Tomorrow around this time, there will be a piece of science fiction on this little blog here. I figured I’d warn you in advance so you’re not like “who the fuck does Jamie think she is? George Lucus or something?!” I can’t promise Ewoks or facehuggers but it will be fun. In case you haven’t heard by now, it will be the second time Nancy Pearl Wannabe has hosted the Choose Your Own Blogventure series and I’ll be taking part. So make sure you stop by tomorrow and play along!

Ben has been dropping hints of a super secret project he has been working on and today I can final reveal that I will be taking part of this no longer secret project too!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be spent sweating it out with the 75,000+ people expected to show up at Grant Park for Lollapalooza. There will be some really great bands and I’m really looking forward to it. Just to make you a little jealous, here is a taste of who I will see: Duffy, Radiohead, Mates of States, Explosions in the Sky, Spankrock, DJ AM, Brand New, The Weakerthans, Chromeo and my lovah, Mark Ronson.

Jess is prepared to bail me out of jail in case I get in trouble with the law for trying to sneak attack Mark Ronson’s face. In case I die of heatstroke, you all have to battle it out on who gets to keep my pretty blog.

Are you going to Lolla or just wanna keep up with me because you know I will be twittering my face off all weekend?

P.S. Want a cute and FREE header by the lovely lady who made my amazing design? Go here!

What do you do when friends are in town?

Take them to get cupcakes, of course!

When Deutlich and Maxie were in town last month, we had a mini cupcake crawl. First, we hit up Sweet Mandy B’s first but I settled for a cookie there. I’m so glad I did! Our next stop was Swirlz cupcakes and I could not get enough!

Swirlz is in Lincoln Park, right off of Clark on Belden. Now let me tell you, I’m super picky about cake and cupcakes because a lot of frosting is just too sweet for me. Swirlz cupcakes were to die for though! The frosting was just right and the cupcakes tasted amazing.

Pam was such a sweetheart and hooked us up! We had a taste of just about every cupcake that was in store, I think. There is a such a great variety. I also think it is pretty fantastic that they have gluten-free* cupcakes. I really didn’t know much about what gluten free means, but Pam took the time to explain to us. I had a regular Red Velvet cupcake and then tried the gluten-free Red Velvet, seriously, you could not tell the difference! Moist cake and yummy cream cheese and butter cream frosting. It was delicious.

These are all the cupcakes we ended up getting. I was a big fan of the Red Velvet and Peanut Butter! I ended up bring a chocolate cupcake and a vanilla cupcake home for boyfriend. The frosting melted a bit from my day outside but that didn’t stop him from taking them down in oh, about 3.2 seconds.

Also, I couldn’t forget about my adorable dog so when I see pupcakes on the counter, you just know I picked some up! Swirlz also got Edie’s bark of approval. I forgot to take a picture of these but I’ll be back soon enough to get her more.

Swirlz motto: Cupcakes make people happy.

Never has a more true word been spoken!

Coming to Chicago? Definitely make this one of your stops. I know I will be there next time I’m in Lincoln Park!

* Don’t know what gluten-free is either? Check it out.
** I slacked on the photo front so these are from Jess and Jenn.

The scale has hit that number.

You know the “at least I’m not ___ lbs yet” number. Don’t get me wrong, I have been more than this but this  is one I was hoping I wouldn’t see again. I don’t plan on letting it get higher though.

I know there are some people who think, “Just shut up, eat better and work out. It’s so easy. Stop complaining”.

Those people have obviously never struggled with their weight before. Those people never felt the need to skip meals. When you do eat, never felt the urge to count each and every calorie you put into your mouth. Then regret each and every one of those calories, even if it was just a piece of fruit. They don’t step on and off the scale throughout the day, flinching if the number goes up an ounce or breathing a sigh of relief if it is down a bit.

It’s not easy for everyone.

Now I’m back at the start. I’ll watch what I eat, find time to work out and hope I don’t work myself up into a giant mess again this time.

There are people size 2-22, men and women, young and old who have issues with food and dieting. Some people are lucky to never have body image issues but I’m not one of them.

If you’re lucky enough to be one of those people, don’t judge.

You don’t know what it’s like unless you have been there yourself.

This week I have another Chicago based etsy shop! Megan makes each and every item in her store from her home studio here in Chicago where she lives with her husband and adorable little dachshund. Megan Lee Designs offers cards, stationary, tote bags and more!

Some of my favorites include this pretty peacock card:

and if you frequent the Wicker Park area of Chicago as much as I do, this shirt might look a little familiar!

Meg has graciously offered up one of her tote bags for a giveaway this week! She has some really cute ones that I know you all will just love. Use it for grocery shopping, keep it in your regular bag to use instead of using shopping bags or just use it for toting your every day things around.

You know the drill, lovelies. Visit Megan’s shop and pick out your favorite item and come back tell me in a comment. Do this by Friday and you have your chance to win a tote of your choice from Megan Lee Designs!

(Note: Your favorite item entry doesn’t have to be a tote bag, but your prize will be one. Make sense?)

A winner will be chosen randomly on Friday and asked to pick out their prize. I’ll forward your info to Megan and she will send out your tote!

Ready?

GO!

Edie swimming from Jamie Lovely on Vimeo.

Note:

No, the sniffling you here in the background is not me doing mountains of coke, I am just dying of a summer cold.

Yes, that is Sir Winston wandering around the pool.

And no, it is not raining, I think my camera is just dying.

Lastly, I don’t have a man’s voice, that was my dad talking at the end.

Project Runway gets sold to Lifetime, where it will more than likely run between the most recent Movies of the Week. Bravo doesn’t cry about it. They are developing a new fashion show that might kick Project Runway’s ass.

FASHION HOUSE (working title)
“Fashion House” (wt), a creative competition program based on the British format of the same name, replicates the workings of the fashion business through a fashion house. Teams of designers will live together and work to create not just a single item of clothing but an entire, cohesive line. These collections are created on deadline and are presented to commercial buyers with the opportunity of having the designers’ line mass marketed.

If Bravo pulls this off and does it well, they will once again be the best channel in the world. The only bad part – no Tim Gunn.

More here and here.

PINK: A (LOVE) COURIER SERVICE, an art & cycling project on tour from Austin, TX, is setting up shop in Wicker Park, July 26 August 15! Visit our factory headquarters @ the St. Paul’s Cultural Center to send love notes to friends, lovers, coworkers, and strangers . . . we bottle the notes and deliver them by bike all around the city!

Want to volunteer as a messenger or love factory worker? Come to our volunteer orientation:
Wednesday, July 23, 7:00pm (factory HQ).

Can’t come to the volunteer orientation?
Send us an email: pinkontour@gmail.com or just stop on in anytime we are open (Wed-Sun, 11am-10pm)

chicago: we (deliver) love (for) you. (pass it on!)

Where: St. Paul Cultural Center, 2215 W. North Avenue

When: July 26-August 15, open Wed-Sun, 11am-10pm

Contact: pinkontourATgmailDOTcom

Web: Jaclyn Pryor

Someone send me love notes, okay?

source

For my birthday in March, boyfriend’s parents gave me tickets for the Cirque du Soliel show, Kooza. Yesterday, the day finally rolled around for the show and since I was in San Francisco all last weekend, I didn’t get to see The Dark Knight. We decided to make whole day of it.

We hit up a 4:00 show of The Dark Knight at Webster Place. I know everyone and their mother has posted thoughts on it already so I’ll keep this brief. What the hell was up with Christian Bale’s Batman voice?! It was SO bad. Why couldn’t he talk normal? It made me burst into laughter a few times during the movie, I can’t even lie. Secondly, before I seen the movie, I figured all the Oscar hype for Heath Ledger was just because he had died. Honestly, he was amazing in this role. Creepy, maniacal and you couldn’t even tell it was Heath behind all that makeup. All in all, definitely lived up to the hype (minus Batman’s voice).

Right after the show, we headed up to the United Center for Cirque du Soliel. I was not expecting it to be in tents outside of the United Center, but it was. It was quite small but there were great views from anywhere you sat. The only bad thing was that they packed us in like sardines. The seats were so close together it was really uncomfortable. The show was great though. I am now convinced that these women do not have bones in their bodies because I was hurting FOR them. Then one of them did this thing where they were moving their legs around in circles over their head in like a reverse backbend. DUDE, it was some shit out of the Exorcist and had me cringing.

We are now trying to see about getting tickets for a Cirque show when we go back to Vegas in October because this was so great on a small scale, I can only imagine it on a larger one like in Las Vegas. I’m hoping I can score us tickets for Love at the Mirage. It was a great day. I had boyfriend all to myself and we had tons of fun.

Saturday night was the Macy’s party. It was good in theory, I mean, you’re in Macy’s (still not Marshall Field’s though!) and they gave you coupons! They also stuck you in the handbag section with plenty of champagne. It kind of hurt seeing champagne flutes next to Marc Jacobs bags, bags that could be ruined by champagne and never have the chance to be in my possession!

But yeah, load em up with alcohol, make them spend all of their money but not before they spill red wine all over your furniture department. Oh and give them a hot chocolate shot, which actually when you think about it, sounds amazing but when you taste it – YOU WANT TO DIE.  We did not know it was chocolate liquor and pepper vodka. Seriously, pepper vodka?  WHO THINKS THAT WOULD BE GOOD?! I can’t think of any way that would taste good in any drink unless you like torturing yourself.

Then they cut us off.

Yes, that part was not cool because I put down my wine to go the bathroom that makes you want to break out in song, as Leah said.

This was the crazy mirrored and marble bathroom and yeah, we took pictures inside the bathroom so shut your face!

While in the bathroom, we ran into Amalah. Literally – she ran in screaming.  Then I barely let her finish washing her hands before I ran up to introduce myself. Amy is awesome and didn’t mind, I think she was just happy to find a bathroom.

Macy’s then kicked us out but I don’t care because I had an effin’ cheeseburger party to go to. Y who is my favorite blogger in the world, commented on my blog a few weeks ago and told me I had better introduce myself so I could come. I really took this as “introduce yourself and I’ll be your best friend forever” because seriously, Yvonne is ridiculously awesome and I would have followed her around like a puppy. I may or may not have tried to, which is how I got this picture: (more…)

Interrupting BlogHer recap week with some favorite things. As most of you know, I use to recap Project Runway every week and I also have been doing weekly features of Etsy shops.

What happens when both worlds collide?

While I am still not sure how I feel about this season of Project Runway, I can’t help but think this is cool. Two of this seasons designers have shops on Etsy!

Kelli Martin, who won last weeks challenge with a dress made of vaccuum bags and coffee filters splattered with dye and a little bleach, has an Etsy shop called Antilabel. There is only one item currently in shop.

Then there is LeAnne Marshall whose etsy shop, Leanimal, seems to be quite successful. She has gorgeous dressed and jackets that are to die for. I would die to get my hands on one of her coats.

I think it’s really awesome that these girls decided to try Etsy as a way to get their stuff out there and now they are on Project Runway. How about that?