lip service

i'm not a huge make-up and beauty product person -just concealer and eyeliner on most days- so it's possible that this site is common knowledge to those of you who are, but it is entirely new to me. if you like snazzy beauty products with artful packaging, then beautyhabit.com is something you should check out. the lip tins above, from Perfumia Gal Madrid, and the bizarre limited edition Paul & Joe lipsticks below are available on the site, along with all sorts of similarly lovely goodies.

ruud van empel

these extraordinary photographs by Amsterdam artist Ruud Van Empel are created using a process called cibachrome, giving them an incredible depth and otherworldy feel. they remind me of old viewfinder slides. see more here.

tennis anyone?

if you haven't already heard the sweet sweet music of Tennis from Denver, Colorado, you simply must have a listen! this husband and wife duo saved up their money for years so they could buy a sailboat and sail the east coast for 8 months. in those 8 months at sea, a band was formed, and the songs which came out of it tell the story of their life on the water. it's actually a little grittier than what i'm normally drawn to, but the underlying '50s sound had me the moment i laid ears on it. ima listen to it right now while i scrub my bathtub :)  

Tennis - South Carolina from woodsman man on Vimeo.

dame elizabeth

i'm heading up north for the weekend to be a bridesmaid in a friends wedding, and since the dress i'll be wearing has a 1950s feel to it, i submitted a photo of Elizabeth Taylor to the hairstylist, hoping she can give me a similar 'do. while searching for the right picture, i found myself in shock and awe of young miss Taylor's dazzling beauty, and i thought it about time i inducted her into the Loose Leaf Tigers Hall of Dames...



Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, is the second actual Dame to be inducted to the hall of dames (the first being Judy). miss Taylor is a living legend, considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's golden age. she's lived a life far more dramatic than any film, having had 8 marriages to 7 men, 4 children, 9 grandchildren, and 2 Oscar wins (for BUtterfield 8, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf).




an internationally renowned beauty in her younger days, Liz has been plagued by health problems over the last few decades, including a benign brain tumour, and has broken her back 4 times, making it very painful for her to stand or walk for long periods of time. but her failing health has not stopped her from dedicating herself to raising funds for AIDS charities, a crusade she began in 1985, after the death of her friend Rock Hudson.

stinkfish

incredible street art by Stinkfish. see more here.

my new favourite etsy shop

i came across the Simplicity Is Bliss etsy shop via Some Girls Wander and i must encourage you to go and have a look. the shop is teeming with exquisite pieces, all of with are reasonably priced. unfortunately for me, most of my favourites are a bit wee for me, but if you're on the small side, you simply must snatch some o these up!

nirrimi

these photos were all taken by 17 year old photographer Nirrimi. i found this extraordinary young talent's blog to be deliciously inspiring and i suggest that you go have a look.

alex prager

please forgive me darling readers! it's been almost a month since last i posted here, which is not like me at all. i'll try to make it up to you by keeping the content coming, starting with a look at the fabulous retro cinematic stylings of photographer Alex Prager.




Prager recently released a short film entitled Despair, set in 1960's L.A., a classic melodrama that takes the cinematic style of her photography to a whole new level.

the hangover

so hungover. need macdonalds. helped a friend of mine get rid o some extra booze last night. now i'm at work. can't wait to go home and throw myself on the couch. i need one o these:

all the king's women #22 - glenda farrell

born June 30, 1904, in Enid, Oklahoma, Glenda Farrell's first professional acting role came at the tender age of 7, when she played Little Eva in a stock company production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. from there, Glenda continued in theatre, pausing at times to continue her education, while appearing with a number of theatrical companies and in several Broadway productions. Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era, and in 1930, was signed to First National Pictures (a division of Warner Bros).

touted by many as the inventor of the wise-craking, fast talking, 'hard-boiled dame', Farrell made a total of 122 films during her career, many of which saw her playing some variation of this character. she and Joan Blondell, with whom she was frequently paired, came to personify the tough, uncompromising, undefeatable and somewhat dizzy blondes of the early talkies.



during the 1930s, Farrell was one of Warner Brothers’ most prolific actresses and even had her own film series, as Torchy Blane, "Girl Reporter". while promoting the Torchy Blane films, the studio boasted Glenda's ability to speak 400 words in 40 seconds :)

weary of being typecast, Farrell made a deft transition in the 1950s, to motherly roles, primarily on television. it is in this capacity that she lands herself here, in All the King's Women, for in 1964, this glamorous star of stage and screen appeared in one of the worst films of all time: Elvis' Kissin Cousins.

now you all know by now that i am a diehard Elvis fan, and that i genuinely do love most of the 33 pictures that he left to the world, but this is positively, indisputably one of the worst of 'em. in this comedy-o-incest there are in fact two Elvises, one of whom is blonde. Glenda, the hatted matriarch in the photo above, plays Ma Tatum, mother to the blonde one. her shining moment in the film is a bluesy duet sung in hillbillie dialect, accompanied by a hounddog (also pictured above).

Glenda was married three times. she had a son, Tommy Farrell, with her first husband who became a 'side-kick' actor in B-westerns. then came a brief marriage to Jack Durant of the Mitchell and Durant vaudeville team, an finally, in 1941, Glenda married Dr. Henry Ross, an army physician who served on General Eisenhower's staff.

Glenda retired from acting for a time, but boredom drove her back to the stage. while appearing in the play Forty Carats in 1969, Glenda was diagnosed with lung cancer. two years later, she died, at the age of 66 and was interred at the U.S. Military Academy Post Cemetery, in West Point, New York. twenty years later, in 1991, Dr. Henry Ross was buried beside her.