Sunday Sevens: 7 things Caroline is into this week

1. Mutemath

Mutemath are my new favourite band. Although they have been around for a few years now, I had never heard of them until earlier this year, when they toured Australia. Tragically, I only started listening to them after they had been and gone. A few of my friends saw them play, and when I heard about how the drummer gaffer tapes his headphones to his head before each gig, I knew I had to find out more. There is some subtly excellent at-organ grooving in this clip, and the bass player's hair is epic. Also, as in all great songs, double disco handclaps apply.

2. Chai tea made with rice milk.

I've mentioned before on Four Letter Birds that I have some crazy food allergies. Some of the lesser crazy ones are dairy and soy. Not a huge deal, but it makes finding a warming winter drink a little difficult at times. There is only so much peppermint tea a girl can handle. While rice milk by itself tastes a lot like well, liquified rice, it really makes some delicious beverages when other elements are added. I highly recommend it.

3. Once Upon a Time

It's taken me a little while to get into this TV show but I stuck with it given that one of Buffy's writers, Jane Espenson, now writes for this show. It really does have some of the elements that made Buffy so very Buffy - killing off characters that you really like, and occasional unabashed grossness. Human hearts, anyone? Currently Channel 7 is pumping out four episodes a week which is just fine with me, given that we're all binge watchers when it comes to TV now anyway. You all know I love Ginnifer Goodwin, but Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Mr Gold treads the line between good and evil so delightfully, you can't help but like the character even when you suspect he's being despicable. Plus you guys, Robert Carlyle! Remember Hamish MacBeth? That show was the business.

4. My own personal Kylie Minogue retrospective.

There's no one quite like Kylie, and she's been on high rotation in my car recently. I've seen her four times in concert and Georgia has seen her five - let's just say, there's a lot of Kylie love going on here at Four Letter Birds. This is my all-time favourite Kylie concert moment. I also think this is one of her most under rated songs - it definitely makes it into my Kylie top ten!

5. Dragstar

This Sydney label has been around for a while, and I know that Georgia is a big fan, but I've really only recently become a convert. The styling is comfortable and retro, without being costume-y, and it's all excellent quality. Reasons to like Dragstar are a-plenty, but here's a few key examples - because the items are not particularly trend-based you will get a lot of wear out of your choices, everything is designed and made in Sydney - buying local is fun! - and the clothes and accessories are just super cute really. What more could you want? Check out owner and designer Celia's Tumblr here. Inner-westies and ex inner-westies among us will appreciate.

One of my recent purchases and Dragstar faves...requires no ironing!! Win!

6. Sunshine

Although it's been incredibly cold this week (in my opinion...shhh Canadians and Europeans) we have had some beautiful sunny days here in Sydney. I'm lucky because my desk at work overlooks Darling Harbour and I can see all the way out to the Blue Mountains on a clear day. It's extremely distracting - and I'm easily distracted. All I can say is, bring on summer! My electric blanket needs a rest.

7. Lipstick.

It's something that I forget to wear, and then when I remember, I always kick myself for not wearing it all the time. As a gal who is paler than pale most of the time, especially in winter, I do need to make sure I add a little colour to my face so I don't look so wan. I particularly like the Jane Iredale brand of cosmetics, and their lipsticks are no exception, as they have a good range of colours and are particularly moisturise-y. They have all been given girl's names, and there is a particularly nice shade or red called Carrie that I'm rather fond of.

Um, I don't think you understand. I need to read ALL the John Green novels.

Falling in love with a new author always brings out two different desires in me. The first, is the wish that I'd discovered them years ago, because now they have suddenly brought so much to my reading life  that I have been missing out on. If only I had known about them sooner, who knows how different my life would be! (Okay, that might be a little over the top, but you get the picture). The second is the overwhelming need to read every single thing the author has written, ever. That feeling of excitement and joy when you realise they have a whole back catalogue of books that are yet to be read - the anticipation is delicious. Unsurprisingly - given the title of this post - this is exactly how I feel about John Green. I've raced through two more of his novels since devouring Looking for Alaska, so I thought I'd mini-review them both for you this week, just because I like them (and you!) so much.

Before I get into the book-y stuff, let's just find out a bit about the author first. I'll summarise his wikipedia page briefly for you - he's a 34 year old guy who is a New York Times best seller, married with one kid, lives in Indiana and is one half of the Vlogbrothers. "What?" I hear you ask. So, in 2007  John and his brother Hank decided they would communicate with each other only via video blogs and would stop all text based communication. I know, right? It turned out to be pretty popular, and at the end of 2007 they announced that the vlogging would continue and you can find out all sorts of interesting things and watch some videos over at their website, Nerdfighters. 

I feel the need here to make a point here about the internet. Huh...I've just realised I do that a lot. Oh well - it is something I think about pretty often and how generally, I'm grateful that it wasn't as pervasive or accessible when I was a teenager as it is now. Basically, the internet and email were cool, but they weren't such a big deal, you know? Social networking still happened in the playground, via telephones attached to landlines and on weekends at each others houses. Internet based conversations still happened via ICQ. So it makes me happy to find out that sites like Nerdfighters exist, because it is a cool place, and seems to be very much about letting teens (and everyone) be who they are and not telling them who they should be. 

The second John Green book I got my hands on was the intriguingly titled Will Grayson, Will Grayson, co-written with David Levithan. It sounds like it could be a poem about or a love song written to some guy called Will Grayson. Which it kind of is, in a metaphorical sense, except that the novel is about two guys who both happen to be called Will Grayson. It's an incredible cliche to describe books (and movies, songs, paintings, interpretive dance) as moving, but in this case it's true. It's also incredible funny - both straight up hilarious, and also in that "ha ha - ouch" way that is bittersweet and ironic. The Will Graysons meet under unlikely circumstances and from that night, their lives suddenly start moving in unexpected directions. This novel also features a musical, written by the most fabulous supporting character in a novel ever. The first Will Grayson we meet has a best friend named Tiny - and so obviously he is huge. Larger than life and huge of heart, he is the writer of said musical, which is autobiographical and features a character named "Gil Wrayson" - which was the biggest laugh out loud moment of the novel for me. Seriously, I'm giggling right now as I write this. WORDPLAY. 

I read a really interesting article today, questioning the need to categorise young adult novels as "YA" given that so many of them have "crossover appeal" and are read by a far more wide ranging audience than 13 - 18 year old readers. After all, it's not like the YA categorisation is like a PG or M rating on a movie, and nor should it be. One of the things I like so much about reading John Green is that things get pretty frank at times, without being deliberately titillating simply for attention and shock value. It's just real. 

The third John Green novel was the delightful, beautiful and sad The Fault in Our Stars. I'm going to warn you straight up here - it's about teenagers who have cancer, so maybe don't read it on the train on the way to work if you are the sort of person who tears up easily. Just a suggestion. I don't know if I'm making too much of this - so please, I would value your opinion - but I was really impressed at how well Green writes from the perspective of a teenage girl. Now, I'm not a huge fan of making a big deal about differences between the genders, but there was not one moment reading The Fault in Our Stars where I questioned Hazel's voice. The greatest thing about this novel though, is how honest it is about the struggles of its characters without remotely becoming an episode of 7th Heaven. Like all his novels, it's just real. Kind of messy and difficult, with occasional moments of light. And no sermonising or proselytising from Reverend Camden. Phew.

Lashes.

I'm a sucker for eyelashes. I think I hinted at this in our introductory blog post. False lashes, lash extensions and mascara. I think I love lashes the way many women (and men?) love shoes. Don't get me wrong... I love shoes too... but today, it's all about the lashes.

I wasn't a particularly girly teenager. This was probably, mostly, because I was overly self-conscious and lacked confidence but certainly, being a teen in the late '80s and the '90s meant that 'grunge' was a big part of style back then. And eyelashes weren't particularly important... eyeliner maybe, but lashes, not so much in my world? Girly or not, in the '90s I took style cues from the likes of Juliana Hatfield, who herself admits to having been very self-conscious, and also Lisa Loeb. I think I still do.

Now it is almost twenty years later and the internet is in my life. As Caroline was saying in her post about fashion and style blogs, I can take style cues from wherever I like. Amongst the thousands of average (and below average) blogs there are some excellent tips to be found. Lisa Eldridge is my current favourite but more about her another time. And so back to my point about eyelashes. I've tried and tried to use false lashes without much luck. Gluing my eyelashes together is about all that I've achieved until now. A few days ago I came across the best tip, I think, on the internet, for applying false lashes. The recent Beauty Department post is the only place that I have ever seen anyone suggest (carefully) applying the lash glue to your lash line rather than the false lash strip. It makes positioning the lashes much less slippery and a whole lot easier. Of course this will only interest anyone who has ever tried (and failed) to apply false lashes though, I'm sure. Check out The Beauty Department for more info.

Still on the subject of lashes, after battling with bits and pieces falling out of the bathroom cabinet over and over again I realised I have an awful lot of mascara (amongst other stuff). I don't strike myself as a person who owns twelve mascaras! But I do. Let me justify having this many mascaras. Firstly, I find it hard to go past a magazine that comes with a free mascara so a number of these were 'free'. I may not have read the magazines yet but I have the mascara. Secondly, facebook is sometimes a great place to enter competitions to win such things. I have to say that I think at least seven of the mascaras pictured here were free with purchase of a magazine or won from facebook comps. That still means I have bought about 5 mascaras in the last year though.

What am I going to do with all this mascara? I can't give it away seeing as I've 'tested' them all now. How about a few before & afters? You know I love a good before & after.







So today I present to you the Maybelline One by One Volum Express Mascara in Satin Black. This is a limited edition mascara I 'won' on facebook. I liked it before I took these photos but after looking at the pictures I can see the effects even more clearly. Definitely makes the lashes look longer and thicker in my opinion.


The thing about shoes and lashes (and earrings too) is that they fit you even when your jeans are feeling a bit tighter than usual. If only eyelashes made the sound Amber Dempsey's eyelash implants made on The Simpsons.

Cover Me: my sweetest friend...

Occasionally a song comes along - cover or original - that really just gets you right in the gut. You have a physical reaction to it. There is so much to say about Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt but I honestly don't know if I can say any of it. I'll try... 

If you know anything about the story of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, it just makes this video and song all the more emotive when you find out that June passed away three months after filming this video, with Johnny soon to follow. They had such an amazing story - both so flawed (aren't we all?) but so devoted to each other.

I've only listened to the NIN original version a few times. I was never really a fan of the band, and I can't really connect with it - but that is probably just be an issue of personal taste. Cash covered the song in 2002 for his album American IV: The Man Comes Around which also contains covers of songs like Bridge Over Troubled Water and Danny Boy, so choosing a NIN song is a bit out there. Trent Reznor, of NIN, was a fan of the cover and had some nice things to say about it - which also kind of helps to explain why I love covers so much.

I pop the video in, and wow... Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore... It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure. (Alternative Press, September 2004).

Girl Crush: Marion Cotillard

Marion is a fairly new addition to my official girl crush list. Although she's been on my radar for a little while now, it wasn't until I watched her charming performance in "Midnight in Paris" that I really started to pay attention to her confident, whimsical and utterly French style. And really, the woman knows how to wear her lipstick. As I write this post, I am struck with the urge to go out and buy some coral lipstick immediately. She also was on the cover of French and US Vogue simultaneously...I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation between Anna Wintour and Emmanuelle Alt. But only a fly. Because it was probably scary.


I also really, really love her curly bob. It makes me want to cut my hair.I realise that doesn't say much really, because a lot of things make me want to cut my hair. I just fear the wrath of my hairdresser when I do... and she has a point, because really, what's the point of growing your hair for 3 years only to chop it all off again? To which I say...because I can.


To Paris? To Paris!

Marion Cotillard by carolinelt featuring a pencil skirt

Happy One-month-blog-iversary to us!

Picture courtesy of our parents.

That month went fast here in the internet! Happy one-month-blog-iversary to us! One month down and ...many more to go hopefully.

No birthday giveaways or other such celebrations here at this stage but big thanks to all our friends who have been visiting and to any strangers who have swung past to take a look. Leave us a comment introducing yourself if you feel like it. We'd love to know who our audience is. Let us know what you like best about the blog... if anything. I certainly haven't even skimmed the surface of what I hoped to achieve here just yet. As The Carpenters would sing - 'We've Only Just Begun... '!

The Four Letter Birds birds. Picture courtesy of our parents.

Let's get fashion bloggy

To me the internet is kind of like a big fat magazine, specialising in whatever takes your fancy. Be it art, mechanics, travel or clog dancing, whatever information you're looking for is only a search engine away. Now, this is not to say that I believe that books will soon die - I don't - or that I don't sometimes treat myself to a chai latte and pay an exorbitant amount to read a real life magazine while sitting in the sun somewhere - I do. But that's more about the experience than the content. When I'm looking for inspiration, information and entertainment like everyone else, I turn to my laptop.

Given that a large percentage of my interest when it comes to the internet, lies in fashion and style (personally, I consider these two different concepts), I thought I would share with you some of the blogs that I visit on a regular basis. I tend not to go for the blogs that just involve the blogger taking photos of themselves in various outfits - I'm kind of in two minds about that whole...thing. The positive mind, thinks it's pretty cool that women everywhere are changing perceptions about what is "fashionable" and "attractive"  and moving things away from the sphere of fashion editorials and glamazonian models. There are style bloggers of all shapes, sizes, colours and...hmmm...for want of a better word "looks" out there. Is vintage rockabilly style your thing? Then there is a style blogger out there for you. Or maybe you're more into up-to-the-second high street trends. Yep, no problems.  Whimsical, floaty, and bohemian (ish) more your thing? Oh my lord. Style bloggers were made for you! My negative mind, however, just thinks it's kind of odd to be constantly taking photographs of oneself in different outfits. Like that friend in your Facebook or Instagram feed who uploads a constant stream of "selfies"...it just makes me ask, "but why?". I could go into a whole discussion about how the internet and social networking turns our gaze further inward rather than outward, but I feel that's another post for another time. The fact is, style bloggers are becoming a very powerful force in the fashion world, and the fashion world is paying a lot of attention to them. The good ones, that is.

The purpose of this particular post, is to share with you what are in my opinion, some of the better style blogs out there. Most of these blogs have genuinely lovely, well-crafted photographs  sometimes accompanied by thoughtful, interesting and often amusing (in a good way) copy. 

I start where all style bloggers start (or should start), with The Sartorialist. Scott Schuman is a fashion photographer, who regularly shoots for labels like The Gap and Burberry, and his blog consists of photos he has taken of people he sees on the street in his hometown of New York or in his travels to places like Paris and Milan. One of the reasons I enjoy The Sartorialist so much, is that he seems to photograph both men and women equally. Hey, just because I'm a lady doesn't mean I don't appreciate a stylish dude.

Image courtesy of www.thesartorialist.com

From The Sartorialist, it is a very small hop, skip then jump over to the website of Garance Dore. Garance is a fashion illustrator, photographer and writer and her blog is more like a visual diary. An incredibly delightful visual diary full of just the right amount of self deprecating charm and wit. She also happens to be ridiculously talented. I'm in love with her delicate and simple illustrations. Oh yeah, and she is Schuman's girlfriend. Tres cute. You will find more text and article-like content at this blog, but if you just want to browse through and look at the pretty pictures, you can do that too. You can find her work in such publications as Harper's Bazaar, Elle and Vogue - to name a few.

Image courtesy of www.garancedore.fr

Jak and Jil is the website of Canadian photographer, Tommy Ton. While The Sartorialist takes mostly head to toe shots, you'll get more of the details at from Ton. He shoots a lot of off-duty models - pre and post runway shows at various fashion weeks - and other fashion-y type people, so get ready for some amazing, beautiful and weird photos. Also, given that Fashion Week is on its way here in Sydney he is most likely in town so keep an eye out for some of your favourite Sydney spots. The blog is photo only - no text! - so have fun browsing.

Image courtesy of www.jakandjil.com

Okay, so this is pretty much my only concession to the aforementioned blogger-taking-pictures-of-themselves category that causes me so much internal confusion. I think part of what keeps me coming back to LoveMaegan is that I find her genuinely likeable, interesting and amusing. It's really more of a lifestyle blog - she does a lot of DIYs, and general posts about her day to day life, but the outfit posts are the real meat. I like that she is open about the fact that there are things she won't wear as a thirty-six year old that she would have happily work ten years ago. I like that sometimes her outfits make me go "What the...?" and I like that she links to most of the things she wears, and will reuse favourite items regularly. 

Image courtesy of www.lovemaegan.com

I think that's enough for now! This turned into a much longer post than I intended, but I hope you get as much entertainment (and procrastination) out of these blogs as I do...and maybe some inspiration too.