Pouf

This takes the Arkansas pouf to a whole new level. Yikes.

I do happen to think the dress is perfect, however. With the boots.
It'd make a pretty stellar wedding dress.
(image from Christian Dior Spring 2010 via a glamorous little side project)

"You learn as you grow up, if you're intelligent – or even three-quarter witted – that there's no free lunch. You pay for things in various ways. Living, loving, everything else is a matter of the same principles: you learn to work with what you have. And there's nobody today who can't do something to help herself.

"If you can't be pretty, you have to learn to make yourself attractive. I found that all the pretty girls I went to high school with came to middle age as frumps, because they just got by with their pretty faces, so they never developed anything. They never learned how to be interesting. But if you are bereft of certain things, you have to make up for them in certain ways. Don't you think?"

Iris Apfel, self-proclaimed "geriatric starlet."

pink, red, and OCEAN makes this girl want a vacation.
ps kate's copywriters are brilliant. what a tagline! i love it. it truly makes me want to buy up their entire spring inventory.

+

this

Oscar de la Renta. I would like to name these as spring trends. Shimmer and sparkle, more ombre, grey and salmon and teal with pops of neon yellow and kelly green. Champagne. Vintage, sure, what's new. Love the little accent colors. That bright green and the yellow and then the red even. Saturated, darker versions of their base colors.

Of course, the logic backs it all up. It always does.

more green references here and here from the Sartorialist.

I need to dust around my cubicle.

This is unfortunate, since I hate dusting. But not all bad, because it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite children's books, All-of-a-kind Family.

Mom used to hide pennies and dimes around the house whenever I dusted. If I found all of the coins, I had done a good job. We were still finding leftover pennies into my college years.... :)

Kristen, Rachel and I used to sit in the scratchy orange chairs of FMC's library every day after church and read books like this one. All-of-a-kind Family reminds me still of the simple pleasures of life and the sweetness of close family ties. It almost makes me sad that I have a regular and adequate income--how fun would it be to save up pennies to buy sweets, or to make a trip to the library the event of the week?!

Okay, maybe not all that great after a while. But you should check the book out, if only at your library. It's just so sweet. And if you don't love the story, at least appreciate the charming illustrations.

As promised, here is my Christmas Research Report for work. It might have been overachieving to produce it in flash, but it was good practice. :)

The goal is to use these findings in upcoming Christmas card designs. We'll see how that works out.

I'm curious to know what you all think of the trends that I spotlighted? Do you think they are on track, or are you seeing different things? Is too much of what I posted influenced solely by the places I shop?