Winner

If I only was allowed to wear one outfit ever again, with no hope of changing it, I would wear an exact replica of Rachel Bilson's Project Runway judging ensemble. That episode was on a long time ago and I totally forgot just how much I loved those stockings.

It's a win :)

Love to you all,
Heather

L-O-V-E

Make 'em laugh! Or hide a little bit from the general scandalous things I say.



I swear, the first man to give me a candy heart with "Maybe Tonight" on it gets my hand in marriage. No joke.



Alright Disney and Pixar, that's enough. I can't keep choking up during your movies.



Ivy and Noah, I am one of the few people I know who liked this movie. Even fewer in the fact that I own the soundtrack.



"Want a fry? They're French."



Seriously too stinkin' cute for words.



Love in the afternoon in Paris.



I just got done watching this one earlier today...simply beautiful.



I cried so much as a child watching this movie. I still do. "I believe that you are and always will be my little princess."



Cinderella was my childhood icon.



The best dressed pair, ever. Thanks Arthur Elgort.

Love to you all,
Heather

The Red Shoes

I've always enjoyed the tales of Hans Christian Andersen, but my personal favorite has long been The Red Shoes, a tale of a young peasant girl named Karen who dons a pair of red dancing shoes that have a mind of their own.

Karen is adopted early on by a wealthy old woman and subsequently becomes very vain and spoiled. Karen cons her new mother to buy her a pair of red shoes that I'm assuming are pretty damn amazing. Like any good shoe lover, the shoes rule over Karen's life to the extent that she doesn't bother to pay attention in church or help her adoptive mom out when she is sick. One night at a party, she dances in the shoes and can't stop. The shoes have a mind of their own, leaving Karen powerless to remove them and attend her adoptive mother's funeral.

An angel comes to Karen and says that Karen will continue to wear the shoes and dance until she drops dead to serve as a lesson for being so vain. Unable to continue and probably developing the blisters of a lifetime, Karen gets an executioner to cut off her feet. She wears wooden feet and carries crutches and heads to church where lo and behold, she can't get in because her cut-off feet in their red shoes block the entrance. I'm getting a fairly disturbing but intriguing image in my mind of that event. She tries to get into the church a couple more Sundays later but no dice as her disembodied feet are still in motion.

Karen goes home and prays to God which is such a strong experience, it's as though the church came to her. She is so happy her heart bursts (again, a fairly disturbing but intriguing image) and her soul goes to heaven where nobody mentions the shoes.



Moira Shearer in the movie version of the fairy tale. It's loosely based on the story with Shearer playing a ballerina caught in a love triangle with two men. Make that very loosely based actually because Shearer gets her shoes removed and doesn't have to walk around with wooden feet.

This got me thinking...if a pair of red shoes were responsible for my ultimate end, what would they look like? I picked a couple.



Halston, I would definitely check out for six feet under for these bad boys.



Valentino, can't resist a nice patent sheen on a shoe.



Balmain, straps to imprison me forever.



The Red Shoes are still influential today. Kate Bush's album inspired by the fairy tale.



A Korean horror film with the same name. This is the first of the posters made for the movie.



And here is the second. The shoes look kinda pink here though.

Love to you all,
Heather

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Many apologies for my lack of entries, I flew back home to Saint Louis for Thanksgiving break and haven't had much time to get on the computer and do much of anything.

I have gotten to catch up with my family and friends which has been enormously wonderful. I hadn't seen them in over a year so it was long overdue to return.

The only bad thing is that my stay has been far too short. I fly back to California tomorrow because the weekend flights and traffic is too much to deal with. I feel bad because I'll miss seeing some people, but at least I got to spend time with as many of my friends as possible. And my family. Today, my Dad and I continued our tradition of seeing movies together by seeing An Education at the Plaza Frontenac. It was pretty good, but being with my Dad was the best part of it.

Once I get back on campus, I have some overdue homework to finish for my copyediting class. I dread turning it in because even though I have very valid arguments as to why it was over 3 days late, I don't think my teacher will be too pleased.

Hmmm...Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Love to you all,
Heather

Windows to the Soul

Eye makeup in red,



Blue,



And gold.

Striking as ever.

Love to you all,
Heather

A Sorta Fairytale

"In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected."

-Charles Dickens

These are the photos that Dina Goldstein took for her exhibit called "Fallen Princesses" (located at fallenprincesses.com). Goldstein not only respects the fairy tale in these photos but shows the grim reality of being a princess. The meaning behind each one, while easy to see in many, is also up to interpretation by the viewer. Fantastic, thought-provoking, and harrowing are the words I describe this exhibit with.

Above is Cinderella, still looking for her Prince Charming.



Ariel, who longs to be out of this sea.



How some may wrongly stereotype Jasmine to be.



Belle, achieving her "beauty" (one of my favorites)



Rapunzel, Rapunzel, who cannot let down her long hair.



Snow White's unhappy ending.



Sleeping Beauty who slept for a 100 years (it broke my heart to look at).



Red Riding Hood off to Grandmother's for lunch.



Good luck finding that pea, princess.

Love to you all,
Heather

Elementary, Watson

Sometimes during the course of life I forget and must be reminded about two things I have always loved:

1) Robert Downey Jr. (a perfect choice to play Sherlock Holmes)

and

2) Esquire magazine (a classic, I would kill to work there)




Check out the many faces of the Downey! He's so versatile and very gifted at his craft.







Sharp dressed man, I can't emphasize just how much I love that in a man.







Love to you all,
Heather

No More Broken

“…Once I threw an empty wine bottle to the floor as hard as I could. It broke into green pieces. They were like the cold, hard, gritty fragments I imagine lodged in my throat sometimes. I wanted to know what it felt like to break something- with my hands instead.
I know that nothing will break anymore. Not the way things used to break. Clattering, crashing, smashing, shattering by themselves. It is very quite in our house now.”

-The Hanged Man, Francesca Lia Block

I've loved this book for years, it is beautifully written and a fast read.

Love to you all,
Heather

Commercialization

Roses + Depeche Mode + Yves Saint Laurent= My vision of perfection.

My favorite perfume commercial since Dior's "Midnight Poison" with Eva Green. Speaking of...



There she is in an old(er) Breil commercial!



I LOVE THIS SONG...Peking Laundry's "Cassidy" if you were wondering.

Love to you all,
Heather

I Heart Emma Pillsbury

"I'm a girl who knows her solvents, and your breath smells like rubbing alcohol."

How do I love her? Let me count the ways...

1) Emma is a character on Glee, that little musical phenomenon on FOX. She's a guidance counselor at a high school in Ohio and lends a listening ear to the students there. She's also a bit of a germaphobe and has a big crush on Will Schuster, the glee club leader/Spanish teacher. She's very nice and well-meaning and listens.

2) Her wardrobe. Good God, the woman can dress. In the case of Emma, she wears a whole lot of pastels, pencil skirts, and little cardigans over cute tops. She also has excellent taste in shoes and her hair is perfectly done. I give her an A+ in clothing, it is hard to get me to want to wear Easter egg colors but Emma wins me over each week.

3) Her crush on Will, the married man with the horrible wife (not an exaggeration, the woman is pretending to be pregnant right now) is something we can all relate to. Everyone's always liked someone who wasn't available.

4) Her last name. What? I'm a brand loyalist and Pillsbury is my very favorite brand of them all.

Extra Credit: She also has a wonderful singing voice. Watch the episode where she sings "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady.

Love to you all,
Heather

Greatest Time of Year

For as much as I love Halloween and try to stick strictly by that holiday solely as my favorite, I cannot resist the allure of the impending December holidays including the big one, Christmas. My family always did know how to celebrate that day with a kick. For years, we had a white tree until last year when they bought a blue tree. A new special ornament goes on each year, we bake tons of cookies and sweets, my brothers and I watch gobs of TV specials, and I obsessively buy tons of ribbons, bow, and gilded wrapping paper for presents, which look better with each year (it's a talent of mine).

I've been inspired by holiday preparations online and Sephora, always bright and beautiful, is going for the sparkles. WHAT AN ADVERTISEMENT!!! I love everything about it, the tints, the glitter, the typography, whoa!



Just as equally festive and gorgeous!



I really like how they aren't sticking with the routine shades of red, green, and white (though they probably can't seeing as it is marketed towards holidays with no one in particular). Every color makes it more festive and party ready.



I can't resist anything sparkly and I'm dying to know just how they Photoshopped this in to look so pretty.



Sephora aside, other makeup giants also get their time to shine this season. Model Lindsay Ellingson brings the glitz and glam to MAC cosmetics. I get excited just looking at this picture, it makes me want to go to a holiday party and dance to some holiday songs!



Its Red Again.
I pulled up some of Starbucks campaigns last year for the successful red cup. Thanks to their success from last year, they are continuing the red cup tradition to house the holiday beverages, Peppermint Mocha, Eggnog, and Gingerbread latte. These cups this year have inspiring phrases and words like "pass the cheer" and "hope" scrawled on them.

Back home, I used to have a Starbucks near my house that every time I walked into it, I felt like I was walking into my living room. The lighting was perfect, there were couches and armchairs and even a fireplace with great newspapers stocked and the smell of coffee beans everywhere. Best of all, it didn't close until midnight daily (a far cry from the current location I am close to that shuts down at 10pm).

I love any place that makes you feel secure and at home and during the holidays, Starbucks has always done just that for me :)



Love to you all,
Heather