Reason #457 I Am Single: Complete Apathy

Posted by Sarah on Mar 15, 2013 in Dating, Life, Vintage | 0 comments

Put a bird on it.

I used to think about dating. And having a dude around. And how fun it would be to go out to movies or go on mini road trips and get froyo and sandwiches (god, I love sandwiches) and talk about our favorite X-Man and why I don’t like The Beatles (which inevitably is a sore subject for every single person I’ve ever encountered in my 27 years). But then at some point I become super absorbed with my bachelorette lifestyle without even realizing it.

Instead of cruising OKC for guys without face tattoos (NOT AS EASY AS ONE MIGHT THINK) I got hooked on cracking jokes on Twitter and watching countless hours of Netflix and Hulu Plus. Who knew Pacey would be so good in a Sci-Fi show? Why didn’t I discover Fringe earlier? Geez. Going to the bar and hoping some random single dude that either wasn’t over the age of 45 -OR- under the age of 45 but without employment would walk in was replaced by sitting in my kitchen with my best friend screaming at each other even though we’re a mere 18 inches apart because that’s how we choose to communicate.

I completely forgot that I’m supposed to be on some sort of manhunt for the rest of my single days and just started having a life.

Single chicks are always so desperate to be dating someone or trying to date someone or finding someone to hook up with or being hung up on The Ghost of Relationships Past and then there is me. I’m not lonely. I’ve got a smattering of friends that I do things with all the time, ranging from playing Jurassic Park at the arcade to adventuring around the Berkshires. I love living by myself – I never have to close my bathroom door and as you might remember from this post, I’m madly in love with everything about my apartment.

At some point I decided to just live my life for me.

Sometimes I feel strange because I feel like I should be on the prowl like most other people I know, like I need to be hitting on dudes hard (in the illustrious words of Miss Ke$ha), going on dates, trying to be a desirable late 20-something chick but really, I’m much better at cross-stitching and thrift shopping for neck scarves because I’ve decided that THE CRAVAT is going to a spring trend (for only me). And FRANKLY, I would for once like a dude to put in the effort and find me. Let him be on the hunt for a weird quasi-hipster that orders delivery salads and has giant classes and consistently mismatched patterns. And maybe, just maybe a dude will magically appear and I’ll be like,

Hey, I’ve got 3 dogs, an obsession with the internet and my iPhone, a slew of nerdy activities I love, and a penchant coffee and cupcakes.

And he’ll think that’s cool and we’ll go on aforementioned roadtrips (CAN WE PLEASE STOP AT STARBUCKS?) and I’ll defend Gambit as my favorite to the grave, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy sitting here with three dogs surrounding and laundry spinning, plotting my next craft endeavor with grommets.

Guest Post: Accessorize Yourself: Jewelry Trends for 2013

Posted by Sarah on Jan 23, 2013 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

Jewelry plays a leading role in the creation of a look or outfit. Simply adding an embellished necklace or dramatic earrings can take something as bland as a t-shirt and jeans and transform them into a look fit for a Hollywood starlet. Unless you have the bank account of an Olsen twin or a generous benefactor, you probably aren’t in the market for a David Yurman ring or Balenciaga bracelet, but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo the latest jewelry fashions. Also, much like the jewelry trends of 2012, many of this year’s pieces are vintage-inspired and can be found in thrift shops or at a flea market.

While the boho/gypsy look continues to dominant runways with jewelry adorned with feathers and beading in brilliant colors, interesting, new jewelry fashions made anappearance at New York’s Spring 2013 Fashion Week. Elaborate pieces, such as outrageous necklaces garnished with pearls and golden seacreatures and wrist cuffs shaped like star fish, were just a few of the bold trends featured. Designers also upgrading the chunky jewelry look by adding luminous colors, odd shapes, and unique textures. Large, oversized cocktail rings are still, well, big this year; and flashy rings with huge gems or stone adornments will surely continue to grace the fingers of fashionistas this spring. With jeweled fashions becoming ostentatious centerpieces, scouting out peculiar, distinctive pieces becomes more like a treasure hunt than the average shopping experience.

Get Your Vintage On

In our younger years, we often spent hours playing dress up with our mothers’ garments, make up, and jewelry. Years later, many of us are still rummaging through grandma’s jewelry box and scouring estate and yard sales for classic pieces. Thrift and vintage stores are also great places to explore for antique finds—organization’s like the Salvation Army or Goodwill are excellent places for vintage jewelry hunting. You can also find vintage-inspired designs from online retailers and at most fashionable clothing shops. For a classic look, seek out pieces that are gold, rustic, contain intricate detailing, and gems. Even engagement ring designers are falling for the vintage style, and customized, antique-esque engagement rings from 77Diamonds are popular with modern brides, including a number of celebrities.

Go for Unconventional Styles

This season, designers are getting extra creative with their jewelry. Details such as fringes, layers, and funky prints and patterns are just a few of the new, edgy designs that are being flaunted on runways and in the streets. If you have a spunky sense of style then you’ll love the quirky pieces that are popping up this season. Designers are crafting stud earrings made to look like wedges of cheese, necklaces made from the ruminants of party
banners, and, for all you nerdy gamers, earrings featuring characters from old-school video games, and pieces based on junk foods and candy. From rings to necklaces to bracelets and watches, show off your witty, adventurous side with these fun, eccentric pieces.

If I wasn’t a raging hipster…

Posted by Sarah on Nov 12, 2012 in Fatshion | 1 comment

…I’d stop wearing long cardigans layered with more long cardigans and I’d have some very sleek, minimalist apartmetn decor. But I don’t.

Sometimes I look at my apartment and my clothes and I wonder what it would be like to complete overhaul everything. And then after 30 seconds, I realize that is a TERRIBLE idea and I would have to open up a vintage 1970s etsy shop for my apartment, and separate vintage polyester dress shop for my clothing. I recently went from a job where I had to wear business clothes everyday to a job where I can wear whatever I want.  Everyday, except for when we’re on the road.

And while I absolutely love the fact that I am wearing skinny jeans, a striped sweater from the Sarah Jessica Parker collection that was at Steve & Barry’s (WHAAAAT? Do you remember that?), my knee high boots, and my go to slouchy hat that I alternate with my other signature slouchy hat, sometimes…just sometimes I miss the fance.  And I never really know what to wear so I default to my jeans and hat and such. But was browsing the Spiegel website, and I put together a compromise of mixing some work wear with a bit of casual wear.

(Except I know I’m still going to be too lazy to actually put on something besides jeans and a wear shirt everyday. )

Reason #27 I am Single: My iPhone

Posted by Sarah on Jul 31, 2012 in Dating, Life, Vintage | 5 comments

I really love my iPhone. And not in a girly-OMG-LOOK-AT-MY-BEJEWELED-CASE sorta away. It doesn’t even HAVE a cool case. It isn’t filled with fashion blogs or girly shopping apps. My iPhone is a carefully organized extension of my body. It has a permanent place in my right hand. Even if I am not looking at it, I am touching it. And it’s been like this since 2008, when I first purchased that gorgeous iPhone 3GS and chatted up the sales dude to convince him that I should get the 15% discount for educators in New Hampshire, despite the fact that I was neither an educator nor a resident of New Hampshire. (And I still receive that discount, to this very day.)

My iPhone is for serious life business. Like breeding dragons and talking about breeding dragons with all of my other friends that have iPhones. It’s for long, drawn out games of Dice that I play until I am delirious at 2 am and just keep ROLLING THE DICE BECAUSE I NEED A GOD DAMN FIVE OF A KIND. My iPhone is for my huge tweeting habit that has me at 23,000 tweets, because I need to let the world know about my dogs, what I’m eating, and that I took my old lady cart out for a stroll to the grocery store. And of course, I instragramed pictures of nearly everything I just tweeted about.

My iPhone is basically a 5th limb.*

*I just googled “How many limbs do humans have?” on my phone, because I wanted to verify I knew the proper definition of limbs because I posted a big headline about them.

Oh, Macabee.

And the main reason my iPhone is such a problem, is that I have about 4 unhealthy text relationships with my close friends. What’s an Unhealthy Text Relationship (UTR)? The one where you don’t just send one text to respond, you send about 5, because you know the other person has an iPhone, so it just shows up as part of a conversation, and you really need to get out that 5 thoughts, even if 2/5 are “LOLOLOLOLOLOL” and “HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA.”  I have four of those to maintain, each assigned their own fancy text tone – and I have these UTRs because I need to talk about the following things with them:

• What dragons I may or may not be breeding or that I have finally summoned a third island
• Why Alice thinks breeding dragons is the dumbest thing in the world and judges me and El
• How long it has been since one of us has shaved our legs and if we’re planning on doing it anytime soon
• If that loud noise outside was fireworks or a gunshot -or- OMG DO YOU THINK SOMEONE NEW IS MOVING INTO THE EMPTY APARTMENT?
• How Mary can follow other people on instagram, because she’s having a hard time learning the iPhone
• Random emoji over and over again because for some reason, they just don’t get old