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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I want to see Brave!

I've gotten lazy about going to the movies. I don't know why really, but between how expensive it is, and then trying to convince my debt strapped friends to go with me it's next to impossible some times.

But even if I have to sit by myself, with a bunch of kids (ok...that sounds creepy), I'm going to see this movie.

Because I'm going to Scotland for University. And even though this film is animated...it's Scotland.

Monday, June 25, 2012

the Royal Ascot...is not the Kentucky Derby.

I'm talking hat wise.

I can get down with some fascinators, I can even deal with some of the more "creative" things I've seen at British weddings. I'm a bit worried when I can't tell if your hat is legit, or if it's a manic bird attacking your head. There's a problem if I might need to shoot your hat. That's all I'm saying.

(I still secretly love all the ladies who wear the crazy hats...it takes some fashion cojones to do it, so mad props...even if I have an urge to shoot your hat).

There were some new "fashion" rules at Ascot. I don't know what they were. It didn't seem to stop the hats at least.

Patriotic ladies! They look fabulous!
THIS lady...is my favorite. 
I'm not kidding. I love her. She can come over for red velvet cake and mint julies anytime.


sea of hats...and top hats! I love the top hats!



Might be the best dressed ones! 







Images are from Hats off for the Ascot Races

Accompanying article that explains Royal Ascot and more pictures, Hold on to your hats, it's a windy day at Royal Ascot and UK's posh Royal Ascot clamps down on wild fashion





















Sunday, June 24, 2012

Presidential Portraits

via the National Hurricane Center (NOLA.com)

It's a bit rainy today (see the image above? That's the rain map from today!). Enough water that I wore rain boots (I normally can't even be bothered). Pure laziness of finding where I put them...not because I have an aversion to them.

Since it's one of those super nasty days, it's going to movie and book night in front of fire...even those it's the middle of summer. With ice cream. It made sense in my head.

Cool news of the day? Presidential Portraits. Former president, George W. Bush's portrait has been revealed and Time.com has a slide show of some of the other portraits. I think some presidential portraits are more well known than others, and some I'm fairly sure I've never seen. It's a pretty cool go through.

Apparently it takes a bit to get the portrait done, who knew? I mean...it (as in GW Bush) was done in 2012 if I'm reading that right...

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Dwight D. Eisenhower

John F. Kennedy

Jimmy Carter

Bill Clinton
George W. Bush


Fun fact...my family has been in America for a freaking loooong time. And we're related to a couple of presidents, and off the top of my head, two of the guys above are in some way cousins for sure, and there's some possible connection to two more above. Pretty cool huh? Or...I've got some well-marrying relatives, hmm. 




Thursday, June 21, 2012

Two Story Closet

I know I posted a picture of a two story closet before, but I recently saw a new one on Million Dollar Rooms on HGTV. 

The video is linked in here, and I SO suggest you watch it. The pictures don't even come close!

It's a 5 Million Dollar--let me repeat that--FIVE MILLION DOLLARS, two story closet. It's in the Texas  (Dallas) mansion, named Champ d'Or, and the closet belongs to Shirley Goldfield. She was inspired by Chanel, with 18K gold doorknobs, a custom made $30,000 chandelier and a $10,000 rug. 

curbed.com; the Chanel rug
from the Daily Mail
The second story is used for out of season storage. 

From Sanity Fair
From The Celebrity Home


And if you have 35 million to spare, Champ d'Or is for sale. It's 120 acres, and the house is 35,000 square feet. It's based off Vaux-le-Vicomte. And if you do have 35 million to spare...we need to be friends. stat! The Daily Mail says the price is now 10.3 Million. I still want to be friends with you even for 10 million!

But ready for the nasty little part of this story...this house has "allegedly" never been lived in. SERIOUSLY? I'd move into the closet alone and be happy. 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Grad School Wardrobe

I've been in a panic.

Not because I'm moving

Or because I'm going to be paying for school, while living abroad, on a part-time salary.

Or even because I know absolutely NO one where I'm going.

Nope. It's because I have no cold weather clothes and have no idea how to pack up my closet.

Yup. My priorities are in the right place (my closet).

Since I'm from the south, I'm used to muggy weather and lots of Lilly.

Lilly Eryn dress

I don't even own a heavy coat...and snow is not something that happens. Do you know what happens in the UK? It snows! It gets cold! Goodness!

So, in my blind panic, I've been trying to find the essentials to my wardrobe. I had a basic list until I realized that it was more... "American" style wardrobe...and still southern. (10+ dresses? Why, of course!).

Plus, in theory, a graduate school wardrobe should be slightly more professional (in the business sector at least) than an undergraduate. So I suppose my sparkly heels will have to stay behind. Boo.



So I googled British packing list and somehow got on THIS site...which talks about the difference between British and American style, plus guides for all sorts of regions around the world. Things I've learned...I have NO idea what a "festival" look is, but if it's anything like coachella fashions...I'll pass (on that style).



They have a master archival section about wardrobe + packing for studying abroad, as well as specific sections, thank the lord.

image from College Fashion. net


I'm going to have to learn to layer. And find a coat. Like, a real heavy duty coat. And sensible shoes. 6-inch heels while walking around the city is not happening.

I'm thinking of bringing the basics and buying the coat over there. That makes sense right? And cold weather stuff over there too. Because I'd have to order that anyways.





Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Zombies! + the CDC's and UF's zombie preparedness plan

Let's talk about zombies. There has been some weird stuff happening, due mostly to drugs (drugs are bad y'all) and crazy psychopath killers (who are also bad!). But my FB page exploded with people talking about zombies.

I'm not going to crack any jokes about the face eating thing, or the body parts thing. I think it's really sad and not in any way funny. So instead, I'm going to crack on a "rival" undergraduate school. Rival in the sense that if I followed sports I would care about the rivalry.

Zombies at the Swamp

A couple of years ago, the University of Florida (which is a great school btw...even though I didn't go there!) released it's plan for a zombie invasion. There was even a form that a UF employee could fill out explaining why they had to kill their infected co-workers. They had to show "symptoms of "Zombie Behavior Spectrum Disorder (ZBSD), like references to wanting to eat brains, or lack of rational thought (although this was noted to be confusing, as managers also had this symptom).

It also called for the University Police to form a UF Zombie Response Team. Also, operational tactics like how to distinguish "zombie moans" form "other moaning that might be encountered in the workplace".

This was obviously a joke, and most universities have actual disaster plans in place. And I can promise you that every university in Florida has one that deals with hurricanes/flooding.

Cracked.com has some articles that cracked me up (and come up under a google search of zombie apocalypse), titled 5 scientific reasons a zombie apocalypse could actually happen and 7 scientific reasons a zombie outbreak would fail (quickly).

the ACTUAL poster from the CDC. 

But don't worry, the US Government has your back. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, you know, the guys that talk about what to do in emergencies (remember Anthrax?)  and public health, have a great sense of humor. It started off as a bit of a joke, in order to engage the American populace to pay attention to preparedness messages. Now, it's just epic. The CDC's official (seriously, it's legit) Zombie Preparedness guide, in order to be prepared for a zombie apocalypse. They also include a basic zombie emergency kit that can, coincidentally, also be used during Hurricanes.

Granted, since all the real life crazy-people attacks, the CDC had to release an official statement saying that zombies didn't exist.



Extra articles: 

If for some reason (like, you don't live in America or Canada, and have no clue what the zombie news stories are...here you go). This is the non-funny stuff

  1. Cannibal eats roommate in Maryland. He's been arrested for murder. 
  2. Guy from Miami (who was thought to be on bath salts/god knows what) who went crazy and attacked another man and tried to eat him. He was shot and killed by the police. The victim is still in the hospital. 
  3. Porn star who sent decapitated body parts to Canadian political offices. He's since been arrested in Berlin. 

The fun zombie extras!


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Monday, June 18, 2012

Pretty Little Liars is back on!

from Pinterest
I love this show...not always the clothes. But I love the hair and makeup. Plus the crazy story-line. I about died when Mona finally talked!

I have to fast-forward when Aria and Ezra do their thing. I know he's no longer her teacher but nothing about that relationship is okay. At all. And I've yet to meet a guy who's college/post-college that was actually interested in a high school girl. Okay, there was one I did know about. And he was arrested. So let that be a lesson ladies, creepers are creepers. And if you're under the age of 18...there's no reason to play with your teacher. Ever.

It's also probably not really that great if you're over 18. I wouldn't know. It wasn't my thing.

this is what I'm talking about. Is that a swimsuit? A bra? 
Luckily, the ladies at Go Fug Yourself. com usually have some fantastic recaps of the fashions. That I usually miss. I missed that top that Hannah was wearing until it showed up on their site. Who lets their high school daughter out of the house like that. It's all sorts of wrong.  Which is sad, because I actually usually like Hannah's wardrobe but not this piece.


I'm dying to know who "A" is going to be. The mastermind person at least. I know who "A" is in the books, but I kinda hope they change it up a tad for the TV show, although it's really good and I spend half my time in suspense.


Screencaps are from GoFugYourself.com, the post about episode 3-1

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Want to know what it looks like crossing Niagara Falls?

It's scary. Scary, scary, scary.

Granted, I'm not a daredevil. And heights make me a tad bit nervous.

THIS guy crossed Niagara 
But I digress, Nik Wallenda crossed the Niagara Falls this past Friday. Going from the USA side to the Canadian side in about half an hour. He's from a family that's particularly famous  for walking tightropes and performing acts for Ringling Brothers Circus that would make me ill to even see.

He had to get permission from that state assembly in order to do it (as well as from Canada), wear safety gear, and have a safety team in place. Craaaaaazy.

The most interesting thing I learned from all this was that only 12 people have attempted to even cross the Falls, while one person died during the crossing. I would have thought that number would be much higher...because there's a lot of crazy in this world.

Crossing

P.S. that cable was only two inches wide. Uh-uh. Nope. Never ever.

Extra Links:


Thursday, June 14, 2012

People you might not expect on Twitter

image from the Official Twitter Blog

Twitter confounds me.

Honestly. It really does. I get everything about it except why it's popular. I don't mean that in any disrespectful way. I just honestly don't think that anyone would be that interested in frequent updates on my life. So I figure it's probably lucky for everyone on Twitter that I'm not it...to bore them mercilessly.

Did you know the infamous Rupert Murdoch (newspaper magnet, and News Corp scandal creator) is on it. That's right. He can wreck a murder investigation, hire the same blonde haired FOX reporters (they all look alike right?), pick up new wives like his green card and still have a reason to twat on twitter. I can't even be bothered to check bookface regularly.



Know who else is on Twitter? The Queen of England...who's witty gem that popped up is "sloshed". Ok, just kidding. Although since I really haven't grown up with QEII...I have nothing to go on other than I feel the Queen probably does like gin.

Queen Rania. 

Sure, you might like Kate whatsherface in England...and I suppose I shouldn't groan every time I see her horrid raccoon eyeliner since there's a good chance I'm going to the UK for school (seriously Kate...stop with the eyeliner abuse). But Queen Rania is the shiz-nit.

Plus she has great hair, does tons of charity work and is a great ambassador for Jordan.





Dalai Lama


I'm not sure if the Dalai Lama actually tweets himself, he's probably pretty busy. But he does hang out with Richard Gere...so maybe Tweeting is his thing? His page has really lovely thoughts and proverbs.





The Pope

Yes, that pope (Benedict XVI). I guess when his holiness can spout out 140 characters I shouldn't find it that hard to attempt it. But he also gets Armani slippers. If Armani gives me slippers I could probably find the energy to think of witty things to say as well.

I'm only really kidding. It's pretty smart of the Pope/Vatican to create a twitter account. Great marketing, and easy to reach your base. And his tweets are in the same line as the Dalai Lama, comforting and lovely really.





I learned all this from an article on CNN's website titled "The Pope's on Twitter? 10 unlikely tweeters". It mentions Stan Lee (of superhero fame), Don Rickles, Cher (yes...Cher. Legit and everything.) and Hugh Hefner.


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Great Gatsby



I LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It's just always been a favorite book of mine and I am so, so, so excited to catch the preview of the new trailer (with DiCaprio, etc.).

I even went out and found a new hardback copy (my old paperback, which I got in high school, was fairly battered). And of course, because I have a love for pretty books I went and got Coralie Bickford-Smith's versions. They are gorgeous! I have a bunch of the cloth bound versions (I went a little nutty after Borders closed).

Cloth-bound versions of books (from Stellify.net)


F. Scott Fitzgerald's hardback books (from Stellify.net)

If you don't want to read the book (you're crazy) here's the Wikipedia article on The Great Gatsby.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio at Gatsby, Toby Maguire at Nick Carraway (the main subject/narrator), and Carey Mulligan as Daisy. None of these guys are quite how I pictured the main characters but I always like Baz Luhrmann's movies so I am looking forward to it. It's going to be rapturously splendid.




Apparently there's a mistake in the trailer, Ziegfeld Follies has been mis-spelled. Here's a screen grab of it, I didn't even catch it in the preview.

from EW.com

Edit:

I think I fixed the video. Hopefully it works!




Related Links: 





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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Dallas (the new TV show)

Hopefully I'm not the only weirdo on this planet who is super excited about the return/renewal/continuation of the TV show Dallas.

new cast of Dallas via Collider.com
I've never watched the original (sorry rest of the world!), but I strangely know a lot of about it, and even the characters (I KNOW who JR is) because of how popular it is.

It premiers tomorrow (Wednesday) with back to back episodes and apparently TNT has ordered the full season, which gives me a little hope that they won't cancel the series randomly. I HATE getting into a new series only to have it canceled for reasons I can't quite fathom.



Of course, if you want a quick recap of the original version of Dallas, as well as the newer version. Wikipedia has the recaps. Thank goodness for Wikipedia!

And here's the TNT official site for the TV show (Dallas on TNT) as well as a fairly comprehensive website on both shows (I think?) and tons of information (Ultimate Dallas).
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Monday, June 11, 2012

Southern Hair

I'm not even going to lie. I am super, SUPER excited about the fact that they're re-making Dallas (the TV show). Since GCB went off the air...I need a southern guilty pleasure!

With BIG hair, and big attitude and lots of  "bless your hearts".

Speaking of big hair...the first time I went to NYC, a lady stopped me and told me she knew I was southern because of my hair. I was a bit nonplussed because it wasn't even that big at the time.

Designing Women southern hair via Secrets of A Belle blog

I'll admit, I'm fairly lazy when it comes to my hair. Messing with my straightening iron or curling iron or even teasing in the morning seems like a total cut into my sleeping time.

If I'm going to spend any time on my hair, that doesn't involve ponytales or just a simple brush through, I usually just put in curlers and let them sit for about twenty minutes. With tons of hair spray. Of course.

It's not that I can't pouf or tease my hair. I'm pretty good at that. It's just something I think you learn to do in the south. And honestly, when I hang out with other southern women, I tend to southern-fy my hair more than I would if I hang out with other (non-southern) people.

Southern hair tends to be big. Teased. High (so you're closer to God of course!) and did I mention...BIG?


1. Big Southern hair from BlogCritics
2. Carrie Underwood hair from  Wedding by Color blog
3. Jessica Simpson pouf, image from Thoughtful Spot blog
4. Reese Witherspoon hair  (high, poufy pony!), from Recession is the New Blonde
5. Image from Extraordinary Hair by Jaclyn Beith

But lets discuss Texas hair...specifically Dallas. My auntie lives in Dallas and she's a total hoot. She has pretty red curly hair that always made me jealous when I was younger. I wanted red hair so bad! Especially curly red hair. Alas, I was born with brown, straight hair. Boo.

I asked her if they were filming the show Dallas in the city Dallas but she didn't know, so I can't get any inside gossip. I'll just have to wait until it shows this week. So excited!

I'll leave you with "Dallas" hair from Miss Texas and her hairstylist. Fabulous! I didn't even think about spraying down the comb/brush and putting it in the hair that way. I've been creating a hair-spray haze over my hair when it's time to set it. Whoops?

Miss Texas (Ashley Melnick) and her hair stylist Jessica Weckherlin



Sunday, June 10, 2012

The President sings again!

Ok, he didn't sing THIS time (he has before). It's a mash up of his speeches and it's set to that "Call Me Maybe" song that's been unleashed onto the radios. You know...the one they play on an infinite loop to drive me completely insane? That one.



You're welcome...I think.

Obama isn't the first world leader to break into tune...the Russian bad-ass himself (Putin) sang Blueberry Hill...he's a scary dude right?

Links:
Original Video of President Obama "singing" Call Me Maybe
CNN article of the mash-up (Baracksdubs)
President Obama singing Al Green from CNN


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Martha Stewart stain guide

I love Martha Stewart, mostly because she explains things that probably should make perfect sense.

For instance, laundry. I used to just throw it in the machine and not worry about it but that's wrong. It leads to pink everything. I figured that out by high school and while going through her website I found her stain removal guide. I'm planning on printing it out and framing it for the laundry room!

Here's the direct link to the PDF printable from Martha Stewart's website. HERE




Images from Indulgy.com, specifically here

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Target makes shirts in support of the LGBT community...angers Conservative Minnesota

I must say, I was quite proud of Target for this. Because I wasn't proud of them for giving money to that one group (a couple of years ago). Not to get too controversial, but I don't know why it's such a big deal to keep this whole separate but equal thing. Let everyone get hitched who wants to. I'll be glad just to find a boyfriend that doesn't have a drinking problem!

Target is selling t-shirts to support a group that hopes to strike down a gay marriage ban. And the one by Gwen Stefani is adorable.

One of the detractors in the article talks about the consumer base of Target. When I go shopping, the base at my store tends to be educated women, teenagers and children. Not really the people's he's thinking of I would think.

Gwen Stefani's design

News Links:

Monday, June 4, 2012

Cos Bar at Target

Target's newest collaboration is with a bunch of boutique shoppes. I've been trying to curtail my shopping habits so I didn't rush out right away and get any of the new stuff.

By the time I managed to get around to perusing Target, most of the stuff had been pretty picked over, but I still got some cute things from the Cos Bar "shoppe".

I've only managed to play with the two nail-polishes so far but I'm quite excited about the rest of the stuff.

Target.com foot file, eye mask


Target.com tweezers (purple) and (green), body butter and body scrub
From Target.com, purple (L) and bronze (R)





I'm not a massive fan of all the colors and packaging though. It's kinda strangely Halloween-ish. Not that it stopped me on the tweezers. But it's why I didn't get any bags or mirrors--not quite my style. I think it had to be a lot of other's peoples because the line was mostly sold out.

From GirlyBubble



Additional Websites:

  1. Target.com
  2. Cos Bar Website
  3. Cos Bar on Pinterest.com

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