Stylish with Substance

BagBunch.com has recently posted a very popular and controversial argument against celebrities appearing charitable yet lavishing themselves with luxury purses. Read the article to learn a thing or two, if nothing else. But what are the ethical answers to my two questions: #1 Does a good person not deserve the best of what they love if it barely adds up to their total income? #2 Do you consider celebrities receiving free gifts so they in turn advertise the merchandise?

Feel free to discuss this issue here or on the original webpage.

I've included this "quiz" the webmaster suggests other sites share:

(A public service announcement.)

There are times, days, and longer stretches when a woman doesn't feel her best. When this happens to you, whatever you do, don't lay around depressed. Get out there, do errands, meet friends or just take a walk. And no matter how you feel, exhausted, hot, sweaty, whatever---push through the "pain" and walk like you're on the catwalk. Yes, find your supermodel strut every woman has. May I suggest, unless you prefer not, wedges or heels as well. Put one foot in front of the other, quite literally, hold your head up high, and this is a time when it's okay (and will help you concentrate on keeping up the pace) to pout, also like on the runway. There might be a reason even models pout, they have woman problems, too, and it's a chore to walk so perfectly - yet while it's a chore it makes you feel as good as accomplishing such work. Despite that pout it will cheer you up, you'll feel your womanly power and you might even get to your destination more quickly. I also bet it's better than a leisurely stroll for burning calories and building muscle.

Find your inner supermodel strut and confidence will shine from you, and it will even seep into your mood!

Chloé has put out soo many fantabulostest bags this season, it's mad! Many aren't happy with new (and recently sacked) designer, Paulo Melim's clothes, but come on - those bags! I'd hire him if I didn't do all my own designing and well, owned a huge company. ;-) Just for bags, of course. To me, this will be Chloé's big year, aside from 2005 - there are just way too many bags I'm dying to blog about, even with my newer philosophy to stick to only the most notable (good or bad).

So yes, I'm behind this Spring... and where to start? Well why not where I have a little pun already popped into my mind - even though it's just an update on my favorite, and I recently blogged about the Paddington, but oh well! It's a fave for a reason, perhaps.

Yes, the Paddy, that I have dubbed...

The Pattenton

Basically, the Paddy's out in patent now, which actually is notable for a bag known largely for its smooshy leather. I say since they recently failed to keep up with the quality, why not just go patent? Not forever, but it's amusing, aaaaaaand surprisingly gorge! I love the matching tone on the new padlocks, too, and that blue is giving me cravings! Other tiny details were altered, as well, which always keeps the bag-candy browsing interesting ... even if I can't afford such a bag right now. And it's not one I can easily "copy" and make, either. But that does just keep the love deeper.

If you want to and can snatch one up - good luck - Paddies are widely sold out, at least online.

I had a piece of code in the main template file that handles most pages that worked fine until it didn't. I didn't upgrade the script, or make any changes. I swear, I may be a loon with no memory (ooh! shiny! look! a squirrel!) but this bit of code was there, all was fine, I did nothing, bam.

It's all fixed now. I know about when this happened, too. I should have known to check on the site when views dropped to 0, but we just came back and then i hadn't posted in a few days so I thought it was normal. Well, at least it wasn't??? Heh.

Enjoy the site, yeap, no real new posts at the moment, but maybe I'll try to update as soon as I can to make up for the lack of everything.

Even though the Paddington is my favorite designer bag, it's not for the lock. In fact, it's quite despite it's more silly features and is largely about those side belts.

But the silliness does not end at that huge padlock, I suddenly this morning found myself pondering why the Chloé brand is so insistent on using only the silver-tone (nickel?) metal for their zippers, no matter how aged-brassy the rest of the hardware is. Apparently it glides better - but the problem is the bag is still a pain in the tush to zip up! Half the time those unsecured ends come undone.

I'd say give us a little less "quality" metal and give us a feature that will actually help speed up the toting of this purse, because most of us just "fling the lock over", and we could use at least one easier step.

... On the other hand, it kind of tickles me that the bags may seem fake to some when they are the true ones (however I've never seen a matchy-matchy fake, sigh).

Now I must go remind "Choccy" I love her. ("Mama didn't mean it!")

I'm amusing myself with ridiculousness this afternoon. Labeling it and putting it away, not to worry over but placing it in a file for chuckles when needed. Why obsess over media icons - why force one's body to the pain over footwear with spikes to the rear of the soles - why does a fashionista have to love shoes at all---or even follow a single rule of our couture culture - why not let go of any girlish trappings you never wanted? And yes! Hold on to one's website when the site-mistress's feelings toward the subject changes - why can't a blog be living and growing as well the human behind it?

You know this is where I've been for a while (and it has nothing to do with most recent silence - that I think is busy-ness, health and different types of changes - irrelevant in the long-run, don't worry) - BUT have I mentioned that I now, well, can't stand shoes? Mm Hmm. This site started as purely (and fluffily) a shoe blog. With "candy" and star ratings (wow I purchased too many pairs if I was able to serially review them---but it was Zappos with their return policy..). I still could never have too many bags if I were true to my heart and had the magic powers to defy capitolism.... but shoes, well they're necessary, and I wear them of course .... OK not all the time, I will hop in a car to my best friend's house without ever changing from terry slippers! But yes, I even still INSIST I MUST wear CUTE shoes ... and now living in Florida, it's easier. I pretty much only wear/buy Easy Spirit sandals and wedges (yes, wedges my friends, their WEDGES are more comfortable than most flats!) and I don't have to worry about widths. But god - the last time I bought shoes was after moving (and thus needing more of those sandals) last Fall. (And I only plan on one new pair in the recent future - I want sandals in pink!)

So yes, I've sworn off heels, and all designer shoes forever, and will only maintain a mild affection---purely aesthetic and on the Internet -- it's still fashion, it's visual art.

And yet (here we are after an insanely long intro) I have a new blog among my favorites, and it's a shoe blog. How writer, Katie, from Shoe La La, can call herself a shoeaholic when each of her posts are so wittily spot-on with their critiques of the silliness of this crazed-after accessory and are so "shamelessly" reasonable ("Oh no she di'in't just type a synonym for "practical"? Oh girlfriend!), yes, reasonable. A woman - a shoeaholic woman. Dissing the glass slipper (even I love the glass slipper at heart - my name is a Cinderella pun, doi) was the post I first discovered thanks to Google images, with her words mimicking my feelings so deeply---and then recent posts---confessions on walking in high heels and sexy-exercising---graphic-edits and craft-name dropping while she unmasks the label "hobby" from the shopaholic disease (shushies!)---and more! *Thump-thump. Thump-thump.* She has my heart and sole.

Her bio confesses how her guilty pleasure developed, and assures, even furthers my blog crush (coining a term here, folks, pay attention) for her. I bet, for her, when the shoe fits she does buy it in every color and wears it happily, for she can appreciate the rarity. *Swoon.*

Yes, blog crush! I want to give her presents ... like hosting where she can earn money from Google Adsense and a divine header logo and custom blog template.... (and not to mention the Google link juice I'm now gving.) I want to claim her with the roses of the Internet! And not just to gain benefit, but because I like her!

Oh but I know she's too good for me - SEO be damned her blog titles are short and merely perfectly creative with not one keyword a necessity. Sighhh.. She smells so sweetly of integrity and perhaps even "not for profit"...

But as I continue to follow her posts, there will always be something. I don't even know where she lives in the real world, but in my heart it works. We have that olive (insert any food here) love/hate thing. I will consume handbags and she will consume shoes. And I know we'd both wear pants. Mine will mostly be sweatpants and even pajama pants, whether it's that same slippers-day or even walking up the street to my friend's house. "Cause rules be damned when you don't even pass anyone on the way - this is a new world of freedom in gender roles! (A world where a woman was a huge candidate for President, and although that goal's ruled out again for a while longer, at least the pantsuits are gone. Roles/schmoles, a woman can't deny her hips!)

Oh and speaking of pants - get your butt over there to read every last post of Shoe La La now. Whether you love shoes or hate them, too, whether your blog-sexuality is straight or what -- I know you will love this blog as much as I do!

Just don't like the blogger as much as I do - ok?

Apple Computers is giving us working proof that environmentalism fails in the face of business. If a company produces things made of solar power, we think that's green, as in environmentally-friendly, right? But if that company attempts to patent this technology, therefore not wishing to share/spread/encourage all competition to do the same (we're not in competition when the Earth's life is at stake though!) - that's not about saving the world at all, it's about getting the edge = getting the green, but not lush leafy green; dark, dirty dollar signs green.

Dirty is right! And it's not sexy. Sure, sitting out on my back patio un-plugging away on my fully wireless-ness until I can't take the global Florida heat anymore sounds like an attractive prospect, but this - it's not "hot". In fact, I find it rotten.

*Update*

We don't regularly post eco blogs, so I'm going to list here the green social bookmarking sites we've submitted this post to, and actually link to the permalink there. Vote if you agree, and/or comment if you do or don't!

• @ Plant Change


• @ Hugg


• @ Mind, Body, Green


• @ Green Voice


• @ Care2


• @ NewsLadder (progressive politics / causes)
  


• @ Mixx *This site just has a green category, and I'm probably about to add it to our links here.

You know the problem well, you can't block it from your mind. The low-long-hemmed unbuttoned jacket swinging away from the widest point of ample thighs/hips... Hilary Clinton and her "pantsuits" (more on that ridiculousness later)...

 

But it never happened, she never got a lifelong-style makeover from the gurus at What Not to Wear. What a picture, the secret footage, exactly like what I described above, the Clinton puns (there must be puns, I say) and... the bra fitting.

 

And now it's over. Not only might Hilary's political career be over, but she now has no hope of dressing her womanly body as it should. First legitimate female candidate for president of the United States?? Come on, she's not that female. (Her lack of humanity she increasingly displayed not withstanding, itself.)

What NOT to Wear: Old-Lady Pants Suits

What TO Wear: A nice pin-striped menswear suit. Hem cut at the actual hips (think where a baby rests against a woman's side, on occasion).

;-)

Clinton - forget flag pins, try on the stripes!

And even male nerds. It's at 1:12...

Normally even I wouldn't think fashion could sway away presidential votes*, but .... ???WTF??? is that "tie"???!!!

I mean Hilary Clinton needs to go on "What Not to Wear". Picture that blue suit from her "no decisions" speech unbuttoned and flapping away from her hips. *Shudder*

I don't think Clinton (as in Clinton Kelly of Stacy and Clinton from WNTW*) wanted her to get more votes from the publicity (*see, not Hilary Clinton herself, she'd fight to get Iraq to vote for her if she could). I'm hoping that's the reason she didn't go on to get a makeover. *innocent smile* Shame, really.

Video Star, John's original blog post.

In my last article I tried to convince all chic geeks NOT to lust after a computer merely for its pink sheen, when instead we can have a perfectly tailored skin.

Whether you have your laptop or are about to buy one, you can go to SkinIt.com, pick your 'puter and choose from numerous designs, photoshop-up a large image or opt for a mixture of any pictures, a solid color, etc. - many options here for the uber-geek-artiste to the laywoman or even the lazy woman.

And you can skin more than just computers (although only laptop computers are an option); you can doll up anything from printers to headsets (wow). Check this page for a list and portal to all supported devices.

Extra benefits of going in just skin: protection from scratches and dirt AND you can collect new ones every so often (or a bunch at once) and switch them out with your mood, changing obsessions or when a trend is out. They're not super cheap, but to make your comp chic, at around $30 each, it's not comparatively expensive to dress your favorite toy/best partner than it is to dress your own ... skin.