Teeny Manolo

I’ll admit it. 

I didn’t really do any back-to-school shopping.

Despite all the hype that builds up in August and September about needing to stock up on clothes, I asked myself, why?  Besides, school started for us back in July.

I don’t live far from major shopping centers, so there was no marathon shopping trip needed due to lack of access.  I could see how that might be an issue in smaller cities, but wouldn’t internet shopping be sort of a blessing in that case? 

Also, I don’t live in an area of the country that has an early fall.  In fact, there are Thanksgivings where we are able to still dress in sandals, capris, and short-sleeved shirts.  So I felt utterly no compunction to buy a bunch of long sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, and pants when they would just take up valuable real esate in the Munchkin’s dresser until late October.

So I seem to be just sort of piecing his wardrobe for fall and winter here and there, whenever I see a good price.  Can you say a pair of Skechers for $15? Or Ralph Lauren pants for $10? Yeah, patience rakes in the deals for sure.

But the sad part is, I’m still pretty sure he has a better wardrobe than I do. 

I know, it’s only September.  But hey, all the stores have their Halloween stuff out, so I consider the holiday to be fair game.

Besides, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so it doesn’t take much for me to get into the, uh, spirit.  So sorry, couldn’t resist.

But as with all “scary” movies, buy with caution and forethought into how your little viewer will be likely to handle it.

The Nightmare Before Christmas This movie is really two movies in one, because not only does it work for Halloween, it works equally well for Christmas. I’m all about the value, you know. This is a new re-release, and you’d better snap it up quick, because once they are gone, it’s unlikely Disney will do another for a while. Take it from the woman who lost her DVD oh, eight years ago and wasn’t able to buy another until this month.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Can this 1981 gem be any more classic? Can Linus be any cuter? And Lucy any more endearing than when she collects her brother from the pumpkin patch to put him into bed? Can Glinda just be done with the questions?

Casper Debate abounds about this movie, actually. Some people think it is horrible, while others see it as light and fluffy bit of entertainment. There are no Oscar noms here, but the kids will probably really like it.

Clifford’s Big Halloween Clifford is just one of those enduring, endearing creations that will be loved until the end of time. Trust me, you can never go wrong with Clifford.

Mickey’s House of Villains Not a movie but a collection of animated shorts held together by an admittedly thin plot device. It is a mixture of old and new shorts, along with a sing-a-long by all the Disney villains.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks Who doesn’t love Angela Lansbury in a live-action/animated movie about a magic bed? The young Ms. Lansbury plays an apprentice witch who goes on adventures with three adventurous orphans. This is old-skool Disney, and what’s not to like?

Something Wicked This Way Comes The scariest, thematically, of all the movies on this list. And it technically isn’t really about Halloween. But, this movie adapted from an excellent Ray Bradbury novel will leave you with tingles.

Corpse Bride All right, another movie not truly about Halloween. But with the underworld, ghosts and ghouls, it is sure to get you into a Halloween frame of mind. Victor Van Dort is already engaged, but somehow finds himself accidentally married to the Corpse Bride. Which bride will he pick, the one that’s alive, or the one that’s dead?

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad This DVD has both a version of Wind in the Willows (one of my favorite in children’s literature) and Sleepy Hollow. Both are definitely worth owning, and the vision of the Headless Horseman is enough to send almost everyone in the family hiding under the table.

Unlike my last foreign film list, this one features only animated movies. Yes, Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and other US movie studios seem to have quite the monopoly going on the animated front. But, there are more than a few movies from other countries that deserve our attention as well.

My Neighbor Totoro Sisters Satsuki and Mei must go live in the countryside with their father while their mother recovers from an illness in the hospital. They find their new “neighbor” is a magical forest spirit, and this movie about their adventures together is pure magic.

Spirited Away Yet another movie directed by the legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki (you’ll find most of the movies on this list are his), a young girl named Chihiro is forced to work for an evil witch. She finds inner strength, and is eventually able to free her parents and her friend, who have been under the witch’s spell.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Brits Nick Park and Steve Box have created two of my favorite animated characters. This movie finds Wallace and his dog Gromit battling a mysterious Were-Rabbit. Can they save the vegetables from the hungry Were-Rabbit in time for the annual vegetable contest?

Kiki’s Delivery Service Kiki, a thirteen year old apprentice witch, must find her place in the world.

Howl’s Moving Castle The evil Witch of the Waste turns young nineteen year old Sophie into an old woman. In her quest to end the curse, Sophie finds love as well as her true self.

Chicken Run- Aardman Studios, who brought Wallace & Gromit to the world, made this movie about chickens who are trapped on a chicken farm. They dream of leaving, and after many escape attempts, the situation becomes especially dire after Rocky the rooster lands among them. Can the super-smart Ginger, along with Rocky, who promises to teach them how to fly, lead the way out?

Castle in the Sky Inspired by Gulliver’s Travels, the story follows orphan Sheeta and her friend Pazu as they outwit the evil Muska. Watch as they travel through the magical world of Laputa with some rowdy sky pirates.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind A thousand years after a devastating war, Princess Nausicaa is humanity’s best hope for survival, as she is the only one who understands the importance of saving the polluted forest which borders the lands on which they live. The first of a long series.

Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures Two of these adventures won Best Animated Short Oscars, and one was nominated. These are three hilarious short films with claymation characters that will have you and your kids rolling on the floor.

The last product I’m going to review for this summer of Stila is the Eyeshadow Quad in Marrakesh.

And I can sum it up neatly in one word- beautiful!

Now as I age (ahem) gracefully, my ability to wear super-shimmery colors is getting a bit tenuous. Nothing shows up crepey eyelids like a bit of shine. The shadows in this quad have a teensy bit of shimmer, just enough to look awesome, yet not enough to highlight any signs of advancing closer to forty, or uh, (cough, cough) thirty-seven.

The colors can be worn together, alone, or in any combination. They would be extremely flattering to pretty much any skin tone. I love this quad, and I think you would, too!

As for the Super Fantastic Stila Giveaway Part Deux, we are going to carefully judge the haiku over the next week, and the winners will be announced on Sept. 6, 2008. Thank you to all those that entered, it’s going to be a tough decision! You all blew me away with your creativity!

Ahhhh! School is in the air! For some of you, including me, school days have already arrived. But, it’s never too late to enjoy a great school movie with your kids. Most of these are for older kids, so as always, parental discretion is advised. But really, that goes without saying, doesn’t it?

High School Musical Resistance is futile! This mega popular movie has been going strong for almost three years and counting. Can the star basketball player and the shy new girl become a pair? It’s a Disney movie, what do you think?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone The classic that first introduced us to Hogwarts. And who in their right mind wouldn’t want to attend Hogwarts?

School of Rock Jack Black, in probably his best starring role. He becomes a subsitute teacher at a stuffy prep school, and nothing but fun can happen with Jack Black as your teacher.

Napoleon Dynamite Follow the nerdy socially challenged Napoleon through his trials and tribulations in high school. Love those tater tots, and don’t forget, vote for Pedro!

Dead Poets Society If you did not shed a tear at this movie about a group of students at a boarding school and their special bond with their teacher, then your heart is a lump of charcoal. Go have a barbeque instead.

(more…)

Our summer of Stila continues, and if you haven’t yet submitted your haiku, I have one question for you. Why not? Ten minutes worth of exercising the brain cells could net you almost $200 in FREE MAKEUP! Do. The. Math. And, even if you don’t win, you are creating ART, and art is priceless, is it not? As well as good for the soul.

Now, onto things that are good for our face.

Another product I got to review was Stila’s Color Push-Up in Berry Flash. It also comes in Rose Flash and Blush Flash. It is a compact, moisturizing blush that you simply sweep on. No brushes, and a minimum of blending with your fingers. It is light in texture, quite sheer, and did I mention extremely blendable?

Its compact size makes it perfect for sticking in your purse. Going out to dinner after work? Use it for an instant, easy bit of color. Because we all know that even with carefully applied powder in the morning, the blush is one of the first things to go, right after the lipstick.

Good stuff, my friends. Good stuff.

Well, my life may not be normal, but it sure is glamorous: today when I was supposed to be posting I was instead locked in an art gallery which contained no list of staff phone numbers (I snooped everywhere, I tell you) but many, many paintings on the themes of powerlessness, distress and alienation. We bonded, those paintings and I, while I waited for someone, anyone with keys to come and release me from my empty, gilded cage.

Fortunately, raincoaster here is a resourceful woman possessed of a large handbag, and thus is never without a paperback and at least one back issue of Vanity Fair. So it was that I became re-acquainted with an old friend of mine, the book Elegance, by Genevieve Dariaux; through the intermediary of the book Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro.

Some background: Dariaux’s book is really the definitive literary examination of the concept and practice of elegance (What Would Jackie Do notwithstanding, and I’m sorry but Breakfast at Tiffany’s was about a call girl and Capote really wanted Marilyn Monroe in the role, so there). Tessaro’s book is a well-done chick lit look at what happens to a particular woman when she tries to live by the rules set out in the original. Dariaux also wrote Entertaining With Elegance, which I’ve had for perhaps twenty years and believe me, between that and Miss Manners you’ve got the distressing concept of social interaction just stone-cold covered.

In any case, Tessaro’s book quoted a part of Dariaux’s book relevant to the TeenyManolosphere and I thought I would reproduce it here. It fits very well with the Frugal Indulgent’s Manifesto which I quoted earlier:

Little daughters are understandably the pride and joy of their mothers, but they are very often also, alas, the reflection of their mother’s inelegance. When you see a poor child all ringletted, beribboned, and loaded down with a handbag, an umbrella, and earrings, or wearing crepe-soled shoes with a velvet dress, you can be certain that her mother hasn’t the slightest bit of taste.

It is a serious handicap to be brought up this way, because a child must be endowed with a very strong personality of her own in order to rid herself of the bad habits that have been inculcated during her early years. The more simply a little girl is dressed - sweater and skirts in the winter, Empire-style cotton dresses in the summer - the more chic she is. It is never too early to learn that discretion and simplicity are the foundations of elegance.

Of course, to translate this to our modern world requires some rearrangement; for instance, anyone who’s seen Joe Simpson and his offspring knows that the above does not apply exclusively to mothers, if it ever did.

You find the most interesting things in foreign catalogues. Things like this baby blender from John Lewis in the UK.

from Cory Doctorow’s Flickr stream

I’ll take my baby smoothie with extra wheatgrass, please. Hmmmm, wonder if they have a baby oil press to match?

As I mentioned before, Stila was ever so generous with me, and even though I am giving away a ton of makeup, I also got to keep some for myself!

You may or may not know that I love lipstick.  Actually, I have a confession to make. I am a complete lipstick whore.  At this moment, I have approximately twenty liptsicks.  And it isn’t enough.  I will never have enough, I tell you!

Ahem… Back to the review.

When I saw the High Shine Lip Color, I knew I had to try it.  The packaging (as always) is so pretty, with little vines and leaves etched onto the inner tube. 

The lipstick itself goes on fairly lightly, it isn’t greasy or heavy.  Stila describes it as buttery, and I would have to agree. And I have to point out that there is a large difference between “shiny” and “glittery” and this has a lot of shine with not a lot of glitter.  Which is fine with me, because my days of nightclubbing are a thing of the past.  It wears well, and it has now become my favorite everyday lip color.

If you think you might want one for yourself, go and enter the Super Fantastic Stila Giveaway, for the High Shine Lip Color is just one of the many goodies in the first prize package. 

Ahhh, that time is coming, if not already here. Yes, the time to ponder what the heck you are going to buy your kids for their back to school wardrobes.

So for the next few weeks, I’m introducing a new feature where I focus on trendy back to school clothes, done two ways. Er, well, sometimes even three if I can swing it. And today, I can indeed swing three versions of the same concept in three different price ranges. Let’s get to it!

80’s influences are back, baby! And that means, of all things, argyle! Doesn’t it just take you back?

Lilly Pulitzer Kids Girl’s Darcie Cardigan Soft cotton cardigan comes with front pocket detail, rib trim, and contrast elbow patches. Tres cute at $68.00.

GapKids girl’s Argyle cardigan A little sparkle goes a long way with this cotton sweater, perfect for layering, $34.50.

Old Navy girl’s patterned polo Granted, it isn’t a sweater, but at $12.00, you will have plenty of money left over to buy some turtlenecks to stick under it.