4-26-2026 MY FAVES: earth to the blondes

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 what i'm reading...

i completed bergdorf blondes, if you're in the mood for a fun fashion chick lit with a plot twist ending, this easy read is perfect for you. feels super relevant especially with the cbk resurgence, and the 2000s nostalgia hits the spot. there's definitely lots of shallowness, like a gossip girl in her mid-twenties, and your healthy (?) dose of spoiled brat.
next read is a november 2023 harper's bazaar found almost forgotten in my pile of magazines, and i'm going through the vogue france fall/winter 25-26 collections. tune in next couple weeks for some inspo i gathered from these magazines.
saturday was spent in the company of betsey johnson, as i binge-read her memoir. maybe i read it so fast because i relate to her eccentric style? maybe it's because she loved all the wild sides of life but stayed true to her 'good girl self'. in the memoir, she speaks about how she struggled in the 70s to be taken serious in the industry as she had a reputation for hanging out with the "drugged" crowd of the 60s (she was married to john cage of the velvet underground for a bit and was their designer). while she hung out with the "downtown crazies" she never used any drugs. all her life, she relied entirely on her personality and observing the environment around her more than anything. i often think to myself if i was too much of a "goody two shoes" and if i missed out as i inch my way toward my 30s, being on the sidelines of crazy happenings in my teens, only documenting them in my journal but not living them, same thing with my college years, spent mostly working and saving up to move, minimal dating experience other than my beloved boyfriend, covid hitting mid-college, and overall being described often as a very serious and mature person. reading this, i realized that like betsey, i can dictate how eccentric i want to be, and social expectations mean nothing.


in honor of earth day, here's 5 books that i read that i'd pick back up to celebrate our planet:
svete planine svijeta - stipe božić 
a picturesque travelogue notating the world's greatest mountains
ježeva kućica - branko ćopić
a kid's book about forest animals. super cute, read it with sib recently while she was planning her croatian school curriculum
insider's encyclopedia: animals - dan elish
i work with individuals with developmental disabilities, so i frequently revisit kids' books. oh, the knowledge you gain, though!
zivot(h)injice - zvonko culina
a poetry/fable book by a croatian poet, each poem is based on an animal.
great tales of horror - h.p. lovecraft
this book was a drag, not a fan of lovecraft's philosophy, but the way he vividly described many fictional places on the earth feel so real to me.

what i'm watching...

been getting to the final few episodes of american love story based on jfk jr and cbk. in all honesty, the acting is mediocre, but i guess the nostalgia and aesthetic is what sells, right? i feel guilty because i totally see why girls were super influenced by cbk's simple but effective style. yet, once again: you can't buy style. 
sib and i also watched white chicks, which makes us laugh like the first time we've seen it.


here's 5 movies i recommend watching in honor of earth day:
bratz fashion pixiez 
let's forget the pixie rave for a few seconds and talk about the girls who turned into a tree.
wicked 
elphaba fighting for the talking animals' rights and cute nature scenes, very peta.
summer teeth 
perhaps a cautionary tale about war contamination and how it turns everyone into zombies?
the secret world of arrietty
i will be super honest, i remember remotely nothing about this film, but i feel like there's a deep message about saving our ecosystem. let me know if i'm wrong.
into thin air - death on everest
you may be thinking why i have mountains listed. it's because sib is obsessed with mt everest and makes sure the whole house participates in the obsession.

what i'm listening to...

here's top 5 earthy songs in honor of (you guessed it!) earth day. some of these just have an earthy title, i know! live a little.
earth song - michael jackson
fields of gold - music lab collective
waterfalls - tlc
sandcastle disco - solange
towards the sun - rihanna





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