San Smith

This week's Love Letter!

 

• Trying delicious new wines, cheeses (with "cheese honey"!) and chocolates - I've been experimenting with different flavors in all of these items lately and here are my favorites: Dark chocolate with orange rinds (around 70% cacao), Applewood smoked Cheddar and Manchego cheese (Manchego is excellent in place of parmesan!), and I love Lulu B's Pinot Noir - lovely taste and great price!
• Using a paper organizer - At the beginning of the year I moved all my organizing over to a paper planner and I'm so glad I did! Technology stresses me out easily and I love being able to doodle information vs just entering it as data. Plus, Kate Spade has gorgeous planner inserts that really brighten up each month's new start!
• Discovering the brand, "My Flat in London" - I stumbled onto this brand last week while out with my mother - it's a little kitschy but yet very girly and mature. I was able to get a small purse for a wedding I went to and all the details on it are darling! I also got a lovely necklace, but it wasn't made as well as I hoped. It's still fun to wear though!
• Wonderful hand creams to the rescue during the winter weather - My favorites right now are L'Occitane's shea butter hand cream for the day time and Aesop's "Rind Concentrate Body Balm" in the evening - especially over areas that are sensitive from sun exposure!
• Pretty and simple new nail polish - I've been wearing mostly neutrals lately because my nails chip easily at work... Essie's "grow stronger" base coat is AMAZING and I highly recommend it if your nails break easily. I also like to wear Essie's Mademoiselle on top of it or Butter London's West End Wonderland - but be warned... I've found the Butter London polishes chip easily. Fortunately, it's not very noticable with the gold glitter polish.
• Bow belts for dresses - I haven't had a chance to wear these out yet but I bought a tan belt and pink belt for this spring and I'm very excited about them!! I hope they look super cute with future outfits!
• Sugar lip balm by Fresh - I love both the "Rose" balm and the regular one!! These are so soft and smell amazing.
• New Q-Pot goodies - I know I've blogged about Q-Pot before when I went to the store in Hawaii, but I was able to buy a few items this month from their new online shop and it was so exciting!! I love the quality and aesthetics of their company <3
• Enjoying lovely youtube channels - Ones I've been watching lately: komori841, The Daily Connoisseur and YamadaRuriko.

What are you treasuring this week?

Love Letter: A Goodbye to Betsey Johnson!

This week's Love Letter post is about Betsey Johnson...

For those who haven't already heard, Betsey Johnson announced recently that she is closing all of her retail stores and the brand filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A very sad day for fashion! Apparently, she is still going to keep designing for other lower cost items (jewelry, lingerie, watches, and her pink patch line) and will be on an upcoming reality show with her daughter, Lulu, so she isn't going away for good! However, I'll definitely miss the experience of visiting her boutiques in person...

 

A cell phone pic I took of the Atlanta store at Lenox mall in 2006 

I still remember the first time I saw a Betsey Johnson store. I was at Lenox Mall in Atlanta with my mother, and I think I might have been 12 or 13 years old... We walked past the store and I begged to go inside. I don't remember any clothes specifically, just that there was a lot of purple leopard print, rose patterns, chartreuse lace, velvet and faux fur... I also remember the interior being darker and funkier than the stores are now, and they were playing really amazing punk, rock and new wave music. I was absolutely in love with all the aesthetics of Betsey Johnson as a teen - it wasn't like anything I had ever seen before! When I told my mom this, she replied that I "better get a nice job when I grow up if I want to buy clothes like that..." Ha! ;) The store ended up moving around a few times in the mall over the years - the above photo is when the shop here wasn't as edgy anymore and was more girly... the clothes stayed the same for the most part.

I never forgot what my mom said the first time I went to that Betsey Johnson store. To me this store represented a future where adults CAN be cool. Which I know is a silly thing, but my world at 13 was so small and I really didn't know any "cool" adults other than maybe my art teacher from elementary school. It was a neat concept that I held onto. I wanted to grow up to be a fun Betsey Johnson-esque adult!

Today I turned 29, and I'd like to think in the end I acquired that 13 year old hope. While I didn't shop at Betsey Johnson nearly as often as I would have liked - the times I did go were always memorable and I often bought some of my most treasured pieces of clothing there. (I could go on and on about the stories behind each piece of clothing I own from there but I wont bore you guys to tears. LOL!)

I eventually even had the opportunity to meet the designer last year, in which she was every bit as wonderful as I imagined. Betsey really embodies the spirit of her brand and took time to make everyone feel special and appreciated at the event. You can read more about my experience meeting her here!

So - after sharing all that... and being inspired after reading this post on Rookie, I thought I'd share some scans of postcards and tags I had saved over the years, along with photos of my favorite Betsey related stuff. Fun fact: Did you know Betsey illustrated all the doodles on her tags, packaging, posters and promo items? She is such a creative gal!! I love her drawings! 

✂ More photos after the cut... ✂

Love Letter - List #26

This is Love Letter #26 - a list of all things I'm liking at the moment!

 

Monster High "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love" and My Little Ponies "Friendship is magic" - yes, I finally watched the new my little ponies, and it's actually pretty cute... and on the note of other children's shows, I'm excited for the new Monster High special in February. Guuuiillty pleasures guys. <3

Shit Tumblr Girls Say - Angelina is hilarious and awesome. If you haven't seen this yet, then watch it - it's dead on. 

 

Advanced Style documentary - Love these women. Major inspiration here - I actually took lines from this video and printed them out to put up around my house. I can't wait to see the documentary!

 

Zine Scene: The Do It Yourself Guide to Zines - Cruised through this one at the Library last week and while it's really old now (published in 1998!) a lot of the info still applies, but to blogs! Very very cool book plus a fun look into the recent past. Plus, it was super fun to see examples of zines that had been made and a look at the authors. 

What We Wore: An Offbeat Social History of Women's Clothing, 1950 to 1980 - Another one I read at the library. I love looking through books like this to see the changes in fashion. Looove these bathing suits in this photo I took:

Gentleman Jesse and his men - I can't wait for this album! It sounds so good.

Cosmic Thing - B-52's

I'm so excited - Le Tigre 

This fashion shoot, "Harajuku-ers", and this one too, "Love Station", are total eye candy.

A blog post analyzing my favorite style combo ever, "The ’80s/Mid-Century Connection" !!

Advanced Style asks, "Should we ever stop playing dress up?" (no!) Some good advice in this article.

"How to Not Care What Other People Think of You" by Rookie Mag (Thanks Lillian for the link!) 

Love Fashion designer Julie Mollo's new blog, "Home Economics", where she writes about "my favorite tips for looking good, feeling good, cooking well & living well!" - it's super cute!

Flickr favorites - Pink  |  Tarina Tarantino boutique  |  Pink and purple hair  |  Retro custom Draculaura (makes me think of ghost world!)  

 

 

 

Last but not least, Danielle of Ghosts Waltz... you make my heart melt. I adore the drawing you did for me to bits <3 Thank you for posting about it!! I treasure it and keep it on my inspiration board for 2012.

 

 

Love Letter - List #25

This is Love Letter #25 - a list of all things I'm liking at the moment!

 

Tarina Tarantino's youtube tutorials - I love these videos Tarina Tarantino made for her Sephora line. She is so down to earth in the videos and inspiring! Check out her Light and Luminous tutorial and Smokey eveing tutorial - I really hope she makes more!

Soft Shock - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

She's got me dancing - Tommy Sparks

Koko Dake no Hanaashi - Chatmonchy - My cousin Chad gave me a Chatmonchy cd for Christmas and I'm loving it! Their music is so upbeat.

The Lady is a Tramp - Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga - looooveee!!! This is one of my favorite songs, and they did it wonderfully together.

 

Just Dance 3 is AMAZING!! I feel so good after playing it - it's the best work out ever. Chris got it for me for Christmas and I want to play it everyday! I hope I can get super good at it over time... right now I just kinda hop around and try my best. It's so fun! :)

 

Working on puzzles! Chris and I have been doing epic puzzling lately and it is so fun! We are almost done with a 2000 piece puzzle, and then we will start a 3000 piece one! Wheeee!

DIY peter pan collar from felt - annnd if you're not the DIY type though, this one is pretty fabulous on etsy. I really want to try to make this! Love this one by Chubby Bunny too.

Craisins in Cherry flavor and Walkers shortbread rounds - omgggg I could eat these all day. ALL DAY. Oh wait, I just did.

My Phillips wake up light alarm clock - I received this for Christmas and it is AMAZING!! I wake up so peacefully now. Often I wake up just to the light, but there is a soft bird chirping sound that happens closer to your hopeful wake up time just in case the light doesn't do the trick. It's so realistic I can't tell if its the birds outside or not sometimes! If you have issues waking up in the morning you might want to check this out!

Tiny Wisdom: When enough is better than more - good advice!

PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES – PLEASE READ THIS. - So much truth in this post. All freelancers should read this. 

I love these flickr photos - Hello Kitty Silhouette  |  Custom Draculaura  |  Girly Girls  |  Tarina Tarantino Collection  |  Halloween at Baskin Robbins in Japan  |  Pink and Black dessert table

 

 

Love Letter - List #24

This is Love Letter #24 - a list of all things I'm liking at the moment...my last list of 2011! I hope you guys enjoy it and I look forward to making more posts like this in 2012! :)

 

Shit Girls Say - oh my goodness... so spot on hilarious hahaha - I showed this to Chris and we died laughing watching it because I say/do a lot of these things. ;P The chip part at the end kills me.

I stumbled onto these videos from the 1950s recently and the fashion is so wacky fun I had to share:

 

 

 

Chris got me hooked up onto Spotify this month and I've been freaking out at how easy it is to listen to music!! Now I can preview all kinds of things before jumping in to buy a cd! It's really exciting :) Here are some of the songs I've had on rotation recently:

You're so good to me - Beach Boys 

Our day will come - Amy Winehouse 

Darlin' - Paper Dolls (the image on this video is kinda hilarious paired with the song...)

I want the world to stop - Belle & Sebastian 

Sheena is a punk rocker - Yeah Yeah Yeahs 

My heart is a drummer - Allo, Darlin' 

In the sun - She & Him 

 

Chocolate party spoons! These are too cute, I'd love to make them as gifts for next Christmas.

30 things to stop doing to yourself - very good list and to the point! Read these before working on your New Years goals this year!

Making New Year's Resolutions? Ask Yourself 6 Questions. - Another to the point and very helpful list of suggestions. 

The end of the love letter" on HelloGiggles - Do you guys still write letters or send cards? I try to make a point to do this around special occasions, but most people I know my age don't seem to... 

On the note of writing letters, this is pretty awesome. I kinda want to join in the fun on moreloveletters.com now :)

Love the simple healthy recipes on Undressed Skeleton's tumblr - I've been trying to cook more lately, and a lot of the recommendations she makes are so easy to prepare for fast lunches (and healthy!). The blog name is a bit weird, but if you click the link she explains the concept behind the name which is interesting.

 

loved this quote from Kate Spade's tumblr... :)

 

That's it! I might make a post tomorrow about my goals and what I'm looking forward to in 2012, so stay tuned for that! Hope you guys have had an excellent week so far <3