Don’t keep it in. Say it with socks
I’m not one for expressing emotions. Telling the rest of the world what I’m feeling just doesn’t ever seem to make the top of my daily to-do list. That’s why I write. It’s much easier to put something down on paper than to speak up about an issue [...]

The frightening beauty of Six Foot Owl’s ‘Closing Thoughts’ tees

Most of Six Foot Owl’s hand-painted T-shirts and jackets verge on being a bit too romantic for my tastes. The “clothing art company,” founded by high school friends Brianne Cirel and Johnie Thornton, plays with images both sorta cute (piano keys, telephone poles, ants tracking down [...]

Be healed, woman!

Much like, say, a bagel slicer (or a boyfriend), a heating pad is something a woman can usually do without until she needs it—now. Like when you’ve run out of Motrin, kicked a bottle of Glen Ellen cab (tough times), and find yourself sitting in a lukewarm bath that’s feeling increasingly more like [...]

Judge this book by what’s inside its cover
John Fante was a lot of things. Famous wasn’t one of them. The late author’s lack of notoriety forced the Colorado-native-turned-Los-Angeles-writer to Hollywood, where he worked on such films as Walk on the Wild Side and My Man and I. Fante’s bout with near-obscurity makes a signed, first [...]

Cosmetics for a dollar? It’s true
A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a friend that sounded too good to be true: a cosmetics company by the name of e.l.f. had recently been purchased by Nordstrom and was now unloading all products—blushes, foundations, eye liners, powders, etc.—for just one dollar. (Yes!!! $1.) The reason? [...]

Can $80 even buy you breakfast at Tiffany’s?
There are many things $80 won’t get you at Tiffany & Co.—a $1500 sterling silver and green jade Elsa Peretti Sevillana wrist cuff, for example, or the 18k gold Jean Schlumberger butterfly clip brooch with pink tourmalines, pear-shaped amethysts and round diamonds, which runs $30,000. But when the [...]

Splurge into Spring at Big Lots!
Whether your buffalo roam on a sprawling garden or a miniscule enclosed slab of concrete, it’s likely you’re ready to replant and restock for spring/summer fun. My situation happens to be closer to the latter, but the $100 budget I allotted for back patio renovations should work for outdoor areas [...]

Heavenly Couture has you covered
Maybe you’re trying to clean up your act. Maybe you just got a job as a student teacher and have to look “respectable” by Monday. Or maybe there’s only 40 bucks in your pocket and you have to make it work. Try Heavenly Couture in Belmont Shore, offering designer jackets, shirts, [...]

Beware the Etsy addiction
Fans of Etsy.com—the online buy/sell community for crafters, artists and the like, pronounced “et-see”—know how terribly addicting the website can be: Once you sign up and start to shop, it’s nearly impossible to stop. (Especially for PayPal users; careful, or your credit card will transform into something like Monopoly money.) What’s worse, [...]

Bare your body for the camera at Bad Kitty Photography

PHOTO by CINNAMON GRAY
Saying cheese nearly nude (or even bare-ass naked) isn’t for the timid. But once you’ve gathered the balls to bare it all, it’s safe to entrust such a delicate endeavor to the pros at Bad Kitty Photography. Spare your other half the shady [...]