Buy it at Insound!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

women in jaipur, india
making sweeping look vibrant and glamorous.

below, me in jaipur... '07.
channeling jaipur
my thoughts often flutter off to the pink city.
where the women of india
emblazoned a fashion influence on my brain.
that said, fast forward to yesterday.
zulily isn't just for kids, kids.
when this Raj tunic arrived in the mail yesterday
(purchased from zulily)
a look began spinning its web in my mind and voila!

due to scandalous side vents, i decided to break out my side ruched pewter hot shorts to wear underneath (they usually only see the light of day at #UMF), inspired by the ruched leggings i coveted on sari-clad women throughout the golden triangle.thought you'd dig a detailed shot of the print and embroidery.
necklace is, believe it or not, ann taylor loft.
anyway,
happy weekend, mine starts today!

love,
sunlovey

Monday, April 25, 2011

summertime rolls
& rules.

yeah, it's not technically summer.
but the song popped in my head
& word on the street is, it's blazing
in NYC today. give them a round of applause.
finally.
yep, you got it, summer continues to inspire all things
shorts, dresses & wedges for this little sunlovey.
thought i'd overload you with summery looks galore
before my week goes utterly haywire, as so many of
my faves converge on south florida
& i stop the world and melt with them.
tunic (will wear as dress in august) - forever 21.
bracelet - anomaly (jacksonville).
shorts - loehmann's.
wedges - shop.com.
sequin tunic - forever 21.
tribal shorts - forever 21.
wedges -steve madden.
necklace - jewel mint.


dress - desigual.
necklace - boston proper.
wedges - shoe dazzle.
love,
sunlovey


so yeah, i wore blue.
AND white.
to L's 1st shower.
so that worked out swimmingly.
on the sound front:
i totally suggest you download
mp3 right now.
dear GOD let monday be gone.
in process of loosely trying to plan a little break of dawn breakfast for this friday's royal wedding. yep, brain's all the hell over the place. hope this finds you surviving your monday in fine fashion.
love,
sunlovey

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Weigh. In. Now.
I beg.
frilly & demure icing like white
or
bold & splashy print in blues & greens

each dress is boston proper.
and i must wear one to
tomorrow...
i feel fresh and free in the white one.
i feel dramatic and right in the blue.
which shall i choose...?
love,
sunlovey


Monday, April 18, 2011























THE POWER OF FLOWERS

the second temps catapult upward, i can't imagine wearing anything but blossoms. and these days, emulating nature & crafting my own. oh and... stopping to smell the gardenias, before the florida sun burns them up.

on the sound front: my ears happily exploded yesterday en route to jamba juice when hipster runoff played lo-fi-funk's track, city. had never heard it, despite the fact that their album, boylife, came out in '06. swedes get electronic right. dig it too? get the mp3 here.

love,

sunlovey

p.s.

dress is forever 21

cardie is fossil

shoes are steve madden

Saturday, April 16, 2011

the homepage that launched
a thousand blooms.
or six.
i've mentioned hue here & there as of late on the blog because their denim leggings have been my BFFs in the last few months & i'm wearing them in many of my blog photos. fast forward to like three days ago. i go on their website & BAM i'm entranced by the vivid colors. tons of them. and the necklace. worn by one of the models. but hue doesn't sell jewelry. :-( i tweet about it. hue sees said tweet. says their stylist made it herself for the shoot. ironically, i'd already made a mental note to hit michaels one day after work. this just lit my fire more.
and so i did.
kid in candy shop style, i snatched up a ton of colors, some wired polka dot ribbon, embroidery floss & embroidery needles. but i was scared. i'm an idea factory. but i've been known to blow at execution. i get distracted. i get overwhelmed. that sort of thing. i think it was the german's "when's the last time you used the sewing machine i bought you" line today that made me determined to figure this out.
check it:
voila!
don't be afraid to tackle whimsical ideas.
love,
sunlovey

Friday, April 15, 2011

SHOPPING THE CLOSET
am truly living each day like it's a brand new fashion challenge as of late. considering essentially ALL of my jeans and pants are ruled out until further notice, getting dressed involves A LOT of scavenger hunts to recesses of closets. thank the fashion gods, i keep digging up old but perfect frocks. like this one from forever 21, say? 3 years ago? i have no concept of time. it's a bubble dress and i used to wear it with a belt. now, flowy and sensationally shapeless. ;-)
in an ideal world we'd all love to acquire something new and fantastic to wear daily, but that just isn't the case, kids. so keep digging deep. reinventing.
happy weekend! tear it up & sparkle on.
love,
sunlovey

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

thieves like us = such #LOVE
always have,

& still very much do. to...




in the last week or so i've acqui
red their One Night With You (Nite Jewel remix) and Your Love Runs Still mp3s from the beloved RCRDLBL & dig both to the max. smart kids know that 'thieves like us' was a new order track way back in '84. & that that is where Swedes Pontus Berghe (drums) and Björn Berglund (keyboards) & American Andy Grier (vocals)got their name. and i adore them.
get all RCRDLBL has to offer by way of Thieves Like Us here.
love,
sunlovey
in a boston proper racer-back top
old navy cargos
and patricia fields platforms

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

the shoe that launched a look
you come by a fun shoe, you make it yours.
you want to wear it right away.
so you let it guide you, entirely...
& shape every single other thing you put on your body.
a look is born.
all because of a shoe.
sequin blazer: forever 21
lace-trim tank: michael stars
necklace: H&M
denim legging: hue
the shoe: preview international, snagged at nordstrom rack yesterday, on a whim.
love,
sunlovey

Monday, April 11, 2011

SHOPPING THE CLOSET
mad happy to bring this dress i acquired last year on into this year. the colors are just too fab, the beading is just too amazing, it caters to my insane love affair with flowy chiffon right now and most important, it's quite kind to my bump. thank you, dear dress candy. yep, i'm wearing it with my latest jewel mint necklace.
when i #LOVE something i wear the hell out of it.
so yeah, as i always say, dig deep, shop your own closet. there are treasures in there...
love,
sunlovey

Sunday, April 10, 2011

WEDGE ISSUE
there's something about the onslaught of summer that forces a girl to stockpile wedges. but don't judge, 3 of the 5 styles above are not newly acquired. in fact, shoe #4, i've had since i saw the cure at #UMF ('twas 2007). what year was that? anyway, i wore them there. so, not much of an issue, huh? no, just a healthy little summer obsession. if all plays out right, i'll be adding a 6th style to this assortment, thanks to a twitter #mustlustespadrilles contest by nine west by tweeting this:
sarah christoph
@ i becuz am over 5 months pregnant & refuse to wear flats—so sexy, yet comfy wedges are where it's at! ;-)

am told i won a gift card...stay tuned!
hope you had such a brilliant weekend.
i did. albeit different from any weekend i've ever ever had, follow my other blog for an update on how so, shortly...
love,
sunlovey

Thursday, April 07, 2011

ShOp OuTsIdE tHe BoX:
SWIM COVER UP AS TUNIC

sometimes i find the tops i love the most nestled amidst a brand's swim collection or even their PJs/intimates. victoria's secret sold this as a swim cover up. and to be honest, it flies as a dress. Or, a top with leggings. shoes are madden girl. oldies but goodies.
love,
sunlovey


ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY:
leave it to vivienne westwood (& melissa, who's melissa?... ah, seems it's a brand that thrives on the jelly shoe, who knew? not I) to design a jelly shoe that doesn't make me think of elementary school. this shoe is BRILLIANT. and i stumbled upon it on total accident & conceptually, i totally dig. anyone out there already own these? gosh i do #LOVE staring at these photos...
love,
sunlovey

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

HOW Can You Tell a Girl
That Loves Dancing on Fire

to be Careful in Her Heels?
today's the 1st day i'm wearing shorts this year. to work. i love doing this. it feels like cheating. and it inspires me to accessorize to the hilt so as to pull off the somewhat blasé casualness of it all. snatched a floral sash tie off an old
skirt of mine to contrast the
floral tunic i was wearing. then dug up an ancient boston proper necklace & a target necklace for icing. cardie is from anthropologie, it has delicious golden Lurex running through it. oh yeah, and my major steve madden golden heels, which provoked the above comment. about being careful. how could he forget we ride race cars and dance on fire?
no worries...
love,
sunlovey




LUXOR MODERNE
i am accessory challenged.
oft times i just can't be bothered due to a plethora of reasons. admittedly, not being a morning person is mostly to blame (accessorizing myself when i have like 15 minutes to get out the door & to work, sadly falls to the way side). that & being the most unorganized girl you'll ever meet. like most of my possessions, my bracelets, necklaces, scarves, belts, etc. are a total cluster @#$%. like literally. a tangled bloody mess.
then, there's my devil may care approach to acquiring accessories, all such acquisitions are done on a whim. thus,while i've amassed quite the little treasure trove, much of it works with nothing. so yeah, essentially i'm accessory damned.
but i'm trying to sort myself out. i'm crediting jewel mint. ha. something about the way in which they present their accessories online makes me contemplate what i 'need' a bit more effectively. the way in which they arrive on my doorstep, in such a killer well-thought-out package enhances the experience. and each time i've popped their sleek black box open i've found i'm instantly enamoured by what's inside. each piece has been more substantial than i expected, more statement making and of a quality i'm constantly surprised by. just to refresh, below are the two other fab pieces i've gotten from jewel mint. such love. oh & thanks @lunajay for prodding me to go ahead & join, like @tamarabrink i thought i needed a new monthly fashion/accessory club like an extra hole in my head but this one's turned out swelle. and yes, i meant to spell swelle that way. stay tuned...
love,
sunlovey
All Things Swelle
BlogCrush: The Swelle Life & Swelle Boutique
Denise Grayson & I have become fast friends on twitter. Or maybe I should say, I quickly became obsessed with all things Swelle and sort of inflicted myself on her. Should you explore her online Swelle Boutique you'll likely find yourself coveting what you discover & frantically searching for a conversion calculator (Denise resides in England & I was NEVER good at converting pounds to dollars).

And then there's her blog—The Swelle Life, & grrr, it's hard not to hate her, it's that cool. and gorgeous. and... well, marie antoinette would approve. but so would vivienne westwood.

I tell you all of this because Denise has just launched the beginnings of her own Swelle label collection. And the images I've been privy to so far have me lusting and longing. Was delighted when I asked her if I could blog about her up and coming collection and she graciously obliged. Get to know Denise Grayson, the style maven behind the darling & cheeky dresses of the brand spanking new Swelle line.

What inspired your designs?
I love the idea of wearing dresses every day. Women dressed that way in the 50s and 60s and the aesthetics of those eras hold massive appeal for me, but their look was more fussy. Their faces were made up and their hair was always done (if Mad Men isn't lying to us) and the outfits accessorized and matchy-matchy, but you can take the 'proper' look and make it more modern, individual and relaxed. Dita Von Teese does the whole 'done to the nines' look, even for grocery shopping, brilliantly, but it's not practical for the rest of us. But simple, classic dress shapes are really easy and comfortable to wear, you can dress with a bit of charm without looking like you take it all too seriously. And they're very versatile. My motto for the past few years, especially since becoming a mum and wanting to look good with literally zero effort, has been that it takes the same amount of time to put on something pretty than something that looks like crap! If you have the right pieces in your wardrobe there's no reason not to look great every day.

I wanted to offer this kind of dressing, so ease and comfort was important and therefore the fabrics had to be soft and easy to care for, pieces that you look forward to wearing and can be in all day without tearing through the front door and ripping your clothes off for some relief.

And how did you go about getting them created, did you draw up sketches and have them made, did you sew them yourself?
I do sketches of what I want and with the first designs I started working from toiles of basic classic shapes such as shifts and trapeze dresses. I have the dresses made by a local seamstress who is great with detail and will take the time to do handpleated trim yet not really charge for it, which helps keep my price down. By doing it this way we can make each piece a little different and customize them according to individual requests. They are made to order with a very quick turnaround of 2-3 days. I had been trying to learn to sew, thinking it would give me full autonomy over the entire process once I got good enough to make my own samples, then a friend talked some sense by reminding me that if I don't have enough time to handle my workload now I certainly don't have time to make clothes on top of it all. Point taken and I'm happy to have talented others do it!

How long have you had your Swelle Boutique up & running?
I opened last June, it's still a baby.
Your blog?
The Swelle Life just passed its three year anniversary. That reminds me, I need to do a post on that!

What were you doing before this?
My BA is in fine art but I wondered what the heck I was going to do with that, so I went to school for advertising. The combination of writing and visuals seemed tailor made for me; little did I know that big ad agencies eat the souls of children for breakfast. I've worked in pretty much every incarnation of communications from copywriting to production to web content development and project management to marketing for a university and consulting. I never saw myself as being self-employed but when your life does a 180 and your priorities shift, you never know what will come from it. In the end I determined the office sucked and I hated working for other people. I never let myself admit that before because I didn't think I had a choice. I've never worked harder than I do for myself but I love it. I still freelance a bit when I can.

You grew up in Canada and now live in England, where about?
I grew up in Ontario in the Niagara Region (fun fact: Linda Evangelista went to my high school) and later moved to Toronto where I met my husband and had our daughter. We moved to coast outside of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England in 2005 when my daughter was three months old. Fun! I miss my family and friends so much but it's a huge consolation to live in a beautiful area, just a five minute walk from a gorgeous beach on the North Sea with a 7th century castle overlooking it. We just don't have that back home! And the country side is stunning up here. Geordies are really lovely people, too.

Fave place in the world & why?
Definitely Paris. We lived there for a short time in 2009 and we're actually off for an eight-day trip next Saturday which I am hugely looking forward to. Sometimes you have such grand, highly romanticized expectations of what something you dream of will be like that the reality can be disappointing. But Paris was exactly what I had hoped. It's a place of such extraodinary, breathtaking beauty and history, yet there's a sense of calm that underlies the exhilaration you feel. Hard to believe, considering the revolution! It's like the essence of the city is in the air itself, and in its people. In Paris you can just 'be' and get so much from it without even having to do more than sitting in the park on a sunny day. My favourite place to just 'be' is Jardin du Luxembourg, we lived close by.
Fave band in the world & why? + fave live show ever
Fave band...I don't even know any more! I saw a lot of great shows in the late 80s and 90s - The Cure, U2 (Bono bugs me but the ZooTV tour was epic), Sonic Youth, Rage Against the Machine, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Tricky (love him but he sucks a bit live unlike Maynard of Tool who has an incredible live voice) among others and then really got into DJs later, mainly progressive house Brits like John Digweed and Danny Howells. I had 2nd row at Pink Floyd in 1992 I think it was my favorite show, that was pretty awesome. Being mature gentlemen now, the band was in dress shirts and pants with leather belts and shiny shoes, and being so close I could see that David Gilmour was scanning the faces of the first couple of rows to really see the people as they were experiencing the show. When he got to me I had the silliest grin from ear to ear because I was so thrilled to be able to see them and he smiled back with a little nod, like gratitude. I love old Red Hot Chili Peppers and nearly died at one of their shows where people got trampled. No music is good enough for that. Give me Don't Worry, Baby by the Beach Boys and I'm happy.

Fave indulgence?
Flowers. Once a month I will fill all of the vases in the house - on my little aqua French antique table in the front hall, the larger version I have of it in the living room by the window, and the deep window sills in the kitchen and on the way upstairs - so wherever I am in the house I can see and be around fresh flowers. (I have paper ones in the bathroom, I wouldn't put real ones through that!) It's too expensive to keep it up on a weekly basis but I try to have at least one bouquet at any given time to brighten the house. I'm insane for double peonies but thrilled with a small bunch of tulips, too. Seek pleasure in the simple things and every day can be awesome!

Thank you so very much, Denise, for filling us in on the magic & inspiration behind the Swelle label. Loveys, follow Denise's blog, The Swelle Life here. And without further ado...
darling confections
from Swelle are like
beautiful little cupcakes
you can wear, her 1st three designs:

lust this? click here.

simply must have this? click here.

;-)
love,
sunlovey