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Shoes I loved but didn’t buy
Loafers are all the rage and it’s a trend I love–they are comfy and the slightly stacked heel is more flattering than flats. The Stubbs & Wootton options are both wonderfully quirky and ridiculously expensive. I have a couple vintage ones from goodwill but I tried these on in the Camper store in Rome. They weren’t a chosen souvenir from the trip, but I appreciated them nonetheless!
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Valentine’s Day gift swap
Allie is hosting a Valentine’s Day City Swap, in which you swap local gifts from your city with a paired-up stranger. I’ve already signed up, but you have until Friday if you want to join! She did this for Christmas too and had almost 100 people participate. She’s a design blogger so you know her readers have good taste. : )
pretty logo from Allison Lehman’s blog.
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Tiny Bottle of Perfume
First of all, you should know that Joe loves nice smells. Whenever we have a chance to sit down together with a new fashion magazine, we flip to all the perfume ads and smell them. Then we make judgy comments about the scents, the advertising, the color. OR we make gushing comments. “oh yes. orange liquor and cobblestones in Rome.” This type of nonsense.
Sooooo when my aunt Anne sent me a perfume sampler from OLO I think for sure it was the most fun $24 gift I’ve ever received. You get four 1ml samples, tiny little things labeled with names like Dafne or Violet/Leather.
We carefully opened each one and hmm and ooo over them. Our absolute favorite was one labelled Cedar & Rose. I went to her blog to read about it, I was so allured. It’s interesting story: she (Heather, the owner) made a hair tonic (with argan oil, the stuff that makes that blue-labelled Moroccan Oil famous) and scented it with cedar and rose. Her customers loved the smell so much, they begged for a perfume of the exact scent. You can read about the development of it on her blog, here.
I said they were tiny (see middle photo for size) but actually 1ml is enough for about 12 uses. So now I feel like Cleopatra with a full collection in my kingdom (queendome. pyramidom.). But as soon as they run out, I’ll be ordering a nice bottle for keeps.
Do you have a signature scent yet, my friends?
Photos from OLO and the bottom one from Reading My Tea Leaves.
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Online photo packaging
Lena Corwin posted about using adorama for printing photos, and just her photo of the glassine envelopes made me want to order! When I go to their website, however, I don’t want to order at all. Funny how that is.
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my brief moment of style
Do you go out secretly hoping the Sartorialist is circling your block? I know I do. But the truth is Boston usually gets hmmm-ed over when people talk about style. I’m convinced it’s because we are academics and readers are tooo sexy for those stylists.
But anyway. Boston has a new street style photographer blogger! Her name is Krista and I met her at the SOWA Market on Saturday. Incidentally, the Sowa market was incredibly popular and hot. I think I bought three different drinks in the span of forty-five minutes.
I’m wearing a skirt from Zara. It is hard to say which elicits more random compliments: the skirt or the sandals. Big plus to the skirt, as my friend says, “it gives you breezes.” Meaning on a hot day you feel rewarded for wearing it. I can’t find the exact one but here are two that look just like it.
Good luck Krista! I believe in your mission.
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The new Paris Review
Whatever is going on over at the Paris Review, it’s working like my new Macbook air. Super slickly sexy in a way that makes me wonder if I have enough in me to keep up with it, no cords attached, with barely a mutter of effort to show that it is hard at work.
My favorite feature on the blog is the Cultural Diaries because I like to examine minutia of the cultural lives of strangers. But even the web design is snappy, not to mention how much you want to pick up and page through recent issues when you pass them in the library. And the editor-in-chief Lorin sounds shockingly cool, if not obnoxiously like how you imaged yourself at age forty.
I don’t follow him, but I do follow Thessaly La Force, their web editor, on Twitter, and would recommend her literary daily doses as well. They will make you feel like you walk to work on the streets of New York.
Drawing by William Pène du Bois from the Paris Review website footer, and their very first issue.
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other places online
why am I not spending every spare moment learning to make art like this? by Maricor/Maricar
those are Paul Simon lyrics. He has a new album you can stream for free. Some songs sound like Graceland, and are so fun and cheerful, and a few are a little blue and too slow for 50+ degree weather.
download: a color splotched desktop
a recipe: bourbon and butterscotch pie, with graham cracker crust
an easy combo: just an avocado, with shallot red wine vinagarette (I can’t seem to eat enough of those guys these days)
a photo: I love it when the Sartorialist posts pictures of his girlfriend (& he’s coming to Boston!)