Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Ubiquitous Arab Scarf (T-form)



I know a fashion trend is soooo overdone when i see some random person I went to junior high with trying to pull it off at the annual thanksgiving hometown bar crawl. I was surprised that the whole Balenciaga Arabic scarf thing hit the mainstream so fast.
While having this same conversation with my good friend, Ann, she commented "you know who started this whole trend, you know?! Besides the Arabs, I mean..........were the Libertines" (ie pete doherty not the marqui de sade)
Anyway....most likely a knockoff itself, I like Topshop's satirical take on the scarf with this T-shirt. I really want it, but its already sold out....

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

View Master



If you haven't noticed I'm kind of lazy. The thing about being lazy is that other people beat you to your brilliant ideas. I had the idea a few years ago (at the brink of graduation college) that I would make my porfolio into my very own viewmaster slide. Interactive and compact...how clever. That never happened, but I managed to collect a few viewmaster slides over the years and was especially happy to find viewmasters and viewmaster slides available at nearly every historical landmark while on my road trip this summer.
Anyway, three years later I wasn't too surprised while recently surfing some boutique sites on the web. I came across some handmade viewmaster slides at http://www.bonadrag.com. There are several in the series made by some artists I never heard of. My favorite is the one written and photographed by some guy named Vladimir...it comes with a CD of a band I never heard of. It goes for $24 and is on my list of things I want but won't get for christmas.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Divinity



Ugh. You know when you just get so full of regret you just want to scream? I was amazed at the pictures Skottles took when he snuck into the Divine Lorrainne Hotel here in Philadelphia long before we were Scott & Becky. I always loved the building from the outside and wondered how weird it was something so cool looking was smack dab in the middle of that slightly ghetto corner of north philly. The when Scott showed me his pictures, i realized the inside was even better and the hotel must have been amazing in its hay-day. Recently, it has been undergoing renovation and I am sure it will not live up to its former diviness. A few months ago, someone posted something on myspace about some dude selling furniture and stuff that was once in the hotel. I regret so much that I didn't at least check this sale out. fuck. i wish i could turn back time. if i could find a way..i'd take back all the words that would hurt you....

sorry, back to my post
anyway, I was really happy to find that this photographer dude, Jeffrey Stockbridge, is showing his series of photographs taken of the abandoned building at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists on Rittenhouse Sq. Luckily, I was able to satisfy my immediate gratification compulsion by going to http://www.jeffreystockbridge.com/index.html

above is my favorite shot from his series. This room is perfect for a big pile of puppies as promised to Zoe if I ever acquire the Divine Lorraine for myself

getting new things is just like starting over




do you ever go through droughts where you can't find anything on the market that you want to buy? Like even if you had an extra thousand dollars you wouldn't buy anythign cause it all sucks? I do. amazingly.
I am a having a moment that is completly opposite of that right now. There are so many things I want right now. Besides the cowboy boots and bedframe the list is as follows:

Cherry Blossoms cowboy boots from Caboots
LAMB hand drawn herringbone leggings
and possibly the herringbone coat
Rachel Comey ryder clog available at Vagabond
Commes des Garcon Odeur 53 perfume and liquid soap (this is my signature scent!!! and seems to be either sold old everywhere including the old standbys Barneys and Sephora which leads me to believe it is goign to be discontinued :( will i have no scentual identity? Maybe not if i order it from a boutique in the UK)
John Derian "Dirty Rose mini tray and "Liberetto" tray (think i am purchasing these tomorrow)
Music by the flaming lips and also John Lennon (going to do a search right after i post this)

even if i had an extra thousand i dont think it would be anough to cover all of the above. in fact, I am sure it would take at least three thousand.

as Scott says "you're so cute when you dream"

and then i tell him "you make me feel like this (i make squashing-a-gnat-instantly-with-swift-clap-of-hands motion)"

Friday, October 12, 2007

christmas wish list


in addition to some custom made boots, i have been eyeing this bedframe from brocade home. i can get two pairs of custom made boots or this bedframe, but I am sure santa won't be as generous as he was last year when he bought me this very laptop I am typing on right now.

New Boots (and panties)


i was surfing the net to find some cutom made boots for my fat 18" calfs. I came across caboots.com and really liked all the inlay retro cowboy boots (see bottom pics..cant decide if i want the bird or the butterflies) and also the hair-on boots. you can customize them anyway you want, including changing the height, width, toe shape, heel height, inlay colors, the list goes on. Unfotunatly, they're gonna set me back about $650 per pair, but i think they are totally worth it.

puppy


i was really pissed when my sister bought a new puppy without asking me. no consideration for the fact that i would be cleaning up its pee and poop, taking it for long walks on my days off, and listening to it howl when i go to bed and when i wake up. at least this is what was already heappening with dog #1 . anyway, phinn (scott and I call him Vinny), is actually really cute. However, I am cleaning up its pee and poop, taking it for long walks on my days off, and listening to it howl when i am trying to sleep.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Old Fashioned Beauties




I found my new favorite blog http://vintagepulchritude.blogspot.com/ when typing "vintage photographs" into google images. I still don't really know what the word pulchritude is or how to pronounce it, but I love this collection of old fashion nudes. Even though they aren't wearing any clothes, you can tell so much about the time period and setting. Skottles just likes the boobs.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Vacation


Skottles and I went on a great vacation. We flew into San Francisco on a beautiful day and stayed around until the next. Then we slept over my best friend in the whole wide world's house in Stockton. She made us a really cool fort to sleep in. Then we drove into Yosemite and camped & hiked there for a couple days....it was my favorite part of the trip. Next, Skottles drove us through the desert where we took photos of ghost towns and went to the lunar crater where we got a flat tire and another one that was leeking. I was scared we were going to have to wait for a tow truck, but a nice polygamist family of 25 or so stopped to help us. We made it to the nearest town of Ely, Nevada which was only about 90 miles away. That ended up being a great part of the trip also; I love surprises. After that, we headed to Las Vegas by way of the Extraterestrial Highway...stopped at the Little Ale'Inn and ate alien burgers. Area 51 was not to far away, so we drove down an 11 mile dirt road to see signs that said no trespassing. After that, we headed to LV and relaxed by the pool, cut in line at a buffet, and went to a funny burlesque show, but didn't get married at a drive in chapel like I've always wanted to do.

Friday, August 31, 2007

oh, hey!


I've been away for a while. just out of laziness. I went on my trip and will post more about it later. today i sketched a lot of things for my upcomming line ...wearing this track jacket for inspiration. also I made this sample of a cloche hat based off one some grumpy old lady wearing in Nevada. It kinds looks like the hats inmates wore at alcatraz

Sunday, July 22, 2007


So I've consistantly gained 10 lbs per year since i've been out of college. I remember it literally being two weeks after I graduated college, I had to model in this hair show and I wanted to wear these pair of jeans, but they were too tight. It happened just like everyone said it would. But 30 llbs on a 5'1" girl is a superlot, as the online BMI calculator will tell me. I am certifiably obese.
Inspite of warnings about the freshman 15, I actually lost about 25 llbs between my freshman and senior year of college, with the help of the weight watchers points program as well as some excersice and late nights in the studio where I burned the midnight oil plus some extra calories. As I mentioned over the last three years, I have managed to gain all of that back and then some. Several months ago, I went back to the points. I lost about 6 llbs in two weeks, but after that, I kinda just stopped going to those annoying meetings. I gained back the six llbs and then some.
I knew I was fat, and despite literally typing "motivation to lose weight" into my google search engine, I could not muster up ANY. But leave it to my girl, Oprah, to reach out to me while I was sitting on the coach drinking a milkshake with a side fries. She said "If you can't find motivation to lose weight, the best thing to do is just start"
So, the next day I decided to try the No Flour, No sugar diet- hey it was better than nothing. I got the idea from my neighbor, who had tremendous success with it. I haven't read the book, but just try to stay away from anything that might even have flour in it, and anything that has added sugar. Then I set weekly goals. The first week, I just had to stick by the basic principle....but I was eating lots of french fries (my vice) to replace the bread products I was missing. But last week, I gave up french fries. Next week, I am going to start excersing on mondays, wedsdays and fridays.
So far I have lost 6 llbs and I still feel motivated. I will check in with my weekly goals and maybe some before and after pictures. Who knows, I may stick with this one and actually reach my goal weight of 125 llbs, but honestly, I would be really happy at 135.
Peace
b

Friday, July 20, 2007

Busy


I've been busy embellishing bags and sewing my students garments for a fashion show we had today oh and also asking people to give money to the art museum, which i think I am getting quite good at. My toe healed in one week. Scott and I are going on a trip out west. I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Other than that I've had nothing exciting to report on. OH yes i do. Tomorrow at the starlight ballroom the punk rock flea market is going on. Scott is selling records and I am selling tons of my old clothes for 1-5 dollars.
love
beebs

Sunday, July 8, 2007

My Toe

It all started with a little hangnail on the big toe of my right foot; i just pulled it right off. Even though I've done that a million times, this time I was thinking to myself "this is going to hurt, maybe I should get some clippers." I didn't listen. The next day, the side of my toe was sore an obviously a bit infected. Thought it would go away. The day after that, it was red and puffy all around the edges; thats never happened before. Still expected it to go away. Saturday morning, my toe was throbbing and I decided I needed to call the podiatrist.
The plan was that Scott would drop me off, I would get a prescription for anti-biotics, and then I would walk the ten blocks home while he got his hair cut. We got there and the place looked overly ghetto; I guess thats what I should have expected for chosing a Dr. on South Broad street. I made Scott come in with me, when in fact I discovered the inside wasn't too bad. However, the receptionist was overly interested in me being in the fashion business and wouldn't stop talking about clothes. Soon I was in the room with the awkward but kind Dr AND the receptionist. Upon close inspection of the toe, the Dr. said I would be getting a needle. "okay, cool" I thought to myself "he will just inject a little medicine and that way i wont have to deal with going to CVS and having to take antibiotics for a week" but then the Dr. explains that he needs to give me four shots of lidocaine in the toe so he can remove half of my toenail. I started to get nervous- over the years I've gained an aversion to needles, but was brave and let him stick me. It fucking hurt, and the receptionist just kept right on talking to me about how girls shouldn't be wearing big shirts because if they looked. "I mean, really looked at themselves" they'd realize they look pregnant. (and by the way, she asked if i was pregnant earlier, I was wearing a big shirt).
After the pain from the first needle, I started getting even more nervous, i just kept thinking about how he was about to cut my toenail out. I was working up a sweat, my heart was beating really fast, and in her efforts to distract me with conversation, the Receptionist just made me want to throw up. I was trying not to be a baby all along, being that Scott and I got in a little fight about me being too needy just the night before, but finally I gave in and asked if my boyfriend could come in the room. Scott wasn't surprised about the situation and I new he would be excited to watch the proceedure go down. After four shots of numbing liquid, I obviously wasn't going to feel a thing and all along Scott was telling me stories about how he got his feet stomped on in a mosh pit back in '95 and he had to get the same proceedure done to BOTH toes at the same time. It made me calm and the proceedure was over with in no time; I hobbled right back into the waiting room.
And thanks to the ever patient Scott who always deals with my neediness, I didn't have to hobble the ten blocks home.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Ipex


I don't like paying over ten dollars for anything except food these days, but one thing I splurged on the other day was Victoria's Secret Ipex wireless bra ($42). I'm a big hater of underwire, but sometimes feel like am wearing a training bra. I am also a hater of padding, but even though the Ipex has a little bit of molded foam, it is totally subtle and necessary to give a little womanly push-up. When I got home and tried it on, I was blown away by the comfort and more so the amount of cleavage I had without underwire. I've worn it everyday since, definitly an A+ purchase.

Above: Me with Ipex bra at wedding left; friend with 100% naturtal cleave
PS In the last entry about the wedding I forgot to add one of my most favorite favorite things; the apple butter wedding favor. Yummy and such cute packaging

Monday, July 2, 2007

Wedding Bells


I went to the most beautiful and fun wedding this weekend. My friends Amy and Leo got hitched on her parent's farm and it was absolutly perfect. I am having trouble thinking of how to keep this entry short and sweet because there were so many highlights, but here is a list below:
horses
lavender saches
live bluegrass music
bridesmaid dresses made and designed by bridesmaid
short & sweet ceremony
antique wedding dress
made me envious reception dress
plaid groom shirt
russian love poem
Mr. Rodgers poem
bohemians
goat cheese & figs
cherries in a box name tag (pictured above)
super super yummy lemony cake and other cake i kept thinking tasted like baklava
limbo
tea lights in pool
beautiful handmade twigs & mason jars chandeliers
clean country air
beautiful weather
kgorka

Who's next?
b

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

My favorite part of today



Today I met a really neat stranger. He was wearing a very large cowboy hat, looked uncannily like Gary Busey, and grew up on a house boat in Louisianna. Somehow, he got into describing how nice a deer skin rug feels againt the soles of your feet on a real cold morning. It was a really swell converstaion that lasted only about three minutes, but it really made my day.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Cappello



These are two of my students, Eugenia (left) and Viola (right). Eugenia loves shoes and the color pink and Viola loves to make trouble with Eugenia. They are from Milan, Italy and have managed to teach me a few things: hat=cappello (and look at these lovely pilgrim-like cappellos the little fashionisas sewed up with some fabric and filo (thread)) I also learned bellisimo (very beautiful) and "solo scarpe" or "only shoes" otherwise known as Eugenia's mantra.
Caio!
becky

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Hanes T-shirt got Isabelled


Here is a picture of one of my students, Isabelle. We reconstructed a t-shirt together- Isabelle chose a dark heather grey hanes t-shirt and we made it really slim in her arms and body. She randomly grapped some navy blue scrap of fabric and appliqued it on the front right side (you can't tell from this crappy pix image) with contrasting yellow thread. Then she tacked on some funky metal buttons adjacent to the applique. We put some yellow velvet elasic on the shoulder seam. The end product was some sort of hipstery vintage-sport nauticalist but overall cool T-shirt. I told her it would definitly sell at Urban Outfitters.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Work



I embellished these vintage military bags for free people. I think they thought they were too girly, but I really liked them. here is a back view.

I telemarket at the art museum very part time. FYI they are having two major exhibits this year: Renior Landscapes in October and Frida Kahlo in February; also, they are opening the Perlman building which is exciting for me because this is the first time the costume and textile collection will be on perminant display.

Monday I start teaching high school kids fashion design at a summer camp. It should be interesting; I look at my sketchbook from high school and it try not to confuse it with a fourth grader's.

Those are the things I get paid for. If you want to advertise on this blog, let me know. All you millions of viewers who read but leave 0 comments

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Lil Bush


And speaking of Graduate spoofs, did anyone watch Lil Bush tonight? What a waste of my time, I wish I had finished watching the repeat of Fit Club. If there is one thing I hate, its gimicks, and thats all this stupid show was. Although it is pretty cool that there is an entire show dedicated to making a mockery of the currrent administration, thats basically the only cool thing about it. It was really not clever and I am sure so many people could have done such a better job, especially with the amount of material available. I did liked Lil Condie.
Don't worry, I start teaching Summer Camp next week. I'll have other things to talk about when I am not watching TV all the time. Hey, I gotta shop the market, though.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The Graduate

Tonight I am going to watch The Graduate. One of my all time favorite films. The first time I ever saw it, I was about 14 and it was the million dollar movie on channel 6 abc. I taped it, knowing I would probably fall asleep 15 minutes in. I must have watched that over a million times, but the funny thing was that there wasn't enough tape left so it didn't even record the ending. Eventually I bought the video and finally understood the humor in various simpson's episodes where they spoof the wedding in the church at the end.

Whoever decided to have Benjamin block the door with the crusifix was pretty genius

My Dad never understands how I can watch movies over and over again, like Annie Hall, which I at one point estimated to have watched over 150 times. Some things just never get old for me; i love noticing som nuance that i hadn't on the other 149 viewings

Monday, June 11, 2007

New Nose



Skottles has always had a crush on Ashlee Simpson. I never knew what he saw in her until she got a nose job. She's totally hot these days...I never thought I'd say this, but I kinda want a nose job myself.

James used to call me "Protruder" when I was younger because of my nose. Peggy, my mom, would always say "you know, your nose grows faster than your face, it will catch up some day" Now she says "you know, noses never stop growing, unlike the rest of your face." Somewhere around tenth grade I may have had the perfect nose-to-face ratio

I put my photoshopping skills to the test. Left, my real nose. Right, Me with Ashlee's nose taken from above picture with Pete.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Tony and Woody




disappointed in the series finale of the sopranos. watching Manhattan now, much better. love it when Diane Keaton says "I'm from Philadelphia and we don't talk about things like that" i dont really know what she means by that

After Manhattan I am going to watch John Tucker Must Die which is newly available on demand

life is much different with cable TV

Stuff I Can't Afford




Really want the new Iphone. My verizon contract expires just two months after it becomes available.
Seriously considering whoring myself to the fashion industry once again come fall

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Heads Up: Turbans



I realized after doing my research for today's blog "every single fashion blogger has blogged about the Prada turban"
Whatever.
I picked up JANE before I got on the airplane this weekend, and I really liked page 50 which taught me how to wrap my head in a scarf a la Edith Bouvier aka Little Edie. I tried it out today for myself, and moments later while surfin' around in my new 'do, I came across a few top shop versions of this season's "hottest accessory."

Personally, I think the scarf is the most wearable way to get this turban took, but top shop's grey jersey "turban" (looks more like a 1920's cloche to me) is a close second. The satin turban/prada knock off is a bit too obvious, but reminds me how much I am loving hot candy pink these days, and for 15 british llbs it wouldn't hurt to play aound with. I'd stay away from the $250 original, even if you can get it on backorder

Hope you love my photoshopping as much as I do

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Chau America



Wanted to give you a heads up on the up coming segment on BTTV entitled "Chau America" (not to be confused with PBS's Caio Italia) featuring my friend, Kris Chau, food critic. She likes mangoes and looks good in my undies, but I think she looks best eating beef brisket.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Not Preggars




I've been really into the trapeze silhouette for a while now.....but my brother and my boyfriend, Skottles, have been advising against me wearing these "mumus" ever since i've been wearing them. Whatever- I don't know about ya'll, but I dress to impress women, not men. And neither my brother nor Skottles are necessarily the arbiters of fashion...
But it looks like they were right about this one.
Skottles and I were in the hospital today, where my mom and his dad both work. We were on the elevator, leaving, riding along with some nice middle aged lady.
"Oh!!!! are you expecting?" She exlaims
"No" I repsonded deadpan.
Sadly enough, this wasn't the first time someone thought I was pregnant. And I could just feel Skottle's "I told you so" grin trying not to burst out into laughter. At the time, I felt worse for the nice lady who was sticking her own foot further and further into her mouth than I did about my fat self
"But!? You're wearing that shirt! And you're in the hositpal!" The elevator door opened just in the nick of time and she ran off as fast as she could.
Its okay lady. I am still in denial. I know I need to lose 35-40 llbs. And I know I can't wear what Kate Moss wears and keep thinking I look just like her. I know this should be my wake-up call. But I don't KNOW know; you know?
Anyway, I gotta go put my stretch pants on and make some cupcakes
Have a great day and take a little time to enjoy the poo

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Interpersonal Overload and the "Rules of Oggling a Stranger"

Let me introduce you the very first guest on BTVT: If you don't already know who my dear friend Constance Culver is, then I suggest you check her out: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/ppa503.html#fp1....you're going to have to cut and paste that until I figure out how to make links

You may have fiured Connie was a poet with her comment on yesterday's blog. She's always had a way with words. And since she is probably my only viewer at this time, I am indeed going to touch on the "Rules of Oggling a Stranger"- hey, isn't it sweeps or something? i need to give my audience what they want...

Connie, I don't have a list of rules yet, but let deconstruct your train ride occurance in the meatime:

While there is no Wikipedia entry for "Staring" or "Oggling" I did come across an entry for "Eye Contact" which led me to the term "Gaze Aversion," which seems like what this boy was trying to do. "Looking at faces is quite mentally demanding. We get useful information from the face when listening to someone, but human faces are very stimulating and all this takes processing. So when we are trying to concentrate and process something else that's mentally demanding, it's unhelpful to look at faces." So says some British Doctor. Which could explain why people (or the fethcing young thing in this case) avoid, or are uncomfortable with eye contact. This leads me to my next bit of research

It is possible you and this lad were subjects of a sociological phenomenon called "Interpersonal Overload." It turns out there are several studies where sociologists have observed the eye contact between strangers on trains. It turns out that strangers on urban trains are far less likely to make eye contact than those on suburban trains. "Gaze Aversion" is merely a method of adapting to one's urban environment.... basically, urbanites avoid too much eye contact in order to thwart off chronic headaches trying to focus on too many faces in one day....

In your case, I wish I could rule out the possibilty that this guy was "overloaded," How could anyone avoid your cute little face standing out against the sea of New Yorkers? How ever, there is too much evidence to support the theory.

Like I said, Connie, I don't have a list yet. While eye contact may be overwhelming or intimidating, it is still necessary for landing those "fetching young things" But, perhaps there is a better approach to oggling, in case you ever happen to be on a very long train ride back into the city

Stay tuned.....

Becky's TV Television



Hi Ya'll
Some of you may know about my talk show called "Becky's TV Television"
For those of you who don't, let me give you some background:
When I was little (in age, not size) I used to pretend I was the host of my own talk show. I only did this whenever I would take a shower. I would imagine that I was (clothed) talking into the camera that was (imaginarily) placed in the side wall of the shower. The guests on my talkshow would usually be my crush (also clothed)...at that time is was usually Ted. I can't remember what we talked about....
To this day my love of gossip, I mean, talking to people, and also Oprah are the reasons I still daydream about one day having my very own talk show. Ideally, it would be broadcast on Philadelphia's Lasalle 56, but I already wrote them and they told me I have to be a part of the faculty, staff member, or a student. Im not going back to college...
Alas, its 2:22 am, I have a strange TB like cough that is keeping me from sleep, and just to create this blog on a whim. Hopefully, I will one day really have my own talk show. But in the meantime, please feel free to e-mail with "Show" topics.
So, here's to some shocking paternity tests, riveting washed-up celebrity interviews, freakshows, conversations with The Other Side, triple cheating boyfriends (who may just be girlfriends), and my original segment entitled "The Former Crush Segment"
I love redundancy
Happy Reading
Happy TV
I love redundancy