Girl Crush of the Week: Olivia Palermo

Let’s just pretend that I do a “Girl Crush of the Week” post weekly and that this isn’t the first time, okay? If you don’t know who Olivia Palermo is, you probably aren’t a New York socialite, never watched The City, and don’t have a Tumblr. Let me be the first to advise you on seriously rethinking your life.

Olivia Palermo gained social status by starring in the reality TV series The City alongside young fashion hopeful Whitney Port. Whitney was originally on The Hills as a friend of Lauren Conrad, but moved on to bigger and better things. Olivia was kind of like Whitney’s frienemy and showed her the ropes of the fashion world in NYC but still making sure that Whitney was somewhat beneath her. I never said my girl crush was nice, okay?

Since then, every time I see a picture of this girl, she looks perfect. She knows style. Every look she wears seems effortlessly chic, like putting outfits together is second nature and money grows on trees. The girl can dress, is what I’m trying to say. I have a feeling that Kate Middleton wants to be Olivia Palermo, but is too restricted by modest royal garb and cries every night about having to re-use outfits to seem like “the people’s princess.” The people want fashion statements, Kate. If I have to see you in that green jacket one more time I swear…

Anyway, Olivia has done a couple note-worthy things with her time besides walking around the streets of New York hoping that someone takes her picture, but I don’t feel like looking up the details on Wikipedia. I think she got signed to Wilhelmina modeling agency but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t model any more.

When I was thumbing through one of my mags recently, I saw her in an ad accompanied with Masai tribesmen in traditional dress, all looking super chic. Basically, this Spanish footwear brand, Pikolinos (a non profit company), are sending their leather and beads to the Masai people to help better their lives and sustain the development of their endangered tribe. In turn, these Kenyan women are producing beautiful, handmade designs and earning money for their children’s schooling, livestock, clothes, etc.

So that’s cool right? Olivia is the ambassador for the charity project so that basically means she gets a free trip to Kenya to oversee the project and gets to model the footwear. Fair.

Who’s your girl crush at the moment?

 

Projects

I have a lot of projects I’m working on. But they aren’t like home-type projects. Or projects that anyone else would consider a “project” but they’re projects to me and this is my blog so I win.

Drinking tea. I know I know. Drinking tea isn’t really a hard thing to do. I mean, you have to heat up water which can kind of be a pain, but other than that, it doesn’t take much skill. I just have a lot of tea in the house for some reason and my OCD keeps telling me to make room in the cabinets. What can I get rid of? How can I make space? The answer was simply to drink all the tea that we had in the course of a week. I’ve been having 5-6 cups a day which is weird because I usually hate drinking water or anything that isn’t Diet Pepsi, but I had to do it to make space for other food. (I realize I could have simply moved the tea, or given it to someone else, but no.)

Teeth whitening. Ever since I questioned my dental hygienist about whether I should get my teeth whitened, I’ve been interested in the process. The only reason I became more interested is because my hygienist’s answer was that my teeth were “pretty white” but “they could be whiter.” Well there you have it. They aren’t perfect and this is making me feel gross. I didn’t feel comfortable asking my parents to pay for my teeth whitening (well, that’s not true, I felt totally comfortable but it just didn’t end up happening) so I bought an at-home whitening kit. And no, I didn’t buy Crest White Strips. I’m not made of money! I didn’t think the kit was doing it’s job until Paul and I were eating lunch the other day and he told me my teeth looked white. AWWW. Love that guy.

Lotioning. I’m getting prepared for tanning season, or summer as other people refer to it. If your skin isn’t moist and lotioned nicely, your tan won’t stick, and you’ll be ugly. At least that’s what I tell myself. Plus, lotion smells good and it makes your legs look silky. Nice, luxurious lotions can be costly though. I purchased three good-sized bottles for $40 from Sephora and the scents are so weird. The first one I used was Lemon and Sage. It was okay, and thankfully the sage was kept to a minimum. I didn’t want to come off smelling like a lost love child of Stevie Nicks. The scent I’m currently using, and second in the pack is Blood Orange and White Pepper. Like, who was in charge of that combination? It sounds like a new potato chip flavor. But it’s actually more orangey than peppery so it’s not that bad. Actually, it’s not bad at all. Luckily, the last scent is Raspberry Champagne. Save the best for last. Always always. Except with food. Definitely eat the best things first so no one else can have them.

Running. UGH. I thought I was over this torture. I hadn’t been consistently working out since I moved to Canada. I used to be one of those people who worked out all the time. Then I moved and got distracted. I tried working out, doing different things so I wouldn’t lose interest, but I lost interest a lot. The other day, however, I ran on the treadmill for a bit and I really liked it. So I guess I’m getting into that again. *sigh*

Do you have any “projects” that you’re working on?

Kim Kardashian’s Body

I know all bodies are beautiful and everyone carries weight differently. I know that humans come in many different shapes and sizes and that we’re all special in our own way.

That being said, there is something so disturbing about Kim Kardashian’s pregnant body. As if her regular body isn’t scary enough.

It’s hard to look cute when pregnant, I get it. But this girl literally looks deformed. I don’t think this was the intended design for the human body. Why doesn’t she just take all of her money and go on an extended vacation during the entirety of her pregnancy where the paparazzi can’t find her. She would feel more relieved, my eyes would feel better, and Kanye wouldn’t have to be super embarrassed of his girlfriend.

Only a body that Kanye could love. I hope their future child, Kjesus Khrist Kardashian West, is nice and cozy in his mom’s stomach…or butt. Or wherever it’s being held hostage.

 

Let’s Take a Moment

For someone who has no nails, I’m obsessed with nail polish to an unhealthy degree. I know every brand, nail accessory, and collection. One of my favorite brands is O.P.I. They have amazing colors and they’re a super innovative company. I usually approve of most collections that they put out, which is why I was so taken aback when I saw that they collaborated with Mariah Carey.

O.P.I is known for their cute play-on-word polish names. In their Nice Stems collection (summer 2011) they had a shade of magenta called “Be a Dahlia Won’t You?” and one called “I Lily Love You” which I had no choice but to purchase. The brand is also well known for featuring a different country every year and doing a collection inspired by the nation’s life style. For example, in their Germany collection they had a nice nude shade called “Berlin There Done That.” Cute, right? You get the picture.

I was looking at the Mariah collection and the names were terrible. I knew that O.P.I must have let MC name her own polishes because they sounded like how I described colors when I was eleven.

Here are some examples:

“Pink Yet Lavender”

“Sprung”

“Anti Bleak”

“A Butterfly Moment”

When I saw “A Butterfly Moment” I had to laugh. A couple months ago I saw a video of Mariah guest-hosting on QVC. The video was just a compilation of Mariah trying to fit her favorite word, “moment”, into every description. It’s incredible and amazing and one of my favorite clips of all time.

I think my faves were the “bandana moment” and the “diamond moment”. It gives me no greater pleasure than to see people struggle with words. I struggle with them all the time especially when I’m trying to describe something. From now on I’m just going to use the word moment to fill in any gaps. I think it’ll sound really professional and intelligent. Maybe throw it into a masters thesis or something. The possibilities are truly endless. It’s like an endless moment. I think we should all go out and buy “A Butterfly Moment” nail polish. That way, if things get too hectic during the day, we can look down at our nails and have the butterfly moment that Mariah wanted us to have.

Teeth Tales

I went to the dentist today. I’ve always been one of those weird people who liked going to the dentist. I like the idea of people cleaning part of me so that I don’t have to. Regardless of how many cavities I had or how many X-rays I needed, I would always come out with shiny, clean teeth so the trips were always successful in my eyes. It’s totally not a big deal that I had 7 cavities at one time when I was eighteen. It was chic and cavities were really in that year I swear.

Today I only had one. That’s pretty good in my book. Up until I turned eighteen, I hadn’t ever had a cavity. It was something I would brag about. Now Novocain and I are bffs. I get to go back tomorrow and get my cavity worked on, so that should be fun. My dentist still lets me pick out sweet prizes so it’s always a pleasure to go back for more. They also have a dog. It’s a pretty chill place to hang out. Oh, and they also take music requests. I swear my dentist’s office isn’t in the back of some guy’s van. That’s what I’m making it sound like.

My dental hygienist was cleaning my teeth and asked me how flossing was going for me. I said, “How do you think it’s going?” And she said that it was okay, because if I flossed, my teeth would be in perfect condish. So I’ll remember that next time I feel like impressing my dentist.

Eating an apple tonight was probably a mistake because it will be stuck in my teeth for another 6 months, I’m sure of it.

 

Only Skin Deep

I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes someone beautiful. Obviously if someone has a great personality and kind heart it makes them beautiful from the inside out, but if we only see someone’s outer appearance initially, what traits make a person catch our eye?

Everyone has different taste. Take celebrities for example, everyone has their crushes and some people will agree and some people won’t. I don’t see what the Ryan Gosling deal is, but tons of other women (and men) love him. He has thin lips, guys!

This brings me to another question. Do we find people attractive because we recognize subconsciously that they have similar features to our own? This is a very narcissistic view, but I think there’s a lot of truth to it. You know how some couples start looking like each other over time? What if they always had similar characteristics but we just didn’t notice it until they had matching wrinkles? I think my husband looks more like me than my own brother. It’s a weird thing. It also explains why I had a bulletin board dedicated to Taylor Hanson when I was 9.

During Christmas time, I went to a party with a bunch of my husband’s friends. I met a girl there who really spoke her mind. She kept telling me how beautiful I was and how lucky I must feel to go through life with a face like mine. Of course I stayed by her the entire night because she became my new best friend forever. But it makes me wonder what is it about my face that attracted her? What attributes did I have that she liked? I should’ve asked her to expand. “Please, tell me more. Go into detail if you must.”

Have you ever had the urge to compliment someone on a characteristic that they have no control over but it just stands out to you so much that you have to say something? Why do we feel the need?

I have to say that the best compliments are about who you are as a person, not what you look like on the outside. You can change your outer appearance so easily. You can dye your hair, tan your skin, get color contacts. But who you are as a person, your spirit, your sense of humor, your wisdom, all make you YOU.

What physical characteristic is the most attractive to you, and which personality trait are you most drawn to?

Pinterest Terminology

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, congratulations, you have a life! If you’re a little too familiar with Pinterest, congratulations, you’re a female. Before I became a Pinner, I didn’t realize how many proper terms I was missing out on. Terms for patterns and colors and even food. Pinterest has taught me a lot, and since I’m a generous and amazing person, I’m going to share my new vocabulary with you. (You might wanna grab a barf bag.)

• Chevron. Formerly known as “zig zag”, chevron is simply a type of design. This pattern has all of a sudden become super popular in clothes, furniture and on basically anything that you can put your mark on. I pondered for a long time about how the word came to be. Like, why couldn’t we just call the pattern zig zag? And then I passed a Chevron and realized that it must be a proper term if a gas station is named after it.
• Ombré. This is definitely a made up word. Ombré is simply a description of one color fading into another color. Commonly used to describe hair color, Pinners have found many ways to overuse their made up term. If there is one word that makes me hate everyone, it’s probably ombré because you can’t avoid sounding like a douche when you say it.
• Emerald, charcoal, and ox blood. Don’t get me wrong, I like to paint with all the colors of the wind just as much as the next girl, but let’s be real. They’re just colors. Can’t we just refer to them as “dark green, dark gray, and dark red”? Like, how hard is that? I guarantee that people will immediately know what you’re talking about and you won’t sound like a pompous ass. How do people even know what ox blood looks like? I feel like I should report the next Pinner who uses the term “ox blood” to PETA or something. Also, I just made a new rule that you can’t say the word emerald unless you actually own an emerald.
• Druzy. Druse or druzy is a coating of fine crystals on a rock surface. I literally just copied that sentence from Wikipedia. Ahh college déjà vu! Why am I using so many French accents in this post? Anyway, druzy jewelry has become very popular and I hate myself for knowing what this term means.
• Chambray. Chambray technically refers to a type of lightweight fabric originating from Chambray, France. If you look closely though, it resembles the look of worn-out denim. I kept seeing denim shirts on Pinterest labeled as “chambray” and I was like “Wtf is chambray?” Why can’t it just be labeled as “shirt”?
• Maxi dresses/skirts. I was aware of this term before my pinning days, but I am constantly reminded of it. Maxi dresses are basically long, billowy dresses that go down to the floor. They make women have the appearance of looking really long and lean. The skirts give the same illusion. I still don’t understand why we can’t just call them “long skirts”.
• Tablescape. This is definitely my least favorite word that I’ve come across on Pinterest. I unfortunately had the pleasure of hearing it before my pinning days on The Food Network. Sandra Lee from Semi-Homemade used to refer to her place settings and centerpieces as “tablescapes” and nothing has made me cringe more. You know what my tablescape looks like? A plate and a fork. The epitome of class.

Well, I feel sick now. Those are all the terms I have for you today. Join me next time if you want to debate on which is better: “Upcycling” or shooting yourself in the foot.

Teeth Whitening

The one thing about being Freshly Pressed that worries me is that everyone is probably expecting some amazing pieces to come out of this blog. I can assure you, there won’t be. I can also assure you that I’ll be mentioning that I was Freshly Pressed in every piece that I write from here on out.

I don’t actually want to write about teeth whitening per se, but I would love to analyze this commercial about Crest 3D White 2 Hour Express Strips:

Okay let’s start with the opening. This brunette’s friends tell her that she’s going to Vegas with them in two hours. They don’t even ask her what she’s doing or if she’s busy or anything. They just assume that her world revolves around them. Which is clearly the case because she ends up going. Couldn’t they have planned their trip a little in advance? They probably don’t have a hotel or anything which is super chaotic. And one of her friends is at the mall and the other is casually reading a magazine. Shouldn’t they be packing?! And can’t they have a conversation instead of small doses of words–”Road trip” “Vegas!” Vegas?” Maybe they have tourettes but they only shout out really fun things to do.

The most disturbing part of this whole commercial is that the main gal immediately thinks about her teeth. Not about what to pack or if she has anything to do the next day, but if she has enough time to whiten her teeth. Her teeth are already 5 shades whiter than most people’s so maybe she has a teeth whitening addiction.

One would assume that in the two hours before she left she whitened her teeth so why would she bring the white strips in her bag and pass them to her friend during their road trip? Like, what was the conversation leading up to that point? “Here I think you need these. Your teeth are only 2D.”

Then, the gang gets to Vegas and the lead brunette bumps into this guy who just starts up a conversation. Why would he ask where they’re headed? Why does he even care? Did he come to Vegas all alone? Who does that? And then when she responds she doesn’t even look at him! She literally walks away from him as she responds. I thought she wanted to show off her smile!

And shouldn’t they all have wind blown hair after driving for hours in a convertible? So many flaws.

Dress to Impress

I’m at the age where my friends are starting to have babies. My facebook is filled with pictures of babies. Cute babies. And extremely well-dressed babies. I often think back to when we 80′s babies were born. Let’s be real, we looked gross. Back then there wasn’t a style for kid’s clothing. It was just whatever was laying around. In these very modern times kids are now dressing better than adults. But I’ll tell you what–my kid is gonna look like crap, and they’re gonna like it.

All this fuss over kids looking perfect started to grow with the children of Hollywood. We pay more attention to them than the people in our families (at least I do). We are constantly studying what actors and actresses are wearing and what their kids look like. But hey, it’s fun to judge other people! Take it from little Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, one of the best fashion critics around. (I hope none of you think I’m actually referring to the real Suri Cruise because I don’t think she can spell her name yet, never mind judge people.)

Victoria Beckham’s son, Romeo, has been selected as the new face for Burberry. Don’t get me wrong, he can work a trench, but I feel like this is setting an unrealistic standard for other kids. How can they live up to a kid who was made with a gene pool built for gods and goddesses?

It seems that almost every designer brand now has a children’s line or a baby line. It’s frivolous and unnecessary because kids, especially babies, grow out of their clothes so quickly. Why bother? I won’t lie, seeing children dressed nicely for special occasions is sweet, but seeing them dolled up all the time makes me wonder what kind of perfect facade parents want to shelter their children under.

One of the best parts about being a kid is figuring out how to dress yourself and doing an absolutely terrible job at it. I remember getting a crocheted top that was meant to go over a tank top for Christmas one year when I was around 8 years old. I went to try it on upstairs and came down with no shirt underneath. You could clearly see my prepubescent nipples.

There was also nothing better than finding a staple outfit. And by staple outfit, I mean one that you can wear literally every day. I found my perfect outfit at Old Navy when I was 9. It was a denim dress with snap buttons going up the middle. I thought I looked like a classy broad in that dress. It was so comfortable and easy to throw on.

I had the same fashion sense as Dawn Wiener.

Also, if kids always look cute, they’ll never be embarrassed by old photos and videos which will cause their egos to inflate and we’ll have ourselves a world of narcissists. You see, there’s only room for one narcissist in this world and that’s me.

Memories in Perfumes

You know how the scent of something can bring back a flood of memories? I feel like there’s a term for it but I don’t remember what it is and I don’t want to Google search for hours. It can be any kind of smell. For instance, certain types of cigarettes remind me of my grandpa’s lake house and going to concerts. Smelling funnel cake takes me back to my brother’s elementary school carnival. I remember that time clearly because I got in a fight with a carney. She rudely said during the fight, “It looks like you got that sweater at the Salvation Army” to which I replied, “It looks like your life is from the Salvation Army.”

For me, perfume holds the tickets back in time. I’ve worn so many and been around so many different perfumes in my lifetime that my brain can’t help but to link the fragrances with memories.

Burberry Brit was a staple for me in high school. I wore it a lot when I dated my first boyfriend, Kyle. Burberry smelled the best in the winter because it had notes of vanilla and spice. Did I really just say notes? Who am I? But seriously, I remember wearing this so much that when we broke up, Kyle asked me what perfume I wore so he could get some for his new girlfriend. How precious.

Anais Anais is a perfume that my family likes to refer to as Anus Anus. This is an uber floral perfume and I didn’t really like it the first couple times I smelled it. It’s almost got a baby powder smell like Love’s Baby Soft. This perfume reminds me of college and new places. I moved to Utah for my first year of college and it was a big change for me. The other day I was standing behind a woman in line to get tickets for a movie and I could smell it on her. I asked her if she was wearing Anais Anais and she was so scared and replied “I didn’t realize I was wearing that much!” I blamed it on my amazing sense of smell, but really she was wearing a lot.

Ralph Lauren Romance reminds me of Canterbury. There was a lot of romance going on during that time for me so there was really no better choice. Romance smells clean to me. The bottle is also very clean and sleek looking. I would always go into the department store Debenham’s and spray loads on me so I could walk around smelling like a ball of class.

Lola by Marc Jacobs is a fairly new, fun scent. It reminds me of summertime. It’s light and bubbly. The bottle is very in-your-face with magenta hues and a big, plastic flower as the top. I wore it a lot when I was planning my wedding with my mom. Well, she planned it. I just sat there and watched, really. Maybe I can plan my own daughter’s wedding and then she can plan her daughter’s and we’ll have a never-ending line of girls not planning their own weddings. And they can wear Lola to remember it.

Chloe Eau de Parfum  is perhaps one of the best and strongest scents that I’ve smelled. It’s beautiful. I wore it a lot when I first moved to Canada. It reminds me of trying to find my way and learning new things. It also makes me feel rich when I wear it. Chloe is one perfume that’s very recognizable. Whenever I would go into a store people would ask if I was wearing Chloe.

Lastly, my all time favorite is Laila by Geir Ness. This is the hardest perfume to find in the normal world. In the world of EPCOT however, I know just where to get it. The Norway pavilion is drenched in the smell of Laila and it’s just glorious. My mom and I have purchased many a bottle. One time I went there and I actually met Geir Ness, a personal hero of mine, and he rubbed lotion into my hands. True love.

Do you have any favorite perfumes or scents? Stella McCartney just came out with a perfume called Lily so I guess that’s on my Christmas list now?