A Most Unusual Engagement

In keeping with the Harvest Hallowe'en theme, here are pictures from a thematic engagement session which I found through AriaDress's Twitter.  The session was done by Nashville photographer Stephanie Saujon Baltz of La Photographie before their October wedding this year.  I love peculiar people.

Session also featured on Style Unveiled.
All images reproduced with the artist's permission.

Hallowe'en Chic

I am really excited about Halloween this year, and this makes me really really miss my friend and former roommate Angel.  She loves celebrating holidays and she really gets into Halloween.  As in, I watched her pull off a Geisha costume with full make-up all day at work, with nary a smudge.  I am a fidget queen and I am in awe of her accomplishment.  Anyway, I am a bit of a holiday grinch, but I feel my heart may be growing 3 sizes this day.  
Did some research on Halloween, got the usual yada yada: Celtic pagan harvest celebration appropriated by Christianity into a harvest/Day of the Dead holiday.  The connection with the dead being from the ancient Celtic belief (and this is lazy Wikipedia research so take it for what it is) that the border between this world and the Otherworld is thinnest at this time of year and because of that much fire was lit, alcohol imbibed, and costumes donned to ward off the less friendly spirits which is totally my kind of party.  Christianity, with its spiritual connection with the dead: sainted and purgatorial, infused a particular unity with souls in these realms into the celebration, with an acknowledgment of the dangers of evil spirits.  The term "Hallowe'en" is a 16th century Scottish word meaning "All Hallow's Even" which simply means the day before All Saints Day, November 1st.    The day after that is most popularly know as the Mexican Día de los Muertos which is just the Spanish term for All Souls Day.  So it is actually an epic three day holiday to remind us mortals of our connection with the dead. 
Holidays seem to get very cheesy and populated by tacky plastic disposable decorations when cultures forget why they are celebrating them so I want to find a chic, authentic way to celebrate Halloween.  

Snap Apple Night Daniel Maclise 

Dear Lovely

Currently, seeking chic, sweet/scary Halloween harvest paraphernalia.

By the way, Lyda82 restocked Señorita Skeleton and has created a few more pieces.            

Pride & Prejudice, Zombies, Doppelgangers, Morbid Jewelry

Señorita Skeleton

These adorable earrings by Lyda82 [$13.95] I find sweetly morbid and weirdly charming which are qualities I find pretty fabulous. The style of the demure cameo with the profile of a skeleton also reminds me of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies's cover art.  I have never read the book and would very possibly hate it, but I love the idea of it.  One of those things that is perhaps better in your imagination than in the realization...like cheesecake or parades.  Jane Austen and zombie movies are two things over which many girlfriends and I have bonded.  P & P & Z may possibly incite rage over Austen abuse if I were to actually read it since Pride and Prejudice is a part of sacred girlhood memory because I first read it around age 12 or so and reread it about ten more times. It is stored up there in the vault with the entire Anne of Green Gables series. I know I speak for a surprisingly large number of women my age when I say, do not mess with Austen. That message is mostly at you, Kiera Knightly. I thought you were actually kind of good in those random bits of Doctor Zhivago I watched that one weekend I was surfing around PBS whilst  ill with something or other, and you were entertaining and pretty in the first Pirates of the Caribbean until Disney made you the skinny, pointy Amazon queen of the pirate horde who suddenly and unaccountably could swashbuckle competitively with 18th century CAREER soldiers and bloodthirsty BRIGANDS, seemingly for the sole purpose of emasculating your already girly boyfriend.  So it’s not like period pieces don’t work for you, but, my gosh, your gaunt, hungry cheekbones and peevishly gaping mouthful of too many teeth did not work as Elizabeth Bennett. My apologies to K.K., that was probably meaner than necessary but, at the same time I feel like she deserves it. Pride and Prejudice was already done fabulously well by A&E and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  By the way, during my internet jaunt for this post, I see that a movie version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is slated for 2011 starring Natalie Portman which gives me pause that maybe I do want to read it.  If Natalie Portman is in a movie, I am much more tempted to watch it, because I think I am a little enamored of her.  This is partly because I suspect she is a mythical creature, like maybe an elf or a nymph, since she is timelessly elegant and evidently does not age at all. She was in movies like Heat a hundred years ago, and still looks like she’s only 21. Natalie Portman lends an air of refined legitimacy and Art With a Capital-A to her films.  Which is funny since K.K. is Natalie Portman’s doppelgänger and she has the exact opposite affect on me.  Natalie Portman makes me think that a film project is perhaps more elegant and intelligent than I at first thought, and K.K. in a cast makes me think the movie will be dippier and more clichéd, which I guess fulfills the role of doppelgänger pretty accurately. Huh, it would be weird if K.K.Dg.’s attempt at a legit version of P & P bombed and Natalie’s version of P & P & Z portraying the same beloved character as a Zombie Warrior Princess turns out to be great.  I may have to read the book, and watch the movie.  Whilst wearing these earrings.  



Amazon

 P.S. In spite of the fact that the subtitle of P & P & Z includes the word Ultraviolent (Clockwork Orange reference alert!) a few poignant reviews deflated my enthusiastism to read it.  [Apparently, zombie-killer Elizabeth Bennett is into moral relativism regarding the slaughter of a few innocents to save The Masses and kinda into kinky but self-loathing masochism which is obviously an unforgivable affront to the paragon of wit, grace, and wisdom in the original.  I will probably still see the movie though.  Whilst wearing these earrings.  Said earrings probably fulfilling my blend of Austen and zombies much better than the story.]