A new management company took over an apartment down the street from me, and watching the renovations, I thought of something...
If an apartment building switches over to new numbers in a Helvetica font or similar, I bet you that they raise the rent. That's an amenity. Yuppie urban class-A apartment dwellers can't get enough of sans serif.
When I went to visit my friend Lani in Chicago this past fall, she asked me if I wanted to get a CND Shellac manicure from her favorite nail artist, AstroWifey. I'd seen Lani's amazing AstroWifey-designed nails in photos before, so I jumped at the chance to try it out for myself. We made a day of our manicure sessions (literally, it took four hours for both of us to get our nails did). AstroWifey had an iPad with hundreds of designs to choose from, but I already knew what I wanted before I set foot in the door. In honor of this fall's National Gallery of Art's Roy Lichtenstein retrospective, I wanted to get a Lichtenstein-esque pop art manicure.
That's all I told AstroWifey, and this is what she came up with:
Isn't this mind blowing? She painted all of by hand! Talk about painstaking work, and some serious talent. Look at the thumbs! That face! My middle fingers said "Whaam" and "Boom," in case you can't tell.
This manicure is downright amazing. I will admit I was nervous when she started by painting every nail a different color. But the result was cooler than I could ever imagine. She used regular craft paint on top of the nail polish for the designs, using a teeny tiny brush.
So when I got home to Washington, I had to take my Lichtenstein nails to the exhibit for a comparison.
Pretty spot on, huh? Did you get to visit the exhibit? I've always loved Roy Lichtenstein's work for its boldness and humor, but I didn't realize how many genres of art he tackled with his trademark style — everything from sculpture to landscapes in Chinese style.
As you could've guessed I spent about two weeks staring at my nails. And everyone around me noticed too. Maybe because I couldn't shut up about them. This was my first time getting a Shellac manicure. It held up really well, except for some reason after about a week and a half, one entire nail peeled off without me realizing it. Nooo! Perhaps because there were so many layers of paint. I liked Shellac a lot, overall. While I had the manicure, I used CND Solar Cuticle oil everyday and my nails felt so healthy by the end of two weeks.
Anyway, I can't wait to visit AstroWifey again next time I'm in Chicago with two spare hours. Is there anyone in D.C. who can paint nails like this? If so, drop me a line in the comments, I'm dying to know! And PS: Who What Wear Beauty linked to some gorgeous Vogue pop-art inspired manicures here.
My newest home design blog obsession is Philadelphia interior designer Naomi Stein's Design Manifest. After seeing her amazing loft in Design Sponge, I read back pages and pages in her blog. I think she is so talented. That blue wall with the pink desk in her loft is the best! Naomi's whole aesthetic is like that, an unexpected mix of girly/preppy/boho. I don't know how I can ever decorate my home, I can't choose between this or clean lines and Mid Century Mod (as seen via another home design blog fav, Manhattan Nest).
I'll just live vicariously through Naomi for now. Luckily for me, she's working on renovating her new cottage now, and I can't wait to see the end result.
[Previously in Home Design Crushes: 47 Park Avenue]
Images from Design Manifest, shot by Courtney Apple Photography
I love this poster from Brown and Barkley, found via Refinery29 DC. Other people must like it too because there is only one left!
Who What Wear's latest "Ask a Stylist" column with the designers from Current/Elliot has a lot of great tips, but I couldn't get over the A.P.C. heart-print cotton tee they recommended. It's the sophisticated version of the heart prints we wore growing up, don't you think? I would wear the A.P.C shirt on days I'm feeling ladylike, and this awesome Laugh Cry Repeat tee in white if I wanted a girly shirt with a downtown vibe, maybe with black jeans and moto boots. Edgy heart print - it can happen.
Here's some more options I heart (haha): the Laugh Cry Repeat tee in tote bag form, a cute ASOS cardigan with heart elbow patches, what may be the most adorable sweatpants ever, and of course, Comme des Garcons canvas heart high-tops.
So I've been wanting to have more fashion content on my blog, but I feel like a jerk taking pictures of myself and posting them on the Internet (I told this to Debie and she said, "umm, you HAVE seen fashion blogs before, right?"). Also I am definitely not a model. But despite all these obstacles, I'm plunging ahead with an outfit post. I put a lot of thought into this particular outfit, and the barista at the coffee shop complimented me on it, so we'll start here.
I admire women who can wear a million accessories and patterns at once and have it look good (like Song of Style), but I try to only wear one or two crazy fun things at once. What could be more classic than a denim jacket and a little white dress? The crazy part comes in with the sandals.
I wanted to buy these metallic sandals for months and made a special trek to get them when they went on sale. Love them! Pretty comfy and you can get them for a better price now. But if you buy them, whatever you do, do not let your shoes touch each other because the silver can rub off. Oy vey! Learn from my mistakes. The shoe department at the Chevy Chase Bloomingdale's hooked me up with a new pair after mine got scratched within four hours. The new pair is holding up better.
Here's the before picture, where I was rocking 4-inch roots and praying that it looked purposely ombre. Stefeny at Fringe in Georgetown worked wonders. PS - her expert tip is to spray a big of hair spray from far away and then curl the bangs over the cylinder of the can. And yes, I brought in a photo of Zooey Deschanel to illustrate the bangs I wanted #cliche.
I was a little scared about heavy bangs, but as long as I style them it's working out. Anyone out there jumping on the bang-wagon? Hahaha, apologies for that one.
