FabSugar

FABTV: Silversun Pickups, Lazy Eye

FabSugar — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:23:22 PST

All this Twilight hype has me reimagining the days of adolescent love. When life was so simple, but love was so complex. The uncertainty, the anticipation, the drama! Every once in a while I'll be reminded of some young crush I had, and while at the time it was torturous, in retrospect it's bittersweet. This song was one of my songs of the Summer - such a good one for the car ride home after a concert. I didn't see the video until recently, and the mis(connection) between the pixie-haired girl and her crush is so classic. This song freakin' rocks.

When and When Not to Use a Travel Agent to Save Money

LearnVest — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:02:20 PDT

Will using a travel agent help you save money for your upcoming trip? LearnVest has the answer.

Are travel agents back?

This question, posed by The New York Times, got us thinking. According to the piece, nearly one in three leisure travel agencies is hiring, and in 2011 travel agencies experienced a second consecutive year of growth; in fact, their bookings accounted for a third of the $284 billion US travel market.

Silly us, we thought travel agents had become passé.

But if the travel agent business is thriving, we started wondering - is there something to this? Could using an old-school travel agent actually save us money on travel?

To find out, we consulted Barbara Vong, a travel agent with Wright Travel Agency, the 2011 winner of the Best of the Best Globe Award from Travel Impressions.

Globe Award From Travel Impressions.

The first thing we learned? Travel agents usually don't charge customers for their services! Their payment actually comes through the hotels and wholesalers, meaning that we can simply tap into a free service. That also means using a travel agent should never be more expensive than booking by yourself online . . . and these are experts well-versed in where to find the best deals.

Of course, booking your flights in 30 seconds with a few clicks sounds a lot easier than playing phone tag with a live person, so it pays to know when a travel agent can help the most, and when you might as well DIY it. Vong let us in on the best times to call an agent, and some money-saving travel tips she's picked up in her line of work:

Use a Travel Agent If . . .

You're Traveling With a Group

For group bookings that involve coordinating travel for multiple people, it's always easier to use a travel agent, says Vong. “I just had a bride call me because one of the groomsmen booked his own trip through a discount travel site, and he wanted to add someone to the room,” says Vong. "The customer service representative from the travel site he used told him they couldn't do it, but they were probably just being lazy. This is a great example of when you’d rather hand the responsibility of changing that booking to a travel agent, rather than trying to fix it on your own."

Read on for more.

9 Easy Tricks to Maximize Your Wardrobe

LearnVest — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:15:31 PDT

Despite what you think, you actually don't need more clothes. The trick is to just maximize your wardrobe. LearnVest shares how.

Whether you live for shopping the latest trends or wish you could spend every day in your favorite pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, your clothes project a message about who you are.

The great thing is that you have the power to control that message entirely - as long as what you already own isn’t standing in your way.

From having a wardrobe that’s bursting with every item of clothing you’ve had since childhood to owning a ton of pieces that you never wear (the definition of wasted money), these are the ways your closet can stop you from being the most stylish version of yourself.

To cut through the clutter and help you get the most from the items you already have, we polled everyone we know - including all of the LearnVest editors, who are definitely invested in looking their best on a budget, and one fashion expert - to come up with nine easy, inventive ways for you to make over the closet you have without spending a ton on new trends.

At least one of these strategies will dramatically change the way you feel about getting dressed in the morning.

1. Follow the Rainbow

This strategy comes courtesy of LearnVest reader Erin Greenbaum, who has used this technique for years with great success. Every day for a week, make sure that your ensemble includes an item of a certain color: week one is red, two is orange, three is yellow, etc. This will encourage you to search through your closet and actually wear the pieces that have been languishing, unloved, underneath your go-to items.

2. First In, Last Out

In her new book, You Are What You Wear, Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner says that the majority of people wear 20 percent of their closet 80 percent of the time. There are variations on this “first in, last out” wardrobe strategy, which prevent you from wearing a few pieces nonstop.

Instead of wearing the same small percentage of your closet every week, do what Assistant Editor Alden Wicker does: after wearing an outfit, she hangs it in the most remote corner of her closet, which forces her to see only pieces she hasn’t worn frequently. If she’s totally uninspired by a piece staring her right in the face, she has to decide whether to consign it or not. Another approach (which might be better if you like to organize by item type - dresses near dresses, shirts near shirts) is to hang each item inside out after you wear it (assuming you don’t have to wash it immediately). This way, you can easily see which pieces you’ve recently worn and which items you may have forgotten about.

Read on for more.

Would You Buy These Combo Dresses?

Lucky — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:27:27 PDT

Lucky magazine is one of our favorite sources for great shopping tips. We're thrilled to share this fabulous story from our friends at Lucky!

I like combo dresses-those ones that look like a separate top and skirt-because they fake a choreographed outfit in one toss-over-the-head-and-zip motion. They're sneaky in that way.

But when combo dresses have a really basic top, it bugs me. Like these ones above: they're essentially plain white t-shirts or button downs sewn into skirts. Since I could find a great white top for under $20 somewhere like Topshop, Uniqlo or Joe Fresh, I feel like I'd be paying an unnecessary amount of money for half of the dress. And then I wouldn't even have the option to wear those seemingly classic separates as, well, separates. That's annoying.

Instead, I prefer combo dresses like the ones below. Their top and lower halves are print-mixed and coordinated in interesting, eye-catching ways. To me, that's the whole appeal: it's the lazy girl's guide to looking like you actually put together different pieces.

Click through the slideshow below to see them all, and tell me-am I missing something? Is there some benefit to the ultra-basic combo dress that's going right over my head?

Click over to Lucky to see and shop them all.

For more fashion and style from Lucky, here are more Lucky stories.

4 Star Apps to Correctly Re-Create the Titanic Night Sky

Kelly Schwarze — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:21:05 PDT

When Titanic was released in 1997, part of the media craze surrounding the film was director James Cameron's painstaking work on re-creating the ship, staterooms, and even table linens with historical accuracy. One person not impressed was astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who became a vocal critic of Titanic's depiction of that fateful night sky. In meetings with James himself and in public appearances, Neil called out the director for his inaccurate and "lazy" use of a random assortment of stars despite knowing the precise latitude and longitude where the ship sunk, and thus easily capable of re-creating the exact stars Rose would have seen when waiting in the water for rescue.

Finally, with today's Titanic 3D rerelease, scientific accuracy proves victorious as James Cameron admits his perfectionist defeat and changes the stars to reflect what Titanic survivors would've seen at 4:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912. In honor of Neil's constellation concern, download one of these four apps to ensure you always know which stars you're gazing at on a clear night.

Star Walk for iPad ($5) - Tour the universe in all its stunning, bright-eyed wonder with this HD app that has been beautifully remastered for the retina display of the newest iPad generation.
The Night Sky ($1) - Should you find yourself in the desert or aboard a cruise ship with limited WiFi, this is the app to have for 4G-less connectivity. View the local stars even without a data connection.
SkyView ($2) - Point your phone's camera to the sky for an augmented reality view in 3D graphics of the stars above. Travel back or forward in time to see the sky on a particular date. Very handy should you ever make a historical film.
StarTalk (Free) - This radio program hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson won't show you the stars in the sky, but by subscribing to the podcast, you'll stay on the cutting edge of all things space, science, and pop culture.

Photos: Neil deGrasse Tyson Twitter and Titanic Facebook

4 Lazy Moves That Boost Your Health

Prevention — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:16 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

You don’t have to go on a deprivation diet or spend hours exercising to ward off disease and be your healthiest self! Instead, try these supersimple tips
By the editors of Prevention

Staying healthy can feel like so much, well, work (think: logging hours at the gym and whipping up nutritious meals from scratch). However, there are plenty of small moves that you can make in your everyday life that will have big health benefits. We’ve rounded up 15 practically zero-effort ways to fight disease, whittle your waist, lower stress, and more. Bonus: many of these good-for-you moves feel good, too. So say sayonara to the old adage “no pain, no gain” and try these tips today.

Lazy Move No. 1: Protect Your Ticker by Snoozing
Need a good excuse to grab your comfiest set of pajamas and hit the sack? Skimping on shut-eye may do more than make you cranky or unproductive - it also boosts your risk of a heart attack. According to one Norwegian study, people who reported that they did not wake up feeling refreshed in the morning had a 27 percent higher risk of a heart attack, those who had trouble staying asleep almost every night in the last month had a 30 percent higher risk, and those who had trouble falling asleep almost every night in the last month had odds that jumped to 45 percent.

Twenty Ways to Sleep Better Every Night

Some researchers speculate that insomnia might trigger your body to release more of the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol have been linked with high blood pressure and diabetes, which are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Plus when you’re exhausted, you may be more likely to make unhealthy choices that up your heart disease risk, such as skipping your workout or reaching for fatty or sugary snacks for a quick energy fix.

Keep reading for three more lazy ways to improve your health.

Holiday Wish Lists: Practical or Tacky?

LearnVest — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:15:58 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Ah, the wish list.

It made a lovely debut when we were little, often addressed to a certain Mr. Claus. It had a good run for a few years, but retired itself in adulthood as the stuff of kids and dreams (with the exception of weddings and babies, when they take on the adult guise of “registry”).

And now that we are adults, wish lists (outside of those socially acceptable registries) are at best silly and at worst mercenary, right? That’s what many think.

Are We Becoming More Mercenary?

A recent New York Times story discussed the recent trend of the wish list-it’s back, along with more mercenary attitudes towards gift-giving, like a desire for gift cards instead of actual gifts. (According to the story, for the last five years, gift cards have been the most requested gift, according to National Retail Foundation surveys.) A study released earlier this year showed that people who receive gifts they had requested actually derive more pleasure from them and appreciate them more.

Read on for more on wishlists.

Breaking Dawn Part 1: Horrifying on Multiple Levels

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:33:23 PST

Let's be honest: the standards for Breaking Dawn Part 1 are not high. All we want as fans is a satisfying conclusion to an addictive guilty pleasure, and considering the titillating content of the fourth book (Wedding! Sex! Hybrid vampire baby!), the film version has to do very little to please its audience. Sadly, it feels like Part 1 is grossly imbalanced; certain aspects are lazy while other scenes are over the top. Though Breaking Dawn has the most theatrical elements of all the movies, the film is disappointing - and often, just plain bad.

The movie begins with Edward and Bella's wedding, and then we follow them on a honeymoon full of passion - and problems. The couple manages to have sex for the first time, but Edward's vampiric strength leaves bruises all over Bella's body. After they overcome that hurdle, Bella faces another one when she makes the classic mistake of eschewing birth control because she's assumed her vampire mate is shooting blanks. He's not, though, and Bella's suddenly pregnant, but no one is quite sure what's growing inside her. Science and legend have no explanation, but everyone can see that Bella is getting weaker by the second. Unless Edward can turn her into a vampire during childbirth, she may be gone forever. It's a pretty wild premise that was shocking to read, and even crazier to see - and not in a good way. To read about my issues with the film, just keep reading.

Beauty Fake-Outs: 4 Products That Make Life Easier

Jaime Richards — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:00:00 PDT

There are a lot of lazy girl's guide-style articles featuring tips and tricks to help cut time out of one's beauty routine. But there are plenty of products specifically designed to allow you to do just that: products made to simply stick on and go. Call it smart, not lazy, if you will. Check out a few now:

With ColorOn Instant Eye Shadow Applicators ($20), all you have to do is press on the multitoned shadow strips, and you're out the door.
Don't like slippy, drippy masks? Then you'll love Dr. Jart+ Most Moist Water-Full Hydrogel Mask ($9), a single-use mask that cuts the mess factor out.
If you've never quite mastered the art of applying eyeliner, Dior has taken all the guesswork out with its Backstage Eyeliners-to-Wear Eyeliner Patches ($59). The set comes with four pairs of appliqués: two black shades, one affixed with anthracite gray crystals, and one black with white crystals.
For something warm and cheery, try NCLA's nail wrap kit in Blush ($16). Just select the right size for each nail, stick on, and paint over with a clear polish for a long-lasting, no-smudge manicure.

The Lazy Girl's Fall Makeup Shopping List

Real Beauty — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:23:12 PDT

We're happy to present this article from one of our favorite sites, Real Beauty.

It's not enough anymore to just update your closet with the turn of a new season. To truly stay in style, you need to reboot your makeup bag, too. But who has the time (and money!) to buy every new lipstick and eye shadow shade? So, for all those lazy girls out there, we've targeted the biggest makeup looks for Fall 2011 and created this list that can be tailored to any budget, skin tone, and beauty need. So just keep reading.