Archive for the ‘Joanna’ category

It’s shopping time down on Fatty-Nation Street

June 17th, 2009

(With apologies to The Cure. And also anyone else who doesn’t approve of that term. But oh well.)

Hey all my ladies with the curves, have you guys been to Featherston Street lately? Petone used to be the best place for plus-size shopping, but now town is totally Curve-ville.

  • There’s Zebrano‘s designer range (their “casual” store on Johnson Street is just around the corner), where you can fork out $400 for a Moss singlet, and be happy that Trelise Cooper’s plus-size range only goes up to a 20, because god forbid the real fattys should have at it. But seriously, they do have some lovely lovely things, and an amazing selection of ball dresses. But you’re going to pay through the nose there – expect nothing under $200 unless you hit their sales racks, which are past season and leftover stock and in extremely limited ranges of sizes.
  • There’s Platform Clothing which I didn’t go into today, whose clothes have always seemed a little bit boxy to me, but perhaps there’s something in there for you. These dresses look very cute. But again, not cheap.
  • Then there’s The Carpenter’s Daughter which is full of a riot of amazing jewel colours and textures. I lusted so so much for a frock coat in pink velvet, but at $550 I had to step away and instead tried on a huge selection of dresses in purples and greens and peacocks. Oh it was a glorious experience. And an expensive one. And if you come to my birthday drinks on Friday at Hawthorn Lounge, you’ll get to see the results. It’s totally what Joan Would Do.
  • It’s not on Featherston Street, but Farmers on Lambton Quay has a good range of plus-size clothes as well. They have a “designer” range, which means they have stuff for like $100 an item, which is kind of wrong in my opinion, but their Wild Child range can be pretty good and under $50 and is also 30% off right now.
  • And finally, although it’s not even a real place but rather the internets, I have to brag about how I finally found a dress that has SLEEVES! And POCKETS! And actually COMES DOWN TO MY KNEES! Oh it’s so exciting – so check out the_curvy_chick on trademe or her online store Sheer Curves - which actually had the dress I bought for $20 cheaper. And while we’re recommending online places, I’ve heard very good things about Bella Chic, although I have yet to purchase anything from there yet, but like Sheer Curves, they stock Igigi dresses and you might get a better deal than direct purchase because of changing exchange rates, etc.  

So let’s rock on with our frocks on, yes?

Please help me choose new glasses

May 25th, 2009

I’ve had the same frames since 2005. They’re pretty beaten up. Also, my right eye has gotten better! And Amy got new glasses! So I’m going to too! Which ones should I choose?

What glasses should Jo buy?

  • The black-framed Pro:Designs (46%, 13 Votes)
  • The tortoise-shelled Jai Kudos (39%, 11 Votes)
  • The fancy-legged Pro:Designs (15%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 28

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Pictures of all are after the break

» Read more: Please help me choose new glasses

So much post-party love

April 19th, 2009

Hello my beautiful ladies
Thank you all so much for coming along tonight. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you learnt something new, and i hope you picked up something fun to take away with you.

Just a quick thanks again to the people who helped make it happen – Fiasco Wines obviously lubed us up real good – they’re doing their Black Pearl Pinot Noir launch tomorrow – details here:  http://fiascowines.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/dont-forget/

And you can buy their wines here: http://fiascowines.wordpress.com/wine-orders/ We would love it if you did buy them and let them know why you did – they’re a new company, and I think that they did the right thing hooking up with such smart intelligent girl readers, and I hope they get rewarded for that.

Also thanks to www.lindenleaves.co.nz for their Herbalist  Face Care Packs that we had to give away, (and Lou Draper at Rockstar PR (http://prettyprettypretty.com/2009/04/01/pretty-pretty-people-lou-draper-from-rockstar-pr/) for making it happen, as well as Dr Rosy Fenwicke from Workout Zone (http://prettyprettypretty.com/2009/04/06/in-the-workout-zone/) for her generous prizes and sample giveways, and finally to Karyl (http://prettyprettypretty.com/2008/08/20/pretty-pretty-people-karyl-from-mary-kay/) (that I owe some money to and I’ll send you a cheque!) for the amazing Mary Kay Satin Hands kit that we all fell in love with (“my hands are soft like kittens” was a twitter comment), and also the amazing selection of samples we all got, and also to Eleanor who makes Dollop, who gave me and Amy secret presents we’ll no doubt blog about sometime.

The bathbombs in your bag are made with milk powder, citric acid and baking soda, and are either orange, lemon, cinnamon & vanilla or cinnamon, chocolate& vanilla flavoured. If you don’t have a bath, break it down in to chunks and soak your feet in it (use a roasting dish if need be).  The CDs are a s ampler of awesome women, and if you like them, buy their albums!

I had such an amazing night – last thanks go to Megan for her red lipstick coverage, all you fantastic girls who came along with clothes to swap (and mountains to donate to the Sallies), the fantastic amazing new people who were shy to come along but who I hoped really enjoyed it,  anyone who sang with me, and finally to my beautiful partner in crime Amy, who makes this website what it really is. <3

So much love xojo

What’s in your bag, baby?

April 2nd, 2009

So apparently the fact that Michelle Obama doesn’t carry a handbag but the Queen of England does is enough for a news item. Aaaaaaargh! Hate!

But I guess as a blog of small details, rather than the nightly television news, it’s okay for us to talk about such small trivial nothing things, and I can ask you: can you deal without a bag? I’m known to tuck lipgloss and my cellphone into my bra at parties, but I like to know that there is hand cream and my wallet close at hand. I suppose if I was the president’s wife or someone walking the red carpet, I might have an assistant to carry my bag, but I just can’t imagine that I’d want to give up my autonomy like that. I mean, right now this is the contents of my handbag – which, admittedly is a large satchel from Webstock: » Read more: What’s in your bag, baby?

It’s the vibe of the thing?

March 3rd, 2009

Just quickly, why is it that all beauty products nowadays have to vibrate? I mean, first there were electric toothbrushes, which seem like an okay idea, but now there’s there’s razors (which are “good but gimmicky”), there’s face cleaners, and now there’s oscillating mascara (which underwhelmed Miss Deuxmont - can we get a full review  please?). Why oh why must everything shake, rattle and roll? I mean, I like the fact that I’m pretty sure Neutrogena will be giving some teenage girls their first orgasm (and I mean that in a empowerment way, not a creepy porny way), but don’t most of us have hands? And aren’t most of us perfectly capable of shaving our legs, washing our faces and curling our lashes without needing robots to do it? Don’t blame me if the new lipstick applicators become self-aware and destroy all of our society, okay?

Do you use vibrating beauty products? Please tell us about them for us in the comment section.

Yeah, but what’s Claudia wearing?

February 25th, 2009

Now, I dunno about you guys, but I grew up reading the Babysitters’ Club books – every time my mum went to the supermarket, I’d go into the bookshop, sit on the ground and work my way through them. I could never decide who my favourite one was – I liked the way that Kirsty got things done that Dawn was chilled out, but I longed to be able to dress like Claudia Kishi, and it seems I’m not the only one. In honour of an awesome blog I’ve stumbled across (and stolen this dance picture from) called What Claudia Wore, I gotta know: who’s the best dressed?

Who is the best-dressed member of the Babysitter's Club?

  • Stacey had gone for almost total black [like her soul?]: black jeans, black boots, black turtleneck, silver cropped top over that, black boots with silver side buttons and silver X earrings." (48%, 10 Votes)
  • "Dawn was wearing this cool oversized (really oversized) blue shirt. One of the coolest things about it was that it was green inside, so that when she turned the collar down and rolled the sleeves up (24%, 5 Votes)
  • Claudia " She was wearing a wonderful Claudia outfit - a purple-and-white striped body suit under a gray jumper-thing. The legs of the body suit stretched all the way to her ankles, but she was weari (19%, 4 Votes)
  • "Kristy was wearing a white turtleneck with little red and blue hearts all over it, a red sweater, jeans, and sneakers." (5%, 1 Votes)
  • "Mary Anne was wearing a short plum-colored skirt over a plum-and-white-striped body suit. The legs of the body suit stopped just above her ankles, and she'd tucked the bottoms into her socks. I don (4%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 21

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Poll Dancing

December 15th, 2008

I’ve added a polls plugin to the site so that we can ask you all the vitally important questions that we’d like answers to.

me last yearFirst up, I’m having many many dilemmas about what I should wear to the most important night of the year, the TAWA Ceremony. You can see pictured what I wore last year, so obviously I need to top that.

Do I go with my old standby, the green dress and belt, ala Tom’s Mad Men Party? My black and purple dress ala Amy’s 30th? Or do I wear this blue dress that I haven’t worn very often, which Karen is currently making me an extra petticoat for so that it’s a decent length? The first two offer up a lot more cleavage which I think would help console those who don’t win, but they’ve made big public outings before. Should I go for something different? Or if I’m going to be running around like crazy freaking out about organisation stuff, should I just make sure that I’m comfortable?

 

What should Joanna wear to the TAWAS?

  • The blue dress (50%, 13 Votes)
  • The purple & black dress (27%, 7 Votes)
  • The green dress (23%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 26

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Love Wellington and love Linden Leaves

December 9th, 2008

You probably know that as well as writing Pretty Pretty Pretty with me, Jo also edits The Wellingtonista and that right now they’ve got voting open for the Third Annual Wellingtonista Awards. Amongst the nominees for ‘Best Apparel‘ are some of our favourite stores Swonderful and Madame Fancy Pants, so we want to make sure that you know about them, and that you vote.

Soap on a ropeIf you come along to the TAWAs award night, you’ll go into the draw to win a gorgeous prize pack from Linden Leaves but if you can’t make it on the night, or if you simply can’t wait to try their lovely stuff, we have a Pure Man Soap on a Rope to give away. I think the soap smells like rosemary, strangely enough given that’s one of its main ingredients, while Jo goes to far as to say “If I wasn’t happy being a crazy cat lady, I might be tempted to leave this soap under my pillow so that I could imagine that there was a gorgeous-smelling man sleeping next to me at night, But I’m not that lame, honest!”

If you wanna win the soap, just tell us what your favourite nominee in the TAWAs is before voting closes next Tuesday, and we’ll draw it with the randomiser.

South Pacific Styles

November 27th, 2008

I’m having a party and you’re invited. See?

tiki tiki

This gives us a good chance to talk about what one would wear to such a shindig. My suggestions:

  • A mermaid outfit: Remember that Halloween episode of Beverly Hills 90210 when Kelly goes as a sexy witch, and nearly gets raped, and Brenda’s like “I told you that outfit was a little much?” So awesome! It was totally her fault! But anyway, the comic relief in that particular episode came from Donna, as it so often did – I really think now she’s totally underrated – who wore a mermaid outfit with a skirt so tight she couldn’t sit or hardly walk in it. I’ve searched for pictures but I can’t find any. My interpretation of a mermaid though would be a long shiny green skirt, and as I’m not the sort to walk around in a bikini, a tshirt with green triangles matching the skirt sewn over the boobs. It’d be totally awesome, like modesty prom dresses!
  • Traditional faux hula: There is a shop of awesomeness in Newtown called something like Rainbow Country, and in its narrow very crammed aisles, you can find EVERYTHING, including rafia or plastic shredded hula skirts and leis. Just don’t bring your lighter to the party, okay?
  • Blue Hawaii: The $1-2-3 Shop in Newtown Mall by New World has Elvis wigs for under $5. Think about it. And since the movie also starred Angela Lansbury, a Miss Marple outfit wouldn’t be out of place.
  • A Dusky Maiden/Velvet Painting: I love the look of these paintings (and this poetry collective includes my former flatmate the lovely Lani), and if you want to know more about the paintings, check out this documentary on the awesome NZonScreen site.
  • Pirates: Everyone loves dressing up like pirates, right?

What are your suggestions, and are you coming to my party?

Mad Men-inspired hair

November 9th, 2008

Jo went to a ‘Mad Men‘ election party last night and I was privileged to do her hair and make-up. She wanted a Joan Holloway look, so I searched youtube for how to do foxy ’60s.

There wasn’t a lot on youtube, and as usual the best advice is on pursey.

So I went with an up front pouf (here’s my vid on how-to) and chignon at the back (here’s my vid on how-to). Hope you liked it Jo!

Jo as Joan

beehive

And I found these interesting videos on an official Mad Men site about the hair and make-up on the show.