#tbt What Is Your Fashion Rosebud?

[Inspired by The Rosebud Project, a photo project by Hugh Hamilton]

"Rosebud..."

Your assignment:
1) Go watch Citizen Kane. No, not just the clip above -- the whole dang movie!
     available on NetflixDVD or iTunes
2) Consider a powerful memory from your youth, one that shaped your core, one in which fashion was involved.

3) Write blog post.

4) Link!

As Hugh says in his IG project's tagline "...everyone has a Rosebud".

Best Practices: Attack of the Link-up Bots

It's been a while since I've gone on one of my Best Practices for Blogging rants.
No time like the present, eh?

I'm on my third year of running 52 Pick-me-up, my weekly link-up party that has always had some sort of "theme of the week".
I noticed, about a month ago, a sudden barrage of link-ups from bloggers who posted random unrelated links, never left comments, and never linked to the link-up on their posts (I don't require it, but hey, it's polite behavior.) It was kind of creepy. They all posted within minutes of each other.

sample from this week

I was clicking on these unusual link-ups, to see if they made any mention of SpyGirl, and one blogger wrote this:
"[redacted] makes sure all my links get submitted to so many great parties. I don’t know what I would do without her. If you are a blogger and are looking to expand your audience, then you should totally hire [redacted]."

AHA!

After reading this, I looked at the emails from inLinkz, and saw that all the posts came from the same IP address! This "helpful" blogger hires herself out to post link-ups for those "too busy" to do it themselves. Do these bloggers even know what link-ups they're on? What kind of community is this fostering? To, me, it's SO WRONG and it irritates me to no end.

You can watch my ire develop in the "fine print" that comes with my inLinkz script:

June 21, before the Link-up Bots appeared

July 5

August 8

Not that any of you reading this are guilty of this behavior. I needed to rant and to alert fellow link-up hosts. ;-)
Have any of you hosting link-up parties noticed this phenomenon? 

52 Pick-me-up: Boyfriend/ Girlfriend

LINKS/ PURCHASED/ GIFTED 

The Boyfriend or Tomboy look is very popular right now, The idea is to wear masculine ("Boyfriend") clothing, maybe mix it up with feminine touches. This is nothing new, it's a style chestnut. Chanel took men's sailor jerseys and pants and built her empire from those. Madonna donned men's boxers as outerwear in Desperately Seeking Susan and a trend was born. I've been wearing men's jeans since the 70s, as discussed in this old post. And think of all the women we've seen in a crisp white classic men's buttondown shirt.

For my look today, I thought I'd wear a band tee. The band that my boyfriend is in!

ooooh, nice bedhead, SpyGirl!

This required some scavenging. The shirt was not in the active "small tee" drawer. So I looked in the "too small but I still like it" box. In the process, I found the Mexican tourist skirt (in the "to fix" box). [I was wondering where I'd put that!] Note that all these boxes are in the middle of the livingroom and have been for months. I got distracted from my massive closet sorting, and, frankly, it's not all that much fun. The drawback (aside from having to navigate around them) is that I can't complain about Severo's heaps in the kitchen until I put them away. No, I'm not going to share a visual. You can only imagine!

Do share your interpretation of Boyfriend/Girlfriend below. You can even post more than once if you have a few versions. Please no more than six! And no repeats of the same outfit!
And, dudes, it's not just for the ladies --  I'd love to see you men out there try some girlfriend stuff!