Month: September 2014

9.30.14 heavy metal

~ Margaret DTH ~ 3 Comments

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Do you guys remember my Today’s Bangles post titled Solid Gold Lumberjack? Well, I went ahead and engraved my dad’s watch and I picked it up the other day. What do you think?

IMG_2653.JPG I remember so clearly rubbing that glass bump on the face of the watch while my dad wore it. And the calluses on his palm, this weird wart that grew under his ring finger (that he had removed eventually), and his nicely trimmed nails. Now I have just his Rolex. So I’m wearing it, the Elsa Peretti X, and the Mexican cuff. All gifts from him.

McQueened

~ Margaret DTH ~ 4 Comments

It was maybe a year before Alexander McQueen’s suicide that I was visiting a friend in New York. He, my friend, is someone who rotates career wise between the fashion industry and the design industry so his taste is impeccable. Anyway, he said to me “With your figure, you should wear Alexander McQueen.” I nodded agreeably and thought to myself “I should wear Alexander McQueen!” And then my spoilsport pocketbook chimed in and said “Oh no, you should not.”

Damn you financial responsibility! You ruin all my fun. But that’s where McQ enters the scene, stage left.

I adore this $80 razor blade wrap bracelet because I imagine myself a badass (shh… I know I’m not, I was the kid who was kicked for wearing knee socks, after all, but let me have my fantasies!)

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What do you guys think of this tough as nails charm bracelet below for $200?

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More like harm bracelet, amirite?

In summary, maybe I should wear Alexander McQueen, and to keep a happy pocketbook, I’ll stick to the McQ jewelry. Je le vaux bien!

Good willing

~ Margaret DTH ~ 4 Comments

For the most part, thrift shopping in SF is pointless. It’s all picked over, marked up, “vintage” Forever 21 pieces, or odd sizes. But there are two huge exceptions.

1. Men’s wear- I can wax poetic for hours over the incredible finds we’ve brought home for my husband. Calvin Klein button up shirts for $14, Dolce & Gabanna sweaters, great shoes. Good deals are super findable because frankly? Many guys don’t shop second hand, and those who do don’t know labels and pass over excellent items.

2. Jewelry, books, and home items at The Goodwill on Clement. My theory is this Goodwill is on the fringe of the fancy neighborhood so it receives donations of under the radar items that don’t have much of a resale market. But Clement street is very immigrant heavy, and I think the people who shop here are looking for practical items. What falls in the cross over of this Venn diagram? The less practical nicer quality stuff. Decorative vases, interesting jewelry pieces, and, well I don’t know how James Patterson books fit into my theory but I find lots of them too.

Check out today’s purchase:

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A brass wire wrapped cuff, with an asymmetrical shape to it and a brass and blue lapis bangle with a tiny little heart clasp. Pretty cute, right?? Big pat on the back for me.

What do you guys think? You find any great second hand items lately?

9.27.14 how to get away with bangles

~ Margaret DTH ~ 1 Comment

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First order of business, these are my bangles today: Elsa Peretti X (from my dad), North Africanish brown bangle with brass hardware and my Tiffany’s silver bangle from my dad from 1993. See? 1993

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Second and more pressing issue: How to Get Away with Murder! So great, right? I watched the pilot while on the treadmill this morning. Just the timber of Viola Davis’s voice when she says her criminal law class is also known as “how to get away with murder”… Woh! So awesome. I’m very much looking forward to a new favorite tv show. The pilot did a great job of setting up both the season plot arch as well as telling the in episode storyline. Did anybody else see the episode? Did you like it too?

Full dinosaur disclosure

~ Margaret DTH ~ 9 Comments

Full disclosure, I own a boutique (Bath Sense yay! says the queen of uncomfortable self promotion). Because of the shop I vendored at a San Francisco fashion week event last night on fashion blogging.

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It was ridiculous because apparently there is now a college major called “fashion blogging” and this is San Francisco. So. “Fashion”… One panelist very correctly answered “hoodies” when asked about classic SF style. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very very fashionable SFers. People here (myself included) definitely care about clothing, style and designers, but when a lady wearing Google glasses and just a boring black dress, like sooooo boring I wouldn’t even wear it to a funeral except maybe a funeral for Kinko’s (rest in peace), when she is “fashionable” at our “fashion” week? I just cannot use enough air quotes to express myself properly. And the tech dudes trying to explain their startup concepts that will fail in 2 months time? Ugh.

Anyway, so I’m there as a vendor, spying on the blogging insight panels, watching the jumbo screen behind them with the live hashtag feed and drinking wine when I decide to hashtag something. Hello tweet under my shop’s name (@BathSense #eyeroll)

“I think I’m the dinosaur in the room” is what I wrote. Hashtag the event name. And it instantly pops up on the jumbotron behind the panelists and freezes the screen. I THINK AM THE DINOSAUR IN THE ROOM! That is what we in the biz call branding. Bath Sense = I THINK AM THE DINOSAUR IN THE ROOM.

So. Let’s go with it. Here’s some cool dinosaur jewelry because I THINK I AM THE DINOSAUR IN THE ROOM #FTW

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Dinosaur Designsis just awesome. They’re located in NY and Australia. How’s that for a combo? My brother gave me some of their earrings for Christmas a few years back. This funky red bangle is marked down to $50 now! If it’s unavailable that means I decided to buy it.

What about this crazy thing?

IMG_2611.JPG Is it a bird? Do you see that yellow as a beak? Or maybe a football helmet? I don’t know but it’s $40 now! What would you wear with it? Hey boring black dress lady, let me swap out your weird glasses for some out-of-control jewelry, now you are rocking.

This one’s a little pricier:

IMG_2612.JPG It’s called Vanilla Pod, resin dipped in 24 ct gold for $336

Anyway, Dinosaur Designs offers a lot of interesting things. I like the hand touchedness of their pieces. You can really see the craftsmanship that goes into their jewelry. And they are big supporters of the arts which, full disclosure you guys? I’m an artist too. If we’re going to do this, let’s do this all the way. Www.margarettimbrell.com. Now I’m that embarrassed dinosaur in the room. *hides face* oh and? I was run over by a truck 7 years ago. One of my passports is Brazilian. I’m entering my 2nd IVF attempt in November. And I’m Superman. Now you know everything about me.

Favorite husband

~ Margaret DTH ~ Leave a comment

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Meth, treasure trove, ID bracelets, favorite husbands? What more can you ask for from a news story?! This morning SFGate.com covered a busted meth lab full of stolen items. In an effort to find the original owners they’ve posted pics of the stolen goods on line. So Robert, if you’re reading my blog and happen to be somebody’s very favorite husband and also missing your ID bracelet, contact the Santa Rosa police department.

San Francisco, I love you

~ Margaret DTH ~ 3 Comments

24 Hour Party People
The best line from 24 Hour Party People (an entertaining movie starring Steve Coogan about Joy Division, dreary weather, ecstasy and Manchester) is from the moment when the star boils down the why of himself. That person being Tony Wilson, the real life founder of a record company that put out so much great music from the UK. So the best line of the film is when Tony Wilson explains the “why” of his career and of himself and says “That is my heroic flaw: my excess of civic pride.”

How many people feel that way about their home town? I do, I definitely suffer from an excess of civic pride. I love my city, I feel so proud to be from here. The Golden Gate Bridge never grows old. International Orange is probably the color of my blood, and my Giants baseball? Humm baby; nothing is better.

It was while reading the Bold Italic today I noticed the special SF jewelry section. Jewelry + SF = serious click bait for me. Turns out the Bold Italic sells some super cute items! But just the one bracelet. Boohoo. Don’t they know their consumer?? Me! I’m their consumer! Or I could be…Golden Gate Bridge cuff $74 for this puppy. I like it! Get more plz, Bold Italic. Let me be your consumer so I can announce my civic pride from the corner of my wrist.

Joy Division and bridges pair nicely together, don’t they?

9.24.14 downloaded

~ Margaret DTH ~ 1 Comment

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Ugh, twelve hundred hours later I finally successfully updated my iPad. Why? Wai? Today’s bangles: green Calèche, silver bangle from 1993, the final birthday gift from my dad Grand Apparat (I learned on Monday this is the very first Hermès pattern which has a nice symmetry to being my final gift), and Balcons de Guadalquivir.

Zombie zombie

~ Margaret DTH ~ 8 Comments

Why Zombies, why now?  I want to know.  Because I’m obsessed, and I think many people are too.  I read somewhere that the proliferation of alien and UFO themed movies and shows from the 1960’s developed from our fear of the cold war.  In this way, the threat of an atomic winter translated to a cultural preponderance of little green men.

I believe this. I think we act out through art and culture so as to better understand the world around us.  Which leads me to zombies… what is it that we are responding to now? For example, Zombie by Fela Kuti was a political criticism of the Nigerian government.  But what about our zombies? What does the zombie apocalypse examine for us?
IMG_2600.JPG zombie bracelet by nitebyrd

To the question: I don’t know. I can relate to the examination of the world through zombies but on a very small personal level. I want my dead loved ones to come back to me. Every day I’m dealing with the grief from the loss of my dad, knowing I would want him back no matter what. I could easily be the Governor caring for Penny. I’d wear this eye patch from GothFoxDesigns on Etsy. (Be careful, the link is SFW but don’t click on the other images.) However, my zombie love predates this awful period of my life.

If I were in school still, I’d sign up for Zombies and the American Culture 101.  Is it our baby boomers coming to terms with mortality? Is it a means to question ourselves, in this very comfortable world where survival skills are no longer necessary? You see the signs of our spoiled comforts everywhere, like this bone bracelet from VMT Los Angeles, though lovely, is a jaw dropping $2175 IMG_2599.JPG I looked at it and thought “Are you kidding me? But it is attractive… and if money were no object I would buy it myself.”

Do zombies tap into that same vein as the Tuff Mudders, the Ultra-marathons and the Survival Man TV shows? Are we as a culture searching to prove ourselves on a very fundamental level?

What do you think? Do you zombie? How would you survive? I’d probably put my knitting skills to use and barter warm sweaters for food. Also, I throw a good punch. And what do you think of Z nation, you watch it yet?