Style & Angst

Mother Nature dumped 22-25” of snow on us in the last 24 hours, mebbe a bit more.  I had my hubby take the below pics.

No husbands suffered frost bite during the taking of these photographs despite what they may claim, almost all were taken from the interior of the house.  I can’t say the same for puppies, who are none too pleased with us at the moment.

The infamous greenhouse… well, infamous if you followed along with the building of it on Reality Check.  The fireplace to the right stands about 7’ and the blob in the middle is a hanging pot on a pole.  The bush that appears as nothing more than a lump in the right-hand foreground is about 3.5’ tall.

The front steps.

Icicles on the front porch overhang.  *Somebody* needs to clean the gutters, apparently.

View through the half moon window taken from the 2^nd floor balcony looking toward the front, about 18’ up.  The squiggly things aren’t my husband’s curls, they are part of our whacky aluminum spiral lamp that hangs in the foyer.

View out the living room window on the northeast side of the house.  The fence is about 3’ tall.

Telephoto shot of the swing that sits in the back west corner in front of the stand of trees that divides the back into two sections.

The humongous 6’+ wind chimes that hang on the back patio.  For perspective, the tubes are about 3-3.5’ in diameter.

The sleeping porch that is attached to the master bedroom, as seen from the 2^nd floor guest bedroom window. The floor of this porch is the ceiling to the back patio.

The pond as seen from the 2^nd story guest window, looking directly down.  The top of the hippo fountain’s head stands about 2’ out of the water.  The pond is pretty big, it holds about 4,000 gallons of water and is about 3.5’ at its deepest, but it sure looks small from this perspective.  My sweetie dug the whole thing out with a shovel.

Hard to tell but the coral maple in the foreground has bright coral bark, it’s just gorgeous in the snow.  The arbor off in the distance stands about 7’. The waterfall into the pond runs from the right of the tree and back and uphill toward a stand of trees further to the right, but its edge is completely snow covered in this shot.

Telephoto shot of the arbor where the back divides in two, and the shed and evergreens beyond at the very back of our property.  It’s odd how the snow changes the depth perception, it’s gotta be at least 35 feet from the arbor to the shed.

Sprout, one of our bichons, contemplates the situation on the steps to the back patio outside the sliding doors in the den.  The smudges you see on the glass are original “nose paintings.”

Peony and Magnolia: What is it you find so funny, exactly?

Petunia: What?  You actually expect me to leave the steps?  I so don’t think so.  Let me in, I’ll poop in the den.

Sprout: Yeah, yeah, you’ve had your laugh.  In.  Now.

I love snow.  Hubby and puppies… not so much.

Filed under: Style

I was strolling through some FireFox tabs I had kept open (I am a big abuser of this function, and keep close to a hundred tabs open at all times until I do whatever I initially had in mind with the info they contain) and came across a gallery of images of the recent Fashion Week walk for Costume National Menswear.  And there I found this…

If I were eighteen again, he would be mine.

Filed under: Style

Why no,  as a matter of fact I don’t have kids.

OK, so maybe I don’t particularly care for kids.

Oh alright… I absolutely cannot stand kids.

Now, even though I know virtually nothing about parenting, I can understand why *other* people want to have kids.  I mean, they are great when they’re old enough and you have successfully turned them into little legal slaves that do the dishes, mow the lawn and take out the garbage for you.  Yes, I can see how that would be a plus.  I also understand that if you spend a good 10-15 years grooming a child to be at your every beck and call that you might be upset if you manage to misplace it.

This is why, when I came across the amberalertgps.com today, I thought to myself, “How cool!  Do they make them for dogs?”

Apparently they don’t. All my bichons can do is “sit” but still, I’d be real upset if one wandered off somewhere, it took me at least an hour to teach just that command to each of four dogs!   So I thought for a minute and realized that if I did have my own personal house slave/offspring, I’d be really upset if I lost it after all those years of teaching it how to mix my piña coladas just right.  Or even worse, if someone tried to STEAL it from me after *I* did all the hard work!   Man, I’d be PISSED!

So being the helpful person I am, I thought I’d pass the info along to all my peeps who actually have the patience to deal with a kid until they are old enough for the big payoff.  It’s really cool and I can’t imagine why they didn’t think of this ages ago.  You can track your little wandering future houseboy by cellphone (preferably web enabled)  or on the PC with this nifty gadget.  You can even define a boundary around a “safe zone ” and you’ll receive text message alerts if the Amber Alert GPS moves outside of it.  It even has an SOS button should little Jimmy fall down a well or something.  And once your kids turn into teenagers and they decide they are “too cool” to wait on you hand and foot anymore, this thing also has all kinds of neat things you can do to embarrass the hell out of ‘em in retaliation, like notifying you if little Elizabeth drives too fast or decides to hit the local rave rather than the library where she told you she was going.  Then you can call her, make her explain to all her friends that she has to come home immediately,  and then give her the choice of being grounded for three months or massaging your feet every night for an hour until she’s eighteen.  Gawd, this thing is great!  It is apparently useful for all kinds of things I didn’t even touch upon, you can read all about it at amberalertgps.com.

Wow, I just had a thought… they should make an implantable version! I’m gonna write them right now and suggest it!  Superrrrrr geeeeeenius!

Filed under: Style

Gawd, I just love P!nk and she sure put on the show to end all shows at the 2010 Grammy Awards.  This production is, to put it mildly,  PHENOMENAL!  You go gurl, I love your no fear attitude, you so rock and you always do it with style!

Filed under: Style

Armani, sublimely elegant and beautiful as always. I die for the sleek pearl white gown, it is divine. The silver jacket and pants… perfection. There was a lavender gown close to the end of the show that was also gorgeous but it unfortunately doesn’t appear in this video. Tina Turner puts in an appearance and she’s as HAUTE as ever!

Filed under: Style

We just got in a shipment of most divine Chinese silk jewelry rolls in a brand new design.  You gotta check these out, the embroidery on them is just gorgeous!

Filed under: Style

I’m torn on this one, I liked half of it and though I didn’t really dislike any of it, I wasn’t exactly wild about it either. I do love all the purple gowns, especially the dark royal purple with the sequined bodice, and the lavender one that follows with the uber-ruffled hem is a lot of fun.

I don’t like the new trend of wide ruffles down the sides of a dress (Chloë Sevigny wore a similar Valentino to the Golden Globes and I hated it). They put me in mind of those carnival games where you throw a softball at a stuffed “thing” with feathers around the edges meant to fool you into thinking the target is bigger than it is.  The dresses accomplish the same thing, and in this case just as at the carnival, the loser is just about everyone who chooses to play the game.

In my opinion, there’s not much in this collection elegant enough to be worthy of Audrey Hepburn.  They’ve lost the essence of Givenchy that we all know and love.

Filed under: Style

Abe Gurko of the Huffington Post certainly doesn’t understand Haute Couture and its value as artistic expression. After reading this article I was inclined to leave a comment, which I thought I’d also share here to help out those who just don’t “get it.”

“Haute Couture is the art of fashion, not the function. Few wear Haute Couture, even among those who can afford it… it influences fashion trends rather than defining them. Just as you don’t need to own a Picasso to admire Picasso’s art, neither do you need to own a Dior gown to admire Galliano’s art. Art can be defined in many ways and exists in many forms, and each has its own intrinsic value as “art,” whether it be created from metal, the written word, oil paint or textiles. Those who choose to live their life without appreciating art in all its many manifestations deny themselves a very large part of the simple enjoyment of living.”

Filed under: Style

A snippet of the Chanel walk at Paris Fashion Week. Love the silvers and dove gray, especially the silver legs! And I love Karl, who is my favorite fashion icon of all time. He’s the perfect king to reign over the fashion world, a mythical character that even the wildest imagination couldn’t conjur.

Filed under: Style

So, I’ve got a splitting headache between working on the site and inhaling enamel fumes, so I decide I need to take “the cure.” My cure? Shopping of course! Duh!

I wanted to try somewhere new so I traipsed on over to DSW (you’ll have to find it yourself, I will not link to them) because I’ve never shopped there and we’re getting into “Boot Sale Season.” I figured I might be able to pick up a few goodies I could review on the site for you guys.

So, I spend some time checking out every pair of boots on the site, and of course take a gander at the handbags. When I figure I’ve used up all the “free time” I can allow myself to get away with, I trim my $1000 cart (which included a killer pair of booties of which there was *one* pair left… in MY size!) down to $300 or so (no reason to go nuts on a first-time experience) and proceed to check out. I fill everything out as I have five million times before and the cart throws me an error. This particular error *really* puzzles me so I recheck everything to make sure I didn’t typo something (maybe I’m still buzzed from the fumes). Everything looks fine.

I click. Error.

I check AGAIN. Everything IS fine. ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

I click. Error.

Well now. Apparently PA has seceded from the U.S. and nobody told me. At least that’s what DSW insists… my simple address at which I’ve lived for six years and used in umpteenthousand shopping carts is not a U.S. address. News to me!  Maybe I’d better alert the Philadelphia Inquirer, I’m sure it will be news to them as well.

Might want to do something as simple as testing your cart, DSW. This stupidity not only lost you a sale, it earned you some really bad press, which I will be sharing with my Twitter peeps as soon I post this.

My time is precious to me, much too precious to be wasted by a lame website that can’t be bothered to play by “Site Building 101″ rules. So, dear readers, I suggest you don’t take the chance of wasting yours either… shop somewhere else!  ANYWHERE else!

Now… anybody know where I can get a pair of these cute Steve Madden booties in a 8.5?  Anywhere other than DSW, of course.

Filed under: Angst

Divalicious Designs on YouTube has put up a FABULOUS tutorial for a simple, elegant Valentine’s Day hairstyle using a LongLocks GeishaStix hair pin and DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME! I love it! And I still can’t believe that’s a wig, it’s so realistic and so beautiful!

If anyone else uses (or has used) a LongLocks design in a video hair tutorial please let me know. Rest assured, I’ll share it with everyone.

BONUS: New word: “Hangles”  LOVE it and will be using it, LOL!

Filed under: Style

I looooooove Dior. The blossoms, the colors, the over-the-top gurly gurl fashion. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.  And this year at Paris Fashion Week, John Galliano has done it again.

There are no words to describe Dior couture, so I will let the video do the speaking for me.  The shoes are divine!  And the hair… GORGEOUS! I love the balloon “rats,” that’s just ingenious!  Dior has most decidedly kicked off  fashion week with a BANG!  Or maybe that was just a balloon popping.  Either way, I’d hate to be a designer in a position to follow Dior, there’s just no comparison.

It just don’t get better than this, folks.

Filed under: Style

Have you been dyin’ to try the Ken Paves clip-on bangs, or the Ken Paves clip-on “anything hair” for that matter?  Well, nowz yer chance!  TheTopSecret.com is having a private sale on Ken Paves clip-ons (and Ken Paves cosmetics as well), RIGHT NOW!  I just grabbed a set o’ bangs in “chestnut” myself!

Jessica Simpson has been hawking these for awhile, and I have to admit she looks pretty good in ‘em.  The bangs, I mean.  Check out TheTopSecret to get your own set (of bangs), your invitation is included in the link if you’re not already a member!

Filed under: Style

Another fabulous set from Polyvore, this time with LongLocks Hair Chimes.  I so want those shoes!  Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous Jelena!

Filed under:  Style

Another beautiful Polyvore set created with a LongLocks GeishaStix hair pin.  Great job Collagr!

Filed under: Style