Traumatic and forceful. Those are the usual words I feel when I think of change. The school marm slapping her 1927's ruler on my desk. Splack. However, I am feeling slightly (reinforcing – slightly) different these days. So, I am Putting on my Blue Simple Flip-Flops (as I don't have blue suede shoes)…
And jumping into a little change. I am learning to soar free when it comes to change? (okay, I am meditating on it). My whole personality must have gotten discombobulated while braving 65 mph winds two days ago that blew me all over the yard – while attempting to retrieve ladders flying off of roofs…Sheesh…
Because I needed some help opening myself to change (ha), I decided to look for an intense program. Maybe shock therapy would work? No no, I meant, Shop therapy, yes, sorry. So, Shop therapy it was. Into the world of bizarre Arizona, where shopping malls sit somewhere between the clouds and some pretty large mountains… I looked to Wikepedia for the answer to what I would need upon entering the large retail fortress.
I was told to look towards the place that housed "the study of the physical and social characteristics of humanity through the examination of historical and present geographical distribution, cultural history, acculturation, and cultural relationships. It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all human beings at all times and with all dimensions of humanity." Okay, Okay, It wasn't that complicated…I grabbed the artist, and we were off to…
Yep, you got it. Nothin' like a little retail therapy with an excursion to Anthropologie (speaking in a ridiculous made up accent) in Sunny Tucson, at La Encantada.
Why is it that the one thing I want is $9800.USD? I have to say, some of the vintage findings that are for sale in Anthro for thousands of dollars, have been there for over a year. Perhaps if the prices were a tad bit less, I could have this amazing most perfect desk!!!!
I do love excursions, especially when people are out walking their pets?? It was fun to see. Couldn't imagine living with The Man and His Bird…But, interesting enough, to the strange stranger…
For now I went home with…Oh, and isn't it classic, I forgot the potholders and seat cushions I lugged around the store for an hour…?
Shower curtain.
Awesome Jacket on clearance, and lovely skirt, not on clearance.
Funky pants. Wellll, they are pajamas, but I have to admit, I will be wearing them in public.
Of course, a day is never complete without, Target shop therapy. Although, I have to confess. I had a fit in the store (reason at the end, read with caution).
I am smitten with the Isabelle de Borchgrave party collection at Target. The colors and designs are fantastic!!!
Isabella de Borchgrave is quite the lady (read up on her here). She is from Brussels and I hear her studio is quite the magnificent place. What a dream, to create a line of party goods. Can you imagine what fun??
I am off to do the art thing. And, to pick up an item I purchased that was left out of the bag…Have a great Saturday. Share your thoughts on the new banner? Testing a few things here…Itching for that change! xxo,Vanessa
psst: Have you seen Tideland? It was strange,unusual & a bit disturbing (not for kids) but I liked it. Leave it to Terry Gilliam to pull something like this out of the hat.
UPDATE:
So as not to confuse everyone. I am dabbling with this Banner (below)and another one that I think I like even better. The one below was up all day today, just to try it on for size – and I am just not sure. I am going to make a change soon. I am just being ultra weird about the whole thing. Ppplease have patience with me. Thanks a bunch.. and back to the old banner for now.
WARNING
Product Discontinuum Rant
Read Only if you are also a Victim
You see, every product I have ever used in life is becoming discontinued. And, this is really really hard for me, because I feel that there is no way to ever get your voice heard. You just have to accept it and change products. Hear me out for a second. I have been using Sea Breeze on my face for 18 years. I have never had acne, I have never had any major issues, I just used my Sea Breeze religiously.
The Sea Breeze company got bought out 3ish years ago, kept the name, changed the ingredients. That fresh tingle, gone! Luckily I found two cases. But what will I do when I run out? I called the company, noone cares. Why can't the original formula be part of the line?? It used to be sold out all the time, now there is a ton of it on the shelf in stores. Why? Um, Maybe because they changed the product???? Dummies.
Then, St. Ives skin lotion. 10 years user. They change the bottle, and the formula, and they expand their line. Then they take the extra relief collagen elastin title, slap it on a new bottle, and change the lotion completely. 4 ladies and I were standing in Target talking about it. I mean, who do these companies consult?? Because, guess what? They did not ask their consumers! And, now, I see that all the bottles of the new products have a layer of dust on them. Hmmmm, I wonder WHY?????
As for last nights rage. Target has decided to stop carrying the huge bottle of Neutrogena Body Wash. The only soap I have used for life. I know, it is not the end of the world. There is serious crisis around the globe. This is a silly rant. But, on my superficial level. Why are the things I use wiped off the shelves? Please tell me. Is this only happening to me??? Is it happening to you??? Oh Please Clairol, please, bring back the Original formula Sea Breeze. Please!!!! There is a huge line of people wishing for it!! Please!!! I need my tingle fix! I need my regular almost scentless St. Ives. I don't want to smell like a cucumber or a calendula or anything else. I want to shower with my Neutrogena rainbath gel, and just be myself. Is that too much to ask for?
I like your banner at the top of your page. It is super cute a colorful. I like your new pants. I know how you feel about discontinued items. Clinique discontinued this lipstick color called “grapefruit”. I love it and have never recovered from the heartache from never being able to have that color again. =0(
Love the new banner….and your changatude (not a word) I always find I need change after a flu…! Adorable shopping finds….I see a pattern of the patterns the girl likes!!! I love the patterns too….chalked full of fun colors! Mascara….Covergirl mascara…I used to wear the professional brand ….they changed the formula…it became clumpy…these big honkin hairs in it….I had used it for 30 odd years to get the look I wanted…they also changed the size along the way! It’s smaller now, running out too fast, or the brush gets changed and it doesn’t apply as well….PEOPLE!!!!….LEAVE A GOOD THING ALONE!!! Who in their wisdom thinks they need to change a good thing? Anyway I totally understand what you’re saying….I use a brand of soya sauce my mother used fourty years ago….now I hear the husband died and the wife doesn’t want to continue on with the business….I have two bottles in my pantry….and will be searching for it else where…My daughter love Burts Bees cream for her hands (which tend to perspire) it doesn’t make them greasy…the only place she could find it was in an old pharmacy….where things don’t sell very readily. Its expensive cream but the only thing that works for her….We will be looking in any old shops we come across! Woe is me!! Hand swipes across brow…. The times they are a changing!
Peace Giggles
oh’ miss fanciful….that desk!!!!!
THAT DESK!!!
ITS JUST GOOOOOOORGEOUS!!!
SHAME about the price tag though….
i wish i was good with wood-oh’ just to own such a beautiful desk like that- how amazing!
my desk looks teeny-weeny-smally-wally compared to that fine piece of crafted wood.
i agree about products changing….its not fare to change something that is clearly popular and doesnt need changing!!
Change is good on your blog though!!! ur header looks fabulous!! have i just contradicted myself over the change issue??
oh’well hope u know what im trying to express?
oh’ those beautiful trouser bottoms- what a fabulous design—im sure u will look great in them…
x x x kazzy x x x
I like the new look, love. You did not ruin anything! I’ve never been to an Anthropologie. I need to look up where the closest one is, no doubt around 6 hours away. D:
And I feel you with the product discontinuations. Just yesterday, I went in to Lane Bryant — yes, I shop at the “fat lady” store — to pick up a pair of jeans. I just wanted to get another of the pair I already have, as they fit me really well and don’t advertise my butt crack every time I move. Anyhow, come to find out, they are changing their jeans, AGAIN — seeing as they just changed to the ones I like not too long ago — and the new cut is going to be measured from the hips. Which means bootylicious girls like me everywhere will once again be left in the cold. Because, no one wants to see a fat girls butt crack. Really. D:
Love the new banner! Love everything about it! I know what you mean about change. I do not enjoy it at all, I need to work on adopting an attitude like yours as we are considering a major life change that would include a job change for hubby and a move and the whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. Hubby thinks it would be a great adventure, DUH! So I am working on it! But I love your blog changes and I don’t understand product changes either. All I can figure is they must be made by men. Does that sound sexist? Oh well, I can live with it if it does, men will never understand how important my revlon colorstay mascara was to me, a woman would never mess with such a thing! I used to use Sea breeze too, loved that tingle! Thanks for making me smile!
Loving the banner! And your taste in clothing is so lovely!
vanessa! how appropriate that the first post of yours that i read since returning from argentina is about shopping as that is what i spent most of my time doing in buenos aires! shopping and eating and drinking wine! heaven indeed.
and i must say that i the things i loften love most in anthropologie are their vintage over-priced items! usually i have no problem finding other things more in my budget. or maybe not in my budget but that won’t put me in debt. i love anthro!
oh and sea breeze? i feel you pain but hah! i can’t believe you’ve been using it for so so long!
Arghh, you’re torturing me with these Anthropologie pictures and shopping finds, what a fantastic setting! The pajamas pants are cool, great for summer. Sorry about the discontinued beauty products, I have no idea why they would change something that was selling well. Love your new banner, it’s a canival!
Love your purchases! There is NOTHING like shop therapy in my mind! And Anthropologie!!!! Oh how I wish there was one around here! But we do have Target….and boy can I experience a lot of therapy in there! I have been admiring Isabella’s party goods as well…in fact, I have been thinking about having a party just so I could buy her goodies! Would you like to come????
I love the new banner! Looks REALLY good!
Your shopping excursion was fun and you got some really neat things. What is the story with that shower curtain? Why is it all bunched up like that? The fabric is very nice.
I’ve had things that I love discontinued too but I just take it as a sign from the Universe that there is something even BETTER out there for me so I head off to find it. 🙂
xo,
Karen Beth 🙂
OK…I am totally laughing because I JUST tried those very pants on at Anthropologie, and Dina said, “they’re cute…but are you serious…would you really wear them out?” So, I decided against them, and bought myself the yellow plaid strapless dress instead (no comparison really, but the dress looks amazing on me…yay a new frock for my birthday!)
And I love the new banner…it’s so very sweet…
OMG!! lol You’re really on a roll aren’t you? I guess you have to roll with the creative energy when it hits!!!!
I love the new banner at the top of your page~your artwork is adorable, as always!!!
I gotta get me some of your art as soon as I get some cash rolling in again, which will be very soon here!!!!!!!!
I have a cool pair of pajama pants too that I was thinking I might be able to get away with wearing them in public hahah…though they promote drunken debauchery hahaha…they have little margarita glasses all over them.
And as for the products being changed, you’re right!!! WHY DO “THEY” change something that has been WORKING the way it’s supposed to for years???? I hate that! Because the new stuff never works like the original…and this includes when they change the scent of something too. I like my clothes soap to smell a certain way and it frustrates me when I go back to buy it and they have these “new improved” scents, like orange mango or something….
Well my dear I’m off to finish sewing a couple of throw pillows I’m making or my LR.
By the way, the blue sky there in Az. is incredible!!! Don’t ya love days like that?
But why the 60 mph winds?
Til next time, XoXO Kel
I love the new banner too…and I am so glad you are feeling better! Love the purchases…I am one of the Anthro uninitiated…boo for me…I will simply have to go shopping there one day…I hate it when good stuff gets discontinued. It always happens to me with running shoes…so maddening! Nobody seems to have learned from the New Coke disaster…anyway…on to good changes for you..can’t wait to see what you come up with next!!!! Hugs!
Love your banner, old and new in fact just about everything you do is okay with me, simply love your illustrations.
Love the banner (I like to see them change often…and I have trouble posting mine…but I design them all the time!)
Love the jammie pants and can’t wait to see them in public on you 🙂
Love the jacket and that designer at Target. Letsee what else…oH! They changed the wrapper on my favorite chocolate bar from Belgium at Wal-Mart and I had to contact the company!!! WHY DID YOU STOP CARRYING MY FAV CHOCOLATE???? No,no, no sweet customer…we only put a Sam’s Choice label on it so you can no longer enjoy the fact that it came from Belguim….
Oh. Okay. And yes, I’ll pay 35 cents more for the bar…Thank you.
I was at Anthropologie on Friday and wouldn’t you know they had a fantastic antique French aviary for, you guessed it, a cool nine thou. I did get a lovely wool sweater at a drastically reduced price – yay! Sympathies for the discontinuing woes. Check out Body Time, they are an old Berkeley company, simple stuff. Not St Ives or Seabreeze, nothing can replace, I know. But you have the option of unscented or choosing a scent, and not have one imposed upon you (cucumber). And the new look? Love it.
what a lovely name for a shooing mall…’la encantada’! i like anthropologie too, and i always like the too expensive things there as well! the white jacket would be screaming at me “embroider me!” ;] (i love that line by ‘kelly’, “promote drunken debauchery”! too funny!)
You always put me in the mood to shop. You are such a bad influence on me. Good thing its pouring outside and I can’t leave the apartment or else I would be in a whole lot of trouble.
I like your current banner but I also really like the new banner too. Sometimes change can be good. 🙂
I can help you with the Sea Breeze problem, maybe… if you’re interested let me know.
As for the rest, the banner is great, and i love that desk, too.
😉
H
I forgot to mention, the windblown illustration of you is my favorite EVER!
everything looks so spring-y…love planning for new season looks! some great buys Vanessa
I love anthropologie…when I was on holiday in Santa Monica I had to visit their store everyday…it drove my man mad…he hates shopping
I bet its even better now! love Target too!
Never heard of seabreeze…is it an astringent?
Hey where’s your sister at these days?
ohhh forgot to mention they dont stock Big Red chewing gum in australia anymore…Im sad…
no no Im peeved…
my brother in law is off to St Louis for work soon so I’ll stock up then…
that desk is wonderful, I can just sense that if you owned it you would become the next great American (half Mexican) novelist, I can almost hear you “click clacking” on the typewriter form here.
I was some “shop therapy” too.
xoxoxo
Hello Miss Fancy! I am so glad to see you out and about, feeling better and enjoying some good girlie fun 🙂 I have seen so much all over the web about Anthro…it is my dream to someday just see a store, it must be gorgeous, full of dreamy things. I agree that desk is to *die* for!! It would fit so many lovely little trinkets and treasures and there would still be room for books!
The world has enough change with out Sea Breeze changing their formula. Hello?!?!? This is not a wise move world, people feel unstable enough as it is… You can rant away V… I am right with you.. this is a huge inconvenice for people like me with OCD or CDO (alpha order). I hate change… except… I wish every hotel room wasn’t brow… it’s depressing. 🙂
Wow…that pic of the mall with the mountains is amazing…and the items you bought are fab!! those pants are so you, love em!
and rants are allowed anytime especially if they warrant a lost beloved item or discontinued soap or lotion…gawd! when will those silly companies get with the program and stop trying to impress us with ‘new and improved’ products…if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!! I hate that too, Dahling!
I love the new banner. The current one is great, but hey change is good and besides I LOVE all things RED!
This is my first comment here, I’ve stopped by a few times. I was laughing with you the entire post. I too, seem to always choose the items that are way beyond my finacial means, urgh! Makes for lovely window shopping and lots of I wishing . . .
I don’t think you could possibly buy anything bad in Anthroplogie, hello, yummy and all things gorgeous! Love the funky jammies, or summer loungers, shall we say?
Your drawings are fun, playful, insightful and simply delightful. Big smiles here. Love ’em!
Who does Clairol think they are, I mean really, could they not have consulted you first? The nerve, sheesh!
I loved your new banner!! But would also love to see more. Just make a new one every week – change is good!!
That desk is just incredible…no anthroplogie here in the UK although i do drool at the website every once in while.
Some change is bad though. We had coconut chocolate boost bars when I was a young lass. They were so chewy and sweet and delicious – but alas they discontinued them – but they kept the biscuit one around. BISCUIT I ASK YOU!!!! Would you ever say ‘no I don’t want the glorious,chewy till your jaw aches, sweet n tasty coconut boost today. I think I will have the boring cardboard tasting biscuit one instead’ NO!!! what were they thinking.
whoooh, that felt strangley cathartic….
xxx
Change it should be a four letter word instead of five. I do not sway gracefully into change. I go kicking and screaming all the way,and then very strangely,generally, sinc up faster than anyone. Is it because I demand the time to greive even the smallest change such as a beloved and broke in billfold(my change from a PT cruiser to a Ford escape recently almost did me in!)(and that move to Indiana 10 years ago and back 3 years later ,fuhgetaboutit)?…but like I said I fall into step with change in the most extraordinary way!I just do not have the ability to see over “the hill”. Ofcourse,a visit to Anthro and Target is a virtual panacea for what ails ya!!!!!
kisses L-GG
I, too hate it when companies discontinue products; they really should consult their customers. Your banner in all its incantations is fabulous! And looks like a fun place to shop (esp. Anthropologie). xo
Seems like our species has the Midas touch backwards, everything we make, buy and sell turns to garbage. Instead of Good vs Evil, it’s value vs waste. I take a field trip to my local land fill to get a perspective on our culture. I wonder what the space people will think about the mail box, that looks like R2 D2..or the People on glamor mags-will the space people think those were our leaders?
i totally agree with your rant! my big gripe is soft & dry soothers deodorant. gone. very sad! 🙂
Oh I soooooo agree about St. Ives!!! In fact that is how I found your awesome blog and GREAT artwork! I googled St. Ives collagen elastin, old packaging to see if somebody anywhere had some for me to buy. I am lost without my lotion. NOTHING works the same!!!! It makes me itchy or doesn’t moisturize enough or is too greasy. And the new stuff reeks!!! STUPID company!! Wanna start a petition?! 🙂 (Thanks for letting me rant with you.)
Oh miss missy thanks for all your sweet comments, support, concern. You’re an angel. I’m not great, but I’ve been worse, at least I can move about a bit and get fresh air with the dog so really I’m counting my blessings that I can get out and enjoy some of what Spring has to offer – though I’m bummed that I can’t do any work on my house.
Totally understood your discontinued product rant – hate so much when they do that, and like you say, they always replace with something no-one wants. I still miss the Vienesse Facial Wash (or facial chalk – I forget) from The Body Shop. I bought the wholoe shelf when I heard they were discontinuing it in the late 80’s and made it last right up until the late 90’s! (it was a dry powder).
FYI, I always love ALL your banner designs.
Ok, one backdated post down, dozens to go… xxx