6.30.2010

Need Advice? Ask Away ---

Boy troubles? Girl troubles? Sex issues? Work issues? Body issues? You name it, she'll answer it.

Don't be scurrred, Christina to the rescue!

Email Christina at CGood(@)thewellset.com and she will answer you as bluntly honestly as she knows how. Don't worry, she won't judge you - she'll just give it to you straight. Not your typical advice column, but perfect for the young urbanite stricken with the daily dilemmas of being young and hot. Alas. Tough life.

Email her your questions today!

6.24.2010

GooGoo for GaGa, My Love

6.23.2010

A Little Something to Express Where I am

6.22.2010

Chanel Must Have for Fall 2010 Paradoxal Nail Polish


[Stylelist] Just as we're gearing up for summer, fall falls into our hands.

And the neon nails and pastel eye shadows we thought so chic last week suddenly seem passe, as we gasp over and grapple for the moody, muted shades that will waft in with the cool Autumn winds.

Chanel has released their Fall 2010 makeup collection, rife with chocolate grays, deep plums and smoldering khakis. Global creative director Peter Philips created a look that pairs soft smoky eyes with paler lips to pay tribute to Coco Chanel's proclivity for the bold contrasts that first defined her iconic style.

Headlining the collection is Le Vernis Nail Colour in Paradoxal, a dark gray-violet that the company thinks will be "the new statement-maker of the season." If recent history is any indication, they're right -- Chanel has been a leader in nail polish trend-making for the past few seasons, punctuated by their wildly-popular shade Jade, which we still can't keep on our desk because coworkers borrow it with such frequency.

Interestingly, Paradoxal did no make its debut on the fingertips of models walking Chanel's Fall 2010 runway, a move Philips has been known to do in seasons past; Jade was first glimpsed during the Fall 2009 show, Le Vernis Nail Color in Black Velvet and Gold Lame was introduced at Chanel's Paris-Shanghai Metiers d'Art fashion show, and most recently an unnamed powder blue shade was seen at the 2011 Resort collection.

Instead, models wore the nude pink Jade Rose, to calmly offset the wild, Pointalism-inspired shadow surrounding the models' eyes.

Other standouts from the fall collection, which can be seen below, include three new shades of Rouge Coco, the lipstick the company launched with great fanfare early this year. The line will expand with three new shades, Chalys, a delicate coral, Rose Dentelle, a soft pink and Chintz, a peach, each created to provide a soft counter effect to the season's bold eyes, which will smolder in deep violets and cool khakis found in the Les 4 Ombres palette and Ombre Essentielle Eyeshadows.

Another interesting addition is the Le Crayon Khol in Clair, a not-your-typical-eyeliner shade of smoky beige.

Unlike Nail Vernis in Paradoxal, it's a color we think we may be able to get away with wearing this summer without looking too much like we're obviously pining for fall.

Just in case you missed it: this really exists

6.21.2010

Digging This Video & Song, Just Give it a Sec


Jay Z - "Hello Brooklyn" from Gregory Solenström on Vimeo.

Typography geek Greg Solenström recently paired black and white photos of Brooklyn with Akzidenz Grotesk font and Jay-Z and Lil Wayne’s “Hello Brooklyn 2.0" for a fan made tribute that I think could work as an official video.

Daily Dose of Inspiration: Don Lucho's Casa de Karton

If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to live inside of a drawing, then Don Lucho’s project Casa de Karton was meant for you. The artist has built an entire apartment using cartons and paper — including the furniture. Click through to take the grand tour. [via BuzzFeed]

6.04.2010

Come Watch the Blondes Dominate! It's for a Good Cause!

The Discriminating Gourmand: Blowing Your Mind



Lunch Downtown
by the Discriminating Gourmand

My downtown (North Congress Avenue) lunch options are limited.  Over by Lavaca and 15th – a short walk across the Capital lawn – you have Texas Chili Parlor and Hog Island.  I could live with both and be happy.   Philly Cheese Steaks (Hog Island) and Chicken and Sour Cream Enchiladas (Wednesday Special at TCP) all week.  
But by me, the options are as follows:

Thai Passion – it’s good and quick.  But don’t order the lunch specials, flip the menu over and order off the standard menu.  Get the Pad Thai or the Pud Kee Mow with Beef if you like your Kung Pao spicey (Seinfield).  It ends up being $2 extra and substantially better. 

Athenian Grill – you can only really go here once a week because the portions are just huge.  I’ve only ever had the gyro plate at Athenian and I would guess it’s close to 3 lbs. of food.  They give you a meatball on the side. What that’s you say? I don’t have to eat everything? Sorry, but that my friend is an impossibility. I, like my father and his father before him, am a proud member of the clean plate club. 

Roaring Fork – the big winner.  The menu is SOLID.  This is one place where I always order something different.  From the pork enchiladas, the trout almondine, steak sliders, or famous burger, this place is a winner.  Side Note: Roaring Fork used to have incredible French fries, everybody commented on them, but they changed them very recently and they are not nearly as good.  Just this week I asked the waiter what was the dealio with the fries – and he said they have moved to slicing them in house to be more unique.  Big mistake.  I predict they’ll be back to the old ones within the month.  It’s like when The Tavern took the spinach artichoke dip off the menu – I literally walked out the door and vowed never to return until said dip did.  Now guess what’s back on the menu? 

El Chilito – another big winner.  El Chilito has a very unusual salsa, it’s a mole and I’m addicted to it.  Seriously, the fridge at work is stocked with little El Chilito to go salsas.  For breakfast, get the migas breakfast taco and add ham.   

For lunch, I recommend ordering a taco and upgrading to a plate to get the rice and beans.  Choose the black beans and mix them in with the rice.  The cochinita pibil is VERY good here – which is saying something because that is NOT an easy dish to do well.  I also like the tinga de pollo taco and the daily special tacos are always Pork Carnitas and Pork Barbocoa which are both good.  I’m sure the rest of the tacos are fine, but I can’t speak for them.   I usually eat in at El Chilito, the owner works the counter and is pretty friendly (and his daughter is absolutely beautiful).
 
Little City – big time hipster hangout.  I like to order the Smoked Salmon Crustinis to go, not because I don’t like hipsters, but because I’m busy fool!  It’s my fast healthy lunch option.  They also have good chewy chocolate brownies. 

Mikes Pub – eh.  People love to talk this place up.  It’s OK.  It’s an OK burger.  They usually have a game on and it’s empty = a place nice if you want to get a liquid lunch going.

And of course there is a smattering of sandwich and burrito places.  None of which standout.  I went on a minor Chipotle bender about five months ago and haven’t been back since.  That leaves me with Jimmy Johns and Quiznos.

6.03.2010

Maybe I will come back with some Sun Hands?



I'm about to embark on a 7 day journey through the Grand Canyon. Think Chacos, portopotties, cotts and campfires folks - and best of all - I will maybe come back with a tan!

I'm pretty nervoussss... Wish me luck!

Sex and the City 2: I don't care what they say!



Yes, I’m a cliché I know. I saw SATC2 within the first week it was out. I posted the first pictures published as well as the first trailer. I bought my tickets online a few weeks out and went to the show with my friends. I got there early too, first one in the theater in fact, and it was empty for a while. I was about 30 minutes early (not thattt early) and the theater was empty until about 10 minutes out.

Then the women started flooding in – every age, race and size. Plus one man. He looked straight, but who really knows or cares. I was worried, but the fans came and the theater ended up mostly full. These women were not necessarily stylish, but the excitement over the film was palpable and when it cut to the opening credits I heard more than one person exclaim, “I’m so excited!” Ok, those words were also uttered from my lips and echoed by my friends. 

I was so excited despite the bad reviews and the urgings from my boyfriend that it was going to suck. I didn’t care, I told him, I knew and had heard that if you really loved the characters and the show that you would love the film, regardless of what some blah film critics said.

And I am going to just throw this out there: I loved the film. I relished in every minute of the fluff and escapism it was. The clothes! The characters! They were back! I was thrilled and it was awesome. I’ll for sure watch it again on HBO in a year.

Here were some items I took away from the film aka the good, bad and otherwise, not too much of a spoiler alert, but still FYI:

1) Miranda’s opening dress was phenomenal. It was well styled with interesting earrings and that shell ring. Here’s to you Miranda: you are no longer a mediocre looking lesbian lady playing a straight, type A women! You looked hot - what was it exactly? You’re hair maybe? You looked great in the film and the opening dress was a showstopper. I did a little research  and the low cut, knee length ensemble is from a british designer, Julien MacDonald, and was bold, sexy, and definitely made a statement.

2) The women looking like, well, women. Their bodies and their skin, specifically Carrie’s and Samantha’s were wrinkly and I liked it. Here’s to you ladies: for not looking like Barbie-Frankenstein-robots. I appreciate your age appropriate skin and all it has to offer. You look wise in your old age and knowledge is power and power is sexy, even on a woman.

3) Samantha’s normal-ish body – how refreshing. She had a pooch and her arms weren’t twigs. I was all ‘you-go-girl’ because it was so nice to see her eat something. I also appreciated her menopause humor – we’ll be there soon ladies {not that soon} and it’s time to embrace our hot flashy, sweaty mothers.

4) The Middle East and women’s rights in the film. Pretty interesting how that agenda was pushed. Not too hard, but just enough that Samantha’s lack of cultural awareness was, for lack of a better term, grating. Being blatantly sexual isn’t American it is just plain tacky and rude. It’s part of their religion to be modest and modesty is not always repressive.

5) Traditional marriage under scrutiny. As a non-traditional gal myself I can relate to wanting to rebel against cultural norms: just because they are the norms doesn’t mean they are right. But being anti-tradition isn’t always right either. Some of those traditions are there for a reason to preserve the marriage. This discussion in the film was really interesting to me as I struggle with the connotations of real life marriage versus fantasy marriage.

6) The karaoke part. They almost jumped the shark there with the song and the dancing. Fortunately it turned into kind of a heart felt power woman ballad toward the end. I dug it eventually. Let's burn our bras! 

7) Finally the Shoes {yes, that needs to be capitalized)… Here’s some pictures for your fashion enjoyment: