Forever 21

Has anyone looked at Forever 21 lately? Their stuff is nothing but cute...and, as usual, extremely affordable. Here are some of the things that caught my eye:

Forever 21 by waitforthesignal featuring Forever21

I love their colors.

Craving braids.

Braids, braids, braids....

By the time my hair is long enough to braid, the look will be passé again...

Image from Who, What, Wear

Evelyn N.

You know about my obsession with Zelda and Edna and now I have a new person to add to the mix...Evelyn Nesbit. Considered by many to be the original Gibson Girl, her life sounds like something out of a modern tabloid. A teen sensation loved (and hated) by many, photographed endlessly, and the catalyst of a crime of passion. FASCINATING.

I've added this to my reading rotation:

This is one of her modeling shots from age 16. The Helen of Troy of the early 20th century?

Sometimes a Tuesday can be magic.

Image from Library of Congress's Flickr.

Lord Byron, reinvented.
"Remember when it was new. Remember when it was innocent. Remember when it was everything."
It is, isn't it?
This is what you wear to dinner with the handsome boy that keeps making eyes at you.
If I had this kitten, I would rename her Tuesday.
Words, words, words.
I can't decide between this t-shirt and this one.

Going Mad Men crazy.

I might as well just start a blog dedicated to Mad Men, because I'm completely obsessed.

Here's some of what we can anticipate for Season 3:


Also,did you know that you can "Mad Men Yourself"?

Here's me (I know, the resemblance is striking.):



Also, Jon Hamm (aka Don Draper) plays Rummikub. My life is complete.

Ever wonder what it's like to live on Rainbow Row?

Rainbow Row Cut 1 from FORMO on Vimeo.

I need to start a "going to movies" club.

Yet another fantastic-looking movie, called Brothers:

Mad Men Season 3 Style

Fashion from the upcoming season of Mad Men, as seen in August 2009's InStyle.

Only three and a half weeks until the premiere!

Yet ANOTHER thing that makes me love love.

This is AWESOME.

An Education

The lead actress, Carey Mulligan, looks fantastic in this role. She was previously the silly Bennet sister Kitty in Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice, so it will be nice to see her in a larger role. Furthermore, the rest of the cast (Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, Peter Sarsgaard and Rosamund Pike, plus others) are fantastic in whatever they do.

And the costumes...they get me every time...

Mad Men-Related

January Jones is on the cover for Interview mag, and they have a really cute interview (what else?) with her.



Also...



Are you feelin' it? I am SO feelin' it.

"Billie Jean"

One of the coolest Michael Jackson tributes I've seen:

Summer Sundays

A great thing about being employed again is that it gives weekends their magic back. After a busy week of work, that sparkling Friday evening arrives, bringing a few days where anything is possible.

"Primrose"

Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow!
It is not a color.
It is summer!
It is the wind on a willow,
the lap of waves, the shadow
under a bush, a bird, a bluebird,
three herons, a dead hawk
rotting on a pole--
Clear yellow!
It is a piece of blue paper
in the grass or a threecluster of
green walnuts swaying, children
playing croquet or one boy
fishing, a man
swinging his pink fists
as he walks--
It is ladysthumb, forget-me-nots
in the ditch, moss under
the flange of the carrail, the
wavy lines in split rock, a
great oaktree--
It is a disinclination to be
five red petals or a rose, it is
a cluster of birdsbreast flowers
on a red stem six feet high,
four open yellow petals
above sepals curled
backward into reverse spikes--
Tufts of purple grass spot the
green meadow and clouds the sky.
~William Carlos Williams

The Way We Get By

If just the trailer made me get a little teary, I can't imagine what the whole documentary is going to do. This looks really, really good.

Summer music mix.

I made a summer music mix. Here are some of the songs included.







(I"m bummed that the real video's embedding is disabled for this one)


Needless to say, the mix is awesome. Most of these songs were popular when I was still in middle school, and I would come home from being at the pool all day and watch music videos on MTV and think about how glamorous life would be when I was in my twenties. And let me tell you, it IS. With the speeding subway train and the high-waisted light denim jeans and EVERYTHING. Just like Janet.

John Robshaw

John Robshaw's textiles capture so well all the colors and patterns of India and now they're selling his line at Anthropologie! Oh, Anthro. You do no wrong.

Summer Stationary

I just got some fun stationary in the mail today from Coyne & Pinckney! They are so summery and so very Charleston. They even do custom stationary...is it too early to be picking out Christmas gifts for people?

Juno 2: On Wheels

Whip It!



High points:
1. Kristen Wiig
2. Drew Barrymore
3. The theme of roller derby
4. That other Wilson brother
5. The dad is one of the bad guys from Home Alone AND Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Loves it.

On this Bastille Day...

...I will let Capucine inspire you to help others.

Capucine for Edurelief in Mongolia from Capucha on Vimeo.

What I want. A wish list of sorts.

Do you know what I really want? I really, really want to live in a big white farmhouse in the country, with green fields with a little stream that cuts through and a tangled forest behind. I want to have lots of rooms filled with pictures and fresh flowers and music that plays in every room and open windows everywhere. I want a home where friends are always stopping by for a day, a week or a month, bringing with them laughter and stories from other places. I want to have two or three or four fat babies who turn into wild and intelligent children with my freckled nose and their father's eyes. Maybe they'll even have a dimple in one cheek like me. I want them to run free and come home smelling like grass and sweat and summer skin, warm from the sun and playing pretend as hard as possible. I want big family dinners on a farmhouse table with a starched old linen tablecloth. We'll eat off of mismatched plates and drink out of my great-grandmother's teacups through meals that last for hours. And I want love. Love with someone who can say it and feel it and make me believe it, too. Roomfuls and housefuls and fields full of love. So much love that the wind whispers it through the open windows on breezy nights. So much love that it shouts louder than fights or fears or old age. Love that's burned into the hearts of our children before they're even born. Love that you can carry with you when you're alone. Love that holds your hand while you sleep. Love that looks straight into your eyes.

And one day, I'm going to have it.

This is why I am REALLY EXCITED for October 12.

Andrew Bird

and St. Vincent

The only thing that could make this news better is if they fell in love while on tour, got married and had beautiful, eccentric, musical babies.

Here is what I think about Andrew Bird's music. Listening to his music is like getting your heart broken and falling in love AT THE SAME TIME.

P.S. I know I've had both of these videos on my blog before, but that's because they are PERFECT.

A fun summer song.

Because sometimes I stay up late (or early).

Super Saturday.

Alessi's Ark, "Over the Hill"


Today has felt super-productive. My to-do list's number of crossed-out entries is growing! I still have tons of work to do. After a morning walk with the pup, I tackled my backyard, which was replaced with an overgrown jungle. After fighting with the lawnmower, pulling armloads of weeds and crabgrass and hacking at tree branches, my yard is getting under control. Also, how does a house get messy and dusty when you're not even in it? While I was in Wisconsin, I acquired some new pets: dust mice. They're everywhere, combined with little tumbleweeds of Maya's fur. And I haven't even completely unpacked yet. Yikes. It's going to be a looong Saturday.

From Vogue Italia, July 2009

I haven't written much lately because I am employed now, and employment keeps you busy! If you're in Charleston tonight, like, right now, you should go here, where I'll be:

"I want to go to there..."

Gregans Castle Hotel, County Clare, Ireland.

Oh, Ireland, I will see you someday.

En Vogue

My sister gets Teen Vogue and it's probably sad, but I'd rather read it than regular Vogue. At least I can afford some of the things on their pages.

My gal Emma is the cover girl for the latest issue:








I love the jewel-toned color palette...so gorgeous.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am currently devouring this book:



It's by the same author who wrote the biography of Zelda Fitzgerald that I adored.

Though I've always loved her poetry, I knew practically nothing about her as a person. She was an enigma...people were falling over themselves to be near her and it seems that the whole nation was in love with her.





Even though she wasn't conventionally beautiful, she had charm, natural flirtatiousness and wit, and then that wonderful je ne sais quoi that must be vital to enchant as many people as she did. And not only that, but she was brilliant. She could just sit down and churn out work--amazing things.

This biography is so good that I'm rationing it out...I only allow myself to read a few chapters every day. I'm going to be so sad when I've finished it. I need to find another interesting person to read about. Any ideas?

Big wheels keep on turnin'....

I am finally back in Charleston! What a trip we had. I will show you pictorially.

We stopped at a fireworks place in Tennessee.

They had a ferris wheel.

It was very pro-America.

Elephants are pro-America too.

Then in Wisconsin, I spent much time with my cousins.

Gavin and his bird whistle.

I took more photos of him than anything or anyone else on this trip.

Tallullah is a teenager in a 9-year-old's body. She and Elvis are both smiling for the camera.

A frog in bunny's clothing. The bunny ear hand belongs to Gabriel who I don't have many photos of, because he was busy trying to WWF wrestle my father the entire trip.

Gavin and Elvis.

A great thing about Wisconsin is that it feels so American. White farmhouses with bright red barns, tons of green fields...people drinking beer and Coca-Cola and eating hot dogs and grilling out and having apple pie with ice cream. It's amazing. Like a postcard.

Lake house time!

Sister and cousins playing bocce. Look at those dappled oaks. Are those oaks?

Lake swimming!

Down the dock, one by one.

We wandered around Third Ward in downtown Milwaukee. I love the font of the signs everywhere.



And remember how I said that everything in Wisconsin seems so American? Red, white and blue everywhere.




Until, you wander into some famous sausage shop and are reminded that Germans are EVERYWHERE in Wisconsin. (My family is proof of that.)

The sausage-making elves. Typical.