Tick-tock.

I can safely say that I'm not generally one of those girls who hears my biological clock ticking. I'm not in a mad dash to be a mom, but seeing things like this makes me realize that I definitely want to have kids at some point:

 This is Jack.  I read about him on ohdeedoh today.

He lives in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya with his animal behaviorist dad and cinematographer mom.

Yep, I definitely want one of these some day.

Read more about Jack's life and see more pics here.

Suzy Kendall: Vintage Girl Crush.

So...I've been on this 1960s movie kick lately, and when I watched To Sir, With Love, I became quickly smitten with Suzy Kendall. She apparently quit acting after a couple of movies, but is totally cute in this one.

I want her glasses and her sweet vintage wardrobe.

Mad Men...gives me the shivers.

Season 4 Teaser. I. Can't. Wait.

Of the day.

Song of the day:

Dress of the day:

 J. Crew Schuyler dress

 

I Love Ikea.

The second I left the store in Charlotte a few weeks ago, I started making a list of what I wanted to ogle over the next time:

Ikea Wants by waitforthesignal on Polyvore.com

GISLEV
$20 - ikea.com

LINUS
$40 - ikea.com

IKEA | Back to school | College | EXPEDIT | Bookcase
$70 - ikea.com

IKEA | Kaffee & Tee | Becher & Tassen | DINERA | Becher
ikea.com

KARLSTAD
$30 - ikea.com

IKEA | Belysning | Golvlampor | BAROMETER | Golv/ läslampa
$50 - ikea.com

IKEA | Bathroom accessories | Sink accessories | LIDAN | Basket
$20 - ikea.com

Red lips, red hair.

I can't remember where I found this image, but I'm obsessed with it.

Seven starlings.

I've kind of hit a wall as far as blogging goes...my brain is all lists and music, music and lists...so I decided to use my wild card.

A while ago, I was debating about whether or not to get a tattoo. My debate ended back when I was in Wyoming:

I'm pretty obsessed with it. Happy weekend!

Bullet points.

I've decided to completely disregard the last item on yesterday's list and make a list of things that make me happy today. Why? Because I have some sort of sinus headache that is threatening to make me pouty and I refuse to give in. So here goes--today's short-but-sweet happy list:

* Tomorrow is Friday. Enough said.
* Further, tomorrow is one week from a three-day weekend. 
* Postcard in the mail from Belgium from my friend (and official Beerspotter for the Washington City Paper), Orr.
* Getting complimented on my dress.
* Dinner at Santi's followed by trivia (even though staying at home for a bath and The Life Aquatic is tempting.)
*  And finally, my second-favorite Michael Jackson song coming on shuffle on the way to and from work:


C'mon Friday.

Summer to do list.

I had this great post all planned out but it hit me that it's Midsummer Night's Eve (or, since it's after midnight, I suppose it's Midsummer's Day) which means that the days are already going to get shorter, so I've made a list of the things I'll try to accomplish before summer's over:

* go sailing (bonus points for a sunset sail)
* go to the beach once per weekend (and at least once right after work, just because I can)
* have one of those ridiculous "girls nights" that we always talk about and never do
* read more books than magazines
* [redacted]
* resist the temptation to cut my hair off
* spend some time sitting around at Hope & Union, rather than always getting my coffee to-go
* get a splotchless tan (heaven help the amount of freckles that are appearing)
* make heaps of spicy soba noodle meals with piles of cilantro
* shop my closet more than stores
* [redacted]
* Have a sweet, sweet dance party/weekend with Ms. Catherine L. Dwyer
* finally learn how to use my cheapie charcoal grill
* seven words: gin and tonics. with ice. and limes.
* spend a coolish evening showing someone my favorite parts of old Charleston
* spend a few hot nights in a cold movie theatre
* go to yoga at least three times per week
* come up with a seasonal nickname for Maya
* stumble across some sweet vintage furniture while thrifting
* maybe help my best friend move back to the South! (hollerhollerhollerholler)
* make sun tea as good as my Mom's
* stop making so many lists


Anyone else got plans? I got plans.

Songs for sleep: Active Child

Former choir boy turned indie musician. The perfect darknight lullabies.





Nightnight.

A Gatsby summer.

I want to have a Gatsby summer: white dresses and shingled hair, gypsy jazz and vintage slang, gin fizzes and champagne, and most of all, that unattainable green light across the water.

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – to-morrow we will run farther, stretch out our arms farther…."

 Image from chaplinatra.

Never Let Me Go.

Casey and Keira. This movie looks so eerie and so good.

J. Crew loves Roma.

And I love J. Crew.







And then there's the video of that gorgeous girl on their site that I've watched a bunch...

I hate to say it, but I think J. Crew has trumped my love for even Anthropologie lately.

Somewhere.

The greatest part of this trailer might be "with music by Phoenix."

A bow around your neck...

Suspenders + bow tie = the cutest necklace I've ever seen?

Necklace from Baptiste Viry's Spring/Summer 2010 collection.

Sweet, sweet Charleston.

So, for the most part, I eat healthy. I like vegetables, I rarely eat meat, I try to avoid a huge amount of processed food, and I try to stick to organic/local produce. However, one thing gets in my way. I have a tremendous, powerful, wild love of sweets. For a smallish city, Charleston has more than its share of treats to send me into a sugar rush:

Cupcake:

Sweet treats piled high with frosting (the secret is to smoosh down the frosting to evenly distribute it before the first bite) in a variety of flavors, from the ones they carry every day, to special seasonal ones (my faaavorite pictured above).

Sugar Bakeshop:

Cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, pup treats, homemade popsicles...the bakeshop is as adorable as the pastries it creates, and even Bon Appétit has given them some love.

Baked:

The richest brownies, the fluffiest marshmallows, possibly the only place in Charleston that carries Stumptown Coffee. If you're brave, try a Brookie (a chocolate chip cookie surrounded by brownie)--it's an homage to the owners' first establishment in Brooklyn.

WildFlour Pastry:

(photo by Erica Jackson for the Charleston City Paper)

Less than a year old, WildFlour is one of the new kids on the block, but has already made a name for itself with "sticky bun Sundays" and the amazing array of baked goods (sweet and savory) available.

Macaroon Boutique:

Just as cupcakes revolutionized the bakery scene a few years ago, macaroons are setting hearts a-flutter from coast to coast. Walk into the Macaroon Boutique and you'll think you've died and gone to Paris.

Charleston Crepe Company:

On the topic of things with a French flair, have you ever tried a crepe cake? Why the heck not? Layers of sweetness between paper-thin crepes...at least have a slice.

Sweeteeth Artisan Chocolate:

Warning: this is not your run-of-the-mill milk chocolate bar (thank goodness). With chocolate bars featuring peanut butter and chipotle (sweet and salty and spice, oh my), sea salt and caramel, or apple and cinnamon, this is the ordinary chocolate bar's way cooler and better looking friend.

I think I've got a sugar high just putting together this post. Charleston people...am I missing anything? Any other places/treats I should try?

Why do girls like movies about dancing?

That's a very good question. I would answer it, but I'm too busy watching a movie about dancing.

My favorite is Strictly Ballroom...Baz Luhrmann's first feature film, even before Romeo + Juliet. The Australian accents are so thick you can barely understand them, but who cares? It's about the dancing, people.

Here's an extremely cheesy Cyndi Lauper video/dancing montage from the film:



Sigh...

Just a little ramble.

Thinking about my post from the other day, summer/warm weather is the perfect time to fall in love with music. With windows down, going from one adventure to another with a new soundtrack playing through the speakers...there's not much better.

In the summer after my senior year of high school we would spend hours at this cool music store and I'd get to pick out a couple records that caught my eye (or ear, I guess). I was obsessed with Bjork back then. When I got this album, (I think it was Post, because I like its version of "Hyperballad" better than the one on Telegram...I am such a nerd) I remember feeling this overwhelming exuberance. That's really the only word I can think of. I felt like there was a bird in my lungs or fire in my veins. I wanted to hug someone or squeal or something or anything or everything.

There's that powerful link between the senses and memory. Like smells...the smell of a boy's breath who chews the same gum as the boy you loved at 17 or smelling the perfume you wore in middle school and feeling like an adolescent again, just for a moment. For me, music is like that, but even more powerful. As with "Hyperballad," if a song was particularly striking to me, I can hear it and remember the exact situation where I heard it for the first time. Not only that, but music can invoke feelings that you haven't ever felt before. I think I knew what falling in love was because I felt it from a song before I ever felt it from a boy.

Music can bring you from one mood to another, from the past to the future, and drop you into all the murky gray places in between.

When I was little, I thought musicians and magicians were the same thing. After all, there's not much different. They entertain, they awe. I still haven't lost that sense of wonder for people who take notes and keys and chords and chuck them together with a few words and then sing them through a mic in a way that makes my stomach drop. It's magic.

It's a strange thing, music.

Coming home--the highlights.

• a perfectly stocked fridge
• early morning with my parents
• long conversations with my dad (the only person who can out-talk me) about everything under the sun
• coffee like only my dad can make
• Bloody Marys like only my dad can make
• a trip to Ikea
• cheering for the USA 
• early Father's Day presents
• my mom's garden
• my mom's listening skills
• hanging out with my sister
• sleeping in a king-sized bed
• wearing my favorite thrift dress that I forgot the last time I came here
• a stack of new (to me) books, mostly hardcover
• listening to A Prairie Home Companion while my dad cooks dinner
• Miles Davis + pasta + a good Malbec

This makes my brain tingle.

A chart that explains how all sorts of creative people (architects, writers, painters muses, actors) are linked (friends, family, lovers). And, yes, Kevin Bacon is included

(via Very Short List).

That kind of Friday.

T-minus 10 hours till the weekend. Perfect time to hit the reset button. A little weekend trip away from Charleston--just long enough to miss it.

Today I love...

sunset city skylines

classic vintage summer

postcards with meaning

wonderful screenprinted words

The bridge and the city.

I've been over the Ravenel Bridge in every incarnation--sweaty and jubilant on foot with thousands of other runners and flying on the back of a motorcycle on a foggy night. Then there's nights like tonight: after a long, lazy dinner on Sullivan's, soaring over the Bridge with open windows and the blurry breeze, sighing to the sounds of Jeff Buckley's falsetto notes and seeing my city of dreams all glittering on the edges of the water below--it makes you feel both young and timeless.

There's just something about this place. I complain about the sweltering heat, the tourists, the floods. But then when you feel the city's warm breath on the nape of your neck--the lazy, knowing way the heat wraps itself around you--it's nothing but seductive. Charleston may appear buttoned down under layers of seersucker, but underneath it's all dirty words and gin-soaked breath. And I can't get enough.

This Movie Is Broken.

Music + film + a little bit of adorable romance? I'll probably love it.


This Movie Is Broken - Trailer from Arts & Crafts on Vimeo.

This movie looks like one long Broken Social Scene video, which isn't half bad.

After all, isn't a song what love is? Verses and chorus, melody and harmony, and heart as kick drum with all those other beats and rhythms.

This Movie Is Broken.

Palmer and Sons

Palmer and Sons Handmade Leather Suitcase No. 3

I'm kind of obsessed with this leather suitcase--it makes me want to go on some sort of autumn bicycle trip. I think the draw is that it looks like something a character would carry in a yet-unmade Wes Anderson film.

Thank you, Francis Farewell Starlite.

Francis and the Lights.


Music Video - "Darling, It's Alright" - Francis and the Lights from Francis and the Lights on Vimeo.


The Top (Music Video) from Francis and the Lights on Vimeo.

According to Wikipedia: "...their first show was a performance of the posthumous Otis Redding record The Immortal Otis Redding in its entirety." WHAT. Where can I see this?

I am beyond words.

(via Black*Eiffel)

A nearly perfect Sunday.

• blueberry muffins and Stumptown Coffee at Baked
• people and dog-watching at Waterfront Park
• a leisurely stroll around the French Quarter
• early afternoon nap and movie break
• afternoon shopping excursion (I love you, J. Crew. I hate you, J. Crew.)
• bottle(s) of wine and seafood at Coast
• gypsy jazz accompanying great conversation/company
• Paolo's gelato (Straciatella...mmmm)
• goofing off in Marion Square at dusk
• evening drinks at home base (Recovery Room)

Possibly a perfect Sunday:

Rachel Getting Married

I put off seeing this movie for a while because while it got a lot of critical acclaim, I had several friends who hated it. Hated it to the point where they walked out, or at least thought about walking out. However, today my curiosity got the best of me and I finally watched it. (Thanks Neflix Instant!)


I loved this movie. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Anne Hathaway was incredible. I disliked her, I liked her, I hated her, I liked her. She completely embodied Kim, the recovering addict who doesn't know where she fits in to her family or her own life/being.

I also don't remember the last time I cried in a movie, but this one got me. Big time. Like, a lot. When Sydney (played by the lead singer of TV on the Radio?!?)  sings Neil Young's "Unknown Legend" to Rachel...whoof.

In summary, see this movie. Watch it. It is so so so good. I also want to have the group of friends that Rachel and Sydney did--those are the kind of people you want to be surrounded with. Whole thing is awesome.

Remember Now

by Karl Lagerfeld

Summer Shade(s).

So...in kindergarten, my fashion icon was Dwayne Wayne.

Can you blame me? Look at that bold pattern mixing and matching and that confident pose. But the accessory that sealed the deal was those sweet glasses that flipped up. My mom even found me a pair and I wore them everywhere (until they were lost on a family vacation...I'm still heartbroken) . 

I guess I never forgot those glasses, because I definitely purchased the nerdiest replacement possible (they don't flip up--they CLIP ON):

Spitfire sunglasses, Oak NYC

Here they are in action: