Kind of a funny story, or two.

My friend Adam works at the Gap and gets me the friends and family coupon so I kind of went ape on Saturday and bought lots of great stuff, including new jeans! I only buy Gap jeans because their "curvy" doesn't mean junk in the trunk, it's white girl curvy, which is basically just hips in my case. AND they carry longs in the store. So I was super excited to wear my new jeans yesterday BUT the security tag was still on, bummer. When I went to get the receipt so I could bring them in today I noticed I wasn't even charged for them! I ACCIDENTALLY STOLE GAP JEANS! Kind of hilarious, but obnoxious bc I had to go back and pay for them. But that's all done with and its kind of a funny story.

STORY 2: My sister Ashley's kids wrecked her copy of Emma with Romola Garai so she bought a new one and said I could have the other one. I was already at the mall and had it in my bag so I asked customer service ab DVD stores and they said the only one they had was Gray Whale. Oh Gray Whale. The only thing I know/remember about Gray Whale is that my oldest brother Jeremy would spend his paycheck there every month in 1994 and had a Gray Whale sticker on his footlocker. I walked in and an start laughing at myself so hard because I'm carrying my Gap bag wanting them to fix BBC's Emma for me and of course it's Gray Whale so there's hard core music playing and there are hooligan looking teens about and I'm just cracking up. BUT, of course the large strawberry blonde man at the register with bright red gauges was THE nicest and said that he couldn't fix Emma bc it was too far gone, but he could order me a used copy from Ogden, which I agreed to. The guy getting Emma from Ogden over the phone was like "It says it's under comedy, but I don't think that can be right." Little does he know.  Meanwhile, I've been meaning to get an original Nintendo since I learned that the BYU Bookstore has them for $40 so I asked if they had one. They did not, but the Ogden store does and for the same price SO, I ended up with a new (used) copy of Emma AND an original Nintendo, which I will pick up on Wednesday. Next purchase? Super Mario 1 (with Duckhunt) and Super Mario 3, Excite Bike and 1942.

source

STORY 3: just happened. I took a phone survey rating my recent customer service call to Sprint and the survey's voice was Canadian, bahahaha.

Cassette Memories

When my family had the old Skylark we had a of couple cassettes in it. One was fiddle tunes, and one was WWII favorites. Whenever I hear these songs I think of that car and cassettes.

Remind me why I'm not in London?

The BBC posted this article about the Young Vic's current production of Hamlet starring Michael Sheen. Remember how if I was in London I could just GO to these plays on a whim? That there are SO many theatres with amazing actors and plays in London? I've never seen Hamlet live, and while I think I might agree with some of the criques about this production's concept going a bit overboard, I'd get to see Michael Sheen (Wesley SNIPES!) play Hamlet. I was already a year late to see David Tennant as Hamlet, and a year early to see him and Catherine Tate as Benedict and Beatrice. The solution is for me to just move there so I never miss any of these. Also, there is currently the largest collection of da Vinci's at the National Gallery through February, wah wah.

Hint at things to come...

I spent all yesterday afternoon gathering info and images for an entry on men's shoes. I am fascinated by the different characterizations in gentlemen's cobblery but am frustrated that sources I have either have good pictures with not the best descriptions or vice versa. So, I'm creating a super easy to understand glossary of men's shoes with very simple line drawings of EACH type of shoe described. Someday I'll collect them all into a physical booklet for myself to keep on hand with my other research, but I'm excited to post it all online too! I've gotten through the line drawings of the brogues and have moved onto loafers. Get excited and let me know if you have any questions about men's shoes and I'll do my utmost to answer them.

Review: Once Upon A Time

Sheriff Graham, Evil Queen, Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, Henry, Emma

A'ight, I was semi excited for this series bc I love fairy tales and their promise of kisses and gowns and happy endings. I wasn't excited enough to DVR it or nothin', but I watched the first two episodes on Hulu last night while taking a break from 30 Rock (almost caught up!).

Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) has been found by Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and is preggo w/ their first child, but the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) has vowed to ruin their happy ending. Rumpelstiltskin divulges that the Queen's curse will send them all to a new world where they will live in frozen time for 28 years with no memory of their real identities until Snow and Charming's daughter frees them. The baby, Emma, is sent through a magic wardrobe to safety and they are all cursed.

28 years later, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is a bounty hunter that is led to Storybrooke, Maine by her son Henry whom she put up for adoption but who has found her. Storybrooke is where the fairytale characters have been trapped. The Evil Queen is the mayor and Henry's adoptive mom, the therapist is Jimminy Cricket, Snow is the school teacher etc etc. One of the characters that hasn't been identified yet is hipster Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan).

Jimminy

Overall I'm pretty engrossed. The first episode is pretty straight forward, basically what I've already described, but the second episode starts throwing in twists and turns. I'm curious to see how far they can take this plot.

am I wrong? does Prince Charming just kind of leave you a bit puzzled

 Like most TV show fairy tales OUAT falls into the trap of sort of cheesy modern costuming and make up in the fantasy part, think Enchanted but trying to be serious about it.  My biggest problem is with Prince Charming whose costumes are so classic fairy tale but whose haircut is so modern. Don't get me wrong, the guy is handsome, but it just conflicts. As the episodes went on however I settled into the costuming and was more ok with it. I had a huge issue with Snow's wedding wig. I get annoyed with this earthy idea of women meaning their hair is a birds' nest. I've seen it done more than once where formal hairstyles in fairy tales are concerned.

birds' nest hair=dumb

Rumplestiltkin's (Robert Carlyle) make up in fairy tale land is DISGUSTING. His skin looks sandy but wet and his contacts expand his irises into the most unnerving size and look like clotted blood. I couldn't stand to look at him! The mayor in Storybrook is absolutely gorgeous. Her hair and make up are perfect and I just want to be as put together as her! Hipster sheriff, with the actor's original accent, is of course adorable.

The Mayor with her perfect face and hair and wardrobe.

 If the series continues I'm excited for the production value to get better and am geared up for the story to get even crazier since it's by the writers of Lost. 

Hipster Cop from Occupy Wallstreet

Hipster Sheriff

IMDB page for Once Upon a Time
Official ABC site

4/3 Gentleman

http://four-thirdsgentleman.tumblr.com/

My friend Jay tipped me off to this site, which is great hair, menswear, mens accessories and anything else man that I'm attracted to (minus some of the gnarly beards). People comment that won't it be fun for me to dress my boyfriend/husband. No, I want him to look like this site already. I dress people for my job, how 'bout he has his own inherent taste?

Winter dress

I have a lot of summer dresses, and a lot of junior type dresses that I've made in the past out of cutesy cottons and florals. I've been making a shift to more streamlined adult silhouettes in my wardrobe and am looking to make a winter dress (with at least 3/4 sleeves) for the upcoming season. I have some raspberry wool jersey I'm fixin' to use along with some black sweatshirt jersey I was going to use to make a jacket, but I think it might make a really cool formal but cozy LBD. I've gone through the vintage patterns at the costume shop but am not crazy in love with any of them...

BUT on Friday, Cecile Pelous, ex first cutter/draper at Dior (all of your favorite Galliano years) is making her annual visit to BYU to do her workshop, so if I come up with a design I can drape it on Friday under her excellent and watchful eye.

SO...I know I'm usually the one that comes up with the pretty things for you to look at, but if you want to help me out and make winter dress suggestions I'd love it! I'll for sure do research of my own, but would love input and opinions.