Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Dear readers, if you are looking for one of those novels that is hard to put down, I recommend that you check out the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I am almost finished with the first book which is called "Twilight." I bought the book in the first place when I noticed that all three books are at the top of the best seller lists. When I read that it was about a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire, I must admit I was a bit sceptical. After all, I am a sensible woman in my forties, and have never been particularly attracted to stories about vampires or other occult themes. However, after reading most of the book, I have been pleasantly surprised. The story is very well written and the vampire character could almost be any boy who is from the wrong family, the wrong side of town, or similar situations. I was particularly amused when the boy takes the girl to meet his family for the first time, and her biggest fear is that they won't like her! Anyway, if you read the book, or have read it, please leave your comments!

Nine West Shoes

I really like Nine West shoes. The main reasons that I like them is they have many styles that are similar to expensive designer looks, but are moderately priced, often in the $80 - $100 range. Their website currently has some great summer sandals on sale. The large sandal with the tan and brown straps is on sale for about $40. They also have in some really great new styles in for late summer - early fall weather. Here are a few that I particularly like:

Fabric origami flowers

Here is a skirt that I customized a few months ago. I bought the skirt at a thrift store, and then I sewed on a fabric origami flower, which is an interesting quilting technique. Here's the result!

Necktie skirt

Here's easy sewing project. I bought a bunch of silk neckties at our local thrift store, and I sewed them together to make a skirt. If you want to try this, I would suggest that you get approximately one tie for each inch of your waist size. My waist and hips are not very different in size. At the waist, I simply turned the fabric to the inside and sewed it down with some seam tape covering the raw edge. It tends to get too thick if you try to have more than two layers. See how great it turned out!

Bravo channel's Shear genius

Last night I watched a show called Shear Genius on the Bravo channel. It is a hair styling competition. The first challenge was to do a haircut while blind-folded. That one was not very interesting. The second challenge was more fun. The stylists had to makeup the ladies to look like a cartoon character. When they first said what the challenge was, i thought that they had to be kidding! However, for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised. The winner did a Wilma Flintstone hairstyle and it was beautiful! This picture does not do it justice!

Malaysian fashion

I have noticed that famous designers such as Dries Van Noten and Alexander McQueen have been heavily influenced by Malaysian fashions. I had the opportunity to live in Malaysia for several months during the 1990s and it was a great experience. I loved the friendly people and the flowery silk dresses. Here are some examples that I found on Malaysian websites.

Lanvin's 2009 Resort Collection, Albert Eber t-shirts

I absolutely love Lanvin's 2009 resort collection, which is now posted on Style.com. I particularly love the colorful backdrop and the t-shirts with drawings by Albert Eber. I have seen these in European magazines, but they don't seem to be as well known in the U.S. Seeing this shirts inspires me to paint more of my t-shirts!

Rayban Wayfarers

I love these new colorful Rayban wayfarers, that are similar to the 1952 model worn by Andy Warhol, Audrey Hepburn and lots of other cool people. Unfortunately, I already wear very thick glasses, so I would probably have to get contacts before I could actually wear these.

I'm glad to see colorful glasses in style. I've been wearing them for several years, and I am one of the few people in my small town to do so.

This is a really great picture. I love the hairstyle and red lips, as well as the glasses!

Sneaker art by Matt W. Moore

I discovered this guy a while back and I am a great fan of his work. I really like the colorful graphics of this shoe design. Since i have been thinking about doing art on sneakers, this gives me some ideas as far as colors and shapes. Check out his work at MWM graphics.

Reykjavik Looks - Graphic design dresses

Here is a look I really love from Iceland. Those Scandanavians sure know how to dress. Makes me proud to be part Finnish! I live in a very small rural town where the only places to shop are WalMart and thrift stores, so I don't see many great graphics like these. After seeing these dresses, I am inspired to start painting my own fabrics and sewing my own!

Beautiful bald women

I may be in the minority here, but there are some women that look really cute when they are bald or nearly so. As someone who is somewhat hair challenged, I think its great to see baldness in women becoming a more common and even fashionable look. Whether your hair loss is due to heredity, chemotherapy or alopecia, this is a great trend. I love to see greater acceptance of looks that have not traditionally been considered beautiful. I was also interested to find out that there are several good sites on the internet that offer support and fashion tips for women with hair loss.

Here are some photos that I found on the internet of women that look pretty good with little or no hair.

New hair style - punk or emo?

I really like to play with my hair, and try new things, despite the fact that it is already very short and extremely thin. Even though there's not much I can do with it, I really like the rock-chick look. I collected some photos off the internet for inspiration.

Manish Arora - crazy cool designer

I discovered a designer today on the Vogue Magazine U.K.'s website named Manish Arora (www.vogue.co.uk). This guy has to be completely insane, but in a good way. I love everything he does. Looking at his collection makes me want to paint all of my clothes in bright, bright colors.

Great decorating idea - blackboard paint

In my "real job" I am a business professor but in the summer I transform into a house painter and designer. Several months ago I bought three student rentals. This morning I was looking at thecoolhunter.net site and I was inspired by this picture to paint some of the walls with chalkboard paint. This actually makes a lot of sense, because it seems that there are a lot of students who like to write on the walls whether there is a chalkboard on it or not!

I found some really great stuff on thecoolhunter.net today, under the section called home. I love to make stuff out of recycled materials, and here's one that might be fun to try. Its a wooden chair frame covered with belts, instead of upholstery! We have a few thrift stores in my area where I could probably get these materials.

The trickiest part for me is to get the belts attached tightly and strongly enough that I could actually sit on it. Probably upholstery tacks would do the trick!

Shoe sale at Macys.com

I noticed that today, Macys.com is having a sale on many great shoes where if you buy one pair, you can get 50% off on a second pair. I particularly love the platform sandals. Here are a couple that I am really interested in. The pink and white slide is from Nine West and the other is from MICHAEL Michael Kors.

Anastasia Chatzka at etsy.com

Lately I've been noticing that I love almost everything on the Etsy.com website. Sometime soon I am hoping to open my own shop on that site. I found some adorable dresses today on the website at AnastasiaChatzka.etsy.com. The photos are also really great. I love the pinup style models! Check it out!

Call for aspiring fashion illustrators at BravoTV

I see that Project Runway is going to be starting a new series on Bravo TV in July! YIPEEEEEEE!
I can't wait.

Are there any other Christian Siriano fans out there? In case you didn't watch the last season, he was the winner and quite a fun guy. There is a new article about Christian and his recent activities in the latest July issue of Elle magazine (US edition).

There is also an opportunity on the bravotv website for aspiring illustrators to display their work. Here's how it works. You go the website and retrieve some line drawings by Daniel, a former project runway contestant, and decorate them according to your own taste, then re-submit them. Sounds like fun! There are several sketches to choose from, but I have included one example here.

Amy Butler designed fabrics, free sewing patterns

Here's a really great deal. A few days ago I posted that I had discovered Amy Butler fabrics on fabric.com. Now I discovered that she has her own website and there are some realy great free patterns on it, like the necklace cover shown here. The patterns are at amybutlerdesign.com. Isn't this clever?

Custom-made Converse sneakers

Lately I have been thinking about making some customized Converse sneakers, and I finally figured out a design that I like. I decided to use a new pair of shoes, but get a fabric I like and attach the fabric to the sides with fabric glue. I thought about making a whole new upper for the shoe and I actually worked on a couple of prototype models, but I decided that this was faster, easier, and produces good results. Here's how they turned out. What do you think? I'm the only person in the world with purple batiked shoes like this!

Target graphic design t-shirts

I love Target graphic design t-shirts, and it looks like they have recently gotten some new ones in in my size at target.com, which is XXL. Here's some of the ones that I ordered. I usually like ones with either a flowery or rock-n-roll theme. Check it out!