Inspiration Board via Vintage Mint. I like how she used an eclectic mix of images and postcards within a shabby chic frame.

Hello dearies,

Behind the scenes, I creep my Stats to get a handle of what you lovers of the LC are reading.  The last few months, I have been getting a lot of people reading my blog because of Pinterest.  If you aren’t into Pinterest (yet), crawl out from under your hole and let me tell you it’s highly addictive.  Think of Pinterest as a virtual corkboard, where you can “pin” your favourite images from the web and collect them on separate inspiration boards.  You can share these with your friends and follow other people.  Personally, I think it’s very cool that so many people are ‘pinning’ The Love Collage.  It just means that you are picking up, what I’m putting down. http://pinterest.com/source/thelovecollage.com/ 

Here are the most popular Pin’s on my blog:

Lauren Conrad's Hair. Olivia Palerma tried to oust her for top spot in barrel curls but you cannot challenge the power of the LC.

Blair & Chuck, specifically Blair's headband. Haha. BTW, I refuse to watch Gossip Girl because of Dair. Good one Josh Schwartz (insert sarcasm)!

My fashion choices. I am really jones-ing for the right pair of Acid Wash jeans but I am VERY particular. This is a nice pair on Ashley Tisdale. Not gonna lie, I also love High School Musical due to my teenage heart.

Blair & Serena matchy-matchy. I especially adore when you show up to an event wearing the same kind of outfit as your fashionistah bestie, "Nice lace dress!" Brainwave!

I am a naughty blogeress. Naughty x 3.  This hottt summer weather has been diverting my attention to galavanting as opposed to blogging.  What can I say?  I love heat & sunshine.

Around this time every Spring for more than a decade, my fashionistah friends and I celebrate an annual event known as Fashion Eastah.  On a road trip to Montreal, my bestie C was calling her boyfriend and due to poor reception, he misinterpreted what she was saying.  He responded, “Fashion Easter?  You girls have a holiday!?!!”  To which many a light bulb exploded simultaneously and we collectively gasped, “We TOTALLY should!”

The early origins of Fashion Eastah are mired in legends of Redbull vodkas, high heels, special edition mixed cd’s, elaborate fondant cakes baked in the shapes of shoes, riotous fashion trivia and after-hour late nights being twirled around by flaming gay boys to the techno-beat of a Killers Remix.  These days our Fashion Eastah’s are less sketchy affairs, more ladylike brunches, chiffon daydresses, quiches and spa water.  But when we get together, we reminisce tasting our first champagne at Les Bains Douches, wearing those backless tops in the 90’s to go clubbing and playing “I Want It That Way” (click to play now) on repeat while taking the EuroRail.  Good times!  BTW, the 90’s are considered retro now.  Crazytown!

Ain't nothing but a heartbreak... Confession: I was never a BSB fan but hell, I love this song because it reminds me of my first trip to Europe with my fashionistahs.

Feel free to co-opt this holiday for you & your best fashion girlfriends.  Some tips for your Fashion Eastah event:

• Flowers for the Hostess – A lovely floral arrangement is de riguer for your hostess.  After all, she has woken up early to pick up those fresh croissants, place the tablemats just so and greet you with a spritzer.  I love mixing shades of pinks, oranges, white and greens in tulips, gerber daisies and roses. Ahh, so fresh!

Domestic goddesses take note: Do co-opt the gradiant hues in this floral arrangement from Martha Stewart.

• Dress the Part – Call me Cruise, but I love setting a dress code.  Cheesy as it sounds, I get a kick out of co-ordinating outfits with my friends.  Part of Fashion Eastah is the celebration of Spring – getting to rip the hangtags off that new outfit sitting desperately in your closet or break in your new patent pastel wedges.  Plus, your clique of fashionable friends will notice your attention to detail.  “Ooh, I like how you matched your daisy earrings to the yellow piping on your skirt.” Noted!

Feel free to wear something extra girly. After all, these are your people. Constance working pastel florals in produce Aisle 1 for Vogue.

• Savour the Macarons – We had a full on conversation about macarons and how one of my friends had to chastise her husband for popping them into his mouth like a box of Oreos.  Helloooooo, those take a bajillion hours to make.  Remember to savour the macarons!

Fashion Eastah, literally! I mean, designer Easter eggs via Vogue. This would make a fun crafternoon, non? Ridiculous.

Gossip Girl Season 5 Sneak Peek: I love it when Blair makes her "ugh" face.

Ooh la! I thought since Blair Waldorf  has been a perennial top search (creeping my own stats), I would give you a fashion and cultural trivia mashup.  We all adore the celluloid rich snob, glorified in fictional form yet loathed in real life (see/ Olivia Palermo).  But before there ever existed the perfectly barrel curled, pouty Upper East Side Blair (Leighton Meester) another brunette wrecked havoc on her clique of hangers on’s and wannabe friends.  Let’s pay homage to the original tween villainess, Sydney Rutledge (Sarah Michelle Gellar) from 90’s daytime BOP-era soap Swan’s Crossing.

There is a Sarah Michelle Gellar renaissance of late with her long-awaited return to television on Ringer this Fall.  I am beyond excited.  Buffy fans will always LOVE her.  Obviously, I speak for my people.  But before she played the Chosen vampire slayer, or stole the Emmy from Susan Lucci, she played the manipulative and scheming rich girl Sydney Rutledge.  Gellar was cast as the popular only daughter of the mayor whose character was embroiled in a love-hate relationship with her neighbour/ex-boyfriend/familial rival Garrett.  Ridiculously, the plots involved pool parties, secret rendez-vous and daily tween dramas in which Sydney was always the puppetmaster.  Clad in oversize polka dots, white jeans, chiffon blouses, sheath dresses with contrast piping and trademark red lipstick (at 13 no less!), her character always got the chic-est wardrobe.    

If you woke up extra b*tchy (rhymes with twitchy), you might ask yourself, “Hrmm, what would Sydney wear?”

Nautically is clearly tops: Sydney favoured a loud stripe of the blue, black or red variety.

Here ye, here ye polka dots! Don't just stand there! Say something nice about my Alice + Olivia Louisa Dress! Moi improvising a Sydney Rutledge-esque quote

She would totally wear these Tory Burch Riding Boots. Hello outfit of champion equestrian.

Sydney's matte red lipstick: Even if you get pushed into the pool at the club, your red lips will never fail. Outline, apply lipstick, blot, reapply.

"Friends" carry your shopping for you. Sydney in a classic shell with matching cardi. P.S. Do you know how impossible it is to find fashion pics of Sydney Rutledge? It's impossible. Ugh! Pre-internet??!!

Decadent Sweet Treat: Moroco Chocolat. Photo courtesy: BlogTO

If you’re like me, you’re ever on the search for new and dramatic ways to channel Blair Waldorf.   Forgive my tendecy to reference soapy teen dramas;  I confess I watch way too much Gossip Girl.  Fortunately, my fashionistah girlfriends are game and rise to the occasion every time I set a strict dress code. 

Our latest foray was a birthday brunch for my loveable, top friend J who is fancy in a down-to-earth way.  We had a delightful ladies brunch at Moroco Chocolat (99 Yorkville Ave.), a french inspired patisserie and cafe in Yorkville.  Clad in the deepest hues of eggplant and mauve and accented in swirling white framed mirrors, the requisite crystal dog statue and lucky white elephants, the Paris decor matched the sumptuous menu.  They offer rich sipping chocolates, fondue platters, lattes with a side of chocolate, mimosas and the fluffiest pistachio macarons (among 11 other flavours).  I’m a vegetarian but I was drooling over the birthday girl’s sweet and savoury french toast which was swathed in bacon, cheese and a healthy dose of syrup.  Insert heart attack. 

On to the outfits…  For Spring, half of the fashionistahs chose Chiffon Floaty Things in a grey-beige.  Watch for this colour combination as it will be the perfect transitional neutral paired with neons and brights.  My bestie C, went with an homage to Chuck Bass, wearing a striped nautical blazer with heavy navy piping juxtaposed with a polka dot cotton t-shirt.  There she goes fashion risk-taking: mixing prints!  Our birthday girl, never one to disappoint, chose a cape in yellow and black plaid paired with a black sweater and grey bezel statement necklace.  Ooh la!

The Cape is to Blair Waldorf as Sequins at breakfast is to Serena Van Der Woodsen

One to Watch: She did Chuck Bass Nautical Meets Pearls

Miike Snow as that guy from V is for Vendetta

Mmm, I probably should have written about Miike Snow a long time ago but The LC has been overtaken by my fashionistah posts.  Miike Snow is a Swedish indie pop band comprised of Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Andrew Wyatt.  Their sound is a dreamscape melange of vocals and electronica.  The kind of music that makes the emo hipster boys break out of their beer holding, head bopping into dance.  It’s a concert I definitely wanna be at.  #dearuniverse  

Darling of the music bloggers, they also have done tons of great remixes of Peter, Bjorn & John, Passion Pit and Kings of Leon.  While you may not realize you’re listening to Miike Snow, it’s playing as background music on Gossip Girl or MTV’s The Buried Life or blaring on the soundsystem of a downtown store.

Here are my fave Miike Snow tunes and remixes:

1. Miike Snow – Song For No One
2. Animal
3. In Search Of
4. Cult Logic
5. Remedy – Crookers (f. Miike Snow)
6. Sabali – Amadou & Miriam (Miike Snow Remix)

To listen to more Miike Snow, check out what the music bloggers are buzzing about on The Hype Machine

Uhhmmm, is that a heart in my latte or are you trying to tell me something?

I am by nature a generous person.  Perhaps generous to a fault.  If I should happen upon a Wifi hotspot where hottt boys grow aplenty on trees like wild crab apples, who am I to hoard such valuable information?  Isn’t hoarding one of the seven deadly sins?  Maybe you’ll meet the next great romance of your life, fingers grazing passing the Demarra sugar or borrowing tall, dark and handsome’s Blackberry charger.  Stranger things have happened.  And haven’t you heard?  3 hook-ups and you go straight to heaven (ahem, yes I made this up). 

Hottt Boys Guide:  Barristas & Espresso Lovers Edition

• Lit Espresso Bar - (810 College Street) With outposts on Roncey and Queen West, you should have ample eye-candy whilst dipping your biscotti in your double whip, skinny, mocha latte.
• The Dark Horse Cafe – (215 Spadina Ave.)  This successful independently owned cafe is adjacent to The Centre for Social Innovation.  Its open area and long communal work tables are ideal for striking up a conversation with that hottie with a brain and a heart type (the ideal right?).  The newest location (682 Queen St. West) is at the corner of Queen West & Euclid.  Smaller, more intimate with a pretty tin ceiling, the hottie per square footage is quite high.  And I don’t know about you, but my latte is more delicious when served by cuuuute boys with tattoos.  Heart x 3.
• Terroni – (720 Queen St. West) Okay, there is no Wifi here but you can have an espresso.  There is also my fave combination of Funghi salad, thin-crust non-sliced pizza and hottt waiters, bartenders and generally pretty good looking people.  This joint lines people up every night for dinner.

And, yes I realize this list only includes the SW quadrant of the city, however, I will confess my bias for not travelling north of Bloor or east of Yonge.

Gratuitous Kevin Zegers (bc I love him even though he's 11) & Tay-Tay Momsen sipping on my bevie of choice, A Canada Dry. Photo courtesy Just Jared