"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark Twain

My high school years were spent entirely in khaki pants and solid color polo shirts in a whole slew of hues and not a print or flourish in sight. Having a dress code was painfully limiting for me seeing as how I tend to close my eyes when I walk into my closet, pick roughly nine items, and wear them all at once willy nilly. The hilarious thing was I won best dressed my senior year and am photographed being sassy in my polo and khakis that are identical to the daily attire of about 500 other kids. I'm just proud I was able to see the irony then too. Needless to say I have not touched a polo shirt or a pair of khaki anythings since my days as a math challenged drill teamer and blame my current closet and pattern obsession on those years of my life. 

Currently catering to that obsession (see I had a point) is a whole smattering of Spring collections that are making their debuts all over this grand thing called the internet. 

My favs: 

Ruche Spring '10 

 

  

  

Ella Peru Spring '10 

  

 

  

And of course the ever so wonderful 

Dear Creatures Spring '10

 Three different versions of my style. Heck I don't even know what my style is. If it's cool I'll wear it. 

Three exclamation points is just plum unnecessary!!!

 

via Le Quaintrelle 

Studying English and Journalism/PR simultaneously in school instilled in me a love for the comma. I also have this strange habit of attempting to have accurate punctuation in my text messages with full apostrophes and the like. We all slip up and heaven knows the internet has done its best to kill grammar and spelling as we know it but stuff like this is way more funny than it should ever be to me. 

Speaking of which, the use of lol in electronic conversation has bugged me since my AOL preteen years and *gasp* when people SAY lol in polite conversation to your very face? Horrifying. 

"Rachel your crazy" 

"No it's Rachel you're crazy." 

It's a curse and I drive the people in my life absolutely bonkers sometimes. I attribute that to my English teacher of a mother and my getting timeout if a double negative ever dared to escape my lips at the innocent and intellectually poverty stricken age of nine. 

Needless to say I got a giant kick out of "Past Tense" performed by the awesome Barton Carroll who I was fortunate enough to meet through a friend as he wandered into the dusty plains I currently find myself in.

Past Tense - Barton Carroll

His whole performance and album was great. Truly worth looking into. Buy his record at Barton Carroll's Online Store

P.S. Ya'll is exempt from all my rants and raves. It's just such a wonderfully efficient abbreviation. 

Behind the blue eyes...

So I work for Bobbi Brown...and kind of love it. I've done some interesting makeovers in my time including but not limited to...

* One eye brown smokey eyes one eye gray smokey eyes
* One Lady Gaga star over the eye
* One who wanted alternate eyebrows drawn on her eyelids
* Two brides for one wedding
* Three in a random log cabin
* Two magazine shoots
* Three news anchors
* countless men
* One seven year old as requested by her mother
* 19 debutantes
* endless weddings...

Needless to say it's always someone interesting requesting something interesting.  But I will say, it makes my time at work something to talk about.

 

 

  

My personal must haves? Pale pink blush, rose shimmer brick, long wear gel eyeliner in Black Ink, and the entire skincare line. It's really the best stuff there is (not biased I swear I work there because I've loved it so long) and the best part? No animal testing. Now there's a line I can get behind. It's worth checking out Bobbi Brown .

It's like sunshine on your hands!

Currently loving....

 

  

 Images via We Heart It

Yellow nail polish...I bought a bottle of OPI Banana Bandanna last week and was a little hesitant to use it for fear of it looking like nothing more than a sickness on my hands. I'm growing pretty fond of it, however, now I feel compelled to buy a lot more yellow things. On another note...who else hears Gwen Stefani's voice singing whenever they have to spell banana?

Looking to...

You will be seeing a lot of this in the next month; basically my ranting and raving about SXSW. On top of getting to see friends out there and every single cool person in the Lbk venturing out there, there's a chance (if all goes my way) that I maaay see Broken Bells, She & Him, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Dr. Dog and so so so much more including the local Thrift Store Cowboys who not only always put on a great show but are extremely fun people in general. I'm basically just getting through the next couple of dreary assignments and snowy days to get there.

 

Broken Bells 

 

She & Him  

Cymbals Eat Guitars 

Dr. Dog 

Thrift Store Cowboys  

...ahhh!!!

The lovely of Etsy

I have to hide my debit card when I go on Etsy these days. Some fabulous finds of this week...

This lovely little earl grey shea butter soap from the amazing Sweet Petula shop. The packaging just makes it.

 

I love love vintage suitcases and have seen them in decorating before but this is maybe one of the smartest and cutest side tables I have seen from  Lovenostalgicwhimsy's shop 

 

Anyone who knows me at all knows I have an addiction to accessories especially if they are worn in your hair.  The entire Live In Style's is completely amazing and I can't even bring myself to pick a favorite. 

Off to enjoy what's left of the snow. I have an entirely different appreciation for coffee on chilly days like this.

Zooey the Little Scottie Pup

 

Meet Zooey my little Scottish pup. She's impossibly spoiled and it's very safe to say that she consistently has more groceries in the house than I do. She has an odd affinity for snow and chasing anything that moves but is possibly the best little darling ever. 

 

It's snowing outside. I'm going to stay inside with warm coffee and watch the Olympic folks have all the fun in the snow for me. Lovely day. 

I run on sunshine

I tend to have a bit of an obsession with reading and absorbing amazingly cute, inspiring, or just plain weird things and feel the need to document a good portion of my life. Not to say my life or the things I stumble upon are particularly epic or even that worthwhile but learning everything I can in my spare time is my favorite pastime and I have to put all the lovely somewhere or I'll forget it. 

I'm not new to the blogging world, however, this is the first one I feel I'll leave public. The others are miscellaneous diaries of sorts but aren't the place for me to put hilarious little sites and things I come upon. 

One personal note about me is I have finally after years and years determined that my parents are pretty cool...I sincerely hope they planned my name so my initials made RAD. It suits my life outlook I think.