cinematographic: ariel, the little mermaid

I saw this dress and immediately thought of the scene in Disney's The Little Mermaid where Ariel first gets her legs, and has to wrap herself in a a piece of shipwrecked sail fabric. 

Screencap from Disney Screencaps

Haven't got this movie either, even on VHS. I'd put it on the must-have list, but frankly, I fear the DVD re-coloring. This is also one of the reasons I refuse to replace my Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast tapes. It just ain't right. 
...I'll just go chase those kids off my lawn now, shall I?
The Little Mermaid isn't my favorite Disney flick, but I'll never understand all of the backlash this film took about the altered ending. Maybe it's because I didn't find the original H.C.A. ending that engaging. (Fairy tales with hammered-on religious messages don't really thrill me, although I swear I've read a version that didn't have that in it at all.) Or maybe it didn't seem like pandering to me because there were plenty of kids' movies when I was young that were bittersweet, sad, or just plain nightmare fuel. 
Orrr maybe it's that the added Ursula bridal plot made the movie about 1000x more interesting. 

Screencap of the most gorgeous almost-Disney-princess from film_stills

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all the noise and the hurry

Wardrobe:

dress: Target

top: Arizona Jeans

sunglasses: gift

bag: Dandelion Daydreamer on Etsy

jewelry: vintage

Camera:

Laura

We had decided on checking out one of the local orchards today to see if they had any picking going on, but apparently nothing's happening until later in the summer. So instead, we ended up downtown scoping out the scenery. That's pretty much all you can do downtown on a Monday, as most of the little shops are closed. Did pick up some great peach ice cream, though (thank you, Praline's, for having plenty of non-chocolate options!)

The area makes for nice pictures, but the problem with not living in a city is that people stare at you when you're doing something out of the ordinary. Do other bloggers feel this self-conscious about doing fashion photography in public? I didn't so much mind the restaurant worker giving us the "lol weirdos" glance while he was doing his thing, but what the hell was up with all those people in line at the bank ATM just plain staring? Ugh, this town. Mind your business.

Laura also grabbed a few practice shots with the Polaroid Land 210 camera, just to see if she can get it working normally. Some weird stuff happened while she was using it, and I scanned the pictures horribly, so the results are a little on the unconventional side (my favorite type!)

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h&m fall 2011 lookbook

Just came across H&M's Fall 2011 lookbook today, and am kind of digging it! I'm not thrilled with all of these, but there are a few looks here that have me going DO WANT. All those deep reds and elegant blacks in the middle, paired with the very 90s hair and makeup? Guh.
I mean, look at these two:

Come to me, my affordably-priced lovelies.
On a side note, there was no outfit post this week due to general malaise. I'm sorry to say that, after careful consideration of Dawn's steadily deteriorating health, we decided that it was kindest to have her euthanized. It's a terrible choice to have to make, but I never want to force a pet to live a life of suffering just because I can't let them go. Depressingly, guinea pigs have limited medical options for some conditions. I hope Dawn's happier wherever she is now.

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cinematographic: evy o'connell, the mummy

Funny how the more editing I do on these collages, the fewer Polyvore views I get! Can't help it; it's fun. (And it helps to hide some of the problems with poor product images. Just saying.)

Although The Mummy had some terribly corny horror movie moments where I really wish someone had restrained themselves, I still think it was a pretty good successor of the Indiana Jones films. You've got your plucky, ragtag group of bantering heroes, a classic storyline, compelling visuals (only for 1999, in some instances), and the movie didn't take itself so seriously that there couldn't be slapstick. I know it caught plenty of flack, when it first came out, for the stereotyping, which I agree is a black mark on the film. Also a shame, because some of those characters could have been great.

These images of Evy are from the second film in the franchise, which was fun and had some great shots, but didn't quite capture me like its predecessor. The Mummy Returns is plagued (ba-dum-ching) with action sequences that are too long and too silly, the annoying kid, and a nonsense plot. Still, it's gorgeous to look at.

The Mummy Returns images from Eirythe's album, since I don't actually own any of these films. Yet.

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take a hike

Wardrobe:

top: Target

shorts: Charlotte Russe

bag: Aerie

necklace: made by Laura

Camera:

Laura

A change of scenery today! There was a break in all the rain, so Laura and I took a quick drive over to a local park just the next town over. Totally forgot to bring anything with which to feed the ducks, but they still posed for a few photos, too. 

I know I've been slacking on the posting, but this week has been so. busy. Work aside, the pet chores have been getting a bit absurd. Little guinea pig Dawn, who you might remember from an earlier post, isn't doing so well, which means we're spending a lot of time on her care now. I'll try to post again before the week's over.

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stuck in the nineties

Wardrobe:

dress: Charlotte Russe

mesh sweater: vintage

sunglasses: gift

bangle: gift

bag: Dandelion Daydreamer

Camera:

Laura

You know you're getting old when you get to call your clothes from high school "vintage." Although it is kind of funny to see things I have in the back of my closet selling on Ebay for three/four times their original price. (Especially when it's junk that used to be in the $5 clearance rack at Rave.)

Took this set a few days ago when I woke up feeling a cold coming on. Good timing, too; I've been laid up since with the flu! That's three household members now who've had this one--watch out, #4, you might be next!

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spread your love project: by a nose

Victoria Hughes of Garden of Eden Designs and Lindsay of Scenic Glory have challenged us female bloggers to, for a moment, ignore the voice in our heads telling us to self-criticize our bodies and talk about what we love about ourselves. This is the Spread [Your] Love Project.

Victoria says, "Lindsay and I are declaring the week of June 1st through June 8th Spread [your] Love week, and we want to know why you love yourself. So take a photo of yourself with a sign and let us know why in a post. Help spread [your] love and promote positive body image for all our girls out there."

Let the navel-gazing begin!

Let's be honest, I've got a lot of features people could, if they felt so inclined, tear apart. But most of all, I've committed the apparent female beauty sin of daring to have a noticeable nose.

When I was young, I hated my nose. Unfortunately, this type of thing can take a while for a girl to finally sort out. When you don't see faces that look like yours among those fitting the mainstream beauty standards, you start to think that you're the wrong-looking one (Others may not disabuse you of this notion. On the contrary, actually.) Even now, the only media faces I see that look anything like mine are male. Or from the French silent film era.

I'm okay with my fate as a Ben Linus lookalike. Hell, these days, I think my nose is one of my best features. It makes me look like me, an instantly recognizable self. I can't be mistaken for just anyone. It's kind of awesome to be able to almost look like two totally different people in photos, too, depending on the angle of my nose.

Also, I'm not gonna lie. There's something questionable about the dislike of certain features, like big noses. People can argue all they want about universal aesthetics or personal preference, but I'm always going think they might as well just say they want someone to look less ethnic.



You can join in on the Spread [Your] Love Project here.

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jane of the jungle

Wardrobe:

top: gift

tunic: Urban Behavior

flats: Charlotte Russe

belt: Forever21

sunglasses: Windsor

bracelet: vintage

bag: NY&Co

Camera:

Meesh

People like to tell me that tunics aren't dresses, but then, these people are usually tall. I mean, if the most flattering dress length for me is 29-31 inches anyway, what's the difference if it wasn't strictly meant to be a dress? (I am sure that someday I will be having similar arguments with people about age and dress length. Stacy London, you can pry my minidresses and miniskirts out of my cold, dead hands.)

Er, I had a nice animation of this shoot, but couldn't get GIMP to convert it to an acceptable quality/size. Nuts to that.

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