Drop-Crotch Pleated Mom Jeans

Mom jeans? 80's pleated jeans? Yes. These are new summer jeans that I was compelled to buy. They are Marc by Marc Jacobs and I have big plans for them this summer. They're really lightweight and high-waisted.
I put on fancy gold flip-flops at work. I'm not ready to ride in flip-flops just yet. Feels a little bit Fred Flintstone. It was rainy/sloppy today and baby wipes were put to good use on some dirty ankles.

My our Doom's Day Bike Date is live on Simply Bike!

This is one of my best self-timer photos to date. 

Check out this cute bicycle wedding!

Bike NYC Project

Dmitry is doing a photography project on NYC Bicyclers and you can look at that here: www.flickr.com/photos/goodcough/sets/72157623741274256/

Or check his website here: www.gudphoto.com

He took some pics of me and my bicycle this evening along the East River in a couple different locations.
He shot in His Style and at the end I proposed that we take one in MY Style. One try and I think it turned out pretty cool! I love the sun-flare & the graffiti.

I can't wait to see the pics he took. They're going to be really cool.

Non-Believers, please note my Fake Keds back in action.

Maybelline in the House!

OK, so a little Maybelline on the eyes...


Maybelline Amethyst Smokes eye shadow quad in the house.
MAC Fluidline Macroviolet (dark purple) cream eyeliner & MAC Opulash Mascara.
NARS Mata Hari pink-pink blush, MAC Lipglass in Underage.


Going to that class has me back on the make-up wagon. And not running late in the morning helps!

Make-up Class

I went to this MAC makeup event at Bendel's last night. There was a goody bag situation!


It was really hard to sit there knowing I had this bag of free stuff to rifle through later down at my feet. Like, the suspense was killing me. Too bad I sat on the front row and couldn't act up.

There were 2 artists who each had a model and they worked on them doing a different look on each girl and took turns describing what they were doing.

One of the artists as Luc Boucheron, here is a video on the MAC website of him doing a smoky eye - A Smoky Eye was what he demonstrated for us. He had a slightly crazy accent so I'm glad I was sitting right by the American girl who was a Fantastic Presenter and flawless public speaker! She isn't a featured artist on the MAC website, but she's a senior trainer. I loved her!

BUT - She didn't describe how she prepped the lip before she taught all these bold-color lipstick tricks. I was aghast and it was the first question I asked as soon as the Q&A session began. She just referred to Prep & Prime. The "Bold Color" she used for the lip was Girl About Town, which I am a huge fan of, especially in winter when I'm my whitest.

Let me show you my bare face. I've been so lazy putting on make-up lately. But I liked this outfit. It was excellent for biking in this gnarly August-ness that is torturing me.

[caption id="attachment_1310" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="AR thrift top - JCP Shorts "][/caption]

This has been my light, easy summer colors palette.

[caption id="attachment_1292" align="alignnone" width="625" caption="My make-up colors I put together for this summer"][/caption]

It's a good palette and I've enjoyed it, but I need to branch out.

I've been saving this top.  Matt was like "What is up with that hooker shirt?" And an old man with a braided ponytail felt the fabric on my way home, so, uh... grrreat!

[caption id="attachment_1293" align="alignnone" width="507" caption="LV Knock-off Tank"][/caption]

It's long enough that I bet most people bought it wore it as a dress. It was cool enough in NYC today that I was able to wear jeans.

In the class they taught something I already learned from previous classes - Get your face fixed before you even think about putting colors on it. Then they talked about contouring and using a smaller brush for powder and for using 1 brush for several things. I am using my awesome angled blush brush up by my hairline to start some blush. She was good for powder today too!


I think the best new tip I got last night was that when you're putting shadow on the bottom eyelid (it's great!) You should use your lower lashes as a guide to show you how low you should blend it! I loved that tip!

[caption id="attachment_1325" align="alignnone" width="304" caption="Under-Eye Shadow"][/caption]

I have this eyeliner they loved in the class last night - POWERSURGE. I've had this particular pencil since Feb. 27th, 2005, when I went on my birthday to buy make-up for our wedding.

[caption id="attachment_1299" align="alignnone" width="412" caption="mac powersurge eye pencil"][/caption]





I was trying to get it to look like the brown in the iridescent top. My first tube of YSL Volume mascara is still kicking, but on her last leg.

[caption id="attachment_1305" align="alignnone" width="434" caption="YSL Volume Mascara is good stuff - Even if it's $30"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1306" align="alignnone" width="257" caption="Brown Gel - Mascara"][/caption]

I lined my lip in SPICE lip-liner but it was too harsh so I muted it down by putting Prep & Prime on top of it. I thought that was a genius move and it did mute the lip way down. I put on some gloss after I rode my bike to work.



Sorry I look thug-life in the above photo. You can see my colors though! That lighting is real-real.



And if my memory is correct- People are crazy for SPICE lip liner from MAC for good reason.

Now it's time for hair pics. Yesterday my Older Chinese Lady-Friend co-worker pretty much said my hair looked like "crab" and we know what that means. It was too clean! Today it was more dirty and cuter. I'm still feeling obsessed with the Stephanie Szostak haircut and feel like mine is doing a pretty good job representin'

Coral Face + Opulash!

The other night I went to get some make-up education from my good friends at MAC. I've always gone to the one at Henri Bendel on 5th Ave., because it's the best location walking distance of my apartment and of course, Bendel's is fancy. Who doesn't want to have a fancy time? And now I have these Loves!



I am into "Lady Make-up" lately since I work at such a lovely, normal company now.
See my outfit of the day?

Total "Lady" style.









[caption id="attachment_1042" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="New MAC Make-Up Items"][/caption]

I got a grey eyeliner, coral Cremesheen Glass - it feels amazing. (This is not my first shade in this formula.)
I got the Cremesheen Glass in the shade/color "Richer, Lusher"

The Power Point eyeliner in a completely matte Grey Utility.

And I got their new mascara - Opulash. Their answer to Dior Show, which I love. OMG I just looked it up and Opulash is HALF THE PRICE of Dior SHOW! Get into it.

This is the very first application of my new tube of Opulash and I don't think the wand-brush is even saturated. I'm saying it's going to get better than this:

[caption id="attachment_1040" align="alignnone" width="287" caption="First application of a fresh new tube of MAC Opulash Mascara"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1041" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Date & Label your fresh mascara tubes"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1043" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lots of peach & corals on this make-up face today"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1048" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Items used this morning"][/caption]

I took this pic because I can't get over the huge wand on the Opulash. And now I can't get over the fact that it's half the price of Dior Show. WHat's up with that?! It's awesome, but dang! This wand is as big or bigger than my eye.

Bike Outfits + Coco

I've been doing an excellent job of keeping diary foods out of my life. Pat on the back. I think it's a good thing. I went to the gym Sunday and Monday/Memorial Day and I've eaten 2 fat-hell cheeseburgers this week.

Here's my work and bicycle commuter look of the day/Thursday:




Arkansas Thrift tank top
American Apparel unisex corduroy shorts
Belt: Vintage Liz Claiborne

These LAMB heels are still unbeatable. I ordered some wedges from Charlotte Russe on the buy 1 pair get the 2nd pair for $10. Summer of Cheap!

Yesterday I stopped for a bike pic.


Anna Sui tank that I got on clearance for less than $20
Joe's Jeans I've been rocking for a long time now - I keep all my raw jeans dark by getting them dry cleaned only.
My lipstick matching my ruffle caused a stir at the office.

Across the way:


I went to see my boo Conan O'Brien on Tuesday night. He was at Radio City Music Hall. It was my 2nd time there. The first time I saw the X-Mas Spectacular and sat up in balcony #17, but I scored a floor seat below-face value for Coco.


Um... who the fuck is Vampire Weekend? Am I that old that I don't even know the surprise band at the coco show? I was nervous the special guests might suck. Then STEPHEN COLBERT came out in a terrible "dad-style" outfit. I was so happy! I love-love-love him! Then Jon Stewart came out in a sparkly outfit and Conan challenged them to a re-match in the form of a dance-battle.


Some other dudes came out but it couldn't get any better than Colbert/Stewart but FYI they were: Bill Hader from SNL, John Krasinski who I'm still mad at for that bad-ass movie he directed, and then my husband's lover, Paul Rudd from CLUELESS!

Conan is emotionally damaged. If you didn't love him and totally support and want to follow him- you would be uncomfortable watching his show. I think.


I got this cheap purse and I'm super happy with it. It weighs nothing and it's a cross-body bag which is imperative for a good quality of life on the streets of New York.


Tuesday outfit - Cheapest H&M Dress from 2 summers ago. $14.90 I think?

Fresh little cut

I love my salon + it's/my girls (Eva Scrivo Salon - Gwynne & Amanda.) I didn't know what my hair needed exactly, but I emailed and got a next-day appointment. I sat in the chair and talked aimlessly, and got up and demonstrated how I look at the back of my hair to my colorist. She actually paid attention to my crazy paranoid hair issues. We started looking at it, and decided the real solution was a cut. My colorist does not cut hair. At all. I was about to beg her to just cut it a little bit in a few places. Turns out my cutter was in the house and completely not expecting to see me - she was actually getting her hair colored/glazed, but she was totally down to give me a bit of a cut.

I got a fresh Glaze put on and a little but cut. Very cute! She cut 2 key places and that really fixed me up.




Today I got out of work at 2pm for the Holiday and I rode up to West Elm on the Upper West Side. Upper West Side means I needed to ride across Central Park to get Home. It was AWESOME! No traffic means SO MUCH LESS BICYCLE commuter STRESS!


Nothing but carriages (which STUNK! Horse Poops!) other bikes and joggers/walkers and rick-shaw taxis.







Helmet, always! I'm still loving this bike. I wish my lock wasn't so heavy because I can never-not-have it. Boo! I think it weighs 6 pounds.

So today when I came home, I parked my bike in the courtyard and carried my purse, basket and bag of new super-clearance West Elm towels upstairs then carried a pretty naked bike down the stairs into the storage room. Bicycle commuting is a whole new world of strategizing.

Shopping requires strategy too. You have to find a place to lock it up, then secure it and carry all of the crap you were previously carrying into the store to buy more crap to carry. I've been lucky tying on cloth grocery bags.

And here's my work/bicycle outfit for today - Ultra casual day at work:


I've gotten my money's worth out of these $4.99 flip-flops! I wish I could find more of them.

Sunset Ride Home

I went out for ONE DRINK at 26th street, so I had a longer commute home but it was super nice and cool!

I pulled over and took some BIKE wardrobe Remix pics. I learned from other cycle chic bloggers that you put your camera on a parked tailgate or something but trucks are rare as hell in NYC, so I positioned my camera on a cement planter.


Here's the work-look-version of this outfit:


Pretty things on the ride home - Queensboro bridge with lovely-shaded clouds:




This is a slightly tense intersection. The cars in the right lane are ZIPPING a hard right and going onto the FDR. They are fucking gassing it. I have to veer right past their turn-lane and go up onto the sidewalk to approach the East River Esplanade. It ain't no thang, but I want to make sure I use the most-proper bicycle/traffic etiquette. I saw someone handle this poorly this morning.


This is the view from ATOP the only real hill I have to deal with. I don't like to coast down it very fast because I know however fast I'm coasting could be how fast I'm sliding down some pavement.


My hair is fucking short:


Really short - growing out the back is going to really, really suck and be hard. Really short hair is good though for not losing my life on blow-dryer time and because I change in and out of a ton of sweaters at the fittings at work. AND my hair doesn't get in the pictures of the clothes that the technical seamstress takes and then photoshops notes onto.