lady liberty

i may be going to ireland this winter to visit my best friend who will be living there til may. yesss! europe here I come again! i havent been to Ireland since I was a bored six year old with a zit in the center of my forehead that I kept picking, with missing front teeth and a stomach bug. Needless to say, if those details didnt help you figure it out, I didnt have a great time. I look back on it fondly and realize that I probably did secretly enjoy it. It was my first exposure to Europe, which is something that has changed my life, outlook and personal taste. 15 years later, I will return to Ireland, hopefully without a zit & a stomach bug but with an open mind for new experiences (probably a zit, also)

If I ever return to London, I would LOVE to go to the Liberty of London store. Liberty prints are becoming some of my favorite things to look at. On top of that, the store looks amazing.

ps- happy new year! 2010 here we CoMe, YaWL *~

feet things

Picked up a pair of these adorable (and very affordable at $16) printed cotton maryjanes from Urban today, in a Liberty print looking floral pattern (called "ditsy"). They feel like I'm walking on air! Sure, I look like I'm 7 years old again but they make me so happy! I want to buy another pair soon. I'm so happy floral is 'coming back'/is 'back'. It's the most wonderful mix of baby, little girl and old woman. Every girl loves floral print right!? Am i right!? OK! (don't ask why the photo above is leopard print. no pics were available of the actual shoes, or maybe they are and my white wine is just makin' me a little weirdy)

I had some money left over from a gift card so I just ordered these in green. AH! That color is so beautiful & i love the spotted texture of them. I hope they're comfortable..

anyone reading this out there obsessed with old suitcases too? i have two old suitcases in my 'collection', one is covered in an old fashioned print with birds & flowers and the other is a simple blue with white stitching, initials at the top and beautiful silk in the inside. I just love them! One day I will discover something to do with them..

One day I would love to have an authentic vintage Louis Vuitton suitcase/luggage. Maybe one day.

srsly

Oops, third post in one day. Excuse me? But? What is YESSTYLE? I've never heard of it and now I'm browsing the site with my mouth open wide, dying at how cute the items are. I had to talk myself out of ordering that yellow coat. It's all perfect!

!!!!

These photos really don't need any explaining. HOW BEAUTIFUL!

credit- design is mine

I love Rachel Antonoff's pretty & girly designs. Some of my favorite celebrities/style 'icons' like Zooey Deschanel, Alia Shawkat, and Jenny Lewis love to wear Antonoff's beautiful dresses. I love her work because it's so feminine but quirky, without making women look silly. Her designs are so practical and include tiny details like a simple bow, unique vintage inspired buttons or patterns, that completely make the look.

Here is a great interview with Rachel & also check out this video, which Antonoff made with her friends/designs spoofing (one of my favorite movies when I was little) Teen Witch. So good!

diane kruger and her perfect style.

aw

home is whenever i'm with you

went into nyc today, with it's overwhelming touristy holiday crowds, holding the tiny hands of my nieces who were such angels throughout the whole thing. my mom and I took them to the American Girl Place and they each got their very first american girl doll. They were not phased by the pushy crowds and busy streets. They are such sunshines, i love them. I can't wait to go back to Savannah but I really love spending time here with my family too.

My room is so tiny here. It's probably half the size of my room in my apartment, but it's so cozy. My own tiny french brothel inspired space, haha. Above are some photos I took of my room/town/home around this time last year. Things are so different than how i was last new years. In fact, new years eve was kind of awful and weird but in it's own little way, it made me change myself. 2009 was really cool, I learned a lot & a lot changed (for the better); but 2010 is something i'm really looking forward to.

merry fatmas eve

i'd like to share with you a good ol' recipe of mine that i made up in my head. it's not that crazy, infact it's pretty basic. Since discovering Nutella last year in france (yeah it took me that long to discover it), i have fat day dreams of how and where I can use Nutella next. It's one of those things that I'm pretty certain you can lather on basically anything, edible or non edible, and it would taste delicious.

Working at a bakery, I also discovered how good macaroons are and also how easy they are to bake. So, I decided to make macaroons drizzled with nutella for a party two weeks ago in Savannah and they were a hit. So now I'm making them again for Christmas and also to wrap up pretty & give to members of my large family that I was too poor to get gifts for.

It's so simple & good, and I'm not a baker at all. Try it!

Ingredients

• 4 large egg whites
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 (8-ounce) package sweetened shredded coconut, lightly toasted
• 1 tablespoon of either almond extract or vanilla extract (I used vanilla)
• Half cup of Nutella

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Get a large mixing bowl and put all of the shredded coconut in it and let it sit.

In a separate bowl, mix egg whites with a pinch of salt. Stir with a fork to get it 'loose' (does that even make sense?) and then pour mixture into the bowl with all of the coconut shreds.

Add the sugar and the almond or vanilla extract. Toss all together with your hands if ya feelin real confident and want to get down & dirty, or simply use a fork/spoon/anything you want really. As long as all of it is coated together and has the right consistency to stick together on a pan, you know what I mean.

On parchment lined cookie sheets, drop a teaspoon of the mixture leaving 1 to 2 inches around each cookie. Place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. The outside should be golden brown but the insides should still be moist.

Once the macaroons are almost done, take some Nutella (about a half a cup? eyebawl it.) in a small dish and put it in the microwave for about one minute so it's nice and melty.

When time is up, take the macaroons out of the oven and drizzle the Nutella on top of it while everything is still hot. You can even dip it in there to get more of a topping, drizzle it, coat it. Whatever you want, it's your life! Enjoy

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

PS: i'm currently cooking oven baked pesto potato pancakes for Christmas tomorrow. Maybe I'll share that recipe too, just as professionally written as the one above if you're lucky. :)

y'allz have a last.fm? add me. let's be friends or whatever. last.fm is a dangerous drug because it allows you to go into the brain of humans that you know and see just how good or bad their music taste is. the more I creep on there, the more people I find that I know & i can see what they are listening to at this very moment. The worst part is when they are awful people but have perfect music taste and it makes me want to like them anyway. That is one of my biggest issues. Liking awful people because they have similar music taste. Like, guy I met once or twice with serial killer eyes, you listened to one of my favorite Wilco songs 13 hours ago, are you kinda cool? NO SARAH HE IS NOT. MUSIC IS NOT EVERYTHING. Oops

sorry PETA part deux

buy now

buy now

buy now

buy now

buy now

i'm really obsessed with fur. i am sorry! i know it's horrible & mean & all that but look. I've never pretended to be an animal person for one second in my life. I don't want any furry little guy to be put through agony but ya know what, i'm not personally doing it to them. I will just wear/support the outcome. That's just as horrible, i know i know. I would not rather go naked than wear fur, PETA i apologize. And of course there are other options such as faux fur.

Anyway- back to the fur obsession, specifically vintage fur. This has become my new favorite thing to collect because it's really something that I feel makes an outfit look so beautiful and elegant. Vintage fur collars, shawls, stoles, & hats are all so easy to find, relatively cheap if you go to the right places and is just one of those things that really make me feel connected to women of the past. Our great grandmother & grandmother's generations and those before them, all used fur to tie their looks together wether it was to keep warm or feel feminine and elegant.

Etsy is another great place to find fur, but like with most vintage things on Etsy, keep in mind if you see something it is usually priced higher on there than it would be if you just got up early in the morning, mapped out a bunch of thrift stores and made an adventure out of it. That's the best way to find something as specific as vintage fur. It needs to be well thought out! Of course Etsy has a lot of truly great pieces on there that deserve the price that they are listed at, just be careful & keep your mind open.

Above are my favorite picks from various etsy shops. Check them out & support them!

yeess

dear female gender-

how ready are you for it? i know i am.

bye!

-sarah

good god kid cudi i love you. this song, like almost all of his songs, is very good. i'm such a good music journalist. i never know how to explain my love for songs the right way. i'm awful at it! it's like explaining a beautiful puke colored green to a blind person. i feel the love but i cant explain it to save my life! that's how i feel about writing about music.

his outfit also rules, like most of his outfits do. the hoodie under the blazer? the most perfect fitting jeans? his shoes? the aviators? the over-all persona? byeee

once i wanted to be the greatest

i've been going through a Cat Power phase recently.

sigh.

I like Rodarte a lot, and I love the Mulleavy sisters themselves even more. The sister design duo famously collaborated with Target & baby woman person blogger Tavi for the store's GO International designer collection for the holidays. The collection debuted sometime this week. I had some faith in it. Showed up at Target today and was once again disappointed. Well, as disappointed as one can possibly be at Target...there's always something to happy about in that god damn place. But anyway. Meh. It just made me roll my eyes again because it makes people who have a lower price-point seem yet again mentally challenged. Rodarte, do you really think that because that mustard lace sweater was styled so perfectly in Vogue & the collection lookbook, that i'm going to overlook the fact that it looks like shit in real life? Let's get serious now.

The one thing I want to focus on if I ever get a career in fashion is to treat the average consumer with respect. Don't give and say "We want to reach out to the 'normal' people!" and then make the creations look like they would light up in flames if a spark of fire comes within 20 miles of it or that the consumer would appear straight up INSANE if they wore it. Where is the fun in that? Why should I empty $49 out of my pocket for a bad quality faux fur just because it says Rodarte on the label?

Compared to disasters like Alexander McQueen & Anna Sui's Target lines & the god awful 'celebrity' shit that Kohls & J.C Penney produces (Vera Wang, Lauren Conrad, even Charlotte Ronson), the Rodarte line is decent. The two items featured above really caught my eye and were truly beautiful. However, i'm waiting til they hit the sales racks.

I'm a firm believer in mixing high & low, but most importantly the amount of 'high' versus 'low' should depend on your financial status. I'd never spend too much money on fashion if I don't have it. That's the beauty of low-end fashion, thrift stores, places like Century 21/Loehmanns/Marshalls/etc. Is my dream purchase a Chanel lambskin chain strap bag? Absolutely. Is it a goal? ONE of them. Buying a house, saving my money, paying my bills, starting a business and real life things come first clearly. That's how most humans think but that doesnt mean I don't appreciate beautiful things. It's such a great opportunity for designers to truly put their talent and vision into both high and low end lines, done properly, which will result in more sales. Obviously high end fashion lines will be better quality and more precisely designed because after all, it is art. However, the Target lines of the world should just be thought out better. It's not rocket science! It's simple business & consumer psychology.

Moral of the story- just because some fashion lovers' price points may be lower than fashion lovers with huge bank accounts, it does not mean that we are blind, dumb, or deaf to reality, quality and taste. If you're going to spend time & money on the 'average consumer', which HEY is a pretty lucritive deal, do it right. More people are going to buy a beautiful affordable sweater than a $4,000 dress. It's a tremendous business opportunity for major designers and it's a shame so many of them complete the task so half ass. Get over yourselves.

ps- also, can Tavi please get out of everyone's face? She's in..7th grade. Cool that she knows so much and writes about it and gets Rodarte's attention but I'm sort of terrified. Am I being a cyber bully? When I was in 7th grade I was wearing cargo pants, picking popcorn out of my braces & writing in my journal in milky pen.

SIMPLY NO

i'm literally gagging even as I type this but it's one of those things I need to address. Dunkin Donuts ..decided it was fine to come out with a tuna sandwich. Not only did they think the idea was really good but they also thought it was cool to constantly advertise is everywhere I go. HUGE billboards, commercials, ads in the newspaper, etc. GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY EYE BALLS. Every single time I lay eyes on it, I either scream some sort of a "OH GOD THATS DISGUSTING" cry or simply make gagging throw up noises.

It reminds me of when I worked at the indie movie theater in Red Bank and on Sundays I'd work with this very old crotchety woman with un-natural red/purple hair. It was just she & I, working for hours. Small talk here and there but mostly it was her complaining, me listening/making eye contact, her dropping her cane and I'd have to go get it...things like that. However, one day our relationship really took a turn when she asked me to walk to Dunkin Donuts and buy her a steak & egg sandwich there. Really dude? Steak.And.Egg. I understand the egg part but...steak? What farm are they getting this cut of beef from? The imaginary crazy cow farm that exists strictly in the test tubes and petri dishes of a laboratory far far away? Cool. Needless to say, I walked there and got the fucking steak sandwich for her. Grease soaked bag and all. I watched as she ate it with delight & satisfaction.

So I'm assuming there is an audience for this tuna sandwich but I am NOT a part of it. DD, please stick to delicious coffee & chai tea.

so excited

for this to finally come out!

BOYS

this website makes me smile. it makes men talking to men seem charming, sweet and honest. Far from the conversation I heard going on between The Situation & the blow-out hair guy on Jersey Shore tonight. It's simple advice that Dad's/male figures want to give to the young. I like it.

as much as i want to be a girl and say "uGhH mEn R SOo confUSinG", i simply don't care. one day, there will be one who isnt confusing to me, or confusing in all the right ways. but right now? at 21? we're all supposed to suck so i just think it's important to just concentrate on ourselves. i hate seeing girls drag on and on about guys. what's the point? work on yourselves, because really..if the guy isnt hanging out with you, he doesnt give a shit & is probably off working on himself. so do the same. the ones who make you complain constantly & confuse you constantly..are probably deliberately trying to do so to push you away. we're all nuts. girls, guys, dogs, and everything in between. we all suck when we want to be. we suck less when we're with who we want to be/where we want to be. don't you think? What the fuck do I know but that's just what I'm guessing.

But simple things like watching little boys be little boys, talking about dinosaurs & trucks, being destructive. Or even seeing friendships between guys my own age and how they are to each other, sometimes it's pretty charming. Good ol' boy fun. I never want daughters, i just want sons because I am pretty intrigued by the way of life men have and how different it is. I never ever hated my own gender, I love being a woman, but I just find the opposite sex pretty interesting as I grow older.

I've never been a "guy's girl", like the cOol cHIcK with more guy friends than girls. In fact, every guy my age I knew as a kid/early teen pretty much sucked. They were just awful to me for whatever reason. So maybe deep down I would love to have a son to show them to not be assholes like 87% of the guys I went to middle school & high school with. But it's funny to think one day they will be fathers/husbands and eventually old men? So weird. Some of them even turned out pretty cool (FEW.) I'll just forever picture them in Red Bank Catholic uniforms with gelled hair/acne asking me if I liked Slayer or as a 10 year old kid with buck teeth telling me I have a uni-brow. THAT was probably my mom's fault for thinkin' it looked cute. Not cute.

!!!

i really love Kevin Drew's album, from start to finish, just completely beautiful. I've had my favorites on the record over the past year since first listening to it but recently discovered just how much I love this track. Little did I know it has J. Mascis (from Dinosaur Jr) helping Kevin on guitar/vocals, and Joules Scott Key (from Metric) on drums. It's a good one. I just want to move to Canada and become a stalker of everyone involved in Arts & Crafts records. I'll buy them coffee, shake a tambourine, cook them chicken meals. Whatever they want. I just want to be around them & listen to their music/thoughts.

Looking for cute and interesting buttons to put on your sweater, bag, or..basically anywhere you want!? Look no further than Ox & Oak! It's my friend Jessica's shop where she puts together the best little pins with really great graphics/sayings, etc.

Jessica had a Hanukkah party this past Saturday (such a great time, by the way, with delicious latkes and dradle drinkin games!) and she kindly gave me two pins- one with Charles Manson's face on it & one with Woody Allen's face on it. Let's just say I was in heaven. In fact, I forgot they were pinned onto my cardigan when I got home & was having a drunken serious political discussion with my neighbor when he paused and said "Um..why do you have Charles Manson and Woody Allen's faces on your sweater?". I forget my response but it was somewhere along the lines of "Why the fuck not!?" Because really...why the fuck not.

Please check her shop out! Stock up on some of these adorable pins for the winter. They are the perfect little addition to a winter coat or scarf, also :)

complete

What perfect timing. I finished my winter 'collection' (i feel pretentious saying that word) last night, which means I successfully did what I told myself I would do, which was use these two weeks to work and create. I'm of course not completely satisfied (it's all a learning experience/work in progress, always.), I think this is my favorite 'collection' so far. I'm really proud of these pieces so I hope that they are received well and people like them too! I hope which ever one anyone chooses makes someone feel happy and confident because that is my entire intention with all of this.

They will all be up on the etsy shop within the next couple of days but in the meantime, go over to the facebook 'fan' page here and check out all of the photos that are up. Become a fan? I'd love to hear from the readers of this blog/anyone interested because thanks to Google analytics, i know there are actually some humans who do read this old ThANg so thank you for doing that. I know I turn my comments off but I'd still love to hear from anyone about literally anything.

Blogs really still secretly make me feel weird because I don't want anyone to think I'm all about "LOOK AT ME, LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY BECAUSE IM JUST SO GREAT". No. Just tryin' to get my tiny business out there, puttin a face with a name, and trying to share cool things I find/see with people who want to read this/myself for the future when I forget what it's like to be 20/21 years old. The end.

Tomorrow I am flying back to NJ! Bye Savannah, I love you alot. See ya in 3 weeks.