Dry Shampoo vs. Hair Oil























Cognitive dissonance much? Sure I was drawn to these two products for different reasons. Sometimes your hair seems dull and kind of frizzy and you wish it were as shiny and lustrous as the ridiculous long hair of shampoo commercial models. Other times your hair seems unwashed and oily and all you want is to feel like you've just taken a shower, but in like, 5 seconds instead of 5 minutes. But then you realize that you are maybe waging a kind of divided and unwinnable battle against yourself. Am I oiling my hair just to dry it out? Or maybe drying it to the point that it needs to be oiled?

Moroccanoil Oil treatment for all hair types. Sweet Jesus does this stuff smell good. Deep and rich, but distinctly candy-like. This oil will make you feel like the kind of lady who travels to Morocco to stay in posh riads, ride ornamented camels, and appropriate centuries-old bohemian hair products. Definitely be careful not to overoil. Sometimes, even when used sparingly, I can't tell if it's actually making my hair shinier, or if I'm really just using it as hair perfume.

Oscar Blandi Dry Shampoo. Why wash your hair when you can just spray something on it? This stuff will make you feel like the kind of chic, contrarian lady who's decided it's really healthier and more natural  not to wash your hair so much, but who on day four is like, ok, my hair could at least use some sprucing up here. I think the dry shampoo may do more of what it advertises than the Moroccanoil (at least for my hair), but truth be told, it's no magic bullet, and I'm suspicious its effect may be more psychological than anything. Or maybe I just need to try the Rene Furterer brand everyone seems to go crazy for, but that, for some reason, they stopped selling in-store at Sephora.

So is it crazy to use both of these products? Or, is there perhaps no conflict, no purely consumeristic urge to buy two products that negate each other, and only spur the need for more and more products in a vicious cycle of hair anxiety and pretty packaging appreciation? Maybe they truly can balance out your hair's different aspects, and by using the two together, you can achieve commercial level hair perfection?
In the end, hey, they may at least get you close to a real life, lazy girl's version of hair perfection: your hair looks clean and smells like candy, and you didn't even have to get in the shower.

The Hearth of Summer




The hearth would probably look even better if we had actually full-on scrubbed the fireplace. But that seemed like an awful lot more work than putting some candles on some plates and some flowers in a little vase. And hey, at least this is better than an empty grate and a pile of ashes.

Washed Out




Going to the beach today and to see Washed Out later. It all fits together.

Swedish Hasbeens?


Nope. I'm calling these little puppies my Swedish Neverweres. Or maybe I should call them Swedish Alwaysweres and Alwayswillbes since they're modeled on popular styles from the 70s. I'm not sure. But I am sure that they're just as cute as Swedish Hasbeens, and were less than half as much through a Swedish clog seller on ebay.

Hasbeens has more options and modern reinterpretations of classic clogs (not to mention the recent collaboration with H&M), but this particular style is also made by real deal Swedish clog makers Torpatoffeln








Even if certain friends of Swedish descent will rub in the fact that I'm a Norwegian in Swedish shoes, I can't wait to wear them all summer long.


Let's Be Friends

Maybe, if you're nice to me, I'll make you a friendship bracelet this summer. Then we can wear them with a bunch of other shit on our wrists.




God, Kanye. Save some Cartier love bracelets for the rest of us!

Ok, let's be serious though. Cartier love bracelets are really expensive. How about one of these?


Hm. Maaaybe I should just start with some thread.


Hot *and* cool? Sign me up.

Julez for Japan


I'm a little obsessed with Solange Knowles' style. She has a pretty inarguably awesome shoe collection, and a covetable music video wardrobe.

But, heh ahem, she's not the only one in the family with awesome style (insert trope comparing Solange to Beyonce here). No, this time the family member she's sharing the spotlight with is her son, Daniel Julez Smith. He's not singing or dancing, but some of his mom's style must already have rubbed off on him at the tender age of 6 years old, and he's putting it to good use to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. After witnessing the devastation on tv and feeling an urge to help out, Julez painted the bold Japanese flag-inspired design that's digitally emblazoned on each Julez for Japan tee (donated by American Apparel).



All proceeds from the Julez for Japan tees go to Peace Winds Japan. Unfortch, I think they're sold out, but maybe there will be more to come, and if not, why not take the opportunity to donate anyways if you haven't already.

The Divorcée's Necklace

I thought "The King's Speech" was great. I enjoyed the acting and interiors, and especially the corgis. But I think my jaw literally dropped over Wallis Simpson's (played by Eve Best) necklace. In a scene at a royal cocktail party at Balmoral, she turns around to reveal a stunning necklace draped elegantly down the open back of what seems from the front to be a simple, almost restrained, high-necked cocktail dress.


After a little research, I learned she's wearing this magnificent Van Cleef & Arpels diamond zip necklace.

 homina homina

For those of us on a more YKK budget, it's still possible to find a necklace that looks great from behind. The key is to find a style that doesn't have a clasp so that what's usually the back of the necklace looks glamorous, and not janky, from the front.


Ok, so this Fallon Lasso Collar necklace isn't exactly sweatshirt zipper cheap, but I'm guessing it's miles less expensive than a diamond zipper.



And I know they've usually got a rep for velour tracksuits, but this Erin Fetherston (who just has a rep for being perennially cute/glam) for Juicy Couture Tassle Lariat is really cute and could be a great reverse necklace. I love the idea of lariat necklaces because they're sort of somewhere between a necklace and a Bolo tie without actually being a Bolo tie.

I'm gonna go ahead and say that these two necklaces might be a little more versatile since you can dress them down. But if you did want to dress them up to their most Van Cleef and Arpelian potential, à la Wallis Simpson in "The King's Speech," you can't do better than pairing them with a similar dress —one that's totally open from the neck to the mid-low back, and deceptively anti-décolleté in the front.


 Like this one. Yowza.

Mood Marfa

Ooooh. Let's visit Marfa. It's got:
-art
-desert
-potentially supernatural light phenomena
-food sharks!



Prada Marfa is a permanent art installation a few miles away in Valentine, Texas. It was designed with the idea that it won't be kept up, so it'll eventually be a ruin, which will make it even harder to think of wearing all the right footed shoes and bottomless handbags.


YACHT ▲s Marfa.



The Marfa lights —are they ghosts? caused by swamp gas? just the result of temperature gradients? are we marveling at reflections of our own cars? It's a mystery.







The Thunderbird seems like an awesome place to stay. A renovated motel from the 50s, it's now outfitted with hand made textiles and furnishings and adorned with art by local artists. They even have a gift shop where you can pick up the custom made Indian linens, hand-woven Bolivian blankets, and cow hide rugs that furnish their rooms. God I love gift shops.

Or you could stay at the historic Hotel Paisano, where James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor stayed while filming Giant in Marfa.



Wherever I stayed, I would most def. want to eat at Food Shark, a "Mediterranean-by-way-of-West-Texas" (Texiterranean?) food truck run by an awesome couple who honeymoon in Easter Island and make catchy and amazing YouTube commercials.



*Prada Marfa photo by Ben Brown

Stone_Cold_Fox








These designs from Stone_Cold_Fox hit a lot of lustworthy notes. Romantic, edgy, sweet. Wild gypsy, rocker, boudoir model. Palm Springs, Parisian salon, LA. Of course I love that this is another bff collaboration, and while it's usually super annoying to land on a website with its own soundtrack, I even love the little ditty that plays on theirs. Let's see what they have in store for 2011...