Dirt Chic

Some Kind-A Somethin'

So my makeup is running out.  By that I mean foundation.  So I got some Benefit Some Kind-A Gorgeous.  Which I think is a funny name because it is so non-committal about something so clear.  I love Benefit.  I just do.  They are kitschy and wonderful.  They make me happy.  I like a lot of things.  I'm a human.

The packaging rocks my socks off.  It reminds me of a lip gloss bracelet I had when I was a kid, I think from Avon.  If you know me, you know I love me some LP's.  And vintage suitcases.  And makeup.  I love a lot of things.  I'm Arwen.

The box is a suitcase!

The compact is a record/LP!

!!!

It's not called a foundation, though.  It's a "foundation faker".  Hmph.  Whatever to that, because it really is just a foundation - I think they call it a faker because it mattifies, too.  Though nevermind - I'll go along with the kitsch.  So it's a foundation faker.  

It came with this free sample of a pore minimizer/primer.  I've kind of been anti-these things, from any line.  But oh, the power of a person applying cosmetics to my face.  Oh, the power of the sample.

Powerful.  It works.  If you care to minimize pores.  Or - since I don't - it makes you look better, even if you look good.  In other words, it's a cosmetic.

Before everything:

Post-foundation-FAKER and pore stuff:

After makeup:

(Dimps)

Yah.  I'm liking this new stuff.  And I'm loving Anne's bathroom.  Note my swimsuit in the background.  I totally take baths in my swimsuit here.  It's a big bathtub.  Anywho!  What was the point of this?  Being a human Arwen.  That's always my point. ;)

Pink

Not mine.

Mine.

You get some, you don't get some.  S'ok. :)

:)

Fine Feathered Accessory Friends and Friends

I have been good - I have - about not spending money and not going thrifting.  I knew that I would want to do a bit of both in Dixon.  And I did.  I just didn't expect to come across majesty.  My dear friend and ace thrifter Ashley convinced me to walk through a furniture store, and when we were close to getting through it all, I spied something white and fluffy sticking out of a hatbox.  I pulled the box down, and the fluffiness was a feather HAT.  Good grief, I love feathers.

Reader, I bought that hat.  

I talked the lady down to $25.  It also came with the original box from a long-departed department store in Dixon, and a red feather boa.

Ashley then took me to a place she knew I would love, because she knows me.  The Dixon Municipal Pool, sadly shuttered, and on an endangered site list.  Super-mega-freaking-awesome.

Built in 1950.  Above-ground.  Have you ever seen a cooler pool?  (If you have, let me know.)

The thought of what it must look like "inside" tantalized me, like I had found The Secret Garden but not yet the key.  Ah well.  I will get my research on and find some photos.

Ashley and I picnicked with airbrushed sugar cookies, Diet Coke, and my hat.

Ashley is also majestic.  She took my writer pics and I trust her in all things style and photography.

Here it is!

I would not normally wear this ensemble.  But I had to rock it for a little bit.

I showed someone at camp and she said I looked like a second Jackie O.  SCORE!  (I forgot the exact wording when telling my dear Anne the same story and said she said that I looked like Jackie O 2.  Ha.)

Looking forward to a fall semester of driving my students insane with my get-ups. ;)

Today's Thrifted Item: 80's Shirt Haul

Man.  The Dixon/Sterling area is a goldmine for me.  Last summer, it was 20 or so dresses for $20.  This summer:

Seven 80's shirts for $4.  You know how I feel about these shirts.

Praise Dixon.  No, praise Reagan for living in Dixon and keeping it on the map.  No, nevermind that.  Nevermind presidential emphases.  I love Dixon for DIXON.    

Wyoming or Bust

It's been an odd 24 hours.  And an odd week or so.  I was at camp last week, which was great, but hectic - and the internet was spotty and TERRIBLE for uploading pics, so those will be forthcoming.  Monday, a quick and violent storm deposited a tree branch on my windshield, smashing it into brilliant spiderweb patterns.  I was only displeased because it COST ME MONEY.  Otherwise, not a big deal.

Then, thanks to hailstorm damage, my flight to Colorado was cancelled.  Fine.  Be that way, weather.  But I got on the phone with the airline, and 45 minutes and a pledge to extreme niceness later, I had a slightly later flight.  Score.

So yesterday, I drove home from camp, re-packed, and headed to the airport.  My dad deposited me, and then I learned my flight was delayed until 12:15am.  And then I realized I had forgotten my computer.  My writerly profession/habits deem computerlessness a PROBLEM.  This is how I felt about all these new developments:

Whatever.  I spent 2 hours reading up on my upcoming biography commission.  Then I had entertainment ADD (watched some of Insidious, muted, over someone else's shoulder; read a sample of Bossypants on my phone; re-read bits of The Lost Continent; watched 10 minutes of Swingers on my phone) because I tend to be that way after 10pm.

Then I got in the plane.  I waited to get in the line somewhat near the end because my seat was 6A.  I board and walked a few rows up, and realized I was at row 12.  Confused, I looked back and saw the rows started at 8.  Mildly alarmed and secretly fearing I had a nonexistent seating arrangement, I asked the flight attendant where my seat was. Tired and a bit exasperated, she looked at my boarding pass and said, "You're in first class!"  Whaaaaaaa?

This is how I felt about that new development:

Ha ha, I didn't suddenly look groomed or anything.  But I was very pleased about it.  Turns out it just amounted to having a lot more room (I'm sure there were other benefits but I largely needed to benefit from sleep).  Still. 

So anyway.  Hopefully I'll get my computer back soon, but its absence "forced" me into enjoying the morning at my dear Anne's house.  Been reading magazines and grooming for the first time in forever.  By grooming I mean applying cosmetics.  I always apply deodorant, etc., if you think that I mean I have forsaken showering, etc.  Heading into two weeks of a good bit of inter-state travel, writing, and visiting (and if you read this and are in CO I certainly want to see you).  Today is a bit of research-travel to MY FAVORITE STATE EVER: Wyoming.  (Well, my favorite state that I don't live in.)

I'll try to post more, and will post camp highlights when I have my computer.  Have to document the inter-state style. ;)

Getting Dressed: Camp, Day One

Sunday, at camp, tends to be uneventful on the photo front, but I'll do everything I can to document radness. :)  And mundane-ness.  And toad-ness.  Toadness IS radness.

So.  Clothes at camp.  I have the following special requirements due to certain rules.  I'm ok with the rules.  I enjoy a clothing challenge.  It brings out interesting things.  Sometimes. ;)

 

Standard Arwen/Hawkeye getup.  Why am I showing you this?  Mostly, to prove that I do casual.  (Man, I look skinny here.  How did I pull that off.  Not skinny in real life. :)

Cuffed cargo pants.  Medium t-shirt with the sleeves cuffed and collar cut out (hate regular t-shirt collars, often).  Black socks (don't wear white).  Dope Jack Purcell Converse that I bought a long time ago, gave to Mary, who recently gave them back.  And I know my hair looks sick.  At least I SHOWERED. :)

Today's Garage Saled Item: Dizzeyland

I veered off my chosen path today, and went to a really kind of lame garage sale.  But this choice item leaped out at me:

Super-vintage!  (I think!)  Super-awesome!!!

I assume it's an ashtray.  Won't be using it for that. :)  $1.

 

Camp is Upon Me (Wendy, Don't Look)

Camp time is rolling around, and we all know what that means.  Pictures of food?  Check.  Pictures of me in weird summer-inappropriate clothing combinations?  Check.  Pictures of randomness?  Check.  TOAD OBSESSION?  CHECK.

A retrospective:

What friends they are.  Oh, how I love them.  So pumped.  So pumped to find toads.

I don't just go ga-ga over amphibians.  I love reptiles, too.  And yes, I had to look up the difference.  (This is the person who thought birds were mammals up until recently.) (But I'm not stupid.  I'm just a ditz.)  Proof:

Turtle-hugger.  That's what I am.

(By the way, Wendy is my amazing friend, and I warned her because I love her and she doesn't want to see pictures of toads and I validate this. :)

Today's Garage Saled Items: Small Collections.

I gave myself $10 this week to go garage saling/thrifting.  It ended up being very satisfying.  I didn't even spend the whole $10.

A phalanx of Strawberry Shortcake pets!  Actually, I only found the turtle at a garage sale - 25 cents - but it made me really happy to put him with the rest of the pets I have.  I don't know his name.  I love turtles, though.  LOVE THEM.

A bag of matchbooks for $1.  I love vintage matchbooks, because I actually use them (candleaholic) and because they, along with postcards, are one of my favorite ways to enter into the not-so-distant past.  

Here are some favorites.  Along with a random I Like Ike button. :)  

Um, I didn't buy these.  Grandma Hamm presented them to me when I saw her yesterday.  Super-awesome, huh?  The big rhinestone one on the bottom right is my favorite.  It's huge.  Not normally my style, but I will make it work.

:) Yay not-shopping-as-much.  Makes these kinds of finds that much more fun. :)