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How has everyone been doing with their resolutions so far? I’m not a big believer in the New Year being some blessed time to dramatically change your life, no more so than on a rainy day in April or a summer’s day in June. But with the end of a year I suppose one can step back, get a bit of perspective, and have a clearer idea of what the coming year or years should look like.

So far, I’ve finished one book (Portia de Rossi’s Unbearable Lightness) and am halfway through another (Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere). I’ve checked out the horses for adoption on Petfinder, perused the ads for horses for sale on Craigslist, and looked at leasing options, all thanks to a friend who happens to be something of an ex-horsewoman and has me looking at gorgeous Selle Francais and Dutch Warmbloods I cannot afford (as they are so fancy and can run you $80,000). We’ve dipped into our bottles of Evan Williams Single Barrel and Maker’s 46 bourbon. Not a bad start for six days in.

Perhaps your resolutions involve your beauty routines! I’m always trying to simplify mine, but I thought it would be fun to show you what’s in my medicine cabinet and on my vanity! (Maybe at the end of the year I can compare to see if it’s changed very much, too.)

Face
01. Cleanser: Lush Bûche De Noël
02. Toner/lotion: Lush Eau Roma Water
03. Cream/moisturizer: Lush Skin Drink + Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair
04. Facial mask: Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic
05. Exfoliator: Rotation between a few favorites: Dermalogica Microfoliant, Origins Modern Friction + Brighter By Nature (twice weekly)
06. Make-up remover: Origins Clean Energy Gentle Cleansing Oil

Body
07. Shower gels/soaps: Lush Flying Fox
08. Body lotions/creams: Aveeno, Cetaphil
09. Anticellulite/firming treatment: W H U T, am I supposed to be doing this?
10. Body exfoliator: Homemade Sugar Scrub
11. Hand cream: Origins Smoothing Souffle
12. Lip balm or lip treatment: Pure Vitamin E Lip Balm or Lush’s It Started With A Kiss Tinted Lip Balm
13. Perfume: Changes Daily!

Hair
14. Shampoo/conditioner: Lush Assortment, Kirkland Signature Moisture Shampoo + Conditioner (surprisingly vegan, paraben and gluten free), Aveda Clove Shampoo
15a. Mask or other treatments: Ken Paves Healthy Hair Boost Up Color Drops, Bumble & Bumble Creme de Coco Masque & homemade masks
15b. Styling Products: Frederic Fekkai Beachy Waves, Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray, some awesome stuff I got in El Mexico, Frederic Fekkai Glossing Cream, TRESemme Heat Tamer Protective Spray
15c. Styling Tools: BaByliss Pro Porcelain Ceramic Straightening Iron (1.5″), Conair You Curl Curling Wand, a blow dryer, a really old school spiral curling iron

Make-up
16. Foundation: Perricone Active Tinted Moisturizer in Tint 02
17. Powder: MAC Mineralize SPF 15 Foundation (Loose) in Light Medium , Palladio Herbal Dual Wet Dry Foundation in Cypress Beige
18a. Blush (Powder, Highlight & Bronzer): MAC Mineralize, Cargo, Besame (too many to name just a few shades), Stila
18b. Blush (Stain): Lush’s It Started With A Kiss Tinted Lip Balm, Sephora Lush Flush Lip & Cheek Stain, Tarte Ring It In Cheek Stain Set
19. Mascara: MAC Zoom Lash, L’Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes, Clinique High Impact Mascara
20. Lipstick/lipgloss: MAC, Besame, Clinique (too many to name just a few shades)
21. Eyeshadow: MAC, Cargo, Stila, Laura Mercier, Besame
22. Eyeliner: MAC Shadesticks, MAC Greasepaints, Laura Mercier, Besame Classic Masterliner Pencils

Thrifted tunic, Silence + Noise skinnies, Gap scarf, Dolce Vita for Target boots, Freebird by the Sak crossbody bag, earrings are a gift from the tomboy for Christmas (slippery like a snake!), Pier One wooden bangle bracelet, Banana Republic cocktail ring, awesome foam axe with rabbit fur trim from Paxton Gate – Curiosities for Kids.

(From Saturday, January 8th) Today was awful. I woke up slightly hungover from my femme date at the Original Plumbing Fashion Issue party last night, we’re out of everything one would use to make a deliciously greasy breakfast, and then we sat down with coffee and saw the news. My head throbbed with grief and shock and the kind of despondence that senseless, wasted death comes with without fail. It was impossible to divorce politics and the impact that something like this will have on our country from the fact that real people are still sitting in real rooms with their broken hearts, obliterated from the loss of their loved ones even as I type this.

I looked at my very grounded and mature daughter, watched her watching the news with us, peering over my shoulder to look at the Sarah Palin map of the United States that I’d been screaming at just a few minutes ago, thinking of the social atrocities she’s seen in her short life (9/11 in preschool, sitting on shoulders at useless anti-war protests in kindergarten, wars that carried her through grade school and junior high, the ups and downs and rallies and phone banking and fighting for marriage equality, the daily routine horrors of misogyny), her bright future humming with the beginnings of certainty despite all of it, and I suppose out of self-preservation a calm, quiet numbness washed over me. I went about the rest of the day, running errands, eating dinner with my family, hosting my book club for the night.

I can’t think about the ambitious little nine-year-old girl who died today because I can’t, I just can’t, as a mother. I called my mother today, and she was happier than usual to hear from me; my little brother’s been in boot camp for the Marines for a week now, the news can’t have helped any. We didn’t talk about Congresswoman Giffords, the little girl, or the five others who died because we can’t, just can’t, as mother and daughter. We talked instead about his call home this week, the menu for our Super Bowl party in February, an upcoming ski trip.

In seventeen years, when my petite is thirty years old and calls me out of the blue on an overcast Saturday afternoon, I hope this country is a better place to live than it is right now. It has to be.

A NOTE FROM SKINNY: Greetings, FFAF readers! It’s a very exciting day, because I’m posting the very first ever guest FFAF post from a dear, dear friend, the lovely Kelly Alice. One of the things she loves to do is sit in bed at night and catch up on all of her favorite fashion magazines or blogs, until she’s sleepy enough to retire. The other night, she told me recently, she’d drifted off and her sweet and lovin’ tomboy came to bed, and in her sleep she said, “I want to start a fashion blog.” “Oh, yeah?” said her tomboy, Fancy Pants, “Who will be in it?” “Me and my friends!” Kelly Alice replied, and vanished back into dreamland.

Of course, Kelly Alice doesn’t remember this at all (I never remember the things I say in my sleep, either, but M sure does!), but she DOES remember waking up determined to whip up a FFAF-esque post, which she sent to me right away!

This is her awesome post. I’m sure you’ll all welcome her warmly and find her to be just as smart and kind and adorable as M & I do! Enjoy!

KA’s CONFESSION: I know that I wear the same things/styles over and over again and could never justify a style blog, but I do love them so (especially FFAF)!  Just for fun though, I did a little photo spread for you from this morning. I now realize how much work goes into your blog. I didn’t have the time to take many shots, then I had to download them from the camera, and then edit the photos…phew, I’m tired just typing all this! How do you muster up the time and energy to do this every day? I salute you! Maybe one day I’ll create a blog that incorporates all the things I love (food, fashion, travel, the damn cats). Who knows, maybe it will be fun!

I hope you’re enjoying your little west coast cold snap!  I have to be honest, it becomes very hard to stay fashionable when it gets truly cold here in Boston (the kind of cold that makes it hard to breathe!). Here are some of my winter weather femme fashion tips:

• buy boots in half a size bigger; wear warm wooly socks tucked inside when wearing dresses and skirts
• use MAC Prep + Prime to keep make-up in place after tucking on hats and wrapping around scarves all day
• wear silk long underwear under clothing – it makes a world of difference, feels so nice against the skin, and is so smooth you can barely notice the extra layer (especially under office clothing!)
• when expecting to be outside for longer periods, put disposable hand warmers (found at sporting goods stores) in shoes, gloves, or on the nape of your neck

Also, I know you can hardly see it at all in the photos, but my latest eyeshadow obsession is MAC’s Vex.  I have been wearing it every. single. day. for weeks since I’ve bought it!

(Skinny here again: I hope KA does start her own blog one of these days, and in the meantime she can guest post here as often as she likes! Also, she is maker of the amazing almond marshmallows and awesome mix CDs! Here is the video for my maybe-favorite on her November mix. It’s way fun and happy and sexy.)

CONFESSION: Last night, I tried on two of those POS wanker Victoria’s Secret fragrances I got forever ago, with a pair of super soft, sexy pajamas (free slippers with purchase!). One was so gross and cloyingly sweet that M described it as “someone trying to layer on perfume over dirty ass” and I simply referred to it as a whore’s bath perfume. Seriously. I refuse to even bequeath it to anyone since it screams CRUSTY SLUT + EXCESS BRONZER. It’s called Ooh La La, but is more like Oh, Hell Nah. I really hope none of you like it, because I’m not going to feel bad and I’m not going to take it back, either! (Damn it, I just realized that I reviewed OLL in late December of last year, in Shovels & Lye. At least I’m consistent!?)

The Fragrance was No. 2, boasts top notes of crushed leaves, freesia, mandarin (What the fuck kind of leaves? Isn’t that sort of key?) and does begin rather citrus-y and benign. I had to give it another go-round today because Ooh La La sent my senses into a diabetic coma, but it doesn’t seem to change my opinion of it as a rather boring and one-hit wonder scent. Not even a good hit, either. Something Milli Vanilli-ish. (If I spelled that wrong, it’s b/c I refuse to google it for the proper spelling. Fakers don’t get my hits! I have standards.) It’s not offensive, just boring. Very un-sexy. For instance, Laura Bush should totally check this out. It’s perfect for her.

From the Dream Angels collection comes Wish, which is TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME if you want to smell like orange sherbet ice cream and baby powder, and reminds me of back in the day when my folks would take us to Baskin Robbins on special occasions, and someone would be like, “Oh, you should have some water,” and I’d be all, “The fuck for? I drink my water in Kool-Aid, man. Step off, my peanut-butter-and-chocolate ice cream cone is melting.” Or, you know, changing diapers. Also, it irks me that something so vile has to share the same word with a stellar The Cure album, but what are you gonna do?

Someone at the VS fragrance think tank needs to ground themselves from citrus for, like, a year, and then get back to me.

PS. Ain’t much to say about this outfit ‘cept there’s a mean cold snap this week and mama needs to go SHOPPING. I do, however, have a new brown sheath dress that is super Joan Holloway and was recently procured at the thrift store for FIDDY MOFO CENTS, YO. Holla / Coming Soon.

PPS. What the hell is up with the Christian Siriano for VS make-up collection? When the cover model on the website looks kind of rough in all your war paint, dude, you need to step up your game. Do any of y’all have it? Is it good? Not that I’m in the market…my quick beauty fix lately has been a dusting of Cargo bronzer as a wash over the entire lid, with heavy-handed mascara at the lash base instead of eyeliner. Fresno and Coral Beach are my favorites right now, but it seems the former is discontinued. SOB.

PPSS. Lips? Besame’s Red Velvet. Creamy and subtle red for when MAC’s Russian Red is too much damn work.

BECAUSE AYL SAID SO, PLS. TO PLAY THIS:

Confession: I wasn’t quite sure which pair of pink shoes I wanted to wear with this little outfit and decided to make a theme of it. Can we discuss how much I love this Theory denim jacket? I got it in pristine secondhand condition years ago. It’s as thin and light as a nice jersey cotton, perfectly fitted and something in between a crop and normal length. I think the wash is just right, too.

And MAC Rougette! I remembered that AYL wanted make-up details, and I’m no make-up artist or over-the-top fancy pants, but it can’t hurt to share my favorites with y’all, can it? Nah. While I’m no MAC whore, I do have a few picks that I like – staples like Russian Red, Viva Glam V for a nude with a kick and I used to swear by Studio Fix. Rougette is a gorgeous raspberry shade from the Limited Edition Mattene line that exists no more, but I’d bet the Cargo Plant Love line of lipsticks has a similar shade that wears just as creamily and prettily, albeit less long-wearing, like Gamba or Majella!

Scent: The origins and history of aoud are fascinating to me. Large evergreens native to southeast Asia contain agar, which is found in the heartwood of the trees. They occasionally become infected with mold and aoud is one of many names for the resin produced in the heartwood, in response to this attack or in order to prevent them. Go read more if you’re bored, it’s quite interesting.

Montale Steam Aoud, upon first impression, smells like something crudely swabbed onto your skin in cold, alarming amounts just before they stick you with a giant needle and draw so much blood out of you that you practically faint on the spot. NOT THAT I KNOW WHAT THAT’S LIKE OR ANYTHING. I’m just saying. Then it settles very, very slowly, becoming less severe and more mired in smoke and rose as big and dark and heavily suggestive as a fistful of damp, dark satin on a dirty stairwell. And arrogance, my god. Not at all suited for day, but pretty damn sensational overall. Notes: roses, oud, amber, agar motta, caraway.