More Scribbles

For all you ladies in the UK, Hilary Laing just launched a new online store. (Sadly, they don't seem to have a US store yet. Boo.) You'll have seen her work mentioned recently here, here, here, and here. No dresses yet, but maybe soon?

Spit Polish

Okay, not quite. But close, when you stop to consider what happens when you use toothpaste for something other than silver care:
Yes! Indeed! You read/saw right! Toothpaste: not just for faking rabies. You can use it (assuming it's a proper paste and not a gel) to gently polish tarnish off silver, using a sponge, rag, or used toothbrush. A little trick out grandma taught us, which we put to good use on a Peruvian good luck charm she sent us a while back. Here he is before, and slightly yellow.
Und apres:
And we repeated on this silver teapot someone tossed out recently because it's missing its lid knob. An easy fix, if you know any welders. Which we don't but whatever: the Colgate got it from quite literally black (here it is mid-cleaning, as we forgot to take a Before shot)
...to its proper color again.

The Clash

Some things match with absolutely nothing, but you don't realize that until you get outside near the grass with the dog and leash and shopping bag and then your carefully planned grey/aqua/yellow combo goes to crap.

Sweatshirt, American Apparel; brocade skirt, vintage; yellow jellies, Urban Outfitters; bag, Topshop.

(PS: School's out for summer. Blogging! Clothes! Everything we love!)

First Person Singular: Observation

I am nearly completely sure that the World Championships Sports Network shows the same seven world championships over and over: Men's Gymnastics, Women's Skiing, Fencing, Equestrian, Men's Snowboarding, Badminton, and Volleyball (eight if you consider beach and indoor separately).

The Best Things In Life

...are no longer in production. We desperately want either this coat-dress from Preen (Fall 06)
...or this Chrysalis convertible coat-dress from Nau, which has ended production. Forever. Boohiss.

Uck.

All our clothes are too big.

Not all all our clothes, but most of the nice nice things we spent the past couple years collecting at sales at Barneys and the like are now too, too big. All of our dresses and skirts, too big. All our casual summer clothes, too big. And plenty of unworn things from Banana Republic and the like that we don't understand why we bought in the first place. Time for a trip to the consignment store, perhaps, and a closet purge.

This is something we've never been able to do, not in a real way, because Yes, we might actually wear things again. That t-shirt not worn since sixth grade? Saving it finally paid off because we got a lot of wear out of it last year. That Stella McCartney for H&M blue top we picked up in a mad fit? Never going to wear it, but it was from the Stella for H&M collection. (Seriously, anyone want it? It's dusty blue, loose camisole with a rhinestone trim. A RHINESTONE TRIM. It's perfectly lovely, but when have we ever, ever worn rhinestones? Et cetera.) Bugger.

Guten Tag(ged)

So we've been tagged. By Everybody Says Don't. To tell you, chère reader, six unimportant things about us. This is hard, because (ahem) obviously everything about us is desperately important.
Eins: Boswell the Beagle has learned to play dead. His cue for this is "Bang, bang!" How is this about us? Well, we taught him. It counts.
Dos: Living in Philadelphia makes us wear flats more often than when we lived in New York because public transportation is highly unreliable and poorly planned and therefore we have to walk a lot.
Trois: We used to sing jazz. This is over three years old and completely outdated but it's how we sounded at age 20. Pretend you still don't know our name.
Four: We did pottery for seven years or so and are considering starting again. Because re-enacting Ghost once a week is fun.
Wu: We can count (a little) in Chinese!
Sei: On our shortcuts, JSTOR is next to Rag Nation. Typical.

We tag:
RSGo
Childhood Flames
Fashion Robot even though she doesn't do this sort of thing. Though neither does RSGo, nor do we for that matter, but whatever.

How many people have to be tagged, anyway?

Dear Guys

Should we go back to this, or keep growing? It's not a very good pic, and also we wouldn't put the blonde streak in again, but. Fauxhawk?

Labels.

IM with Helen.

9:29 AM Helen: the weirdest thing happened yesterday

me: ?

Helen: (i know you're busy but i need to relate this)

i was at filene's basement buying towels and was scoping out the summer dresses

9:30 AM and i saw this white shirtdress that had just mountains and mountains of fabric

and i was like "hmm, this reminds me of my CFDA/Gap shirtdress from last summer"

so i pulled it out and lo and behold, it was the EXACT dress

me: ahahaha

Helen: identical cut, etc

and then on the rack behind it?

the rodarte drop-waist dress

9:31 AM and the weird horizontal-pleat shirt (philip lim?)

me: omg!

Helen: but the thing was

the label didn't say gap!

it said "grace collection"

and they were priced at $24.99!

it was COMPLETELY WEIRD

i didn't realize Gap sold their overstock to shitty labels!

and i doubly wouldn't think they'd sell the CFDA stuff!

9:32 AM me: wait, really?

hm

Helen: NO I AM COMPLETELY SERIOUS

i am tempted to go back and buy one just as proof

me: that is bizarre

and making me wonder if I can find them

Helen: at the very least you can use them as a palette for more paint scribbles :)

Final Papers

We're trying to sort out early modern new historical feminist criticism.

It's not working.

Back online once this hell is over...

Friday Nights

Some people go out. We stay in and make zucchini muffins, because Yes, we're just that cool. A variation on a recipe from Bookcook, this is how we did it. (Making large muffins, we got exactly 18 from the batter.) Oh, and, we're not positive but these seem to only have 1g of fat per muffin-- 6g per egg, 3 eggs, divvied by 18. There's sugar, obviously, but way less fat than most muffins. And no dairy!

3 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1½ cups sugar
2 cups julienned zucchini (approx. 2 zucchini. Grating works, too.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon + pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in applesauce and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.
4. In another large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nuts (if using).
5. Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

The Seduction of Saturation

Friend Helen sent us this from The Superest, a site dedicating to finding the superest of all super heroes, due to word association, and we were amused.

Simply Spring

The great thing about warm weather finally arriving--real warm weather, that is, not the fake stuff--is that if we're so moved, getting dressed can just mean tossing on a dress, shoes, and you're done. Dressed in under a minute. What we particularly love about this DVF number is its pockets--no bag required, not even to walk Boswell.

Metallic dress, Diane von Furstenberg; sandals, Fieramosca & Co.; jewelry, vintage.

Something New

Sooooo a little tiny bit of reformatting of le blog...because why not? (Let us know if the images are slowing loading a ridiculous amount and we'll cut it out.)

Point:

Models can be hot. (This is an issue. We worked in the same building that DNA models uses for a while and sat across from the elevator--a loft set-up, dontcha know--and were struck by the fact that while yes, remarkably thin and tall, most of the girls were downright ugly in the face. Obviously faces of most high-fashion models look a little strange, but that's with the camera adding some weight. See them in person and you just want to offer them your chocolate-dipped Mr. Softee.) Proof? In case anyone missed it, Fashionista posted this shot from Elle's latest issue, in a spread on eco-fashion. Witness Irina (eh) and Freja (maybe), together (hot). Talk about a nice way to start your morning...

Revelation

Oh. My. God. Maybe we missed the boat on this one and everyone has been having sublime caffe moments on a regular basis but holy crap did you know you can roast your own coffee at home? In a popcorn popper? Oh my. One of our professors always brings coffee for the break during our Monday night (7-10.00, if you please) class and it is the (hands down) best coffee we've ever had--nutty and toasty and full-bodied and it feels like coffee rather than coffee-flavored water or, alternatively, a really bitter or tough strong brew. It is amazing, and we had assumed it was from La Colombe, but oh no, he said. It's roasted at home, he said. Get online and go to Sweet Maria's, he said. And yes. Yes, we did.

Fin

Trimmings

Having now had two cuts by him, we can now safely say that Corvette at the Sullivan Street Mudhoney salon gives maybe the best wavy/curly hair haircuts in the big bad borough of Manhattan. Our experience there isn't as wide, granted, as it is in London, where we hair modeled all over the place (be a demo model for seminars at Vidal Sassoon and you're just asking for a razored faux-hawk), but having been to a few places (Fekkai, for one, and Bumble and Bumble, for another) it's not hard to judge that it gives you the most bang for your buck--$80 or so, which we usually round up with tip to an even $100, as it's amazing. Is it as hard for people with straight hair to find someone who understands it? What we love about Corvette is that he starts with a wet cut and watches the hair curl as it dries, cutting with the natural curls. This results in little or no product needed when you go home, and curls that sit as they should when you just let your hair air-dry. Which saves time! (And cash on products: he's the first stylist we've ever had discourage us from buying products. Also, Mudhoney itself sells nothing except haircuts. Fab.) So, in closing, if you have curly hair, hie thee to Mudhoney. All of their people seem to do really great do's to fit a variety of people (Bethany we noticed in particular, who not only knows her way around a head of hair but covers a range of looks, from femme to not-at-all-girly. And she's hot.) in a laid-back, friendly setting. (Oh, and Corvette does free bang trims. !)