Books on Makeup

Picked up Making Faces by Kevyn Aucoin recently. I've known about this book for awhile, my brother's girlfriend (Liz at The Gloss Spot) has a copy and I don't think she'd lend it to me, I was told that book was her baby. Now it's my baby too!

It's a pretty inspiring book. I find Kevyn's attitude towards beauty and makeup to be so refreshing and relaxing... The way he can see that someone is beautiful whatever is or isn't on their face, and help women (and occasionally men) to see the beauty he sees, as well as the way he repeats throughout the book that there are truly no 'makeup rules' make me feel wonderful. I've heard a ton of 'makeup rules' already and opinions... I feel like I can toss those out the window!

I found some other cool makeup books that look fun:

another one by Kevyn Aucoin:
By Linda Mason:
By Robert Jones:And some amazing shots from the spring runways! I must try these....

at Emanuel Ungaro:
Lucia Pieroni for M.A.C. at Zac Posen:Tom Pecheux for M.A.C. at Doo.Ri: (an article on the look seen here presented by Beauty Addict)Lisa Butler for M.A.C. at Miss Sixty and Nicole Miller:James Kaliardos for M.A.C. at Preen:

Flowers soon... and gowns by Vera Wang

Well, I finally heard back from the shop I ordered my silk flowers from... It seems they will be sent out tomorrow... Arriving in a week or a week and a half or so... So it's been a long wait considering they were ordered January 30th, but as long as they get here and are what I want then that's ok by me... Finding black flowers is nearly impossible and I am so set on it... Vera Wang is totally a fan of the black touch with the big white dress... I have a bridal magazine at home where she poses with a big white gown on a body model and the model holds a big round bouquet of shiny black roses and has a black ribbon tied around her waist. While looking around for some black accessory with white gown stylings by Vera I found this knockout style board posted at Style Me Pretty:
If you visit Style Me Pretty they have a fantastic Marie Antoinette inspired invitations entry to gape at right now.

Some gorgeous gowns designed by Vera Wang:The black accesory headpiece:

Happy Valentines Day!

My Valentines Day is pretty tame this year. I have a migraine and work and wedding planning have kept my dearest and I far too busy and cash conscious for too much frivolity... We were going to make a nice dinner together but since I'm not feeling well we've decided it's going to be our favourite sushi take out while watching The Tudors (season 2, my V-day gift from Steve). We'll make a nice meal together and eat in when he gets back from the business trip he's going on next week. I made him a gift as well... I've told him it exists but I'm going to give it to him for his weeklong business trip... He can open it on Monday when he leaves. Maybe I can get some snaps of that up here later.

Very unfortunately, my silk wedding bouquet flower order fell through. The bouquets I fell in love with are discontinued and unavailable! I think it's pretty bad practice to have products listed on your site that are simply unavailable for purchase. At the very least, provide custumers with a means to check how many of an item are in stock! I found some more bouquets I liked and again, they were unavailable. I decided to order loose silk stems and sprays and assemble my own bouquets. I was able to order lots of fabulous flowers, all the types and colours and sizes I want! However it's been 15 days since my order and the site I ordered from has taken my money but have yet to process my order. Arghhhhh!!

I'm hooked on etsy now though! Since I discovered etsy and blogged about it I've checked their site daily. There's a lot of wonderful handmade stuff as well as oodles of vintage finds....

Some of my favorite finds:

A peacock patterened clutch lined in dupioni silk with an antiqued brass finish:A hand emboidered black and hot pink clutch:Steampunk vintage deco style earrings:
Some peanut butter and jelly felted earrings:A zebra cowhide clutch bag:
And this a-MA-zing off white leather fringe bag:

Dream Shoe Shopping

My mom has found the dress she is going to wear to my wedding... A teal number by Tadashi.

So now she needs her shoes!! I did a little dream shopping at netaporter.com and found these:
Fendi Grosgrain bow-front pumps
Christian Louboutin Fortuna platform pumps
Christian Louboutin Cotton Club metallic wedges (my favorite pick for her)Christian Louboutin Simple python pumpsand just for fun,
Stella McCartney beaded sandals

wedding planning ate my social life

Well, planning my wedding has taken up every bit of my spare time recently... and sometimes I'm distracted at work by planning too... surfing around online looking at flowers and garter belts...

The flowers have been figured out, garter belt and guest book with pen set purchased, deposit sent to the photographer and personalised, self-designed stamps and postcards are printing... Plus, there is another secret gift in the making... Involving sewing... The garter belt was a bit frustrating. I found one I luved on etsy.com but it wasn't the right colours... I asked the shop owner to make me one in black and purple and mentioned that black and purple and white are my wedding colours... So she made one in white and purple! I let that slide... I figured... it's gonna be up my dress anyway... But she changed the bow too and made it $2 more expensive... It's cute but in retrospect I think I could have just cheaply and easily made one for myself that was what I really wanted... sigh... I sent her a note with my order asking for the bow to be in the style I liked and if she doesn't change it maybe I'll just rip it off myself and sew on a black one that I like! What's extra annoying is she posted one just today, the same style in black and white! It looks great. Argh.
I looove the black and white anemones. When I first started looking at flowers ages ago, I really wanted black flowers. I still love that idea... I've got my cream white gown so I wanted as much of my remaining accessories as possible to be BLACK! I love the look of it, and I love the idea of doing the opposite of traditional... And the idea of black bringing a kind of deadness... I feel like the only reason my gown is white is because it's the only chance you get to wear a huge poufy white dress... Can't pass that up... The wedding will be pretty traditional overall but nearly everything has our little spin on it... I kinda fell in love with the above bouquet though, I also needed some purple in my look, as do my girls. So. There's still black in the center of the anemones. Plus there will be anemones on the cake. Which my mom is making!!! Gonna taste so good and look so pretty... And the bridesmaid bouquets... Fantastic purple, I love the shape of the bouquet as well. Eeee, excited!!!

As for fabric shopping in Queen West area of Toronto... Affordable Textiles is hands down my favorite. They are super helpful, fast, knowledgeable, professional, well-priced, and they have a fantastic selection of fabrics. I even like the organisation of their shop. Downtown Fabrics is great too, beautiful, quality fabrics and a helpful staff. Affordable just has a little more... affordability and selection... And L.A. Fabrics is OK... Gorgeous fabrics, a lot of designer stuff as well as a good selection of straight colours at good prices. I can't stand the way that staff rip my fabric off the roll though, instead of just cutting it... I get home and the ends are all puckered and threads everywhere...

50's research and Etsy finds

It's been awhile! Blogging these days is not really a priority for me... I've been under a mountain of work at the job and wedding planning eats up the rest of my spare time. Going to the gym is making me fall behind at work. And THEN if there is any time left after all that, I'm working on an animated short film. It's set in the 50's and I've been doing a lot of research on the era. Naturally I am finding lot of great fashion tidbits. (My wedding has an art deco 20's theme, so again, lots of research and wonderful finds!) My next film needs to be in the 80's!!! There was so much insane and wonderful clothing from that era.

I've also got really into Etsy recently. If you join they send you a daily e-mail of great finds and it's pretty cool to start clicking and find what you find.

Some cute finds from LianaKabel's shop:
As well, there are some fabulous things to find in The Pudding Shop, Blyth Hope's Vintage, and Pretty Little World:
And some 50's images I had to share:

Penny Arcade and Holiday Trunk Show

(No not the online comic by Tycho and Gabe) but a new vintage shop opening up at 1177 Dundas St. W. at Ossington. Self Described as a new spin on vintage fashion, Penny Arcade opens it's doors to the public on December 12. It sounds like more than just a clothing store... also a fun place to just relax... read a book... listen to some music.... And at night the store will serve as an event venue where musicians can put on a show and fashion conscious art lovers mingle.

The opening night sounds like it will be fantastic, I personally can't make it having already been invited to 2 Christmas parties that evening but if you can, try to get out there at 7pm this Friday the 12th to have a drink and admire the vintage finds, each hand picked by Rachel Sheehan, the entrepreneur behind Penny Arcade.

I did manage to make it out to The Workroom's holiday trunk show today. I had a certain someone in mind to pick up a gift for and found something fabulous. I guess I can't really post a photo until Christmas is over! A couple wonderful things I did see that I can safely post about however:
adorable handmade bobby pins and hair elastics by PandaCub
this gorgeous handmade swede stocking by Jennifer Buckland