Another (rather pricey) set:

• Miss Sunshine dress, $74.99, ModCloth. Please click through and check out ModCloth's full stock. They have a nice mix of high & low price points, and many vintage-inspired styles.
• Silk & cashmere cardigan (in black, ivory, and pink), $39.00, Victoria's Secret.
• Jeffrey Campbell's leather wingtips in pewter, $86.00, Lori's Shoes.

A few office-friendly summer tops:

• Converse pleated top*, $19.99, Target (also in hot pink & black);
• Delmonte dots shirt, $39.99 (sale), French Connection; 
• tie-front cardigan, $26.00, Twelve by Twelve. I like the color, shape, & price, but am not crazy about the frou-frou bow. I'm sure there's a way around it, though.

*I bought the Converse top on a recent Target trip. It's a great color, the pleats are well-done & slimming, and the length is longer than usual (a major plus). The empire waist emphasizes the bust, but the waistband detail is big enough to accent your waist & thus avoid the pregnant look.

Please click image for full size.

• A lovely wall of silhouettes, via Vic at lost.net.au.
• EmilyStyle has easy instructions for that most intimidating of vegetables, the artichoke.
• Krisatomic embroidered old diary entries onto a sweater, varying the fonts & thread colors. Check out her site for the full photo set.
• Beautiful photos of Iekeliene Stange for/by (?) Patrizio di Renzo. Photos are from a Russian LiveJournal, hence the hazy details.
• Black raindrop wall decals, also via Vic at lost.net.au.
• Finally, Design*Sponge posted photos of Gemma Ahern's striking apartment. I love the contrast of the dark grey walls and pink accents, but what really turned my head was the bookshelf wallpaper, above. No credit is given, but it looks like Deborah Bowness' handiwork.

Made these for the first time last night, inspired by the spicy bean cakes at my favorite local diner. These are cheaper & better. Recipe adapted from this one.

Black Beans Cakes

1 15 oz can reduced sodium black beans, drained & rinsed
1 egg white
1/4 cup bread crumbs (I used a day-old French bread loaf)
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 slim scallions, sliced thin

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

In a medium bowl, use a fork to mash 1/2 cup of the beans with the egg white. Then add the bread crumbs, seasonings, & scallions, combine well, and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a thick-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Remove the bean mix from fridge & form into four equal-sized patties. Place patties in the heated pan, and cook 5 minutes each side.

Serve with scrambled eggs & Muir Glen's Black Bean & Corn Salsa.

More design & D.I.Y. finds! From top to bottom, starting with the left column:

• dear ada posted photos of gardener Piet Ouldof's work.
• Kindred has 10 free computer wallpapers designed by artists like Jessica Gonacha (above) and Blanca Gomez (via How About Orange).
• Craft found a how-to video by bento genius Anna the Red (who I previously blogged about on PopKissKiss). I love how she dyed the egg.
• Finally, Design*Sponge took a sneak peek at Scott Engler's home (both right-hand photos). It's got retro-style appliances, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and vintage science charts--in other words, it's perfect.

Just saw this at anh-minh: Anna Sui has design a Gossip Girl-inspired collection for Target (out September 13th). You can see all 19 outfits over at The Cut; I'm intrigued by it, even though I know better. Maybe it's the strong vintage vibe (Sui is well-known for using vintage designs for "inspiration")?

What about you guys, do you like it? Or have you given up on capsule collections?

Some design & D.I.Y. finds:

• dear ada posted some of Elly Yap's cacti photographs.
• Martha Stewart has an easy flower hair comb D.I.Y. project (via EmilyStyle).
• I like these clear, stackable file boxes from the Container Store, $17 each.
• Voluspa's 3-wick Japonica candles have a burn time of 80 hours & only cost $18 (via EmilyStyle). I'm getting my dad one for Father's Day (what I can say? The man loves his candles).
• Frilliest, silliest umbrella ever (in a good way), via Oh Happy Day.
• Cucumbersome made a great-looking D.I.Y. version of those trendy t-shirt necklaces (via Craft).

A Cup of Jo recently posted on The Uniform Project, Sheena Matheiken's attempt to wear one dress for a year. Below are some of my favorite outfits thus far:

While it's true that Alex Martin did something similar with her brown dress project in 2005*, this iteration offers something new. First, the two projects have different goals: the brown dress project was a direct challenge to unsustainable consumerism, while The Uniform Project is a fundraiser and decidedly more fashion forward. Because she was promoting sustainability & personal economy, Martin used one dress for the entire year; Matheiken, on the other hand, has 7 of the same dress, has a vast closet filled with layering options and accents, and lets readers donate accessories.

Matheiken's inventive styling offers women wardrobe inspiration that previous, similar projects have not**. She's also using the stunt to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation, which provides education for Indian slum children. Less than 2 months into the project, she's already raised $1,479.00.

In addition, The Uniform Project explores the interesting tension between conformity & self-expression. Matheiken wrote that part of her inspiration was that:

I was raised and schooled in India where uniforms were a mandate in most public schools. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality. (link)

Anyone forced to wear a uniform will recognize their experience in that statement. And yet, strangely, I've always considered uniforms as freeing rather than constricting. It's the difference between the uniform you're required to wear, and the one you adopt for yourself.

Because although I like fashion, it's mostly in theory. By nature, I gravitate towards a uniform: a white, blue, or black form-fitting top paired with dark pants and black flats. My college friends once teased me for only wearing white, blue, & black, so I tried branching out to reds, pinks & lavenders. Each new color foray ended up rotting in my closet, though: I always felt like I was wearing someone else's clothes, trying to be something I wasn't.

To this day, the bulk of my wardrobe is white, black, or blue, although I'll stray into greys, greens, and (if I'm feeling daring) royal purples. I comfort myself that at least I'm more flexible than these fellows. And truthfully I know what I like, what suits me, and best of all, everything matches.

Finally, here's a quote on uniforms from Marguerite Duras' Practicalities. I read it years ago & it managed to burn its way into my subconscious:

*Andrea Zittel also did something similar before, but as with Alex Martin's, the goals & functions of her project were significantly different. For starters, Zittel embraced the monotony of a uniform, while Matheiken does not.

**For more inspiration, Sally Jane Vintage has a series called "Four Ways," where she styles one item, umm...four ways. Other bloggers have done a fashion blogger version of the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," first with a striped shirt and then with a leather jacket.

Clockwise, top left: 1. Photo from InStyle Weddings by Gemma Commas, styled by Paul Lowe, via automatism; 2. original ceramics with succulents, from Etsy seller greenware design; 3. Shuping work flat on sale for $35 at Aldo; 4. clip from Marite Mastina & Rolands Peterkops' Hyeres show, from PopKissKiss; 5. Costume Department's "Kenya Chic" leggings.

Pixar's UP (out May 29th),...

...the latest Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli collaboration, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (August 14th),...

...and Disney's The Princess & the Frog (December 11th). Jezebel readers have interesting takes on it (it's the first Disney film to feature a black heroine); I'm too excited about it (a sassy heroine! a sleazy love interest! Baron Samedi! a return to 2-D animation!) to be offended, I guess.

Bonus: I hear Sita Sings the Blues is great; creator Nina Paley has released it under a Creative Commons license, too, and you can watch for free online.

Hello! I've been doing a little spring cleaning here at She's a Betty, and wanted to let feed readers know about it.

Recently, I've...

...added a navigation bar.

...signed up for Twitter (flash widget below). It's great for posting all those little links (funny speeches, good recipes) that don't merit a full post.

...trimmed the sidebar content (still revamping the links).

...added Goodreads Read & To Read widgets to the sidebar (friend me!).

...added the LinkWithin widget.

...switched the comments over to Typepad Connect (so now you can reply to other people's comments like in LiveJournal).  Typepad Connect is free and works with many blogging platforms, and I'm quite happy with it.

Let me know what you think!

Clockwise from the upper left hand corner:

a) Illustrator Nell Brinkley's women were the Roaring Twenties' answer to the aloof Gibson Girl. Curly-haired, rambunctious and more than a bit naughty, the Brinkley Girls were a national sensation, referenced in the Ziegfeld Follies and copied by young women everywhere (they even spawned a popular line of hair curlers). Biographer Trina Robbins has worked hard to reintroduce Brinkley's work to the mainstream, and her latest effort is Fantagraphics The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons 1913-1940, $29.99 (or pre-order it for $18.86 at Tower.com). You can read more about Nell Brinkley and her work at Paul Gravett's site & the Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library.

b) We have gardenias growing outside our apartment, and they smell heavenly. Annick Goutal's Gardenia Passion comes the closest, in my opinion, to capturing their scent; like most of the line, it costs, but online sellers like Perfume.com offer substantial discounts (30-40% off).

c) Shiny Squirrel pointed me to DearGoldenVintage, another wonderful Etsy vintage seller. I particularly like these red heels with flame detail ($44.00).

d) This J. Crew pleated lawn skirt ($59.50) makes me think of tennis matches & ice cream.

e) Every time Kid Cudi's "Day N Nite" comes on the radio, I think "I love this song." Also awesome: the video, with its trippy rotoscope animation.