Water Babies.

A year or so ago I was working on a very cool project at work. It was a perfume launch for a celeb and I thought it would be amazing if we could shoot the entire thing underwater (never mind that the celeb in question is/was a notorious diva and I'm sure would have given me the ol raised "HAIL NO!" brow had I suggested this to her...). My inspiration was this photo of Kiera Knightly—I thought it was really amazing and was dying to try something similar:

Image: Candace

OK, I admit I also watched the season on America's Next Top Model where the girls wore ball gowns in this huge water tank and looooved it. (As an aside, is this season not THEE most boring ever?? I love the crazy big eyed girl, but they're all so freaking boring...I sadly don't even care who wins this time around. And I'm nervous for this new upcoming season supposedly featuring shorty models. Say it ain't so Ty Ty Baby!) But I digress. Back to photography.

So, I was researching fashion photographers who could shoot underwater and it was actually difficult to find people who could shoot underwater. Well the times are a-changin'. I check my mailbox the other day and low and behold what do I find but the new Anthropologie catalog—which features some incredible looking (you guessed it) UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY.


Image: Barbara Cole

There really is something so ethereal about shooting underwater. The models look like little ghostly sylphs. I decided to dig around in my Inspiration Folder and show you some of my favorite underwater images. HAPPY FRIDAY!





Images by Candace.



Images by Michael Mulle

These images shot by Alix Malka are so gorgeous and lush. High fashion at its finest.

Images by Alix Malka

And then there is the almost cinematic quality of Zena Hollway's haunting stunners. Love!

Images by Zena Hollway.

Pssssst! Oh you *know* you wanna know who the celeb was...okok. It was Mariah. And sadly the project died before I ever got to meet her—although she did record some fun copy I wrote for these crazy talking billboards. And even though I'm pretending to be all cool you know I was THRILLLLLLED to bits to hear her sexy, pouty versions of my words! She was actually kind of adorable.

Color me thrilled.

I love jewelry (ok, as an aside, it took me three tries to spell that. What's wrong with me? I think I need more coffee...). As I was saying, I love jewelry. Not fancy gems, but quirky pretty things. Of course vintage is my favorite, but if we're talking modern stuff, I like pieces that have a little wit or wink to them. Imagine my DEEEELITE when I spied these cuties. Rings....that are crayons. 

So perfect for mommies, teens or compulsive doodlers. Not sure how they would feel on your fingers but I'm willing to bet they smell awesome. Get your hands (fingers?) on them HERE.

Meet the neighbors.

So I recently participated in a super fun e-class with the fabulous and brilliant Holly Becker. If you aren't familiar with Holly then get thee over to Decor8 as soon as you finish reading this post! Of course she's one of the tippy top design bloggers out there, but she also happens to be one of the most insanely cool, smart, fun, impossibly sweet ladies around! (Can you tell I love Holly??)

Holly recently taught a super bangin' course called Blogging Your Way and it was just the kick in the pants I needed to get back up on the blogging horsey. Besides getting to know Holly, one of the best parts of the class was getting to meet so many cool ladies (and two guys!) and check out the crazy assortment of blogs everyone was producing. I wanted to give a little shout out to my classmates and share a handful of my new discoveries with you:

UrbanNest

OK I admit I have major header envy on this one folks. This blog is so pretty and sweet....just like I imagine the three crafty ladies who run it to be.

Visual Blog of Lady Ann

Beautifully currated schtuff from the gal with the fanciest name around! I think Lady Ann and I are separated at birth, we have such a similar aesthetic. She's already become a regular read for me. If you like Lady A west coast (that would be me) I think you'll really like Lady A east coast.

OrangePoppy

Lovely sweet blog from a mommy of two cute lil lads….I don't know Miss Rebekah but judging from her posts she is a total sunshine girl (she recently cut her hair to help make a wig for her MIL who is undergoing chemo). It doesn't get any sweeter than that!

DomestikatedLife

This girlie is charming as all get out and offers up such a fun range of posts. Anyone who can mix design posts with Lady Gaga and Real Housewives is A-OK in my book!

 Also a big shout out to my swell team mates, who were super supportive and gave me some great (and totally helpful) feedback. Thanks guys!

Kelly + Olive

Shopping Is My Cardio

Dani and Luigi

Gorgeous and Fun

The Look of the Irish

Hello Marine!

Marine is a lovely French girl who lives in Brighton, England where she does these wonderful illustrations. There's something about the mix of pastel colors with bold, chunky graphics that makes me really happy. Girlie but bad ass.

These are a little more vibrant, but I love 'em too. I would soo wear that outfit in the last drawing.

I think I'll just pretend that's a drawing of me....I've always wanted green shoes.

Visit Hello Marine, for more coolness.

Hallo, kleines Mädchen!

Can you guess who this is??

Yes it's meeeee! Hanging out with my parents in Germany, circa 1972 or so, at the Würzburg Residence court gardens. My mother looks very fetching, although I have to say she never really wore her hair like that (all up and fancy). She has always been super stylish but her hair was also more "natural" (and usually blonde!).

I think looking at those little German books inspired me dig up these photos—I thought you might like to see what is quite possibly the World's Smallest Dirndl!

My expression is so funny here....very confident for a little thang!

I try and straighten/smooth my hair out, but you can see where Wolfie gets his curls!

These gardens are so pretty and manicured. I remember there were beautiful swans

swimming in the little lake and tons of roses.

I love those snazzy knee socks on my dad. Hah! We are hoping to take a trip to Germany this summer.

I haven't been since 2000 and its high time. Most of my mother's family are no longer with us

(my Opa passed away in 1985). I'm so grateful my parents loved to travel and we visited Germany

numerous times while I was young. My favorite vacation was when my mom and I went on a solo

trip....I think I was seven. She took me on a bus tour of King Ludwig II's castles and IT WAS AMAZING.

When you're seven years old, castles and princesses rank pretty highly on the ol' interest scale...and this

was like nothing I had ever seen. King Ludwig II of Bavaria was a bit of a nut job. For example, he visited

Versailles and was so impressed he decided he wanted one of his very own, and built Herrenchiemsee. Spectacular is an understatement.....the Hall of Mirrors, amazing gardens, gold and opulence everywhere.

Crazy! He had two bedrooms, one for sleeping:

and one for "receiving guests." (The man didn't like to get out of bed, which I can appreciate.) 

His other palace (because honestly, having only one is simply gauche) was Schloss Linderhof. This place was a neo-French rococo extravaganza with enough gold and velvet to make Liberace swoon.

The garden was totally exquisite and not only  had a dreamy grotto, but also featured an exotic tea house with bejewelled peacocks (take that, Hef!).

Perhaps one of the most impressive things, at least in my seven year old mind, was this crazy dining room table. King Ludwig was a fan of the brother's Grimm fairytale that featured a magical table. When the main character in the story flicked the table cloth and shouted "Tischlein deck' dich!" (or "Table set yourself!") a sumptuous spread of tasty treats would appear. Wellllll,  King Ludwig wanted one of these for his very own. So they built a table that sat on a platform rigged with pullies. He would ring a bell and the table would sink down to the kitchen, where it was promptly loaded up with goodies....it would then rise up in front of him, "magically" so he could enjoy his evening meal. (I should do some research to see if he had a chimp named Bubbles, because I'm seeing some remarkable similarities between him and another famous nutter....). Viva "ZE TABLE!"

You're probably familiar with this one, the breathtaking stunner, Schloss Neuschwanstein. This amazing castle sat nestled in the woods of the mountaintop overlooking his childhood home. This is the ultimate, classic fairy tale castle (when you think "castle", you think of this!). Walt Disney based his Sleeping Beauty Castle on Neuschwanstein.

I believe this is considered his more "rustic" residence. Hah! All three are equally spectacular.

My dream is to take Wolfie on that same tour some day. And of course he'll have to wear some amazingly cute lil lederhosen. Just don't tell him that part yet please..

Wednesday's Girls.

It's funny, I love pretty, whimsical illustrations...but I also love drawings that border on the dark and somewhat creepy. Add cute little princess leia buns, nerd glasses and/or or Blythe doll-esque foreheads and I'm a gonner! Take a gander at these haunting girlies from Jonas Löfgren. They're pretty amazing.






Apparently Lula magazine is featuring some of his work in their upcoming issue—a series of celeb girlies. Hmmm. I think I want someone to draw spindly illustrations of me posing all wonky and wearing designer duds!

Story Time.

I've always loved books. Nothing makes me happier than spending hours in a bookstore...that papery bookstore smell? Heaven.

Despite growing up in Flint, Michigan (yes, THAT Flint Michigan) I was fortunate to have an amazing collection of elementary school teachers who really instilled in me a love of reading. One of my top fave teachers was, hands down, my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Kibridge. She would read to us constantly and took us on frequent trips to the library. The coolest thing was her Reading Bathtub. It was an old claw foot tub in our class room, decorated with groovy Flower Power stickers and filled with soft, comfy pillows. If you finished your class work on time, you'd earn the honor of getting to select a book and lounge in the Reading Tub. AWESOME!

When I went home recently I was poking around and found a stash of our childhood books. My mom thankfully saved them along with lots of other toys (hello Fisher Price Castle! And she wonders where my obsessive collecting/inability to throw things away comes from, eh?). In the midst of everything I found these amazing little German story books called Pixi Bucher. These are the four that I brought back to Cali:

I should explain that my mother is from Germany (a beautiful city called Würzburg). I feel so lucky because she often read or sang to us in German—and of course we spoke alot of German around the house, especially when we visited my favorite aunt and uncle, Tante Maria & Onkle Max.

The books are only about 3 inches wide, and are filled with the most charming little illustrations. These images areall  from the Pixi Buch entitled "Hänschen Klein: Die schönsten Kinderlieder" (a collection of sweet little children's songs). Look at that adorable little foxy...ahhhhh! It's killing me how sweet he is! And those flower thingies with the caterpillar? C'mon now...

One of my favorite things to do with Wolfie is read stories. It was so sweet, as soon as he saw these he wanted me to read them to him. While my German is reeeeally rusty, he was completely engaged and never once asked "Why are you speaking like that mama?" The power of illustration! There are some pretty great new books out there, but I find that older stories are almost always the best—and I especially love sharing my favorite childhood books with him. I've slowly built a pretty great collection of vintage children's books (from the 60s and 70s), some my originals, the rest snagged at thrift stores and garage sales. I'm thinking this might have to be a fun weekly feature....what do you think? Wanna see more of my collection? Maybe we can have a special Story Time Tuesdays...whaddya say friends?