Wicked Whimsy

Archive for November, 2009

Black Glitz by Acidic Glamour

• Apparently, giveaways involving Winona in some way are my lucky charm, because last week I won a copy of her book from lovely lady Annie Spandex! Yay! Thanks to both of you!
• I also wanted to thank Alicia and Sheena who gave me blogger awards…the resulting post has been sitting in my drafts for about two weeks now and I’m finally accepting its fate to linger in post-purgatory. But I did want to publicly say thank you, it was very kind!
• On blogging, passion, money, and everything in between.
• Anastasia over at Lipsticks & Lightsabers reviewed a new mineral cosmetics line, Sassy Cosmetics, that sounds absolutely fabulous.
• Lady Gaga and your dreams come true.
• Horizontal stripes are actually slimming. Yes! I can wear piratey stripes and whenever someone is like “Uh, so you know, horizontal stripes make everyone look 13.5 lbs heavier”, I’ll pull out a printout of this article and say “Oh but no, the Science has proven you wrong!”. Actually, probably not, because I don’t have a printer and I outgrew everything striped I owned last year, but it still makes me happy.

• DIY of Louboutin for Rodarte shoes – holy crap. Not for beginners, but one of the best projects I’ve seen in a while! I probably won’t do the exact same thing (the end result is a bit TOO platformy and spiky for me), but I’ll definitely be using a few of these ideas at some point.
• From the IttyBiz archive: Stop with the martyr shit. Must read for anyone interested in business!
• Mary at Rip it to Shreds! has started a new blog. The new blog is looking pretty spiffy, but what I really loved was this:

…like in this blog, my goal is partially to break down the commonly held belief that fashion exists, in it’s highest realm, in the designer world and can and should only be accessible to a select few, and instead argue that fashion is and should be an important component of the lives of everyday people, and is an important source of history and culture for women in particular. And also that fashion and clothing is overlooked in history particularly because it has historically been a women’s “craft”, even though I believe much of it belongs in the same world that “art” does.

• Also, last week we went to our neighbor’s house for Thanksgiving. Her friend wanted to make us these drinks I had never heard of before (upside down pineapple martinis, of all the disgusting sounding things). I said I’d just sip from Matt’s because they involved vanilla vodka. Vodka and I aren’t generally friends, especially after our last run in. But these drinks are fan-freaking-tastic. SO GOOD. Here’s the recipe. You’re welcome.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (our’s was nice. different, but nice.) & that non-American readers had a good weekend! I can’t believe it’s very nearly December. I haven’t even started buying presents. Scary.

via Nathalie Booth

It’s definitely not a holiday with the most savory of origins, (it’s funny how they always leave the genocide out in the tv specials and kindergarten storybooks, hmm?)  but I think that sometimes we all need a reminder of how lucky we are and how grateful we should be. That’s how I choose to view Thanksgiving.

Think about it. If you have a roof over your head, a job, have a computer with internet access to read it on, have people who love you (and you do, never forget it), uncontaminated food to eat, clean water – having any or all of these things makes you so lucky. Embrace that and remember it, even when you’re down.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Food for Thought

Edited by Ashe Mischief

This is my first time editing since I wrote Good Cop/Bad Cop: Participating in Links a la Mode. Thank you all so much for making this my most pleasurable experience in editing yet!

I’m not sure if it’s because American Thanksgiving is a week away, or because the blogosphere is ablaze with Kate Mosses’ unforgettable quote, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” but either way, I’ve got food on my mind. This week, you brought me the best kind of food–rich, decadent, and 100% calorie-free! That’s right–you delivered highly thoughtful posts on fashion, fashion blogging & communities, and more.

On a personal note, ferOHHHsh has asked that we share her post about her close friend’s near-fatal accident. I believe that the fashion community is one of surprising strength, dignity, caring and compassion, and that it was worth sharing. We’re sending your friend speedy thoughts for a wonderful recovery!

Links à la Mode : November 19th

• Awakened Aesthetic: – Eco-Friendly Stocking Stuffers (Part I)
• Crisis in Denim: – Crisis in Denim: I make gentle fun of a Banana Republic ‘rewards’ card I received in the mail, that seems designed to make me think I accomplished something by shopping at BR and earning ‘rewards’ points, by riffing on the president’s Yes We Can slogan.
• dramatis personae: – the Hat’s Out of the Bag! by Michelle at Wicked Whimsy
• Fashion X K8: – The importance of Fashion Ad Campaigns and analyzing the collective subconcious of fashion consumers. I beg the question, what makes a great Fashion Ad.
• Further Ado: – With many of their paper equivalents going bust, Further Ado finds 5 great online fashion magazines to keep you satisfied.
• Grit and Glamour: – yesterday The Psychology of Lace Lace, in spite of its implied fragility, holds very special power in the sartorial world.
• Idiosyncratic Style – Infatuation List: Five Fall Fashion Favorites
• Independent Fashion Bloggers – Fashion Blogging : The Road Ahead
• kaKofonie Of si(gh)lenS: – Interview with Lauren Jones of mydearthing
• Mystery Creature: – I love vintage, I love handmade… but I don’t love Etsy, as much as I want to.
• Oranges and Apples: – What drives fashion bloggers? Oranges and Apples in the Scotsman
• Random Fashion Coolness: – Musings on the power-partnerships in the Blogosphere
• Shoe Daydreams: – Collaborations and “inspiration”
• slsvgg fashion: – An interview with Gossip Girl actress LEIGHTON MEESTER, on her style
• Somewhere over the Skyline…: – rugality? Sustainability? The Recession! – Thoughts & Recommendations on Sustainable/Vintage Lifestyles
• Super Kawaii Mama: – Meet the Dr. of Dames and her new book Our Girl’s – Aussie Pin Up’s of the 40’s & 50’s
• THE COVETED: – Benefits of Chilly Days… Coats!
• The Curvy Fashionista – Got the Plus Size Bridal Dress woes? Enter in Cc.Elaine- A studio dedicated to the Curvy.Confident.Chic. Plus Size Bride
• The New Wave: – Underwear as Outerwear: How to wear this spring’s runway trend using vintage pieces.
• The Pixelated Blonde – Fashion: it’s an individual thing – a look at how to be stylish whilst maintaining one’s individuality.
• White Rabbit: – Lookbook.nu vs. Flickr’s Wardrobe Remix – the battle of “What I wore today” sites
• Wicked Whimsy: – Rene Geneva Designs – featuring a local, woman run eco-friendly design house that makes gorgeous clothes to boot!

The lighting was bad outside & my camera was acting up again! argh. Anyways. Here we have boots off eBay, ruffled Target skirt, Hellz Bellz shirt and vintage brooch + bracelet. If you’ve seen this t-shirt before, you know I usually wear it differently – but the particular mix of dye I used on my hair this time (if you saw me ranting on Twitter, you already know; if not, Raw reformulated its dyes for some godforsaken reason, and now they suck, so I’m mixing together two SFX purples) bleeds a LOT more than usual. I’ve actually ruined one t-shirt this week from pulling it on with wet hair. I didn’t want to absolutely ruin the scarfy thingie (that is a technical term, thankyouverymuch) on this shirt, so I, ahem, “artfully” draped it and pinned it in place. Also, I really need to work on getting some pose variety up in here. I kind of suck at that.

My sense of style is playing a cruel joke on me at the moment. You see, I went a long time not experimenting with colors much, and so the last two years or so I’ve tried really hard to not wear so much black. I’ve got a nice stock of colorful clothes now.

…and all of a sudden, all I want to wear is gray and black. I just want to swathe myself in it. I don’t know if it’s the season, or a recurrence of my teenage punky/gothy tendancies, or what, but yeah. It’s perplexing.

via Adam Foster

• Worn magazine is in trouble! Please help if you can.
• and on another serious note, Friday was the Transgender Day of Rememberance. More on Shapely Prose, Transgriot, Questioning Transphobia, and Feministe. Please educate yourself and fight ignorance wherever and whenever you can.
• Oldies but goodies: Is the Internet killing academia? & pink hair blogging.
• Some photos of a droolworthy Paris apartment for you to…drool over. and stuff.
• Via Havi: the Kashiwa Mystery Cafe.

• And this was found through Neil Gaiman’s blog: Eric, the foreign exchange student. Cute little storybook!
• The Sassy Minx brings us another great interview, this one with the author of the High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment.
• A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
• Ten things your zodiac sign hates.

Libra

People who tell them to turn down the music
People who look down at junk food
Litter in parks
People who steal flowers
People who are cruel to animals
People who do not return calls
One night stands
Bad haircuts
People who abuse drugs
Parents who discipline children

All of theme except for parents who discipline children! (Yes, I realize it’s a silly little exercise as most people will  not like the things on the list. But it made me giggle.)

I hope you’re starting off your week right! I seem to have kicked my head cold. Let’s cross our fingers and hope it stays away, as Sunday was a bit up and down. But anyways – have a good week and safe travelling to ya, if you’re seeing family!

Feathers make everything better! These are effing gorgeous. I’m planning on DIYing a pair as soon as I find a suitable one…wish me luck. Then I can wear them and prance around and pretend I’m a cancan dancer or something, because HELLO, I have feathers on my feet!

…not that I’d do that.

We’ve all been there: burned out, frustrated, staring at the screen and willing inspiration to come to us. Obviously, the best way to beat burnout is to avoid it, and an older IFB post covers that topic quite well. That doesn’t change the fact that sometimes, burnout sneaks up on you before you even realize it, and then all of the prevention in the world won’t do any good!

So what do you do in that scenario? I can’t guarantee they’ll work for everyone, but here’s some of my tried and true methods…

Want to read the rest? Check out my guest post at Independent Fashion Bloggers!

(Yeah, kind of a cop-out post. I’ve had a head cold all week that has seemingly sapped my ability to do anything but eat and sleep. I’m feeling better today, though, so expect normalcy returning soon!)

Hopefully, you’re all familiar with Cupcakes and Mace – I don’t know which is better, the lovely jewelry or the blog! I’d like to start doing more interviews for the site, and Kim was the first person I thought of to email. We talked about business, style, and cats! Curious, aren’t you? Well, go on, read it!

Michelle: Just to start the interview off for readers who might not be familiar, can you talk a little bit about yourself and your business?
Kim: I’m just an average Kiwi girl who likes pretty things but also likes to be a bit different. I got bored of working in offices where I wasn’t respected as an individual with valid ideas and my newly rekindled love for playing with trinkets led to the Cupcakes and Mace jewellery line.
Michelle: How’d you come up with the idea for Cupcakes and Mace?
Kim: The blog or jewellery line?
Michelle: The jewellery line!
Kim: I’d been looking around Etsy and fell in love with all of the plastic charm bracelets. They were all out of my price range though so I bought the pieces I needed to make them myself. The Boy and I had talked about making laser cut jewellery when he was at uni a couple of years ago and it was fantastic timing that his dad bought a laser cutter for his own business just as I was ordering chains and beads.

Why helloooo there, awesome!

Michelle: Earlier this year (I think it was February or March?) you quit your office job to work on Cupcakes and Mace full time. Did you find the transition difficult?
Kim: I actually didn’t finish till the start of June. I had all these plans about how I was going to run my home office just like it was a real one. I would get up early and have a shower, settle in and get lots done in the morning, give myself an hour for lunch etc. In reality it has been nothing like that! It wasn’t a hard transition, it just hasn’t gone like I pictured it originally.
Michelle: I found that when I wasn’t working a set 8-5 job that I was really surprised where my natural peaks in productivity were…and when you work at home it’s a lot easier to work with those than just trying to barrel through & work for 8 hours straight whether you’re getting much done or not
Kim: Yes, definitely! I can have down time at 2pm if I need it.
Michelle: Yeah, to take a nap or recharge or do lunch or whatever…my best times are from 8-11 AM and then from like, 5-8 PM…which doesn’t work very well in a traditional job!
Michelle: Next question: One of the reasons I love to read your blog is that you don’t shy away from controversial topics, you often link to blogs like Feministing and Shapely Prose. Have you ever had any negative feedback about that? I wouldn’t think so given your general target audience, but…
Kim: No, none. I guess I’ve targeted my audience quite well as I’ve had negative feedback approximately twice in over a year of running Cupcakes and Mace. If you arrive at Cupcakes and Mace without knowing what it’s about you’ll probably find out pretty quickly that I have a foul mouth, am an atheist, and that if you don’t like what I’m saying I’ll suggest you piss off.
Michelle: That’s definitely a good thing; I’m always curious because people get offended over the tiniest things on the internet, you know? It’s such a bizarre thing to me.

Michelle: How would you describe your personal style?
Kim: Ooooh, a mix of geek chic, rockabilly, comfort, and laziness.
Michelle: And do you think that personal style (as opposed to fashion in general) is more important? (to you, or in general)
Kim: Oh yes! Definitely. I don’t follow fashion trends, I don’t watch runway shows or fawn over the latest shoes. I much prefer to see someone comfortable and in love with their clothes because they genuinely think they look good, not because they’re the latest offerings for the season.
Michelle: Totally, you can definitely tell when someone is in love with their clothes as opposed to just wearing it because it’s the hot new thing. I really hate how “stylish” means “take ‘classic’ pieces and add trendy ones” any more, instead of working on something that suits you.
Kim: Agreed!
Michelle: Random question: I’ve noticed that, like any sane human being , you love cat macros. And that made me wonder, do you have any pets?
Kim: Ha! Unfortunately not. We live in a little unit and while The Boy and I both adore cats he thinks it’s not a very good place to have one. He’s also allergic to them, but is willing to take antihistamines for the rest of his life just to have a kitty. Cute!

Michelle: That’s so funny, because I have to take allergy medicine because of our cats – my dad thinks I’m insane!
Kim: Aw, not insane, just in love!
Michelle: That’s true, I love my kitties! Okay, and to wrap up, do you have any advice for aspiring businesswomen?
Kim: Don’t wait! Dip your toes in while you’ve still got your day job and see if your idea is viable. You don’t have to have everything sussed in order to get going, I’m still figuring things out now. By the way, someone just commented on the blog saying they love the blog because it’s so full of cat love!

Thanks so much for the interview, Kim! Be sure to check out the blog, the shop, and the sale they’ve got going on right now, and you can follow her on Twitter, too. Gotta support those indie bizzes. Especially when they’re run by people this awesome!

via Rossina Bossio

First off, go check out my guest post at Mischief, My Dear! The topic: hats. You know you’re excited.

• Birdiee wrote a book! The foreword, anyways.
• One of the cuter reconstructions I’ve seen on Outsapop lately: ugly leather jacket to capelet.
• Sarah Von writes yet another fabulous post: Who I Am vs. What I Do.

One of the best flashmobs I’ve ever seen.

• How I Went Gaga.
• I won a giveaway at the Swelle Life for a Miss Jacqueline White t-shirt! Yay me!
• If you’re not already reading White Hot Truth, you definitely should be. This interview is particularly great.

I often hear “women are our own worst enemies” in terms of our culture. I’m tired of that argument. I think everyone is their own worst enemy in terms of their culture, and I don’t think it’s something women have against each other.

Yessss. THANKYOU.

• The Demoiselles sound off on the Kate Debate.

There’s a good chance that watching this will be the funniest 30 seconds of your day. Or maybe I’m just easily amused.

• How to Package Your Services for Swoon-Worthy Results. I’m working on some new things and this was insanely helpful.
• How to Quit Being a Badass.

Hope you had a good weekend & are getting the week off to a good start!

These might be borderline tacky. I don’t know, and I don’t care. They are black and glossy and sparkly, and I want them. (I think I might be channeling Martin.)