Festivus Features

I’ve been pretty lazy the last week (I’m in a vacation induced haze) so I’m just getting around to this now…sad right? Anyhoo, these were a few of my favorite Christmas gifts this year.

Old edition of Treasure Island

Classic black converse

Handmade ornaments from my BFF

Giant faux canary diamond ring from Macy's

Bib necklace from H&M

Greatest book (and website) ever

A bottle of my favorite perfume - Angel

New copy of the Exorcist, my favorite movie

Yeah, I'm a professional nerd (and you can see me here in all my sweatpants and bed head and non-made up glory clutching my shiny new copy of Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England)

Any Mad Men fans?

Darling ModCloth ring that I've wanted for months

That's a MAC lipstick in my favorite shade (Hue) and those are bow ties for my cats

Sweet new kicks

And, of course, it’s New Years Eve tomorrow! I’m heading to the casino with my helpmeet and two friends for a night of gambling and drinks (always a good mix) – what are your exciting plans to usher in 2011?

In other news, I did some Boxing Week shopping and scored BIG TIME! Think leopard print jackets, sparkling skirts, and skinny cut pants at AMAZING prices (and I bought a tiara - it sounds like a weird thing to buy but I actually collect them so it's slightly less odd) – so watch for those in some upcoming outfit posts.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

This Christmas

This was my jaunty little Christmas day outfit – I drove up to Lowell MA with my helpmeet (well he drove because I have never had (and hope never to have) a driver’s license) for dinner and a slumber party with some grad school friends. It was a perfect day of food, wine, horror movies, and a Donkey Kong marathon.

coat: H&M coat / hat: Aldo

But when we drove home the next day we got hit with a blizzard on the road.

Swannish

I went to see Black Swan last week! I thought it was visually stunning but not as suspenseful as I had hoped (I wasn’t really surprised at all by the ending and had sort of figured from the get go that it would play out like that). But I did enjoy it. Anyway, here was my black swan inspired movie look (I kind of waffled on the shoes a bit).

skirt: Joe Fresh / shoes: Aldo / boots: Thom Brown / top: Gap

And this had nothing to do with anything but I’ve been thinking a lot about vacations lately and remembering the greatest one that I ever took – to lovely Edinburgh. Every since then I think about returning there at least once a week. Here’s why.

all images from my weheartit archive

Then the Feats of Strength

Happy Festivus everyone! I’m enjoying a delightful morning of coffee, pastries, and present opening with two very excited kittens and a slightly (only less slightly) excited husband before we drive off for an overnight Festivus trip to Lowell MA to visit some grad school friends for dinner and drinks and general merriment. But I wanted to take this opportunity to announce that I’ve drawn a name in the Fabulous Festivus Giveaway 2010 and the lucky winner is: Cheryl of Oh To Be a Muse!

Congratulations, Happy Festivus, and I will be contacting you shortly in order to get your mailing addressing (bonus: the big prize of the ModCloth gift certificate is an electronic code so you can start you’re shopping there immediately without waiting for the rest of your goodies to arrive in snail mail).

First, the Airing of Grievances

It’s Festivus eve! And I’m typing away on my dissertation…wow, that’s sad. But I have lots of twinkly lights, adorable fur babies, and a super awesome helpmeet to keep me company so it’s all good.








This is Penelope. Not pictured is her intrepid brother, Lord Conker Bonkers IV (also known as Roodles, Jubbles, Jumbles, Roo, Conky)

And I’m looking forward to drawing a winner tomorrow in my festivus giveaway – IT’S YOUR LAST CHANCE TO ENTER SO DON’T FORGET. And Happy Festivus to everyone – I wish you all the best, including a low stress Christmas day. Here's the link: Festivus giveaway.

And, if you're in the giveaway mood, Colette over at Statements in Fashion is having a great one right now ($50 at F21 great).

I also wanted to share this positively beautiful and inspirational post from the fabulous blog Already Pretty. This is one of my favorite daily reads and this post is absolutely amazing so please please please check it out.

Orca Out and About

Remember how I said that I wore my ludicrous whale hat to my graduate school holiday party a week ago? Well here’s the photographic proof. I got a lot of weird looks. Then I snapped a few campus photos, because the neo-gothic architecture is pretty.









Don’t forget to enter my Festivus giveaway



And now, because it's the holidays and we should all try to give something back (and not just during the holiday season), here's a list of various bloggers and the charitable organizations that they give to every year as compiled by Robyn over at Twitch Vintage. As Robyn describes it: "here are a list of charities chosen by other bloggers. Please feel free to repost your own version of this blog with these images and links if you feel so moved. Also please leave links to your own charities of choice in the comments. I will happily add them to my list as the day goes on." And I will do the same so feel free to leave links here and I'll add them to the post!


Paige of Barefoot And Vintage gave to Casa Pacifica
Indiana of Adored Austin gave to Music for the City
Merl of Clyde's Rebirth gave to a few local shelters where she has received her famous cats, Clyde and Mo
Nickie of Wild As A Mink gave to Barc Shelter
Lisa of Archives gave to Dire Straights Animal Companion Rescue
Grace of Money Smart Fashion gave to Last Chance Animal Rescue, Inc.
Alyson of Alyson is Neat gave to Invisible Children
Robyn of Twitch Vintage gave to All Children's Pediatric Research
Courtney at Sartorial Sidelines gave to Oxfam
Kristin at BonBon Rose Girls gave to Share Our Strength
Penny Dreadful Vintage gave to Oxfam
Pamela at Call me Ishmael gave to Love146 and The Giving Spirit and Environment California

Tag, You're It

As I mentioned a few days, I was tagged by Marie from Marie a la Mode to come up with my five current loves and to answer 5 questions about myself -- so here it is!

Five things I love right now:

Wedges (I'm amassing quite the collection)

Sequins (who doesn't love a little sparkle?)

Fluevog Boots (specifically the Griffith Park model. My reigning ambition in life right now is to someday own a pair of these. I know, I aim high)

Leopard Print (in all fairness I always love this, it’s not a new thing)

Cameos (I’m crazy for these lately, they’re just so elegant and classic)

Favorite makeup brand?

I actually have three and I can’t really pick a favorite because I get so many products from Avon, Almay, and MAC – I really like the quality of all these lines and they’re cruelty free (which is a priority for me).

Favorite clothing brand?

H&M, with Zara a really close second

Indispensable makeup product?

Wow, this is a tough one – I think I’ll have to go with Almay mascara, I always always always have it on hand and I never leave the house without a quick application

What country would like to visit and why?

I’m an English historian and so any chance I get to travel to England I jump on but two years ago I spent a week in Scotland and I fell in love. It’s my number one vacation destination and I have a secret (okay, it’s not secret anymore) desire to one day live there – the chilly northern climate, rocky landscape, incredibly rich history, and grey stone castles are just my ideal of scenic beauty. Plus I’m a huge bagpipes fan (seriously, I have an album by the Gordon Highlanders on my IPod. Scary, no?).

What is the last concert you've been to?

I’ve been to a few gigs at local Connecticut music spots like The Space and Café Nine in the last few months and on my recent trip to Canada I saw a friend’s band play but the show I want to mention here was seeing my awesome friend’s band This Is A Standoff perform in London and Brighton this past August. They are an amazingly talented Canadian punk band and just happened to be on a European tour while I was living in England this summer.


I tag Flower Pony, Call me Ishmael, and Penny Dreadful Vintage (totally awesome sauce blog name BTW) if they are so inclined because, ladies, I’ve always wanted to get inside your heads.

Don’t forget to enter my Festivus giveaway at http://sartorialsidelines.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-festivus-for-rest-of-us.html