tricks are for kids

okay, watches are for kids in this case. just needed something catchy. look at this fun watch from the gap. who says it's only for kids? not me!

and how about this kit from toy watch? as far as i'm concerned, they should be making this in several different colorways and styles. genius.

wild flowers

it's so gorgeous out today isn't it? yesterday too. i always love it when mother nature gives us something like that after a weekend like we had. it's like a wink from the bright blue sky...what wind? what rain?

of course i wouldn't be feeling so flowery if i didn't have power back yet like my parents and so many other unlucky, unhappy people. i hope you get your power back as soon as humanly possible.

going gaga

every time i think lady gaga has a little too much hype, i'm reminded that the only thing eclipsing her hype is her talent. listen to (or watch) her live performance of howard stern from last month, below. 

i listened to it when it was live, and i've thought about it so many times since then that i just had to share it with you. i'm not normally someone who cares much about live vs. recorded, and i usually prefer the familiar, recorded version of a song to a new, live version...but this changed all that. when i hear the recorded version on the radio, i wish it was this one. and i'm in awe of her voice. at 7 in the morning, no less.

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a ribbon in my hair

i've been daydreaming about braiding a ribbon into my hair recently. you know i've been liking braids, and a ribbon seems like a total elevation of the braid, but in a clever, unexpected way.

i can't decide if i would do it like this tutorial where the ribbon is treated as one strand of hair within one of the three sections, OR if i'd rather treat the ribbon itself as a whole section, which is what the photo above seems to do. 

if i fall in love with it as i think i would, i might even consider trimming down some of the beautiful scarves i love but hardly ever wear to use as ribbons.

to boot

 

what happens if you already have 2 pairs of perfectly fine rainboots but then you see these?

home sweet home

 

wouldn't this tray be the perfect housewarming, wedding or hostess gift? i love its earnestness...it's simple, but not too simple; retro, but but not overly so, and it's something that brings a smile to any surface in any home.

i really love sentiments -  like "home sweet home" -  which are so universally known and so frequently said. what i love most about them is that moment in your own life where you, unknowingly, stumble upon that very feeling...in this case, walking into the comforts of your home at the end of a long day, a trip, a special event, and that feeling, that sigh...home sweet home. and i love in those moments realizing how that universal phrase and sentiment came to be so universal.

do you love glass trays like this? read the high/low here.

farmers market day!

i LOVE farmers market day! yesterday, i went first thing in the morning again(new favorite way to start a day) and what struck me the most was the rainbow of colors in so much of the produce. plums in yellow, peach, red, blue, purple and everything in between.

peppers and tomatoes in every shade from palest yellow all the way up through screaming red, with some purples and greens thrown in for good measure. and the eggplants...stripy and speckled and tie-dyed looking, they look like they're related to the stripy and speckled tomatoes you see above...and it turns out they are!

 

i'm most excited about the very special mirabelle plums i bought...i'm told they're very rare in the united states and the woman i bought them from said they're from a tree on her farm that was smuggled in from france 25 years ago. she's planning on having her father in law graft the tree, which i just learned means that he'll attach a piece of it to rootstock so he can create another plant. (would the fruit that grafted tree bore be considered a GMO? if so, i think i'm okay with this kind).

i also bought one hot cherry pepper and one serrano pepper...WWBFD*?

*what would bobby flay do?

99

yesterday would have my grandfather's 99th birthday and today, i just had to post about it because these brightly colored shirts, stacked all together, are an image that brings him to mind instantly. he was always wearing bold colors and no one rocked pastels better than he. also no one made lists, hummed tunes, delivered punchlines, tallied a check, dispensed advice and showed support better. molly and i discussed that we liked to think of him, on his birthday and every day, in heaven tapping his feet, making lists (never on a napkin!) and chuckling to himself about a joke he heard long ago, in yiddish.

shoe-in

i really haven't been much of a shoe girl in my life, and i think that's largely been because most nice shoes weren't comfortable for me, and often didn't look particularly pretty on me. but now that i've lost so much weight, my shoes have gone down a size or two (yes, that happens!) and they generally look way better in shoes. i've been enjoying all kinds of sandals this summer...t-straps, ankle straps and other very thin, refined looking sandals. it's a revelation! so for fall, i have my eyes on a few pairs that i'm really excited about. none are expensive, because i still don't feel shoes are important enough to me to splurge on...i'd rather save that for bags.

love love love these leopard flats which also come in a wedge if you're more into height. and these gold glitter flats are exactly as glittery and sparkly as you'd want them to be - no more and no less. love the idea of these with jeans or even a buttoned up pair of slacks.

also on the gold front, i'm seriously considering these metallic lame oxfords you see at the top. will i look like the tin man? maybe. will i have the nerve to wear them? not sure. but i do love them. i feel like they're a cool, different take on fall's oxford moment. thoughts?

the other thrilling thing about right now for me is that for the first time in i don't know how long, i'll be able to wear boots because my calves are small enough to zip into them! what will they be? sparkly uggs? flat leather ones? furry ones? or maybe i'd just get these to put over whatever other boots i have...might i get cozy cable knit ones? or fuschia hunter boots with the cozy socks that fit inside? choices....

some thoughts for a monday

 

take me to this bedroom. and if you love mix and match patterns, you might just DIE over the preview of missoni's collection for target. 

I. DIE. and look at this absurdly adorable missoni for baby outfit that i MIGHT have to buy though it will be years before i have someone to put in it.

and i've been meaning to tell you...last saturday, i saw a great play with my mom, my sister and my brother's girlfriend dani ... it was love, loss and what i wore and starred a very pleasant, easy to watch marla maples and a non-dorota dorota. it touched on so many universal female themes in an understated, matter of fact way, and really nicely tied in how outfits and shoes and bras mark the moments of our lives and how we remember them. totally recommend. 

before the play, we had a really lovely brunch at elsewhere...i had delicious eggs with cheese perfectly folded in, and my mom's bloody mary had pickled green beans garnishing it! dani had the best looking blueberry pancakes we had ever seen...my favorite thing about hers was the way they served the butter - a perfect little square of it in a white porcelain spoon atop the stack. i missed the pre-eaten photo op, but you get the idea.

 
the best thing about elsewhere was their attention to coffee refills, and you know me and my coffee. we were all playing around with our cameras and retro camera apps, and i stumbled into this photo which i felt perfectly captured my "oooh it's coffee time" feeling. 

and look at the sweet little herb garden in the covered greenhouse-like room where we were sitting.

after brunch and before the play, we roamed around a flea market in hell's kitchen and i spotted this very cool bar cart. so perfectly un-glam... i think that's what i thought was interesting about it - no shine or sparkle, just a certain midcentury utilitarian style, complete with the zodiac signs on the surface...very age of aquarius. 

i'm all about bags, as you probably know, but this seems like a naked emperor situation to me...these edie parker bags (which remind me far too much of caboodles) are close to $1000.

really?? if i were going to spend a grand on a bag, that's not what it would be.

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game night

games are always fun to play with a group, aren't they? some of our favorites are taboo, mad gab and good old scattergories, but this one looks like fun of a different kind...perfect for a film buff who's hosting you for the weekend ... reminds me of playing scene it with mitchell and our friends and mitchell knew every answer before the question was even completed and the rest of us sat there drooling and feeling dumb. okay, so maybe this game wouldn't be good in MY house, but it would probably be great in someone else's and would make an awfully fun addition to a beach weekend, don't you think? 

i say wrap this up and give it with a tin of gourmet popcorn, a theater popcorn popper, or a big popcorn bowl like this one.

for a different snacky idea, how great is this martha thought of packing peanuts...literally! what a fun way to give ... really anything, especially something food or game themed. do it this weekend and let the games begin!

tomatoes AGAIN!

more on the tomato front from my lovely trip to the farmers market this morning before work. look at these!

a tomato state of mind

i've been doing lots of reading and watching on local, organic and just otherwise quality food, and i've come to really appreciate foods like tomatoes, which aren't always in season, though our industrial food system would have us believe it doesn't matter. as i learned from the first few moments of food inc., the tomatoes we find in our supermarkets in non-summer months, and even some of those which are present in the summer, are very often ripened in trucks and by ethylene gas, rather than by time and nature and sunlight as they should be. 

so it's good reason to celebrate that the time for tomatoes on the east coast is here, as they start to finally appear at farmers markets and local produce outlets. my very own tomato plant given to me as a wee thing by my green-thumbed father is starting to bear fruit. for now, it's small, green fruit, but it's only a matter of time and of august heat before they ripen and blush and appear in my late summer salads.

i saw a great tomato idea on rachael ray the other day that i thought was so rustic and sweet and it was sort of, though not exactly, like this...she roasted large, halved tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and kosher salt and in the roasting pan, she tucked full cloves of garlic still in their "jackets" as she called them...when the whole pan was hot and gooey and roasted through, she hatched the little cloves out of their skins and spread the mild paste over ciabatta bread. then she smeared a warm tomato half over each piece of bread and that was that. 

here is a terrific article with all kinds of tomato recipes i thought you might like, and the gorgeous photos that accompany them (and the perfect one at the top, from hali bey) really illuminate how perfectly simple and simply perfect a tomato can be.

cool and fresh or warm and roasted, tiny and round or mutated and bumpy, mixed with fresh pasta, tossed into shrimp and fresh herbs, or all by its lonesome from a bowl on the counter directly into one's mouth, they're pretty close to perfection, don't you agree?