Neighborhood posters from ORK

Ork posters has a design with all the Philly neighborhoods in fine letterpress style. When I first moved to the city, I made do with a fold-up map tacked to the wall in the hallway with things like “Strawberry Mansion??” and “Here there be yuppies, arrr” scrawled on it as I accumulated information. Help out the newbies and give this as a housewarming present, it’ll lead to less confusion about the difference between Kensington, Fishtown and Port Richmond.

Shewolf

Vanity Fair has posted pictures of the photo shoot with the gorgeous Shakira. The accompanying article explains that the reporter found her howl from Shewolf oddly alluring by the end of their time with her.

Continuing with the real bodies theme, ESPN Magazine is going to publish pictures of athletes in the buff. BET is especially excited since the magazine will feature pictures of several high profile African-American athletes including Serena William’s cover picture.

Glamour.com asks “How do you apply your makeup?” Using a brush to apply liquid foundation makes a world of difference. We already knew this since some of us at PW Style aren’t especially artistic yet yearn to be creative.  The brushes help with this.

Courtesy of InStyle.com - This bag is called Big Buddha

Want cheap accessories? InStyle has you covered, with their list of handbags, scarves & sunglasses under 100 bucks. Nice.

Lastly, Stylecaster is excited for Sloane and Eric from Entourage to tie the knot. They’ve gone ahead and picked out what Sloane should wear for her wedding.

Dan Akroyd and the Crystal Skull: In Philly!

OMG you guys, you remember how I did a roundup of liquor bottles that were designed really well a while back? Lemme quote myself on the first one on the list:

Crystal Head vodka, $45. OK, this bottle is so sweet that I might even spend $45 on it if it wasn’t full of Dan Akroyd-approved vodka. Bonus: the marketing people behind this have either lost their minds or have a particularly on-point understanding of viral internet stuff. Not only did they get a not-getting-a-ton-of-roles-these-days-but-still-embedded-in-our-collective-nostalgia actor to rep it, but their website is 80% insane ramblings about the Mayans and the legend of the 13 crystal skulls that would sound more appropriate coming out of the mouth of some wild-eyed guy on the subway who smells like pee.

OK, so Grub Street says that:

Dan Akroyd will be visiting the Wine & Spirits store at 1218 Chestnut Street this Thusday from 4 to 6 p.m. to sign purchased bottles of his Crystal Head Vodka. You will be able purchase the premium, supernaturally-inspired vodka during the event; it retails for $49.99.

That is TODAY, people! Dan Akroyd! Vodka! Crystal Skulls! For a sample of what might be discussed at this event, see the video below:

Triple-filtering the vodka through motherfucking diamonds! Health through vodka! Perceiving ghosts through vodka! Life-affirming symbology through vodka! The potential indestructibility of the soul! Through vodka?

So, seeing the video, what’s your opinion? Is this Network on youtube, or is it extremely skilled marketing people taking a stab at viral popularity? And secondly, if anyone is familiar with distillation processes, what the hell does filtering vodka through diamonds even do? Aren’t diamonds kind of… not porous? Am I misunderstanding something here?

Mini Kensington

I have a thing for papercraft; in my former life as a receptionist, I used to kill down time by assembling tiny pandas and turntables and parrots, the patterns for which were offered for free from Yamaha for some reason (note: if you have a menial-type job in which you may be asked why the fuck you’re making an okapi, I recommend that you maybe not go to that site; it’s an amazing resource but I strongly suspect that my little animals were a big factor in my getting canned).

But if you enjoy the zen of Elmer’s glue/x-acto knife/glue-tab-A-to-space-B assembly, have local pride and are not on the clock, check out Daymaker’s patterns for standard Kensington/Fishtown/Port Richmond sights (have I mentioned that I’m boycotting the term Port Fishington?). There’s lunch carts, Kenzinger trucks, Fishtown rowhouses (complete with tiny star bolts), a modern interloper, even-teenier-than-usual Trinities and a bunch more that are surprisingly evocative of the area.

They say they even have a teeny little Memphis Taproom, although that pattern doesn’t seem to be available yet, and have a custom option where it appears you can get a quote on your own Philadelphia home, place of work or favorite bar. Yay! Although we imagine it’s waaaaay more expensive to get something custom than the $3-$5 it costs to get one of the above prefab patterns printed on card stock and mailed to you.

I’m imagining the miniature train set running through a little country village that our neighbors set up around Christmas every year when I was growing up, the idea of popping in a few lunch trucks amidst all the glittery fake snow makes me very happy.

Extra, Extra

While I am a blogger and I do love broadcast, I still have a special place in my heart for newspaperss. Maybe that’s why I love these accessories that were featured on Nylon’s website.

Kate Moss and Topshop are launching a new site for fall/winter. While the site being posted does mean that summer is drawing to a close, it’s worth a look anyway. Also, I’m not a huge Kate Moss fan, but the slideshow of pictures when you first visit Kate’s section of the site are quite striking.

If you have two puppies – I tend to call dogs puppies regardless of age – that would like to tie the knot, make sure you check out the Largest Dog Wedding, scheduled to happen in Woodstown, New Jersey this Saturday.

NBC10 isn’t sure how they feel about plunging necklines. What do you think? I usually don’t mind, unless the woman is old. Saggy clevage isn’t cute.

The Frisky featured a product that will always make room for cupcake filling. Yumm. I’m a fan of baking…I think if I had one of these everyone would wonder just how I got so fancy.

Right to Bare Arms

I saw Inglourious Basterds this past weekend, and Quentin Tarantino did not disapoint. Harpers Bazaar has pictures up of the premier.

Harpers also says that toned arms are the new face. It just might be true. Many women are currently seeking Michelle Obama arms, and many celebs show off their guns.

Another slideshow that Harpers has up is supermodels without makeup. I love slideshows like this. I guess I think it’s nice to know that even though they are supermodels, they’re real people. When I met Iman and I realized that she had fine lines around her eyes and not a limp botox face, I found it so refreshing.

I know Newscasters wear some corny outfits sometimes, but if you ever wanted to dress like one, you can!  CNN has a video describing it, but the website is called TV News Closet.

Marie Claire has slideshows of the best premium outlet malls in America, as well as trends in Italy. I have a soft spot for designs from the boot. It looks like these pictures were taken in Italy, so it’s worth browsing for the backdrops alone.

Lastly, if you want to dress like Kelly Ripa, she clues you in on what she wears on the show.

FOUND ON PHILLY CRAIGSLIST: wolftables

Please oh please oh please let these find a good home. I am sure that somewhere out there someone with a big heart and $70 (or $60?) has room for some wolftables.

Wolf end tables – $70 (Bristol Twp. )

Wolf end tables set of 2. Each end table has 3 wolves on it.

The round glass top is removable

The price is $60. for the set of 2

• Location: Bristol Twp.
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

It’s 1-5-#4-2-3-1! Dammit, Kevin!

Totally sweet present: a DIY music box kit. It’s only $15, too! It comes with a teeny holepunch and a card that apparently has the music for Happy Birthday, but it looks like you can code in whatever song you want (in any event, the example song on the strip of paper isn’t Happy Birthday). It looks like you don’t get any sharps or flats, though, which would put a damper on songs you’re able to do.

Yesssssssss! I gotta tell you, there are very very few occasions in life when a degree in music theory can be put to practical use: these include a party trick where I can tell you what interval there is between two beer bottles of differing levels, and I would totally be able to rescue He-Man and save the world if I were to wake up in the 1987 movie “Masters of the Universe,” seen here (the video’s from dailymotion, not youtube, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to make it automatically start where I want it to, but if you watch the first video from 2:40 to 3:55 and the second from 3:00 to 4:00 that should give you the relevant parts):