Dear Creatures

Dear Creatures is one of my new favorite brands. Their designs are all very vintage inspired and yet are still very unique. Below are some pictures from their Spring/Summer 2010 lookbook.

We Are All Accelerated Readers

As I'm sure I've made apparent already, I am a very avid reader. So I wanted to share some of my favorite books, all of which I highly recommend reading if you have not already.



The Dharma Bums (1958) - This is another semi autobiographical tale of Kerouac's adventures on the road. I felt that this one especially makes one want to throw aside the conventions of American society as you witness Kerouac struggling against them.



The Great Gatsby (1925) - I think that this has continually been one of my favorites because I felt that Fitzgerald wrote the characters so well that it was easy for me to sympathize with them.



The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) - I have read this novel more times than any other. As a "wallflower" myself, I always felt that I understood the way that Charlie thought about the world around him.



The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) - I think that one of the many reasons why this is one of my favorites is because for some reason I just love witnessing a main character's downfall. I think I enjoy the reminder that no one is perfect.



Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927) - I have read every single one of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. I can't help but love how quirky, intelligent, and witty the character of Sherlock Holmes is.



A Separate Peace (1959) - I always felt that this was one of the most tragic coming of age tales.

On Top

Just wanted to share some of the pretty tops that I have been eyeing at Anthropologie...

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy

I really love this song and the video as well, especially for the fact that the band is obviously not afraid to dance around and have fun.

Anna Sui

Anna Sui is my absolute favorite designer. Her dresses are always the prettiest. Below are some of my favorite looks from her fall 2010 collection. All pictures are from style.com.

Science Fiction Museum

Yesterday my friend and I went to the Science Fiction Museum for the first time. The museum consists mainly of science fiction books as well as props and costumes from science fiction television shows and movies and a few replicas. I was actually quite impressed with how much they had, and really enjoyed it there.

Below are some pictures from the museum, all taken by my friend Brandon Jenkins. You can see more of his photography on his DeviantART... http://vaer.deviantart.com/

Orla Kiely

I really love this whole collection, the mint green bag especially.

Madame Bovary

Yesterday I finished reading Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, and it is now officially one of my all time favorite books. I don't want to give too much about it away, but it focuses mainly on the main characters' dissatisfaction and boredom that she feels with life. She tries to cure this with adulterous affairs and materialism, but this of course does not solve her misery and instead leads to her downfall. I very highly recommend it.

Silent Films

I've lately taken a very strong liking to silent films. I feel that they are much more dramatic since the actors have to more fully display their emotions so that the audience understands what is going on. Not to mention, the music is always very intense and emotional so that it also lends to the audience being able to better understand the emotions of the characters.

Below are some of my favorites, all of which I highly recommend.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1920



The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1919



Faust - 1926



Nosferatu - 1929

Grey Weather

As I am officially convinced that we will never see summer weather here in Washington this year, I have decided instead to look ahead to dressing for the fall weather to come. I have always been a very big fan of Victorian Gothic novels which very much lend to my taste in clothing, but I always find it very difficult to find such pieces, and especially none within my budget. But as new fall clothing is beginning to pop up online, I have hope that perhaps this year I will find some pieces that will suit this style that I've always been drawn to. (The boots in the post below are a perfect example of what I have in mind).

Some things I'm finding inspiring at the moment...



Félicien Rops





Anna Sui - fall '09

Shoes...

I've lately been on the hunt for a couple new pairs of shoes. I feel like it's so hard to find just the right pair though, as it seems that every pair I find that I like is either no longer available in my size or is way outside of my budget. Regardless, I will to continue to admire these pairs and then continue on a more realistic search.

Summer Skin

Recently my laptop decided to permanently die on me. Shortly before that I had gotten really involved in making various playlists to suit a number of different moods and themes, but in the process of transferring my music off of my ipod and onto a different computer I lost everyone of the playlists that I had made. So, I decided to restart my playlist making with one for the summer. All of the songs I included are ones that either remind me of summer in general, remind me of past summers, or are songs that cause me to envision warm sunny mornings.

Matt Pond PA - "It is Safe"
Animal Collective - "Summertime Clothes"
Death Cab For Cutie - "Crooked Teeth"
Minus the Bear - "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse"
Iron & Wine - "Teeth in the Grass"
Seabear - "Libraries"
Jason Webley - "May Day"
Sufjan Stevens - "The Dress Looks Nice on You"
Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard - "California Zephyr"
Andrew Bird - "Yawny at the Apocalypse"
Band of Horses - "The General Specific"
Friendly Fires - "Jump in the Pool"
Built to Spill - "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss"
The Helio Sequence - "Keep Your Eyes Ahead"
The Shins - "Those to Come"

Books, Books, Books

I have such a strong love for books that half the time when I walk into a large book store I can't help but let out an audible sigh. For some reason being surrounded by books makes me entirely content. Perhaps its the idea that books are filled with adventure and escape? Though my personal library isn't yet large enough to fully surround me, it is rapidly growing and I can't wait for the day when I can cover an entire wall in a room with filled bookshelves. In the meantime though, I love seeing other peoples collections, especially if they have good taste or display them in a way that is visually interesting. Below are some collections that I found rather beautiful...







2nd and 3rd pictures via The Selby

Dresses

Lately I have a major obsession with dresses. In recent years I've been a bit back and forth with it, but I've come to realize that I tend to feel happiest about what I'm wearing when I have a dress on. So now that it's summer I plan to fully embrace my obsession and then hopefully as the weather turns colder and rainy again, I'll find ways to layer up and continue wearing them.

Here's a few that I'm really wanting right now. The first is from Anthropologie, the second from topshop, and the third from Urban Outfitters.

Coralie Bickford-Smith

Recently I stumbled upon these lovely books designed for Penguin by Coralie Brickford-Smith. Each one is designed with a print that goes along with the theme or something that occurs in the story (like flamingos on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) making every one of these a work of art. They retail for $20 each, but are available on amazon.com for $13.80 each. Hopefully there will be more of these to come!

Fin Riggins - Wake (Keep This Town Alive)

This is one of my all time favorite music videos. Not only is this a great song, but the video itself is so bright and creative. I feel like with lower budget videos a lot more creativity comes out. I think it's important to keep this in mind in context with many other things as well. Enjoy...

Pike Place Market

This is what I wore when I went to Seattle a few weeks ago. My friend and I decided to more thoroughly explore Pike Place Market as I hadn't really done so previously due to my tendency to avoid crowds. But I now officially have two favorite shops in that area - Antiques at Pike Place and Left Bank Books.

The antique store is pretty large and has an amazing selection of items. I saw innumerable things that I loved, from vintage dresses and sunglasses to vintage books. I was especially interested in a set of F.Scott Fitzgerald books from the 1950's, which I sadly had to pass up, but I will definitely be doing some more through shopping there sometime soon.

Left Bank Books is a new and used book shop with a great selection considering the size. They specialize in political works, but had a great selection of fiction literature as well. I was especially ecstatic to notice that they had a small section that was specifically dedicated to beat literature, which is a personal favorite of mine.

If only you would give your life to literature....

As a lover of literature, I've always really loved the cover art on books. Unfortunately, I feel like this is going to become a dying art form as e-readers become more popular and people gradually buy less and less physical books. Thankfully though I'm not the only one with this concern. Out of Print clothing specializes in tee shirts featuring the cover art of the classics as well as of any books with visually interesting cover art. Not to mention, for every shirt sold they donate a book to a community in need. I'm really looking forward to getting a few of these and already ordered the Catcher In the Rye one a few days ago and can't wait till it comes! Below are some of my favorites, all are available in both men's and women's tee shirt styles and can be found at http://www.outofprintclothing.com/

Kurt Halsey

Some of my favorite works by my favorite artist, Kurt Halsey Frederiksen. Enjoy!