Orange butterfly & technical difficulties

here is my latest mani - a neon orange butterfly. I used  a base of a pastel orange ( franken), then sponged on NYC Spring Street and Sally Hansen Tahiti Sunrise; I used a black stripe polish to create the partitions.

When I began to add the white dots, I dragged my nails across the bottom of my desk and destroyed my nails - so I fixed it up with the black stripe polish and just added TC. I have had -2- manicure disasters in a row

 I am loving this bright orange and have already fished out all my orange polish's for a future manicure. bright polish's like the base here is the perfect thing for the dreary spring weather we are having in my part of the country.

- right now -

All that swearing and cursing about slow Internet speeds has caught up with me - our internet provider had some issues today and I couldn't get onto the internet. I am behind with my new blogs but hope to have that sorted out tomorrow.  In the meantime - here is a  dot-less, mutant orange butterfly wing manicure.

no TC on ring nail ( first nail  on the left )

♥

The Body Shop giveaway winner is...

The winner of a gift bag and sold-out summer bronzing products from The Body Shop is...

Brittney of A Day In The Life Too!

 

Brittney said...

heck yes i did all of those things. so jealous of all you dallas bloggers! that looks divine. annnd...please pretty please pick meeeeeee! (i'm slipping random.org a twenty right now...)

Congrats Brittney!

Tiffany Chou

Rachel introduced me to the work of the Tiffany Chou last week and I am so glad she did. People who know me best know that I love everything nautical chic. This Maui inspired work is so delicate. I'd be happy to add a piece to my growing jewelry collection.

Naomi Campbell vs Cadbury

Cadbury have found a new foe in Naomi Campbell after comparing her to a chocolate bar. A poster for their bar Bliss (which ran in newspapers last week but has since been removed) had the wording 'Move over Naomi – there’s a new diva in town.’

Naomi is said to be considering 'every option available' and was quoted as saying: "I am shocked. It's upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me, but for all black women and black people. I do not find any humour in this. It is insulting and hurtful."

Even Mama Campbell was upset: "I'm deeply upset by this racist advert. Do these people think they can insult black people and we just take it? This is the 21st century, not the 1950s. Shame on Cadbury."

There have been calls to boycott Kraft Foods products (Cadbury's parent company), letters written to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and comparisons being made between this advert and golliwog posters from yesteryear.

A spokesman for Cadbury (who have been in trouble over alleged racist ads in the past) said: ""It was certainly never our intention to cause any offense and the campaign itself is a light-hearted take on the social pretensions of Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss."

What do you think - clever PR from Cadbury (would they have got this much coverage otherwise?) a storm in a teacup or an insulting racist ad?

The Little Girl in the Classroom Will Break Your Heart!

Sad, upsetting, surprising, enlightening, infuriating – just some of the words we use to describe ‘Dark Girls’ – a documentary “exploring the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin colour — particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture.”

We dare you to watch it and not be moved!

We remember seeing a documentary about a black Canadian model trying to make it at NY Fashion Week being told that she had the potential to be a success as she didn’t have traditional ‘black’ features, that really casting agents were looking for white girls dipped in chocolate. She was shocked and so were we.

It’s a thorny issue that deserves an article all of its own, but before we do that, we’d love to get your thoughts and experiences on the matter.

Outfit Post: The tyranny of the "bikini body"

Memorial Day weekend, 1981: I am seven years old. My parents are hosting a barbecue and have invited my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and neighborhood friends. The air smells like roasting barbecue briquettes, daylilies, freshly cut grass and hot dogs.The rhythmic spurt-spurt-spurt of the sprinkler permeates the air. I am wearing an enticing two-piece yellow terry cloth bikini which ties around my neck, and my cousins and I shriek as we run through the needle-sharp spray of the sprinkler. My waist-long hair drips water down my back. I feel happy, unencumbered and free.

Flash forward to Memorial Day weekend, present day: I am 36 years old. My husband and three children chatter excitedly about going to the neighborhood pool. I have zero desire to go to the pool, because going to the pool means wearing my swimsuit in public. I stand in front of my dresser and try to calm myself down. I try on two-piece after two-piece, self-esteem plummeting in the process. Swimsuits lie tangled on the floor. My thighs seem to expand with each selection. My body takes up too much space. I am flabby and fat and all-together unacceptable. I feel like a failure.

Every summer, I go through the exact same ritual. I become obsessively focused on the notion of the perfect bikini body, an entity I am certain every woman possesses except for myself. The NY Times recently ran an article exploring the notion of the bikini body, examining the effect it has on fear-inspired marketing campaigns and as a symbol of physical perfection.

There's no way of figuring out when the phrase "bikini body" was first uttered or when its tyranny took hold. It's common knowledge that the two-piece as we know it was invented in 1946 by engineer Louis Réard who christened it after Bikini Atoll. The style became popular in the 50's and by the 80's was standard beachwear. As our culture increasingly enshrines physical perfection, the bikini has come to inspire dread and awe. It wasn’t always so. In the 1960s, when bellybutton-baring suits first became popular in America, “it was a youthful phenomenon definitely,” said Sarah Kennedy, the author of “The Swimsuit: A History of Twentieth-Century Fashions.” Then the high-fashion set and movie stars began to put on bikinis, and by the ’70s, she said, the bikini was “worn by all ages.”

And a few extra pounds didn’t disqualify anyone, considering the fitness revolution was still roughly a decade away. (The NY Times mentions that in the book there’s a 1940s photograph of a fresh-faced still-brunet Marilyn Monroe looking smashing in a two-piece, a roll of pale flesh at her midsection.)

Writes The Guardian's Laurie Penny:

When it finally became popular in the 1960s, the bikini was a symbol of physical liberation, of beautiful women reacting to the stern sexual prudery of previous decades by exposing as much skin to the sun as they pleased. Today, as with many iterations of the sexual emancipation rhetoric of the 1960s, wearing a bikini is no longer associated with pleasure and daring, but with anxiety, dieting rituals and joyless physical performance...The bikini body has become cultural shorthand for a moral standard of female perfection whereby any physical flaw should be regarded as a source of shame, an obstacle to collective fantasies of glamour and happiness.

When did  the bikini become the standard of all beauty? I'm going to theorize that the first Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, published in 1964, had a lot to do with it. With that publication, swimsuits became explicitly linked with the standards of female desirability. Also, the Swimsuit Issue is published in the winter and had little to do with the reality of actual women being at the beach, let alone swimming, and a lot to do with unattainable goals.

"Bikini body" is the going code for "acceptable." It is always in bikinis that the tabloids feature the "best" and "worst" bodies. Type "bikini body" into Google and you get the following suggested searches:

bikini body workout
bikini body diet
bikini body tips
bikini body fast
quick bikini body

The bikini body has nothing to do with overall health, or fitness, or lifestyle. No, it's about shedding "winter weight" fast, before some arbitrary deadline known as "Bikini Season," at which point we're forced to confront a two-piece suit with, naturally, the requisite "bikini wax," and no trace of cold-weather pastyness. Jezebel argues that the "bikini body" craze goes so much deeper than fatism or fatphobia. It is part of our society's relentless insistence that a woman's body is not her own. It is an object to be criticized.  Our society seems to think that a woman wears a bikini not for herself, but for the public to decide her worthiness.

Will the world end tomorrow if I can't cram my butt into a bikini? I was going to ask Stephen Hawking, but, after some careful mathematical calculations, I was able to come up with the answer on my own: No. Does this mean that I still don't have days where I hate my thighs and stomach so much I want to carve them off of my body with a fillet knife? No. But I understand that those days will happen and that they really don't matter because there truly is NOTHING wrong with my body. I've put it through a lot in the past 36 years and it's stuck around and carried me through everything.

So my motto is this: Just be healthy. Eat things that are nutritionally good for you and exercise, but don't forget about delicious, delicious baked goods and gelato from Pacuigo. Don't deprive yourself of things to satisfy the warped and nonsensical views of people that see you as another bottomless pocket and empty head. 

Do what you want, eat what you want, wear what you want, and be who you want.

Now I ask you: How you deal with the pressure of the "bikini body?" Does wearing a swimsuit in public make you break out in a sweat? Do you avoid going to the beach, pool or lake because of this fear? Does wearing a swimsuit cause you to dread summer activities? And do you have a favorite swimsuit that makes you feel great about yourself?

Thrifted Gap chambray shirt: thrifted vintage dress; Old Navy belt; White Mountain sandals; TIKKR watch; Charming Charlie bracelet; Forever 21 necklace

Let's Design Together: Meganthology

Megan F works with me closely. Although she is not here in DE, I consider her my interior designer. I turn to her for blog ideas, and also lots of questions about our in-progress office. This week, when I thought it would be a good idea to seek a rug for the space, I went straight to Megan.

She sent me this photo above as inspiration. I love the idea of layering, well, anything- 

so this idea seems perfect. Here are Megan's layering notes.

Please help us choose a rug for this space by leaving your thoughts on the rugs above- but also additional thoughts if you have other ideas that you love! (I was toying with the idea of a faux cowhide in my living room, which connects to my office so I'm just a little up in the air)

Style Week Jamaica 2011

Style Week Jamaica ran from May 25 - 29 in Kingston, Jamaica and gave a platform to international and local designers as well as the some of the island's top models.

Famous export Shena Moulton (who has walked for Dior and Rochas and is currently the face of Marc Jacobs) and newcomer Brad Allen were in attendance and the event featured designs from Spokes Apparel, Shades of Africa, H.O.D. by Gregory Williams, REVE Jewellery, Rick B's, Gillespie, Dexter 3D Pottinger, Andre Rowe and Drenz Fashion.

Shena Moulton in Oscar De La Renta Pre Fall 2011

Unfortunately, there are currently very few images available from the event, which is a shame and a terribly wasted opportunity, but we will do what we can to source some and get back to you.

Update: View pictures here.

Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment

I've been wanting to try this lip balm for some time now and finally purchased it the other day at Sephora. I originally went to Ulta to get it, but unfortunately they don't carry the Fresh line of products.

This stuff is definitely on the pricey side ($22.50 for a 0.15 oz tube) and normally I would never spend that kinda cash on a lip balm. But it is definitely worth it in my opinion. I've been using it for awhile now and can really tell a huge difference compared to other lip products I normally use. I came very close to purchasing the sugar honey which is the newest shade in this line of lip balms. Maybe next time =)

Here's why I'm loving it:
1. The hint of color is so pretty
2. The product is long lasting and I don't have to constantly reapply it
3. Most moisturizing lip balm I've ever used
4. It's not greasy or sticky - perfect consistancy
5. I like the packaging and screw on lid - top won't come off in my purse
6. I love that there are 4 different kinds - sugar rose, sugar honey, sugar plum and sugar.
7. My lips never feel chapped or in need of more moisture when I am wearing it
8. I have full lips and this makes them look even more luscious and healthy
9. It wears evenly and is effortless to apply

Here's what Sephora.com says:
Sugar Rosé Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15
What it is:
A sheer rose-tinted lip moisturizer that hydrates, repairs, and protects lips.

What it does:
Fresh Sugar Rosé Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15 is everything you love about the original Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15, but now you get the added benefit of a natural rosé tint that provides buildable color. With one slick, this stick provides immediate hydration and smoothness—instantly soothing cracked or chapped lips and diminishing the appearance of fine lines. It provides SPF 15 UVA/UVB protection to shield your lips from the damaging effects of the sun and delivers a hint of tint for a natural, universally-flattering look. It's packed in a travel-friendly, screw-top tube.

This product is formulated WITHOUT:
- Petroleum
- Parabens
- Sulfates
- Synthetic Dyes
- Phthalates

What else you need to know:
Tip from Alina Roytberg, brand founder: "For extra pouty, plump, and protected lips, layer any Sugar Lip Gloss shade on top of Sugar Rosé Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15. You'll get double the moisture, extra shine, and the protective benefits of SPF 15."

Size: 0.15 oz

-Sugar, a natural humectant, prevents moisture loss.
-A superior blend of nourishing oils, including meadowfoam seed, black currant seed, avocado, and jojoba, deeply moisturize dry areas.
-Grapeseed polyphenols protect, smooth, and soften.
-SPF 15 UVA/UVB protection from avobenzone and octinoxate

Sugar Rosé Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15:
Octinoxate (Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate) 7.49 %, Oxybenzone (Benzophenone-3) 2.00 %. Cera Alba (Beeswax), Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Hydrogenated Olive Oil Decyl Esters, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Ribes Nigrum (Black Currant) Seed Oil, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Rosa Damascena Flower Water, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, Tocopherol, Sucrose Tetrastearate Triacetate, Ci 15985 (Yellow 6 Lake), Ci 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), Ci 15850 (Red 7 Lake), Polyglyceryl-3 Polyricinoleate, Ci 77491 (Iron Oxides), Ci 77499 (Iron Oxides), Propyl Gallate, Limonene, Benzyl Alcohol, Linalool, Bht, Citral, Citronellol, Geraniol.

If you have never tried a Fresh Lip Treatment and want to splurge on yourself, then check em out. I'm glad I did! This is the perfect lip balm for summer!

CLICK HERE to buy Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment now!

We Are Currently Loving: Stripes

As seen on Michelle Obama in Marc Jacobs and the Celine runway. Don’t be afraid of horizontal stripes; wear them on whichever half of you is the smallest to help balance you out.

Michelle Obama in Marc Jacobs

£34.90

Was £270, now £98

£25

Was £90, now £36

Was £1625, now £568.75

£22

£65

£80

    

Just don't wear all the stripes at once!

Shop her Style: Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson was spotted outside her hotel in London, England wearing Christian Louboutin Python Zip Boots from the Spring/Summer 2011 Collection. These boots have a unique design with a snakeskin front half and a suede back half separated by a zipper.

We love Jennifer Hudson – that voice in Dreamgirls when she sang 'And I Am Telling You'. Chills!

But girl, what’s with the wig?! Congrats on the weight loss (slimmer by the week it seems) but surely you can afford better hair than this? We’re also in two minds re the shoes. They make her feet look huge!

That said, we like the laid back style she has going on here. Perfect for when you don't wanna try too hard.

Blazers by Alexander Wang

Fashion in Blue Touch

Memorial Day giveaway!

Happy Memorial day, everyone! I hope you're enjoying your day with friends and family and barbecue. Because if there's one thing that Memorial Day makes me think of, it's barbecues. But then again, most holidays have some sort of correlation with food in my head. I'll have to give that some thought. Later, when I'm done eating my burger and potato salad.

Today is the second to last day to enter my giveaway for a gift bag and new sold-out summer bronzing products from The Body Shop! Don't forget to take a moment and enter here. The drawing will be tomorrow night.

N.Y.C. Madison Avenue

As you can see here, Madison Avenue is a bright red that is perfect for the upcoming season. Also, I'd like to apologize for the messiness on my thumb nail. So I hope you enjoy this color!