As a long-time Vanity Fair subscriber, I’ve become more of an obsessed lover than casual reader. I love all of their features and generally agree with all of their politics, and they manage to strike the perfect balance between serious, think-piece articles, and really indulgent and glamorous pictures of celebrities and obscure royalty partying. Theresa and I have shared our love of the Proust Questionnaire at the back of every issue; I flip to it immediately when I get my hands on the new issue. I wait every year with breath that is bated for the Hollywood Issue, which includes a multi-page cover spread of all the hot young up-and-coming starlets, and a bigger focus on the year in entertainment inside. Annie posted a photo on Instagram of her (first ever!) copy as she was waiting for her flight to Geneva, and, brimming with jealousy, on my commute home that night I silently prayed for my copy to magically appear in my mailbox when I walked in the door. And IT DID. Powers of magical influence: ACHIEVED.

The cover was shot by renowned photographed Mario Testino (his first time with a Hollywood Issue, isn’t that crazy?), was styled after the old Hollywood glamour of a different era, and features plenty of pretty, young actresses. One of those pretty, young actresses happens to be Rooney Mara, of “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” who has managed to climb the ranks and attain the position of My Number 1 Girl Crush (sorry, Clemence Poesy). This behind the scenes video of the cover shoot is super beautiful and just makes me skin all tingly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXBqatQhc8w

I posted this on 365 last night, but can we just take a look at how stunning she is? Come on with that Louise Brooks hair-d0. Rooney, you’re killing me. I would have taken 11 different versions of just her on the cover, no offense to the rest of the ladies.

Aaand it’s Monday again. I don’t know how this keeps happening! First it’s Friday night and I’m at a bar drinking whiskey sours and then wham! I’m waking up Monday morning to my alarm, all four of Fitz’s legs pressing into my back and the sound of his snoring filling up the room (also, dude totally needs a bath because he’s starting to smell like Doritos). I’m told that this sensation of time flying by only gets worse the older you get. I become less excited about being 25 every day. Somebody’s got a case of the Mondays!

To counteract my fussiness, I’ve compiled the submissions I received for the “What’s In Your Bag?”/”Match the Blogger!” game. There are 4 entries, and they are all really interesting. I love seeing what you guys carry around and how organized you all are! Okay ladies, let’s take a peek:

Love that wallet….and the tube of red lipstick!

The bag might be a giveaway. But lady, you had me at your Lego Hermione keychain. (How did I not know you were a Harry Potter fan??)

 

 Kudos for including a grocery list! I swear by that Rosebud Salve for chapped lips in the winter, too.

Those gloves are fierce! And I love that you carry an iPhone and an iPad. Go Apple!

Think you know which bag belongs to which blogger extraordinaire? Ready to see if you’re right?

Read more

In the United States, we have many, many odd, wonderfully confusing traditions which, to the rest of the world, seem both bizarre and stereotypically American. Gorging ourselves on turkey and stuffing on the 4th Thursday in November to remember our rampant and institutionalized slaughter of the Native American people and to give thanks for all the flat screen TVs we have. Thousands of rednecks gather in a stadium and chug beers to the point of oblivion while watching shiny cars drive in really fast circles over and over again; in the South, NASCAR is a religion. Every New Year’s Day in Philadelphia, large (“straight”) Irish and Italian men dress up in exuberant outfits of sequins and feathers and compete in coordinated dances to string music with hand-decorated floats with more sequins and feathers behind them down Broad St. We call them Mummers, and no one questions it.

But perhaps weirdest of all is that society as a whole abandons all previous meteorologic framework on February 2nd, and bases the duration of the winter season on whether or not a groundhog sees its shadow. Take a second to read that again. And not just any groundhog, no no, but rather one particular groundhog-cum-weatherman named Punxsutawney Phil. Punxsutawney Phil is so popular, in fact, that 15,000 idiots get out of bed at dawn to see him. There is even an advertising campaign for the Pennsylvania Lottery that features a groundhog named Gus, “the Second Most Famous Groundhog in Pennsylvania.” It’s really strange.

Every February 2nd, men dressed up like Ebenezer Scrooge gather round some poor groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and hoist him in the air after he emerges from his hole. If he “sees his shadow” the prediction is there will be 6 more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, it means Spring will come early.  Apparently, Phil is always right, even though he’s only not seen his shadow 16 times in the past 125 years. No even bats an eyelash. Nevermind that it’s been in the 60s the past week, the enormous squirrel says MORE WINTER.

I COULDN’T MAKE THIS UP IF I TRIED.

So what’s a girl to do? Apparently we’re going to be stuck with winter until the end of March, which means no cute, colorful spring-y clothes. I have so many sleeveless tops I’d love to wear but I don’t radiate enough body heat to pull it off if the temperature is below 90. I saw the headband below at Topshop and fell in love with it (I even tried to include it in my Wear in the World guest post over at Theresa’s blog, but it didn’t work), and it immediately made me think of spring, Phil be damned.

1. Headband / 2. Pants / 3. Top / 4. Cardigan / 5. Bag / 6. Shoes / 7. Sunglasses / 8. Lipstick / 9. Nail polish

For those of you in warmer climates, just know how grumpy I am that you could pull this off whenever you wanted. Though I have to say, spring or not, I don’t think I’m the kind of girl who could ever pull off this much color without feeling like people were pointing and laughing. What about you?

Oh, and foreign friends, please do not judge me too harshly for being American after this post. I’m just as embarrassed as you are.

Happy February! The month of January flew by, didn’t it? I successfully completed 1/12th of my 365 Project by shooting and posting 1 photograph a day for the entire month. This surprises even me. I think the fact that I put myself on the line by making this project public is causing me to take it, you know, seriously. One down, 11 to go.

To kick February off, I have an analogy for you. This post is what would happen if this post from Tina and this post from Theresa got together for one magical night and had a baby. Basically, I have been obsessed with a Flickr pool called “What’s In Your Bag?” for YEARS. It’s like a compulsion, I cannot stop checking out what people post. If you hadn’t guessed, people take a photograph of the contents of their bag and add it to the group. It’s fascinating and totally feeds the voyeur in me, seeing what hundreds of random strangers carry everyday. Sure, there are really boring ones, and lots of shots by teenagers with Hello Kitty sketchbooks, and even the occasional photograph containing a handgun or knife (??!?!), but there are some real gems in the nearly 15,000 photos in the pool. Fifteen thousand! Obviously it keeps me occupied. I love ones where the picture is not only thoughtfully styled, but there is just enough shown to make me wonder about the owner.

Here are some of my favorites: 

 from here

from here

from here

 from here

So, obviously I couldn’t resist doing my own. I’ve done two before:

winter 2009

summer 2010

But now that I’ve been the proud owner of a new MBMJ Hillier for 2 days, I felt like it was time to do one more:

winter 2012

Not included is my Canon, since I was using it to take this picture. My mom bought me this galaxy scarf for Christmas, and I think it adds an interesting touch to the otherwise perfect bag. You guys, it is PERFECT. It fits under my arm without any issue, even over my peacoat. I’m carrying the exact same amount of stuff as I was in my last bag, but the weight difference is staggering. I don’t even notice it on my shoulder, whereas before I was getting horrible pains in my shoulder blades from the concentrated pressure. Pay no attention to my cheese-tastic smile in my work ID. (Also, Dracula is getting scary. Van Helsing just made his first appearance!)

Okay, ladies. You knew this was coming: I want to see what’s in your bags. Come on! Post a picture in the comments if you’re feeling up to it. Feel free to edit out things like receipts and gum wrappers and such. Or your handgun, whatever.