Odds and Ends

My new favorite magazine these days (as I've somehow turned into a manic shopper) is Lucky Magazine.  I have been buying them on the newsstands, but recently signed up for a subscription.  I tear through each issue, using their helpful stickers to tag anything and everything that looks like something I would like.  Chances are I won't ever get around to buying these things, but the fashion designer in me pulls out the pictures and stores them away for later inspiration.

In the new September issue (with the lovely Mila Jovovich on the cover), I spied these pair of tights that I simply must have:

The fine print says that the hosiery is Hue by Tibi, but I'll be darned if I can find these particular pair anywhere (including the Hue website!)  I did, however find these on AlexBlake.com, which is the same site I picked up a pair of vintage-looking back-seamed black hose.

As I'm into all things vintage these days, I snapped up these patterns from the local fabric store the other day.  I'm excited about making these-- I just hope I can find a fabric that I like.

On a final note, I just recently stumbled upon Baby Snoopy while picking out greeting cards in the card store.  He is, as the name implies, Snoopy as a little pup.  I'm a dog lover, so I couldn't help but be suckered into their marketing scheme.  But seriously, look how cute he is-- don't you just want to scoop him up and give him a good cuddle?  (Oh, and there's a Baby Woodstock, too.  What will they think of next?)

Let the Games Begin

Today, according to the Chinese at least, is the luckiest day of the year. It is 8-8-08, the official opening of the Olympics in Beijing. My parents and I decided to celebrate with an impromptu drive to Philadelphia's Chinatown where they were throwing their own party to honor the Olympians. It was fun-- they had performers, and mini-booths of Olympic events as well as lots of family fare. It had the feeling of a street fair, with food and tents lining the streets. Afterward, we ate the best Chinese food (seriously, YUM!) at a restaurant on Race Street while a TV in the background showed the Opening Ceremonies. Here are some my pictures from our trip (including my pic with a mascot-- I love the Chinese's aesthetic of cute):















I wonder if there is anyone out there doing a comparison of Opening Ceremony fashions. The entry of the different countries into the stadium seems to be a bit slow for many viewers, but I took pleasure in discovering how each country chose to be represented in their dress.

The Americans in Ralph Lauren

Team USA was outfitted by the all-American designer Ralph Lauren. For the ceremony, they donned navy blazers, white newsboy caps, white trousers, and ascots for the ladies while the men completed their look with matching striped tie. All in all, they were a smart looking bunch, even if they were super preppy. And, yes, in the spirit of commercialism, you too can buy matching outfits or other Olympic themed clothes at Ralph Lauren's website.

Those savvy Germans with flags that double as fans. I also just noticed that the guy three in from bottom right has the Olympic symbol shaved into his head.

I would have the say that the cleverest thing I saw in the way of ensembles was those sensible German flag-fans. Someone was thinking here: in the 90 degree heat of Beijing, instead of waving a small black, red, and gold flag, each Olympian waved a flag-colored fan. Pretty smart, eh?

Easy-going Aussies

It is an honor that usually goes to the Americans, but this time it was our cousins down under, the Australians, who, IMHO, took the award for being the most dressed down. Their outfits were very sporty, wearing what looked to be a blue track suit and matching ball cap. They were a fun, happy bunch though.



The human interest story of the evening was about the little boy with the bird's eye view accompanying the 7 FT 6 in (2.29 meters) Chinese basketball player, Yao Ming. As Yao walked hand-in-hand with the Sichuan boy (and later hoisted him in his arms), the commentators told the story of how this 9 year-old boy had been a victim of last May's earthquakes in China (which killed over 70,000 people). After pulling himself from the rubble of his school, he had gone back in to rescue other students. When asked why he had risked his life in such a manner, he replied something along the lines of, "It was my duty. In school I was a hall monitor, and it was my job to watch out for the other students." You can read an article about the little boy (and how he almost didn't make it into the stadium) here.

As to my final thoughts on the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics 2008? Holy fireworks over China, Batman.

Elise's Surprise Cupcakes

On August 1st, my twin sister, Erin, and I celebrated our 29th birthday. We went to New York for a day and threw ourselves a little barbecue in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, with my friend Matt grilling burgers and kabobs. The event was a success, and I hope to soon be able to post pictures.

For the party, I made my favorite cupcakes-- a remarkably simple recipe which produces a yellow cake cupcake with a little surprise in the middle-- a cheesecake-esque blob of cream cheese mixed with chocolate chips. It's a real treat!

Surprise Cupcakes

1 package yellow cake mix (2 layer size)

1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

dash salt

1 6 ounce package (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Mix cake according to package directions. Fill paper cups in muffin pans 2/3 full. Cream the cheese with sugar, beat in egg and salt until smooth. Stir in chocolate morsels. Drop one rounded teaspoon of cream mixture into each cupcake. Bake as package directs. Makes 30-36 cupcakes.

The Skinny Model Debate and a return to 1995

The most recent issue of Vogue with Kate Moss on the cover, the famous waif herself, has a short blurb about model Coco Rocha. She jokes around with designer Michael Kors, and hosts a luncheon in which the fashion industry's obsession with skinny size 0 models is discussed.

Coco confesses her own prior addiction to laxatives and the pressures to be thin in the fashion industry. This, of course, is written up in Vogue, which continues to feature super-skinny models. My girlfriend, an Australian model who was most recently working in Germany, reported to me how the girls there eat cotton and tampons so that they feel full and skip actual food.

I write all this because the other day, in the course of cleaning out our family basement, I came upon a bunch of old fashion magazines from the mid-nineties. Note that these girls have flesh, and curves. They are hips and busts and tummies. They fill a page, rather then disappear, and they're beautiful. I scanned some of them for fun.














While I was thumbing through the old issues of these magazines(all dating from 1995) I also stumbled upon some old pictures of now familiar faces. Below is Heidi Klum, Carla Bruni (aka Ms. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President), and Nicole Kidman (with Ronald McDonald hair).




Finally, I conclude with a few pics of Carolyn Murphy, who is today a very popular model. She has appeared on the cover of Vogue, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, and in numerous makeup and fragrance campaigns. She is now a blonde beauty, with a tan, appearing as the all American girl. These pictures from her first season modeling show a dark, curly-haired girl with pale, pale skin. It is quite a transition to see what she has become.

Blonde Ambition: Lessons in Hair Color

Above: the hardback version that I use and the new paperback version due out later this month.

Both are available here.

A couple of weeks ago, I found a book at the library that explains in detail how to color your hair. The author, Lorri Goddard-Clark, begins by having me decide what color "tab" my hair is, i.e., what the natural color is at the root. I was a tab 6, which means my hair is sort of a medium to light brown, without any reddish color to it. I had thought I had red tinges to my hair, but my sister insisted that when looked upon in sunlight, my hair is medium brown: tab 6.

After determining your true color, you view photos of celebrities with various hair colors and decide which one you desire. I settled upon Mary-Kate Olsen's color, which was sort of honey-colored with little ribbons of delicate blonde highlights.

Following the instructions for my tab, I bought a box of hair dye in the color Light Golden Blonde, as well as a box of Clairol's highlighting kit (see pictures below). For the hair dye, I went with the same company that I've modeled for, Preference by L'oreal. As you can see from my boxes, my natural hair color is close to chocolate brown, and the color the haircolor recipe uses is light golden blonde---an extremely blonde-colored hair box. I was terribly worried that by using the blonde color they called for, my hair would turn out orange, but I have to say that it came out quite lovely---surprisingly, it is not the light blonde color depicted on the box, but the amber honey color that I was trying to achieve. My sister, Erin, helped me to color it and did a nice job. I'll see if I can find some pictures from this weekend that show my new and improved hair color (although my favorite on me is still brunette.)

Above: The top two are of me with the top one having the color most like my natural color.

The two blondes are the hair color boxes that I used to achieve my new look.

And now, without further adieu, here is the result of my do-it-yourself (with help of my sister) hair color job:

The Lambs and the Lions Playing

I saw this video on the Today Show this morning and it touched me so much that it made me cry.  It's quite short and worth the two minutes or so it takes to watch it.  First the video, then my commentary.  Without further adieu, meet Christian the Lion:

After watching this video, I had to wonder why it is that this video, in all of its preciousness, caused me to cry.  It wasn't a sobbing cry, but neither was it tears of joy.  My own answer to this is that depicted in that video is something my soul longs to see; it is what we were created for.  The Bible talks about the lambs and the lions playing together, and here is a visual representation of just that.  It's a beautiful moment, and one that I look forward to seeing myself one day.  It's how God intended it to be before The Fall juxtaposed and inverted the natural relationships of this world. 

Why HELLO there, handsome!

My father and I flew out of the Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday afternoon, landing in Columbia, South Carolina that evening.  We stayed with my Aunt Helen and her sister, my grandmother, and on Saturday, a group of us drove down to Oak Park, Georgia for a Griffin/Warren/Cannady family reunion.  "Bubbahead" Joe made the BBQ with his famous BBQ sauce, and everyone else contributed to the potluck with superb southern cooking.

I'm a bit of a genealogy freak, sometimes spending five or more hours a day researching my family history, so meeting all of these long-lost (to me) relatives proved to be quite a treat.  I now have a bit more conception of my family, especially as my great-grandmother Warren had something like nine siblings.  We also found proof that we're Irish!  Funnily enough, I've always wanted to be Irish, having romanticized them so.  Now, we'll have to take a trip to see those rolling, emerald green hills, and crumbling castles.  Maybe I'll even stumble upon a Leprechaun.

Moreover, stashed in my great aunt's collection of papers was a completed application to be a Daughter of the American Revolution.  Someone else has already done the work, so now all I need to do it update it and apply.  Now, all I need to do is find the paperwork to be a Daughter of the Confederacy-- here I'm showing my southern roots:)

Here for your viewing pleasure are a couple of old photos I uncovered over the weekend.  The first gentleman, Ned Cannady, is quite the looker and is the reference in my post's title.  Sigh.  Were he not long dead, nor a relative, I might have looked him up and said hello:) The other pictures are also of relatives, but are singled out because I like the way they look, either their style or their clothing (Yes, I'm making a distinction between the two.)  One of the things I really enjoyed was looking at their mode of dress in these old photos.  Do enjoy.

This girl looks like someone I'd be friends with (she's my great great aunt, btw).

It's Blogger Time

It seems that no matter how hard I try to be a consistent poster, I lose track of the days, and before you know a week, or even a month has passed before I've written anything.  My hat certainly goes off to those bloggers who post every day or every other day.  Oh well.  I mean well (much like everything I do in life), but I somehow find myself easily sidetracked.

I just picked up the current issue of Elle with a surprisingly attractive Mariah Carey on the cover.  I'm stealing a bit of their thunder, but I've been perusing the issue for less than five minutes and I've already stumbled across these items I want:

• Visionaire Magazine's "Wearable Publication."  Click here to watch a video of model Coco Rocha wearing the Lacoste shirts with beautiful photographs splayed upon them.  It's a cool pieced-together "video" of Coco's photoshoot with Matthu Placek, with Coco dancing her little heart out in a black latex body suit.
  

Of course, it only costs $1475 + shipping for all twelve designs in addition to a subscription to seven issues.  Yeah, once my next paycheck rolls in I will be signing up for that.  Hmmm.

• Edward Steichen: In High Fashion: The Conde Nast Years, 1923-1937.  

     Wow, this book is quite a beauty, filled with fashion photographs.  You can buy it here at Amazon.com, but I'm hoping my local library will carry it.

• Imperishable Beauty at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.  The exhibit showcases art nouveau jewelry from the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Art Nouveau?  Jewelry?  Enough said.  I.Wanna.Be.There.