Home Sweet Home

I really want to redecorate my bedroom (I have a roommate, so the rest of the apartment isn't exactly fair game). I don't have that much space, but I also don't have that much stuff. What I do have:

• a ton of books
• a ton of clothes
• a ton of shoes
• a ton of jewelry
• a ton of records
• one awesome 1970s black velvet painting of two scantily-clad Nubians riding a winged zebra through space
• one awesome 1970s painting of a voluptuous Indian maiden stepping into a pond
• one vintage open-top schooldesk which was rescued from the side of the road and lovingly restored and painted for me by my nice boyfriend Rusty

Everything else is pretty much expendable. I've been perusing The Selby for inspiration. Here are some of the photos that are giving me the redecorating jones hardcore:

Top, from the NYC home of Josh Conner and Lyz Olko.
Bottom, from the Sydney home of Natalie Wood. Click for full size.

I'm really into the idea of treating jewelry and clothes as something to be displayed rather than tucked away in drawers and closets -- personally, I spend more money on clothes and accessories than I do on anything else, so I think there's something to be said about letting them be a focal point. I think it looks sick when there's a ton of necklaces hanging off a wall, like above, or when clothes and shoes are presented almost like art, like below:

Left, from the Sydney home of Aimee Bayliss, Nathan Smith, and Anne Ryan.
Right, from the NYC home of Sally Singer. Click for full size.

I already keep my favorite pieces on a clothes rail dead-center in my room, and I'm all about the idea of using a basic, tall IKEA bookshelf to house my shoe collection for a look similar to Sally Singer's above.

More general inspiration:

From the London home of Gary Card and Henderson McCue. Click for full size.

The idea of organized disarray (i.e. books and shoes on nearly every surface) is appealing to me, because I'm a huge slob.

Top, from the London home of Rosa Connell and Bella Howard.
Bottom, from the NYC home of Josh Conner and Lyz Olko. Click for full size.

I'm also finding that I like the look of a bunch of stuff just stuck on the wall, no frames, no rhyme or reason -- reminds me of when I was in high school and papered my bedroom with show fliers and pages torn from the local throwaway rags. When you consider what a hassle it is to frame everything and have it all hung straight and perfect, it's so much easier, plus it looks cool and undone alongside a few bigger pieces.

Top, from the Sydney home of Harold David and Dave Bonney.
Bottom, from the London home of Rosa Connell and Bella Howard. Click for full size.

Just great aesthetics all around. I really want to spray paint a cow skull fluorescent red now, and I love clear Lucite furniture. I'd really like a Lucite chair.

Top, from the London home of Sylvia Farago and Christopher Simmonds.
Bottom, from the Sydney home of Aimee Bayliss, Nathan Smith, and Anne Ryan. Click for full size.

More visual candy. I love jewelry stands and having all your shit out on the surfaces of things.

From the London home of Sylvia Farago and Christopher Simmonds. Click for full size.

I love a room with hundreds of books on display. Looks so good...especially with the shoes under the shelves.

So, this is a list of things I'm desperate for (more for my own reference than anything else):

• A Chief Joseph print Pendleton blanket (I love them)
• A Navajo rug
• A Lucite chair
• IKEA Billy bookcases (one for shoes, two for books and records)
• Vintage glass ring hand jewelry holders/jewelry stands in general
• This hanging cluster lamp (reminds me of a geodesic dome, I love it)

I'm on my way...

You're the one I've waited for.

Woof, I really let this aspect of my shit drop off for a minute there! I've been a LiveJournal user since high school so it's been hard for me to get used to making the switch, but I want to start keeping the WR2BAM:LIFE blog on the up and up and kind of shuffle my personal blogging over here. So I thought I'd start it up again with a little bit of an introduction post, because even though I've been running WR2BAM on the regular for almost two years, there's only so much that a fashion blog can tell you about a person, right?

In a nutshell.

So, I'm Sara M. I'm 24 years old and I've been holding it down in Long Beach since I was 19. I was raised in Flagstaff, Arizona and spent my teen years in Orange County. For the last four years I've worked at an architecture and interiors firm in Newport Beach and I also do freelance writing work, mainly screenwriting and script editing for a small L.A.-based production company. My ultimate goal is to be a writer (besides WR2BAM and my freelance work, I'm also working on a novel).

I have a pretty awesome boyfriend, Rusty, with whom I've been for coming up on three years:

Charming.

I run with a pretty bitchin' pack of ladies, most importantly my longtime BFF Jennie, who is an incredible illustrator as well as being an all-around amazing human being:

At her brother's bachelor party in Detroit, July 2008.

And my roommate and pretty much constant partner in crime, Farron:

Doing what we do in Big Sur, August 2009.

So, let's keep this simple. Besides fashion, I'm into heavy metal (but you already knew that), road trips, geodesic domes and the theories of Buckminster Fuller in general, writing, reading, super-trashy reality TV, punk and oi, architecture (particularly midcentury modern and prefab both midcentury and contemporary), shooting guns, feminism, alt comics, skateboard culture even though I can't skate a lick, motorcycle culture even though I've only ever ridden on the back of a hog, vintage Airstream trailers, traditional country and western music (I'm huge into Loretta Lynn), karaoke, getting tattooed, and partying hardy.

That's the general background. I'm going to try to keep this thing afloat.

XOXO,
Gossip Girl Sara M.

Rock of Drunk Bus

While I'm updating I might as well throw up these photos from my friend Mike's 30th birthday party a couple weekends ago. He rented a double decker bus that took us to a few local bars, and then my friends' metal band, Sumerian Axe, played. On the bus. It was sick.

Click for full size.