Halloween 06 Special: The Corpse Look

Happy Halloween people! I'm not one to dress up, but to join in the festives, I'm going to blog about the 'corpse look', which is interestingly also one of the FW06 beauty trend. What is the 'corpse look'? Basically, it's super pale skin, pale lips and light brown eye-shadow.

The 'corpse look' as seen on the FW06 runway:
Marni had the best corpse look. Tanya (first picture above) totally rocked this look.

Vera Wang had the more elegant (if that's possible) corpse look. The models have a bit of purple eye-shadow on instead of only brown. Oh, having that Eastern European/ Russian face really helps to achieve this look. But since we can't control that, you could just apply very pale powder onto your face, (but not too much or else you'll look caked!)

The corpse look is actually a variation of this season's popular brown eye-shadow look. This Bobbi Brown chocolate palette is perfect to achieve this look. Make sure whatever eye-shadow you use is matte (no shimmer.) Apply the eye-shadow on the eyelids, and a tiny bit along the lower lashes. To make your lips pale, apply a bit of foundation and nude or whitish-pink lip stick. Do not use lip gloss since well, the corpse look isn't meant to be glossy or cheerful.

This look is a very runway, couture-ish look, so what better time to play with it than Halloween? Besides, it's always nice to look elegant while endulging in childish fun.

So, what are you dressed up as today?

Honors choir, again

For the second straight year, Kathy's been selected for the Michigan School Vocal Music Association's State Honors Choir.



Kathy sings alto, a very powerful, moving alto. With the right song, she can make you cry.
Earlier this year, as an eighth-grader, she performed with the honors choir at Devos Hall in Grand Rapids. That was Jan. 21, 2006, and it was a marvelous experience.
Next year's performance is set for Jan. 27, 3 p.m., same venue.
Kathy's smiling a little bit; the honors choir is to perform the gospel "Walk in Jerusalem." It's the same arrangement the Blue Lake choir used last summer on its European tour.
"I know this!" Kathy said when she saw the music.
It's a great song -- and it will be a great performance.

Dior Lip Gloss Locket

Every half a year, I expect and anticipate what new pretty that Dior manages to come up with -the new pretty, being the beauty accessories. Since our blog started, Dior has come up with the cosmetic rings from the Dior Summer Princess range and the Dior Gormette (cosmetic braclet). Anyways, so I thought I would do an update of Dior's cute but unpractical beauty accessories.

In spring/summer, there was Dior Mail, a palette consisting of a bronzer and lip gloss. Hm, ok, I suppose this is more of a packaging thing than an accessory. But I still don't think it's a useful beauty product for people to actually buy.
Moving on to now, Dior just launched a charm lip gloss locket. According to its description on Neimanmarcus.com, you can wear it as a braclet or attach it to your handbag. Considering lip gloss goes sort of yucky with heat, you probably shouldn't wear it as a braclet. The only thing I can say about makeup that is packaged in a cute way, is that they remind me of the disgusting makeup that kids play with, and the makeup inside just automatically feels cheap to me.

Finals night

The Oiler marching band turned in its best performance of the season, and finished sixth in the Michigan Competing Bands Association Flight III finals at Ford Field in Detroit.




Under the shadowless television lights in the world-class football stadium, the 80 kids from mid-Michigan performed tightly, smoothly, confidently. It was the final performance of "Elemental Led: The Music of Led Zeppelin."
The judges' take: 72.35, the highest score the Oilers have received in years.
That beat the earlier score at the West Bloomfield Invitational - where they won - of 72.05. Second-highest during the season was at Durand, 71.525
Just to be there was a major accomplishment. The highly nontraditional show Mount Pleasant presented was just plain fun to watch, and the kids just loved to put it on.
The top shows were traditional, modern marching band shows, heavy on visual effects and challenging modern-composer music. All of the top bands are huge operations with big budgets and large numbers of students. Lakeshore, for example, has 190 kids involved.
Personally, I liked the Lakeshore show better than Ferndale's, but my take doesn't count.
Before heading to Detroit, the Mount Pleasant band put on a final rehearsal/community show at Community Memorial Stadium. The wind was fierce, gusting about 26 mph. The temperature was about 40.



Still, about 500 people came out to see the band and see the show. One older woman made the comment, "I wanted to see the band play music they liked, instead of the funeral dirges they made us play when I was in school."
These guys loved it.
There was a sense of disappointment at where Mount Pleasant finished - after all, they'd gone into the finals ranked No. 4. But this was territory they'd never been in before.
All told, it was a remarkable story. I don't know the back story, but it's clear there is one. Mount Pleasant won the state finals in 2000. The current band director started in 2002, and I remember getting telephone calls at the Herald from parents who seemed relieved the old director was gone.
This band is purely Matt Taton's. There is a handful of seniors who came up as eighth-graders in 2002. These guys are young, and they've seen what it takes.
On the way home, driving through the night on I-96 and U.S. 127, a Lansing classic rock station played a set of "Kashmir," "Good Times, Bad Times," "Communication Breakdown" and "Tangerine."
When the band buses pulled into Mount Pleasant High School at 1:45 a.m. - and the time change had kicked in, so it felt like 2:45 - the kids were wiped out, but pleased.
They'll be back.

Here are the final scores from the Michigan Competing Bands Assocation Flight III Finals at Ford Field, Oct. 28, 2006:

1. Ferndale ..................................81.80
2. Stevensville Lakeshore ........80.80
3. Farmington Hills Harrison..75.80
4. Redford Thurston................. 75.55
5. Allegan.....................................72.8
6. Mount Pleasant......................72.35
7. Trenton....................................71.4
8. Comstock Park.......................68.4
9. Marysville...............................67.0
10. Fruitport................................66.1

One bragging point: The Fruitport football team beat Mount Pleasant Friday night in the first round of the state playoffs. Band members now can say, "Nyah! The band beat Fruitport!"

This Week HG Is Loving...

Last Saturday, my friend and I watched Chicago (the musical). Yes, it's the one Ashlee Simpson was performing in. And no, we didn't watch it only because Ashlee was in it, although it did make us want to watch it this month instead of later. Anyways, back to what I want to say. I've noticed that some fashionable women in the audience were wearing wrap dresses with leggings. I've also noticed a lot of people wearing this trend on Oxford Street walking about and shopping.

Admittedly, this trend is not exactly new -people have been wearing this trend since summer. The image that really stayed with me is this lady wearing a black, white & purple Pucci wrap-dress with ankle-leggings. It was so 'in' without being fashion faux sort of 'in'. Also, it was girly without being flowery. And this is a seriously versatile outfit -from the theatres to attending parties, to shopping and dining in both cheap and expensive shops and restaurants.

The good news is, we can still wear this outfit in winter -all we have to do is, duh, subsititute the ankle-leggings with stockings (as seen in the Emilio Pucci runway picture above.) Personally, I can't contemplate wearing an outfit like that to go shopping, but I would definitely wear it for a nice dinner out or even a Christmas event (is it too soon to be thinking of Christmas activities already? Doesn't matter.)

Throwing babies

Yeah, it had to be the wind that made my eyes tear up. And the cold, yeah, that was it, that was why I got the sniffles as the band put on its community show at Community Memorial Stadium.
It was about 40 degrees with the winds gusting to 26, rain coming down sideways.
And those guys were tight, together, comfortable with the show even in the awful weather. The wind tried to snatch away the high notes, but it couldn't do it.
About 400 people showed up for the show, despite the terrible weather.
One woman said, "I just wanted to see the kids play music they liked, instead of the funeral dirges they made us play in high school."
The sense was magic. It had the atmosphere of an opening night.
The transition from the opening "Stairway to Heaven" into "Kashmir" still takes my breath away, no matter how many times I see it. The breaks on "Moby Dick" are so tight, they'll get cheers. And there's no way to sit still during "The Immigrant Song."
One of band director Matt Taton's sayings is that you can get so good people will throw babies.
At the end of the community show, somebody threw a doll on the field.
Yeah.
It's all up there tonight, Ford Field, 9:30 p.m.

St. Louis in five

The Cardinals beat the Tigers three straight games in St. Louis, and St. Louis is the World Series champion.
I can't really say I'm disappointed; no one -- absolutely NO ONE -- expected the Tigers to be anywhere near the World Series this year. It was a great ride.
Today's finals day, the day at Ford Field that's been on the schedule for the Oiler band all year. It's been a long time since the band's played at the finals -- 2000 was the last appearance, and they won that year.
It's 7:40 a.m. in the Ranzenhaus. I'm the only one up. It will be a cold, windy, nasty, blustery day. Winds up around 40 mph, snow mixed with rain, general yuck. But I'm doing my part -- there's 20 pounds of fruit on the kitchen table for the band, and I'm ready to go pack lunches.
But first, the day must begin .....

The price of overacheiving

This has been one of the craziest, longest, most sleepless weeks of my life.
Sunday afternoon, Kissy Missy dragged me to the walk-in clinic. I'd been coughing and hacking, and generally just feeling lousy. Then I got a fever of 101.3. I had a respiratory infection.
A good course of antibiotics got that cleaned up. I took half a day off Monday, then got right back into the saddle. Monday night, city commission. Tuesday, teaching. Wednesday, Union Township. Thursday, a city candidates forum. Friday, I was supposed to go to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" with Kissy Missy, but that had to be canceled because I spent most of the afternoon in an interview, and didn't get my Sunday and Monday stories done.
They're done. Finally.
Through the middle of this, Kathy's come down with an eye infection. She feels lousy, and naked without her eye makeup.
Saturday: the zoo continues. Kissy Missy will be part of Prof Ed's events as part of Make a Difference Day. Andrew works. Robert has band practice, and heads for Detroit and the state finals.
We won't be far behind.
I'm excited, but right now, I hear a bed calling. As soon as I file my hours, buy a bunch of apples and bananas for the band, and recharge Robert's phone.
Don't ask me to do anything else.

BG's Paris Diary Week 4

Its been a peaceful week in Paris. I spent most of the time mulling over a particularly painful paper. Anyway, some of the highlights:
We got dressed up and went to see L'Elisir d'amore the Opera Bastille. It was a very interesting experience, sort of like a musical except the actors/actresses sung in Italian and there were subtitles in french which I barely understood. But it sounded nice and with a little debriefing at the beginning managed to follow the story through. Opera fashion-wise, there were a wide array of it, from jeans and tee to dresses, depending on how you feel.

Although I was slightly disappointed at the modern austere decor of the Opera Bastille(left)- I'd always imagined the opera to be richly decorated and regale. Maybe I should've went to the Opera Royal. Afterwards, we walked around the streets of Bastille(right), and I must say, its quite a lively area at night with lots of bars and restuarants.
Also went to see a movie (The Queen- which surprisingly was quite a good movie) at the Odeon. Again, a very crowded and youthful area with lots of restuarants. I must go back some time in the day to wander around!

Then today, we went to Versaille. It was slightly disappointing though as they've already covered all the statues in the gardens for the winter, there were huge constructions in the middle of the castle and garden, some of the gardens were closed- October is not a good time to visit Versaille. We ended up rowing a boat (left) in the gardens of Versaille, which was quite cool. Did you know that the oarsman is supposed to row backwards? It took us a while to figure it out as this little kid completely ousted us as we struggled to get in the right direction. Then we had a tour inside, which was quite glamorous and it all just makes me want to go see Marie Antoinette all the more!

Glam it out in Red!

Glam up your FW06 wardrobe and go all out RED! Here are some inspirations from the catwalk!

I LOVE these two jackets even though they are so different. One is ladylike and put together (left: Christian Lacroix) and one if a red hot rocker chic leather jacket (right: D Squared).

For the office and cocktail hour, glam it up with ladylike red button down dresses and simple red dresses. I especially adore this silk one from Matthew Williamson (left), (right: D Squared).

To go all out, take inspiration from these two very GLAM red carpet ready looks from Gucci(left) and Givenchy(right). That Givenchy dress is just d-i-v-i-n-e!

Now for some more attainable pieces, here are jackets from Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie for you to just throw on and spice up your FW06 palette.

For something more fun and casual, we have this pinafore dress and this button down dress both from Urban Outfitters.

Moving onto more formal occasions, we have these two dresses that are ready for both work and party. The wide sleeves dress from Marc by Marc Jacobs looks soo cute and you can never go wrong with the classic Diane von Furstenburg wrap dress!

Then there are these two hot dresses from Paul & Joe and Anthropologie. I love how there are subtle designs on both to make it look more interesting.
So dare to be red everyone and have fun!

What IS Cashmere?

Ever since my mom brought me to this crazy cashmere sale last year, I've had an obsession for cashmere everything. They're just soooo soft to the touch and so warm. As a result I've acquired cashmere sweaters (esp the RL ones-they are just divine), scarves, hats, cardigans-all for the freezing cold winter of Chicago of course. Then the other day, my friend asked me, "What IS cashmere?" and that put me on the spot. How can I be truly cashmere crazy without knowing what makes cashmere different from say. . wool?

So I googled it up and this is what you need to know:

The name cashmere was derived from Kashmir, the state of India, where the cashmere (kashmir) goat was initially found. Cashmere is the fine, downy wool that grows beneath the coarse outer layer of hair, called the guard hair, of the cashmere goat. These wool are naturally white, grey or brown.

The luxuriously soft wool provides light weight insulation- enough to originally keep the goat warm in the cold mountain temperatures-without bulk, which is another reason why we love it so much-it keeps us stylish and warm. It is also appropriate for all climates, because the high moisture content of it allows the insulation properties to change with the humidity in the air.

But what makes it so precious is limited supply. Out of the annual clipping of 15000-20000 tons of cashmere, only 6500 tons turn into pure cashmere after the natural animal grease (ew), dirt and coarse hair are removed from it. Due to the conflict at Kashmir, very little actually comes from there. Nowadays, cashmere comes from the other high plateaus of Asia, such as northwestern China, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan.

There. Don't you feel much better equipped to truly appreciate the beauty of cashmere, now that you know all there is to know about it?

Headed to Ford Field

Here are the final standings in the Michigan Competing Band Association Flight III regular season:
1.Stevensville: Lakeshore........75.950
2. Ferndale..............................73.300
3. Redford: Thurston...............72.900
4. Mount Pleasant..................71.525
5. Farmington Hills: Harrison..70.800
6. Trenton................................70.350
7. Allegan.................................70.275
8. Marysville............................69.400
9. Comstock Park ...................66.825
10. Fruitport............................65.950

11. St. Clair Shores: Lakeview 65.300
12. Gibraltar: Carlson..............62.925
13. Linden...............................60.725
14. Hazel Park ........................60.550
15. Dearborn Heights Crestwood 59.700
16. St. Clair Shores: Lake Shore 59.475
17. St. Clair Shores: South Lake 57.575
18. Auburn Hills: Avondale....... 57.150

The top 10 bands compete at 8 p.m. Saturday at Ford Field, Detroit. This year is the first time since 2000 thta Mount Pleasant has made it to the finals. The Oilers are scheduled to play Saturday at 9:45 p.m.
Right across the street: the potential Game Six of the World Series.

FW06 Fashion Trend: Grey Cardigans

We all know grey is THE colour of the season, and grey cardigans of all styles are simply everywhere in department stores. There are so many cuts to choose from that I want more than one! And like many other trends this season, the kind-of-long cardigans look best with skinny jeans. Personally, I think one should not wear these grey cardigans with other types of pants because you will end up looking very formal and old-fashioned, (that is unless you're going to work or a formal event.)

A long-shawl-looking cardigan on the left by DKNY and the cropped cardigan on the right by James Perse.

I LOVE this Rick Owen Angora Blend Wrap Cardigan. It's SO stylish and relaxed-looking. I hope it's still there when it goes on sale because I'm sure I'll still love this one next fall!

The Daryl K (left) is another cardigan that I almost bought. It's so funky and effortless looking, (although I remember the one I tried on looked longer.) The baby-doll style cardigan on the right is by Paul and Joe.

These two Juicy Couture cadigans are the same but in different colours. Like typical juicy outerwear, they look very comforatable and casual.

The original cardigans: sophisticated yet retro-feeling -the left one is by Vince and the right one is by Marc by Marc Jacob. I bought the Marc one in the San Francisco Macy's with the tourists' tax free discount. It's so adroable.

These two (different) cardigans are both by Vince. It's sort of got a boho vibe going on, with the loose belts and the cuttings of the cardigans.

This Alexander McQueen cardigan is so cool -you can fold it up so it's a short cardigan, or let it down and it turns into a long, comfy cardigan!

Kirsten Dunst Hits Every Magazine Cover

This post was supposed to come out on the 19th, the day before the world release of Marie Antoinette, but obviously BG's birthday post comes first. Speaking of Marie Antoinette, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I LOVE the movie poster and the movie promo pictures -so grand and pretty!

So, usually when celebrities suddenly appear on multi-magazine covers to promote their new CDs/movies, I get really bored and temporarily hate that celebrity, but for some odd reason, I haven't gotten sick of Kirsten Dunst's covers. Actually I've gotten addicted to seeing Kirsten editorials. All her editorials are just so well done -some are artistic; some are down-to-earth; some are edgy. Basically, no matter which style, she pulls it off, and none of them are boring.

US Vogue Sept 06 -Titled Teen Queen. As we all know, the Sept issue is THE most important issue each year for Vogue. I like this cover more than Sarah Jessica Parker's cover last year, but nothing beats the 9-model cover from a few years ago. Kirsten mainly wears loads of huge, gorgeous evening gowns in this shoot.

Nylon Oct 06 -Young, stylish, mischief, hip.

Times weekly magazine Oct 06 -A typical movie-promoting feature.

Another Magazine AW06 -V dark and edgy. Great for looking at, but not very style-inspiring.

UK InStyle Nov 06 -Typical InStyle cover and editorial, ie. nothing special.

Tatler Nov 06 -There is only one huge photo from Marie Antoinette and an interview inside the magazine. The cover picture is the only new picture of Kirsten -talk about annoying! I hate when magazines put someone famous on the cover and don't bother doing a proper photo editorial.

Teen Vogue Nov 06 -Typical Teen Vogue style -youthful, happy and very inspiring style-wise. I love Kirsten and the clothes in this shoot. But then again, I like most Teen Vogue editorials because the clothes are so my-age and loveable.

Anyhow, I MUST watch Marie Antoinette soon!

This Week BG is Loving...

The Chanel flap bag my parents got me for my 20th birthday! Isn’t it fabulous?


Although this one shown here is not mine. Mine is made of black calfskin leather and is a smaller size, but you get the picture. It cannot get any more classic than my bag - well, except maybe if it was a bit bigger like the average size, but at this moment, my smaller one is infinitely better as it makes it look more youthful and appropriate for my age. It matches absolutely anything and this will definitely last me for a life time.

Although, I still haven’t used it yet because I am so in love with it that I am actually scared to. I mean, what if I *gasp* scratch it? Soft calfskin leather is oh-so-scratchable! I will definitely have to sleep on it and find an appropriate time for my bag to make its debut.

BG's Paris Diary Week 3

This last week in Paris has been slightly less eventful than the last two as I settle down into Parisian life. I’m getting used to the language barrier now and even started saying “pardon” to people when I was in London. It was just so frustrating at first, because I’ve never lived anywhere where I can’t express myself properly.

Anyway, last weekend I went to both London and Cambridge. Since I’ve already written about London before, let me regal you a bit about Cambridge. The “city” (it is considered a city because they have a cathedral), was bigger than I expected. I was imagining a small town very much like Oxford, but it is really quite big and one can get lost if you don’t know your way around. The architect was beautiful, the churches and bridges were amazing (though not a big fan of their red brick buildings)! They even have this mathematical bridge where no nail was used to build it (although I’m not sure if I’ve actually passed it or not). I attended a formal dinner in one of the colleges, where they all dressed up in their robes (a la Harry Potter style), listened to the scholar say grace in Latin (I love traditions even though I have no idea what she was saying) and ate fabulous 4 course meals at a very affordable price. It was awesome, definitely a great experience.

For my actual birthday, my friend and I celebrated with afternoon tea at the Ritz Paris (my favorite past time). The décor was not exactly the Classical style I was expecting. It really felt more like a lounge/bar (well I guess it IS called the Vendome Bar. . .), but the scones were exquisite- fresh and hot. The overall experience was very “ritzy.”

Oh, and guess who I was in the same building as? Lindsey Lohan! I came out and there was this huge crowd outside the Ritz with their long professional cameras. So I wondered over to find out why. Turns out, Lindsey was staying at the Ritz and they were expecting her to come out anytime within the next 2 hours. So yeah, I thought that was kind of cool even though I didn’t even see her shadow and wasn’t about to wait around for it.

I also made my first visit to THE Chanel store yesterday on Camden Drive. It is a good thing that I’m such a fan that the name Cambon is forever etched into my head, because one can easily miss that tiny little street. The store through wasn’t any different from any other Chanel stores, but have you ever seen a Chanel store with valet out front?

I also sneaked into the top floor of the modern art museum near Hotel de Ville yesterday (the name of it escapes me) to get a good view of Paris. The museum reminded me of the children’s play area in US McDonalds, I definitely need to go back sometime and take a look at the things inside.

That is about all I did this week in Paris. I also went to Lafayette, Printemps and Zara with my friend where I found this perfect round buckle belt that ran out of my size, but that was not very exciting. And now, I am going to mold in my room for the rest of the weekend to hopefully start and finish my 10 page paper and recover asap from my cold and not lose my voice altogether. A bientot!

Happy Birthday Barneys Girl!

Last weekend, Barneys Girl visited London to pre-celebrate her Bday. We went for a big dinner with our friends and went clubbing at Leister Square. As per our usual custom, I'm dedicating a Happy Birthday post for her. Here's a list of lovelies that she wants:

Gorgeous, super versatile Stella McCartney boots.

The tres chic pair of Miu Miu boots that she blogged about two weeks ago. BG already has a matching Miu Miu bag to go with these boots -maybe she'll get these someday?

BriteSmile whitening treatment -I never knew she wanted it, but apparently she does! Do whitening treatments actually work well, and how long do they last?

Hoop earrings (her fav kind) by a brand I just discovered called Shaun Leane. BG usually sticks to the very basic hoops, but some variation is always fun.

A dinner at Ruth Chris. BG's been away from Ruth Chris for too long -she wants American steak now!

A mega gorgeous, adorable coat from Zara. This season, both of us are loving the coats from Zara. Seriously, they're so pretty and affordable. We each bought a coat from there this season already!

And finally, the Chanel 4-colour eye shadow palette that we've been drooling for since we learnt makeup. Chanel eyeshadow's quality and shimmer is absolutely unmatched. BG wishes for the purple palette *hint hint people*.

Have fun celebrating in Paris BG!