Halloween: WTF?

Halloween is a rather controversial holiday in my book. Not because it's for devil worship or because crazy people put razors in the apples they give to kids (seriously kids, why would you want an apple anyway?!? I did have a dentist neighbor growing up that gave out mini toothpastes though, so...).

It gets kind of tiresome when you see girl after girl wearing a nurse or firefighter or whatever costume was at Halloween Depot. To each their own, I guess... but shouldn't Halloween be an excuse to be creative and make people say WTF?! (And less of an excuse to objectify women?)

I kind of re-heated an old costume, but I decided to be Eve. You know... from the Bible? I see a tiny bit of humor in it considering I attend a Christian school. It required a lot of hot glue and the butchering of a fake plant. My darling friend in the photo below is an amazon woman, sporting a wonderful $1 mesh-y dress and some vines (which also needed some hot glue, turns out it's difficult to hot-glue fake leaves to a mesh dress without burning the person wearing it. bummer.).

Gotta love the awkward butt leafs.

What were YOU for Halloween?!

-B

P.S. Happy November? How did it get here so fast?! I guess it's time to put out the roomie's LED-lit Christmas tree that is in fact in Hanukkah colors. His name is Shalomo.

Happy Halloween~

BOO!

Halloween is the single best holiday for makeup!

Have fun and play around-

I will post pictures of my creations soon!

<3

Claire

Here, Have Some Tim Walker to Brighten Your Lumpy Wednesday!

I promise that very soon I'll write some posts with, you know, real creative thoughts from my brain.

-B

P.S. For those of you who don't know who Tim Walker is, he's an amazing photographer who does a lot of fashion photography. He makes it art. You've probably seen his work in the Miss Dior Cherie and Juicy Couture ads- he's got a very distinct style!

Quinoa Pumpkin Pancakes, Get In My Belly!

Even the weather in California has been fall-like lately and it's got me thinking about holiday food!

Quinoa (keen-wah) is kind of a weird looking grain that is gluten free, high in fiber, packed with amino acids, and offers whole proteins! And I'm a sucker for anything pumpkin during this time of year so I'll definitely be making these in the near future :)

The recipe can be found here!

What are your favorite fall foods?

-B

Gloomy Rainy Day Outfit: Awkward As Usual

Lately the weather in SoCal has been crap. And I'm not being whiny! All week the sun's been obscured by clouds and it's been raining on and off... making me a little homesick, to be honest!

So I took the cool temperature as an opportunity to layer up! Forgive the awkward hips-out pose... I don't know what happened there...

(Faux leather moto jacket, Goodwill; skirt layered over dress, Salvation Army; dress, Laguna Beach boutique; belt, thrifted; boots, GeeWaWa)

Check out this sweet pimp cup my roomate got for her birthday!

Hope you all had a good week! The weekend is almost here!

-B

Steady my heart

<3

Claire

MORE discount stuff!

Here I am back from midterms and I survived!

In light of Berit's post on Hautelook (where I have gotten some awesome possum stuff!)

There is this awesome little website called

Beflurt

they sell all the best brands at a discount! It's great!

I doodled a little bit on friday night:

it started out like this

then turned into this:

(check my sick shirt lol)

Also, here is a little random to brighten your day:

LIKE LIKE LIKE!

(the picture has white edges, thats why this font is so low, chill)

If you haven't seen the lebanese movie Caramel, get on that.

Its one of my favorite films.
I know how you feel jacob,

I wish we were doing the naughty right now too :(
The first part of HP is coming out in a MONTH

EAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK!

and this AMAZING picture

...

<3

Claire

HauteLook: Crazylibellule Solid Perfumes

When you're an out-of-state college student or a frequent traveler, it can become hard to tote all your necessities back and forth during breaks and holidays. Especially given the 3 oz. liquid limit for carry-ons, it's kind of a bummer when I have to leave my perfumes at school due to the restriction (they all hover somewhere slightly above 3 oz., but who wants to risk it?).

Today I was perusing the deals over at HauteLook when the solid perfumes by French maker Crazylibellule and the Poppies caught my eye. At 70% off on HauteLook, the regularly $18 mini perfume sticks were $5 a pop! I picked out the scent "26th Juin ile d'Yeu," which is described to have notes of orange, peach, plum, musk, cardamom, vanilla, and jasmine. Yum! Hopefully it'll be a good solution to my liquid perfume dilemma- and it'll be a great little thing to keep in my purse!

Now for the next part: HauteLook. It's a great online shopping community that offers designer clothes, jewelery, home decor, and more at a huge discount. The perfume was the first thing I've bought from there but they've got everything from Steve Madden to Chanel!

CLICK HERE TO ACCEPT MY INVITE AND BECOME A MEMBER!

-B

Melissa Shoes

Melissa shoes makes some really fabulous pumps, sandals, and flats out of "MELFLEX," a recyclable, hypo-allergenic plastic. Their pieces are really fun and stylish, are reasonably priced most of the time, and really cover a wide range of styles and tastes.

I LOVE these Ultragirl Bamboo flats- they've got a great rumpled-paper print on them that is just fascinating to look at:

And the quirky little peep toe design catches you by surprise, too:

The Melissa Ultragirl Bamboo in White and Black- $28.95

It's really neat to see all the different kinds of vegan, recyclable, and biodegradable footwear popping up everywhere these days! Or along an even more philanthropic vein, check out Osborn Shoes, which Claire blogged about a while back.

Add Melissa Shoes to the list of designers following the "green trend"... plus it doesn't hurt that these quirky things on sale! ;)

-B

P.S. School is really crazy right now for all of us... what do you do to relax and de-stress? What kind of clothes do you drift towards when you've got a huge test to take or have been up studying all night?

FROM PARIS VOGUE: THE GUM WALL

This September my mother went to London and Paris (during their fashion weeks no less!) and brought back the September issue of Paris Vogue for me. It weighs somewhere around 5 lbs.

I was browsing through the magazine and then something jumped out and bit me. THIS:

(click on for larger view)

Anyone from Seattle would know that this is the infamous Gum Wall in Post Alley near Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle (that was such an overwhelming number of capitals! sorry!). AND IT IS IN PARIS VOGUE.

Despite the awesomeness the only other thought I could conjure up was, "...Ew. Aren't her clothes going to be ruined?"

-B

Aah.

Don't you sometimes wish men would dress like this all the time?

-B

P.S. Did anyone love him in Brick before all this Inception stuff blew up?

P.P.S. More useful posts once I get back to school WITH MY FRENCH VOGUE, WHICH HAS AN AD IN IT THAT YOU SEATTLEITES WILL NOT BELIEVE. SRYSLY.

A Study Interlude in Memory of McQueen

I'm supposed to be writing a gigantic paper right now, but in the spirit of procrastination I stumbled upon this photo done in coordination with Alexander McQueen for Vogue's 50th Anniversary.

Hope this injects some inspiration into your week!

(Click on for a larger view, it's breathtaking.)

He was always one to remind us that fashion truly is art.

-B

Homecoming 2010

My little sister is a sophomore this year, and Saturday was her homecoming.

She actually didn't even go to the dance, which was awesome because I went the dance every year.

and regretted it every time.

Instead they got all dressed up and ate fancy status and then went bowling!

SO FUN.

The girls had a blast getting ready, and I had fun helping them!

I did my best to photograph the finished products, but Berit is the photographer not me...

so they are pretty terrible pictures

This is the lovely specimen that is my sister.

The dress reminds me of Marchesa.

Except that it was 10$ at Value Village.

NBD.

Here is the back of her hair.

Her hair is short, so this is mostly bobby pins.

You can even see some of them

(BAD CLARE BAD CLAIRE)

This is Emma.

I twisted back random sections and pinned them in place until this emerged.

SUPER easy.

Meet Shalee. I had the top half of her hair up when I realized,

MERLIN'S BEARD, she has SO MUCH HAIR.

This picture sucks I know. But take my word:

It was Frickin Amazing. If I do say so myself.

Meet Jenny.

She has such great eybrows-

it took me about thirty seconds to pluck them.

Her hair and makeup here easy as lemon squeezy pie

(YUM)

Here is the group- minus the ginger kids girlfriend, who came later.

Not one of these girls paid more than 15$ for their dresses!!!

HeYYo!

Many might recognize Jenny's silver dress-

it formerly belonged to the illustrious Natalie Souaid

I claimed it at the clothing swap this summer knowing that though it might not fit me,

some lovely young lass with less sizable lady lumps would be delighted to fill it out.

NOW

I would like to turn your attention to the BEST IDEA EVER!!!!

My mom decided that since only one girl had a date

(the other random guy was just there to bowl),

that she would MAKE corsages for all of them.

Now this could have easily gone south-

but my mom is awesome.

Check out how cute these are!

Not to mention the fact that she did this all in half an hour!

YAY FOR MY MOMMY!!!!

SO MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL

I had a wonderful vacation, but its back to reality.

whoops, there goes gravity

<3

Claire

My Latest

HEY ALL

I hope you have been wonderful, I am home in Seattle right now :)

First of all...

I filmed a tutorial for this ages ago, but the video went cray cray-

So here are the pictures!

Also, at school, my friends have been GREAT about letting me use their faces as easels!

Here is Mollee!

WOOOO! Super sorry about the awful computer camera photo...

And Sara!

(After I was done with the eye I really quick threw together the rest of the face

to see if she liked it for Halloween)

Oh, but life is a wonderful thing.

<3

Claire

The Trevor Project: It Gets Better

In the wake of the recent string of suicides committed by gay teens as a result of the abuse and bullying they endured at their schools and in their communities, there has been a lot of public outcry against the way that society treats gay or questioning individuals.

The Trevor Project is a support organization that works towards establishing acceptance and eliminating violence against LGBT youth. They offer hotlines and other means of support as well. They have started a video campaign called "It Gets Better," were celebrities and civilians alike post videos offering support and advice to questioning or LGBT youth that are struggling with bullying or suicidal thoughts.

Furthermore, you can go to http://bit.ly/c97s3W and donate your Facebook status for the Human Rights Campaign for the National Coming Out day that officially starts in less than a minute!

I believe that no matter what your religion, race, gender, or sexuality, it is not acceptable to torment someone to death because they're different from you. No religion asks its followers to taunt, tease, and physically abuse anyone because their way of life is something you disagree with.

So check out these videos and forgive my rants please :)

-B

Heidi Klum For New Balance: Just Because You're Famous Doesn't Mean You Can Sell Crappy Sweatpants For A Million Dollars

During this past week's episode of Project Runway, Heidi Klum announced that she had teamed up with New Balance to create a line of high-end "active wear" for which the contestants would be designing during their challenge.

Upon closer look at her collection being sold exclusively on Amazon.com, I just had to laugh. Seriously. Not only are the "designs" simple and made out of typical cheap gym clothes fabric, they are egregiously overpriced. And I'm not going to lie, the majority of the pieces are just plain ugly.

Allow me to illustrate:

"Short Sleeve Double Zip Hoodie," $78.00

The cut is extremely unflattering and it looks too short in the torso...

"Project Runway (designed by Andy) Pant With Inserts," $98.00

Nothing says, "I just finished a tough workout/I'm sexily grocery shopping" like baggy sweatpants with stripes that ripple (in fear? mortification?) away from the crotch, eh?

"Cropped Knit Sweater With Eyelet Detail," $78.00

This might be acceptable if it were some kind of thinner fabric, but as it is it looks bulky and incredibly awkward. How many of you would feel comfortable lounging or working out in this?!

"Drawstring Balloon Pant," $78.00

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? If I wanted to buy a crappy pair of ill-fitting sweatpants, I would go to K-Mart. Calling the design "balloon" doesn't distinguish it from other sweatpants with elastic at the bottom. Furthermore, if I wanted to pay 80 bucks for workout pants I'd go to LuluLemon. Plus they make your ass look great.

The only redeeming part about this collection is that most of the clothes are %10 cashmere, which is also an indicator that these clothes weren't made to actually be worked out in.

Take a further look my friends... what do you think?

-B

Also

I LOVE MONDO AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS.

But more on that later.

-B