Earlier this month, I had every intention of celebrating my four-year blogiversary.
But, life got in the way. I've been super busy with work.
So, to mark the occasion belatedly, I am teaming up with Crazy & Co. for a fabulous giveaway.
This is my way of thanking all of you for being in my life. For reading my blog. For being my friend.
It really means a lot to me.
There will be two winners of this giveaway. Each one will receive a $25 gift card to the online store, which features funky, adorable, and colorful jewelry and accessories.
Have fun browsing Crazy & Co's website! You're in for a treat. And don't forget to check out their blog, twitter, and pinterest.
And as an extra dose of fabulousness, Crazy & Co. is offering a 20% discount to all my readers! Just use the code: CRAZYLOVE.
Here are a few examples of what Crazy & Co. has to offer:
To enter this giveaway:
1. You must be a GFC follower of this blog. (If that's not possible, please follow me at Bloglovin')
It just occurred to me that I rarely talk about Morrissey on this blog.
I'm obsessed with him, and yet he barely makes a mention here.
I suppose it's because I know most of you probably aren't as obsessed with him as I am. And I know there are a few of you who don't even know his music.
I decided that needs to change.
During my snow day yesterday, I was uber bored and while listening to The Smiths (Moz's former band) I suddenly realized a magical theme. Since I had plenty of time on my hands, I created a set of Disney memes to accompany some of my favorite Smiths (and solo) tracks, along with the song, so you can sing along.
Please enjoy.
What do you think of my memes? Do you like The Smiths? (Isn't Moz dreamy?)
It's a 1968 hilarious showcase of Hollywood glamour and wacky shenanigans.
The film revolves around a bumbling, yet lovable, struggling Indian actor who is accidentally invited to a ritzy movie studio honcho's sophisticated party.
The love interest in the film always takes my breath away every time I watch it. Her name is Claudine Longet.
The daintily beautiful French pop star plays an up-and-coming actress in the comedy. She's divine.
But her life has been anything but.
This is her story.
When she was 18-years-old, the Paris-born Claudine was a sexy, but soft-spoken, showgirl struggling to make ends meet in Las Vegas. One day, her car had broken down on the side of the road, and she stood there helplessly, unsure about what to do. A fancy car pulled over, and out stepped Andy Williams, one of the biggest pop stars in the world. The 32-year-old heartthrob was so enamoured with the exquisite French beauty, he asked her out on the spot. They married a year later.
For the next decade, their life was a dazzling Hollywood fairytale. They jet-setted around the world, drinking champagne at extravagant parties with their closest friends, such as Barbra Streisand and the Kennedys.
They lounged by their crystal blue pool at their Palm Beach home.
They rocked the red carpet at movie premieres.
Claudine's career was skyrocketing, with television appearances, hit singles, and film offers.
Andy's career was also at an all-time high, with a new televised variety show, top billing at Cesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and radio hits.
During the 1960s, they had three children who they absolutely adored.
But by the late 1960s, their perfect world started to unravel.
Their best friend, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated on the very day they were supposed to spend the evening with him.
Soon, the tabloids started blasting rumors that the handsome Andy was having a sizzling affair with Robert's widow, Ethel Kennedy.
Along with their tragic loss and facing such a humiliating scandal, the couple realized, after 14 years of marriage, they were no longer in love. Andy no longer felt fireworks every time he looked in his beautiful wife's eyes. Claudine admitted she couldn't stand the sight of him. They divorced so amicably, they decided to use the same lawyer.
After the divorce, Claudine met and fell in love with an Olympic medalist and skier, "Spider" Vladimir Peter Sabich Jr. She and her three children quickly moved into his Aspen home, which was a jolt of reality for the swinging ladies' man.
His friends noticed that he was becoming increasingly unhappy with the relationship. They noticed Claudine was clingy and jealous. Spider told them he wanted to break up with Claudine, but she refused to let it happen.
On a fateful afternoon in 1976, Claudine was sitting in their spacious chalet, waiting for her kids to come home from school. But Spider came home first. He decided to shower and get ready for a party the two were attending that night.
Claudine walked into the bathroom, as he was disrobing, and with a pistol, shot him. His blood drowned the bathroom floor. He died in her arms on the way to the emergency room.
Andy rushed to Aspen to comfort his ex-wife, and it turned out, she needed it. Desperately. Although she told police that the shooting was a complete accident (Spider had been teaching her how to use the gun, she claimed) the city of Aspen had a different opinion.
People in the ritzy Colorado town practically spit on her in the streets and deemed her a murderess.
She was charged with reckless manslaughter.
Her murder trial became one of the most sensationalized events of the 1970s. It was the first crime to make the cover of People magazine. The Rolling Stones even recorded a song about Claudine.
And although the world delighted in branding the European glamourpuss "guilty" she had the staunch support of her ex-husband Andy, who fervently believed she was telling the truth. He even said so on stand, much to the astonishment of the courtroom.
In Claudine's favor, the trial ended up being botched. Dim-witted policemen mishandled evidence, making the most damning clues inadmissible in court. Among the mishandled evidence included a blood test proving Claudine had been under the influence of cocaine during the shooting and her diary, which documented her troubled relationship with the famous athlete.
With those two pieces of circumstantiial evidence thrown out, the prosecuting attorney didn't stand a chance of hanging her for murder. Claudine was merely found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and issued to spend 30 days in county jail. Spider's family was disgusted with the verdict.
As if that wasn't enough, Claudine shocked the world even further by jumping into a steamy affair with her married defense attorney, Ron Austin. The two wed in 1985 and still reside in Aspen today.
Despite her tarnished reputation, Claudine is considered a musical legend. Her catchy pop songs and heart wrenching ballads are still popular today. More and more young people are buying her albums.
And then there are people who continue to fall in love with Claudine the minute she smiles on film with shy uncertainty, gazing up with her big doe eyes, and it's easy to understand why Andy Williams came to a screeching halt that sunny afternoon on the Las Vegas strip.
The book, written by Sam Wasson, gives a very detailed behind-the-scenes look at the film Breakfast at Tiffany's.
If you love the movie, you seriously need to read this book.
The making of the film is incredibly fascinating and complex. The influence it had really changed the world. Before Holly Golightly and her little black dress, women wouldn't have dreamed of living in a tiny apartment in the big city, on their own, struggling to get by, and being fabulous every step of the way. It truly foreshadowed the independent woman as we know her today.
Plus, the movie created shock waves throughout the film industry. It completely changed Audrey Hepburn's career and created an entirely new genre for young audiences.
As a devout fashionista, I own the Audrey Hepburn box set, so I was able to watch Breakfast at Tiffany's while reading the book. It was fun to jump to certain scenes of the movie after reading all the juicy tidbits about what actually happened during each take.
Of course, I own the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's as well, so it was fascinating to flip through those pages during the chapters about Truman Capote.
Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. is entertaining and easy-to-read. It'll introduce you to fashion icons you never knew existed, and twist the opinions you had about familiar names.
It's fascinating and delightful and glamorous. Just like Holly Golightly, herself.
Have you seen the film Breakfast at Tiffany's? Or read the novella it is based on?
Once upon a time, there was a dark and dreary island in Japan where bad things happened.
Poisonous gas was secretly being manufactured for the military.
More than 6,000 tons of lethal gas was developed at the site, from 1929 to 1945.
The mission was so top-secret, the island was omitted from maps and workers were sworn to secrecy.
It was an extremely dangerous place to work, with many of the laborers becoming ill from breathing in the fumes, or becoming grotesquely disfigured in chemical accidents.
When the factory shut down, the island remained a ghost town.
But in 1971, that all changed.
Japanese school children visited the island during a field trip and released eight bunnies.
Today, there are more than 300.
The island has become one of the most fascinating tourist attractions in the world.
It is named Rabbit Island.
The floppy-eared fluffballs have the entire island to themselves, free from predators. Although they are technically considered wild rabbits, they are accustomed to humans and will approach delighted visitors, eager for a tasty treat. Their favorite food is carrots and cabbage, but they won't turn down rabbit feed, which can be purchased on the island.
They are also known to hop right into visitors' laps.
They love people.
It is a grassy, blue-sky paradise.
The island now has a golf course and camping ground. Visitors are allowed to swim in the crystal clear water surrounding the island. People are not allowed to litter on the island or steal the bunnies.
The ruins of the old gas factory still stand, projecting a haunting shadow amongst the child-like innocence enveloping the island.
And because I know you're curious, here are a few things you might not have known about your favorite movie stars:
James Dean was sexually molested by his church's minister, after his mom passed away. He revealed the tragic memory to Elizabeth Taylor while they were filming Giant.
Rosie O'Donnell revealed in a best-selling memoir, Celebrity Detox, that when she was a kid, she used to break her fingers and hands with a baseball bat, in order to get her parents attention.
When Leighton Meester was born, her mom was in prison for drug smuggling. The Gossip girl star was raised by her grandmother, while her mom finished serving the rest of her sentence.
Poor Jack Nicholson was innocently enjoying being the hottest new movie star on the block, when a journalist turned his life upside down. In 1974, while researching a story about the actor, a Time magazine reporter accidentally discovered that Jack's parents were not his parents! They were his grandparents, and his real mother was his older sister, who had been a sassy showgirl during the 1930s.
When he was a teenager, Mark Wahlberg wasn't a fan of non-white people. At 15, he got in trouble for throwing rocks at a group of African-American children on a field trip and calling them racial slurs. At 16, he randomly attacked a middle-aged Vietnamese man on the street with a stick, shouting "fucking Vietnam shit" and then attacked another Vietnamese man, permanently blinding him. He was charged with attempted murder for the unprovoked attacks, but only served 45 days in jail.
In 2010, a photo of a sad Keanu eating a sandwich alone sparked a world-wide meme. Everyone thought it was hysterical. Unfortunately, not many people probably realized what was behind those unhappy eyes. In 1999, the love of his life, the gorgeous production assistant Jennifer Syme, gave birth to their stillborn daughter, Ava. In 2001, the 28-year-old was killed in a drunk driving accident after attending a party. She is buried next to their daughter. Friends have said in interviews that Keanu remains a changed man.
Did you know any of these facts? Does it change the way you feel about these celebrities?
Isn't she gorgeous? And like most beautiful women, she's craaaaazy. Yeah, it's a really interesting story. If you're curious (and you know you are) you need to check out my latest guest post.
After (nearly) four years, I finally learned a very valuable blogging lesson: USE THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!
I prided myself on being a captcha-free blog. After all, I can barely read the stupid letters myself, so why make my readers do the same? It's annoying as shit. And I can't even count how many times I've come across other bloggers bitching about it too.
I figured my blog was too obscure to attract spammers.
Well, it was...until December.
Since December, I have gotten more than 10,000 comments. All spam. And since I've been so busy, I didn't even notice what had happened until two days ago.
I've tried deleting as many as possible. But let's face it, unless I quit my job, there's no way I'm ever going to have time to get rid of every single comment a computer generated. We're talking hundreds of comments per post. I have a life.
What's even creepier is that the spammers are getting more creative. There were actually spam comments pretending to be my blog friends, by leaving their name and the name of their blog. When I approached each blogger, to see if the weird comment was really theirs, it wasn't. And they were horrified. It makes me wonder how many of you have gotten spam comments from me.
(For the record, I will never ask you to "buy Viagra for a low price by clicking the link.") A high price, maybe. JUST KIDDING. Do not click the link! Tell me immediately!
