Because I constantly strive for improvement.

It's late on a Sunday night, I'm drinking Diet 7-Up and eating macadamia nuts. I had a fairly dull weekend of being crabby, but tomorrow is a new day, am I right? I can be crabby on weekdays too, just you watch me.

I took these pics awhile back when I was still fiddling with my camera. My camera, which is currently broken. Thanks, Samsung, for sucking. I appreciate it. Anyway, I did actually wear this outfit today (with a black American Apparel cardigan, just try to picture it. God, I know, amazing right?) and some tights.


Dress, vintage. Boots, Doc Martens. Menacing smile, all me baby.



I have these beautiful visions that I'll be able to find some sort of camera repair person in town that I can just bring the camera to and have them fix it so I can avoid mailing it off to Samsung and waiting hundreds of years to get it back...but my hopes, they are not up. Especially considering that when I talked to a Samsung person online when the camera first got messed up, she tried to convince me I needed to buy a new battery; I later found out from my roommate and his mad Googling skills that it was in fact a problems with the lens. In conclusion, Samsung people are incompetent and the products are nothing to sing about either. Anyone have recs for a better camera?

In other news, I went to the Go Raw Cafe today, where they make ridiculously amazing vegan mochas with whipped cream that's made from brazil nuts and, judging by the taste of it, angel wings. The non-Whole Foods-y vegan options in Vegas are few and far between, but what we have kills it pretty hard. Nonetheless I'm pleased to be taking a trip to LA this weekend, home of so many amazing vegan places that it's kind of obnoxious, and home also of my BFF who will take me to them. Being able to order everything on a menu: not a thing you appreciate until you decide that you don't want to eat all the dead things on the menu. We're also going to Disneyland on Superbowl Sunday. So this weekend should be better than the last, and that's all I ask for, really. That, and a working camera.

this is benign neglect

Oh life, life, so much going on! I've been attempting to reign in the spending and have done admirably so far this year (although apparently taking frequent walks to the grocery store means I'm buying more groceries than usual, and in a much more random way) - good for the wallet, not too good for the "look! look! look at the stuff I have IT'S AWESOME I'm stoked on it!" element of my personality that demands picture-taking and blog-updating. So here are a few of my favorites from last fall:


Top, Free People. Skirt, Nanette Lepore. Thigh-highs, American Apparel. Shoes, Christian Louboutin.


Oh my goodness, I'm so startled by the sudden appearance of a camera on a tripod about to take a picture of me! I should look winsome!

There were a few days of rain here which put me in an abominable mood, but now we're back in the low sixties so I've returned to my usual perky self. Perky might be stretching it. Non-snarly self, there we go.

I finally made it to Crystals, which is a vast white space containing some very nice boutiques. Apparently there's going to be a Lanvin boutique there, which is good because once it's open I can just pack up my things, build a fort made of tulle, and LIVE THERE FOREVER. I'll bring a black cat a la the fall '09 ads and spend my days lounging on satin couches and playing Go Fish with Alber Elbaz. It'll be great, you guys. I'm really looking forward to it.

___________ for Target.

It's been a good last week or so for news on upcoming Go International collabs; I feel pretty much like there's nowhere to go but down after the rad Rodarte collection, but paging through these new lookbooks has been pleasing nonetheless. In both cases I started out being unimpressed, but as with any collection there are always at least a few decent pieces that warrant a second look (related: I was so devoted to disliking D&G SS10 after that Wild West disaster of a show, but then this tumbleweed rolled by, curses!).

First, my favorites from the Zac Posen for Target collaboration, arriving in stores April 24th:


Love this gold dress; there's something so Art Deco about the structure of it.


Apparently this ruffle is removable? Insane.


If this sweater dress drapes as well on me as it does this model then we have a pretty serious contender I think.


Tuxedo what now? I'm dying over the cut of this jacket, and please please let the pants come long enough.

And the Jean Paul Gaultier for Target collab, in stores March 7th:


The trench and the polka dot dress on the left! So happening. The dress on the right is nicely cut but I'm not sold on the print. I might like it better in person.


I don't understand the top on the left and that thrills me. Stripes! Some sort of tie thing! That top + short shorts + high wedges = summer.


Oh god, the look on the right is everything that appeals to me about clothes. I am such a sucker for a good red gingham, especially with a fifties pin-up girl cut to it. Winged eyeliner and rockabilly pompadour at the ready; all systems are go.

I think JPG has the edge on this one, but as ever it's impossible to know how things are going to look in person. Either way I'm impatient already.

Full Zac Posen lookbook is available here, full JPG lookbook here.

Say, say you wanna run away.

This morning at 6:30 a.m. I was awoken by the sound of a blaring TV a few feet from my head; there being a wall between my head and said TV was little help in muffling the dulcet sounds of the porn my erstwhile neighbor sometimes indulges in, and always, always at decibel levels the likes of which imply that s/he has neither shame nor concept of wall thickness. This was the first time I'd been awoken by such a racket, and after blearily trying to approach an understanding as to what I was hearing/why god why I was hearing it, I located the presence of mind to smack the wall, hard, three times in succession. After a moment, the noise ceased.

I regret to report that the day did not improve overmuch from there. I went grocery shopping, but didn't get out much otherwise thanks to the dreadful and unceasing rain. At least I had the joy of wearing my new shoes - or, as I like to think of them, my disco stilts.


Shirt, American Apparel. Jeans, J Brand. Shoes, (believe it or not) Jessica Simpson.




Necklace, vintage Greek pendant on a cord from the craft store.

The outfit was pretty simple today, because a. it's cold, and b. when you're 6'5" in platforms people will mostly be looking at your shoes anyway. The shoes were a moral dilemma, but seeing as they were the type of shoe that I passed in a shop window and then actually turned around to walk back and look at, I figured they were at least worth trying on - and then they proved surprisingly easy to walk in and were actually fairly comfortable. Sometimes amazingness trumps label, and come on, these things are ridiculously awesome. So thank you, Jessica Simpson's design team; I hope these shoes don't fall apart on me like the Steve Maddens of my past.

I just had a good friend in town, and we painted the town red, or actually hung out in my room watching a lot of Dollhouse - my bed is red though, so it's sort of the same. I created a variety of vegan chocolate martinis, including a sort of vegan Pink Russian, made of vanilla soymilk with chocolate raspberry liquor. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds.

Despite not being very exhausting, it was still, to some measure, exhausting; thus I've been hanging around catching up on the internets, and now of course we're back to blogging. Hopefully the weather will stop being made of fail so I can get back to my pleasant daily walks. Until then I will continue listening to the Plasticines and continuing to practice my stilt-walking.

Really, we should forget all this nonsense and just stay home and read Proust.

Since the new year began I've been mostly reading and lazing around...not a bad way to spend time, at least it's a bit more productive than endlessly refreshing Google Reader. A recent trip to the library offered up Diana Vreeland's Allure, which is an absolutely fabulous work that I wish I actually owned. Here are a few of my favorite pages from it, click through for full images:


Sir Cecil Beaton, In the Manner of Edwardians: Princess Paley and Miss Mary Taylor, 1935.






The last page.

A recent trip antiquing led me to this 1927 issue of Picture Play, which I've been savoring slowly. I want to hold dramatic readings of practically every page, particularly the letters section, complete with passionate defenses of Rudolph Valentino and incisive critiques of the actresses of the day. Again, a few favorite pages:




Altogether worthy of a low bow!


Julia Faye rather likes playing naughty women. She thinks they are interesting.



Finally, me on parade:


Dress, Balenciaga, worn over a tank top as slip, American Apparel. Shoes, Marni.


Bracelet, my grandmother's graduation present.

Me and your skeleton, we danced all night.

Today I did some pretty epic grocery shopping, played enough Wii Sports to discover new muscles I hadn't previously been aware of (awareness gained via soreness, hurrah), started listening to Red Wire Black Wire, drank a lot of tea, and wore this dress that Jessa bought me for Christmas:


Dress, Vena Cava. Boots, Gap. Scarf, gift.

It was a little bit too cold out by the time I was finished running around, but I did come out to a pretty amazing sunset that made me want to throw open my arms and embrace the pink-clouded desert sky. So that was nice.

Winter = long sleeves and boots.

Here's what I wore on New Year's Eve during the day:


Tulle top, Rodarte for Target, over tank top, American Apparel. Skirt, D&G. Boots, 8th Street.

Somehow this skirt ended up being one of my favorites; it pairs so well with these boots that I can't seem to stop wearing it. I like wearing skirts in winter (wherein values of winter = the high is 64 degrees today, I love you Las Vegas) and pairing them with boots is a nice way to make it warm enough. Although last night in Border's I still froze to death. (Why do they keep it so cold in there? Is it because they don't want me to sit in the cafe for hours reading all the international versions of Vogue? That's probably why.)


Dress, vintage. Scarf used as belt, 2006-era Panic! At The Disco merch. Boots, 8th Street.

And yesterday's outfit. I love this dress, it's so fun and loungey. I initially had it belted with a brown leather belt (fun fact: also 2006-era P!ATD merch), but I couldn't get it to hang right, and then it just looked too harsh. So I went with the scarf as belt (in homage to, yes, '06 Ryan Ross). I'm still trying to figure out other things to do with it, I look forward to messing around with this dress more in the future. Also looking forward to running my errands during the day so I'm not fleeing from door to car in my cute, fun, but not quiiiite warm enough ensembles. Is it spring yet?!

New Year's Eve!

Apologies for not having more fun pictures...NYE was a very quiet affair for all the martinis and festive top hats. My dress was awesome though!






Matching jacket, belt, and dress, vintage. Shoes, Christian Louboutin.

I look forward to taking the dress out solo with gold sandals in the summer, and jazzing up jeans with the jacket before temperatures rise. The pictures don't really capture the vividness of the colors - the gold in particular is quite bright and shimmery - but the idea is there, at least.

What did you all wear for New Year's?