(not so) random links

halloween is almost here, people! i feel like i wear a costume every day (i'm dressed as/am impersonating myself, natch!), so i don't often feel the desire to go crazy with the costumes and halloween stuff, but YOU can! my 2007 halloween suggestions for you include:

-this senator larry craig mugshot mask (via boing boing)

-or perhaps this michael jackson fright mask (oooh!! SCARY!!) (also via boing boing)

-woof! meow! (via swissmiss, via whip up)

-or these DIY options with directions delivered via video, from threadbanger: fairy wings, a mummy, and a pirate (ARRR!)...

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-ever fancied the idea of making your own street fashion website, so you can celebrate who and what is haute in your hometown? laura of tagtraeumerin runs tragfläche (leipzig, germany), and has recently made a post addressing that very subject, how to make a street fashion website. thanks, (again) laura!

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"it shows how much people are inspired by real people and don't follow blindly what magazines say"-yvan rodic of facehunter, in a NYLON magazine q&a with the social/street fashion photographers hailed at the from the street to the night exhibition, at colette in paris

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make your own simple yet sassilicious hair do-hickies, with the help of rakia and her fashion tips, over at fly. they feature feathers! so like a little facinator, really!

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zappos knows how to give good customer service, and then some. other retailers should take note, and follow suit.

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according to a new book by dana thomas called deluxe: how luxury lost it's luster, luxury isn't that luxurious anymore. that italian bag you just threw down US$1200 for? it cost $100 to manufacture in china. if you're willing to pay that much for something so cheaply made, the joke's on you. (via boing boing)

favorites...and stuff.

(more here at the ye olde flickr favorites page)

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the reason for my recent busy-ness of late can now be revealed: i was helping to build content for TWINE, a new knowledge-sharing/social-networking-website that utilizes the technology associated the semantic web (making the web "smarter," by connecting and making associations between bits of information/data).
we announced the product and launched the closed beta this past friday! it's the same company my husband pete works for; he's been working on the foundations of the project for several years now. so nice to see it finally happening, and it's nice to know i could do something to help! sign up for the closed beta at twine.com, learn more here, and stay tuned...i'll probably tell you more about the site and how you can use it at a later date.

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in the midst of all that hard work, i did take some time to dream of, obsess over, and indulge in more fashion-y, and just plain enjoying-the-good-life everyday things, such like:
-all manner of boots: i am glad boot-weather is inching back in, as i can wear all my new and vintage boots! yay! however, i may eat those words when the cold weather inevitably drags on ad nauseam here in SF next summer...
-pomegranate seeds. pomegranates are back in season again, and they especially delicious in vanilla yogurt in the morning! now, where are the blood oranges?
-homemade limoncello, made by my dear friend jessica. she made some and brought it to the party we had the weekend before last, and we just polished off the remnants in the mid-week that just commenced. absolutely scrumptious, jess! we drank it out of our little french shot glasses, making the experience that much more lovely, of course.
-i am all over the jeu de paumes book series...they are, in short, little jewel like books filled with delicious eye candy from a small japanese press that are filled with inspirational photographs of the interiors of european apartments, artists' studios, shoppes, kitchens, childrens rooms, and more. quirky, colorful, playful, novel goodness. i snapped up stockholm's kitchens @ SF's kinokuniya yesterday, and i am actually pondering riding my bike back up to japantown later this afternoon for a few other books from the series. i'd especially love to get this one.

eley kishimoto + sonia rykiel: spring 2008

i'll admit it and have admitted it before: i find most fashion shows, and fashion show recaps kind of (very) tedious...which is why i seldom post them myself here on bits and bobbins. it's a once in a while thing, like for instance...now.
why? well, it all starts to look the same to me...and only the very select few say something new or interesting (to me, anyway). when it comes to designers, i know what i like, and i know it when i see it. and i tend to fall back to the designers i know and love best, whose design sense suits me best. i think that's kind of the key to being secure with one's own personal style: eventually you come to know who you are and what you like. it's not that you don't look around, that you aren't aware. it's just...well, you know yourself, and when you stick to what you absolutely adore, it feels natural. i think this may be something that comes with time. but i digress...

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every season i check back with eley kishimoto, one of my all-time, absolute favorite design teams (consisting of british-based couple mark eley and wakako kishimoto). they have a graphic, artistic, unafraid, whimsical, girlish, fantastical sensibility that just resonates with me...and those colors! i've written about them before here on bits and bobbins; they never ever disappoint. if i could afford a closet full of their frocks, i'd never stop smiling. if you're so inclined, you can check out their blog here.
a few pieces from their spring 2008 collection that caught and delighted my eye:

(photo credits to eley kishimoto, see more of the s/s 2008 collection here)

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carrying on with the whimsical thing...i so love are these select pieces from the spring/summer 2008 collection of french design maven and favorite of mine, sonia rykiel. i'm hugely into knitwear, and the two trompe l'oeil knits below are just jaw-droppingly divine. they evoke the trompe l'oeil bow sweater of elsa schiaparelli...and are just so delightfully funny. that yellow! it's like pure sunshine. these pieces have an overt sense of play...the complete opposite of the stark, serious, stiff fare in many collections. laugh! smile! it's better for you. sonia knows that statement to be true, that's for sure. i can sense it.

(photo credits to style.com)