Stylish with Substance

Shoe-note: Yes, I'm a poet.

Happy Holidays to all! I know we're a little late for Yule and Channukuh, but happy holidays to truly all!!

Little Gifts...

For the guys... eye candy!

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For the girls... Discount Designer Shoes! (or just Shoe Porn!)

Discounted ... on BlueFly.

This is an actual image and dress (and boots) on eLUXURY (affiliate-free). It's frightfully hilarious that they've set up the model to look like a DON'T from Glamour (with those black rectangular shades), as if this is more link bait than something to sell (and actually the product page is for the sweater).

The dress has two black fabric strips to cover her "bits" that happen to look like censor marks, and between them what appears to be pantyhose for her midriff.

The third crazy (but true???!) "straw" is the toe-less boots. WHY? WHY toeless boots?!

I really hope this is not what the future fashion holds, what with her angular hairstyle and ode to The Matrix sweater.

I feel like I'm in some horrible alternative reality right now, it's true. Is it???

Whatever you deserve or your loved ones can afford, you must be wishing for something this holiday season. (Whether it's someone, a saved world, cash or a designer bag from Santa's sack.)

Now this poll's anonymous, so be perfectly honest about what thoughtful gifts you hopefully receive you wish would count in the monetary sense.

If there's no answer that sums up your truly nice and generous wishes, leave a comment with your "other".

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What's a bagista (a designer handbag lover) to do to mix her man (or woman) and her fabulous bags that, let's face it, may not be so male-friendly?

Follow this series starting soon here on Bag Dream! Upcoming topics:

• Size Matters : of your bag (what size purse to carry on early dates and when it's OK to let loose).


• Commitment: Dating and Variety of Purses : will a large rotation of bags / a new purse each date freak out your mate? Proceed with caution and gauge his comfort level.


• IT Intimi-date-tion : will expensive bags freak out your mate? Gauge your brand level introduction-timing by his purseonality type.


• Mr. Big (Bag) : Find comfort in finding who actually carries a bag larger than any of yours? (AND it's a manly-man bag at that!) Find out what activity this guy does that forces this!


• Meet the Purses (more important than meeting the parents) : When it's OK to introduce your fave IT bag (the one that surely just looks craziest to the male of our species).


• Lesbian Dates : How to feel out her purse-type-comfort.


• Explain Your Other Love According to his Purseonality : How to explain your purses to your guy (depending on his personality type).


• For the guys: poll(s?)!


• From the guys: opinions straight from their mouths (or typing hands).

P(urse).Script. As the series concludes, we should lead right into Valentine's Day, which will come after some V-Day bag suggestions!

Post.Purse.Script : Yes, the Designer Ella has found someone and is not at all jealous when discussing the big L! (No, not just Louis Vuitton anymore!) (Btw, yes, he's My Mr. Big Bag, lol. A purse-fect match!)

If you want to catch this series, then you may want to subscribe to our feed or bookmark/blogroll the site.

We recently started polling YOU on what we/I should write about here on Kiss Me Stace. You can add topics by clicking the "add an answer" link, typing, and hitting "vote". (See the placement in the above image.) Or you can vote for already-listed topics, just like a regular poll.

I needed to inform you about this because the only response so far is a vote for this very post (how to suggest topics). Clearly that shows a two-fold reason. You need to know about it and there's *some* wondering how this works, at least.

Can't find the poll? See another screen cap that might help below this mini review of the service we started using first, and what we use now (a "simple" plugin). Basically it's on the sidebar to the very right under the rotating topical poll.

I was using Skribit (research on Google) to do this, until I realized that they don't allow for placing different polls on multiple blogs. Well, they will soon, but for a subscription fee. This is nuts for a network of blogs, and a blogger who can get topic blocks. Especially since this can easily be done with the Democracy Poll plugin for WordPress blog platforms. Free and so simple! (One can still use the plugin for other polls / polls in posts, but I usually don't since the new WP version and it mix a little funky. Blablabla...)

OK so here's that promised image guide:

Feel free to have fun using this poll if you want a review of or opinion on something related to this blog!

poll closed.

This year's sweater boots, even the Uggs (one pair below), are less ug' - at least to me - because they're inspired by a huge craft trend. The mini scarf secured by cute/simple/large/any buttons.

One thing some of you Ugg haters won't mind is that these boots are shearling and animal-cruelty free, as far as we can tell.

And don't they just look cozier to the eye?

Shop by your budget:

Impressive:

Ugg "Cardy" - ~$140

Recessive:

Miss Me "Cupcake" - ~$60

This new Mac Book looks great, mix the Mac Book green with pro and make it small (13" width, widescreen would be nice) and it could be my next computer.

It's a good thing the economy is the way it is though, because there is no mention of this machine on Apple.com whatsoever. Or any sign of it being purchasable in the near future. No "Froogle" or news jumps out at me. (And I'm demanding and require that for it to count as marketed.)

The worst thing is that Apple.com's search doesn't make any sense, they promote random movies when I search for what should be Apple products. Is this some lame iTunes tie-in? That's just what it is, lame.

Add a page for every product and/or ad you serve to TV Apple, god, I thought you were smarter than that!

At least(???) we can enjoy the above ad, but it's kind of like the fairy tale that is the rest of our hopes for bettering our planet. It's not like I don't trust Barack Obama, it's just that well, it's lame duck season, and unfortunately that doesn't mean hunting.

A foot note, kudos to YouTube for their new video embed. Not only does it work well with WordPress, but it matches almost any site, which is so tempting now that there are so many other embeddable video sites! I just wish the Google affiliation with it could fit into my layouts (sidebars) like these vids do my posts!! (However we can go straight to YouTube to get Google code for single videos or multiples, so although it won't fit most sidebars, it's a great step!) (Of course, getting revenue from embedding YouTube videos into posts is also huge incentive!)

*Update* Vote for this story on these social / "green" sites here:

• @Digg


• @ PlanetChange


• @ MindBodyGreen


• @ Care2

They're not extremely cheap but they may be tacky, or are they? Melissa's rubber shoes are rumored to be eco-friendly, but what about durability, eh?

My pick from the plastic alterna-fashion are these T-Straps, classic black of course. What do you think? (Vote below.)

Buy from Browns.com - $102

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