In honor of Earth Day...

How to be Eco-Friendlier
by lekkq, arie, elisabeth, gateau

1. Don’t use your hot tools every day. Not only is it good for your hair, it saves electricity!
2. Invest in rechargeable batteries. They’re like 30$ at first but they pay for themselves in like 2 months.
3. Recycle. Talk to your school about recycling bottles. Set up a mini recyclable bin for paper you’re tossing. A meter wide cardboard box doesn’t take up much space and only needs to be emptied once a month. And you can decorate it to look pretty!
4. Try to bring your own tote when shopping. You can fit a surprising amount in. Today in my bucket purse I fit two sweaters, a pair of pants and a little extra. If you do take plastic bags try to find creative ways to use them. Especially if you have a dog… haha. I use my plastic bags to line my garbage can in my room to make sure nothing icky gets stuck to the bottom.
5. Set up a mini compost in your room. I’m not talking fruits and what, ew that’d stink.. but take like a paper shopping bag and put all of the stuff that doesn’t go in recyclable but can compost.. like Kleenex or extra little scraps of fabric.
6. In NS we have compost bins, I don’t know if that happens everywhere. See if you can make a community compost pit. Talk to your mayor about composting. Usually even one letter (on recycled paper, haha) can generate results.
7. Buy vintage. It definitely helps. And donate your old stuff. Value Village takes almost anything.
   
8. Try to buy local fruit. Organic for extra points. So worth it!
9. Buy those 5-year energy efficient light bulbs
   
10. Try to avoid using Styrofoam, it isn't biodegradable.
11. WALK. Wherever you can. Carpool! The less cars you take, the less gas you waste. Take the train, subway, bus etc. at least one way.
    Optional: take pictures of yourself with sulky faces using your rechargeable batteries and be scenester cool.
12. Stop smoking. You don't really need your very own personal hole in the o-zone layer.
13. Let the air out of random Hummers tires! Kidding, kidding. But hummers and big SUVS make me angry because they get such bad gas mileage.
14. Lower the temp in your house by a few degrees
15. Limit use of hot water when you take showers or whatever, it takes lots of energy to heat water up

Remember when we all made fun of Chloe Sevigny for wearing these?

Yeah, me neither.

Wayfarers sunglasses, sure to be hitting the racks of your local Forever 21.

the case against kitten heels.

When I was younger, my mom would never let me wear heels. She had some speech about how there is a genetic disposition to weak ankles in my family and I'll fall and break my neck and then I'll be sorry and what's wrong with those flat mary janes anyway? Of course Mom, being in sixth grade the mary jane thing would be rather embarrassing. Anyways, to me it seemed that kitten heels were the perfect solution. They were low enough to make my mother happy, and they were real, live, big girl heels! There was just one problem. They're impossible to walk in. The teensy weensy heels are narrow enough that all you can do is wobble. This led to me having a supremely embarrassing time at my aunts wedding, proving my mother right and leaving me to spend the next year's bar mitzvah season stuck in flats (not the hated mary janes though, thank God).
The reason for this post ( and I'm telling you this so you don't think I'm crazy and in need of therapy to talk about my mother the foot related abuse she inflicted on me (not to mention the visual, you should see the shoes SHE wears(actually I'll show you, here they are: )))

Anyway, the reason for this post is that for some reason there are a bonanza of kitten heels at my local Marshalls. They aren't even in style! (right?) But no, they have taken over the shelves, and whenever I spy a cute pair of what I think are flats, I am decieved by the tiny heel. It ruins my day.

By Jo

p.s. sorry about how rambly and pointless this post was, but no one's updated for a long time.

my t obsession.

So,I found this t-shirt (via StyleBytes). Is it not just amazing? Oh how I loves me some T. What, you say? Who is that? Why it's Mr. T of course! Born on the South Side of Chicago (what what), he started out as a bodyguard before landing a part in Rocky. He then starred on The A Team.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgECtiLrv04
(I would embed it, but I don't know how. Maybe someone can help me out with that?)
Anyway, he then moved to Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago. The people there still dislike him because he removed some old growth trees from the property (This gets a mention in Dave Egger's book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a good read, by the way) To improve his image, he made a motivational video called Be Somebody...or Be Somebody's Fool! That's where the point of this post comes in. Basically I want you to see this video, from the show:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=InNdEWXWtsA
Is it sad that I actually like some of the outfits?

Finally, I would like to finish off by showing you my final project for ceramics. It's a...drumroll please...Mr. T(ea)pot! Yes, I'm very proud.

By Jo

an ode to target.

Australian Target puts ours to shame
Stella McCartney is at the top of her game.
If you're an Aussie, you're in luck
Unlike us Americans, still stuck in Proenza schmuck.
With pretty little blouses just like these
Stella McCartney is sure to please.
But who spends a 100 dollars [american] on a freaking Target shirt?

If you have all odds going againist you (living in Australia with oodles of money to spend on Target clothes) you can visit the offical site.

Vreth: a Major Cutie-Face, But a Good Singer?

The Finnish folk-metal band Finntroll is amazing. Yet they've gone through vocalists like Paris Hilton goes through chihuahaus.

My dear Katla, our Swedish-speaking friend, unfortunately had to retire from the band in 2001 due to a benign throat tumor that made him unable to sing.

The next vocalist, Tapio Wilska, was fired in 2006 for private reasons. It's a shame, because he was good too.

So the band hired Mathias Lillmåns, known best as "Vreth", as their new singer.

And um, he is HOT. Even if you're not into the whole long hair, metalhead thing, you've got to admit that this boy is fine.

We'll have something nice to look at during the concerts, but can this boy sing? That's my question.

Finntroll's debut album RivFader was amazing, Jaktens Tid is a fan favorite, Visor Um Slutet is an unusual acoustic concept that I happen to adore, and Nattfodd is just love.

I am very much looking forward to next month's Ur Jordens Djup. For one thing, I love Finntroll. And I want to see if Vreth sings as well as he is hot.

Mark your calendars for March 28! (Spinefarm Records, Century Media Distro) I sure will.

Look back here for updates. :]

-by Tight

sale hunting

The common misconception: The best deals are found during after Christmas Sales. Well, it's not always.

The best time to go sale hunting is not right after Christmas, but in January and February. Yes, there are more things left right after Christmas, and you have more choices. However, it's really later on that you can get the best deals. During the after Christmas sales, stores have a certain amount of discount. As the new year comes and through January, they begin to lower that price even more. That's when you get the best deals for what you're getting. There may not be as much left from before Christmas, but on the bright side, all the winter clothes usually go on sale during January and February when the spring lines come out, so there's actually a lot more winter clothes to choose from. For example, I bought a heart printed sweater hoodie from delias for 20 dollars, instead of it's original 40 dollars and a 40 dollar oxford from abercrombie kids for 20 dollars. You can get so much better deals that way, instead of blowing all your money right after Christmas. Then in February, all the discounted winter clothes from January get discounted even farther, and this would be another good time to head for the sales.

So.... good luck in finding your best deals!! Remember to check out the stores in January and February, not just after Christmas.

-Hairspray