Summer wishlist

I have to have this dress. To bad it's $250.

Grammy fug

I have said it before and I will say it again--I don't understand why people waste their pretty by dressing like morons at the Grammys! It KILLS me!

Here is a sampling of the ugly:

How to Curl your Hair using a Curling Iron

My friend Heather always has perfectly curled hair. It gives me a severe case of hair envy. She uses hot rollers. Hot rollers make me look stupid and old.I found a good alternative--the curling iron. Here is a link to a great tutorial from refinery 29 on how to get perfect curling iron curls. I'm going to try it today. http://www.refinery29.com/curling-iron-curls-how-to-video

Marc by Marc Jacobs

While the kids are having fun at our neighbor's house, I should be taking advantage of this moment by being productive.  I should be putting the finishing touches on my english report on the decline of the United States school system, scrubbing my floor, reading the hand-out my histroy teacher gave me on the Salem Witch Trials.  But no, that's far too level headed. Instead, I am staring at photos from Fashion week.  There is something wrong with me! 

Here are my favorite Marc Jacobs runway looks:

N.Y Fashion Week, Derek Lam

I love Derek Lam.  Here are my favorites from his Spring 2011 collection:

Reason number 57,864,321 why I love Anthropologie

Two years ago, when I found out that Anthropologie would be opening shop in Chula Vista and Fashion Valley I just about died. Seriously. That's how much I love their stuff. I could spend hours in that store trying on stuff and staring longing at their beautiful merchandise. Only problem is everything is out of my thrift store loving price range.


Last fall I found an amazing Anthropologie orange cowl neck sweater at my local AMVETS. I wore it religiously. My mom visited and washed my dry clean only things. She wrecked my beloved sweater. I almost threw her out onto the street, that is how heavy my rage was.

Over the years I have purchased a few anthro items. All of which are my very favorite wardrobe items. Their stuff is timeless. I have a periwinkle summer dress that looks like it is straight out of the 1950's, and a pale yellow cardigan that looks awesome with everything.

Currently they are having a summer sale. Last night I convinced myself that I needed a few new things because soon I will be back in school, also I may or may not have an interview next week. Above all, I deserve nice things, dammit!

Here is what I bought for  terrifc bargain sale prices:

fishtail braid how-to

I'm kind of obsessed with Free People clothing. I have been since I was about 16. I love their bohemian dresses and shoes. I wish I owned everything in both of these photos (minus the fishnet dress)

Lately Free People has given me more reason to love them. First they started carrying my good friend Kylie's amazing jewlery and now they have finally taught me how to do Amelia's hair in a super cool way, check it out fishtail braid how-to!

This is why I love thrift stores

 When I was in 5th grade I started hanging out with Kate, my best friend Emilys' neighbor. She was 13, in the 7th grade, and in my mind the coolest person I had ever met. She had wavy white-blonde hair, a unique sense of style, knew how to use sarcasm, and owned an obscure music collection. Together we attended our first concert, Aerosmith and the Black Crowes.  I wanted to marry Steven Tyler which is creepy because he is old and wears really tight pants. 

For the concert, Kate dressed me up in a black scoop neck leotard, Chuck Taylors, trashy looking make-up, and frayed short shorts, which were decorated with various band names and odd drawings in permanent marker. I looked like a tiny whore

When Kate hit middle school her mom decided she was no longer going to buy clothes for her. Kate had to babysit and start paying for her own wardrobe. That's where thrift stores came in. On the weekends we would head to LaGrange, a neighborhood brimming with Salvation Army’s and Goodwill’s. We would scour the racks for vintage band tees and used gap jeans.

Thanks to Kate I am still madly in love with thrifting. Yesterday I spent three hours at a thrift store. Here is some of my amazing finds:

Vintage Annie dress with the 1980's tag still attached.  My sister and I both used to have this very same dress.  Everyone would comment on how adorable Michelle  was with her red hair and Annie type looks.  I was insanely jealous.  It's a 3T so Amelia won't be able to fit into it, however my red-headed 2 year old cousin will.  Or,I could sell it on Ebay for an obscene amount of cash.

 J crew cashmere sweater that retails for $78. I have been wanting a cashmere sweater for awhile now but am way to cheap to fork over the money for one.  This one looks brand new, okay so amybe not in this picture but in real life it is super cute.

Amelia has been begging for a toy guitar.  this was $1.99, not bad.  She has been rocking out on it all morning.  I'm going to have to make a video of her because it maight be the cutest thing ever. 

I also scored saltwater sandals for 99 cents, brand new, with tags, gap pants for Jake @$4.99, Banana Republic jeans for me at $4.50, A Baby Lulu outift for Amelia for $2.99, a Volcom work shirt for Aaron for $3.99, and a Tony Hawk button down for Andrew that cost $2.99. 

I love dresses!

From Anthro and Modcloth. I want them. 

Greater than the invention of electricity

We now have instant Netflix  via our Wii. We pay $10 a month to view an endless stream of movies whenever the hell we feel like it. If I am in the mood to watch Wionna Ryder and Christian Slater kill off the Heathers of their high school, I can sit down on my craigslist-purchased Ikea couch and watch it.  If I want to see Matthew Mcconaughy sporting a creepy mustach in Dazed and Confused I can, or if I feel like hearing Judd Nelson, aka John Bender Yell "NO DAD WHAT ABOUT YOU!" in my favorite John Hughes flick, I can do that too.  

It's almost like having the ability to fly or time travel but possibly far awesomer.  I can watch millions of movies and TV series whenever my hardcore, TV-addicted self, feels like it. It's kind of getting in the way of my life. We are living in filth due to the fact that I have chosen to spend the last 5 days being a worthless, lazy bum, watching the last three seasons of weeds while the kids are in school. It's such an entertainingly trashy show. Also, I wish that I had Nancy Botwin's wardrobe minus a few of her really slutty looking dresses. I would love to live in the pink villa she shares with Esteban. I think it's somewhere in San Diego.

Summer wish list

Things I want to buy Amelia:

I really love Target's new Liberty of London line.  The clothes are really fun and flirty.  The women's line is cute but  I especailly adore their little girl items.  There is a Target right by my school and I find myself roaming it's aisles during the 45 minutes I have between dropping the kids off at school and the beginning of my Spanish class. The other day I bought Amelia the bikini pictured above.  I couldn't help myself.  I had to use every ounce of my self control to obstain from filling my cart with summer dresses and other items from the Liberty of London line.  They also have dinnerware and super cute little tea cups and pots.  If I had money to burn I would buy just about everything they offer. 

I should be studying

I was highly disappointed in the gown choices at this year's Oscars.  It was all so boring.  Normally I devote a blog entry to my favorites but I didn't love anyone's dress. 

This isn't an oscar dress.  This is What Kristen Stewart wore to the premiere of the Runaways.  I think she looks amazing.  Normally she looks like a dirty high school kid on acid.  I really believe this is a huge step up for her.  I love it!  Now back to the boredom of studying for my Spanish final.

Oh my grammy

I don't usually watch the Grammys. I love award shows solely for the decadence of the dresses and the red carpet moments. At the Grammys people try too hard to look cutting edge, or rocker, or whatever, and end up wearing stupid stuff. It's disastrous and depresses me almost as much as people over the age of 30 that sport rainbow colored red and blue streaks in their hair. I thought I would highlight some of the very worst 2010 Grammy fashions

Katie Perry needs a bra intervention.  She is too young to look so saggy

 Glitter in hair should only be reserved for strippers. Also I don't like that there is a zipper in the front of her dress or the overall space aged pattern.

  Why Britney?!  Why!!!

 disturbing

500 days of summer

  Aaron has been out of town a ton lately leaving me to fend for myself with a house full of little people that demand things like food and water. The boys had a basketball tournament this weekend which required me to drive back and forth all over the place and attend a handful of their action packed games.

My boys play in a Lutheran league at their school. By nature Lutherans are a very proud and unassuming group of people. Where most babsketball games have a high sprited crowd, lutherans like to keep things low key, so much so that at times all you can hear are the grunts of the players and the sound of the ball being bounced.  There is only one parent who frowns in the face of Lutheran etiquette.  I make it a habit to take my seat right next her at every game. 

 Andrew's teammate Russ has a mom who is so tiny I swear she could fit in my pocket. She is by far the most hilarious person to be around at a sporting event. She screams and yells the entire time. It's absolutely hysterical. The gym will be dead quiet and she will be screaming "No! What are doing? Pass the ball!".  The best thing she does, that always makes me laugh so hard I almost cry,  is that when the other team misses a basket she screams "Yes!" and claps madly while people from the other team stare at her with their mouths gaping open.  Her husband calls her a screamer, which kind of creeps me out. 

All of this is normal behavior at a sporting event but amongst the parents of ten-year-old Lutherans, with their midwestern calmness, it’s rare to find anyone as cut throat and enthusastic as Russ's mom.  She definitely sticks out.  You should see the looks the parents from the other teams give her. I love the inappropriateness of her.

Anyway, apart from the basketball stuff we have had a low key weekend. I watched three payperview movies. The invention of lying (so dumb!), Harry Potter (good!), and 500 days of summer (fantastic). I love Zooey Deschanel. I think she is adorable. I wish i could steal her face and plant it over mine.  She has this jazzy little singing voice and she makes me laugh more than any other cast member in Weeds.

500 Nights of Summer was awesome. It made me remember those young love moments where a guy totally crushed my heart into tiny little pieces.  It reminded me of those times I wallowed in a pathetic hole of post break-up grief dissecting to death what personality flaw of mine my ex-boyfriend hated so much. 

It was funny and cute and not too sugary-sappy like most romantic comedies. But most of all I loved it for Zooey Deschanel's clothes. I want every single thing she wore in that film. I want all her vintage dresses and cute hair bows and headbands.  I feel like going out and adding way more pale blue pieces to by wardrobe! Also I want Aaron to wear old man cardigans and vintage ties paired with pumas the way Joseph Gordon-Levitt did.