things I like this week, vol. 36

Literary jokes for the win.

. . .

“After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.”

-Mark Twain

. . .

They're tiny perfume-filled glass bottles. You're supposed to violently throw them on the ground to make the room smell pretty. The website gives no recommendation for how to clean up the shards of glass, which implies a level of decadence I'm not sure I'm comfortable with.

. . .

 Indi Apparel in Zocalo magazine. (I am still quite proud of the makeup.)

. . .

Cats. Accompanied by Neruda quotes. (The internet is amazing.)

There is also Calming Manatee.

. . . 

From Gatsby, of course.

. . .

 

Children's books reimagined as minimalist posters.

. . .

An interesting perspective on homosexual marriage: the tradition of "two-spirit" people in Native American tribes.

. . .

A clothing wishlist:

a dress for tango

and a dress for New Year's.

. . .

Bar cart inspiration, and two ideas for drinks:

smoked cocktails (they're apparently a thing. I am intrigued) and . . .

a recipe for apple cider sangria that I will be concocting at the earliest opportunity.

. . .

Lincoln in realistic color.

. . .

Vintage WW2 photographs superimposed on shots taken in the same spot in modern times.

. . .

A river of 10,000 lighted books in Melbourne. At the end of the night they started giving them away to passersby.

. . .

Friends of mine on top of Mt. Lemmon.

. . .

And a poem:

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver

things I like this week, vol. 21

They showed me a block of calligraphy ink, which was very specific: it was one of the traditional ones that the Japanese and Korean artists use. I loved the way it smelled, it was very unique, and I said, ‘You know, this could be a good idea.’

The entire interview with Ben Gorham, a perfumer, is on Into the Gloss. it's absolutely one of my favorite websites - the interviews are fun, and I enjoy hearing what products actual people use. This particular one was probably my favorite out of all of them, though. I love reading about people who are doing something intensely creative, and doing it differently than everyone else. Plus, perfume in particular is something I've been pondering for awhile.

. . .

I finally ordered the samples Frederic Malle recommended for me after I filled out their online survey. They advised Lys Méditerranée, Portrait of a Lady, and Une Rose. Lys Méditerranée is by far my favorite, which is ironic, since although it was the one they most highly recommended for me, it was the one I was least interested in from the description. Portrait of a Lady is too formidable for me to wear, but it (also ironically) smells great on Colin. And Une Rose, which was the one I was most excited about getting, is quite nice, though not totally "me."

When I called the store to order the samples, the phone was answered by a woman with such a French accent that I thought I'd accidentally somehow dialed the Paris boutique - and my brain did that flip where it tries to remember French and fails. I think she must have just been saying the name of the store, though, for when I began to speak in English, I understood her replies just fine, and it was almost a treat to get to talk to someone with an accent I've always loved.

. . .

This post from Slim Paley is full of beautiful images (no jokes about my affinity for ice), but these dresses from Armani's S12 collection were my favorite. And they almost made me wish we'd decided to do a cocktail party New Year's instead of a pirate theme . . .

. . .

This is the first of two posts on craft process by Style Bubble. This shot is from the post on Smythson bespoke stationary, which was fascinating (the gold leaf!) and also slightly absurd, as I went on the website and figured out that if I got personalized cards they'd be at least $600 for 50 of them. Worth it, I suppose, if you have that sort of money, but since I don't, I'll stick with my animal set that I won from PaperInkPress a few weeks ago.

Incidentally, she has a set of 15 personalized cards for $37.50 that are quite nice.

The post also brings up the question of handwritten thank you notes - do you still do them? I'm horrible about them myself, but I've been having Joley do them religiously this month, and she seems to be enjoying the process. Having cards with her initial on them helped.

. . .

The second process post. Apparently it is possible to have custom made Dr. Martens, which sound fantastic. I love the ones she chose, too, and the process shots are fascinating.

. . .

Tyler candles fill the room without being overpowering, and the fragrances smell luxurious despite being cheaper than, say, Yankee Candle (whose scents I usually find rather tawdry). They're available locally at Paloma Art Gallery and Grand Central Clothing (I think), though the fragrance selection is better at Paloma.

. . .

StyleMint.com is somewhat of a guilty pleasure, specifically the mystery bags. I got one for my birthday, and loved it, even though I only got a bracelet, a shirt, and some coupon codes. $30 for one tshirt is more than I will usually spend, but I can justify, essentially, $15 each for a shirt and a piece of jewelry with the chance of additional gifts. The shirts are soft and well designed, and so far have been quite sturdy.

This mystery bag is unavailable after midnight on the 27th, so get in on it quickly if you're going to. They'll sign you up for the service, but you can opt out of getting charged pretty easily within the first five days of the month. They send you emails with the new monthly collection, so you don't have to worry about remembering to opt out.

black friday

So I'm not a Black Friday fanatic, but this is the second one I've shopped with some intent, and made out pretty well. (I went out at about 9 am - early enough to get the deals, late enough to avoid the rabid crowds.) I was going to share my Black Friday tips, but then realized that there's no point now that it's over.

Suffice to say: I spent $85, and saved $42. I'm quite pleased with myself. And that's not even counting the pre-Black Friday coupons I used earlier this week.

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, in which I am also partaking, but of course it is now also too late to register your AmEx card for the $25 refund.

I do wonder about the ethics using a big corporation to refund me money to show support for small businesses, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, either.

Hope everyone had as lovely a Turkey Day as I did. <3

impluse buying: a confession

So . . . I'm pretty bad about impulse buying.

Some things I wait and think about. The last tango shoes I bought I contemplated for weeks before buying. (Wore them for the first time last weekend, and they were perfect. So happy.)

Others, especially if I know there's a limited time frame for them, and even more especially if the price is a really good deal, I will buy at the drop of the hat. And I've learned, after a few times where I resisted temptation, that I regret when I don't buy something I know I'll love.



Loyal readers might remember this print I posted ages back.

It's gone up on 20x200, a website devoted to cheap art. The 20$ 8x10 was already sold out, but there're still some of the 14x11 . . . and I got one.

Colin thinks I'm crazy. $50 plus $12.50 shipping is absurd . . . but then, I love that image. Love it. And the chances it'll ever go up for sale again, at that price . . . who knows.

I feel like art is a justifiable splurge. Even when I've already been splurging. >_>

costume

Perhaps this is obvious to everyone else, but I think not. So often people wear ridiculous costume jewelry without any sense of how . . . well, ridiculous it looks.

There's a difference between wearing a piece that clearly isn't meant to look real, and one that is and fails. This post addresses the latter.

How to pull off costume jewels:

1. Don't go too big. This is the biggest mistake people make--they buy something humongous that they could clearly not afford if it were real. The bigger the stone, the less likely you are to have been able to afford it. You want to try and find stuff where the stone is just larger than what the average person could buy, so that it makes an impact without straining credulity.
2. Silver tone is easier to pull off than gold. Fake gold shows its wear quicker, and also more often looks "off" in color. Platinum and white gold and silver and surgical steel, on the other hand, are interchangeable enough that the average person isn't going to be able to determine the difference in a cursory glance.
3. Look at the craftsmanship. Costume jewelry often looks costumey because of shoddy construction. Examine the piece closely--are the stones set crookedly? Are there little bits of solder where there shouldn't be? Are the prongs straight and even? Is the metal properly polished? You might not consciously register these details, but the eye does catch them, and then the piece reads as cheap. (Incidentally, these are things you should check for when buying real jewelry, too.)
4. Examine the cut and color of the stone. I think it's rare that colored costume jewelry is convincing; cubic zirconium, on the other hand, is easy to come by in a decent quality. The cut should simulate a real gemstone; often, costume jewelry has fewer facets in it than a real stone would.
   
5. Wear it casually. Normal people often wear costume jewelry when they get dressed up; it's almost expected. Rich people are insouciant enough to throw diamonds on with a pair of jeans.
6. Don't wear too many pieces or fake stones in a single piece. Go for one or two stones at absolute most. Again, if you're dripping in so many fakes that you'd have to be a sheik to afford them all, no one will believe that they're real. A minimalist bezel-set pendant is easier to believe than a pair of chandelier earrings.
   
7. If you can, go for high quality costume. You can get real stones set in sterling; it saves quite a bit of money (gold is at $1500/ounce right now!), and looks very nearly as good. Gold vermeil (sterling plated with real gold) is also a good option, as long as you're wearing the piece only occasionally, since eventually the plating will rub off.
   

A side benefit to this (the main benefit being that you look nice) is that shopkeepers are more likely to treat you with deference if you're wearing good jewelry. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I enjoy being treated like I could drop several hundred dollars on a whim.

the tango shoe post pt. 2

So the first tango shoe post had me scouring the internet for pictures I could use, and (of course) in the process I came across a few pairs I wanted.

I caved today and put a deposit down on these.



They're a special production: larger in the toe box and regular in the heel (which is exactly what I need with my freakish feet, and is pretty hard to come by). They're also a regular leather, which should last me quite awhile, and nude shoes are always sexy (even though the background for this shot isn't as flattering as it could be.) And I needed something slightly more practical than what I currently own.

I had hemmed and hawed awhile about these, but after today I decided I needed some motivation to finish the school year. I'll pay the rest of the cost the day I finish my grades for the semester, so that I have something to look forward to. They'll be winging their way to me quite soon after that.

Compared to the recent birthday splurge of a friend (a convertible Audi to replace her recently-sold SUV), two hundred dollar dance shoes seem like a perfectly reasonable reward.

explorations, pt. 1

I was down at the UA yesterday, ostensibly to grade. When I couldn't face reading through another essay, I decided to go a-wandering. (I do this as often as possible, preferably entirely alone and with a good deal of time available.)

After a few wrong turns, I made my way into UA's Center for Creative Photography. If you've never been, it's worth the trip; it's an archive, but they have a rather large museum-quality gallery downstairs and another upstairs, and they're both free.

Right now they have two exhibitions up: "Face to Face: 150 years of Photographic Portraiture," and "Ansel Adams: Arizona and the West."

Overall, I found the Ansel Adams exhibit lackluster, even though I'm generally a fan of his work. My two favorite prints were Aspens, New Mexico (at the top of the post), which seemed to have a ghostly glow about it in person, and Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico (below), which was equally eerie. Click on it to see the detail of the crosses, though it's better in the gallery than on your screen.



The "Face to Face" exhibit was much more rewarding for me. I was especially pleased that I recognized several of the photographer's names, if not the images themselves (religiously reading The Year in Pictures has paid off!).

I thought the display was much more well-curated than the Adams one; I liked best that in a few cases, they had paired portraits of the same subject by different artists. They took, for example, three portraits of Alfred Steiglitz, a very influential New York gallery owner, and placed them next to each other with a description of how each shot reflected the relationship of that artist to Steiglitz. (Adams' was the only one I could find on Google; below.)



They're experimenting with putting up placards next to the photos that analyze the image and provide background information. I enjoyed the background, but I found that much of the analysis I disagreed with or found more condescending than insightful. I had, for example, learned much more that was valuable on Diane Arbus' Identical Twins, Cathleen (L) and Collen, Members of a Twin Club in New Jersey (below), from a post on The Year in Pictures (which I cannot seem to find, incidentally, or I would link it here).



The analysis on Edward Weston's Charis, Lake Ediza I found particularly lacking--affected, it seemed, by a certain prudery.



Some of my favorite images I didn't write down or can't find online, so you'll have to go see them yourself. I enjoyed particularly one of a woman's father with a solar eclipse reflected onto his open palms, and a family snapshot from one of the first do-it-yourself Kodak cameras.

I also, on this same excursion, wandered into a store on University called Outside of Ordinary. Unlike most of the overpriced boutiques and chain stores that surround it, this place actually seemed to have some class. They also, uncannily, seemed to stock several things that I had seen online and thought I'd have no chance of finding in Tucson:



Butter London nail lacquers, for which they are the only retailer in Tucson;



Paddywax candles inspired by famous authors;



Modern Alchemy candles, including Ex Libris (smells like old books) and Salem (smells like a huge bonfire); and Commando thongs, which are supposed to be the end-all-be-all of panty-line free dressing (one of my biggest pet peeves). I also finally found a purse, after searching nearly continually since that post I made about it.

They had a ton of other, interesting things, but I'm not going to give them away, since I'm sure I'll be back for gift-purchasing in the future. The shopkeeper was a very polite older gentleman, but I did have to battle my way through at least ten vapid female customers to make my purchase, so go armed against stupidity.

fluff & other nonsense

I figure a post on something as frivolous as makeup is much better than posting about how exhausted I've been this week.

I am, I confess, a bit of an impulse shopper. This is aggravated by Costco, with its tantalizingly low prices and the assurance that something you're considering will probably not be there the next time you stop by.


The Stila "Blockbuster Palette" at Costco was $20. Just for comparison purposes, the "Camera Ready Blockbuster Palette," with far fewer products, is $42 at Ulta.

It comes with 30 shadows, 12 lip colors (the three columns on the right), three blushes (it says one's a highlighter, but don't believe them) two bronzers, a nude lipliner and a black eyeliner.

Absurd, for that price. Of course, the applicators suck, but since I'm decked out with good brushes, it's not an issue. But all of the colors are wearable (at least on me) and very pigmented; additionally, seeing the colors near each other has somehow made me more creative in my application. The quality of the materials is quite good, much better than one normally gets in this sort of palette.

The biggest issue is that the thing is huge, and completely ridiculous to lug around; this means that there's no reapplication of lip color after you leave the house. Also, if you're not careful, bits of the powder get stuck in the lipstick (a clear design flaw).

It is, however, perfect for stage makeup.

There were still several of these available when I stopped by to check on Monday, if you're interested. It's definitely worth it for the price.


In the spirit of nosiness, thought I'd give you a peek into my makeup drawer. Admittedly, most of this is usually scattered across my side of the sink and not neatly put away--but the point is, it can be. This is just the stuff I use on a regular basis; there's a three drawer container underneath that holds things I rarely use (mostly stage makeup).

The heart-patterned blush at the top right is from the Happiness line Physician's Formula just released, and which I strongly recommend. Nice and bright and cheery.

The knee-high hose tucked at the bottom of the makeup bin is for removing stupid deodorant rubs, which I am forever getting on my clothes. It's much quicker and more effective than trying to erase them with water.

The clear bottle is the generic Frizz Ease I use on my hair. Yay cheap!

Additionally, Colin finally let me organize his closet. It's actually still mostly intact, too, even though these were taken a week or so ago.


Ahh, sweet frivolity.

the ever-present handbag

Purses, it turns out, are a very odd thing. I don't know if it's just me, but it takes me a long time to find a purse that I'm actually alright with carrying on a daily basis. Much of it has to do with the amount of stuff it holds and in what configuration it holds it, but the other part is much more exacting: will I, no matter what I'm wearing, feel more put together if I'm carrying this purse, or less? If the answer is less, then it's immediately rejected.

I tend to vacillate between very large or mediumly small purses. I either want something big enough that I can carry it to work, stuffed with my lunch and a file with essays to grade in it, or something small enough that I can slip it in said larger bag, but enough to hold my wallet, checkbook, lipgloss, etc.

There are color requirements, too. Absurd patterns are too hard to pull off on a daily basis. I wear a lot of both brown and black, so especially for the smaller bag, it has to go with both. There's a shade of tan that's just right, or you can go with something bright that will just contrast.

Right now I'm using a yellow faux-leather clutch I got at Kohl's with a $10 gift card I got for free in the mail and a large black bag that was a Target collaboration with . . . some designer I've forgotten. However, the clutch is looking shabby and the straps are about to break on the large bag, so I've been searching for a substitute. Or two.

Time for window-shopping. For the large bag, I want something along these lines:








(They are all absurdly expensive, but this one is especially absurd, as it's real crocodile.)

For the smaller one:














This one is a bit big for my purposes, but I kind of like it anyway.













My basic shopping strategy is to notice things I like online that, usually, are absurdly expensive, and then go find something very similar--that looks like it could be expensive--for very little money. The problem with these sorts of bags is that cheaper, decent looking versions don't seem to exist. I want something structured, simple, and well-designed, but most of what is lurking in the places I normally shop at at the moment is plastered in crap, squishy, and made of cheap-looking materials. And, to be honest, after the holiday season's expenses, I shouldn't be shopping for anything new anyway. Curses.