illin.

sick, in the good way.
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photo credit: Siri Tollerod

Everyone is ill. Everyone who blogs, everyone who is online, everyone who owns a computer, wears shoes, buys paper towels, and has seen the ocean is sick right now. And everyone besides that. It is a phenomena, akin to Lady Gaga, that is sweeping the nation so ferociously it will be months before anyone realizes they have never actually HEARD  a Lady GaGa song...Okay, I veered hard for a second there. Being sick means not so much of the cute clothing or the makeup, or the hygiene in general. I forgot to brush my teeth this morning, no joke. I am going to suck it up and blog right now though because I love you. No, really it is because I am a narcissist and I like the sound of my own voice, er, typing.

First I want to bring to you the really anti-climactic news that you can find me on lookbook.nu. I posted A photo as a formality. I'm usually pretty hesitant to join any "post your own" fashion site, and even more so when I cannot post photos from my shop. I have a remained loyal to a few sites that I can post Magnolia Family Vintage captures in and receive feedback/marketing points. I really joined lookbook.nu because you have to be invited and I am a sucker for any club that doesn't want me. There is something of the "what's beyond that sunset?" quality to a site that you can't just register for. Kudos to them for making it seem exclusive! I bought it. Once I got an invite (which was embarassingly easy, sorry Lookbook) I did find a lot of great inspiration and lovely girls wearing killer shoes. But after perusing the style for a long time, click-click-clicking through, I became baffled and a little disoriented. I'm not sure how to phrase this question, so here goes... 

Disclaimer: There is the possibility that I am venturing into "bitter, party of one!" territory. I do that unawares quite often...

How are these girls getting a photographer to follow them around? Do they hire someone? Do they all have an unemployed boyfriend (if so, congrats on that), or are they offering a "professional and atmospheric self-photography" course in Junior College now? I was not offered that class. I am so confused! I see dozens of girls everyday who have these ah-mazing photos of themselves, not occasionally, not on weekends or special occasions but apparently EVERY DAY. There is editing and lighting, there is great composition, there is casual, hip posing!! How does this happen? (I was tempted to link the previous sentences to evidence in the form of other bloggers, but I could see how it may be taken wrong) How does an entire generation of fashionistas enslave a legion of amateur photographers? Don't they feel silly walking around with one paparazzi all day? I would. I feel silly saying "Hey. Dave, would you mind very much taking my photo, I promise it will be fast!" I am not mocking anyone here, for the record. If I could, I would make self-photography a priority in my life!   I am just jealous. I want to look back decades from now and see myself back-lit with sunlight flare and whatever that polaroid effect is...I want to look better in photos than I do in my own memory. 

Anyhoo.

I am not a crafty type, nor a DIY-er by any stretch of the imagination. But I know a good opportunity when I see one! Yesterday we went to Garden Ridge SUPAHSTORE here in Austin to gather up sale price Christmas decorations and it was a BONANZA of potential awesomeness!

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There was so much fun, sparkly, feathered, colorful stuff! It seemed to me that it was all just waiting to be transformed into other kinds of amazing stuff. I want to hang that orange feather in my hair! If I were of the crafty persuasion, I imagine this kind of place would be a gold mine. And all the Christmas decorations were half off! Since my family fails at organized decorating, we decided that our theme for Christmas this year will be "gaudy." We basically snapped up every sparkly, gold, bright, shiny bauble we found...and a big white tree. The results of this holiday cacophony will, I'm sure, be posted here soon enough.

And speaking of shiny, this is the feature of my blog where I steal things I find in other peoples blogs. We can call it "Grand Theft Blog," and it starts now because I am so obsessed with this jacket,

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Antonin Tran piece found at jakandjil

It's so right. It feels so good.

6 comments:

Kristen said...

i am so right there with you on the whole lovely, wes anderson-y vibe of so many girl's pictures. I started taking daily outfit shots but honestly just got too shy to ever post them. so that was done.

i think what a lot of these girls do is have a tripod. i've read reference to it and sometime you can see the remote in their hand. so if they have a tripod, and they're in these very romantic outdoor settings like by a tree or in front of a lake of geese, wouldn't they feel silly taking pictures of themselves?

but i guess that's the difference - i'm too self conscious to do that. :-/
-kristen

Brooke Alexandra said...

I know a lot of people have boyfriends/dads/friends take pictures of them, but I asked my boyfriend once to take my picture for my blog and nearly died of embarrassment! I think you have to have a certain level of narcissism to break past the embarrassment, cos when you get down to the nitty gritty, it is kind of strange to take pictures of yourself to show strangers on the internet...

JINIAN said...

I always assume people use self-timer or have friends take their picture (which I'm guilty of doing). And if that's true, I WISH MY PICTURES TURNED OUT THAT GREAT.

On another note, I saw that jacket too! Instant save into my style folder~

magnolia*mama said...

Kristen- YES! A tripod. I am an idiot, because that honestly never occurred to me haha. I think it would be humiliating if anyone outside my own home saw me taking photos of myself!

Jinian- I can only ask my mom and husband to take photos of me. Luckily, they have both seen me do a lot more embarassing things...

Do you think we could fashion a similar jacket out of...foil? gold teeth?

JorDane said...

That's so funny, because I never thought of a tripod either. I am just starting to blog and I was wondering how I was going to find someone who would be willing to take pictures for me. I'm so glad I found this blog. It is one of my favorites.

julia aka garconniere said...

I TOTALLY AGREE with your rant about the fashionistas with paparazzi. i've never been on lookbook.nu (i hear you on the appeal because of the invite-only business) but i hear it's a bunch of skinny white girls mostly who look too perfect in every shot.

almost 100% of my photos that i post for fashion/style purposes are taken inside, with the lovely self-timer. i also feel like a dweeb being like, "hey simon, take a picture" and the guy is a photographer and always does something cool and artsy, and i get all "but you can't see my shoes! it's supposed to be head to toe!"

i was thinking about this the other day: we are part of a pretty fucked-up generation; back when i was a kid we would make imaginary girl bands and shit with our parents old VHS video recorder and record ourselves singing on little tape recorders and things. now, there is youtube, there is facebook (my 9 year old cousin added me the other day!!!) there is everything to make it seem completely normal to document every single part of their lives. that's the key, though, the semblance of NORMALITY. i had a blog in 2001 when i was in high school and people freaked! i was such a nerd. but now, it is cool for everyone to take a million photos of themselves and put it on every social networking site there is.