Spring/Summer Maxi Dresses that I Want... Real Bad.

Last week DailyLook just busted out with a whole buttload of awesome maxi dresses. I think all three of these may have even come out on the same day! These dresses are so expensive for me to buy and have shipped to Canada.... but I want them so badly. UGH. Maybe you can do something with them:

Floral Watercolor Maxi Dress: 

I don't own anything like this at all, but I love the colors, the print, neckline, the cinched waist and the dual long-short layers.

.  also, gimme that clutch  .

Colorful Cutout Maxi Dress:

So many things. I love the lacy overlay on the top, the cutouts on the sides are cute and not over-the-top, and the print on the bottom is so bright and summery!

YEAH WE GET IT, YOU GET TO WEAR ALL THE CLOTHES.

Racerback Maxi Dress

While I kind of wish this was just solid on the bottom, instead of a sheer layer over a shorter one, I still love the color of this dress - like a minty kelly green. And the white banding around the top has kind of a sporty feel.

Alsoooo, check out the back on this thing! Whaaaaat??

.  so freaking feisty!  .
.  no bras with this bad boy  .

The song "Dress You Up In My Love" by Madonna just popped into my head but I swear I have no interest in dressing this model up in my love. I just like the dresses she got to rock on this particular day of her career. #JealzBellz. HASHTAGIWANTTHEMALL.

Are you a member of DailyLook.com? It's an outfit of the day website where you can also purchase the items that the models are wearing each day. It's also just a great way to get outfit ideas and inspiration, even if you're not buying anything. If you want to sign up for free via my sign up link, then I'll get LookPoints whenever/if ever you buy anything. And with enough LookPoints, they start giving you cash to spend on the site. So basically.... #AlmsForThePoor. Sign up for DailyLook.com IFYEWWANNA!

What is your favorite site for dresses this spring and summer? If you're seeing some amazeballs dresses, I want to see them too!! 

P.S. Today I'm linking up with a Summer Style Link-Up from Haircut and General Attitude (one of my very favorite blogs!)

iTunes Genius Playlist: BlakRoc

Here's an interesting iTunes Genius playlist that I put on while cleaning the house the other day. It's based on the BlakRoc song What You Do to Me, which inspired a pretty eclectic mix of songs! Because BlakRoc is such a clever mash-up of hip hop and The Black Keys, Genius had a little bit of a wonderful seizure while trying to figure out what genre What You Do to Me fell under.

The result was a playlist that included The Black Keys, The Gorillaz, Fiona Apple and Bob Dylan. Behold:

1. What You Do to Me - BlakRoc
2. If You See Me - The Black Keys
3. White Flag - Gorillaz
4. Fame - Citizen Cope
5. I Try - Talib Kweli
6. Bukowski - Modest Mouse
7. Myxomatosis - Radiohead
8. Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple
9. Burn One Down - Ben Harper
10. Circles - Soul Coughing
11. Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) - BlakRoc
12. I'm Not the One - The Black Keys
13. New Genious (Brother) - Gorillaz
14. Delicate - Damien Rice
15. Penitentiary - Citizen Cope
16. Every Single Night - Fiona Apple
17. A Punch Up At A Wedding - Radiohead
18. Amen Omen - Ben Harper
19. Everywhere I Go - The Black Keys
20. Shelter From the Storm - Bob Dylan
21. Glitter Freeze - Gorillaz
22. The Garden - Mirah
23. Stop Me - Mark Ronson
24. Hope You're Happy - BlakRoc
25. Better Version of Me - Fiona Apple

Are you familiar with BlakRoc? If not, you should definitely check them out. It's essentially a group of artists collaborating on a music project with The Black Keys - participants include Nicole Wray, Mos Def (aka ya boy Yasiin Bey), MOP, Raekwon, Jim Jones, Q-Tip and others. The album, BlakRoc, is definitely one of best albums I've purchased in the last 5 years. You can watch tons of videos of them making the album here: BlakRoc.com

Here's the video for What You Do to Me, which is the song that made me purchase the entire album.



Check out the songs in the playlist - I hope it helps you either discover some new music or remember some of your old favs! Browse other playlists here:  iTunes Genius Playlists

Pink Leopard Print Accent Nail

By now you may have noticed that I love rocking a good accent nail. I've been really craving another leopard print look (check out one of my other leopard print nail looks here) but since it's been so long since I've done it, I was a little nervous to go full steam ahead on all of my nails. The leopard print accent nail was a perfect way for me to reacquaint myself with the technique.

The good news is that it's even easier to do leopard print nails than I remember it being!

There is no bad news. Isn't that awesome?

Here's the really simple step-by-step. You'll just need a few polishes and a toothpick.

1. Start off by painting all of your nails pink, except for your two ring fingers.
2. Paint your ring fingers white.

.  you can't just ask nails why they're white  .

3. Once your nails are totally dry, go in with your pink polish on your ring finger and make a handful of dots around the nail. Make sure to leave plenty of space around each pink spot.

.  yous about to be a leopard  .

4. Again, let that totally dry. Patience, ladies. Put a couple of drops of your black polish onto a little piece of scrap paper. Dip your toothpick into the black polish and use it to trail some polish in bracket ( ) and C shapes around each of your pink dots.

Technique Tip: It's best not to drag the toothpick along the nail, but rather to leave the tip of the toothpick just slightly above your nail and trail the polish along that way. It makes for a smoother-looking line and doesn't scratch up the polish beneath it.

Add in some random black dots in the empty areas.

After some clean-up, you should be left with something that looks like thissss:

.  rarrrrrr  .

And that makes me happy.

Photo vom!

.  meeee - ow  .

.  vogue  .

Just like the polka dot accent nail I did last week, this leopard print can be done in endless color combinations. What's your fav combo?

Movies I Can't Say No To

A few weeks ago, Cupcakes and Cashmere posted about some of her irresistible movies.

These are movies that you basically just cannot say no to. If I'm flipping through the channels and one of these movies is on TV, I will watch it, no matter how many times I've seen the movie before.

I've really been putting some thought into this and here's what I came up with, in no particular order... plus my favorite line from some of the movies:

• Mean Girls - "You can't just ask people why they're white."
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Clueless - "My foot hurts. Can I go to the nurse?"/ "Nice stems."
• The Wizard of Oz - "That's a horse of a different color!"
• The Sound of Music
• Mary Poppins - "Close your mouth please Michael, we are not a codfish."
• The Social Network
• The Princess Bride - "I do not think it means what you think it means."
• Can't Hardly Wait - "Nobody drink the beer, the beer has gone bad!"

Also, any animated Disney film made between 1920 and 1999.

Please note that these aren't necessarily my "favorite" movies, but definitely ones I can't resist watching.

What are your irresistibles?? Are any of yours on this list?

.  thanks internet  .

May's Draw By Night in Vancouver

On May 2 there was another Draw By Night meet up that I had the pleasure of attending. Before a month passes without me posting about it, here's a re-cap:

The theme of the evening was "Memory Theater" and was inspired by performance artist Cian Donnelly, whose work is...... fahkin creepy. Here's the short description of his work that was included on the Draw By Night event post:

"Donnelly's performances are a potent mix of costume, song and spoken word; expect nightmare lyricism and poetic horror."

Yeah. That was accurate. For this Draw By Night, we actually got to watch one of Donnelly's performances via webcam from his studio in Italy. After his terribly creepy performance (some of which you can watch here), he set up his cam (in full costume) to paint and draw along with us. His work reminded me a litttttle bit of artist John Frame, whose work I saw in an exhibit at the Portland Art Gallery last year.

Our drawings were to be loosely inspired by Donnelly's performance and artwork, so that made for some twisted and dark drawings in the room. Here was my doodle:

Then, as usual, I walked around the room and snapped some pictures of the other artists' drawings. And, as usual, they were all vastly superior to my own!

This was my third Draw By Night meet-up since moving here. The group meets bi-monthly in Vancouver, so we'll meet again in July to draw together and chit chat. It's a fun way to meet alllllll sorts of different people!

Check out the Draw By Night Facebook page to stay updated on future events!

Read about other Draw By Nights here:
- March 2013
- January 2013

Sara Bareilles Performs in Vancouver

On Thursday May 9, my homegirl Sara Bareilles performed an intimate show at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver. The venue itself was also an active movie theater, and both the small size of the room and the fact that we all had comfy theater seats were a shock to me. We sat dead center in the last row of the first floor of the theater - pretty perfect view of the entire stage, with no tall people sitting in front of us. #Score!

Sidebar: Notice I'm using pronouns like "we" and "us"... that's because I made Dave come. 

If you have never seen Sara B. live... you need to. This woman has the voice of an angel but the mouth of a sailor. She's really funny and witty and beautiful and likes to curse - all of which meet my approval.

Here was most of her setlist from our evening at the Rio Theatre (what I could recall) - not in the correct order, SUE ME.

- King of Anything
- Uncharted
- Gravity (my all-time favorite song of hers - and the first that I ever heard)
- Single Ladies (you can hear her version of it here)
- Love On the Rocks mashed up with Elton John's Benny and the Jets
- Let the Rain
- Brave
- Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
- Once Upon Another Time

The list is definitely missing 2 or 3 songs but I can't remember what they were.

When she came out on stage for her encore, something absolutely fucking magical happened. She decided she'd perform Part of Your World... from the G.D. Little Mermaid. #YEWKIDDINME? She got to actually live every little girl's dream of performing this song. On stage. To a crowd. It was just magical people. Don't believe me?

SEE FOR YOURSELF. YOU'RE WELCOME:


Don't mind the shaky video. I was looking at her, not the viewfinder. SUE ME AGAIN.

Dave was really blown away that everyone in the audience knew all the words to the song... but then he remembered that we were at a Sara Bareilles show and everyone in the audience was probably a female my age. I elaborated to explain that we also all grew up performing that exact song in every swimming pool that we had access to as youngsters. Cue dramatic wave crashing up behind us in the background with our beautiful (red) hair flowing in the wind.

Sara B. concluded the show with another cover - Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It was beautiful, obvi.

This was my third time seeing her live. The first time was at the House of Blues in Boston in 2010 (on my birthday!) and the second time was at the Bank of America Pavillion in Boston in 2011. Each time has been a blast - she really puts on an entertaining show. Her banter is just top notch and her singing is incredible. Not to mention the fact that my company at her shows has always been stellar. ;)

Are you a fan of Sara Bareilles? Have you ever seen her live?

Pretty Things Around Vancouver Lately

Since arriving in Vancouver I feel like I take pictures constantly. Here are some random pretty things that have been captured lately that I didn't want to let disappear into the abyss. Enjoy!

.  a cherry blossom tree behind a green hedge  .

.  my favorite root  .

.  an adorable backyard with cherry blossoms and a swing  .

.  view of the mountains north of vancouver  .

.  blossoms in my neighborhood with the city in the background  .

.  sunset over english bay  .

.  airplane over kitsilano on a clear day  .

.  black bird in a mossy tree  .

.  crooked branches against a blue sky  .

.  daisies  .