the photo I brought in…. It’s waaaay way shorter (shoulder length people, and when it curls i suspect it'll go above the shoulder) and the highlights are all an unusual ashy blonde (trust me, the world “blonde” never fluttered from my lips). Oddlyit  looks very much like Anne Bancroft in The Graduate. CRAZY! There aren't many highlights in the front but alot in the back, kind of like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I mean, I’m kind of digging it….like I said it's bizarrely close to what I wanted, even though it's completely the OPPOSITE of what I asked this woman to do. So is she the world’s worst hair stylist? Or a clairvoyant genius??

Pssst. I'll snag a pic of my crazy hair tomorrow....it's too late to take one right now.

August 22 is my day.

Today is my birthday, whoo hoo. This is rather self-indulgent, and while I usually don't post on the weekends I wanted to have a lil something to commemorate the day.

Here's a little peek at my last birth year (the good bits only of course, there was lots of insanity too). This blog is rather young (I only started it this spring) but I've been so overwhelmed with the lovely response and welcome you guys have given me. Thanks so much, and here's to another grand year. xoxo

Linky Dinks

Happy Friday my friends! I'm looking forward to tomorrow because August 22 is my birthday. Whoo hoo! (Forever 31, baby....) Here are some fun treats that caught my eye over the past week. Have an amazing weekend!!

+ Amazing Dresses Made with Colored Markers. Be sure to look closely to see how it’s done. Clever, clever.

+ I’m really loving these adorable little lunch boxes from Goodbyn. Very Bento box.

+ A $200,000 clothing allowance anyone?? Check out this fascinating interview with Anna Wintour. Can’t get enough of her. Morley Safer’s commentary is rather hilarious as well.

+ Did you know that there was a Sanrio “Hello Kitty Disneyland” in Tokyo? Me neither! This photo tour of the amazing Puroland comes courtesy of the groovy AgentLover blog.

+ I think this is quite simply the cutest free WiFi ever—nice job Prius.

+  A peek inside Rachel Zoe’s Studio. I DIE! I know she is impossibly (scarily) thin and a touch crazy, but I kinda love her and all her vintage splendor (The Rachel Zoe Project starts up again this Monday on BRAVO).

+ Thanks Nubby for this awesome post on Michael Jackson’s influence in fashion.

+ One dress, 365 days. I’m sure you saw The Uniform Project when it first debuted and was all over the blogs, but lets keep showing her the love. Check out how cute she makes this simple black dress look.

+ A few days ago I was on the set of a new thing Spike Jonze was filming (tis a secret, and alas it’s not my project but I was thrilled nonetheless). It just reminded me HOW FREAKIN EXCITED I am to see Where the Wild Things Are. I love the trailer, Little Max is the cutest thing ever.

Kitty Kitty Bang Bang

I'm obsessed with people who are obsessed. I love seeing people who are avid collectors of ONE THING. Or people who are fanatical about something quirky and weird. Like, I'm fascinated by that show Toddler's & Tiaras—the pageant world is INSANE. I also loved the movie Best in Show...a celebration and send up of crazy dog people, that was probably not that far from the truth. But I've never seen anyone explore the world of CAT SHOWS before. Hellllo Dustin Fenstermacher!  This groovy guy is an amazing photographer (be sure to check out his site) but he's also doing this amazing project documenting cat shows. I am in love with these images. Cat Fancy indeed.

Images: Property of Dustin Fenstermacher

Thanks Dustin for giving the thumbs up to this post! xox