Funniest Comment gets a gift!

I had originally planned something much more thought out and in depth for today's post, but then fate intervened through my cousin in law.  Lauren, serendipitously posted an image on facebook last night that I simply cannot ignore.  Since the image is now forever seared into my brain and inseparable from my memory I have decided that the best course of action would be a complete and thorough discussion of this pure travesty of an outfit.  And to encourage the spirit of the discussion I will be giving gifts to the wittiest participants! Rules later... lets dive in!

Lauren quite accurately captioned the photo "hooker daywear".  It's like all three of the Kardashians melded together to form one style and destination confused street walker.  I mean where is this harlot headed? to the beach with chains and leggings, on a safari with a band of pirates, to a bondage conference on Plymouth Rock (pilgram booties???). 

This ensemble breaks so many style guidelines I'm not sure if you could count them all... but let's try. If I get 20 comments on this blog post I will give a completely FREE gift to the funniest comment.  I will judge this by which one makes me laugh the loudest.  It's all very scientific. Additionally if any of you want to go the extra mile and drive out to Triangle Town Center, locate this mannequin in the Crush store front, and take an amazing photo with the mannequin your efforts will be rewarded with $20 worth of Lucy2s bucks that you can use at any craft fair that I am in! You have until Friday at midnight. GO!

I know you wanted to see it again.  You're welcome.
Comment!!!

Re: Beanie Nation by ManRepeller

Being a follower of Leandra Medine and her blog ManRepeller, I am always excited to read her thoughts.  I was especially excited on Feb 21 to see that she had devoted an entire post the beanie (or if you're from Dudley the toboggan, and yes I am aware that northerners consider a toboggan a sled... all that nonsense aside). I have always been of the opinion that the multifunctional beanie was the perfect way to top of most outfits.  I personally rock a beanie every single chance I get from September to April and on any unseasonably cool day in between and have for most of the fashion aware portion of my life.  I think she was absolutely correct with her assertion that "Beanies are not about snow, they are about our inconspicuous search for the right dose of cool."  That's why I own like 27 in all varieties (except the cat ear type she referred to.  Not a cat person... They go potty in your house, ewww.  Anyways, I digress).  What I was confused about was that this was suddenly a trend.  I think the mysterious appearance of the beanie as the new must have accessory begs the questions, was the beanie ever not a wardrobe staple for the cool and uncool alike? I am almost certain that while hipsters were still embryos the beanie was making appearances, providing that sometimes illusive "dose of cool" to rock stars, movie stars and regular folks alike.  Lets explore a little history shall we...

Late 60's - Patti Boyd with George Harrison.  She was married to a Beatle and a model so I'm going to guess she was pretty cool and liked beanies.

1970's - Ali MacGraw wore a crocheted beanie to the Academy Awards. seriously.

1980s - So I couldn't find a lot of evidence for the 80's.  I'm going to wager a guess that sky high heat damaged bangs just don't mesh stylistically with the eclectic cool of the beanie and instead I'm going to cite Axl Rose with his infamous headband/hat combo... it's beanie shaped. kinda...

1994 - Kurt Cobain, the late reluctant leader of the grunge movement and El Capitan of cool for the early 90's if you ask me, wearing guess what? a beanie in 1994 at a concert in Milan. It appears as though he might also deserve credit for another trend, the oversized cardigan (a.k.a. the boyfriend cardigan that was reintroduced to us a couple of years ago.)

1998 - Britney Spears - She was the height of cool in the late nineties and early 2000's and she wore beanies.

2002 - Season 5 of Sex and the City... really, do I even need to continue.  Carry Bradshaw was the voice and embodiment of all of our fashion fantasies and she wore a beanie.

2003 - Gwen Stefani - I'm certain I could have found a photo of her wearing a beanie for each year, but I picked this one because it has sequins... and I like shiny things.

2005 -Brad Pitt - beanie... lots of beanies.

2007 - Versace runway - yup beanies on the runway back in '07.

 

2009 - Beyonce beanie.

2011 - Jared Leto - Far superior to the silly cat beanie. A. it's pink, B. it has ear flaps and huge pom poms, C. It's not a cat.

2012 - good old K-Stu - It was hard to find a picture of her without a beanie.

In short, beanies have always been around and they've always been cool. To call them a trend is like calling wearing shoes a trend, or eating green beans with dinner a trend.  Somethings are just always awesome.  In the words of the formidable Aretha Franklin "Don't say Aretha is making a comeback, because I've never been away!” 

 

And yes, I wrote this while wearing a beanie. What do you think? Is the beanie a trend or an accessory with overlooked staying power? Comment below! 

p.s. If you want to see where I got these images just click on them and follow the links (lazy way to not plagiarize. don't shoot me.)

Prabal Gurung - Part 2: The Good,The Bad, The Lumpy.....

Well, I finally made it out to the local Target the other day and I have to say that I left feeling slightly deflated.  Perhaps it was the fact that I was so ready to purchase that any thing less than apparel perfection was going to seem like a let down, or it could be that my local Target only got in a fraction of the collection which was already picked over by the time I made it there..... Never the less, here is my review of what I found and some quick pics to go with my experience.


First the Good: The color palette was as crisp and lovely as it had appeared in the photos.  The floral abstraction prints were intricately detailed and yet graphically provocative.  The red and black dress that I featured as a date night look was well made with a quality structured fabric that has a sumptuous sheen.  The shoes appeared to be of good quality (at least good enough to make it through a few seasons).

The Bad: The overall quality of the garments was on par with what I would expect from a mega chain... like k-mart, and not what I would expect from a collection with an impressive designer label attached to it.  Being that I am the honey badger of bargain hunting, I have clothing shopped at Target for years and have seen much higher quality from other collections and even their regular stock.  The construction was sadly sloppy.  I saw lots of hanging strings.  Additionally we experienced a bit of a sticky situation... with the zippers.  I heard a proverbial "whomp, whomp, whoooommmp" resounding in my head as I struggled with the second faulty zipper out of four dresses.   Then there was the issue of fabric choices.  One touch and I was instantly transported to goodwill, yes I said it, goodwill.... The land of super scratchy cast off polyester creations, exactly where some of this fast fashion will end up next year.  Couldn't have felt any cheaper. Insert sad face here.

The Lumpy: If you happen to have any lady lumps, or in my case lady mountains, prepare yourself for a journey, a journey up a couple of sizes.  For most that self esteem crusher alone is reason enough to leave the clothes on the rack and keep it moving. 

Here is the photo of my strangled lady lumps... I still love the colors though!

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Prabal Gurung is in Target!

Well, if you've seen my facebook feed you know that I'm in lust with the Prabal Gurung collection, quite aptly entitled "Love"  that hit the mega chain on February 10th. The color palette is a crisp modern take on the florals that will come to life very soon to wake us from our winter stupor.  The dresses are all cut with figure flattering feminine lines, a bit reminiscent of the 1950's but with a shorter hem and modern details like black mesh, virtually neon lace, and abstract floral prints.  Expect to find a lot of color blocking and interesting play on hard and soft through out the collection.

I have pulled some of my favorite pieces from this collection and combined them with items from other retailers to create four looks that I know you're gonna love.  They're full of colorful whimsy sure to brighten anyone's day no matter where you're headed.  Let your eyes feast on these and let me know what you think!

Casual Work Look -
If you have to go to work you might as well look awesome and feel comfortable.

Prabal Gurung Look 1 by meredith-jackson-cantrell featuring a peach nail polish

 

Casual Fun - I would wear this to grab dinner, go shopping, heck I love that blue leather jacket so much I might just sleep in it.

Prabal Gurung Look 2 by meredith-jackson-cantrell featuring western leather handbags

Date Night - Simple, Understated... LOVE

Prabal Gurung Look 3 by meredith-jackson-cantrell featuring a sleeveless dress

Weekend Mommy - Well you don't need to be a Mommy to know that this outfit is just right for a fun day out and about.

Prabal Gurung Look 4 by meredith-jackson-cantrell featuring patterned skirts

P.S. you can click on any of the thumbnails to find out where to purchase each item!

Which look is your favorite?

The Beginning

I'm a thirty-something, wife, a stay at home mother to a toddler, balancer of the budget, a business owner (Lucy2s), a social media ninja assailant, and now I guess I'm a blogger too.

So why write this blog with such a full plate you may ask? Especially with your lack of grammar and spelling skillz... see what I mean.

Well there are two reasons. First, I make handmade accessories and along with that comes being a vendor at many craft shows.  Every single show a woman says to me "I really LOVE those, but I just don't think I can wear that".  True, I make lots of accessories for little girls, but are we really ever too old for a fun accessory... really? I am here to say NO.  I'm not only going to say no, but I'm going to show you that you can still have fun accessories, hair styles, clothes, and make up even if you're not a tween and you can do it without looking a hot mess or spending a fortune (although having a fortune never hurts).  Part of this blog is of course shameless self promotion (ah-hermmm Lucy2s) that makes me, well... American and gives me my aforementioned ninja-ness, but it won't just be about me wearing my own accessories. promise.

Second, I think I perhaps need a little dose of my own medicine. The girl who 15 years ago was rocking vintage Ts, hand embroidered cut-offs paired with old man knee socks and patent leather air walks... can now be found 9 times out of 10 in paint stained sweats and what used to be an oversized t-shirt.  Not only sloppy, but more offensive... boring. Something about the shockingly quick progression of marriage, mortgage, and baby left me feeling a bit lost, a smidge chubby, and in mourning for my freedom.  Well, I'm taking it back one accessory and neon eye shadow at a time. My gypsy lifestyle may have come to a screeching halt, but that doesn't mean that I have to be relegated to the faceless herd of frumpy moms. No, I refuse.  I am retiring the sweats and dusting off the make up brushes. I will be cute.

In an effort to reclaim some of my spunk I felt called to revisit the past.  I combed through the stack of photos and memories that made it through the 47 (only a slight exaggeration) moves and found some oldies but goodies that helped me to remember what it was that I used to love about getting dressed.

Try not to laugh too hard... I am not there with you, so you'd really just be laughing at me and we all know that's not nice.

So maybe I wasn't a style Icon, but at least I had a style.. and it wasn't boring.

I know some of you out there are thanking me for digging these up.  Welcome back to the late 90's.

Of course this was well before the era of cell phone cameras, or even digital cameras so most of my best ensembles were never recorded. I did however find plenty of photos from special occasions. Lol.

Thank you for joining me at the start of this adventure.  I think we're going to have a great time. I can't promise that I will have something great to say all the time, but in the immortal words of Bart Simpson "I promise to try, to try".  In my blog you can look forward to some super fun looks put together by me that show how I would wear something that I love in real life.  I will be experimenting with beauty looks and show you how to pull them off for every day wear.  I will be building style looks for the little ones, talking about my style idols, critiquing some collections and of course giving some stuff away to my loyal readers.

Catch you later. Comment below!