Tuesday: Make something with your hands. It can be as intricate as a new bracelet, as simple as sewing that button back onto your shirt or something you’ve never done before like folding origami.
Wednesday: Click this polaroid to enlarge it, print (or save to your desktop for digital editing) & fill the empty photo. Make a collage, glue a white paper square down to draw on or cut out the black center & use it as a photo frame for friends, objects, anything you want! Just hold it up & snap a picture.
Click for full size & print
Thursday: Spend the entire evening playing Robot Unicorn Attack (doesn’t get more magical than that!). Turn your brain off. Let that song get good & engraved in your subconscious. Put it on your ipod & I promise you will smile every time it comes on.
Friday: Be a celebrity for the night. Grab your old prom dress or go thrifting to find something interesting. Get all dolled up with your girls & go out on the town for dinner. Follow it up with a movie or a crazy adventure of your own making. Take lots of photos!
Who says you only wear it once?
Weekend Homework: If you’re in New York, go to Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School at the Slipper Room! Bring a pencil & sketchbook to draw a live model who will change poses every few minutes. You don’t have to be a good artist. Last time I went, I was drawing stick figures with huge cartoonish heads. Did I win any awards? No. Did I have a fantastic time? Absolutely!
If you’re not in New York, go to a coffee shop, the mall, a park or anywhere you like & make quick sketches of the people who pass through. If you’re truly embarrassed of your artistic abilities, do a character sketch. Write a description & a background for each person. If you’re a misanthrope, write about mundane objects in as much detail as possible.
So maybe I'm a little biased because we have the same hair.
I’m weird, macaroons, if you hadn’t noticed. I like other weird people. In honor of the release of Alice in Wonderland, I thought I’d pick an unconventional style icon. Helena Bonham-Carter, our Royal Highness the Red Queen, is a bit older, a bit off the mark & has invented her own signature style.
Love the dress & the couch!
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Her style could be likened to her film characters. Progressively adding to her increasingly different look with each persona, she’s created an entirely new genre of fashion.
A little bit Marla Singer
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Some have described her style as ’shabby-chic,’ though to me it looks more like an evolution of Boho & hobo-hobohemian, if you will.
Hobohemian- hybrid of Boho & hobo
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What do you think of Helena Bonham Carter’s style, macaroons? Imitatable or too weird for your tastes?
If you’re within reasonable distance of NYC, macaroons, make a trip to MoMA before April 26th. You really don’t want to miss the Tim Burton Retrospective that’s been going on since November. I’ve loved Burton’s films & artistic style for as long as I can remember, but even if you’re not so into him, this exhibit is something to see.
Entrance, Photo: Michael Locasiano
From the unique entrance to the movie artifacts, the exhibit is overflowing with visual stimulation. It’s quite difficult to take it all in. In the creature’s mouth, you’ll walk down a long corridor lined with televisions showcasing Burton’s animations as well as clips that inspired him. Most of them are shorts from 2000 featuring Stainboy, which Burton stopped producing after 6 segments, all under 5 minutes.
Untitled (The World of Stainboy) 2000
At the end of the corridor waits a pitch dark room lit by blacklight where a few eerily glowing paintings & sculptures sit. It’s so dark the stationary carousel appears to slowly move- a trick of the viewers’ adjusting eyes. At any moment, that carousel could reach out, snatch you & take you for a ride on the back of an adorably hellish monster.
Tim Burton, Carousel, 2009
The main exhibit lies behind a set of glass doors. Sculptures of life sized monsters greet you with rows of nightmarish teeth. Robot boy sits crumpled in a corner, his good eye flickering feebly. Smaller figures & sculpted characters watch from beneath glass.
Life size monsters in the gallery. Click photo for source
The walls are covered with sketches right off the pages of Burton’s notebooks. Everything from evil clowns & misanthropic superheroes to tentacled monsters & stitched up family pets. His sketchpad musings provide an interesting glimpse at the true castoffs in Burton’s world of rejects.
Tim Burton, Doodles
Perhaps some of the most beautiful pieces are the concept art for many of the characters with which our culture has become so adoringly familiar. Early drawings of Jack & Sally, sandworms & Emily, the Corpse Bride accompany the sculpted final character creations.
Click for more concept art at Wired.com
Click for more concept art at Wired.com
Burton makes monsters curiosities; he turns the gothic into something whimsical. He illustrates our fears in a cartoony fashion that allows us to not only face them, but befriend them. Burton de-isolates the outcasts, the misfits & the unforgivably strange by giving them each other.
What a week, macaroons! It was the longest week of my life & I used a vacation day! Events lately have been so surreal it’s like living an extremely vivid dream. There’s a lot I can’t talk about, but here, in haiku form is what I can:
Someone pointed out
I’m a different person from
6 months ago. (Good!)
Muldoon not only
rocked Puppy School, he skipped to
Intermediate!
Tuesday: Write a toast to yourself (maybe in your Radical Self Love Guidebook!). Stand in front of the mirror, preferably with a ridiculously dazzling champagne glass, & read it aloud to yourself. Make lots of eye contact!
Wednesday: Don’t complain once. Try to spend the entire day making only positive comments & suggestions.
Thursday: Rearrange all your wall hangings. Switch picture frames onto each others hooks, move paintings & hang anything you’ve been meaning to. You will feel like you’re living someplace new.
Friday: Enough said
Weekend Homework: Take a trip to an art museum (if you can make it to the Tim Burton Exhibit at MoMA, BONUS!). Bring a notebook or sketchpad & wander around until something really strikes you. Spend some time feeding on that inspiration in your notebook of choice.
This time of year, I get tired of sweaters, turtlenecks & honestly, pants. It’s been a long, snowy winter, macaroons. I’m fantasizing about my summery dresses & sandals, but it’s still too cold. This is why I am in love with long sleeve dresses right now. They’re the perfect transitional piece between seasons.
Show off some leg in the dead of winter
They really fit any situation from happy hour to office hours. Pack your bag with tights, leggings, cardigans, wraps & you’re set to change your look throughout the day. Solid color dresses are the most versatile, but really I recommend having a few long sleeve dresses.
Patterns are too fun to resist
I love this look. It’s artsy with an optional edge. Optional anything, really. It all depends on how you like to accessorize. Ballet flats or ankle boots add some extra personality.
Collared dresses are super versatile
If you buy one long sleeve dress, get a solid one with a collar. Look how the shoes completely change this outfit between city cowgirl & Victorian chic. You could pair this with some really funky tights, colorful flats & accessories to get your desired style for whatever occasion you’re dressing for.
What do you think of long sleeve dresses, macaroons? What would you or do you wear with yours?
The most imaginitive film I've seen in a long time.
I know, macaroons. This has been out for 2 months now. However, I’ve been a busy girl & this was worth the wait. Going into it, I had no idea what to expect. The trailers were vague & make the film seem like some psychedelic steampunk adventure, which it kind of was. Only with carnies (points!). After Heath Ledger’s death, the movie earned a dark reputation & it is dark. It’s the most famous, darkest tale ever told: man bets a soul & makes a deal with the devil.
However, it’s so much more than that. It tackles a father’s desperation to save his daughter & redeem himself through a gambling addiction, a con man’s quest to achieve the fantasy of fortune & admiration in his imagination & a girl’s longing to escape her carnie roots & find suburban domestic perfection. The film represents human desire to reach our dreams & the lengths we will go to get there. It’s a beautifully told story, a sad one & my God, an incredible one that explores the wonders and especially the dangers of the imagination.
The design & imagery are simply breathtaking. The broken, grey decay of London paired with the vibrant, cartoony dreamworld behind the mirror creates a world filled with desperation & longing that is reinforced by the superficial experiences granted temporarily inside the ever-changing Imaginarium. It’s a place as dark & terrifying as it is mysterious & enticing.
I can’t talk about this film outside the context of Heath Ledger’s memory. He made me fall in love with his charmingly mysterious con-man character immediately- a character played by three other men. None of them played Tony as well as Ledger, but the synchronization between the four actors is incredibly impressive & the transitions were cohesive & virtually seamless. Although the moment the character removes his mask & Depp’s face appears I consioucly thought, “that means Heath Ledger’s dead now”– a fact Director Terry Gilliam made me completely forget.
This has become one of my favorite films of all time, macaroons. See it & you won’t be disappointed.
Monday:Send an email to your future self. Tell yourself what you hope you’ve accomplished in a year, 2 years, 5 years. Send yourself some encouraging words from your past self. Send yourself a congratulatory note for having made it so far. You can also read other people’s anonymous letters. Here’s one of my favorites:
Dear Me,
Please tell me you’ve aged gracefully & haven’t done anything stupid … like cosmetic surgery.
So the girls may have needed some lifting, ok.
So the furrow between your brows from many concentrated study sessions & years of staring at a computer screen may have needed to be, how do you say?ironed out, ok.
So those 15-odd gray hairs multiplied faster than a calculator, ok.
It doesn’t matter, sweets. You’re still hot.
(written Mon Jan 16th, 2006, delivered to Mon May 17th, 2010 )
Tuesday: Go out for tea & a cupcake. This is what love feels like.
Wednesday: Draw yourself as a superhero (it doesn’t have to be good- mine is a stick figure!). Surround your doodle with all your real life superpowers (One of mine is baking killer cupcakes… & destroying them!). Marvel at all the things you’re super at doing!
Friday: Take a vacation in your mind! Grab a special someone & go to a tropical themed restaurant. Order pina coladas & key lime pie with 2 forks.
Weekend Homework: Build an enormous fort utilizing all your cushions, pillows & blankets. Spend an afternoon watching movies in your cozy little castle.
