FabSugar

Shop Casa's Fall Getup

FabSugar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:50:11 PST

Continuing with our reveal of the Sugar girls' Fall outfits, next up we have CasaSugar. Her look is a personal favorite of mine - I wear similar sassy looks all the time. It's a cozy Winter combo with a youthful flair.

Here's what she's wearing:

Sonia Rykiel Striped Heart Pocket Tee ($92)
Actual shorts are Madewell, here's a similar version by Forever 21: H81 Wear and Tear Bermuda Shorts ($20)
Apt. 9® Opaque Microfiber Control-Top Tights ($7, originally $10)
Bronx Cur Lee Q Boots ($168)
Toy Watch Plasteramic Chronograph Bracelet ($195)

Stay tuned for rundowns of all the Sugar girls' new Fall outfits!

Trend Alert: Candy Colored Times

FabSugar — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:50:22 PDT

Michelle Obama is a modern first lady with a keen fashion sense. But she's also a fun mom with candy colored times - and a "mouthwash" green Rick Owens jacket. Her Lavender Toy Watch ($195) proves she's lighthearted, and shall I say a bit sporty? Kinda makes me want to don a scrumptious colored watch when I'm riding waves and/or rollerskating. Fun for all!

Source

Celebrity Style: Ashley Tisdale

FabSugar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:00:22 PDT

I'm starting to develop a teeny bopper girl crush on Ashley Tisdale. What can I say? The High School Musical star is quite a little cutie in her trendy LA warm-weather looks. Earlier, she perfectly exemplified the beauty of an elongated cardi. She's wearing some favorites here: Ray-Ban Wayfarers, fedora, a macho watch, Louis Vuitton bag, Havaianas flip-flops. But what sets this apart is the colored bra underneath her all-white ensemble, which is a styling technique I personally partake in.

Source

Video of the Day: The Art of Legos

Kelly Schwarze — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:16:09 PDT

We've long been of the mindset that Legos aren't just a nostalgic toy of yesteryear. The latest in PBS' Off Book web series, "Lego Art," discusses how the plastic bricks have evolved into a legitimate art form. Watch as three Lego artists detail their craft from months spent filming stop-motion videos, emotional sculptures, and portraits worthy of any mantelpiece.

Hot Wheels Wall Tracks Takes Playtime to a Whole New Level

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:27:17 PDT

For 44 years, kids have been racing Hot Wheels cars around their homes, on the sidewalks in front of their houses, and, if they're my kids, down the slides on the playground. Playground play aside, most die-cast car play has been strictly horizontal since that time. Now Hot Wheels is shaking things up - really up! - and moving car play vertical! Hot Wheels Wall Tracks, the company's new line of wall-mounted race tracks, literally takes playtime off the floor and onto the walls. The company sent me the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks Starter Set ($32), one of four playsets in the collection, and I took it for a test run with my two car-obsessed kids. Here's what we thought!

Who is this product designed for? The manufacturer suggests that race tracks are for kids ages 4 to 8 years old, but my 2-year-old is having a very good time playing with it, too.

What sets it apart? For generations, car racing has been limited to floor play, where intricate tracks were laid on the ground to facilitate races, crashes, and general play. For the first time, that play moves up the wall, helping to clear the clutter of toys on the floor, but also creating a new play experience. Using 3M Command Strips (which are safe for painted and wallpapered walls - I tested it!), the track supports easily stick on the wall to create vertical, complex race tracks that eventually lead cars to the ground. The enclosed templates make setup a breeze - within 15 minutes of opening the box, we were ready to play!

What could be better? Unfortunately, the 3M Command Strips can lose their "stickiness" pretty easily, and if they do, the entire track falls down - quickly. This problem is easily remedied, though, by simply purchasing additional strips at an office supply store.

Keep reading to see how long the tracks entertain youngsters and for more views of the toy.

Should There Be a War on Makeup For Little Girls?

BabyCenter — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:57:47 PDT

Here's a post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we bring you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Betsy Shaw about kids and makeup.

Hope Perlman survived the moment of mothering girls I dread. In her post for NY Times' Motherlode, she relays the day her 13-year-old daughter begged to be allowed to wear makeup to a party.

After much soul searching – Perlman occasionally wears makeup herself – and lecturing, she said yes. She describes her rationale here:

"I wanted her to fit in, because I know fitting in is what middle school is about. But what, exactly, was she starting to fit into? The role of the teenager tortured by her failure to live up to a magazine picture? I'd been that teenager, with a picture of a model taped to my bedroom mirror. It wasn't what I wanted for my child."

So she acquiesced. But not before letting her know exactly what she thought about the message, so aggressively delivered by a male-dominated advertising industry, that girls and women need to paint themselves, cover their skin with lotions and potions, to be beautiful and feminine.

"So that's how I allowed my daughter to start wearing makeup," Perlman says at the end of her essay, "I gave her permission - along with a large and cumbersome bag of guilt. The personal is political. Better remember that. Here's your mascara, honey. And your burden of awareness. Enjoy!"

I relate to Perlman’s story: When my daughter first sensed I had "issues" with makeup, she was about four years old. She asked me to get her a makeup kit, like the one her little friend Hanna got for being a flower girl, and I refused.

"Why not?" she pouted.

Instead of simply saying "because I said so," I treated her to a verbal tirade of stinging righteousness that came from an apparently conflicted place inside of me.

Keep reading for more of the story.

Hunger Games Set Decorator Larry Dias Shares Stories and Decor Details From the Film

Elka Karl — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:17:42 PDT

Watching The Hunger Games at a press preview, both Angela and I were scrambling to jot down notes on the fantastic set design showcased in the film. Now, we have the answers to all of our set design questions. Set decorator for The Hunger Games Larry Dias was integral in making the film come to life, from the Appalachia-inspired homes seen in District 12 to the opulent palace of President Snow. Dias was nominated for an Oscar for his production design work on Inception, and he's worked on the set design for films including The Village, The Last Airbender, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Keep reading to find out more about the process of designing the look of The Hunger Games. CasaSugar: I read that much of the decor for District 12 was sourced from local antique shops in North Carolina. How were you inspired by these antiques, and how did the look for this district develop?
Larry Dias: When [production designer] Phil Messina discovered the North Carolina location that serves as District 12 in the film, it just made sense to utilize the local antiques sources. In the book, District 12 lies within what is formerly known as the Appalachians. It could not have been more perfect. We found a number of dealers that had an abundance of unfinished "as is" antiques with rotting wood, peeled finishes, broken drawers, and rusty hardware, and they were items from the region. It was a perfect fit.

CS: The train car seems to have an art deco feel. Was this an influence for the look? How did you decide on the color palette and wood choices? What items did you include that seemed particularly important for these scenes?
LD: Phil came up with the design of the train cars, and the palette was an early idea that we toyed with changing a number of times but we always went back to the blue. The velvet I used in the upholstery was from Dedar, and at first we were having some trouble having it fit within our time frame. It was milled in Belgium, if I remember correctly, and we tried numerous times to find a replacement close to our original choice and just could not find a suitable one, so we played the odds and got it at the last minute. I'm glad we did because it had such amazing depth and was a really regal-looking hue that ended up being the perfect complement/contrast to the muted blue dress that Judianna Makovsky had designed for Katniss.

Of course we compared our swatches, but I think it really told a story when she entered that train car. The wood tones were chosen by Phil. As my team and I were sourcing the furniture for the train it became apparent that we would need to do part antique and part reproduction mainly because of quantities and also because Katniss drives a knife into the dining table! A lot of deco furniture is veneered, and we found a lot of great pieces that had irreparable finish issues or pieces that were too diminutive in scale, so we ended up finding some good reproductions that we could get quantities of. Because it was really difficult to get the woods to work well together on pieces coming from all over the US, we had our lead scenic Rick Riggs and his amazing crew faux finish the furniture to tie it all together.

A funny thing is the barrel chairs that play prominently were pieces that my buyer Sara Gardner-Gail found online, and they were really inexpensive but had the perfect shape. I had the legs cut off and added a swivel platform base, had them painted and upholstered, and they looked like the finest antiques. One of the things about set decoration is that you have to be ready to improvise as well as accommodate change. Unlike the design of, say, a hotel lobby where everything has been drawn in will not change, a film set is quite the opposite. Once the actors, camera, and crew are in the set, furniture starts flying, literally.

First, just to accommodate the cast and crew, usually at least one half of the set will be cleared of furniture, then as the shots and camera angles are being set up, the director may decide he needs things to rearrange a bit to accommodate a scene. It can be a little improvisational so having a few extra chairs, lamps, or occasional pieces hanging around is a good thing.

Keep reading for more of our interview with Hunger Games set decorator Larry Dias!

What to TiVo: Saturday

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:59:44 PDT

8:00 Shark Tank (repeat)
9:00 My Extreme Affliction: A Special Edition of 20/20 (new)

6:00 NCAA Basketball Tournament: Kentucky vs. Louisiana
8:30 NCAA Basketball Tournament: Kansas vs. Ohio State

8:00 Cops (new)
8:30 Cops (repeat)
9:00 Bones (repeat)
11:00 Q'Viva! The Chosen

8:00 Escape Routes (new)
9:00 The Firm (new)
10:00 Law & Order: Special Victims Units (repeat)
11:30 Saturday Night Live (repeat, host Katy Perry; musical guest Robyn)

What If He’s Had More Sex Than Me?

The Good Men Project — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:00:45 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today a woman is uncomfortable with her boyfriend’s level of sexual experience and asks for advice from a man and a woman.

Dear Sexes: My boyfriend and I have been expressing an interest in more sexual variety (anal sex, toys, etc.). Since I don’t have a wealth of experience, I’ve been looking forward to trying out new things with him together. That is, until he recently revealed that he has actually already done most of what we discussed with other partners - and now I unexpectedly feel uncomfortable with our different levels of experience and us not going through the "newness" together. What can I do about this?

Objectifying Ryan Gosling

She Said: I guess my biggest concern is whether he was hiding his past or if you two just hadn’t discussed it . . . If he was hiding it, that is a problem that you guys have to get to the root of. Make sure you know why he was dishonest and be sure he’s living true to his word in other areas of your relationship.

But if he was honest and just hadn’t told you all the details, it’s less a problem with him, and more a problem you’ve got to deal with inside yourself. I can totally understand why this new knowledge (regardless of how it came out) is throwing you off. There’s a certain sweetness in trying new things together, like walking side-by-side into a new land. I get that . . .
But the truth is, it’s all new for both of you because you’re going into it together. Keep your eye on what the purpose of sex with your boyfriend is. Is it gaining closeness, giving one another pleasure, and learning about each other? If so, then it doesn’t matter what he’s done with whom. If you’re just going for “newness” then just dive a little deeper. Ben-wa balls, vibrators (on him too!), role play, light BDSM, exhibitionism, watching porn together . . . There are amazing new avenues for you both!

He Said: There’s gotta be SOMETHING he hasn’t done! Browse together at a sex-toy shop. I’m sure you’ll find something that neither of you has tried, and interests both of you. Then you can experiment and adventure together. The world of sex and sex toys is essentially limitless - you are really only bound by your imaginations or inhibitions. If your boyfriend really has done EVERYTHING, maybe you should ask him if he has any porn credits in his filmography. Or maybe it’s best if you don’t ask him.

Seriously though, don’t be discouraged. And try not to let your boyfriend’s past experiences ruin your fun now. You’re teammates (or sex-mates) so you’re on the same team, you’re not competing against each other. Remember, it’s pretty rare and unlikely that any two people would have the exact same sexual past (unless both people were only ever with their partner). While it sounds like there’s plenty for your boyfriend to teach you in the bedroom, I’m sure there’s things you can teach him too. Everyone has a different angle on sex, romance, and intimacy. And keep looking online, in stores, (or even in the fridge) - I’m sure you’ll find something you both want to try for the first time. Happy exploring!

More stories from The Good Men Project:

10 Things You May Not Have Known About Charles and Ray Eames

Angela Swinderman Elias — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:00:32 PDT

I just had a chance to watch Eames: The Architect and The Painter, a gripping documentary and new addition to Netflix Instant Watch.
The film explores the design vision of husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames, peering into the inner workings of their adventurously kooky office and revealing a true love story between a man and a woman and their insatiable appetite for modernism. Although I'm familiar with the brand's iconic midcentury designs, I knew very little about the quirks of Charles and Ray's dynamic personalities or the extent of their work.

If you're a Netflix Instant Watch member, I highly recommend watching this documentary. In the meantime, keep reading to check out this list of fascinating facts you may not have known about Charles and Ray Eames!