As ya’ll know, I have a complete and utter obsession with Dr. Pepper lip balm. Besides the subtle-sweet flavor and the moisturizing properties, one of the the benefits is the sheer red color that becomes deeper with each coat.

As I mentioned in the article linked to above, I have spent much time looking for a similar color in a lipstick. Well, I’m here to tell you that I’ve found it! I’m on to my third tube, which I picked up at Eponymy yesterday, which reminded me I should really share this goody with the rest of you…

Lipstick Queen’s Medieval is the perfect shade of red for anyone. It goes on very sheer and the color gets redder—and glossier—as you pile it on, making it the perfect tube to keep in your purse so you’ll be ready to punch up your lips a bit for a quick happy hour jaunt or more for a surprise date.

Layered over any other shade, Medieval boosts the color and adds a not-to-glossy sheen that’s sure to get noticed.

The bonus is that it’s made with avocado oil, so it’s naturally moisturizing too.

Find a retailer near you and give it a try, or take my word for it and place your order today.

Trust me, this spring, mascara, a chignon, and the subtle red lip are all you’ll need to rock it chic French girl style!

Here are just a handful of the countless organizations that work hard every day to assist women worldwide. In honor of International Women’s Day, read up on their missions below or do your own research and, if you can, make a donation in honor of a woman in your life.

NOW, The National Organization for Women:

Since its founding in 1966, NOW’s goal has been to take action to bring about equality for all women. NOW works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia; and promote equality and justice in our society.

Planned Parenthood:

Planned Parenthood believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility, regardless of the individual’s income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence. We believe that respect and value for diversity in all aspects of our organization are essential to our well-being. We believe that reproductive self-determination must be voluntary and preserve the individual’s right to privacy. We further believe that such self-determination will contribute to an enhancement of the quality of life and strong family relationships.

Based on these beliefs, and reflecting the diverse communities within which we operate, the mission of Planned Parenthood is

• to provide comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services in settings which preserve and protect the essential privacy and rights of each individual
• to advocate public policies which guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services
• to provide educational programs which enhance understanding of individual and societal implications of human sexuality
• to promote research and the advancement of technology in reproductive health care and encourage understanding of their inherent bioethical, behavioral, and social implications

MADRE:

MADRE uses human rights to advance social justice. We partner with women in communities worldwide to meet urgent, local needs and create long-term solutions to the problems that women face.
Our programs areas are:
Peace Building
Women’s Health & Combating Violence Against Women
Economic & Environmental Justice

International Women’s Health Coalition:

The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) promotes and protects the sexual and reproductive rights and health (SRRH) of all women and young people, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, by helping to develop effective health and population policies, programs, and funding.

Women for Women International:

Women for Women International believes that when women are well, sustain an income, are decision-makers, and have strong social networks and safety-nets, they are in a much stronger position to advocate for their rights. This philosophy and our commitment to local leadership builds change and capacity at the grassroots level.

Qik Video: I just discovered this beauty, which allows 3G users like myself to take video with their iPhone, and I couldn’t be more excited. Now I don’t have to have 3GS envy! Suck it, Apple! Haven’t had a chance to use it much yet, but I’m sure the beau will be getting plenty of videos of the kitties taking adorable naps or batting a piece of string very soon.

Shake It Photo, Camera Bag, Photo Filters, Hipstamatic, Fantasy Lens, Polarize, and Camera Flash: My myriad of photo filter apps have accumulated over the year plus I’ve had my iPhone. The ones I find myself using most often are Shake It Photo and Hipstamatic, but they each have unique enough features that I can’t seem to pick one to get rid of. Fantasy Lens is a little different in that instead of taking your photo and turning it into a Polaroid or whatever, it takes photos of faces and puts them in great works of art, holiday or season-appropriate scenes, and the like. Silly, but fun. Especially after a few cocktails.

I Am T-Pain: I read about this one here! You sing into it and it auto-tunes your pitchy mess into a hit made for Cher. A party favorite.

A Free Level: As its name suggests, it’s a free level. Just select the app and hold your iPhone horizontally to ensure your paintings are hanging straight. I’ve actually used this app more times than I expected to.

Google Earth: Thought it would be cool to access Google Earth from anywhere. Still haven’t used it once, but at least I know it’s on there…

FS5 Hockey, Labyrinth LE, Morocco, and Hangman: Time-waster games I downloaded, the beau played on subway trips a few times until he got bored of them, and I’ve never opened since. I am on the look-out for games that are actually entertaining that I’ll want to play more than once, so let me know if you have an suggestions.

Pandora: Since I rarely use my iPhone for music, and when I do, I’m often on the subway with no signal, Pandora has not yet been used. Seemed like a good idea at the time…

Qlock Two: Saw this on a design blog and just had to have it. It’s a very cool clock display. Except that you have to open the app to see the time, which is already at the top of your screen. Makes no sense.

Voice Memo: How cool is the idea of leaving yourself voice memos? “Tomatoes, tempeh, toilet paper, and toothpaste.” Except that you don’t and you won’t.

Remote: This is supposed to turn your iPhone into a remote for your computer. I wouldn’t know if it works because when I’ve wanted to use it it hadn’t been properly set up and I gave up and haven’t had the need for it since.

Drinks Free: A free library of cocktails… Why not? I’ve used it once or twice to come to the aid of a bartender, but have books at home that I would generally trust more. Might come in handy if I ever feel like ordering sweet shots with names that sound vaguely sexual, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

FourSquare: I’ll try any new techno-fad for a bit, especially if it might help my clients, so I recently signed up for FourSquare. I’ve only remembered to check in somewhere once, but maybe I’ll get better at it. Or maybe I won’t.

Color Snap (Sherwin Williams), Color Capture (Benjamin Moore): You’re supposed to be able to take a photo of something with your iPhone and then these apps will give you the corresponding paint color. Love the idea of this actually working, haven’t yet found anything to analyze and have no desire to take up any painting projects anytime soon. Oh, but when I do…

Shazam: Ever hear a song and you want to know what it’s called or who it’s by? Turn on this app and point it at your speaker and it’ll tell you… Or not. It’s never actually worked for me when I’ve wanted to know, only when I already knew and was testing it. Oh well.

The Weather Channel: The weather app that comes standard with the iPhone is crap. This gives you much more detail, as well as forecasts. I find myself using it often.

Urban Spoon: A pretty good app for finding restaurants in the area. Have mostly used it when out-of-town and generally decided on going somewhere we passed that afternoon.

That’s What She Said, iHandgun, Zippo Lighter: Total useless time wasters. But if you ever need a button that says “that’s what she said” in different voices and intonations, you know where to find it.

Wifi Track: Finds wifi signals and tells you which are password protected and which are the strongest. Helpful if you’re in a non-3G area.

Yum Yum: Vegan recipes with amazing photos. Still have never cooked anything out of this app, but I could if I wanted to…

Crosswords Light: I love my crossword puzzles and was so excited at the idea of not having to carry my books on the train with me anymore… Until I actually tried to complete a puzzle. It’s no fun on the teeny tiny screen—way too much scrolling. I’m going to upgrade to a paid crossword app, maybe something from the New York Times, and hopefully I’ll have better luck.

Bump: Other people with this app and an iPhone should be able to “bump” iPhones with you to exchange contact information. Haven’t bumped yet.

Yelp, Fandango, Mint.com, The Weather Channel, eBay, Facebook: Because it’s easier to access an app than to go to the webpage.

Kick Light: A totally non-interactive New York City subway map. Actually very useful for figuring out alternative routes when the conductor announces that there’s a police investigation at the next station. It’s just a map, but every New Yorker needs to have a subway map on them.

WordPress: I can write OMFGstyle articles on-the-go! And I have.

Kindle: If you have an iPhone, there’s no need to buy a Kindle—just download the (free) app and *viola* your iPhone’s a kindle (and back-lit at that)! Love the idea, just have never actually used it. I think I’ll probably stock up on Kindle books next time I travel so I don’t have to pack books to weigh me down. Although I’ll still need magazines for the beach!

Veggie Passport: As a frequently traveling vegan, having an app that literally spells out my diet restrictions in 33 different languages is a great idea! Again, I haven’t had the opportunity to use it (yet), but I have the feeling I will!

Okay, so now that I’ve showed you my apps, you show me yours: What’s on your iPhone? What life-changing app am I missing? What will keep me occupied and entertained on long cab rides home? I look forward to adding to the mess that is my iPhone. And maybe, just maybe, I’ve helped you add to yours.

…may not be enough to keep them warm. Plus, how cute is your puppy in a little plaid toggle coat?

Of course, dogs aren’t the only pets that look adowable in people clothes.

Click for information on purchasing any of the items featured in here.

For the safety of myself and the people around me, I need to get the fuck on outta here for a minute.  I’ve never fought anyone in my life, but I’m pretty sure I’m a good week away from murdering your face if I don’t get some sun and fun up in my life, for serious.

So, I will be venturing to LA by my lonesome later this month to visit a friend and, hopefully, to reconnect with others I’ve lost along the way.  I’ve only ever been to LA for work and spent the bulk of my time on location in Pasadena, chomping craft services and trying to look important. I wasn’t. But this time, I am. I’m the most important girl in the fucking world and I travel alone.

Anyway, in the spirit of adventure, I compiled a small soundtrack of my upcoming journey for your listening pleasure.  The inspiration? Well, you know when you come out of the subway on a sunny day and you’ve got someplace to go and you’re amidst a million people, movin’ and a shakin’ in the big city, and you look up at the sky and start smiling and outstretch your arms and spin around in circles and everyone around you breaks into choreographed dance and the whole world hears your headphones and you’re the happiest you’ve been in a long time for no real reason other than being alive on this beautiful day with the best song you’ve ever heard in your life blasting your brain into a million sparkling pieces? That.

Let’s go on a little trip, shall we?

1. Little Garcon – Born Ruffians: This song soothes my soul when I’m descending for landing and convinced I have no more than ten minutes to live….’cause I don’t care just where you go, as long as it’s with me, ya know?

2. Relator – Pete Yorn & Stupid Scarlett Johansson: What? She is. Anyway, I’m pretty sure this song is perfect for picking up your luggage and looking around a crowded claim for a familiar face.  And amidst the chaos, you see it, and (s)he’s waving at you from across the room and you laugh to yourself and run over and have one of those hugs you see in movies that lasts for, like, days.  Also, skipping. This song is good for skipping. In the sun.

3. 1901 – Phoenix: Now you’re in the car and you’re off to somewhere great because, frankly, it’s just somewhere different then where you’ve been.  Also, wind through your hair. This song is good for wind through your hair.

4. Heartbeats – The Knife: You rented a shiny beach cruiser in Santa Monica and you’re riding it along Venice Beach to the Canals and you let go of the handlebars and wobble and almost crash into a garbage can and turn to your friends and laugh and grab a beer out of your basket and crack it while you peddle cause it’s hot and you’re thirsty.

5. True Affection – The Blow: Your friend needs to become scuba certified for a production gig he’s got coming up so you go along, cause why the hell wouldn’t you?  You’re floating around weightless and then a blow fish smiles at you because you’re probably high.

6. Time to Pretend – MGMT: A montage. Definitely a montage. You’re being shown around town, exploring corners and peeking under rocks. Speeding cars, loud bars, and bright lights. It’s fucking LA. You’re tan and your legs suddenly look great in shorts and life isn’t so bad after all.

7. Shake a Fist – Hot Chip: You’re drunk on alcohol and bliss, dancing in a bar you might never step foot in again so who cares? A spotlight shines down on you and you alone in the middle of a crowded floor and everyone around you gets swallowed by the shadows and it all blurs and you’re moving in slow motion with your eyes closed and there’s a strobe light and you’re sweating.

8. Sleepyhead – Passion Pit: Shit’s getting weird. It’s fucking late and you’re either in the passenger seat of a moving car, street lamps flooding the interior every couple of seconds. Or you’re in a living room, not ready to go to bed…dancing in the living room with your eyes closed, bumping into the coffee table and being sloppy, but charming. Totally adorable and charming.

9. Red and Purple – The Dodos: You’re hiking up a trail to a spot that overlooks the city and you’re completely exhausted but you try to act in shape cause it’s LA and people work out, right? But then you get to the top and it’s pretty awesome and you pat yourself on the back cause it’s beautiful and thank god you decided to get off the couch.

10. Red, Yellow, & Blue – Born Ruffians: You’re up in the air heading home and you might be terrified of falling from the sky, but right now, even that seems ok because you just had a fucking trip.

Hey, so, that was fun, guys! Let’s do it again soon sometime.

Varbana, Lime Basil, Magnolia Pear, and Cucumber Aloe are just a few of my favorite soapy scents from South of France, a great, all-natural, all-vegetable (who wants to lather themselves in animal fat every morning?) body line from, you guessed it, the south of France.

And at $3.55 for an 8.8 oz. bar, you get not only a great, moisturizing, expensive-smelling product, but a great bargain, because 8.8 oz. is one really big bar of soap!

We all know it is often hard to find a good deal in the natural body-care world, but here you have it.

I am constantly asked when I’m going to write more home decor articles for OMFGstyle.com.

Ever since I was strong enough to push a piece of furniture and dexterous enough to make a donut out of a piece of tape, I have rearranged, redecorated, and reimagined the spaces around me (much to my mom’s dismay and the often negative impact on the hardwood floors and our professionally painted walls).

Not only do I love making homes and spaces beautiful (and maybe, just maybe, I have “the eye”), but it’s something I work really, really hard—and tirelessly—at; it is what can only be described as a passion. If someone would hire me, I’d gladly add “interior” to my designer title.

Through the years, I have gone through many different decorating styles, but along that way, the pieces I love have stayed with me and informed my current eclectic, somewhat Hollywood Regency, somewhat Mid-Century, somewhat Beach House-y style. But although, like with fashion, my tastes have had to change in order for me to get the right balance of everything I love and therefore define my personal style, my influences have remained quite solid. And although I am vowing to share more specific decorating tips and insights with my dear OMFGstyle.com readers in the future, today I’d like nothing more than to share some of my favorite books, magazines, and websites—where I go for home decor inspiration (and you can too):

• Domino: The Book of Decorating
• Hue by Kelly Wearstler
• Modern Glamour: The Art of Unexpected Style by Kelly Wearstler
• Elle Decor Magazine
• Palm Springs Living
• ReadyMade Magazine
• Living Modern
• On the interwebs (and therefore free): LonnyMag.com, ApartmentTherapy.com, HabituallyChic, and DesignSpongeOnline.com

As you may have noticed, I am primarily a bourbon and whiskey drinker. The Brooklyn, one of my all-time favorite bourbon cocktails, is a fine warm-weather treat, but due to the magical warming properties of whiskey, fits the bill perfectly year-round.

Recently challenged to make The Brooklyn, a somewhat labor-intensive cocktail served straight up in a martini glass, for a large, self-service party on a budget, I invented a new variation, The Brooklyn Punch.

Both drinks have gone over swimmingly with guests, friends, and the like, and I invite you to try them out yourselves this winter or when the weather’s hot.

The Brooklyn

• 2.5 oz. Maker’s Mark bourbon
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth (preferably the italian Punt e Mes, but Martini and Rossi is fine too)
• Juice of ½ a lemon (about 0.5 oz.)
• A little dash of  simple syrup
• Shake and serve straight up in a martini glass

The Brooklyn Punch

• Two 1-liter bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey
• 2/3 of a liter of sweet vermouth
• 1 gallon of fresh lemonade (fresh-squeezed lemon, simple syrup, and water to taste)
• Add to 2-gallon punch bowl or beverage dispenser with ice and lemon slices

Cheers!

Click for information on purchasing any of the items featured in here.

There are a lot of theories as to why people find things funny. According to an anonymous Austro-Indonesian Pastor’s wife on the venerated site www.answerbag.com, humor or “humour” as she cleverly refers to it is “subjective”. While that may be true in Indonesia, and she might actually be a pastor’s wife (show me the ring), the fact of the matter is that in most cases humor is not subjective. The reason it’s not is that most people segregate themselves into groups of friends and acquaintances that generally come from similar backgrounds or have similar tastes. Friends are friends because they can, in some way, relate to each other and unless you’re the next Dane Cook (irony alert!) this tiny sampling of the population is going to be your audience 99% percent of the time. I got that number from answerbag, in case you were wondering.

Friends and like minded people will find the same things funny so my basic point is that if you tell a joke and only you think it’s funny, then the joke isn’t funny. It’s not that your friends can’t recognize your genius, it’s that your zinger about the kind of poops that old people take when they die just isn’t the comedy gold you thought it was. If anyone reading this steals that joke I will kill you.

So how do you tell a joke? I honestly don’t know. I’d like to say something deep about bearing your soul and exposing injustice but I won’t. I would define a joke as anything that anyone finds amusing and relatable. Even though most jokes that people tell are unconscious and instantaneous and you can’t really learn to be funny there are things you can do if you want to tell a joke:

Say something unexpected

Tricking someone into thinking you are going to say one thing and then saying the other is a common joke form. For example if you were to say:

Whenever I’m not feeling creative and need inspiration, I look into the eyes of a child…and realize how stupid they are.

That is funny, well not really, but you get the idea. You were expecting something cheesy about the unspoiled innocence of children and their incredible imaginations but instead: whammy!

Make Fun of Yourself

Another classic way to make people laugh is to apply your completely natural self-loathing to craft a hilarious knee slapper at your own expense. If you are someone who is sad inside, this behavior gives off the illusion of confidence and self-assuredness because people mistakenly believe that only the well-adjusted are secure enough in who they are to take the piss out of themselves. Unfortunately for sad clowns everywhere, this is not the case. The key here is to make fun of yourself playfully, and not depressingly. Here’s an example of something I wouldn’t advise you say:

I’m terrible at soccer…sometimes I want to kill myself.

Actually, now that I’m reading that I realize how it is actually hilarious and that if someone said that to me I would probably lick their face out of admiration. So I correct myself, if you want to be the life of the party just walk around tellling everyone that you’re thinking of killing yourself.

Be A Human Being

Nothing is worse than a sociopath. Tell jokes that show that you aren’t some souless monster that feeds off of orphan tears. With your new joke telling abilities you will be able to easily dominate the minds of those around you. Avoid this urge. With great jokes comes even greater responsibility not to convince the masses that you are some sort of all-knowing, all-seeing demi-god, so don’t do that shit.

So this is where your training ends and your new life begins. So in that vein, go west, be free, and tell that joke about your hatred of immigrants that you’ve always wanted to tell! Because if you don’t, then who will? A lot of horrible racists probably, but you get the idea.