PARTING SHOTS

Because I'm boarding a train to New York in an hour, but am pretty sure a force field would bar me from entering if I didn't first blog these...
1) Chelsea drew an impromptu portrait of me eating a cookie. It's pretty accurate.

2) From my "last supper" with my family at C&O.

3) My last lil' pillow project from work! Not to toot my own "taste horn" (is that a thing? and do I want to be tooting it?), but writer Zadie Smith has a chaise lounge upholstered in this linen in her dressing room, as seen in Vogue, and elements of the print climbing the walls. It's pretty awesome and I'm damn classy, is my point.

4) Me with my cousin's lil'un's! A sweet visit right before I hit the road.

5) And I can't help but share the almond tart Chelsea made me, topped with self-churned (is that right?) lavender-chamomile ice cream and garnished with mint. Damn!

6) A goodbye toast with friends...bon voyage!

Follow me on Instagram @xoxofruitpunch for the start of my NYC adventures!

DIGITAL BY DESIGN

Having the chance to support local artists through this blog is always a treat, so I was excited when my friend Todd approached me about a new undertaking - excited, but wary. Why? Part of this new project, he told me, would involve transferring a photo of a mural he'd painted in his dining room onto a t-shirt. So you understand my trepidation? Well, trepidatiousness be damned! The line, branded RTH Designs, is a digitized treat. Using dye-sublimation printing (it's complicated), Todd was able to have the mural as well as a few other original designs (I'm seen here wearing my favorite) blown up and transferred onto performance polyester t-shirts. The material's sheen adds a trendy neoprene-ish element to the shirts' outsized prints and is damn comfortable to boot!

Todd is having a launch party for the line this Friday, June 1st, at his store Artifacts. Click here for more information and be sure to swing by! Tell him you saw "some fruit on the internet" wearing his design - he'll get it ;)

RTH Designs t-shirt paired with my faux leather leggings from Urban Outfitters, a cotton sportcoat from Zara and my combat boots from Low Vintage. Shot "on location" at McIntire skate park; photos by Fareine Benz.

le shan, c'est chic

I had the luck to meet Shannon a few weeks ago when she modeled for Get Low. The Irish-Lebanese beauty and I quickly bonded over how we're both bodacious boho-babes (read: she is tall and gorgeous and I am a level three elf lord with big dreams) and how much we love vintage. Her collection of rings is pretty damn impressive, and look - she wears hats too! Shannon's working at Low now, dispensing beaucoup styling advice and being infinitely bubblier and more helpful than I have ever been in a retail setting - be sure to pay her a visit! (But be careful how you word your introduction: "I saw your photos on the internet somewhere!" will get you a much different welcome than, "Your friend blogged about you, right?")

AT HOME WITH SARAH OWEN

We now take a break from our regularly scheduled programming...as a last little treat for my Virginia readers I'm sharing some photos of Charlottesville-based artist Sarah Owen's home. Owen and I discussed at length her most fitting job title, since she's fluent in so many creative pursuits. For the purposes of this post, I shall declare her an official Purveyor of Awesome. Aside from her work as an artist she also does interior design and curates a distinctive selection of objets d'art. These were previously available at the shop she opened with her designer father John Owen, JohnSarahJohn (see that space here), but many of them now populate the varied surfaces of her charming bungalow.

The living room is as inviting as it looks...the best-lit room in the house, Owen's mix of found objects and unexpected floral alternatives (dried seedpods #forthewin) provide the perfect complement to the artwork and layered textiles.

The desk is actually an industrial cart with hammered steel on top (I think...that at least sounds right), a compelling space for a tableau of framed family portraits and artful finds.

A salvaged sign letter is given pride of place above the kitchen sink; the dining room showcases a traditional lighting fixture around which Owen wove twigs to get it in line with her organic aesthetic.

Owen is lucky enough to have an in-home studio where she can paint, sculpt and modify everyday things into beautiful objects. I'm incredibly grateful Sarah asked me to help capture the essence of her space and hope you've enjoyed getting a peek into the home of such a talented creative mind!

All photos taken in natural light with my Canon Rebel t1i.
To contact Sarah Owen, click here.

the brooks brothers shirt

This shirt is so quintessentially summer, no? Vintage Brooks Brothers from Low, 100% fine cotton - so eighties, but so now! Summer shirting is tricky because I royally suck at the polished thing any time of year, but am not even willing to try in oppressive heat. I use either my patent-pending Twist & Tuck method (not to be confused with Buffalo Bill's T&T method from The Silence of the Lambs, a clarification I'm required to make for legislative purposes) or a loose front-tuck (seen here and on Lucy Chadwick below), or sometimes I just let my shirttails roam free. I love my shirts voluminous for that "borrowed from the boyfriend" aesthetic - a lazily half-popped collar here, a flash of nipple there when my halfway-unbuttoned shirt falls open as I lean forward to pick some chard in the community garden...what could be sexier? Probably nothing.

original photo by Joel Codiamat; loose-tuck inspiration photos via The Sartorialist and Vanessa Jackman, visit me on Pinterest for more!

OUT WITH THE OLD

Just a few snaps from around my apartment...some new, a few you may recognize. I'm having a tag sale this weekend and will be unloading almost all of my stuff on some lucky individuals and/or buying collectives, if that's what you'd prefer to be called. In addition to housewares and furniture I'm also selling clothes (contemporary and vintage), bags and a bit of jewelry. If you have questions or know of something you'd like to reserve (and can pick up that day), email me! You can find the address here.

TAG SALE 

May 26th

10am-1pm

café du monde

I've recently been obsessing over café imagery...they can be such wonderful places, no? When living abroad there were so many cute little cafés (and quite a few that were just crap), all of them expatriate magnets. They were a reminder of home, providing a shared cultural experience that spanned across any given Western nation, just booming in popularity in the East. I'd love to open my own café-cum-boulangerie someday...just so I could make it perfect and hang out there all the time.

images via Flickr, Pinterest, Dapper Lou (x2), Pinterest, Lingered Upon, and Leo Patrone for Kinfolk (the ones that just say "Pinterest"...I've lost the links! If you took this picture let me know and I will link to you!)

MY SUMMER BEAUTINE

Now that it’s sort-of almost officially technically summer, I feel the need to share with you all my summer beauty routine (“beautine”, BAM, patented.) I should probably stop wearing so much crap on my face, but I love the ritual of it and am hoping I can get my skin to be “luminescent” for once and to, “radiate from within.” I’m tired of settling for, “looks matte in dim light,” and “bears no indication of jaundice.” I have not, unfortunately, gotten there yet, so here we go…

I switched up my face wash routine and tried out this Belgian beauty bar that cost only $5. It’s been fine, but not a revelation...and then the salesgirl at Sephora said that my chin’s proclivité to blemishmènt might be persisting because of bacteria camping out on the bar being reintroduced to my face with every wash. Great! The beard is also a liability, apparently, as bacteria hang out in the follicles or something disgusting like that. WhaT?! Shouldn’t there have been a special subsection of a GQ article on problem areas to address this? So now I’m bouncing between cleansers, generally unsatisfied, wondering how all the men on Tumblr pull this off.

I’ve started to only use baby sunscreen because I figure if I’m smearing it on my face as a physical barrier between my skin and a ball of flame that can burn me from ten billion light years away, I want it to be as sensitive as possible. I’m currently enamored of Lavanila’s SPF 40 Healthy Baby Block, which is a slightly cheaper alternative to some other, well-reputed eco brands (Coola and Josie Maran). Check out the EWG’s full list of environmentally-safe sunscreens, and try to make the switch from chemical blockers to physical ones – refer to the list for guidance – because researchers are finding that some of the compounds in chemical sunscreens destabilize and actually cause free radical damage O_o;

SOME LOST BLISS

This editorial from Another Man totally captures the energy I want to bring to my summer wardrobe. Chunky bead necklaces, prints on patterns on prints, patchwork bell bottoms? Floppy hats and oversized sweaters? Oh, man, I'm totally in love...happy Friday!

photos by Alisdair McLellan; scans via

j.w. anderson x ln-cc x kitty genius

London-based retailer LN-CC is having this insane contest where they give away a £15,000 shopping spree plus a trip to London. What the shit!? Basically it’s the most awesome thing that’s ever been offered on the internet, after that eBay auction for the tank top Zac Efron played basketball in in High School Musical 2. Oh, wait, that never happened. So, it wins! I scoped out their website and found that they’re probably the best place on Earth to have that much money to spend on clothes. Their designer roster is enough to make your manties melt, but I was particularly excited to check out the hotness that is J.W. Anderson’s Spring line.

I’ve read about Anderson hither and thither on the interwebs because he seems to be on the cusp of what I like to call, “super-famousness.” His collection is certifiably awesome, as evidenced by this crocheted hexagon vest/top. That said, I felt that the grey backdrop of LN-CC’s online merchandising wasn't *fruity enough, so I superimposed their model on artwork from Kitty Genius and blammo! Now you can really see that that’s a righteous bit of menswear, amiright? Check out some more of Anderson’s S/S ’12 collection below...

Top photo via LN-CC; artwork by Ashley Goldberg. Runway photos via Style.com.

SO LONG, COUNTRY ROAD

Posts have been a little text-lite lately, due in part to how lazy I am and partly to how hard that makes it for me to type very much. Sorry about that! I know my readers appreciate a well thought-out post with insights, humor and references to gay things and so I’ve packed all of those things into this post PLUS a complementary year-long subscription to More (the magazine for women over forty!)

I have some big blog news to share with y’all that I've been withholding 'til I had this most perfectly introspective pose worked out. Drumroll please: I'm moving to New York! I’m not sure what to expect, but I expect it will be just like Sex and the City meets Friends. I don’t have a new job to tell you all about, or even a new apartment from which to Instagram my breakfasts, but I have some kind friends who have agreed to open their doors to me while I try and land on my feet. What more could a young man ask for? Except for an older gentleman suitor who wants to keep me so blinged out I feel like Trina. Joke! Joke?

It’s my goal to continue growing this blog and I hope that New York offers me more collaborators, more compelling content and, of course, more readers! Hopefully you’re as excited as I am to see how just how ridiculous my outfits get, what color poo I’ll scribble on pictures of my first and last lunch at Balthazar and how I “un-decorate” the walls of the abandoned car out of which I’ll be living using only all of the skills I’ve learned in the last year and old gum. And just in case you thought I was too busy “preparing” for this move that’s only two weeks away to keep my head in the proverbial game of style blogging: here I'm wearing my new vintage Kenneth Cole boots that are litrahlly so cute I could feed myself to a bear.

photos Joel Codiamat

AN AUSS-OME ABODE

Lucy and I decided that a home needs only two things: natural light and original hardwood surfaces, preferably in copious amounts. This rustic charmer in Tasmania (Australia's favourite vacation island!) seems privileged with both, not to mention some gorgeous furniture and a sweet attic bedroom.

photos Jared Fowler for Homelife

BADASSITY BY TATTLY

Hey ma, look at the great life choice I made for you! Just kidding. This is a Tattly tattoo, meaning my neck-branding is only temporary (as is my badassity). Check out more styles on their website (there are so many awesome ones) and follow me on Instagram @xoxofruitpunch to peep what other fake tattoo madness overcomes me. And, oh yeah - happy belated mother's day!

photo by Joel Codiamat

VINTAGE PAUL MCCARTNEY

I didn't know baby boy was shilling that Vita Coco back in the day!
Happy Friday, y'all~

DRESSING A VINTAGE VIXEN

Jenn and I got together the other week to shoot some photos for Vintage Vixen using my little ol' Holga, just for fun. I'd seen her working at the C&O bar and fell in love with her hair and general bodaciousness. Here she is just blazing in vintage Versace, Mugler, Givenchy, Dior...names, darling, I want names! You can check out the full sized images over on ma Flickr, if that excites you, and hit up the store if you see something you like!

Vintage Vixen
300 East Market St.
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 244-0778

SPOTTIEOTTIEDOPALISCIOUS

1) I got my hair cropped again! And today I went back for a little more because I'm a homosexual and I couldn't resist thE DrAmA!

2) Isn't this shirt so cute? Polka dots! And the fit ain't half bad, either. BUT: It's like, $50...for a linen/cotton blend made in Indonesia...from Urban Outfitters. Is it worth it? #debatable

3) If you can tell me what band's song this post's title comes from I'll give you five hugs and a jelly bean. Or five jelly beans and a hug...ball's in your court.

FOTOBOMB No. 2

And finally, here's a second round of awesome photos by awesome photographers you should know. The above three are what I'm calling, "obscure object portraits" by Clemens Fantur. The people in them seem to be a little bit invisible, I'd say...quite beautiful, no?

Here we have some realllly wicked fashion photography by Sasha Kurmaz (that first image links back to the set these are from). I just think these are so inspired...quirky and a little bit unhinged.

This little section I'm calling, "modern still lifes." First up is a group of silver spray-painted fruits (#winning) by Jay Bing, then a pair of jeans and a skateboard and plant by Ada Hamza, whose work with shadows and negative space is really interesting.

And last, but not least, we have hot guys in nature. Brought to you, in order of appearance, by Jeff Luker, Carles Rodrigo and Harley Weir.

Be sure to click through to view people's work on Flickr and all names link back to a website or blog/Tumblr. On a side note, if I've featured your work here and you'd like it removed, grab my email from the "About" section and let me know!