ALERT: TO ALL STEVE MADDEN LOVERS!

Everyone stop what you are doing and listen to me. Go to your Internet browser and type in . Once you get there,go crazy with your credit card because Steve Madden is having a sale for both men and women's shoes! Can you believe it? I sure can!
They are having a sale on all types of shoes for women. Boots, wedges, pumps, flats, you name it! For men, they are having sales on hiking-type shoes, converse-type shoes and even some casuals! Don't wait hurry and get your credit card and start buying!

For all the women out there who are thinking, "Who wants to spend money on that?", think twice. Having Steve Madden shoes are like having a pair of Jimmy Choos for half the price. Think about it: if you walked into a room with a boring outfit, nobody will look at you because you have no pop. But, if you walk into a room with a boring outfit but paired it with Steve Madden, people will admire you. The shoes give you the boost of confidence that most women need but can't bring out through themselves. Think of these shoes as your confidence super hero!

As for men, they think that they are so macho and cool. Well, if they buy a pair of Steve Maddens, they will rise to the top with their egoistic personality! Women may not like this but men will thrive upon these shoes as if they were pairs juicy hot dogs because you know how men are with food...right? They casuals and the converse will make a man say that he is cool and the hiker boots will say that he loves nature. Just think about how many statements a man can make with his shoes. Watch out girls because the men are in the house!

So go to Steve Madden.com right now for that boost of confidence and that bold statement. Who knew that a pair of shoes could do that much?!

Kim's Kardashian's Kommandments

Kim Kardashian is one of the most popular fashion icons in Hollywood till date. Many of her clothes inspire others to dress well. Recently, Kardashian has been flaunting some cool and some uncool outfits. Lets see how she did.

This outfit Kardashian wore at a Quick Trim meet in Los Angeles in May of 2010. She has paired a simple, white collared shirt with, what she calls, everyday jeans. She makes this outfit look hot with big, volume filled hair, big heels and, well, a big rear end! Kardashian has turned a normal everyday look into something different. One of my favorites.

As said on glamour.com, Kardashian has us "green with envy" at the 2010 Angel Ball. She makes a her already fabulous, custom made Zac Posen gown even more fab with her chunky green jewelry. Way to go Kardashian! You have us all awestruck. Another chic number.

Here, Kardashian again turns to Zac Posen for her dress at the Vogue Fashion Fund Awards. Her dress is a nice grey, baby blue with a gorgeous, African-bead-type neckline. The only thing I wouldn't go for is the make up and somewhat the fitting of the dress. To my eyes, the dress makes her look voluptuous around the hip area. Also, the tan makeup makes her look like Snooki from Jersey Shore which I hope she wasn't going for! I would go for a more neutral makeup for her, as she had in her very first picture here. Also, she looks best with her hair down! Try again Kim!

At the People's Choice Awards in January, Kim turned to Malandrino for her sheath style dress and to Chanel for a fab clutch. Many people loved her ensemble but to my eyes, she looks like a doll. Love her shoes, love her clutch, lover her dress; but the hair and make up disappointed me. Again, I think that she watches Jersey Shore too much because I am seeing this Snooki look a lot! An alternative, again, would be to wear your hair in a proper bun or just down. Also, I would recommend to put less make up on. Light make up always looks best on anyone! Its okay Kim, we still love you!

To end things on a good note, Kim wows us with her skinny jeans, and simple black top with warrior-armor type embroidery on the shoulders at her sister, Khloe Kardashian's fragrance launch. With her hair in pony tail and a simple clutch, Kim looks young and fabulous in her outfit by Alexander McQueen. You took lady in black to a next level Kardashian! Nice Job!

The Birth of Chanel

On August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France, one of the most iconic fashion divas was born ; Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. After her mother's death, Chanel was placed in an orphanage by her father, who had abandoned her and her two sisters. This was the place where she has learned how to sow.
She had gotten the name Coco because one of her very first jobs was to sing in cabaret's in Vichy and Moulin and the name Coco was derived from one of the songs she used to sing. Chanel herself said that the name came from a shortened version of the French word "cocotte" which in English means "kept woman."

At the age of 20, Chanel got involved with French socialite, Etienne Balsan. He offered her to start a millinery or hat business in Paris. But then, Chanel left Balsan and became a mistress to Englishman Arthur "Boy" Capel. The money she got from her job as a mistress, she opened her first hat shop in Paris. She was very successful at her shop but her first fashion discovery was when she transformed a jersey into a dress. Chanel once told author Paul Morand, "My fortune is built on that old jersey that I'd put on because it was cold in Deauville."
Between 1920 and 1925, Chanel took her successful business and put it to the next level and also got into a lot of relationships. In the 1920s, she first introduced her perfume, Chanel No.5. Chanel states that perfume "is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure." Another success of hers in that year was her little black dress. She took a color used mostly for funerals and showed the world how fashionable it could be. In 1925, she introduced collared jackets and suits for women. This was a revolutionary design for her as it showed a little masculinity yet it was helping women say good bye to their corsets and restricted garments. At the time, she was also in a relationship with famous composer Igor Stravinsky.

Chanel's love life was a roller coaster! After Stravinsky, she was with the duke of Westminster. They had been together not for long yet the duke had proposed to her. Chanel, with her sassy personality, said something very interesting to turn him down. She said, "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!" After this interesting association, World War 2 had begun. Many of the conflicts had led Chanel to close down her boutiques and fire her workers. But, while France was being controlled by Germany, a special someone caught her eye. It was German military officer Han von Dincklage. But, the most important thing to note is that because of this relationship, Chanel was able to stay in her apartment at Hotel Ritz. After the war, Chanel was interrogated because of her association with von Dincklage. But, in the end she was not charged for being involved in any illegal collaboration. But, because of this situation, Chanel was forced to leaved the country and to live in exile in Switzerland because people saw her relationship with von Dincklage as a "betrayal to the country". But she was not gone for long; at the age of 70, Chanel came back to the fashion world. At first, heart breaking reviews were written by fashion critics. But she succeeded in wowing the critics with her bold fashion.

In 1969, there was a play made on her life. The show was written by Alan Jay Lerner, music was composed by Andre Previn, costume and design was done by Cecil Beaton and starred Katherine Hepburn as Chanel. The show was very successful and received seven Tony Award nominations and Beaton won an award for best costume design.

Chanel died in her apartment in Hotel Ritz on tenth of January, 1971. She was single all her life because "[she] never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird." Her funeral was conducted at the Church of Madeleine. Many mourners, in honor of the fashion icon, wore her suits.

Almost a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took charge of her company. Today, the company is going very well and is believed to be making hundreds of millions of sales each year.

RIP Coco Chanel

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Fashion and Teachers at ECA

Have you ever looked at what your teachers are wearing? Or what their fashion sense is like? I am sure everyone has. But the real question is; do teachers have a fashion style? Or are they just throwing on clothes and coming to school?

Well, let me answer the first question. Of course teachers have a fashion style. Everyone does. Most people would call the style of teachers "Work till I Drop". But at ECA, many teachers are fashion forward and some are a bit caught up in a time machine.

I have observed many teachers through the past week and I have realized that many teachers wear branded clothes and put on branded jewelry and hand bags, etc. Some teachers that I have for classes are very fashion forward. For example, my own Spanish teacher loves shopping! I observed her outfit for the day and it was very chic. She was wearing a straight leg, wide jean paired with a ruffled sleeve yellow blouse and a printed yellow cardigan. On her feet were bright, white flats. And of course, her handbag, as always was from Coach. For people who don't get my point, well its just that she is very modern. If you are looking for a new and updated style, follow this lady!

On the other hand, observing some of my teachers was one of the most interesting things in the world. I seriously felt like I was in a world of ill fitting jeans and multicolored shirts. But, in the words of Macbeth, "Whats done is done." The worst outfit seen this week was one of my male teachers. He was wearing a army colored, striped shirt paired with ill fitting pants and sport shoes. This didn't really bring out his super nice personality. A better alternative is to pair a nice pair of fitting, black pants with a look sleeved, collared shirt maybe in the color of light green. Also, instead of pairing everything with sports shoes, maybe try some professional looking shoes.

So, from this we all learn that some teachers love to show their personality in decent way and others don't care. There is nothing wrong with dressing in something you are comfortable in. Although, it wouldn't hurt to dress better. Remember, fashion can describe who you are in manhy different ways so if you dress well, you will put out a positive message to everyone.

Confessions of a Shopaholic: The Book

Name, Rebecca Bloomwood. Occupation, journalist. Nationality, British. Credit cards, twelve. Economic status: IN DEBT.
Rebecca Bloomwood is not the average human kind. She is utterly and completely obsessed with shopping. With twelve credit cards in her custody, she pampers herself with Chanel, Dior, Prada and Gucci. Maybe even with some foot massages here and there, Swiss chocolate, and also wine. But with credit card bills coming everywhere and new sales, she is tempted to make excuses. From glandular fever to her fake Aunt Ermintrude dying, she eases the guilt with some new make-up and some fancy dinner. The ironic part of all this is that she is a financial journalist advising people on debt.

Rebecca has rules in life where underwear is a basic human right, wine is essential, petrol and stationery and staples should not be printed on credit card bills and turning debt collectors into stalkers is legal. Bill after bill, she hides them, leaves them on the floor and tries to forget about them or hoping that they will disappear on their own.

Rebecca lives in a her best friend's flat, Suze and knows that she would never be able to have a flat like her. The good thing for Rebecca of having a flatmate like Suze is that even though Suze is as worse as Rebecca when it comes to shopping, Suze is helping her to get rid of her debt.

Working for a financial magazine is not easy for Rebecca, considering she doesn't know anything about finance and just copies everything from press packs she gets at conferences. The only reason that Rebecca has this job is because when she went to her favorite fashion magazine to interview, all she got back was go away. So she got stuck here.

One afternoon, Phillip, Rebecca's editor, asks her if she can attend a press conference. Rebecca loves going to these because usually Barclay is giving champagne and you know how Rebecca is about her champagne! But to her dismay, the conference is being hosted by Brandon Communications with their head honcho being Luke Brandon.

So far Rebecca is going through these problems: Luke Brandon can practically see through her pretend smartness, Derek Smeath, the debt collector, is out to get her and her money and she has no idea why Suze's cousin, Tarkin is interested in her.

Luke Brandon is the head of Brandon Communications. He started from nothing and now it is the largest PR company in London. He has a pretty scary reputation, in Rebecca's opinion, and has the largest IQ ever. This is all too much for Rebecca Bloomwood.

Derek Smeath is Rebecca's debt collector. Rebecca is so afraid of him that she will make any excuse in order for him to extend the date due for the payment of the bill. First its suffering from clinical depression, glandular fever, Aunt Ermintrude dying of a sky diving accident or malaria, having a call back for duty in Finland, or breaking your leg! As far as bills are concerned, she will hide them in her dressing table drawer or even throw them in a skip! Long story short; she doesn't like anything to do with debt or Luke Brandon!

Tarkin is another part of Rebecca's interesting life. As Suze's cousin, Rebecca just has to be nice to him because Suze lets her stay in her house and all. What Rebecca just found out is that Tarkin has a huge crush on her and Rebecca just thinks that the old chap is just disgusting. She is stuck in the most horrible situation of her life.

In the end Rebecca figures out herself and her life. She pays off all of her bills which she figures out by herself and not by stealing or anything. She also ends up falling in love with the man she was scared of, Luke Brandon. She came to understand that he is a very charming man and that she was wrong.

This book was very peculiar when I read it and sort of confusing because some things mentioned in the book are very unclear for example how does she pay her bills? Although, over all, Sophie Kinsella did a marvelous job portraying the acts of shopaholic and how it can affect you so much. On a scale from 1 to 10, I give this book a 8!

A Book by Nicholas Sparks: A Walk to Remember

"Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it." - Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember.

This quote is my favorite quote from my silent reading book. I started this book and enjoyed it very much. Nicholas Sparks is one of my favorite authors because his books have writing which flow and they have great detail.

This specific book, A Walk to Remember, is very poignant. Although the book started off a bit tedious, it grew into a book which was so deep; I was preoccupied in reading than doing any other activities.

Basically, this book is a flashback of 57 year old Landon Carter who is recalling his events which happened 40 years ago, when he was 17 years old. His events and their descriptions are very relatable to my life.

The book starts off with a prologue where the older Landon is standing near the Baptist church which looks exactly the same as when it did when he was 17. The story is set in the year of 1958 which the older Landon describes as "joyful and sad".

He starts off as this senior at Beaufort High School which collaborates with the Southern Baptist Church to put on a Christmas play called The Christmas Angel. In the book, this play is originally written by the priest of the church, Reverend Hegbert Sullivan. This play is about a man who lost his wife while she was giving birth to their first child. He came up with this idea for the play based on his own life. This year, his daughter Jamie is playing as the main character of the angel, who comes upon the man on Christmas and gives him the gift of being a good father to his daughter.

Landon's family has a history of hatred with Reverend Hegbert. Landon's grandfather, who has passed away, used to manufacture illegal drugs and was also a banker during the Great Depression. He built this rich estate for the Carter family by preying on the poor. One of Grandfather Carter's employees was Reverend Hegbert and the Reverend regrets it.

Reverend Sullivan's daughter, Jamie, is exactly like Hegbert Sullivan. She carries the Bible around with her every day, reads the Bible in the library during lunch period and thinks that everything happens because He wants it to happen. In other words, Jamie was not the average high school girl.

Early in his senior year, Landon is elected student body president and must attend the Homecoming Dance. Mortified that he has no date for the dance, he asks out Jamie, Reverend Sullivan's daughter. He has known her for a long time and she wasn't very attractive the year before. This year, Landon has come to think that she might not be that bad in the looks department. To Landon's surprise, Jamie dresses very nicely and doesn't carry the Bible with her!

After the dance, to Landon's surprise (again), Jamie thinks they are such great friends that Landon would do a favor for her. Jamie wants Landon to participate in the school play and the play the role of the man. Landon wants to refuse but since Jamie went to the dance with him, the least Landon could do was this.

Throughout the course of practices, Landon develops a deep friendship with Jamie. On the day of the play, Landon notices how angelic Jamie looks in her angel outfit and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. He doesn't care now what his friends think. Jamie and Landon officially start dating when Landon invites Jamie over for dinner at his beautiful mansion like house. There he tells her his true feelings for her and they kiss for the first time.

As Jamie and Landon spend more time together, Hegbert feels more and more uncomfortable. He doesn't like Landon being around Jamie. Landon thinks that it is because Hegbert despises him but Hegbert has another reason.

One evening when Landon is walking Jamie home, he tells her that he loves her. Jamie couldn't take it anymore and told Landon that she was dying of a very rare type of lukemia and that she only has a few months more to live. Devastated by the news, Landon holds back his sadness and starts praying for her and for a miracle.

His prayers soon make him realize that he has a part to play in Jamie's illness; something that he has to do to mend an emptiness in his heart. As he realizes what it is, he turns to Hegbert for permission. He wants his daughter's hand in marriage. Hegbert cannot think of anything to say but yes.

As Landon is getting ready for the wedding he remembers Jamie's dream. Her dream was that when she got married, there would be lots of people there and she would be wearing a flowing white dress. Her wishes were fulfilled and she was pushed down the aisle in a wheelchair and Reverend Hegbert himself conducted the vows.

Now 57 years old, Landon remembers these events and realizes that she left him but her heart remained with her.

This book is a great way of portraying the difficulties and obstacles of young love like parents and even personal problems. Yet the only way to survive through them is to believe in Him and believe in each other. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate this book with 10!

All ABout Me

   Firstly to introduce myself, I am a 9th grade English student here in Caracas, Venezuela. I have lived for 4 years of my life in the neighboring country of Trinidad. Also, I have lived in Indonesia for 10 years. With my dark brown hair and eyes, I walked into ECA, in hope for new friendship, new life and a new beginning, which I found. I wanted to do this blog to express myself. I think I am better on the computer than on paper in terms of expressing myself (which isn't completely true, I don't think I would do a blog if my English teacher hadn't told me to).

 

   I am very outgoing and I love to make new friends. I think that you should have good company around you to get through the hardships of school. I think through friends, interests form. For example, when I came here I was kind of reluctant to join sports. But ever since my friends encourage me to do, not only sports, but other things as well, I have been very open to different opportunities. My friends and I do everything together. Movies, eating, etc. Friends really make a huge difference in your normal and school life.

 

   There is really nothing I hate because I believe that the world was made with imperfections so that humans could make perfections and that people should be happy with what they were given and not be greedy. But, considering I have been to different schools, there is one thing I found in common. People are very quick to judge. I hate it when people say really mean things about a person when they don't even know who they are. I have gone through it and I didn’t like it and I don’t think that anyone would like it that people were talking about (unless it was something nice which in most cases is not true when you are new to a school).