I made you a card!

Merry Christmas, Christmas-celebrating readers!



Thanks so much for reading, and have a wonderful, wintry weekend!

Yours,

Elissa.

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Three-ringed, even!

As soon as I saw Britney's "Circus" video, I immediately remembered a little red blazer I have in the back of my closet...

Red blazer: thrifted, Graphite Skating Dress: American Apparel, Crochet Tights: Target, Tall Dark and Handsome Boots: Vintage, thrifted. Oh yeah. Top hat: Photoshopped.

And now I'm wanting a giant, glitzy parure, jodhpurs, sexy gloves and a mustache.

Hot albino peacock corset: louiseblack@etsy. Sextastic gloves: onlygloves.com. Mirrored booties (ooh la la!): Giuseppe Zanotti. Winged Heels: Christian Louboutin. Dancing bear charm bracelet: vickisvintagelane@etsy. Pieced blazer: L.A.M.B. Giant amazing vintage gem necklace: purpledaisyjewelry@etsy. Groucho Marx Disguise Necklace: Mine, from paraphernalia@etsy.

This next week heralds the end of the quarter but the beginning of... dunh dunh dunh, exams! I'll probably make myself scarce, but I'll be back in due time to tell you all about the upcoming contest!

Snow.

Hooray! The first snow of the season came today, in big, fat, sloppy flakes falling fast and frenzied.

Effin' A. Ground Cover.

Usually winter is really not my bag, but I've got a wedding to plan and winter is the most -- bridal -- of seasons. I've always wanted to get married in the fall, but this spring, I worked this vintage wedding gown show at the Art Museum and fell in love with this gown from the 1970s--- full length, and instead of a veil or headpiece-type thing, it came with a long, hooded cape that was trimmed in white fur and designed to tie at the neck. Sigh!

My sugah and I want this wedding to be the first of many beautiful parties that we'll put on as a married twosome. I'd like to elope first (Vegas? Paris? Burning Man?), to take the pressure off of the day-- let it serve one purpose (multi-family gala) instead of too many.

Below, a collage I've put together of some of my wintry wedding inspirations...

Angular crystals, smoke, whitened branches, crisp stars, albino peacocks, cool Hitchcockian blondes with high contast, clean style; and faded into the background, enlarged subzero-tolerant bacteria.

And also, you have to hear this song (if you haven't yet) by the Fleet Foxes that I first heard a couple of days ago, and just about had a winter-gasm...

How to Use a Parasol Without Looking Like a Gothic Lolita

Sometimes, the sun just gets to be too damn much. You can wear sunscreen, you can wear shades but there comes a time when you're dragging yourself across a good stretch of hot pavement and all you can do is curse the city planner who never heard of planting a tree.

The obvious solution would be a parasol, but unless I'm in a period play (or Japan maybe), I'm not doin' it. Unless, of course, you are speaking of the Parashell. Like, wo.

Blouse: Zac Posen. Cigarette Pants: Dior. Teddy Necklace, Earrings: Dior. Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell.

Check out the interview with the designer at Pingmag!


[images via vernacularphotography.com, oaknyc.com, pingmag.jp, eluxury.com]