I’ll be first to admit it: I have hardly helped the economy for months. The items on this page, while under the category of “What I Bought” are mostly things I did not actually buy — belated xmas presents, free books, and the like. I am as frugal as they come (though recently, you’ll be happy to hear, I’ve made long strides in becoming less of a tightwad).  Still, I am excited about all of my recent acquisitions:

1. Mickey & Minnie Sweater, H&M. This is one thing I DID buy. I have been stalking it in H&M’s ever since the beginning of the season when it was priced at an unaffordable $40. But recently, all the knits went down to FIVE DOLLARS, so I had to snatch this up.
2. Doodle Heart Glass, Urban Outfitters. HOW CUTE. I had no glassware until two weeks ago (but an inordinate amount of thrift-store tea cups.)
3. Piccadilly Notebook, Borders. These are now about $4 at Borders and Buy 2 Get 1 Free. Since I am reading the dictionary right now, I thought it would be cool to take all my notes in some nice notebooks, but Moleskins were just too expensive! If you don’t think Picadilly has anything on Moleskin, just ask The Pen Addict.
4. The Synonym Finder, Amazon.com. This guy was super-cheap in the used section (like <$6 with shipping!). Apparently, it’s the best “thesaurus” because it’s set up like a dictionary (so you don’t have to go on hunts for words) and it lists not just straight synonyms, but related words so you can find not just “another word” but “the” word you want.
5. Cute Notebook, Urban Outfitters. That’s how I imagine I look on the subway, even though I don’t have black hair or high boots. And the notebook is college-ruled — the only rule I can handle.
6. The Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer, A Box. Two people have mentioned Conrad to me very recently, and I’ve been thinking of taking him out of the library (and maybe even on a date, har har), but — luck to me! — I found a free copy in a giveaway box! I’m excited because the cover is vintage-cool. (I read both stories in high school, but my mind was dull back then.)

The fonts used in this post are 3Dumb and 2Dumb, availible free at DaFont.com.

Happy Monday. Possibly an oxymoron!

(By the way, TOMORROW: I’ll feature some art by a wonderful illustrator, and then the day after that I’ll interview him, and then the day after that he’ll tell us things he’s obsessed with. PS He recently did work for Wes Anderson. THIS IS TRUE!)

Above: stuff from 80stees.com our new advertiser.

NOTE
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about advertising and how I want to handle it — whether I want to handle it. I’ve tried some advertising services briefly in the past, but didn’t like having so little control of the ads that would appear on my site. I only want to choose sponsors whose stuff I like and would actually buy myself. I also want to be really upfront about it, ie introduce the advertiser in a post to show you why I’ve picked them and let you know what’s going on. (more…)

This past weekend I went to the biennial Dodge Poetry Festival in Stanhope, NJ. Just forty-five minutes from the rural-ish town (cows > people) where I grew up, this poetry festival is one of the largest (the largest?) in North America. It always features a few poet laureates and other publicly-ordained-people of poetic fabulousness (Mark Doty, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Franz Wright, to name a mere four).

As I walked around the festival this year, I noticed that poetry festival attendees, mostly middle-aged women, are comprised of two main fashion-groups (male-poetry-enthusiast fashion is a different animal!):

1. Those who do not know how to dress, and obviously do not care that they do not know how to dress. (Example: Trousers. Sweatshirt with large word on it. The most functional shoes possible. Glasses.)
2. Those who dress in earth-tones and shop at Coldwater Creek.

Interestingly, both sets contain more long-haired middle-aged women than the American population as a whole. That hair is either: Long, straight, and unlayered. Or long, frizzy, and sort-of-tamed with a silver barrette. (In case you are wondering, I knew that earth-tones would be in at the Poetry Festival, so I arrived aptly dressed in one of the few neutral colored outfits I own.)

Anyway, enough with the stereotyping! Wait, actually, not enough with the stereotyping. First, I have to provide my guide for your How-To-Dress-Like-Someone-Who-Likes-Poetry needs (see image above, links & commentary below).

AFTER THE JUMP: links, commentary. Also, there may or may be not a picture of what I might or might not have worn to the poetry festival. (more…)

I couldn’t stay away from polyvore.com, despite my mixed review of it. So, since Snow White is one of my favorite Disney movies (despite Snow’s annoyingly high pitched voice), and I’d love to dress like her, I picked out a few outfits and accessories that might work in non-fairy tale land.

[tags] fashion, clothing, shopping, trend, yellow, blue, red, Snow White, Disney, inspiration, oufits, accessories, apples, shoes, skirts, tops [/tags]