lulu frost

Since I first viewed the NylonTV video on youtube about jewelry designer Lisa Salzer (of LuLu Frost), I've been reading up on her and trying to find as many interviews as possible. During her senior year at Dartmouth, she launched her own jewelry line (mixing vintage and new. hmmm.) out of her dorm and began selling to her friends, and then eventually a broader audience. Her Mother helps as a buyer, finding tons of treasures wherever she goes (hmm. familiar, again!). I'm in love with the mix of Victorian, art deco, and modern with each necklace or bracelet. Of course I'm obsessed with the Plaza Hotel number necklaces. Completely genius. I'm trying to copy cat the idea with house numbers and old keys but my search has left me empty handed so far.

All in all, I really find inspiration within Lulu Frost. Infact, for the past couple hours I've felt like death for some reason but felt motivated once I read more about Salzer. It made me want to take a shower, stop complaining to myself, get pumped for Gossip Girl and start working on some earrings.


Maybe I can be like her in a couple years. Who knows. But clearly what is really important right now is the crazy gay man at her side in this video, praising her and wearing a Lulu Frost necklace. Come on. How perfect. That's when you know you've made it.

on a side note: one of the many things I look forward to for fall (and even summer at home) is being around people who understand things like this. The past two years, i've been looking to different fashion & design blogs for inspiration and motivation because I'm in a place that reeeeeeeallly does not cater to anyone who has interests in any type of creative field. It has been really difficult, i have to be honest.

I'm looking forward to being at a school that has student's with brains that are working similarly to mine (and probably way ahead of me) which will push me. when i'm alone in it, it's difficult to get motivated.

i'm excited.

i miss the feelings of innocence, romance and warmth that Being Bobby Brown brought to the table. I hardly watch TV anymore but as I watched "the Best of: To Catch a Predator" today and laughed at how disgusting and insane humans can be, a lightbulb appeared over my head which reminded me of the good ol' days when Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston were still together, livin their life so hard on their bravo TV show. With all of Bobby's illegit children scattered around, and Whit's 92 lb shakey frame clad in sweat suits and visors, how could one turn their cheek to such a successful viewing pleasure? I sure as hell couldnt.

If only America could go back to the days when family MEANT something, back to the days when couples could dance openly and in sync at a gift shop. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THOSE DAYS, AMERICA? TIMES OF PURITY. Let's blame the commie bastard liberals.

Before we all close our eyes to go to sleep tonight, let's remember a simpler time:

<3>

beautiful

so wonderful. perfect song. perfect book. perfect cannot wait-ness.

god put down your gun

the first time I fell in love with Tilly and the Wall was when they opened up for Rilo Kiley in 2004 at a venue in Philadelphia, PA. I was a sophomore in high school, and a die-hard Rilo Kiley fan and was impatiently waiting for their set to begin. However, when Tilly and the Wall came out, I couldnt help but love them. They were the most energetic and fun band I had ever seen. I mean, come on, instead of using drums, they have a tap dancer!

Remember in pre-school when the teacher would give all the kids pots, pans, tiny drums and maraccas, then everyone lined up and banged the shit out of everything having the times of their lives? Their set was like this but more professional and grown up. Kinda perfect.

They were so crazy and really got everyone's blood flowing. I immediately went home and purchased their CD and ever since then, they have remained at the top of my list for fun, screaming in the car, dance music. New Tilly and the Wall, however? Not so into it. I just want Wild Like Children album forever. Plus, when I saw them, one of the girls in the band totally looked like Blondie during her beautiful Heart of Glass days.

All in all: listen to this song to feel good especially if you're having a grouchy day (like when you open your mouth to talk, you're afraid the devil's voice is going to come out instead of your own-type days) Cheer up, learn the words to this song and scream them!

Nights of the Living Dead - Tilly And The Wall

okay, i'm about to head off to bed but I came across ThatJewelryGirl on the Etsy forums (tryin ta get my promote awn) and completely fell in love. Everything is so delicate, colorful, detailed and Victorian inspired (my favorite).

so,If anyone wants to buy me some sort of a present? ~jk~ or if you want to buy a present for someone else (much more polite.) go here.

attention!

I just went through some of my items that I really would love to find a home, and reduced their prices.

Here are some:

notting hill necklace (was $22 and is now $18)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22783554

elephant earrings (was $20 and is now $15)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22118213

blair hat (was $14 and is now $10)
http://www.etsy.com/your_shop.php?rand=991324908

mary necklace (was $22 and is now $16)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22119229

english girl (was $20 and is now $17)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22119026

floral bubble vest (was $35 and is now $25!!!!)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22512217



I lowered all of the shipping prices too!

xoxo

House of Harlow 1960

oh how nicole richie has redeemed herself. remember a couple years back when she was this, then this, and well, fortunately now she is this (so happy!). looks like the only thing good ol' nic and i have in common is that we're both making some cash $ money on our passion for accessories, especially jewelry. I get a strange feeling that she might just be making a little more than I, however watch out richie, i'm just gettin my feet wet.



house of harlow 1960 is nicole richie's affordable and pretty unique jewelry line. named after her love for the 1960's era and her baby daughter Harlow, the pieces which range from earrings all the way to jeweled headpieces, are pretty affordable pricing at $40 to $150. Not bad at all. Another reason to love Nicole Richie and forget about Paris Hilton (who even thinks of her anyway) I have my eye on the necklace with the black shapes. I don't wear many modern pieces like this so I think it would be a cool contrast.

Sex Tourists - French Kicks

czech it out

as you may know already, I'm a huge fan of vintage, garage sale, & antique treasures. there are few things as exciting as rummaging through a pile of trinkets, finding the perfect ones to add to your closet, jewelry box or even your home decor. the ways to recycle these great finds right at your fingertips are endless.

one of my favorite etsy finds recently has been BROOKLYNrehab. Similar to what I'm doing at eighty8, BROOKLYNrehab is finding all sorts of gems, both handmade and vintage, and altering them to make amazing items for their etsy shop. if you're in the mood for jewelry, housewares or even love notes (!!! i love that.), this is the shop for you. go stop by!

my favorites:

wooden key necklace

gift it pitcher or vase

Yours til Niagra Falls

new charmed pin

inspiration

this makes me so happy. i want to be like them when i'm all growed upz too. or atleast be friends with them.

check them out at Something's Hiding in Here. I am especially obsessed with their stationery.


today i made tons of new jewelry. i love them so much that I want to wear it forever and never sell it to anybody else. This is something I need to get over.

eighty8 headband

i feel ultra accomplished.

this weekend was relaxing and wonderful. my best friend from home and my best friend from college met, I got to be cozy at home, and ventured all over my area to show mary what JER-Z is all about. it was really great and the weather was perfect. ocean grove is one of my favorite towns in jersey, ever. we even ate at bobby's burger palace and they were playing broken social scene. bobby's, really? can you be even more perfect? i don't think so. that totally made them beat Five Guys in the burger race, i don't know how abby (my burger partner) feels about it though. I havent gotten the official report. I doubt we'll even have an official burger report though because each offer such different things so whatever. (fyi: the two of us love burgerz and go on adventures in search of good ones. it's an art.)



during this wonderful weekend, I made not one but three etsy sales! hopefully this will be the start of many more. it was such a confidence booster and a huge kick in the ass to start making more things and think of other ideas to promote. i have a festival that i'm going to be participating in at Scranton in July, and hopefully I can get more. We'll see!



now i'm off to study my head off for global social issues exam tomorrow.

all about it

i'm really obsessed with this stuff. i'm not all 100% eco-friendly or anything, but i love the way this covers up everything and anything and isnt so expensive.

also, i'm going home to jersey this weekend with mary, and seeing abby! I cant wait to give the good ol' new jersey tour. i'm cooking dinner for everyone on saturday! hopefully we will take pictures of everything. i love the feeling of home, and the opportunity to show any 'outsiders' how jersey can be really nice and not just a big pile of hair gel.

there is a little over a month left of school. i wonder how much i'll miss this place. probably bits and pieces but for the most part, my time here is done. i think i have tunnel vision at this point. i do know that i'm sick of the way i feel walking around from class to class in a sea of dirty looks, vera bradley bags, bros and identical sweatshirts. i'm just over it and ready for the next page, which is on its way to being turned. yay!

i forgot how perfect this song is:

Gone For Good (Album) - The Shins



side note: i thought it was funny one night to add crazy Vicki from the Real Housewives of Orange County on facebook. I still think it's funny. Anyway, tonight I was bored again and saw on my mini feed that she added new photos so I decided to comment every single one saying "DAMN GIRL YOU LOOK GOOD", even at landscape photos from her cruise. But now karma is slapping me across the face with a giant fish because now i keep recieving annoying facebook photo comment notifications from weirdo people who are actually commenting serious words to her. Some people oughta be shot. Although, some may be looking at my comment thinking I was serious. The world really is just one big cycle of O___o faces isnt it?

I want to be like Liv Tyler when I'm all growed upz.

dear pandora.com,

I just wanted to tell you that I really like you. It's kind of embarassing because I don't know you that well, but I feel like you know me..perfectly. my quest for being single and free like a fucking butterfly for the next 5 years is looking more and more perfect knowing that you exist. i don't think i need much when I have a device that I can simply click a button or type some letters, and poof, perfection to my ears is born, without even using any of my brain molecules.

You knew my favorite secret Guided by Voices song, and even suggest songs that make my heart pitter patter. I think my hand is going to mold itself onto the keyboard from all the clicking I'm doing, and I just may break something when you tell me "no more clicking for another track for an hour". I'm sorry for my impatience, I just love how your brain works. it's inspiring, pandora. you make me want to be a better woman.

I hope you like me too. It's kind of weird putting myself out there like this. It's sort of new to me. The feelings are impure. Text me this weekend maybe? or like, i don't know. whatever. we'll figure it out. Maybe i'll stop by and type Mariah Carey into the stations box and see what comes up? Maybe a little Bowie? I'm not looking for a relationship or anything....i'm totally not one of those girls. OK.

Ok.

i'm gonna go..

-Sarah

okay, i JUST woke up from the most insane night of sleeping.

i had a dream that i was on a trip with the same people from France, and found a baby in an orphanage, used a device there to cut her nose the way i wanted (WHAT?) and fell in love with her & adopted her. the orphanage room where I got her looked like the Purdue chicken factory or something, with lots of chicken scraps everywhere? but she soon became a beautiful bundle of joy, with a sticker on her head that said she was found at a "panini shop". i am not making this shit up.

But wait, the dream didnt end there. I was torn between the fact that I was 20 and had so many cool things in the future and didnt want to be a single mom, but I felt a connection to her (like Angelina and Maddox shit.) but then I had to give her back as she cried so hard. Then i ran to the airport, but I missed my plane. Then I lost my bag and passport. Ran all over town (which was a scary, yet cute mysterious European city) where they helped me find my bag, but also told me that they beat the babies in the orphanage and I should go get the baby back. Instead, I ran to the airport to make the next flight which was a tiny rickety plane with scary people on it that started to crash into the water but i woke up.

excuse me?

i dreamt i was surfer joe

often one of the first three (maybe two) questions i ask a person when I first meet them is, "what kind of music do you like?" and it's usually followed up by "do you like the replacements?". i don't know why, but if a person likes them also, then I have this strange respect for them even if they are a horrible person.

the first time I ever listened to the replacements, i was listening to the radio (back when there was a radio station that offered good music. those days are basically over) and the song Alex Chilton came on. I was 15 years old, had no idea who they were so I did my research by typing in the lyrics on Yahoo search and fell completely in love.

I can listen to certain albums of theirs and it's like taking a time travel machine to a certain day in high school driving around in the car with tara or abby, or even to just falling asleep at night with the song I'll Be You blasting in my ear on repeat. the part in the song, "we're bleeding but we aint cut", always comes into my brain when I'm complaining about something small/some tiny blip in my life and i need to check myself. I don't know if that is what it's supposed to be about, but to me it just makes sense. paul westerberg's voice is nostalgic and perfect. infact, the name of this blog is after a song of his.

listening to them has changed my life in many ways, mainly because it not only became another file of sounds that could transport me to a safe place if I was feeling bad or even if I was feeling good, but it also lead me to many other bands I had no idea existed. to me, no one will ever come around and be like the replacements. their sound, in my ears, is one of a kind.

this is cheesy but every beat and every breath holds a place in my heart.

Alex Chilton - The Replacements

recently i've come to love saturdays. waking up, having the entire day and night to do whatever you want, laying around listening to music/reading/getting coffee in the morning. it's all so promising. sundays, however, are not. I've come to hate sundays. especially ones like today where I feel awful, sick, tired, and completely bizarre.

today was a st. patrick's day parade in wilkes-barre, yesterday was one in scranton. there is plenty of green & white glitter celebrating going on. the freaks really came out this weekend. today was from an alternate universe. i didnt shower, stumbled around looking insane and homeless. i just walked to the disgusting chinese food place with a half-working sleeping pill in my system wearing pajama pants and shoes with holes in them. that is the perfect ensamble to be the cherry on top of my week of weird.

ps: three interesting encounters today.

• starting at midnight, while at a strange but fun bar downtown where the old bartender accurately analyzed my handwriting, i met an insane person covered in prison tats who told me he murdered 3 people accidentally.
• today while I was walking through the lobby of the hotel that i live in, there was a tiny jon benet ramsey type girl sprawled out on a chair while a middle-aged man took her photo, yelling "oh god thats beautiful!"
• just now, I was walking into the side door of the hotel and a man wearing a cowboy hat, eyeliner, strange facial hair, numerous crucifixes, a priest-looking blouse and fringe jacket told me to have a good night.

what. the. fuck.

just sayin'...

sometimes all you need is being drunk in the afternoon, putting shamrock stickers on the indian guy working at subway's face, and listening to this song:

Cant You See - Total ft. Biggie

crazytown

hi blog, i just wanted to say that i've had another collette reardon week. every single day, i rolled out of bed looking like a prescription pill adict, with leftover makeup on my face (although I could have sworn I washed it off the night before? what?), atleast 10 minutes late, hatin every class, taking too many naps that make me feel like shit, craaazy mood swings, and not being able to concentrate on anything.

And ya know what? I even made an attempt to be 'green' during this mental time of mine (THATS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU EARTH), but it ended up backfiring. I bought one of these guys and it's metalic-goo-color-dust-dirt-something started seeping into my water turning my mouth a weird color. fuck you. last time I try and be eco-friendly.

Some advice to people feeling this way, don't ever take scissors into your hands and attempt to cut your bangs (especially with the help of your equally-tired-stressed roommate) because you will end up looking like Grandma Winslow from Family Matters. Or the Berries and Creme guy.

maybe i'll take some sleep aids (true story: two days ago, i stumbled to the counter at rite aid with my hair looking like i just rolled around on a haystack and my coat halfway on my shoulders, exclaiming" WHERE ARE THE SLEEP AIDS?" with a look of murder in my eyes, the woman just stared at me and confidently told me where they were, no questions asked.) on 6pm sunday night, wake up refreshed Monday morning like my old self 3 weeks ago. Pro-active, ready for the day, no naps, clear headed. Yes. that's the plan.

i realize that this post of complaining and "wHATs WroNg WIth mEEeE" totally defeats the purpose of my last entry about appreciating everything. and trust me, through these crazy eyes, i'm still doin' okay. I just had one of 'those' weeks. dont h8.

Hey - Pixies

tonight i was struttin' around the women's studies aisle at barnes & noble, trying to find a new book to read (which i found and i'm so excited to read. it's called "the female thing: dirt, envy, sex and vulnerability"), and this tiny 10/12 year old somewhat feminine boy comes over and pulls the book "stud & slut: the exploration of the double standard" and starts reading it so hard. i love people.

sitting on the bus that we took from town to town in europe, I had this strange epiphany. I was leaning my head against the window, looking out onto the feilds and tiny towns that we would pass, looking at these crazy things that people have built thousands of years ago or currently, or observe the faces of people that I never knew existed, have never met and will never meet.

The entire week that I was away, I literally never thought of anything negative about myself, or about much of anything else (well maybe a tiny complaint here and there). It became clear to me that the more you keep moving, seeing things, meeting people, the less you can be negative or hate people/the world/yourself, or be depressed. How can you? How is it possible to be sad or think you look fat in those jeans or worry about thinking about that guy who didnt call you back 3 months ago when there are so many fucking interesting things to appreciate? I even met this really great Irish gentleman one night and he completely agreed with me on that. The best cure is to expose yourself (not in THAT way. come on.) to so much. It made me realize that whenever I am down and out, being hard on myself or others, I know my cure: keep moving.

in other news: i cannot fucking waaaaaaait to move to savannah, GA. it's really hitting me. however, summer comes first..and that is exciting too.