Sometimes regular old coats and hats are just boring.  You get sick of wearing the same ones every day, don’t you?  And who wants to cover up a sharp outfit with a baggy sweater, just to stay warm?  Beanies and berets and cups of steaming coffee are so obvious. Sometimes it’s nice to have a few alternative ways to stay cozy when the temperature drops.  Here are my favorites.

• A shawl/pashmina/poncho/ruana wrap.  They’re one-size-fits-all, and they’re easily put on or taken off.   (more…)

Back in the day, when unusual furs, feathers, and other exotic animal decor were precious commodities, having a tiger-skin rug or an eagle-feather headdress were major status symbols.  If you had the skill or the money necessary to acquire them, then you got respect to go with it.  Nature has given us some of the most beautiful and interesting colors and patterns, which we borrow in order to beautify ourselves and our surroundings.  Fortunately, you don’t have to be a hunter to use the natural world for inspiration anymore.

The most popular animal prints are truly striking; leopard spots, zebra stripes, peacock feathers.  Tigers, cows, giraffes, snakes and more have lent their colors and patterns to apparel and accessories.   (more…)

Going into a home where everything is perfectly arranged and coordinated can be cool, but it can also be intimidating.  If you don’t have a natural flair for spatial relations, moving past milk crates and a futon can be sort of scary.  But your dish towels don’t have to match your pot handles; there’s more to having an attractive home than that!

I always tell people who are moving, put up your curtains right away.  You could have a housefull of cardboard boxes and partially-assembled Ikea stuff, but if you’ve got curtains in the window, your place looks lived in and put-together.  It’s practically magical. (more…)

You have to admit, superheros always look good.  They’re fit, they’re put-together, and anyone who can save mankind from a deadly scourge is going to have a certain appeal.  With all the superhero movies that have been coming out lately, I decided to take a closer look at what makes them so attractive.

Superheros are incredibly modest – well, in some ways.  Skintight jumpsuits and spangly leotards aside, they love masks.  They don’t want credit for their good deeds!  Sometimes you just feel like hiding in plain sight, in which case a mask would be just the ticket.  If you’ve been crying and don’t want anyone to know, all you have to do is whip out your trusty half-mask.  It’s too bad they aren’t a current fashion trend. (more…)

As much fun as it is for me to dress up my baby daughter, you’d think I would understand that pet owners get a similar kick out of cute accessories for their animals.  But I have to admit, I cringe when I see a dog that’s better dressed than I am.

I mean, it really is understandable.  If your puppy has really long hair, it might need a barrette or two to keep it out of her eyes.  A short-haired animal living in a cold climate might need the additional warmth provided by a coat or sweater.  You can get paw-printed collars and sparkly ID tags.  I’m even down with the old bandana-around-the-neck thing: I would have tied a Yankees one around my dog’s neck during the World Series, he just wouldn’t let.  But a Swarovski crystal choker that costs over $100?  Doggie sunglasses to protect them from the UV glare on ski trips?  Hand-knit cashmere Fair Isle sweaters? (more…)

Everyone needs spring break.  No, I don’t mean the kind where you spend a week getting drunk in Cancun (although if that’s what floats your boat, who am I to argue?).  I mean that the weather is taunting you with the occasional ray of sunshine, even a warm day sandwiched between the cold rainy ones, and your allergies are due to break out at any moment.  THAT is the time that you need to take a day to sleep in, eat some waffles, and possibly leave the house to do some shopping.  Before all the activity – whether holidays, sports, yard work, whatever – associated with spring and summer sweeps you away. (more…)

I watched Toy Story 3 recently, and it got me thinking about all the stuff I used to play with back in the day.  I miss my old Creepy Crawler Workshop, and my gymnastics Barbie with the hinged knees and elbows.  Did any of you actually act out games with your Barbie dolls?  Because all I remember is getting them dressed in various getups, and then switching them all to a new clothing theme until I got sick of those tiny little snaps.   (more…)

The UK’s Telegraph recently posted a gallery on their fashion webpage of celebrities photographed wearing various winter hat styles.  For those of you who like to see what popular actors, models, and other personalities are wearing, there’s good news: most of what they’re wearing is totally normal and easy to replicate on your own.

Simple beanies and furry “trapper hats” (remember the ushanka from last week?) appear to be all the rage among people who have their pick of the latest fashions.  Check out the gallery here, and then check out some of our best winter offerings below.

• Apparently, the simple wide-ribbed chaponne is the go-to hat this winter.  Try a cabled chaponne for a bit of a twist on the plain ribs. (more…)

Experts have agreed that the hottest color in the new year will be one they dubbed “honeysuckle,” a bright, warm pinky-red shade.  The Pantone Color Institute, which sets trends for the fashion and home industries, chose it for its liveliness, saying that it “lights a fire to the senses.”  They also describe it as hopeful, and I agree that it is definitely an upbeat hue.

The experts who chose it suggest pairing it with white rather than black, and predict that honeysuckle will appear in materials with complimentary colors like blues, greens, and oranges (more…)

English is a funny language, full of weird expressions that people use without always knowing why.  My inspiration for this post came when I searched Google News for the word “hat,” to see if there has been anything interesting going on in the world of accessories lately.  But most of the hits that I found had to do with hockey players scoring hat tricks!

So, I got curious, and found a website that explains the meanings of all kinds of strange idioms.   Then I hunted up a whole bunch of hat-related sayings.  How many of these have you actually heard used in conversation?

• Hat trick*: to score three times in one game (especially in hockey or soccer) is called a hat trick. (more…)

Ok, I freely admit that this is my opinion, and you all probably disagree with me.  But in every generation, there are some fads that come and go that people look back on and say “I can’t believe I went out looking like that.”  Here are my predictions for styles that, twenty years from now, people will remove all images of them from their photo albums to avoid having their kids snicker over them.

1. The big hair bump.  If you push your headband forward a little, ok.  But when your bump towers over your forehead like Marge Simpson’s bouffant, it stops being flattering and starts looking ridiculous. (more…)

The latest Disney movie, Tangled, hit theaters last week, and it is all about hair.

Well, sort of.  It’s an adaptation of the classic Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale, Rapunzel.  This Rapunzel’s hair has magical healing properties, and she finally escapes from her tower with 70 gorgeous blonde feet of it – that comes in handy in some unusual ways.  Check out this trailer, it looks great!

Hair has been a major feature in quite a few Hollywood hits.  Hair, the hippie subculture classic, was based on the ’60′s hit musical of the same name.   (more…)

Everyone knows that the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 wore all-black clothing with white aprons and collars and big buckles on their shoes.  And the Native Americans they ate with on Thanksgiving wore big feather headdresses.  Duh.  Every picture you ever saw of them proves it!

Only, not.  If you actually visited Plymouth back then (or the Plimoth Plantation Museum today), you’d see people dressed in lots of colors, and shoes that slipped on or laced up.  Check out the photos below, of reenactors in authentic garb.  Info is courtesy of the Plimoth Plantation website.

It actually wasn’t that easy to dye cloth black back in the day, which meant that true black clothing was expensive, and saved for best.   (more…)

Last week, I posted about the “ingredients” that go into making an actual hat.  This week, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite subjects: creative baking.

I had this Betty Crocker Kids Cookbook when I was little (it actually belonged to my mother when SHE was little…) that was full of fun, easy recipes.  Some of them were actually tasty.  There was a huge section full of gorgeous cakes, complete with full-color photographs, in the most fascinating shapes; an igloo, a drum set, a bunny rabbit, and so on – including directions to creating an incredibly realistic-looking hat cake. (more…)

Some authors are better than others at description.  Some bring in loads of tedious details just to take up space, and others leave almost everything up to your imagination.  Back when I read Great Expectations in high school, I learned that it’s packed with unnecessary descriptions because Dickens was paid by the word – so he made darn sure he got his money’s worth!

But the best authors can tell you only exactly as much as you want to know.  I know that some people tend to skip the descriptive parts of a book, but I’ve always lingered over them, forming precise pictures in my mind.  I like to know what everyone looks like!

Laura Ingalls Wilder, for example (the Little House books), does a great job of describing clothing.   (more…)

As I write this, my husband is off at a neighbor’s birthday party; I stayed home to babysit and do homework.  Sounds like a barrel of thrills, eh?  Just thinking about how I’m spending my weekend night is depressing.  My current plan is to waste a bunch of time surfing the net, and then make a huge cup of sweet, milky hot cocoa to drown my sorrows.

What’s your favorite pick-me-up for when you’re feeling blue and gray?  Whether you’re sad, bored, or a combination of the two, there are dozens of easy ways to lift your mood.  Bring some sparkle back into your life by trying one of these tips:

1. Exercise – when you’re down, you might want to just crawl into bed and stay there indefinitely.  But make the effort to get your blood moving; (more…)

When you travel to a foreign country, do you spend weeks ahead of time immersed in Rosetta Stone software, or do you figure that if you say it loud and slow enough, everyone will understand?

If you’ve ever had the experience of shopping across a language barrier, you know how awkward it can get.  That’s why I put together this handy-dandy guide to how you say “hat” in 30 different languages.  Save it for your next vacation!

Arabic: kobba’a (Well, that’s classical Arabic.  My friend Nour says that in Syria, they say ta’yeh, and other places have different dialects, but that everyone would understand if you said kobba’a.  They just might giggle a little.)

Chinese: màozi (I listened to the pronunciation on Google translate, and I would never have figured out how to say it otherwise!) (more…)

When you go outside and feel a nip in the air, you can’t help dreaming of warm sweaters and crackling fires and whatever else it is you do to keep warm.  One of the best parts about cold weather is coming home, taking off your wet socks, and wrapping your hands around a mug of something steamy.  You wouldn’t enjoy that half as much if you didn’t get chilly first!

I’m all about hot drinks.  Coffee, hot cocoa, herbal teas, you name it.  They make great treats, without being too caloriffic (well, unless you want them to be). (more…)

So, I hit my favorite good-weather outdoors event (I’ve mentioned it before) this past weekend, and it was fabulous.  The awesome thing about Renaissance Faires is that you can wear the wildest, wackiest outfits – or at least ogle people in them – and it’s totally ok.  You don’t have to be authentic, although people are more impressed when you are.  It’s the one chance a lot of people get to indulge in their romantic, old-fashioned, Gothic, Celtic, or witchy sides.  You can be anyone you feel like dressing as!

Of course, I made sure to inspect every clothing, jewelry, and (duh) hat shop or vendor that I passed.  Here’s a rundown of the most popular headgear styles you can get and wear at a Renaissance Faire.  They make excellent costumes for the rest of the year, and if you’re feeling adventurous, totally put one on and hit the mall. (more…)

Every few years, some new trend in fashion sweeps around the world.  Some “gotta have it” items are so unique and ubiquitous that they become symbols of a certain era – like poodle skirts or bellbottoms.  I had a chat with a second-grader about his Silly Bandz the other day, which inspired me to take a look back at some of the top accessory trends of the last fifty years.  Did you wear any of these?

• Cat-eye glasses were a staple of the fifties wardrobe, preferably decorated with rhinestones.  And don’t forget the scarf around the neck!
• The sixties were all about big hair – teased, back-combed, ratted, and rolled.  The bigger the bouffant, the better.  The more Aqua Net and Dippity-Do, the better.  And then, moving into the seventies, hairstyles took a total 180; hippie-chic called for long, straight, air-dried, single-length hair.  Curly girls, as my mother likes to tell me, had to tape their wet hair around soda cans to get it fashionably straight. (more…)