Lingering On In Wonderland.

Alice + Janice

i am sure you have figured out, i live in a dream world. i prefer to make up stories that are far more interesting than the dull drums of day to day life. pretending you and your friends are in dazed and confused while you drive around town is some odd number times better than, well, just driving around town. pretending it is the 60's or 70's is definitely waaay better than living in the millennium (except of course get an iphone.) see what i mean?

two summers ago one of my two best friends was living with me. fueled by boredom by being trapped inside (you see we really just wanted to sit in our makeshift cave all day but alas if we so much as lay a foot outside our skin would blister off) we created alter egos. thus, the emergence of alice + janice. so, instead of spending days over stuffing ourselves on chips and salsa washed down with numerous qt drinks and laying idly on the floor watching old nickelodeon programs (the one time the 90's were acceptable, and yeah, maybe hanson, and okay, full house too, so i guess the 90's were okay...) we replaced those days with dreaming up lavish stories about our two heroines.

janice is a very tongue in cheek kind of girl. her tough as nails attitude reflects onto her physical appearance. much like nico (her idol) she remains extremely mysterious. she struggles to find the meaning of her bain existence, living out of trunks and a vw bus so that she may come and go as she pleases.

alice on the other hand, is a delicate child like figure who is never quite there. if you see alice, she just may be laughing for no apparent reason. janice allows alice to accompany her for every now and again alice will let a profound thought seep out of her lips. and so, alice sits alongside janice in gypsy the vw bus, trying to spread love throughout the world.

now that my beloved friend has gone away to bigger and better things we relay stories through phone calls and so she sits in hollywood creating majestic puppet films inspired by the twosome while they inspire me to spend my days creating masterpieces.

the real reason i am writing of alice + janice is because at the beginning of the month the janice to my alice have decided upon a new tradition. at the start of every month we are going to give each other a playlist of songs we listened to in the past month. as i am sure you have figured out, i love a playlist. so i thought i would share alice + janice's january playlist.

janice

ballad of sir frankie crisp {let it roll} - george harrison

sand francisco {be sure to wear flowers in your hair} - scott mckenzie

restaurant - the thrills

don't come around here no more - tom petty & the heartbreakers

rocket man - elton john

debate exposes doubt - death cab for cutie

sea legs - the shins

train underwater - bright eyes

eleanor put your boots on - franz ferdinand

(because sometimes you just need to put on a pair of boots and run through chelsea)

find my way back home - priscilla ahn

moon river - audrey hepburn

oh gin - the velvet underground

i will run to you - tom petty and stevie nicks

resurrection fern - iron & wine

cheaper than therapy - rogue wave

science vs romance - rilo kiley

the face that launched 1000 shits - death cab for cutie

no joy in mudville - death cab for cutie

alice

search and destroy - the stooges

america - simon & garfunkel

river - joni mitchell

looking at you - mc5

reeling in the years - steely dan

tangerine - led zepplin

small time blues - pete drogue

mona lisas and mad hatters - elton john

oh my sweet carolina - ryan adams and emmylou harris

ceremony - new order

(because sometimes you need to put on a chanel gown and run through versailles)

beast of burden - the rolling stones

chinese children - devendra banhart

you were a goddamn prince sally kid.

Jerome David Salinger

(1919-2010)

you changed the way the world viewed literature.

you changed my life - no one has impacted who i am more than you.

i salute you. you, my hero.

i just might be a hypocrite...

sometimes (alot of the time) i fancy myself philosophical. i will sit and ponder one thought until i have reached an acceptable conclusion. as of lately, my thoughts have been directed towards my true feelings of fashion. i mean, i know that i love fashion - nothing makes me more excited than a great idea and executing it. but, i feel like i should be doing more. shouldn't i be stalking style.com or scouring the interweb and absorbing all the fashion my brain can handle every time i get on my desktop (which, lets be honest here, is a good portion of my day.) the truth is - it bores me. yes - B O R E S me. quite frankly, i am going to be researching why lindsey buckingham wrote "tusk" or if iggy pop really lived a portion of his life homeless on hollywood. so, maybe i love music more than fashion. i think i am allowed to love more than one thing in life. well what do you know - there is my answer. the two are synonymous to me. i work from music. so i guess i will just keep searching the history of tin pan alley for funsies and be silver spoon fed fashion through the likes of nylon, my collection of fashion books (girlfriend, if you have seen my apartment you would know i have very unhealthy impulses to buy every fashion book within eye sight) and various fashion blogs. oy, thank the heavens for the fashion blog. i do not have to even think about going to vogue.com anymore - they do it for me. also, is it not fascinating how three different girls can wear the same miu miu skirt in three very different ways? that is what i love about fashion - how everyday people put together these fabulous pins and needles creations? okay, now i am just rambling on. actually, i do not even know why i am going to post this. it was just something i had to do. i am not too sure why i felt that because i do not like spending my spare time looking at this seasons collections meant i am not a true fan of fashion. oh man, i am so ridiculous. i will just keep going with the random posts. so maybe tomorrow (by tomorrow i mean next week most likely) i will talk about how amazing led zeppelin is, or i will post a drawing, or (this is where i think i may be getting a little hypocritical, but, that is okay, i find it hilarious) i will post about that faux fur vest i saw at h&m that would probably be way more glam in my closet than on the racks there. who knows! the whole point of where the quaint things are is my third love in life - writing.

okay! onto more things (actually, one thing) that just may be hypocritical (a tad) or not...

the other night while half asleep i flipped through the dec/jan issue of teen vogue and i quickly became very much awake when i noticed these suckers -

marc jacobs resort 'o9

the point is - i need them. they are majestical jewels that must be worn upon my feet. i am pretty sure that stevie nicks would have worn them back in the day, which is probably why i am going to save (omg i cannot even believe i just wrote that, saving is something that i have NEVER done in my life) to buy them for myself as a graduation present.

some other instance in which music + fashion = bananas...

this morning out of boredom i glanced through the iTunes celebrity playlists. i skipped dumb people (99% of the playlists) and found that some people i thought would be interesting (ahem armani) were in fact - not. so then i noticed rachel zoe (by far the most entertaining person i have met by way of television) and had a feeling her playlist would be bonkers. i click - i die! so today, she is my spiritual soulmate.

rachel zoe's playlist

love street by the doors
(i am not going to admit i actually like this song because in almost famous lester bangs called jim morrison a drunken bafoon which means that i cannot like him either even if he is ridiculously good looking, like really ridiculously good looking)

bittersweet symphony by the verve
(ok, maybe not this song...)

tiny dancer by elton john
(you now understand where i say "spiritual soulmate" also she mentions almost famous - i repeat spiritual soulmate, but, just for today)

everybody hurts by rem
(i actually really really really hate rem but i always find this song comes on the radio at inappropriate times which makes me laugh, which i guess is the point...)

shes always a woman by billy joel

green eyes by coldplay

lay, lady, lay by bob dylan
(a billion sighs)

peggy-o by the grateful dead

jungleland by the boss

landslide by fleetwood mac
(sigh)

all i want is you by u2

dont tell me by madonna
(maybe not this song either...)

get together by the youngbloods


oh, you were crazy if you thought i would not post tom petty's playlist as well. it is only five songs, but still, it is pretty damn good. i have just been getting into rhythm and blues (no, not r&b or beyonce, i am talking joseph spence blues blues with harmonicas and banjos, that real dirty southern stuff.) so, it was kismet that i came across this today (good thing too because you know i purchased it without even thinking to see what was on the playlist.)

tom petty's playlist

high heel sneakers by tommy tucker

tulane by chuck berry

i can't be satisfied by muddy waters

i can't stand myself (when you touch me) by james brown
(in his commentary explaining why he chose each song tp writes "talk about funky!" under this song, pretty much funniest thing)

you don't love me (you don't care) by bo diddley



happy listening!

as my mother would say ... back to cool!

the ironic thing is that i am not cool what so ever. i am well aware of this fact, and i am more than perfect with it. i guess you could say it is part of my charm? not to mention, all my heroes often refer to themselves as uncool. so, maybe ... that means that i am cool? i do not know, i do not even know why i am rambling on. my cool factor has nothing to do with this post.

the point is - today is the first day of the semester!

i believe in a previous entry i mentioned my love for the school supply. i have accumulated quite the collection of pens and pencils so i forbade myself to even go down those office supply aisles. i did need something to store these writing utensils however. i searched high and low but never found anything to my liking. one day i realized i had two perfectly adequate craft closets i could raid - i could just make my own pencil pouch! i found this great tutorial online and set myself to work (if i could even call it that, pft.)

this is my prototype i decided to give to a friend. i strayed from the instructions and it did not turn out quite how i wanted it to.
i thought with the color scheme of the ric rac it would be best to just use muslin.

i feel like it gives it more of an earthy feel anyhow!

this is the lining i used.
i wish you could see it in person, so cute!


this is my second bag that i just had to use for myself!
as you can see i went a little overboard on the creative level.
i used some leftover muslin that i had hand painted a while ago.
do you not love the tiny flowers?
i have no clue where the idea for the zipper pull came from. i just woke up this morning and went right to making it. maybe i had a dream about it?

for the lining i just used a simple metallic silver cotton.

my freshman year of high school i decided that it was time to grow up. the hello kitty notebooks had to go! i bought myself a simple binder and made the cover myself. every semester i would create a new collage. i have kept all of these from the past seven years. i love looking at them and seeing how much or even how little i have changed.

what do you think this semester says about me?
i apologize for the glare! plastic is just so shiny!

for christmas my mother gave me this marc jacobs backpack (yeah, i know, she is really really ridiculously awesome.)

i have been dying to use it for the past month! i, however, felt it needed to be more personalized!

i hand painted this spider using gouda.

for color, i used extremely watered down fabric paint so that the colors could run.
i never knew what to do with the spider (why i even made a spider mystifies me, i am terrified) and somehow sewing it onto this back pack felt perfect.

i think i have unidentified issues with zippers. i cannot just leave them, they must have a zipper pull! but, it is cooler that way anyhow.

marc jacobs rat keychain.

lady bug lip gloss i received in my stocking.

i love how the wings open!

i attached this plastic key (sea foam to match the rat!) with ric rac.

'a' is for...

i ran out of nifty zipper pulls.

i was told i would be getting some keychains of tp for valentines day.

so until then, this heart will do.

for those heading back to school - good luck this semester!

vinyl on vinyl.

for the past several months i shielded myself from conversations such as "you'll never believe the amount of records my dad just gave me from his vinyl collection" or "holy cow! today i bought the best dylan record for like a dollar!" whenever these conversations popped up, i would layer invisible brick and mortar in front of me, and there i would sit smugly. i was too cool for records.

then i received this from my mother for christmas...

it was not just a record. it included a poster, lyric book, scrapbook, and everyday i wonder if i send in money with the form if they will still except me for the elton john fan club. i thought, why not. what could possibly be the harm in owning one record?

then a mere two days later my manager handed me a rhinoceros record. i was a little curious as to how this ornately beaded rhinoceros brought back to life from the 60s jammed.

the next day as i happened upon my weekly pilgrimage to bookmans to buy a book for school, i subconsciously found myself in the back of the store. i was pawing through records searching for madman across the water. i kept searching, determined. as each record flipped forward my heart beat faster and faster. it had to be there, i could feel it, i somehow knew it was there. of course, it was the very last record in the stack. i clutched it close in silence. as i opened my eyes i noticed a curious old man watching me.

haven't you seen a true fan of music before? i asked.

he walked away, leaving me with my beautiful album.

there was nothing wrong with owning my favorite album of all time, right?

i mean, i HAD to have it. unfortunately, i decided the same thing for three more records.
fleetwood mac by fleetwood mac

damn the torpedoes by tom petty and the heartbreakers

tumbleweed connection by elton john

I had started a vinyl collection without even really thinking about what i was doing.

a week later, my friend and i decided to go goodwilling. of course, this lasted all of ten minutes. we found ourselves at eastside records. i walked in looking for some dylan albums but along the way down the aisle, i got sucked in by the love of my life. mr. tom petty. i walked out with hard promises.

i did not even realize until later that day, i had forgotten all about bob!

zia records was right across the street so naturally we just walked right on over. i was surprised to find wings wild life (linda and paul mccartney) in my hands.

done! no questions asked.

unsatisfied, we drove downtown to visit our friends at revolver records. we sat on the floor for three hours sifting through the $1 record bins.
tom petty and the heartbreakers

make it big by wham!

sometimes i am nice and buy things for my mother.

the wild heart by stevie nicks

new morning by bob dylan

voices by hall and oates

secretly my favorite purchase of the day.

rumours by fleetwood mac

joy to the world by three dog night

i guess the harm in owning one record is that you cannot just own one record. i have gone mad! i have cooled down a bit, but only because i refuse to buy an album until i have found southern accents (second best album of my life thank you very much) by tom petty and the heartbreakers. i realize that i could just go online and buy it but whats the point? there is something magical about finding that one record you have been looking for in a gigantic stack of other records. the anticipation eating away at you. it is just more gratifying to find something suddenly and unexpected than opening your mailbox and finding something you have been waiting on.

i wrote in all lowercase today, because i realized as i drafted this post that i never use capitol letters. i want this blog to be as true to my writing as possible. do you mind? would you prefer that i used correct punctuation?

bean is half a year old today!

Friday Night's Alright.

Quick post just to dabble. I refuse to go some odd 100 days without blogging ever again!! I even felt that these past days were far too long. So I impulsively decided to write this here post, no draft, no nothing - just me writing. Although, I have been getting better at reading and commenting other blogs. Alas, Rome was NOT built in one day as opposed to popular contrary belief - one step at a time.

Not to rub it in or anything but it would seem that the rest of the country/world may not be having the best weather but here I am in Tempe, Arizona basking up the sunny 75 degree weather. Although, I am only enjoying the weather on the ride to work or through open windows as I work at home. The thing about me though is that I can never just do one thing at a time, I prefer the speed of doing 10 things at a time (for instance right at this moment I am browsing for new music, doing my weekly expenses, working a cup of coffee, working a cup of apple juice, pondering about what I should wear to lunch today, and texting SGOM.)

Lately, I have been carrying this big daddy (and pens of all odds and ends) around with me everywhere I go.

Now I can work, chat with friends over coffee, drown out conversations I am not too interested in, take a 10 minute break - all while letting my creative outlet out to play for a minute or so. This is the ultimate rainy day (or sunny day or snow day, how about, every weather day?) colouring book! I bought it last month and I cannot keep my nose out of it. I found mine at Anthropologie but it is sold on Amazon for quite a few dollars cheaper. I promise you will not be disappointed. Maybe when I have coloured in a few more pages I will do another post?

I am going to my mothers later to work on a top secret project, stay tuned for that next week. I will work on another post in the meantime.

Happy Weekend!

Party Like It's 1970?

I have a confession to make - I spent last night pretending the year was turning from 1969 to 1970. Well, honestly, I have spent most of the last few weeks pretending I lived in another era and I do not plan on stopping anytime soon.

I bought a six pack of classic Coco-Cola (in glass bottles of course) and as I sipped them happily I watched a stack of movies set in the 60's and 70's.

Here is what I viewed:

The Virgin Suicides

Across the Universe

Taking Woodstock

Dazed & Confused

Lords of Dogtown

Factory Girl

And in typical 'save the best for last' fashion

Almost Famous

Also in true Alice Wayne fashion, I cannot survive life without the perfect soundtrack. I made the rash decision to erase everything on my iPod and in turn I uploaded music that was written well before the 90's decade. Not a big deal. I can only seem to replay these artists.

Elton John

Fleetwood Mac

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Bob Dylan

the Traveling Wilburys

the Beatles

George Harrison

the Rolling Stones

Led Zepplin

Styx

Rush

Neil Young

the Allman Brothers Band

Lynrd Skynrd

Creedance Clearwater Revival

Three Dog Night

David Bowie

the Doobie Brothers

the Velvet Underground

the Doors

the Who

the Eagles

Simon & Garfunkel

Jefferson Starship Airplane

Peter Paul & Mary
Joe Walsh

the Kinks

Journey

I have also traded in my usual dresses and jumpers for the vintage band shirt.

This shirt has been my favourite lately.

It is extremely comfortable, and the fit is great. It is the coolest Alice in Wonderland shirt I have ever seen. Not to mention it reminds me of the video for "Don't Come Round Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which of course meant I had to have it!

I had been stalking this over sized cropped tee of Bowie at work and it finally went on sale! I had to dig to find the very last one! Kismet!

The Van Halen and AC/DC shirts are pretty awesome too!

Forever 21 has a mean line of cropped band tee shirts too. I did not think twice about purchasing a Rolling Stones one. The other day I spotted the same shirt for the Who, I need to go search thoroughly for others.

Also at Forever 21 is the patent red heart bag.

It only hit me the other day why I was so attracted to this bag (besides the obvious answer of how freaking adorable it is.) For some reason, every time I put it on, I think of the Heartbreakers. Makes sense.

I just ordered this tee shirt online. I will probably have a coronary when it shows up in my mailbox.

If you know me, then you will know that there is no other shirt in this World that could be more perfect for me.

Tell me, what is your favourite time period?

I hope y'all have a wonderful year!