New Obsession: Polyvore.com

Okay - so I am a clothes horse, as noted in many earlier blogs...but I may have found a solution for how to decrease the amount of shopping I do, but increase my exposure to clothes...www.polyvore.com.

This is a site I read about in an issue of New York magazine and thought I would check it out. Oh, goodness!

I was immediately hooked.

I have already teased you with how much I like the site in my last blog - but I just felt I could really dedicate an entire entry just to this site.

I really enjoy putting outfits together for different events. It's a fun and challenging exercise. Sometimes I'll come across a pair of shoes, earrings or a bag on the site or in a magazine, and I can build an entire outfit around that. Sometimes I have actual events in my own life (video shoots, working from home, dinner with friends, show openings/closings, date night) that I'd like to come up with different outfits and accessorize for. This site saves me from standing in my closet in my underwear for an hours wondering where to start. It also helps me to see what other "basics" would be great for me to have on hand to build a variety of outfits.

Additionally, there is an entire community and thousands of sets to look at for ideas. Really, you can create anything!

The best part about the site is that it's not just tweens. The woman in the New Yorker article is a professional woman who just happens to like clothes. Of course there is a huge Twilight following here - but that is kind of everywhere, now isn't it?

Here's the link to my sets...if you like clothes, check out the site!

Find me on Polyvore

This is the Crap You Need.

So last week I told you what crap you don't need...this is the crap you do:

1) TiVo or DVR. You are an active, popular, important person with things to do right? Your busy life shouldn't keep you from seeing all of your favorite shows. Maybe you aren't busy, maybe you spend plenty of time at home, but you opted to watch Twilight (again) and will catch up on 30 Rock over the weekend.


2) A Pandora account. Create the radio channels you like and vote thumbs up or down as songs play. It's free - with short ads running about every 5 songs or so, or for a reasonable fee, Pandora One, which is ad free and has a few additional perks. There are other options than Pandora, but I think it does the best job of feeling out my mood and playing just the right songs.

3) Some polarizing figure to admire. Mine is Chris McCandless (AKA Alexander Supertramp). Yes, he may be seen by some as a suicidal idiot full of nonsense and self-importance - or maybe he just wanted to say fuck it all, I'm going outside. I read Into the Wild more than a decade ago, but didn't see the movie until recently and it rekindled my sort of romance with Chris - his courage and bravado to reject the materialistic comforts afforded to him startled me and I admired it then, as I do today. Plus, someone else's failures and successes remind you you're only human, without the carpet burn.

4) Two sounding boards: A wacky creative artist for business dilemmas and a stuffy business type for creative problems. The creative artist is not aware of traditional "solutions" and therefore automatically offers unique and out of the box ideas and opinions. Same is true of the stuffed suit - they will apply business logic and statistics to your creative problem and help you to see through the clutter to the bare bones and hopefully, the heart of the piece. In both scenarios, you will be trying something different and avoiding making the same choices over and over.

5) A signature cocktail. Face it, it's just kind of cool. Plus it helps people to know what to have on hand when you're coming over. I like Presecco (Italian sparkling wine) and sometimes Frambois Lambic (Belgian raspberry beer that is also sparkling).


6) Some piece of clothing that makes any outfit special - and instantly says any ensemble you're wearing is your own. I have a blue pashmina I wear year round and it instantly dresses up anything I'm wearing, keeps me warm, keeps food off my clothes, provides an odor guard on public transportation, and goes with everything.

7) Some cool party trick or entertaining flair. Mine is an endless capacity to connect celebrities a la Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and making a kick-ass ice cream bomb dessert - which I always unmold in front of an audience.
Patty Duke to Kevin Bacon:
1. Patty Duke was in The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft
2. Anne Bancroft was in Keeping the Faith with Edward Norton.
3. Edward Norton was in Fight Club with Brad Pitt.
4. Brad Pitt was in Sleepers with *Kevin Bacon
or Patty Duke to Kevin Bacon:
1. Patty Duke was in The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft
2. Anne Bancroft was in The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman
3. Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Bacon were both in Sleepers.
or Patty Duke to Kevin Bacon:
1. Patty Duke was in Prelude to a Kiss with Alec Baldwin
2. Alec Baldwin was in She's Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon.
As for the ice cream bomb, you'll just have to hope for an invite.

8) Some awful work disaster that happened in the past by which to compare every other work disaster. "This is no worse than X...and I survived that" or "this isn't nearly as bad as X, I should just move forward". Or this is way worse than X, what did I do then that might help me now?


9) A sense of humor. And forgiveness for yourself when you think something is really funny, but it is only funny to you.


10) A good pair of earbuds/headphones to drown out everyone else. You're your own best company.

Starbucks Hour by Hour

Greetings loyal followers, friends, relatives and passers by!
I've been sitting in a Starbucks for a few hours now (nursing my extravagant grande skinny vanilla latte so as not to come off too moochy). I have to tell you, this place becomes a completely different scene every hour. Hour one, the soundtracks to both Dirty Dancing and Shag play loudly waking up the weary 9-5ers and coercing them to their trains, desks, and responsibilities.
Music shifts around 10 to the Paul Simon Graceland album (start to finish). I realize that I should always type to "Obvious Child" as I crank out 3 pages in record time.

Luckily today has been very productive. Since my morning interview (for some freelance writing) was cancelled, I cranked out three (3!) sketches and also got myself out of the house. My main task today is to put the finishing touches on Louisa and the Circle of Hugs(C) and finally pack her up and off to publishers! Only a page and half left to go! (Look, it's not a Harry Potter 400 pager; it's a young child's book for dealing with death and dying so a page and a half is both heavy and long to me).

In other news (as I shift in my hard chair - you'd think with an ass the size of mine I wouldn't be uncomfortable anywhere, but even with all of my padding this chair is keeping me at nun-approved posture), I have (maybe) acquired an "AGENT". Yes, this is extremely exciting and I am doing everything they tell me to make my shot of getting a shot more likely. Starting with new headshots. Or "headshits" as I keep erroneously typing on my stupid, loathsome iPhone. I have been set up with someone who goes by one singular name for this. I have never in my life actually met a person with only one name until now and I am already feeling very Hollywood. Turns out he's extremely nice, normal and has a great sense of humor. I'm really excited about this. His only recommendation for my "look" is to acquire a "side bang". I sincerely hope he was referring to the long side-swept version and not some freaky hipster Chrissy Hynde thing (which by the way she pulls off no problem, me not so much).

Speaking of rockers...is anyone else also becoming annoyed by Kristen Stewart and her "method" impersonation of Joan Jett? In preparing for the upcoming Runaways biopic, she seems to be attempting to embody the coolest rock chick in history with a total lack of earnestness. Seriously, we already know you're not that cool, you've signed on to what is today's equivalent to the Sweet Valley High franchise. I know, I know I'm setting myself up for a barrage of attacks from some seriously hating 13-year olds with bedroom furniture fancier than mine, but you know what? Suck it vampire teeny-boppers. Anyway, Kristen: Stop being such a dumbass when you get interviewed. You'll be really embarrassed later when you look back.

Needing to wrap this up...the Bucks has gone into "smooth jazz mode" which means my right foot is asleep from sitting on it all day and I need to casually shake out the pins and needles without drawing attention to myself.

Hey, do me a favor and comment...let me know if you're still digging the blog and what you'd like to see more of!