It's Liza with a Z not Lisa with an S..

Tee: thrifted, Skirt: F21 (I got the yellow one too!), Tights: Target, Shoes: Ashley Judd, thrifted Bracelet: vintage shop

Oh disco ball bracelet, I wear you with everything these days.

I've been stuck inside with a random and pretty severe double ear infection (pain pain throbbing pain) and have been miserable all week. I feel incredibly better today, though, and it looks like it's going away. Yikes.

I went thrifting this morning and only found a couple of things for the shop (oxford flats!) but really I was just happy that I was well enough to get dressed! I know I said I was done with tights for the summer, but alas-- this skirt is pretty short and my legs are very mosquito-bitten. Also I love the weird little heels on these shoes.

Tomorrow we're going on a fun thrifting adventure to Wilmington where I will go nuts in all of the amazing thrift shops that I miss so much. Hopefully I'll find lots of gems and open up the shop next week!

Infinite Summer & a little news.

Starting tomorrow, this is what I'll be doing:

You’ve been meaning to do it for over a decade. Now join endurance bibliophiles from around the web as we tackle and comment upon David Foster Wallace’s masterwork over the summer of 2009. The festivities begin on June 21st and run through September 22nd. (image & text from infinitesummer.org)

I've had this book for about three years and haven't read it yet-- shame, shame, shame. So when John Green mentioned on blogtv that he was rereading this as part of the ongoing reading project Infinite Summer, I got embarrassingly excited. I love reading projects. The website has all kinds of encouraging things, like a syllabus and progress tracker and reference links (and you can follow their twitter), because this book is huge. And a bit intimidating. And apparently quite worth it.

Besides his 2005 commencement speech from Kenyon College, I haven't read anything from David Foster Wallace (despite owning Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and meaning to get to it already). But that speech is one of the most inspirational and real things that I've ever read, which has me looking forward to Infinite Jest. I couldn't make up my mind what section to use as an excerpt because it's all so relevant and good, so you can read it here.

The reading timetable isn't super strict and is just a kind of fun group challenge, so I encourage you to read/reread! We were allowed to begin earlier, but I've been scrambling to finish my current book, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette.

♥ ♥ ♥

And the second thing- I'm starting a vintage Etsy shop soon! I know, I know, everyone has one.. I've wanted to do it for so long, but was afraid that it wouldn't be good enough or I wouldn't have the time or be willing to put the effort in. And while it's true that school takes up a lot of my time, there's really no reason that I can't give it a shot, especially since thinking about it makes me so excited. Strawberrykoi's announcement that she's starting one really inspired me to stop worrying so much and just go for it.

I've been collecting things and so far I have some really fun stuff, mostly shoes and bags (and quite a few things that I'm tempted to keep but won't!) and a '70s handmade cheerleading uniform that fits like a lovely above-the-knee dress! I want to wait another week or two and gather more things, and then I'll set it up. I hope everyone doesn't roll their eyes at the ubiquity of it, but really- there can never be enough vintage around, right?

It's a giveaway!

I just love giveaways.

Chick Downtown is an awesome online shop that carries all sorts of fun brands, like that Citizens of Humanity Denim that I keep hearing so much about. And thanks to them, I'm giving away this BB Dakota Dusty Pink Blake Dress!

How pretty is that? I picked it because it's so flowery and perfect for summer, but can easily be taken into fall with a pair of gray tights and a cardigan. You lucky mystery person, you!

All you have to do is drop me a comment below!

The winner will be chosen at 6pm on Wednesday, July 1st using one of those random number generators. Also please note that this contest is open to US residents only, sorry! :(

Good luck guys!

Marie Antoinette

Like every other blogger, I have an obsession with Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. I know I'm not being original by posting about it, but it would be totally crazy not to mention it at all. It's my ultimate girly movie-- I love watching it every now and then when Jeremy has to work late; lying on my fainting couch in a vintage nightgown, eating cupcakes and drinking wine or champagne and generally being as ridiculous as possible.

First of all, the real Marie Antoinette is one of my historical figure obsessions. I hovered in the Tudor era for so long before becoming interested in pre-revolutionary France, and Marie Antoinette (and her hair) is what tipped my interest that way. I love reading about her (my favorite bio is Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser) and I anticipated the hell out of the movie for about a year prior to it coming out. When I first saw the film I wasn't into style the way I am now, but I remember being so blown away by the prettiness of it all. I wanted to dress like that so bad, although I had no idea how to go about it since I only wore jeans and converse!

If I made movies, this is exactly the kind of thing I would do. I love period films but they can be so stuffy, and I love the soundtrack to Marie Antoinette and how they dance to Siouxsie & the Banshees and New Order's "Age of Consent" plays at exactly the right time. 18th century France somehow meshes perfectly with the anachronistic bits that are thrown in, which I adore. I don't care that Kirsten Dunst doesn't speak French with an Austrian accent (or that she's Kirsten Dunst*) because I think the fascination with Marie Antoinette lies in the fact that she was such a young girl when she was thrust into Versailles, pressured from all sides to be perfect and have children and please everyone right away. That's what the film is trying to portray, and I think it does so perfectly.

She used fashion in a way that we all can appreciate-- introducing fun and extravagant trends into the banality of court life, while rebelling against the norm set by Louis XV. If interested, I highly recommend reading Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, which discusses how she used fashion to express herself both politically and individually.

I love pouf hairstyles so much. I've been trying to find a good wig, but they all seem to be such bad quality. If I had long hair I would so do it up that way sometimes (because I found a tutorial on youtube! WANT.) This is probably the basis for two of my other obsessions: Magenta from Rocky Horror and the Bride of Frankenstein. (Well, my Magenta love is deeper than that but you get the idea!)

* I can't decide if I love Kirsten Dunst or if she actually annoys me to death and I just keep paying attention to her because she was Claudia in Interview with the Vampire and Amy in Little Women and I grew up watching her. I think I do love her, though. I definitely love her in this movie.

Comfy black booties? Check.

Booties: Modcloth, Black skirt: H&M, Grey tee: Target, Necklace: Paraphernalia, Stripey stockings: Sock Dreams; Green dress: Target, Disco bracelet: The Other Side vintage, Pink ring: Ragin' Daisy

My necklace was hidden in all of the usable photos (of course), but it's the Mad Hatter necklace from Paraphernalia.

Recently I was contacted by the incredibly nice people over at Modcloth and asked if I would like to choose something from the New Items category to keep and write about. Yes please! Because of my current quest for black booties, I picked the Night on the Town Bootie and have been wearing them to death. I kind of waffled about what I should pick (everything is so pretty!) but my intense shoe-love won out in the end. I've mostly been wearing them sans-tights, but they're going to be lovely for winter as well.

The slouchy look! A peep-toe! Love love love.

PS: Pretty soon I'm going to introduce a weekly feature to the blog- a kind of inspirational/things-I-love-at-the-moment post for the week. I also have a fun giveaway coming up, so stay tuned!

Tagged!

I was recently tagged by the lovely liebemarlene, what indie nights?, and Strawberrykoi! Since I'm still rather new around here I thought a bit of random question-answering would be fun.

1. What is your current obsession? Gardening! This is the first year that we’ve actually had the space to have our own (container) garden, and it has been so fun and rewarding. I’ve been obsessed with flowers and herbs, and now I have a little container vegetable garden going as well.

2. What is your weirdest obsession? Definitely dolls. Not boring ones like those frilly porcelain things, but the interesting kind like Blythe, Pullip, and ball-jointed dolls. I still haven't photographed my entire collection, but I will soon! And of course I personally don’t think it’s weird, but I know some people are creeped out by dolls in general.

3. What do you see outside your window? We live in a huge old 1890s house that has been converted into apartments, and our kitchen window looks out onto the big shared backyard. It’s super shady because of the giant pecan trees and is always filled with random wildlife-- squirrels are constantly playing around and being annoying (they steal my strawberries and leave half-eaten pecans on the porch!) and there are always a ton of birds being noisy.

4. What is your favorite color? Avocado green and teal/turquoise (but not together).

5. What is your weakness? Chocolate chip cookies. I’m sure that’s not what the question was going for, but really. I eat way too many chocolate chip cookies because can’t say no to them.

6. What animal would you be? I think I resemble a bird the most—I’m twitchy and pointy and awkward—and when I was in college I used to think that crows were stalking me (they still do sometimes!)

7. What would you like to learn how to do? Play the piano.

8. What do you want to never happen in life? Besides the obvious fear of losing my loved ones, I never want to lose interest in my career and hobbies and go through life unhappy.

9. What is on your bedside table? A clock and a fan.

10. What's the last thing you bought? That F21 skirt from my wishlist post. *facepalm*

11. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Rhiannon and Aya are both so incredibly gorgeous and inspiring! Aya is just so effortlessly elegant, and Liebemarlene was the first fashion blog that I ever read so I’ll always be grateful to her for inadvertently opening me up to this entire community. I've only recently discovered Leah's blog, but she seems so fun and adorable!

11. What was your favorite children's book? When I was tiny it was all about The Monster at the End of This Book and the Little Golden Book The Store Bought Doll. I still have them and they are so worn out.

In elementary school I was really into Goosebumps books, the Fudge series, and Ramona Quimby; and then came an obsession with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Shel Silverstein.

I couldn't find the right Fudge cover, and I accidentally left out Ramona!

13. Who do you want to meet in person? I have an extremely short list when it comes to meeting celebrities because I fear the potential awkwardness. With that being said, I'll brave the weirdness for Joss Whedon and David Bowie.

14. What did you want to be as a child? I was talking to my husband about this recently: I firmly believe that most of us know deep down what we want to do with our lives, but it gets all messed up along the way when we try to be practical. I used to make my friends play "library" in kindergarten (they hated it!), and in fourth grade I realized that I loved writing and did it off and on until the end of high school. My early years of college were spent panicking over what I wanted to do, until I realized that I needed to do what makes me happy (not what makes the most money) and switched over to a major in English. And now I'm in library school with writing as a hobby, so I'm back to what kid-me intended all along.

15. What did you dream about last night? I barely remember my dreams these days, but it had something to do with playing Beatles Rock Band because I'm so excited for it.

16. Which do you prefer, day or night? I’ve always been a night person, but lately I’ve really been enjoying early mornings with breakfast and coffee and blog-reading. I’m sure this has everything to do with being unemployed at the moment.

17. What's your favorite piece of clothing in your closet? I can never pick favorites of anything, but I love my plaid mini-dresses because they're so good for layering in the winter.

18. What's your plan for tomorrow? I don’t really have any plans for tomorrow, but today is my mother’s 49th birthday and my puppy’s 1st—so I’m going to call her again later and make Weetzie a dog cake! (My mother and I don’t live in the same town, otherwise I would make her a cake too of course!)

19. What would you like to get your hands on right now? Cupcakes. I'm dying for a cupcake but we're out of eggs.

20. What is your must-have of the moment? The booties from my wishlist post!

21. What's your favorite tea flavor? Definitely chai, but I hardly ever drink it. I usually have a pot of black coffee in the morning, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds because I only have a four cup coffee maker. Although I guess that's still kind of bad.

22. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? NYC. One of my good friends just moved there and I would love to explore the city with him.

And now I tag Penelope Nightingale and Darling Darling! Only if they want to, of course.