Knight Rider

OMG I love it! Check out the hysterical Threadless tee:

HB: I'm sorry to report that almost every boy size is sold out!

Foresters: please vote for a reprint!!

Whaddya want, a cookie!?!

Well, yes, actually I do. A sugarcane lime one, please.

Mmmmmm, coookieeeee.

Pretty, pretty, pretty (Spring 2007)

Considering my most recent bag acquisitions, this one is seriously a bargain. And so cute too!

Silver Surfer, make it happen!

Fondly,

Galactus

Proenza Schouler for Target

I know I've been saving money for the wedding and blah blah blah, but seriously, it's Proenza Schoueler at Target prices. I'm so there and getting this bubble jacket on the far right.

Mind the Gap

Apparently I've been totally out of it because I didn't realize how bad things have been for the Gap until I read a fairly old Washington Post article.

The Gap has been my mainstay since I was in junior high school trying to get a boy's attention because he was a Gap freak. For the last several seasons, most of money has been going to other stores because their clothes (and revamped, Abercrombie & Fitch looking stores) have made me walk in and walk right out. I either think the clothes are fugly, or I already have it (from two winters ago).

The Gap has had its low points before, namely ’99-’02, but I stayed faithful and a part of me always felt that they made it through the tough seasons because I stayed loyal. Now I’m a shameful turncoat and have abandoned my mothership. These are the disastrous results.

Aspirations of Beauty

I've always wanted to be one of those naturally pretty girls born with this intuitive sense of knowing exactly how to use makeup to make you look even prettier. My mom never taught me (I think that's who is supposed to teach you) and I've always preferred chapstick or my big fat cocoa butter stick--which, incidentally, makes my better half crave fried chicken and watermelon--so alas, the whole makeup thing is forever lost on me.

This pretty packaging makes me aspire.

[via Nikki and my boss's boss]

Tokidoki

Oh happy day! I have found another pretty pretty that is perfect for The Forest. I present you with the Tokidoki Campeggio bag in "Foresta." Foresta, of all pattern styles!

Ok, I admit that I already own a Tokidoki Campeggio bag from the very first LeSportsac line in Spring 2006, but they come out with new patterns every season. I've resisted every season since then, but I don't think I can fight it anymore. Not when a bag has this much green in it.

I'm actually a huge fan of all things Tokidoki, including this very cute figurine named Moofia: Mozzarella. I think it'd look so cute standing beside my cactus girl, Sandy, and her dog, Bastardino, both of which my doting better half procured for me.

Oh, the siren call of a pretty bag is too much for me to resist. Sigh.

Pirate's Booty

Someway, somehow I was able to limit myself to a couple of really neat things while in Dublin. Here's a sample:

1. Plum suede with black leather trim bag from Oasis.

2. 3/4-length A-line coat with stand-up collar and off-center silver buttons from Zara. It's a little balloony around the middle, but it's so darling! I've named it The Consolation Prize, in remembrance for The One that Got Away.

I also got a pretty floral skirt from Monsoon and a Jeff Buckley bootleg CD and DVD, but I'm too lazy to photograph those and post them. Forgive me!

The One that Got Away

Have you ever found a beautiful object (be it a coat, sweater, hard-to-find action figure) that you instantly knew you wanted to have, but managed to convince yourself not to buy because after hours, days, and weeks of indecision, you decided the cost outweighed the ownership? How much did it cost you emotionally when, after much hand-wringing, you became wedded to the idea of buying that thing only to discover that it's no longer available and you've got a snowball's chance in hell of finding it anywhere?

(If you're a person who is absolutely horrified by people who are tied to objects and ownership, I suggest you stop reading here because it's only going to get worse.)

For me, at the moment of clarity when I decide that I'm going to commit to a purchase, I'm already imagining how my life will incorporate this object. This object will change my outlook on life because it will make me feel better about myself. My new fangled self-assurance will help me be motivated at my job, which will help me get promoted, and then I'll make more money, thus justifying this purchase! It's a sad chain of logic, but so is the desire for needful things.

My 2006 list of things I coveted and didn't buy is--gasp--very long, but the prize of

The Thing that Got Away definitely goes to:

J. Crew Double-Cloth Grace Coat in Green

Sigh. I still mourn you, Grace Coat. You were already sold out before the first leaf fell here in the city. I frequently haunt eBay looking for someone selling you, but you continue to escape my ravenous clutches. You were meant to be paired with my Orla Kiely Alpine Forest Bag (in emerald), which someone very special bought me for Christmas (although, it was supposed to be a surprise). I've learned my lesson. Next year, I'm buying my winter coat very, very early.

If you have an object of desire that haunts you, please share it here and we'll mourn together.

Retail therapy

In moments of crisis, the only coping method I know is shopping. My eyes have stumbled across this Ice Fishing Sweater Coat.

It would be so much prettier if I wasn't so effing sad.

Pretty, pretty, pretty

Now that I'm feeling an overwhelming sense of accomplishment from publishing my first (albeit introductory and short) post, I think it's time to celebrate with a new bag. What more fitting selection for The Forest from the Trees than this little pretty, pretty:
With one fleeting glance, I've already imagined a life for us together. It's a brisk, early-winter day and I'm in my grass green J.Crew coat with matching snow colored earflap hat and mittens. I've got this Orla Kiely Alpine Forest Sling Bag (in emerald) in tow as I'm quickly winding my way out of the PATH train station and down the streets of Hoboken to work (at a company that shall remain nameless, lest I be fired, in which case I will never be able to buy this bag, nor any other bag for a very long time). I can see my hands rifling around inside, looking for my ID, as my steadfast purse gently carries my iPod, cellphone, wallet, Palm LifeDrive, asthma meds, cough drops, tissues, chapstick, water bottle, 250-page manuscript, the three latest issues of New York, printouts of Wired articles because I'm too cheap to pay for a subscription, and house keys...when suddenly my bubblegum colored dream bursts.

My dear Orla Kiely Alpine Forest Sling Bag: the life we could have lived together was all too fleeting. Your three beautiful shades of green would have matched so many of my outfits and you would have garnered me so many compliments. But, I'm afraid that you and I are not meant for each other because you could never carry the 50-pounds of shit I haul around all day, every day.

Maybe in another life...