25 for 25 [The Oops! Edition]

It turns out that tomorrow is my 25th birthday, and I have failed to find 25 things that I would like. Or have failed to like them enough to want them, or failed to at least put them together in a post.

I'll try to vindicate my failure by saying, perhaps it just means that I have refined my tastes. As a child, I could have easily imagined 25 things I wanted at any given time. Now that I'm older, and have steadily worked to decrease my consumption habits, I'm finding it harder. It can also be said that many of the things I want cannot be given as gifts.

That being said, here is a list of magical things I'd like, that may partially make up for my missing 15:
♥ A hybrid vehicle (Prius, Escape, or Civic, preferred)
♥ A vegetable garden & compost bin
♥ A bed frame (Oops! Mamacita took care of that one)
♥ A job where I am happy
♥ The Disney Couture "Curiouser & Curiouser" Alice necklace
♥ A week-long trip for 2 to Fiji
♥ A Mario-Kart birthday cake
♥ Magically smaller waistline



Nom!

Just Take a Look, It's in a Book... [A Reading Rainbow]

The ever vibrant Queen Gilda tagged me in a rare meme, and who am I to say no to such a lovely gal? It helps that I'm in the middle of several great books, so it's another chance to share those as well!

1. pick up nearest book
2. open to page 123
3. find the 5th sentence
4. post the next 3 sentences
5. tag 5 people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Ian McEwan's Atonement:
Briefly, he closed his eyes. A two-pint jug of custard was placed beside him, and he wondered if he had the strength to lift it.
"I'm sorry, Emily. But she has been quite over the top all day long."
(Admittedly, it's taken me a while to get in to Atonement, mostly because I was so disappointed with the film. However, the book takes care of my main problem with the film, which was I felt that I was missing out on a story. The film is so very pretty and very well shot, but I couldn't help feeling like I had been missing something. There was this feeling that there was a story I wasn't a part of, that I was missing out of it, and my suspicions were right! There is so much more depth to this novel than the film would make you believe.)



Molly Haskell's From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies:
(The offending passages are omitted from his collected reviews.) Actually, that John Ford film was one of her more appealling and forthright vehicles, her Lolita-ish. Generally, her fliratiousness with her daddy figures was outdone, in precociousness, only by the patronizing way in which she treated contemporaries.
(This particular chapter in on women in the 1930s, and this passage talks about Shirley Temple, who is "one of the great vessels of virgin worship in this period." While I am not far in this book, I recommend it if you have an interest in women's studies, film theory, or film history.)




Mineko Iwasaki's Geisha: A Life:
"My what?"
"Your period. You are menstruating. It's perfectly normal. Didn't you learn about this at school?"
"They told us something. But that was a long time ago."
(I picked this up when I spotted it at the bookstore; for a few years I have been interested in the art of geisha, and thought this would be a nice, more autobiographical rendition of the beauty of Memoirs of a Geisha. It has exceeded my expectations; I love the casual, unimposing writing style, her candor for details, and the sense of interest the book creates. While I'm only a quarter in to it, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about geisha.)



Tag Time! (I don't doubt you ladies have great books by your bedside)
♥ Miss Meg
♥ Chic & Charming
♥ (Into) The Fray
♥ Miss Kori
♥ & you! Please leave me comments with your books, their passages & prose.

25 For 25 [2 of 5]

After a whirlwind of a weekend (I did complete my dress!), I leave you with this quick version of "25 for 25": Back In Black. My parents used to tell me as a child that I needed a sugar daddy; some things never change.



1. Dior Extreme Cutout Shoe, $780.
2. Burnt Ostrich 1940s Pin-Up Hat, $142.00.
3. Delicate 14/17 print, $95.00.
4. Prada Suede Ruffle Sandal, $730.00.

25 Things for 25 Years [1 of 5]

My 25th birthday is coming up in a month, and for the first time in man years I am very excited about it.

As I move in to this next phase of my life, I find myself valuing and treasuring different things. I'd much rather have a few beautiful, quality pieces to last me the next 25 years than a ton of useless toys.



1. Ruffle Dress by Liza Rietz, $240.00
2. Gretel hair piece by WhichGoose, $30.00
3. Brown Leather Purse by The Leather Shop, $130.00. (I just found out my mother bought one for me!)
4. Carved Wooden Heels by Miu Miu, $412.50.
5. She and Him: Volume One, $11.99
6. Firewater: The Golden Hour, $13.99

Bonjour! While the postings have been a slow-coming, I have had many things to share-- from how much I love my new Heatherette lipgloss (yes, it's been that long!), to thoughts on consumption + going green + thrifting, to my love of My So-Called Life, and a treatise on "Why I Wear What I Wear".

In the meantime, I leave with you with 6 Randon Facts About Me, as tagged by the ever lovely Une femme d'un certain age. (Merci! I do love a good game of tag!)

1. I use my cell phone (and only phone) more for text messaging than for actually talking in to.

2. Shopping for brassieres is more painful than shopping for jeans-- at a 44B (large rib cage, smallish bust), finding bras in my size is nearly impossible. Finding bras where the cup is not larger than my head, even more difficult. Just because my band is big doesn't mean my boobehs are!

3. Try all I can, sometimes I have poor money management skills. My bills are paid on time, my credit card debt is slowly decreasing, but I will still spend my last few dollars on a cup of coffee or eating out once than buying a cheap loaf of bread and lunch meat to last me a week.

4. Sometimes I worry I could never love a child or a partner as much as I love my kitten, Lottie.

Who could say 'no' to that face? I can, but only sometimes.

5. I'm really upset that Sienna Miller was cast as The Baroness in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie, and I'm ashamed at how much it bothers me.

6. Sometimes I crave a simple life more than anything. A garden, a small house, easy living, a job that ends when the work bell rings. And have I been looking up job opportunities in Fiji to make this come true? ...maybe.


And to continue the game, I'd like to tag...
Cybill
Tali at the Pin-Up Blog
Miss L
& (to avoid retagging anyone who has done it many times) whoever would love to fill it out!

Mega-kisses & mischief,
Ashe

On How To Be Popular Fabulous

My friend Mel recently posted this on her MySpace account:

So, in 2008, I would like to be fabulous. But what does this mean, exactly? I get a sense of what "fabulousness" is...but I need more than a sense. I need a definition. I THINK it means being good at what you do, running your life well, being happy, having similarly fabulous friends...but is it?

I know some of my alternative-lifestyle friends use this term, but so do my more stereotypically conventional friends. So I am curious: to you, what does it mean to be fabulous?

It's been several days, in not a week, and I still find myself thinking on this idea.
Fabulousness is talked about, filmed about (Sex and the City anyone?), desired and not easily attained. It's almost become commodified, like beauty has, yet it's an anomaly unto itself as its definition varies from person to person. Yet, we all recognize it when we see it, and in many ways, are probably all attracted to those that are fabulous (I know that's kind of what I'm thinking when I present "The Dramatis Personae").


So what is Fabulous?
When I think about the men and women in my life who I find fabulous, there is one thing that comes to mind: They are all confident, secure, and unapologetic about who they are, what they do, and what they love.

We all have that friend-- the friend whose hobbies may include something "dorky," but somehow they make it seem cool. I have friends who rapier fight, create period costumes, and own weaponry, but they're some of the most fabulous people I know. There are people I know, friends I have who play Dungeons and Dragons and are shameless about loving it. Heck, prior to her downfall of shame and glory, I was guilt free about my collection of Brittany Spears tracks. I've got girlfriends who are in their mid-30s, fiercely independent, single, and the ones who would drive me home at 9 a.m. after a night of drinking and dancing. I get teased to bits about my love of tiny top hats, but I know my friends love me all the more because of them.

There's no easy way to attain fabulousness-- no matter how great my shoe collection is, it's not going to make or break my ability to be fabulous. I had to think long and hard about the people in my life I found fabulous, and I recognized the things they all had in common: their own sense of style, a love and passion for what they do, their own thoughts and reactions to the world around them, and fulfilling and nourishing their minds and bodies.

Now that I've spent too long thinking on the topic, what do you think makes someone fabulous? Who are those you admire and find fabulous traits and inspiration in?


Above photographs by: 1. fabulous, 2. the fabulous naomi singer and the fabulous lindsey 'long legs' shepek, 3. la notte ti penso, 4. Have a Fabulous Weekend Kiwi Drink, 5. Stationary Inspiration, 6. Absolutely Fabulous, 7. HAPPY FABULOUS BIRTHDAY JAMES, 8. Terror Fabulous... 06

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted!

Whee! Today I turned in my last final for my last class of graduate school. Next semester I have to complete a full-time internship or working internship (job), and then life can go on as normal!

To celebrate my newfound freedom (and returning sanity), I'll indulge in a tag-- Meg at All About Appearances tagged me to post 8 random things about myself. I have to admit, this is the first time I've been tagged, so I'm actually kind of excited about it!

The rules are:

Link back to whomever tagged you.

Post these guidelines before your list.

After you list your eight things, tag eight (of however many you want) other bloggers


1. I'm a contributing writer for Miss Malaprop. It's not unusual for people to get Miss Malaprop and I confused though or assume that only one person writes for the blog.

2. I have an irrational fear of getting in to running cars. As a child, I hated it and would make my parents turn the car off before I got in. Now that I'm older, it doesn't bother me as much, but sometimes it makes me a bit twitchy.

3. A friend recently embarassed me by brining a new acquaintance over with her. She then took the person in to my room, showed them the inside of my closet and said, "Look at all of those shoes! And she doesn't even wear half of them!" I love shoes. I love buying them and getting to wear them. But when people make a big deal of it, I kind of get ashamed.

4. I am a film academic through and through-- I can argue the social identifers and cultural commentary on a film like Josie and the Pussycats as well as I can anything by Ingmar Bergman. That doesn't mean I don't love a shitty action film or a trashy horror film as much as the next white trash man. In fact, I've going in to my second year doing freelance work for an international horror film festival, and will be structuring programming and panels that will show that horror is as smart as any other film genre.

5. I'm an equally split Yank and Rebel. I've spent 12 years of my in the South, about 8 years in the New England, 2 in the Midwest, and the miscellaneous two on the West Coast (my family was military). As a child I hated being called "That little Yankee Girl," and since Hurricane Katrina, have fondly thought of the South as my home.

6. Now that I get to go back to working full-time, these are things I am looking forward to doing again: photography, sewing, knitting, cooking, dancing, socializing, cleaning. I've taken too long a hiatus on them all, quite to my heart and soul's ache.

7. If I could make one wish, it would be for a limitless credit card that pays itself off. All the shopping I could ever want to do, without any of the financial risk!

8. During my undergraduate years, I used to be quite the Party Girl, but not in the keggers sense. I spent two to three nights a week at the local clubs, dressed in my favorite 80s/new wave/electroclash trashions, dancing and drinking the night away. It actually resulted in a weight loss of ~ 60 pounds. School + working too much has taken away that time, and as a result, I've gained too much back. Boo!

And for the tagging fun, I'd like to get to know more about:
Glam and Tonic
Holiday in the Sun
(Into) the Fray
Paper Cities of Tomorrow
The Clothes Horse
This Second's Obsession
+ anyone else who has been waiting to get tagged!

My Self and the City

Jennine over at The Coveted recently made a post about fashion and identity, and how we construct our ideal selves from these notions, and where our inspirations lie.

Like many women, and contrary to the haters, I'm a big fan of Sex and the City, particularly Carrie Bradshaw. In regards to fashion and sense of self, I find myself asking, "What would Carrie Bradshaw do?" In terms of fashion, Carrie's whimsical, outrageous, yet classic and stylish wardrobe appeals to my own personal aesthetic. She manages to create one of a kind ensembles mixing vintage, couture, trends, and timelessness. Carrie is always a lady, always chic, and always guaranteed to turn heads.

As a woman, though, I find Carrie an admirable role model (for a fictitious character)-- she's strong, independent, sexy,while still maintaining emotional vulnerability, maturity, and a youthful playfulness. She's ambitious, defines family on her own terms, keeps her heart wide open to what the city and men have to offer, while maintaining her own strong sense of identity.

And when I think of a figure head, who represents what I'd like my ideal self to be, Ms. Bradshaw manages to encompass all of the qualities I like to think that I have, and some that I'd hope to grow in to.