but for now we are young, let us lay in the sun, and count every beautiful thing we can see

In a way, I (almost) can't wait to get back to New York because I'm getting too accustomed to waking up every morning to lovely weather. I find myself planning picnics, sunbathing, road trips, and so many other activities that require several feet of snow to not be on the ground. Until I have to go back to the upstate chill, I will do as the dollies do and lay in open fields of grass. 

Now all I need to do is find a meadow...

Flower power poster child Marianne Faithfull lounges in a field 

Audrey Hepburn shields her eyes from the sun

I love this scene of Sofia Coppola's film where Marie Antoinette and her gang venture outdoors to watch the sun rise 

The queen of glam, Marilyn Monroe, proves she could also be (quite literally) down-to-earth

Sophia Loren smiles in a field of dandelions

Amanda Seyfried, in Teen Vogue, is surrounded by wildflowers so bright they almost match the color of her light blonde hair

The cast from Across the Universe in one of my favorite scenes, where the group sings "Because" in an open meadow of tall grass

 Jack Nicholson's future gal-pal Anjelica Huston poses in a manicured outdoor setting

Marianne and Mick, the poster couple for the decadent bohemian glitterati of the sixties, lay on fields of grass and pelts of fur 

Audrey Hepburn picks flowers petals in Holland - perhaps playing a game of 'He loves me, he loves me not'?

I think Marc Jacobs is a genius and creates the most beautiful things, and his campaign for his scent 'Daisy' is no exception

The lovely Linda (McCartney, that is)

Marianne Faithfull, by Jean-Marie Perier

Another look at Kirsten Dunst's take on Marie Antoinette

Of this photo, Pattie Boyd said: "Me with my dirty feet in the country. George and I went to the countryside and threw down some rugs and had a lovely picnic" 

Chanteuse Françoise Hardy

The beautiful Sharon Tate

Well, I just can't get enough of Marianne

One of my personal fashion heroes, Sienna Miller

Members of the Bloomsbury group: Lady Ottoline Morrell, Maria Nys, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell

Jane Birkin still manages to look perfect, even when she's laying in a field of dirt and grass

Rolling Stone spawn, Georgia May Jagger

Another from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Speaking of the Stones, a glimpse at Keith Richards soaking up the sun

Former Disney darlings, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in Elle Magazine

The fabulous Miss France Gall

I wish that the unnatural lighting was the strangest part of this very cool pic, but Veruschka's choice to lounge in the woods with little more than that red stretch of fabric beats the post-apocalyptic hue

Judy Garland's Dorothy takes a nap in the meadows of Oz

welcome to my life, tattoo, we've a long time together, me and you, i expect i'll regret you, but the skin graft man won't get you

I got a tattoo last night. Well, to be honest, I got a temporary tattoo last night (I know, I'm such a badass). It's from this really fab kit of temporary tattoos by Betsey Johnson. Done in the same vein as the Chanel Les Trompe L'Oeil 'skin art', the BJ tats can be combined to look like jewelry on the skin.
I decided on a green and pink serpent on my forearm. And apart from the occasional Death Eater allusion, no one was too surprised by my recent addition. I choose to believe it's because people assume I'm daring enough to get a tattoo, not that it was so clearly evident a temp.
My foray into the temporary got me thinking about real body art. I used to have an obsession with tattoos and would plan which one I would get the moment I turned eighteen. I never wanted a monstrously big one - always just a tiny thing that I could appreciate but not advertise to the world. In seventh grade, I wanted a star of my wrist (très Gisele). At fifteen, I wanted a small word or French phrase. By seventeen, I was settled on the idea of getting a small swallow on either my wrist or side of my forearm.
When I actually turned eighteen, I reneighed on my promise. Suddenly, getting a tattoo was something I desperately wanted to avoid. When friends would ask what I thought of tattoos, I would always dismiss them - saying that I would never be able to become First Lady if I had a tat.
But the truth of the matter is a little different. While even the baddest bad gals of retro Hollywood never got tattoos (you'd never see Lana Turner with a tramp stamp), the stigma behind tattoos has definitely changed in the last few decades. Now it's hip - even commonplace - for people to have tattoos. What made me reconsider getting inked was the very nature of tattoos themselves - they are forever. I hated the permanency of it; I'm probably the worst type of person to even consider getting a tattoo - I hate change of any sort, but I'm also extremely noncommittal. Getting inked, even with something smaller than a dime, seemed too revolutionary for me.
I recently read an interview with Olivia Kim, one of the head gals of Opening Ceremony, on Into the Gloss. In addition to her enviable job and lustworthy wardrobe, she had a slew of really cool tattoos. Little birds, hearts, bows, boats, sea ships, and cupcakes adorn her hands. I really loved her quote about tattoos: "I love the idea that it really marks where you are in your life at that time. I think people are scared of that permanence but I feel like, it's ok, you can always move on, you can cover it, you can take it off if you don't like it. I remember everything about each one." I credit Kim with my recent (i.e. last night when I couldn't fall asleep and this afternoon when my friend and I were bored and start googling 'tiny tattoos') change in feelings towards tattoos. The permanency may very well be an attractive aspect, and I just misunderstood. Tattoos are like souvenirs of yourself from a particular moment in time.
Maybe I will reconsider my personal stance on the tattoo. Though, with my parents possibly reading this, maybe I won't.

Gisele Bundchen

Angelina Jolie and her many tattoos

Amy Winehouse

Evan Rachel Wood

Kate Moss has several tattoos: an anchor on her right arm, a 'P' on her hip, a star on her ankle, and a small heart on her hand

Lindsay Lohan has many tattoos: a star on her wrist, "Shhh..." on her index finger, 'La bella vita' on her lower back, "Breathe" done in white ink

Marianne Faithfull has a swallow tattooed on her hand

Megan Fox

I love the wings that Nicole Richie has on her back

Sienna Miller has stars on her shoulder and a swallow on her inner wrist

Leighton Meester

Title: from "Tattoo" (The Who)

she looked so bright in pixie hair, she made me know how much i cared

When photos of Emma Watson's new pixie cut were first released to the unexpecting public a few months ago, I had one thought: ugh. My inner monologue went a-buzz when I saw her close crop - it's not that I didn't love her haircut, I was just jealous. For years, I've wanted to cut my hair into a chic short crop. I think it was a late night viewing of Bonjour Tristesse that did me in. Seeing Jean Seberg running around the French Riviera without any hair hanging down her neck ignited something in me that I haven't been able to shake. She looked so carefree, so sexy, so gaminely gorgeous - I wanted to be her (well, minus the part about destroying the lives of everyone around her ... in the film, I mean). 

Since then, I feel like everyone around me has these incredibly cool crops: so many actresses and singers - talented and untalented alike - have made the plunge with a pixie; my hairdresser is in the process of growing out her super spunky, edgy cropped 'do; the mother of one of my friends has the perfect pixie I really want to get. And then there are those amazingly cool girls I see around campus (but are too intimidatingly hip to ever approach them) who have immaculately cared-for crops. 

I know that I shouldn't ever cut my hair this drastically short. I've discussed this with my brothers, my mother, my friends, and hairdressers, and the general consensus is that I would look dreadful with this haircut. It's been explained that I don't have the 'elfish' features required for the look, which I accept and agree with. I don't have those devastatingly petite features that appear delicate and pretty. I've accepted the fact that if I were to crop my hair, I would look like an uglier version of my younger brother. Plus there's that danger of screwing up and coming out with a very mumsy look. It's easy to go wrong with this look if you opt for thick sideswept bangs in the front (a la Ashlee Simpson, Hayden Pannetierre, Kate Gosselin ... sorry guys). So while Kate (of the Eight) and I can't do the pixie, here is my ode to the women who have done it right:

Several of Audrey's most popular characters underwent major transformations in the form of cutting her hair short, like in Roman Holiday and Sabrina

French film actress Audrey Tautou has garnered comparisons to the Audrey mentioned above due to her coquettish gamine personality and her chic hairstyle

To portray Edie Sedgwick, Sienna Miller chopped off her long hippie locks in favor of a look more resembling the former Warhol superstar

Carey Mulligan reached the top of every best dressed list with her daring fashion choices and the ever-changing hue of her pixie

Pairing minimalist clothes with maximalist accessories, Edie Sedgwick sealed her fate as the style maven of the underground scene when she cropped and dyed her once-brunette long locks

Emma Watson has matched her new look with edgier fashion choices and more dramatic makeup

Ginnifer Goodwin shows off several different ways to style a pixie: sleek bangs swept across the forehead, styled back to give the appearance of shorter fringe, or mussed up for more texture

Laugh-In starlet Goldie Hawn looks like she's having a blast in her flower-power dress and short hairstyle

Halle Berry has the amazing ability to appear to never age - she constantly looks fresh and sexy, especially with her close crop

Jane Birkin, owner of the most lusted-for fringe of the sixties, went with a shorter look in the seventies

The style icon who started it all (for me, at least) Jean Seberg, the princess of French New Wave in Otto Preminger's Bonjour Tristesse and Jean-Luc Godard's À bout de souffle

Jean Shrimpton tries the style on as she channels Mia Farrow for a Vogue editorial 

Kate Moss transformed from poster gal of heroin chic to pixie princess in 2001 with a cut by her BFF James Brown (not that James Brown)

To play bounty hunter Domino Harvey, Keira Knightley got an edgy crop that was longer in the front than the back; though technically playing a bounty hunter, Keira looked like a rock star

Kirsten Dunst reportedly cropped her hair to prove to studio execs that she would be the right fit for an in-development Jean Seberg biopic (I'm still hoping that this project comes to being one of these days)

Marianne Faithfull revealed her short style in 1968, in projects such as Rock and Roll Circus, and again in the early 1970s

In the film Rosemary's Baby, Mia Farrow has this exchange with her displeased husband, played by John Cassavetes: 

JC: What the hell is that?

MF: I've been to Vidal Sassoon!

JC: You mean you actually paid for that?!

Besides the whole allowing his wife to be raped by Satan in exchange for a successful acting career, this was a primo example of Rosemary's husband's douchebaggery

A Mia of a different name - Wasikowska, that is - also rocks the pixie

Michelle Williams garnered comparisons to Mia Farrow when she cut her hair in 2007; three years later she has a pixie again but has longer fringe and a brighter shade of blonde

Model Mona Johannesson, photographed by Camilla Åkrans, channels Rosemary Woodhouse

In the process of growing out her post-V for Vendetta shorn look, Natalie Portman looked absolutely stunning with her groomed short style

Supermodel Agyness Deyn is known as much for her peroxide pixie as her androgynous style

Though she started a style craze when she debuted her chin-length bob in 2008, I prefer the heavily highlighted crop she sported at the Met Gala the next year

Selma Blair opted for shaggy, unevenly chopped bangs to add a little more edge to her cropped 'do

Victoria Beckham takes off that "extra half an inch" when she went from her Rihanna-reminiscent bob to this short pixie crop in early 2009

Winona Ryder's short hairstyle looked its grooviest in the 1960s-set film Girl, Interrupted matched with black-and-white boatneck tees and fitted turtleneck sweaters

Title: from "Keep On Believing" (Iggy Pop)