Bag n' Swag: Horseshoe Bags & Platform Pumps

Bag addictions run in my family. Since I was tiny, I remember purses and shoes being my mother's most coveted shopping items. As we grew up, my older sister developed her own, yet intense, passion for style. Naturally, the power of this addiction was genetic; which is why I am a bag and shoe addict. I am the queen of frugality these days. A double degree with burn a third degree hole right through your college budget. Still, my addiction drives me to unspeakable lengths when I'm in the need for a fix. There are certain things I always need. Namely, a great bag filled with goodies, and 6" heels. 

Tonight's Bag & Swag:

Amazing vintage bag

with horseshoe clasp 

& woven brass handle

Talk about baller on a budget- $5.00!!

 Polaroid i1035

-10.0 megapixel

-5.7-17.1mm

-manual f-stop, shutter speed,

white balance, & ISO

This is a MUST for me. I never leave the house without some type of camera. For a reasonably priced pocket camera, this one is awesome.

Cover Girl makes some decent stuff. The majority of their liners are chalky, but this one has a really nice tint if you have rosy lips like mine. It is really subtle under a nude or sheer gloss.

$6.99 @ Ulta

 Le piece de resistance! This Lip gloss

is a little more pricey...

NARS: Belize

$24.00 @ Sephora

but I swear by it!

It has the most natural blushing 

tint. It accentuates your lips

beautifully. This baby is worth every penny.

I LOVE Mac eyeshadows. I usually get my Mac info from Kabuki Kosmetics, and her make-up reviews on A Girl's Best Friend. I'm dying for her to do a crushed lip/ stains article! Crushed lips are my summer fancy.

Sumptuous Olive- $14.50

(their prices change yearly I think,

don't quote me on this.)

Speaking of stains, this cheek and lip tint is another higher priced commodity. It lasts forever, and it looks like you are blushing rather than wearing rouge. 

Benetint Lip/ Cheek Stain

$28.00 @ Sephora

These heels are great. They make me almost as tall as Shaq, but they are super comfy.                                                                                                                                       

You cannot go wrong with a pair of cropped trousers and black stiletto pumps. Cannot. German Shepards make awesome fashion accessories to these outfits :)

Kicks- suede; Steve Madden 

Until next time,

ex's & oh's

D. Mia

Photo Love: Elinor Carucci

I really lucked out with professors this semester. Typically when I try something for the first time and it's not perfect, I get turned off almost instantly. So when my first set of color prints were not Museum of Metropolitan Art worthy, I was ready to throw in the towel; naturally. My color photography professor is exactly what I've been needing. She wasn't particularly gentle my first critique, but she did recommend that I look at photography, a lot of it. So I have been, looking at A LOT of pictures...

title: Mirror Reflection, 1999
Image source here

My first time alone in the photo lab, I think I only printed two pictures. I spent the rest of my time traveling the pages of countless photography books, as though each one were a road map, leading me somewhere; anywhere. 

title: Feet Moving on Bed, 1999
image source here

I decided to cool my heels when I arrived at Elinor Carucci. I picked up Closer, and I remember reading just the first three paragraphs of her introduction. After absorbing a mild dose of information about her family, I was fiend-ing for more of her pictures.

Admittedly, I will tell you that I'm an amateur in every sense of the word when it comes to photography, despite my perusing it as a degree. Nonetheless, I choose to believe that my distinct perception of things makes me a potentially beautiful photographer, notwithstanding my amateur status. Believing as much, I think former is proven by what I discovered while visiting her pictures. 

At first, I was curious about how many times she photographed herself naked. Nudity doesn't bother me at all. I actually find myself instinctively drawn to all things vulgar. Only her pictures weren't vulgar at all. Instead, a sense of privilege came over me as I turned the corner of each page. She was being so honest; each picture more telling than the one prior. 

title: Mother Puts On My Lipstick, 1993
image source here

Those three absorbed paragraphs I mentioned earlier, informed me of her photography obsession starting at 15, and beginning by taking pictures of her mother. She described her mother putting on her lipstick and the revelation, if I may be so bold as to label it that, which made itself relevant because of it.  I didn't read any more of the introduction until earlier this evening, even though I've looked at her pictures everyday since that first private photo session, two and a half weeks ago. I felt I knew enough by the little information fore mentioned to interpret the honesty and truth described in her photographs.


So I looked at them, over and over again, for days. Sometimes looking at the same picture for minutes on end. After enough of this, I realized what she was trying to tell me, trying to tell everyone, with her pictures. Nothing. They were not riddled with lessons learned, but rather lessons captured. They were souvenirs from her day-to-day; memories from a trip to her own life. And she was discovering when she took them, and printed them, and looked at them endlessly herself. Unknowingly yet ever so inquisitively, taking each day a frame at a time, and learning to see new things, though they may have been there all along. And I understood why I felt so privileged in those first moments when I experienced her pictures, because she encapsulated the essence of her discovery, and I got to be a part of it.

title: Naked, 1999
image source here

I won't water down any more of her intellect with my own interpretations. If you feel so inclined to venture off and dicover her for yourself, start with her intro to Closer. Or, visit her website and tour her bodies of work, then read the info and see what resonated with you both before, and after. Here are a few more of my favorites from her earlier work. While you look at these, ask yourself if you have ever done anything this honest. I only hope that someday I can produce something with this much self generated truth.

title: Menstrual period, 2000
image source here

title: Nipple Hair, 1996
image source here

title: Eran Holds Me In Hotel Room, 2000
image source here

title: After Argument, 2003
image source here

For more from Elinor herself, check out some great interviews on her:

Rachel Been interview with Elinor Carucci

Video interview with Telegraph.co.uk

until next time,

D. Mia

I Love My Fans.

I am on the hunt for fans and parasols .

I want to strut down the streets of Miami, masked in the shade of a parasol and fanning myself with one of these...

Art Deco Celluloid Fan

Hand painted girls blowing bubbles

Hand painted vintage silk

Click the images to brows the listings...

ex's & oh's

D. Mia

Open Mic Nite: Each, little wave.

"Each, little wave"

         

                       by: Daniella Mia

photo by: Daniella Mia

The last thing I see is a thick blue stripe.

Then I hear nothing,

but a roaring in my ears.

The wind is strong today

so my eyes squint;

my vision starts to blur.

photo by: Daniella Mia

The beastly sound breaks at my knees

and beach water, makes the spot

in between my thighs, 

tighten.

I can only feel,

during this impairment of my senses.

I am once again a child of the ocean.

As the blows of the grumbling waves soften

I start to sink downward,

to underneath the breaking.

Beneath my feet the sand is soft,

and inviting.

The final wave advances,

and I’m under.

Herein I lay

consumed by water.

Upward I swim,

until the breeze finds my cheeks again. 

I turn toward what’s left of the day

reflecting off of

each,

little

wave,

and I’m home again.

In the ocean, I’m connected to the world.

Water touches everything there is;

and I’m home again.

photo by: Daniella Mia

Hang Me From the Ceiling and Make It Look Like an Accident.

FINAL ACT: Daniella Mia's Brickell Penthouse


Enter Bill Anderson and Tom Peters; Vicoprofen PR Representatives


     BILL: She's freezing cold already. No one is going to believe she hung herself.

     TOM: What the hell do you suggest we do? The last thing we need is another death in the media.        They've been dropping like flies lately, how do you suppose we explain this one? Genius.

     BILL: Look at her eyes Bill! For Christ's sake man, she's turning purple.

     TOM: Fine, then go grab the plastic out of the trunk, and make sure no one is around. Hurry up!

     BILL: No way, I told you after the last girl I'm not doing that again!

     TOM: You heard what Carlyle said; damage control. You're waisting time, just go get it.

Exit Bill


Monologue


     TOM: What is it with young people popping these pills. They all wind up the same; dead or crackheads.  Now I have to clean up your mess, and try my hardest to make sure no one finds you. You couldn't pay me to take this stuff anyway. Stupid girl.


Re-enter Bill


     BILL: Here, but I'm not touching her.

     TOM: Look, the faster we do this, the sooner it's over with. Lay it there. Now shut up; help me move her.

     BILL: So, where we dumpin this one?

     TOM: Same place we dumped the last one.

     BILL: Hey look at this.

     TOM: What?

     BILL: She would have been 24 this July.

     TOM: Too bad, she's pretty cute. What a waste.

Exit Tom & Bill with Daniella Mia.

The End

     Recently, I have been on medication to treat my wisdom tooth. All four are impacted, and one in particular has been causing me pain. My doctor prescribed me Vicoprofen to treat the pain. It is a Hydrocodone and Ibuprofen mix. The following is information copied and pasted directly from the Vicoprofen site:

Ibuprofen can increase your risk of heart attack or stroke. Do not use Vicoprofen just before or after having heart bypass surgery (also called coronary artery bypass graft, or CABG). Seek emergency medical help if you have chest pain, weakness, shortness of breath, slurred speech, or problems with vision or balance.

Ibuprofen can also increase your risk of serious effects on the stomach or intestines. These conditions can be fatal and can occur without warning at any time while you are taking Vicoprofen. Call your doctor at once if you have black, bloody, or tarry stools, or if you cough up blood or vomit that looks like coffee grounds.

Hydrocodone may be habit-forming and should be used only by the person this medicine was prescribed for. Keep the medication in a secure place where others cannot get to it. Avoid drinking alcohol while taking Vicoprofen. Alcohol may increase your risk of stomach bleeding while taking ibuprofen.

     What is it about modern medicine that we trust in so much? When you think about it, the number of knowledgeable people in any given profession, who are really good at what they do, are few and far between. Mechanics, Teachers, Lawyers, usually it's very hard to find a good one, and you practically need to sell a kidney to afford them when you do.

     I'm not knocking modern medicine entirely. I don't think voo doo, or animal sacrificing, or any other far out alternative is superior. However, just because someone is wearing a white coat, stinking of latex gloves, we assume they know what on earth they are talking about. Or that modern drugs, such as the narcotic, addictive Vicoprofen I was prescribed, is okay for us to depend on.

     Take any of these pain killers, for example. Zanax, Vicoden, Oxycodone. Drugs that affect your hormones, brain chemicals, stomach and intestines, create addictions, suppress you appetite, not to mention completely impair your coherence. Then you have marijuana, marijuana with NO medical illness, ailment, or addiction directly related with it in the history of medicine, and it's illegal?

     Hack through another limb of the medical industry; obesity. Like 99% of the country is fatter than fat, suffering from heart problems, diabetes, and God knows what else. Yet, they served Pizza Hut and McDonalds everyday at my high school for lunch, with no health and fitness type education in any of K-12, or ANY trace of mandatory physical education after elementary school. But don't worry, they'll pump you full of meds by the time you hit 30.

     Don't think I've hopped back onto my soapbox. Modern medicine is responsible for some incredible things. It saved my dad's life when he got cancer. It gave us an extra 5 years with my grandpa. It brought my niece into the world safely. What I am discussing is the human mentality of not worrying about something unless it poses an imminent threat.

     If eating a big mac would immediately put you into cardiac arrest, would you eat it? If having a beer would cause your kidneys to fail instantly, would you still take a sip? If taking one Vicoden pill would make you look like my photograph, would you still oppose legalizing marijuana? Why do we wait until the last minute to remedy things?

     As someone very dear to me would say, make smart choices and good memories. Try being preventative, rather than corrective. When you overdose on bad decisions, life will just hang you from the ceiling and make it look like an accident. 

Do something stupid and put it on the internet.

I love pineapple soda.

Enjoy :)

Child's Play: The Reality of Perception.

I remember when I was a pink power ranger.

 Even now, I can still remember lesson plans from my days as a teacher. Let's not leave out my dabbling in witchcraft; chanting away most afternoons. I remember being Barbie and Ken's real estate agent, trying to sell them their dream house. Busy little me, I was their car salesman too. I mean, who doesn't want a corvette... really?

I changed jobs frequently, then.

I could have been anybody, then.

Of course this was before the real world. Real being the transition from toddler to teenager, to hourly wager. Before social circles and music genres. Before reality t.v. and bikini sizes. Before the real world came into play, my biggest worry was how to avoid my neighbor Patty beating me in box ball.

I'm not saying I would go back to that time if I could. Growing up is confusing enough the first time around. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I find myself rather envious of that blissful lack of awareness; awareness of real things. 

What is reality anyway? Perception is the only answer that comes to mind. A cognitive assessment derived by means of our only connection to the real world; our perspective.

What shifts our perspective over the years? Is it that as we get older, we become more sensitive to reality, or do we grow callous to it as time goes on? 

Golda Meir said that, "a miracle is nothing but a shift in perspective". Maybe getting older, and having seen things from that perspective, is the miracle we all take for granted. Maybe the ability to imagine, and play, and dream, is a miracle only realized from a shift out of that perspective. 

I still imagine things I want.

I still dream.

Looking back, I would have rather have fallen and scraped my knees, than not played on the swings.

This article is dedicated to Tatiana. The little girl in the pictures, and a maker of miracles.