Always Anna

I get that Lucky can get a little… umm… unrealistic with some of their fashion advice.  But this month’s issue takes this a little too far - they have an article called “How To… Wear Pegged Pants.”  Yes, you read that right - pegged pants! 

Of all the trends I hate that have made a comeback (I’m looking at you, leggings!), pegged pants are definitely the worst.  Sure, I wore pegged pants in 1991 like the rest of the girls in my sixth grade class.  But it’s 2008.  And - at least as far as I know - Lucky doesn’t target 11 year olds.  

I’m not sure I’ll be able to restrain myself from screaming obscenities if I start seeing this “trend” on the street. 

It’s amazing what a difference a haircut can make.

I got about four inches cut off of my hair yesterday, and I feel lighter and happier than I have a long time.  And since all the dead ends and layers are now gone, it only took me 10 minutes to blow dry my hair this morning (as opposed to the 20 minutes it had been taking)! 

Anything that manages to get me out the door faster in the morning has to be a good thing.

I’ve been on the hunt for a new winter coat for a few months now.  I wanted something functional that would go with most of my clothes, but was a little different from the black peacoat style winter coat I’ve been wearing since I moved out east.

I love color, but I wear so many different ones that I couldn’t think of one colored coat that would go with all my clothes… so reluctantly decided that I had to get a neutral jacket.  I have a winter white one (from H&M last year) that I love… but let’s face it, winter white is not always practical.  After a LOT OF online and catalog searching for ideas, I decided that I needed either a gray coat or a black/white tweed one. 

Oh, and I’m cheap, so refuse to spend more than $100 on a coat.

I’ve been looking and looking for a new coat that would fit the bill… and finally found one at Nordstrom this past weekend!  And it was under my budget! 

I got this coat, in grey.  I wore it today - it’s not the thickest coat in the world, but it worked well for today’s high 30s temps - hooray!

Now, on to finding non-ugly snow boots….

Thanks to EmilyStyle, I am now OBSESSED with getting a large, feathered fan to… ummm… have hanging around my apartment.  I don’t think that the BF will like this idea at all - he thinks I have too much “stuff” as it is. 

“But babe,” I’ll say.  “Now I can dance around the apartment singing the song about sisters from White Christmas!” 

Wait.  Maybe that won’t sell him.

Sigh.

I’m completely obsessed with Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, and have been ever since they launched it.  It’s a gorgeous campaign - from both the marketing and social conscience perspectives- and every time I see a print or TV ad, my eyes well up.  I especially love their latest commercial, which you can see by clicking here.

I’ve been blessed with parents who always made my sister and me understand that beauty goes beyond physical characteristics to encompass spirit and heart and drive and compassion and action.  It’s because of their support (and hippie ideals) that I’ve never had to deal with a low self esteem… and I just wanted to publicly say, “Thanks.”

I never used to consider myself that girly.  I hated pink, I hated ruffles & bows, I hated make-up & jewelry, and - while I never hated them - I didn’t care about shoes at all.  When I was old enough to drink, I scorned “girly drinks” and insisted on only drinking Bud and shots.

But somehow, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to like pink and bows and make-up and jewelry and I LOVE shoes.  While I now prefer Miller Lite or Coors Light to Bud, my drink of choice is usually Stoli Raz or Stoli Cran and Soda… but if I can get my hands on some champagne, I’m ecstatic.  I still don’t like ruffles… but a girl’s gotta draw the line somewhere.

While I’m okay with my increasing girliness, I think I’m scaring the BF.  After showing him 5 billion pictures of the bike that I wanted to get, he decided to get it for me for my birthday… and spent the last two weeks trying to convince me that I really wanted a “real bike.”  Here’s a picture of my bike (sold exclusively at Target, which only makes me love it more):

Isn’t it sweet?  I already bought a hard-core lock, a bell, a flashing rear light, and a helmet… now I just need to find a cute basket to add and I’ll be set!

You know how sometimes, you get so excited about a new store or artist or anything  that you can’t stop stalking their website?  And you feel like you need to tell everyone about it, but secretly don’t want to because you’re afraid that if everyone knows, it’ll stop being cool?   Well that’s how I feel about my friend Nicole’s newest endeavor - Coley Designs.

Last December, a group of friends went to Spark Crafts to make necklaces - a girl’s activity that led up to our dinner celebration for Nicole’s birthday.  Well, Nicole loved making jewelry so much that she kept doing it, making necklaces for herself and to give as presents over the past few months.  Then, about a month ago, she decided to expand on her new found hobby and start making necklaces to sell!  I am so excited and proud of her, because her stuff - which you can see on MySpace and Etsy - is so gorgeous and fun and reasonably priced!I’m also excited about the opportunity that Nicole’s entrepreneurial skills have brought to me.  You know how I said I’ve become obsessed with design? Well, I harassed Nicole into letting me create her logo and other identity stuff.  So far, I’ve made her logo and banner for the Etsy page, and am now working on tags for the jewelry, business cards, and stationery.  It’s so freakin’ fun!  Plus, now I have a whole new side of marketing I can explore. 

If I could put on my feminist hat for a minute…

I’m completely terrified of the road that our government has chosen to go down in banning partial-birth abortions with no exceptions for a woman’s health.

“Partial-birth abortions” - a term invented by Bush’s conservatives - aren’t a pretty thing. And it doesn’t seem like anyone chooses to use this method as a form of birth control - it’s such a horrific procedure that it’s pretty much only used in cases of fetal distress or the health of the mother. So why is this even an issue? Why is a conservative government trying to increase the control of the federal government - aren’t they supposed to be for smaller government?

Clearly, this is just the first step towards repealing a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.

I’m scared.

I’ve been fighting the inevitable for the last five years. Struggling to keep my beliefs. Purposely doing stupid things just to prove a point. But now I have to face the truth… if I want to keep a cute figure, I need to start eating well and working out.

Sigh.

I was lucky enough to skate through high school and college without doing anything to stay in shape. I could out-eat a lot of boys, refused to work out, and drank my weight in beer. Obviously, I didn’t appreciate how lucky I was until I lost it.

I went to the doctor’s last week, and she confirmed something I’d suspected… I’ve managed to put on 7 pounds in the last 4 months. Over the past five years, since I graduated from college, I’ve put on 20 pounds! At only 5′3″, I’m just too short to pull off this kind of weight gain… at this rate, I’ll look like the mom from “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” by the time I’m 35.

I don’t want to be one of those girls that constantly complains about how fat she is, or who only eats salads and fruit. I just don’t believe that life is meant to be lived without enjoying pizza and burgers and tacos, dammit! I LOVE cheese, and am too Italian to deprive myself of carbs. I don’t want to think about the calorie and fat content of everything I put in my mouth… so what do I do?

I guess I can stop eating 4 slices of pizza at a time and just eat 2. Replace one of my daily snacks with veggies or fruit. And start stripping every day with Carmen Electra.

I’ll be back in a bikini in no time. I hope.

Growing up, I moved from being totally untrendy (ah, Junior High) to overly trendy (I’m talking about you, Clueless-inspired high school years). In college, I fell into this bizarre in-between world where my clothes spanned a wide range of styles, from overly slutty (Hello, black stretch pants and animal print shirts!) to California punk (I kind of miss my bright yellow Doc Martens) to completely clueless (ah, black jeans).

Tired of having a completely schizophrenic wardrobe that had to be completely replaced every year, and horrified by the number of photos in which I’m wearing an outfit that completely embarrasses me 6 months later, I decided to streamline my style after college. I spent a couple of years trying on EVERYTHING that even slightly appealed to me - any style, any color, any size. From this, I figured out what styles of clothes look best on me (ooh, halter tops!) and what looks totally ridiculous (turns out that flowy empire tops make me look pregnant). I figured out what colors look good on me and what makes me look washed out. And I found out that wearing low cut shirts will redeem almost anything else I put on. Ha!

Most importantly, I found out that I don’t have to follow every trend in the world to look good. Thank GOD I discovered this before I started wearing skinny jeans and leggings and 80s tunics and headbands.