No, Really, I Want To Know

For a long time now, I've been kicking around the idea of writing about diet - specifically my diet - and my rather well-researched opinions about nutrition and (for want of a snappier descriptor) healthy lifestyle. I'm aptly qualified, you see, because my mother says I should be a naturopath - but then she also says I should be a therapist, stylist and talk show host - so just perhaps we should take that vote of confidence with a grain of salt!

I haven't yet posted on these topics, for a number of reasons, among them: It may be the most boring thing you've ever read; I'm not a health professional (not that this has ever stopped me in the past); and, let's face it, what works for each of us is based, in no small measure, on how individual chemistry gets it on with basic science. So I'm not exactly out to promote the book tour. Oh, and then there's the small matter that I'll need to write multiple posts, just to scratch the service of my high-maintenance ways.

Let's also call a spade a spade. There's eating and living well to be healthy (worthy goal) and eating and living way to be more lovely (also a worthy goal, IMO, but one that's fraught with complicated subtext). It's hard for me to detangle the two but that distinction may be very relevant to some of you...

So let me put it to y'all out there in Bloggywood: Might you actually want to hear about my strategy and opinions? (Please don't feel the need to be polite. Nothing is more wretched than coming to your fun fashion blog only to hear about some idiot girl's food diary...)

Oh, and while I'm asking the questions: How much time and/or energy do you invest in maintaining your health through diet and exercise / looking the way you want to look?

Tag, You're It

It seems, no sooner did I invoke the term "Premio Award" that I was tagged with it! How fantastic. Thank you so much, most excellent kpriss of Stylefrizz, for passing this along to me.

So here are the guidelines (I'm so over calling them rules!):

1) Link to the blogger you received it from.

2) Give it to 7 blogs.

3) Link to those 7 blogs.

4) Leave those seven bloggers a comment about receiving the award.

As so many blogs have received this already, I've opted to highlight some sites that I'm still getting to know. Apologies for any duplication - but, I say you, can't be tagged too many times with an award acknowledging your great site...

No Signposts in the Sea
Lady Melbourne
The Vintage Society

And here are a couple of perennial faves:

Curella Says
Godammit, I'm Mad!
little thoughts.

I'll leave the 7th spot available to any brilliant new blogger who's looking for some love. Just let me know...

What I Wore Today...

I'm having a Wardrobe Remix moment...

The vintage skirt a few weeks ago:

The vintage skirt today:

I realize the first photo is cuter but, smiliness aside, which top do you prefer?

Freudian Slip

I keep telling myself that I have no more time to read and then, almost to spite me, the universe (by way of my fave bloggers and that Premio Award meme) throws me new sites I cannot resist. Talk about drowning in good material!

Here are three worth taking a close look at:

Already Pretty:

Of course I love this blog because its tone, in general, reminds me of mine! Sal writes about fashion-infused experiences as they impact her life. And because she does it so deliciously, I know I'm going to enjoy whatever she has to say. She roped me in with her rather serious, incisive posts about weight (and stepping on the scale). But she's quite light-hearted for the most part... And doesn't her blog win best name of the week!?

Please Sir:

This blog deserves an award for making tolerable - nay enjoyable - to me beautiful design layouts without calling up that lowbrow status anxiety which my husband likes to point out is beneath me. Somehow the photos shown are inspiring and democratic. More about dash than cash (and if that's not true I'd prefer to live in the fantasy). It's the renegade, design analogue of the downtown fashion blog. Could I actually be maturing, I wonder? Or is this site a work of genius? I'll let you decide...

Decorno:

That's the thing about exploring a new genre, before you know it, you find yourself smack dab in the middle of broader community. You know, like-mindedness and all that... At any rate, Please Sir hooked me up with Decorno (mash up of Decor and Porn) where I discovered a) witty, acerbic writing on a variety of entertaining topics and b) one of the most arresting images I've seen since, well, ever:


I'm not going to lie, this blog may test your ability to handle gorgeous interiors you will lament never being able to achieve...

Hold on. I'm taking that back. You know how we all love fashion whether it comes wrapped in Hermes ribbon or discovered, like a gem, off the beaten path? You know how personal style is a function of mindset, confidence and a great eye? Well I'm extending my boundaries, people. I hereby declare interior design fashion for your home. And if I can swing it fairly believably on my imperfect self with my imperfect budget, I can sure as hell do it with a piece of beautiful architecture.

Leading me to wonder, are blogs the new therapy?

Fringe Benefits

My great friend Martha (Flip Hair Design, Scollard Street), also my hairdresser extraordinaire for 20 years (not typo), on learning about Enc's indecisiveness re: getting bangs, gave me the best line:


Bangs are a French woman's botox.


HILARIOUS! Not only is it true that bangs are cute and a la mode, they hide any lines that years of expressive communication have wrought.

Now, due to her amazing skin-care regimen, healthy lifestyle and good genes, Ms. E doesn't have a wrinkle to her name (not that I malign wrinkles, mind you. Nonetheless, bangs are an amusing distraction in these crazy times.



So, in the spirit of bringing her into the fold, here's a glimpse of my haircut experience today.

We went from muffin head to close cropped in the blink of an eye (full of fine, itchy hairs!).

This shot manages to look a) horrible and b) nothing like me (cuz I'm gorgeous, ok?). It's simply a vehicle for showing the hideously long bangs:

Here we are after the haircut but before the colour. The fringe is shorter than ever - but that's the kind of haircut risk-taker I am :-). Gotta love me in that robe!:

And, finalement, here's the finished product:

FYI, it is seriously difficult to take a photo of yourself using a cell phone camera without cutting off half of your face and forehead.

Why Do You Shop?

Yesterday's post was inspired by this idea that's been tumbling around my brain for a while...

As you know, I don't have all the space in the world and I don't have a trust fund. I don't work at a fashion magazine or a sexy agency. I do not own a gallery. People don't pay me to dress stylishly. So why do I shop so frequently? More to the point, why do I buy?

Of course, the answer isn't simple. (Arguably the question isn't either.) I shop because I love the activity. You know how some people knit. That's how I shop. It's not some mindless function for me. It's a creative undertaking, a perfect form of mood alteration, a social occasion. Not unlike a fine meal or yoga or sex.

I shop because I enjoy observing beautiful things in their natural habitat. That stripey nautical T in it's spot at Club Monaco. That perfect snakeskin bag at Apt. 909. These items exist so harmoniously with their appealing surroundings that I can't help but to want to experience them for myself. And then, what starts as a theory, when it looks right on me, becomes utterly compelling. Come on, you know that feeling. There's nothing like becoming one with something new (especially if it had another life before you).

Vintage is perhaps the most appealing, not only because of its general pricepoint, but because it's like that badass boyfriend who took all those drugs and fucked those other girls before you. It's lived a life, you know. It was there a long time ago and it will likely outlive you and that is powerful shit.

So that's part of why I shop - who can even quantify the full landscape of reasons - but why do I buy? As people have suggested to me (and to themselves, I'm sure), why not look and touch and try and then walk away? Well, peeps, believe it or not, how much I shop is a testimony to how much I walk away - if this makes any sense at all. I frequently walk. I always buy less than I want. And sometimes that sadness for the objet that got away trails me for miles like a stray leaf caught in the breeze.

Which is why I love shopping with and for others. I am thrilled to search out beauty on behalf of someone else. Occasionally, it even blinds me to the gorgeous things I'd like for myself and I have a true "cake eating" experience. All the creativity, the opportunity to perform a service, a chance to observe someone grow in confidence with lovely new purchases, all on someone else's dime. I know, the selflessness :-)

I'm curious to know why you shop. Do you think you have a "problem" or are you a collector? Do you curate the pieces, treat them with the love and respect they deserve or are they, eventually, creative clutter at the bottom of your drawer? Please share your thoughts...

Boutique Chez Vous

While stay-cationing, you may like to do a bit of shopping, non? Well, according to the pundits, the new chic locale is the old wardrobe. Like the one that stares you in the face from your cozy bed. Not as fun as Holt Renfrew, I agree. Though palatable - nay perhaps even exciting - under the following circumstances:

The closet organization has to rival that of the shelves at Marlowe. This is what will make your former purchases as enticing as new ones.

Those things you bought and then forgot about immediately (or wore a lot and then retired temporarily) must be clean and pristine. If the skirt you haven't worn in 3 seasons has a moth hole and 2 buttons missing, you're not exactly going to grab at it.

IMO, you should start the home shopathon with a list of all the things you're hoping to end up with - much as if you were out for a regular retail experience. If you're looking for a cool body suit / fitted T / pair of denim shorts, that's what you need (desire). How cool to want it - as you did at some past moment when you actually procured it - and then find it (already folded and colour coded on the bottom shelf) for free?

Don't kid yourself. You bought these things at one point because you loved or needed or wanted them. As such, you'll likely feel the same way again if you give the garment half a chance. And, if you look at it (that thing you lost at the back of the closet days/weeks/months/years ago) for more than 10 minutes and get an itchy "yuck" sensation, please toss it. I mean recycle it. Because it probably isn't ever going to flip your switch but it might just be perfect vintage to someone else...