lady looks like a dude.

I've been thinking about shaved heads a lot lately. Maybe because I watch trashy reality shows (ahem...the real world) or maybe because it is breast cancer awareness month. Sam, the girl on The Real World who I'm referring to is an interesting character. She is a lesbian who considers herself "one of the guys", has a deep voice and a shaved head. At first glance, she really does look like a male, but is so gentle and feminine in her actions and the way she responds to situations. Quite the complex character. Well done, MTV. Anyway, back to her shaved head. It looks awesome. She has a little bit of hair on top that she spikes, naturally. I know I've written about pixie cuts before and truly wonder if I could pull the look off. We'll never know because I don't have the balls to go through with it.

This past Sunday, I watched my sister run the Chicago Marathon. I teared up a few times, watching swarms of people strut their stuff in honor of a loved one, running for a cure, raising money for organizations or just running for themselves. My sister does it to prove to herself and the world that she can. Plus, she enjoys running (freak). While cheering for her on the side of the road, I came across several groups of women with shaved heads who had recently done it during a charity event that's purpose was to raise money for breast cancer research (similar to St. Baldricks, I assume). Some of the women were older and looked as though they could have grandchildren, but I spotted a few young women and I mean young. They couldn't have been more than 17 or 18. I know that's not that much younger than me, but it shocked me because it obviously takes a lot of courage to shave your head at any age, but to be so young and do something so selfless is incredibly powerful.

It was nice to see, but kind of made me feel like shit at the same time. I could never shave my head. No matter what the cause. I'm selfish and I like my hair too much. Does that make me a bad person?

Whoa whoa whoa, Miss Lippy.

I haven't blogged on here since March. Not okay. The reason it is not okay is because I read about 7 other blogs a day and constantly think about this one. Something I've become obsessed with lately is Pintrest.com. Basically people just pin (post) pictures or things that make them happy. It is a huge vision board. There are a bunch of different categories ranging from food and recipes to home decor/DIY projects and photography. Honestly, I could look at it for hours and sometimes I do. It makes me happy and I'm happy to re-pin (repost) the things I find especially cool. The best part is that more often than not you can click on the posts and it will take you to the website or wherever that particular pin came from. I've saved about 300 new things to my bookmarks.

One thing I've seen a few times on Pintrest is a photos of the most beautiful YSL rings like these:

Stunning right? I mean, I need these. I have to have them. They are so unique and intricate and cool and special. I would never be able to afford one for each finger like the girl pictured above, but one is enough to make a statement. And we all know I'm all for making statements.

Amazeballs.

pretending to know about fashion.

I read a blog called fade to black written by a British designer living in New York. Her name is Gemma and I think she has a really cool, modish sense of 70’s style. Something I like to call: hippie-chic. A while ago, she posted about interesting hemlines that have been catching her eye, and as of late, I’ve noticed it as well. In fact, it seems I can’t look around and miss this smart new trend.

**I don’t pretend to be a fashionista and I am in no way a designer, so don’t think that I’m telling you about the new “it” thing, but I do feel I have a knack for style and I’m certainly interested in upcoming trends.

These are all from the current FreePeople catalogue and I like all of them. I love the different textures and layering happening here.

This I stole from The Sartorialist, but again, I’m loving the layers of different skirt/dress combos to create a cool hemline.

Here is another interesting hemline from Balenciaga Resort 2011. Picture c/o vogue.com.au. To me, this looks more like a shirt/skirt combo, with the belt tying the whole thing together, but it is in fact, a dress, whose hemline I love just the same.

Isabeli Fontana at a Michael Kors event. Her hem doesn’t seem to be too out of the box, but different, just the same. And I’m into it.

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen was Emmanuelle Alt’s choice to grace her first cover of Vogue Paris, and I’m loving the sheer doily style dress she is donning with a bit of an interesting hem.

This is from Jonathan Saunders’ Fall 2011 collection and doesn’t have any weird hemlines, but I am obsessed with the pattern. I love the bright, vibrant colors, but think this pattern could stand out in black and white as well. I NEED this blazer. I have to have it. My birthday is coming up (in a few months) and I’ve been on the hunt for something like it (not that I’d ever be able to find it in my price range (a girl can dream)) for weeks now. Also—forget about the pattern for a second (yeah, right) and check out the huge pockets in the blazer. Obsessed.

copy-cat.

I’m irritated today.
I’ve been nerdy and reading a lot of blogs lately. They inspire me and I like it. I’ve noticed that some blogs I’m reading are “inspiring” others as well. Recently, I’ve been noticing similar patterns in the blogs I read, but today I realized that it is blatant copy-catting (real word? Questionable).

Gross. I hate that. Let someone have his or her quirky thing to his or herself. Don’t steal it and show it off as your own.

You’re not that funny or cute or charming. You’re not the one coming up with this original and eccentric thing. It wasn’t your idea; don’t take credit for it.

I buy the idea that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but at least give credit where it’s due! There is no shame in telling the world where you got an idea or picture, etc. I mean, how can anyone believe they are a reputable writer, let alone, human being by simply stealing other people’s mannerisms and cheeky phrases?

Anyway…while scoping out pictures of Fashion Week I found this:

It is from Alexander Wang’s Fall 2011 Ready to Wear collection. I thought it looked a bit familiar but couldn’t put my finger on it until yesterday.

Project Runway Season 5 (I believe). In this particular episode, the designers had to use parts from a car to create a piece for the runway. This specific dress was done by a contestant named Blayne and made from seatbelt straps. Does anyone else see the resemblance??

Very interesting.



*all photos c/o google images

tweet, friend, trend.

I spent the night (attempting) to teach my mom about/ how to use Twitter. The best part of this is that I found out she has 7 Twitter accounts. She kept starting new ones because she couldn’t remember her user name/ password and didn’t understand how to use it. Hilarious. The worst part about this is that, well, now she has a Twitter and a vague idea how to use it, meaning I (and others) will get several emails and texts, thinking they were tweets.

Those of you who may be thinking I’m being too hard on dear old mom obviously aren’t Facebook friends with her. My mom thinks her newsfeed is her wall and is always confused. She will respond to or comment on statuses that were written months ago and write completely inappropriate things on your wall. There is a “message” option for a reason, mother.

On one particular occasion, Mike sent me flowers at school just because he’s cute. I wrote a thank you note on his wall and she commented: “Did Mizzou win?” on the post. When no one responded to her, she commented again, “Yes mother, they did!” (What do flowers have to do with the Mizzou game?)

You might be thinking, “come on, that’s not too bad.” But you’d be wrong if you thought I was done. She then made her status “he should have gotten me those flowers for being such a cool mom” because she thought she was writing on my wall. (Also, she isn’t his mom, so why would he get her “cool mom” flowers?)

Another great mishap happened one night of parent’s weekend at Mizzou. After a football game, we headed to a local bar with some friends. There, I put on my mother’s engagement ring (just to show her how it fits me perfectly and it should have my name on it in her will)—(am I a terrible person?). Anyway, while showing it off to my friends, one took a picture and it ended up on Facebook with the caption “Meara’s engaged” underneath it. (Clearly a joke, because I am not, in fact, engaged) My mom was able to see the photo because she is “friends” with both my friend who posted the picture and myself.

A few days later, I got a message from one of my aunts (who I am NOT Facebook friends with or really close to in general,) asking where the “funny engagement picture” was. Apparently, my mom had written to our family (those of whom she is “friends” with), not to be alarmed by the engagement ring picture, because I was not engaged and just trying on her ring for fun.

WHAT!?

When I confronted my mom, she couldn’t understand why I was weirded out. She was also confused on how my extended family couldn’t see my pictures, because she could. After a good half-hour explanation on how neither my friend nor I were “friends” with my family members, thus them not being able to see our pictures, she was still baffled.

This isn’t a one-time occasion, it actually happens all the time. My friends think it’s great and hysterical, but it’s not. I promise.

My sister and I have discussed starting a website entitled “Parents Make the Worst Friends”. It will be similar to “When Parents Text”, but related to Facebook. None of the real nuts or bolts has been worked out, but I think it would really be successful. We can’t be the only children who have Facebook-abusing parents, right?

We should patent it right away. Our only hope is that it continues to happen and she never learns the correct way to use Facebook. Maybe it will extend to Twitter and we could have two websites on our hands. Could be the million-dollar ticket. Thanks mom!

now&then

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people.

I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

Also, I usually have to say all lines, right before the characters do, just to let everyone know how much I like this movie and that I know what’s going to happen next.

Here’s the kicker. Ask my roommate- she HATES this. I REPEAT the funny parts of a line in a favorite movie or TV show I’ve seen before, just to make sure that the other people in the room, heard it and got the full funny effect.

If anyone else were to do this while I was trying to enjoy a flick, I’m pretty sure I’d punch them in the face because I hate it more than I hate mustard (you have no idea). Needless to say, I’m trying to kick the habit, but it hasn’t come as easily as I would have hoped.

I’m not sure if I’m crazy or just really want the other person to understand the genius of whatever we are watching, but either way, I usually watch movies alone.

second drawer, bedside table.

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.


This is serious business. A best friend should know all of your secret hiding places in order to destroy any evidence of your “wild times”. Everyone has skeletons in their closet and my worst nightmare is dying and having to have my mom go through my personal belongings and finding pictures of underage drinking or my high school journal. (so embarrassing)

Honestly, I wasn’t a bad kid, but there is a reason you don’t want your parents to go through your stuff. Its not because you want them to “respect your personal space” or “trust you”. You’re obviously hiding something or someone in your closet.

In addition to this plan, I believe whoever knows my secret hiding places should also be trusted with the password to my Facebook and or email, etc. If I die before Facebook is old news and in danger of becoming what my_space seems to be, or something new comes along and sucks me in, I want my account to be deleted immediately, before anyone who I wasn’t friends with, didn’t like, or didn’t really know me, is able to write “sorry I was such a slut in high school, wish we coulda been betta friends, RIP gurl” on my wall. The thought alone makes me cringe.

Just my two cents, I guess. I’ve told some people of this Facebook plan, but they disagree with me. They make the valid point that writing on someone’s wall could be some kind of therapeutic way of saying goodbye, moving on, etc. I understand, but it’s just not my thing and I think anyone who knew me while I was alive would know I wouldn’t want it after I was gone. Hopefully people won’t make it their statuses either. Also something I’m not in to.

Anyone else have a plan like this?