Gone Cloggin': The Affordable Edition

Photo source

Thanks to Chanel and Miu Miu, the fashion crowd has been embracing the new clog trend whole-heartedly. Well, not entirely whole-heartedly. There are definitely those who can't seem to look past the hated clogs of yesteryear. I understand, but my main hesitation when it comes to putting those backless babies on my feet has been entirely different. Sure, clogs are clogs, but I like 'em. Have you seen Alexa Chung in them? Super cute! My problem is that they're always so darn expensive. And yes, in my opinion, $100 Jeffery Campbell shoes are expensive. So what to do? As an obsessive online fashion geek, it was a simple matter to troll the web for some cheaper options. And since I made the effort, now you don't have to! You're welcome. Check it out:

1. Payless, $24.99. I'm rather partial to this pair, actually, although I couldn't tell you if they look really cheap in person. I do like that they're a reasonable height, though, and you know I'm always down for anything with studs.

2. Target, $24.99. Studs again! And they're from Target, aka my faaaavorite store! Clogs, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

3. Baker's Shoes, $69.99. These ones look a lot more like the Chanel ones people have been raving about. Only they're about a million times cheaper. Go get 'em, Tiger.

Reasons Why Print Will/Should Not Go Away

I love magazines, and I love books. That's pretty much a given if you so much as glance at this blog. And while I find the online ones fun and different, and while I find readers like the Kindle to be a convenient idea, the concept of print being replaced is enough to bring me to tears. Take one look around my room, and print is the overwhelming theme. The walls are completely lined with photographs torn out from the likes of Nylon, Elle, and Vogue. I have shelves and shelves of books, with magazines and stray novels scattered across the floor. Lula has its own cherished little section in my closet where the thick, glossy pages are safe from the possibility of spilled food or accidental crumpling. In short, I am obsessed with print.

I know there are plenty of people like me out there, but will we be enough to save print? In my opinion, that's really not the issue. Print-obsessed or no, I am increasingly convinced that the existence of print actually has a lot of things going for it. So let's talk about a few of them.

1. To me, this is the most important point. There's just something nice about being able to hold a publication in my hands. I like flipping the pages, being able to scribble hasty notes in the margins, or even clipping things out. I like the feel of smooth magazine paper and the different - but equally intoxicating - smells of books both old and new. I even like that the best-loved books are always the most worn out. There's something just so comforting and tangible about print. Also, as one of the editors at Boston Magazine pointed out the other day, what happens to bedtime stories if print goes away? It's not like the parent can say, "Okay, honey, go ahead and turn the page." There are no pages. Maybe the kid can click or scroll, but does that really have the same effect? A lot of parents don't like their children to touch expensive electronics, so there goes the idea of the child getting to hold the book too. And it will be a sad day when my future son or daughter can't run to the bookshelf and grab their favorite book for me to read. No, I don't think print could possibly decline to that extent. At least in the near future.

2. Print lends itself to being read on the toilet. It's just a fact. I'm not gonna bring my expensive Kindle into the bathroom, but a $6 paperback? Why not! Is that too much information to put out on the internet? Do I even care?

3. Sharing works better with print. You can't really lend your friend the magazine on your iPad or let them borrow that new book on your Kindle. They can buy it, but they can't really borrow it. I love sharing. It's easy on the pocket and definitely a bonding experience. Are we really willing to give that up?

4. Print has variety. I don't want to read from the same device every time. And I suspect others feel the same way. We're a world of short attention spans these days, what with the internet stimulating our brains every second. The last thing we need is a little tedium.

5. Experience shows that print isn't going away any time soon. We all have mp3 players now, but CDs are still around. Less popular, yes. Pushed to the background, yes. But they are very much present. If you're feeling iffy about this, take a look at your car. Does it have a CD player? I thought so.

Of course, there are a lot of pros to the end of print as well. The fact that we wouldn't have to make paper aka kill the environment, for example. Only - and I don't pretend to have done any research into this kind of thing - check out this quote from entrepreneur Jay Walker's TED talk:

"And what does a lump of coal have to do with the Internet? You see, it takes the energy in one lump of coal to move one megabyte of information across the net. So every time you download a file, each megabyte is a lump of coal."

Did you ever think about that?

Just saying there are multiple sides to every argument. And that print is here to stay.

What do you think about the end of print? Coming quickly, coming slowly, or not coming at all? How do you feel about it? Can you think of any more reasons why print is or isn't becoming obsolete?

What I've been up to the past year or so...

...writing poetry like the nerd that I am. I decided to share a poem of mine with you all, even though it makes me nervous to put something up that's so different from my usual bubbly fashion writing. Please be kind.

The best time to visit your old playground

is at night.

The moonlight glances

upon legs like skinned knees,

the sand clinging to them

when you kneel,

little pebbles leaving

dents in your skin

as if the memory of

schoolyard laughter were

trying to burrow underneath.

The chains on the swings rasp

eerie lullabies in the breeze, and

you can almost see the

little girl you once were

perched there,

kicking her legs,

ghostlike.

The trees are alive and

you are sleeping.

By the beech tree there

you made moss beds for

fairies and

tasted earth on your fingers,

traced the shape of your

grandmother’s face in the soil

when she passed,

tore the legs from

that spider once as a dare

and waited ‘til the other kids left to

whisper a quick prayer,

give it a hasty burial

beneath the jungle gym,

and blow it kisses you

would never waste on a boy

back then.

Even now you are

still sorry.

I think he’s still waiting for you

by the blacktop,

the boy with the curls you

used to twist and pull.

Walk over now and

lace fingers,

press kisses on his collarbone,

speed off in his

gray Honda

and wipe the cuts

from your knees and

tell him how happy you are

to leave this godforsaken town.

Do not mention how much

you miss it.

Simply Beautiful

Hello, darlings! I figured it was time to make good on my promise to post again, so here I am posting the very next day. I know, I'm proud of myself too!

It feels like a good time to rave about the absolute best beauty purchases I've made lately. Usually I just wash my face with Burt's Bees orange essence facial cleanser, throw on some generic drug store concealer, and call it a day, but there are two new additions to my beauty routine that are so wonderful I feel that it's my duty to share. They'll change your life - err, well, at the very least they'll change your beauty regimen - I promise. Lucky you!

Okay, first thing's first. Has anyone else tried H&M's new lip balm? It is glorious!

I usually wear plain old chapstick, because while lip gloss is more fun, I can't help but associate slickly shimmering lips with my painful middle school years. H&M's lip balm finds a perfect marriage between balm and gloss. It adds a bit of shimmer, but not too much, and it soaks into your lips just enough that you don't feel like your hair's going to stick to your mouth all day. Plus, despite the fact that it's labelled as vanilla-flavored, it pretty much just smells like warm, faint beeswax. Mmm. Doesn't taste bad, either, which is always a plus. And my perpetually chapped lips have never felt so smooth.

Moving on:

A long time ago I wrote that I was not a huge perfume fan. It seemed to me an invasion of other people's noses, one that they may not actually enjoy. However, this was before I stumbled upon The Scent That No One Could Possibly Hate. That's right - such a thing does in fact exist. And it's called Vanille Eau de Toilette by L'Aromarine.

I stumbled upon the cute French vintage-style bottle at Anthropologie the other day, and a little voice inside encouraged me to try spritzing a bit on my wrists. I sniffed hesitantly, then enthusiastically. This was it! The cheap perfume I had been looking for since I realized Serendipitous by Serendipity 3 and Pilar & Lucy's The Exact Friction of Stars were out of my price range. It smells like vanilla - warm, sugary vanilla. It's subtle enough that you could almost convince someone you weren't even wearing perfume, just lotion maybe, but strong enough that it doesn't wear away completely within a few hours. Plus, when the initial sugary scent fades, you're left with a quintessentially vanilla smell (kind of like slightly sweeter vanilla extract) that feels a bit richer and deeper than before. Mmm. It's my new favorite, especially at under $20 a pop.

My next step is to check out the rest of L'Aromarine's scents. The packaging is just too pretty to pass up! See for yourself.

Alright, folks. Have a great 4th of July! I'm off to Montreal for the weekend!

Epic?

Hi, everyone! Long time no see. I've been wanting to post for a while, but since it's been so long since I've written, I keep feeling like I can't post just anything. It has to be epic. Unfortunately, there seems to be a shortage of epic blog fodder around here, so I keep putting it off. Anyway, today I decided I was sick of waiting for something epic, and decided to just post. It's called living on the edge.

I did something kind of exciting since I last posted. I got a tattoo:

It's nothing super special - just a tiny crescent moon on my right shoulder - but I love it. It only shows when I'm wearing tank tops, so most of the time it's just my little (badass) secret. Kind of a confidence booster in the vein of wearing cute underwear when you're the only one who knows about it. Inner smiles and all that. Anyway, I think it's classy. I'm not so sure my mother agrees.

While I had my camera out to document my tattoo, I decided to snap a photo of my new ring as well. It's from Target (also known as one of my favorite stores in the universe), and it's shaped like a snake. I like looking down and feeling like I have a little friend snuggled around my thumb. Is that creepy?

As you can see, I also walked around carrying an amethyst all day. Ahem. Kidding. Bangles were a gift from a friend traveling in India. Nail polish is by Sinful Colors and is actually black with little blue sparkles in it. I'm a fan, even if it seems to chip within a day.

Sorry for the lack of epic-ness, and the lack of posting. I hope everyone's summer is going well. Mine certainly is. I've been interning in the editorial department at Boston Magazine and spending lots of time getting lost in the woods. Good stuff. Anyway, that's about all. I'll try to post again soon. If you're frustrated by my major suckage as a blogger (I know I am), check out my tumblr. It's still going strong.