How to be smooth.

Dress like Raphael Saadiq. Write music like Raphael Saadiq.



That is all.

Over the past few days.

It's so fun to walk around in the city where you live, learning new tidbits and introducing others to your favorite haunts (everyone knows my favorite spot is the Unitarian cemetary). It's even better when you follow up a million miles of walking with a gooey brownie from Baked. Then, having late night dinner on a patio with friends...what's better than that?

Oh, yeah...I'll tell you what's better than that: watching two of your friends speak vows of love here while looking out at the oak grove, and the hanging Spanish moss, and then watching the sun set over the water on the Cotton Dock while eating delicious food and drinking spiked peach iced tea and talking to all sorts of fun people. I love the South.

I'm listening to music to help me get tired. Here's my top favorite lullaby for the night:

If the shoe fits...

As I lounge on the couch, drinking this (I like to reward myself after a good workout) and listening to this...


...I need to confess that I'm filled with lust. That sweet, sweet temptress Urban Outfitters sent out a 20% off discount code for their shoe section (THESHOEFITS) via email today and I want it all. Now. I'm being a good girl and keeping the ole wallet shut, but if I were to make a purchase, I think I'd use that 20% towards any or all of these:

The Shoe Fits by waitforthesignal on Polyvore.com

Anyone else making shoe lust lists? I'd love to see what's out there.

On this luscious autumn Friday...

I have been listening to this song over and over (and over and over):


And I have been thinking all day about being a redhead like Taylor Tomasi:

Shot by The Sartorialist...

...and by his girlfriend, Garance.

How great would it be to have hair the color of turning leaves? You couldn't get much more autumn than that.

Also, I'm completely enthralled by the love letters of Georgia O'Keeffe. And I'm practically swooning from the romance of this photo shoot.

On that note, I'm going to try to rally my strength for the wild plans of this evening, and try not to drag too much from the wild events of last evening. Thank you world for wild plans. Thank you world for high, high heels. Thank you world for late-night phone conversations. Thank you world for coffee. Thank you world for everything.

Paris by candlelight.

Diptyque is releasing two limited edition candles, "La Belle" and "La Bete," designed by Kuntzel + Deygas, and have this pretty video (also done by K +D) to creatively spread the news:

diptyque invite Kuntzel+Deygas from Diptyque on Vimeo.

For the record, my favorite classic Diptyque candle is Fig Tree (Figuier).

Double rainbow, double happiness.

When just one rainbow isn't enough...

Seeing two rainbows on my way home definitely made up for getting myself and my groceries completely soaked in some sort of flash flood in the HT parking lot.

Other things...

• So, remember when I had the shingles? One of my all-time-favorite bloggers, Dooce, has had the shingles for the past week. I feel cool that I started the trend. If you can call blistery, painful outbreaks on your body a trend.
• There's this song on the radio called "Fireflies" by Owl City. Does anyone else think they sound basically like a mixture of Mae and The Postal Service but even cheesier? (Cause I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs as they try to teach me how to dance...This is actually a line from the song. Seriously.)
• Jak & Jil has deemed Charlotte, NC a hot spot for fashion. All I have to say about that is I'm glad he went to Capitol instead of Carolina Place Mall.
• Speaking of NC and bloggers, naturally nina has a post that is heart-achingly sad/beautiful. Another epilogue.
  

Autumn 2009.

Yesterday, a day I was waiting for, passed and I didn't even get to comment on it because my internet was out. So, I'm going to pretend that the big event of yesterday actually happened today and say:

Happy First Day of Autumn!

• Start packing up your bathing suits and beach chairs.
• Bring out your worn-in riding boots, your soft scarves and your coats with a million buttons.
• Map out long walks with someone who tucks your hands into his coat pockets when they get cold.
• Go to every local coffee shop in town to test who makes the best hot chocolate.
• Get cooking: dig up recipes for roast chicken, savory soups, and warm apple tarts.
• Plan long movie nights for when the days get shorter.
• Wake up each morning to smell the air. Autumn smells like nothing else.
• Attempt to care about college football and allow yourself to be dragged to tailgate.
• Keep the windows open for as long as possible.
• Wake up early head to the farmers market. Squash, eggplant, carrots, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, figs, plums--all in season.
• Add an extra blanket to the bed--something colorful and warm.
• Drink tea: peach, chai, white, blackberry, peony, redbush--find your favorite.
• Take a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway (Include a picnic basket. This is a must.).
• Switch to autumn music: Fleet Foxes is the autumnest band I've ever heard.
  

Above all, enjoy this season full of change and all the feelings it stirs up. This is the only autumn of 2009 we'll ever have.

Jack knows best.

Jack (O'Connor), J. Crew's in-house men's stylist, is here to help guys with all of their styling needs (and boy do they have needs). Meet Jack here. Or email him with all of your sartorial questions at jack@jcrew.com.

I have to say...whoever is doing this branding for J. Crew deserves a big pat on the back...I love how they're aligning themselves with classic brands and looking effortlessly cool the whole way through.

And for you lady J. Crew lovers like myself, here's some other inspirational vids from our favorite rumpled prep store.

J. Crew in Prague:


J. Crew in Paris:

October 12 is coming! and more.

You guys. Tomorrow marks only three short weeks until I get to see Andrew Bird and St. Vincent together. The mere thought makes my heart pound and sends shivers running down my spine.

Here is a 29-minute taste of them together, in Paris (of course), by La Blogotheque (of course):




So this weekend. So many of my lady friends are out of town this weekend! Elizabeth is in NYC enjoying a ritzy opera gala, Laura is visiting her man, and Carter is probably somewhere in the clouds returning from a week in France. And me? Yep, in Charleston. Oh the drama. Oh, the glamour.

Friday was spent drinking Mushroom Tea and eating gooey pizza with lovely people. Two of these individuals continued the weekend magic on Saturday by getting ENGAGED! Gervase and Kevin could not be better-suited. I love being around both of them, together and apart. Love is everywhere and I love it. I could just eat it up with a spoon. Two other lovely couples are getting married next weekend. It breaks my heart that they are in two different cities and I can't be at both weddings...but my heart is going to be right there with both.

Saturday was spent daydreaming and running errands and buying some platform heels and then filling up on spicy Indian food and interesting conversations until my lips burned and my brain buzzed. Tonight, I will be watching Nazis get scalped while probably drinking a chocolate milkshake. Appetizing, I know. But it's Cinebarre, and I'm thinking we won't be able to not order something.

Also, I received the most amazing (and unexpected!) set of mix CDs recently, and I'd like to share Disc 1 (titled "Lo-Fi Tendencies") with you, in case you're in the mood for a great, eclectic mix:

Woody Guthrie: "Red River Valley"
Elvis Presley: "My Happiness"
Billy Bragg: "A New England"
The Raveonettes: "Love Can Destroy Everything"
Hank Williams, Sr.: "Someday You'll Call My Name"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Hyperballad"
Donovan: "To Sing for You"
John Lennon: "Look at Me"
The Beatles: "I Will"
Thom Yorke: "How I Made My Millions"
Arcade Fire: "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)"
The Velvet Underground: "Stephanie Says"
Fugazi: "I'm So Tired"
The Free Design: "Love You"
Go! Team: "Hold Yr Terror Close"
Chad & Jeremy: "A Summer Song"
Bob Dylan: "Boots of Spanish Leather"
The Beatles: "Julia"
Nick Drake: "Which Will"
Bjork: "Generous Palmstroke"
Hank Williams, Sr.: "There's a Tear in My Beer"
The Velvet Underground: "After Hours"
Bjork: "The Anchor Song"

Have a great Sunday!

Private school princess.

Maybe it's because of my recent obsession with Gossip Girl, but suddenly, I'm totally in to everything "prep school with a twist." For example:

The Academy for Wayward Girls: 16-year-old NYC private school attendee designs a one-of-a-kind clothing line inspired by tweaks on her own uniform.
Hollister Hovey: antiquarian blogger and recent feature of a New York Times piece.
Tanner Hall: upcoming film by Diane von Furstenburg's daughter, Tatiana.
Gossip of the Starlings: Algonquin book that I really liked about friendship and destruction at a New England prep school.

I played around on my favorite sites with the schoolgirl look. For example, on Polyvore, I played around with looks only using mall chain American Eagle.

AE Schoolgirl by waitforthesignal featuring American Eagle Outfitters

I really want the leather jacket.

Or this on Looklet:


I would totally try to pull these looks off if I were still in school. Now it just seems a bit off for a 25-year-old to be walking around in knee socks. However, this fall, I might try the ankle socks + heels trend that's reappeared.

Weekend to-do list.

DACE Spring 2010 from Arcade Original on Vimeo.

It's Friday. Wrap up your work, sit at a cafe, write in your journal.

Make a weekend to-do list like this:

• Call my grandma on the phone and ask her what fashion trends were big when she was my age
• Watch Bjork sing this incredible version of "Anchor Song"
  
• Have some ice cream for breakfast, even if it's just a spoonful
• Wear something out-and-about that makes me feel beautiful
• Read an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story and imagine myself as one of his icy dames
• Lounge in bed for at least 20 minutes after I've woken up
• Look at water...the ocean, a lake, a creek, whatever is closest
• Savor a few cups of coffee (bonus points for having a pastry to dip in it)

What's on your weekend to-do list?

Emanuel Fritz.

Notice that he's very on-trend with his plaid shirt and sweet shades. And the cane. Awesome.

Today is my Opa's 99th birthday. When he was born in 1910, the Titanic hadn't yet sunk. Women in America were still a decade away from being able to vote.

Having a grandfather who is the age of most people's great-grandfathers is definitely unique. However, I remember him still lifting me high in the air even when he was 80. He's smart and stubborn and even though his memory has faded to the point where he can't remember my name, he always makes me smile when he calls me his Vögelein.

Happy birthday, Opa.

September 2009

I always get so overwhelmed during Fashion Week(s). Blogs are all a-flutter with the latest looks from the runway and I get overwhelmed with jealousy and I can barely speak from envy.

However, I'm totally charmed by Andy & Debb.

Here are my favorite looks of theirs for Spring 2010:

Images from Coutorture.

Today I'm also feeling:

• unexpected mix CDs
• enjoying the first episode of Bored to Death before it premieres on HBO
  
• Glee
• Friday Eve being nigh upon us (This means Thursday.)
• Dark chocolate Reese's Cups. They are as good as I imagined.
• Volcano Choir's album, Unmap, streaming on NPR
  

One week...

...until the start of autumn! I got made fun of for saying "autumn" instead of "fall," but while "fall" can mean many things, "autumn" can never be confused with anything else than what it is. Fireplace smoke, hot chocolate with cinnamon, brown riding boots, pale skin, knit hats, new beginnings.

I can't properly blog because my brain has been all tangled the past few days. Listen to Paolo Nutini sing about autumn instead.

Benny & Joon

How great is this movie? I watched this regularly one summer in high school and have just fallen back in love.





Despite my desire to reject all the 1990s trends so present in every Urban Outfitters catalog, I am so in love with Benny & Joon that I might just give it a chance.

Weekend wonders.

This, to me, is wildly cool. If you don't feel like going to the video's main page, I've copied and pasted its creator's message about it, below.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating. I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper. Here I've posted a short video made with the photo, the music and the score (composed by the birds). Music made with Logic. Video made with After Effects.

Also, if you haven't ever spent a Sunday on a sailboat, staring back at the city you're wildly in love with and watching dolphins swim beside you, you need to. Highly recommended.

Mood music and the golden hour.

#97 Patrick Watson / Part 1 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

* This is him performing the song in a shower when it was called "Man Like Me." Maybe P.W. will be in Montreal when I am and then we can fall in love and he can teach our babies Québécois French and sing me heart-wrenching songs under a haze of candle smoke forever. Probably not, but a girl can dream. Go here for the rest of La Blogotheque's Take-Away Show on him.

Today, listen to one song, or two, or three...or more...that makes your heart feel too big for your chest. It's important to listen to these songs during the golden hour. You should sit, preferably barefoot, on your front porch or steps, clutching an icy cold glass bottle of ginger ale as you watch the cerulean sky fade to orange, red, and lavender, like a giant mood ring above your head, until it becomes streaked with inky blue. You'll listen to your songs with your heart playing kick-drum and you'll fall a little bit more in love with the world. Also, if you feel so inclined, share with me so that I can feel that way about your song(s) too.

Friday Loves.

This is the first weekend in a while where I have no real plans. It's kind of exciting!

What I'm loving today:

• my Bensimon Lacet tennis shoes
• the Youth in Revolt trailer
• time with the pup
• this guy's outfit
• my eBay find, which will be wearing non-stop this autumn
• Gossip Girl on DVD (Completely addictive trash, with incredible clothes. I love it.)
• beach plans
• this song about love
  

Happy Weekend!

"If I were a boy..." Part II

The stores I'd frequent:
Freeman's Sporting Club
Cole, Rood & Haan Co.
J. Crew
Ozwald Boateng
Paul Smith
Ben Sherman
Nicholas K
Band of Outsiders
Jack Spade

Films:
Anything by Wes Anderson
Ocean's Eleven
The Great Escape
The Big Lebowski
Unforgiven
The Blues Brothers
This Is Spinal Tap
From Russia with Love

More style icons:
Paul Newman
Robert Redford
Wes Anderson

OK...now that I got all that out of my system, I have to say...boys have no excuse not to dress well. None. There is fashion/style inspiration all over the places for guys. Geez, dudes. Stir up those wardrobes!

"If I were a boy..."

I'd wear all the classics: Mascot eyeglasses, Levi's 501s, Clarks Desert Boots, Paul Smith socks, brown leather belt, gingham shirt.

I'd read these blogs:
The Sartorialist (in moderation)
The Selvedge Yard
A Continuous Lean.
Edited to add:
The Impossible Cool.
(1,001) Rules for My Unborn Son. (any guy's social bible.)
Ivy Style
The Selby

I'd subscribe to:
Esquire
dwell
The New Yorker
McSweeney's

On my bookshelf:
Bukowski
Hemingway
Kerouac
Faulkner
Vonnegut
Hornby
Klosterman
Sedaris
Eggers
Martel
Chabon
McEwan

On the stereo:
Thelonius Monk
Neil Young
Jimi Hendrix
Charles Mingus
Otis Redding
Johnny Cash
Al Green
Joao Gilberto

Style icons:
James Dean
Steve McQueen
early Marlon Brando

Basically, I'd be a little bit cliched, but a lot awesome.

Roarrrring Twenties.

The 1920s are so endlessly inspiring. I delved into the '20s look and satisfied my paper doll cravings on the website, Looklet.

Doesn't this headband look completely Art Deco? I adore it.

Triple Threat headband from Old Soul, New Heart.

I might give up dressing normally, and start decking myself out in costumes every day. Rachel Zoe looks like she's always on her way to the disco, so why can't I look like I'm headed to the speakeasy?

Labor Day.

Lying looks like one long Nylon photo shoot. I probably will see this, even though I know very little about the plot.

Happy Labor Day, y'all. Go to the pool. Eat a free Chick-fil-a sandwich. Eat ice cream and let a little bit melt from the cone and run down your arm. Check out a cute boy or a pretty girl. Love freedom. Take a nap on the couch. Go to the movies. Spend time with your friends. Love life.

Thoughts from the sheets.

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it."
~Roald Dahl

Labor Day Weekend always feels like summer's last hurrah even though there are still weeks of warm weather ahead of us. I spent Saturday at a swank beach house, trying to figure out how to smuggle all the amazing art out of the house under my bathing suit. We smelled like sunscreen and sand and saltwater and Corona and we laughed and talked and dove into waves and swam laps in the pool and lounged in the sun and watched a puppy nap under the bushes. A pretty idyllic day, I'd say.

This morning, I'm lazing in bed listening to music and reading quotes from a lot of people who are much smarter than me.

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
~E.B. White

So now, I'm going to kick myself out of bed after listening to one more song, and ponder the possibilities of today.

"We are an impossibility in an impossible universe."
~Ray Bradbury

Falling for Anthro, over and over and over.

Anthropologie Fall 2009 by waitforthesignal featuring Anthropologie

Not being obscenely wealthy is really starting to cramp my style (yes, literally). It almost breaks my heart to thumb through an Anthropologie catalog or browse their site, yet I continue to (because I am a masochist). They have piles and piles of things that I would wear to death. Their clothes and the dreamy lifestyle their catalogs portray makes you want to dress like a lady with embellished tights and dab eau de parfum behind each ear, and put your hair up with ribbon and kiss boys on tire swings.

Tonight I'm going to dress like a lady from my own closet and look at lovely paintings with lovely people. Robert Lang's Measure: Creatures Great + Small and SCOOP Studios' Up, works by Scott Debus and about a million other things are going on in the French Quarter tonight. Look for me. Let's have a drink.

Or, if you are far away, tell me about your weekend plans!

It was 67 degrees this morning.

I have the strangest feeling. I know it's the changing of the seasons. Fall may well be my favorite season, because you can feel it happening. You feel the coolness, the slight undercurrent of change after the heavy heat of August summer in Charleston. There's a bevy of posts each year dedicated to my excitement for autumn, but this one feels particularly intense. I woke up this morning with a feeling of anticipation after a night of back-to-back wild and wonderful dreams. Something is about to happen and I'm excited that whatever it is will be ushered in with such a mysterious season. Autumn is smoky and smooth and crisp and curious. It's the season where people cover themselves in layers and scarves and their breath hangs visible in the air. It's the season where people hide behind masks for a night of mischief. It's a season for travel and learning new things and falling into piles of leaves.

I'm so jealous of people who have these well-organized theme blogs: design, decor, cooking, fashion. Simple. My blog ebbs and flows with rambling and movies and music and bits and pieces of this and that. It's somewhat like digging through my mind's junk drawer. Maybe my blog needs some direction. Maybe I need some direction. That's what this season is going to be for. Figuring it all out.

Found Magazine.

Love.

Found Magazine.

Cass Bird.

Still I enjoy The long sweetness of the simultaneity, yours and mine, ours and mine, The mosquitoey summer night light.
~John Ashbery, "Here Everything Is Still Floating"

It's everywhere.

Let's play catch-up.

I'm getting bad at blogging lately. Geez, life. Stop distracting me from my internet world! Unread blog entries are piling up in Google Reader and everything.

So this will be a mish-mash post of things. For example, Laura and Carter both have these thin, velvet-covered hangers which make your closet less cluttery, and the velvet catches all those slippy little camisoles and strappy dresses and doesn't let them fall off. I got hooked immediately and now I use them and they are a freaking dream.

The movie Adventureland basically rocks my world. I'm no Kristen Stewart fan, but Jesse Eisenberg is someone to watch. I've added The Education of Charlie Banks to my Netflix queue simply because of him.

I have this cold (I hate summer colds) that seems like it's never going to go away, so I've been drinking a bunch of this nectar of the gods to boost the vitamin C.

This morning when I woke up and checked the weather, it was only 69 degrees. Do you know what that means? FALL IS COMING! Here's what's on my fall fashion wishlist: high-waisted pencil skirts, black skinny jeans, gold, tangly chain necklaces, and of course this chunky circle scarf that I'm so obsessed with. Also, fall means chilly beach walks and hot apple cider and leaves changing colors and trips to the icy north and pink noses and pale skin and cold hands and deliciousness.

Well, that's about all the random I have for now.