My 5 From Urban Outfitters March Catalog #Fashion

With every new Urban Outfitters catalog there is a list of pieces that I want. Usually those pieces go into two piles-- the ones that I want and need to buy and the ones that I want a version of and aim to create myself.  

These are the ones that I cannot make and want to buy for myself ASAP. The best part, all of them transition very nicely from spring to summer. If any of it looks familiar to what I have featured in the past its because I like what I like.

Cloisonne Drop Earrings

I love cloisonne jewelry. Have tons, will continue buying it and these are a perfect addition to my collection.  

Zenni Optical Eyeglasses Bargain For the Fashionista

A few years ago, friend and fellow blogger, Heather, introduced me to Zenni Optical, an online eyeglasses store. Because Zenni has been around for so long, it is the #1 store online for prescription glasses and has a really good reputation. 

I prefer glasses over contact lenses 75% of the time because I see the glasses I wear as an extension of my personal style, so the affordable eyeglasses selection is definitely up my alley.

Bubble Gum Ice Cream and Sundresses

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Yesterday we had a snowstorm. It looked like this outside.

Source: artfire.com via Elke on Pinterest

But inside all Missy and I were talking about was summer.

And all I could think about was wearing

this...

Source: oldnavy.gap.com via Unus on Pinterest

Julep, For Never Ending Nail Inspiration

More and more I am eager to mix things up when it comes to my nails and the manicures I get and a lot of that has to do with Julep and Pinterest. If you are not familiar with either, Julep is a boutique nail polish line and subscription service and Pinterest is an online community where users share the way they use, create, and draw inspiration from just about everything.

Together, both sites have contributed to my need to have my nails in a different color each week, and led me to try colors, styles and designs that I never would have tried before. In the past I stuck with very muted, classic colors, never wanting to draw attention to my nails more than anything else.

Downton Abbey, Until We Meet Again #DowntonAbbey

I have so many mixed emotions when it comes to Downton Abbey....
  - I detest Mary. I sympathize with her.
  - I want a Violet in my life! Wait, maybe I don't!
  - Why does PBS group the episodes together, I need more than one month of this. Never mind, give me more Downton every week!

So now the long wait begins. But there is plenty to get me, and you, through the long months-- and way more than after the end of last season!

Worth a Watch: Vincere

Every time I talk about a foreign film that I think everyone else needs to watch, I go off on why people need to give foreign films a chance. I'm not going to do that today. Today I am just going to tell you about the Italian film, Vincere, and tell you why I think you'll want to watch it.

The thing about history is that it lives on way after we are gone. Even when we don't write something down or try to cover something up, the details and story find their way to the surface. In the film, Vincere, Ida Dalser is just one story that someone tried to erase. It didn't work. 

The film starts around 1905, with a young Ida and Mussolini, and the very passionate relationship they began. It continues through Mussolini's rise in politics, and then we learn about Ida's abandonment by Mussolini. As the story goes, Ida and Mussolini were married and had a son. Apparently Mussolini had a daughter with another woman before his song was born and he married the mother many years later-- denying his alleged first wife and son.

Ida repeatedly and obsessively dogged Mussolini for acknowledgment-- and who can blame her-- telling everyone that would listen that she was his wife and that her son was theirs. Eventually, Mussolini got tired of this and things became difficult for both Ida and her son. He went on to use his secret police to gather and destroy records regarding their relationship, basically erasing their existence. 

Hoarders At Heart?

Moving, unpacking, moving, unpacking. That pretty much sums up the life of most young adults, whether they go to college or not. All that moving does have its benefit, it reduces the likelihood to hoard on account of Having to move your hoard (unless you have a parental abode to stash your hoard in while you are in transit). 

I'm sure everyone has seen at least one episode of Hoarders, or at least heard of it. The show follows the lives and treatment of people that are true hoarders, filling homes, yards, and cars with stuff-- most of it nasty. Every time I see an episode I stress out about the wall of boxed up books, the core of my personal library, that have never been unpacked.  



Even more stress inducing is the remainder of the house that has never really been unpacked either, rifled through boxes and piles of belongings waiting to go on the shelves that are to be installed once the perfect color is chosen, the walls are painted and the flooring put in.  

I know very few people that don't have some type of hoard somewhere, some stash of things that they just cannot bring themselves to discard. Things have a way of growing on us, reminding us of a day, a person, a time. They can be comforting, really. I think many of us are mini hoarders at heart, and even those perpetual thrower outers that I have spoken with mention a desire to keep things but a kind of manic overriding drive to get rid of stuff in order to prevent any hoarding.