Modern Marvels: Cheers to Flappers

I'm about a third of the way through a very academic book about flappers, and I've come to love everything about them.  When I first started the book, I tried viewing their eccentricities as if I were living in their era, and I couldn't help but imagine them as the Paris Hiltons of today.  They went to saloons nonstop, drank, smoked and stayed out late.  They even, dare I say?, flirted outright and engaged in heavy petting.  Their victorian counterparts were horrified.  But what the party girls of today aren't doing is making epic strides in the way of women's freedoms.  And that's something worth toasting over.

As an homage to the girl who modernized women, I feel it's only appropriate for me to take on her look, at least in one way or another.  I've decided my next haircut will be cut in the style of the flapper, much like this:

...At least once I get tired of my long hair.  The only unfortunate thing about this haircut is that it's quite similar to my older sister's haircut at the moment.  But her hair is almost always short, so we're bound to have similar haircuts at some point.  

Minor digression: How cute is this couple??  I stumbled upon this photograph while searching for flapper photos...  They've got an obvious advantage though; photographs taken in the middle of grassy fields almost always look good.    

*all photos via weheartit

**knowledge via Joshua Zeitz's Flapper: A madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made America modern

Gotta Secret

It's time to air some dirty little secrets of mine, one of them being my obsession with Pretty Little Liars.  I've been hooked ever since watching it with Krista this past summer, despite the fact that I'm totally aware of its outlandish plot, its subpar acting, and its profound tween fan base.  Yes, it's embarrassing to admit that I look forward to new episodes and that I feel compelled to defend its absurdities when Colin makes remarks about it, but there's something to be said about the giddy feeling I get after plopping down on the couch in my pajamas, dark chocolate in hand and Colin happily preoccupied in the other room, and queueing the show on my computer.  It's pure indulgence.

As an aside, you should know that I'm not usually prone to obsessing over shows as trendy and superficial as PLL.  In fact, I pride myself on my good taste in television shows (one may even call me a snob).  This means that either (a) PLL has, in fact, got some credibility, (b) I'm only pretending to like good shows, or (c) PLL is serving some sort of void in my life.    

Either way, I feel obligated to catch you up on the series so that you may experience the giddy feeling that I get when I know there's new PLL shows to be had.

So, without further ado...    

These four girls are besties.  They all share a love/hate relationship with their dead best friend who was murdered mysteriously and whom made their clique popular and cool.

This girl is having an affair...

...with this teacher.  She spends a lot of the current episodes trying to make sure that no one (including her parents) finds out about it. (It's totally creepy)

This girl used to be overweight and has low self-esteem because of it.  Her banker-lady mom also stole some money from an old lady who uses her bank whom "happened" to die all of a sudden.  They're both still working to cover up what she's done.  (Her parents are divorced, which the show implies is the reason for their money issues.)

The blond girl is going to fall for this guy, which the writers of the show have made obviously apparent, whom she's allowed to sleep in the basement of her house (he's homeless and sells black market goods at school).

This girl has recently come out to her parents.  

She was dating this girl (on the left), but they were forced to separate when Emily(the lesbian)'s mom got her sent off to rehab after finding weed in her backpack.  Her mom is just now coming to terms with her daughter's sexuality.

In the last episode I watched, Emily's swim team teammate [that's a bit repetitive] who used to bully her passionately kisses her despite having made a nasty remark about her being gay earlier in the show.

This girl's sister has just married a boy whom she's kissed before, but whom she now believes may have killed their best friend.

all photos found here

She's been talking with this guy whom the town has shunned after he was tried for the best friend's murder (though he's been found innocent).  She believes that he was framed and that the same person who framed him is trying to frame her.

All the while, all of the girls are getting blackmailed from an anonymous person who goes by the name of "A," who's posing as the dead girl (named Alison) and whom slowly reveals secrets the girls have kept from one another.  

Hopefully you got all that. 

If that synopsis sounds remotely interesting, and you've got the ability to swallow your pride for 45 or so minutes, you should watch the newest episode (I say the newest one because I haven't seen the earlier episodes so I don't know what they're like).  

And then, immediately after seeing it, COMMENT with your thoughts: the good, the bad, AND the ugly...  But beware; I've got an arsenal of rebuttals for the "uglies" prepared thanks to Colin and his sass, and I'm not afraid to use them.  ;) 

**There's no way I got all those whos and whoms right, which is why I need you to comment with corrections!!  I'm on a perpetual quest to become grammar literate.  [This (**) applies to all posts, past and future.]

New Schtuff at The Betties!!

wool NAVY BLAZER with gold medallion buttons

aqua blue HOUSEWIFE dress with dress-shirt bodice and elastic waistline

cream pleated LINEN TROUSERS

black pleated PENCIL SKIRT with asymmetrical side pocket

Now scroll back up and click on a link already! 

Tootsie roll

Cardigan: Inherited from grandfather

Checkered Button-up: Stolen from Colin's closet

Jeans: Hand-me-down from Jess

Shoes: Secondhand 

Bow: Craft store (I've worn this ribbon in my hair so often, but I don't think I've ever mentioned where it came from!)

I had a real, cheese-filled Valentine's Day this year!  

Colin surprised me by taking a half day of work on Monday, and the first thing he said when he came through the door was "Pick a number 1 through 5."  So I picked 4 (obviously), which was an awkward picture of a couple jet skiing.  But we decided it was a little too cold for jet skiing so I picked another...  

...which was unfortunately Segway-ing and there was No Way I would be caught doing that.  

So he flipped over the pictures of all the options and I decided to go tandem biking, even though our last attempt at tandem biking ended pretty badly (it turns out you have to communicate well with your bike partner for it to work, something we aren't particularly good at, especially when we aren't looking each other head-on).  

I had the brilliant idea of putting Mabes in the bike basket, an idea I had gotten a few days ago when I'd seen a frenchie of her stature doing the same thing with her owner.  So I stuffed all of Mabel into the basket and off we went.  

And I think you can guess what happened next...

Mabes decided to evacuate from the basket while we were peddling full speed on the pavement.  Luckily she flung her body to the side of the bike and rolled (several times) to safety.  She popped up from her tumble looking like a tootsie roll, painted black from the dirty street.   

Luckily she wasn't hurt. You'd think a dog who's afraid to jump off of the couch wouldn't even dream of jumping from a moving bike.  But then again I should never underestimate her stupidity.  (She's a little thick sometimes)

Mabie before the "Incident":

And Mabie after:

Just kidding.  

I happened upon this dog while pretend shopping for another Boston.  If you're into sad, geriatric looking dogs you should adopt this little guy.  Help put a smile on his face, will  ya? Adopt here.

Colin's Gin Journal turned out pretty well.  I made a cucumber gimlet that evening, one of the many recipes I included in his book, and it was DELICIOUS!!!  I made... uh, a few?... of them that evening, and then sloppily went to bed.  I think I've found my new favorite drink.  I encourage you to (responsibly, of course) try it out for yourself.  Here's the recipe:

2 oz fresh cucumber meat (muddled)

1 oz fresh lime juice

2 oz gin (Hendrick's is my favorite)

1 oz simple syrup (we make our own using 1C sugar and 0.5C water; stir over heat until the sugar dissolves)

Shake everything together, and WALLAH!  Heaven in a glass.

A little photo for you of his valentine and his journal:

I'm working on getting some more clothes put up in the shop so hopefully you'll see some fresh items up by the end of today (if not today, by tomorrow)!!  And, as always, I will upload merchandise photos on the blog before posting them on the shop!

Hurray for Fridays!

red (paper) HEART

Dress:  Secondhand clothing store

Shoes:  Thrifted

Socks:  Thrifted

This dress is one of the most treasured items I own.  Unfortunately, it's in very fragile condition and I find that I'm having to mend it constantly.  But dresses as adorable as this are meant to be worn, regardless of the fact that I'm probably decreasing its life span considerably with each use.  

(The back of the dress is my favorite part...!)

Colin will be cooking dinner tonight in celebration of Valentine's Day.  I'm very excited to be celebrating this year; Colin is a staunch anti-Valentine's-ist, as he finds that it's an entirely commercial holiday--it may be, but I've still been conditioned to crave it.  I plan to dress to the nines in a gown that I've never had occasion to wear, and Colin will be dressing up in a suit.  I'll try to get photographs, but Colin doesn't think to take my photograph ever and it usually kills the moment when I request that he snap my picture (especially when it takes a few minutes to get a good one out of me).  But I will try my hardest for you, lovely reader.  

Colin will be getting a homemade, old school-style Valentine and a Gin Journal from me tonight.  [The journal will have a section in it where he can rate the different brands of gin he's tasted, a section full of recipes that I painstakingly copied from books at the library, and a section where he can write down drink he finds he likes while out on the town]  Pictures of the finished products to come later on.

**Many thanks to my dear friend, Paige, for helping me come up with Colin's gift idea.  Your creativity is endless.

Heart on a String Sale

here

Because this is the first Valentine's Day Colin and I will be formally celebrating, and because I'm feeling pretty good in the neighborhood, I'll be discounting all merchandise in the shop today!!  Enter code BEMINEXOXO when checking out to receive a 25% discount on your purchase.  Offer ends today at 9pm Pacific Standard Time.  

Spread the love, and get shopping!

PS-I'll be uploading a photo of my Valentine's Day outfit as soon as I figure out what that outfit will be...  :)  I'd LOVE to see what you're wearing today; e-mail me a photograph of your Valentine's outfit (thebettiesshop@gmail.com) and I'll post it on the blog.  

Peanuts and CrackerJax

Shoes: Thrifted

Stockings: Beverly Hills Hosiery 

Dress: Charlotte Russe

Jacket: Stole from Colin's closet :)  Originally from J. Crew

This, somewhat ashamedly, is my second outfit for the day.  I was wearing these light blue overalls earlier, but realized that my butt looked GIANT in them (thanks for making me aware of that, Jess!!) so I changed immediately.  That's what I get for buying things at the thrift store without trying them on.

I rarely wear this dress because the zipper's broken on the side (it came that way when I bought it, unbeknownst to me), so it's really hard to get over my head.  And I don't really trust that the rest of it will stay together much longer.  Hopefully it'll last through the end of today.  This is the first and last time I buy something at Charlotte Russe.

I've started stealing stuff from Colin's wardrobe pretty regularly, which he HATES, but I just can't help it; he's got so many nice things to choose from.  This is my favorite item of his; it's a retro-looking baseball jacket.  And it looks really good on him.  J. Crew you've done it again.

Krista thought I should take a picture mid outfit choosing, but I really just mix and match stuff until I find something I like.  This is the aftermath of that process:

My outfits really just depend on what mood I'm in.  Today I was in the "girls softball circa 1950s" mood, which is a change from the "day trip to the cabin" look I've been sporting pretty regularly.  

I'm off to stand in line at the post office again.  I hope that cranky clerk isn't there this evening... she's a real witch.

Have a wild n' crazy Friday!

Works of Art

I've just spent the last half hour watching makeup tutorials by Michelle Phan.  Her videos are so mesmerizing...!  She utilizes makeup like a form of art (I guess that's why she's a makeup artist...).

Her Lady Gaga makeup tutorial is my favorite.

You've just spent the last twenty minutes watching her other videos, haven't you?  

In other exciting news, I finally created a drawing that the art professor found worth sharing with the class!  (We average about two piece-sharings each session)    

I used a photograph of Elin's of the blog Elinkan, who happens to be an adorable Swedish girl (I'm pretty sure that's where she's from), to practice portraiture.  She has the most wonderful photographs on her web page.  My drawing still needs some refining (and some completing), but I've come along way since first beginning the class.

source

PS-I hope you aren't crushed that I've skipped Wednesday Wants this week.  It turns out you have to update your blog more than once a week to make the special day of the week posts work.  The blog was turning into a whole lot of greedy Wants.

Wednesday Wants: Friday Edition

1.  A car detailing

I left for Phoenix on Wednesday to help pack up my room (my parents have moved out of my childhood house to a smaller place), and on the way there Mabel got carsick. The first time it happened, I couldn't stop to clean it up so I may have let her eat it up? (she loves the taste of partially digested dog food), but I learned not to do that again once she barfed that up a second time.  It got EVERYWHERE: in the cup holder, across the middle console, between both front seats, on my purse, and underneath the emergency brake.  It's cleaned up for the most part, though I think the dryer sheets I've sprinkled throughout the car will will  have to remain there for a while...  At least until the smell subsides.

Note to self: don't feed the dogs right before embarking on a road trip.

2.  Patterned socks

3.  Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

I'll be getting a copy of this book at a used bookstore tonight, I hope.  I'm terribly anxious to read it!!

4.  A VW bus, a Carmengia, or an old Volvo/BMW/Mercedes

all found here

This Want is about as realistic as the Dachshund Want, but I can still pretend that I'll have one soon.  I've got a very powerful imagination.

Cheers to Friday!

New at The Betties

merlot colored RIDING VEST

kelly green TRAPEZE COAT with faux-fur lining, suede trim, and brass toggles

crisp white TENNIS-INSPIRED dress with pleated skirt and brass buttons

cream colored linen PAPERBAG SHORTS

I'll be posting these up on the shop tonight, after which I'll link a word in each of the titles to their individual shop pages.  

So be a doll and click on the links, will ya?