Neon party dress

I found this neon party dress that would be perfect for a summer wedding.  Doesn't it look like it's a white dress that was washed with a highlighter?  Now I'm looking at suitable shoes to go with it (the online shopping never ends).  Round and round we go, eeny meeny miny moe.

 

Books not to read

This article from The Telegraph made me laugh and nod my head in agreement.  Not the 50 books you must read before you die outlines what classics or popular books you should not waste time reading.  Oh Brits and their dry sense of humour.

Some of my favourite comments by Iain Hollingshead:

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Jay Gatsby is not as great a character as everyone thinks he is. Neither is this book, or the author, or the million of people who pretend to like it. Full of people doing tedious things, breaking off only to sleep with each other’s wives.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Like trying to get to grips with seven generations of your Colombian exchange student’s family tree.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Its set-up is almost as protracted as the dull protagonist’s endless cups of coffee. Then it suddenly descends into graphic sexual violence. Sweden’s most overrated export since Ikea.

Recent read #4: Parrot & Olivier in America

Parrot & Olivier in America by Peter Carey

Parrot & Olivier are two disparate individuals who do much as the title suggests and travel to America together.  The story is split up into chapters narrated by each character separately.  You find out about their backgrounds and how they have each arrived at the situation that they are currently in.  Peter Carey is a wonderful author and his characters and the landscape of new America take on a life of their own.  You merely think of Carey as a historian recording the lives of these two individuals.  All of that being said, I am not a book critic nor even proclaim to be an armchair book critic.  Parrot & Olivier was a National Book Award Finalist, however I did not enjoy reading this book.  The story of the founding of democracy and its early days was not fully appreciated by me, even though I did appreciate how well-written it was.  Perhaps I will revisit this again at a later time and reread for a fuller appreciation of Carey's work.

Monday Funday

Ski lodge obsession via CoolHunter

More in-home libraries to dream about via Houzz

contemporary family room design by new york architect Lisa Dubin Architect

contemporary living room design by boston architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

I'm not sure if I could ever get to that point.  Not the point where I have a personal library but the point where I have enough books where I can fill a personal library.  I cull through my book collection quarterly (how finance oriented am I) and donate the ones that I didn't enjoy quite as much.  Recently, I've started looking at coffee table books to collect.  Any good suggestions?

For the avoidance of women's suits

Women's suits are making me cringe right now.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to pimp one of these suits from Theory...

But wearing suits just gets old.  I need a break from the same predictable grey / navy / black suit.  So I bought this Form and Function blazer from Anthropologie today.

I had to size down two sizes from my regular size.  I hope it works with my black pencil skirt or pants tomorrow.  Bonus, it has a slit in the sleeve so you can roll them up, which you can count on doing in Texas.  I'll keep you all posted on the performance of this blazer in lieu of a suit.

Follow up: Blazer worked GREAT!  It was much more comfortable than a suit jacket and was warm for the 40 degree weather that I did NOT expect in Dallas.  The only criticism I have is that it seems as it would have a tendency to wrinkle easily.

Recent Read #3

I know I have two more Recent Read posts to write but I can't help but blog about The Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.  As the title implies, it's about witches, vampires and daemons and I am ashamed.  I downloaded it while I was at home sick (call it a moment of weakness) and its been like a train wreck - I just can't look away. 

In summary, the story is a mix between Harry Potter, DaVinci Code and Twilight (I haven't read the series but I'm just guessing - you'll see why).  Multiple times during the course of reading the book, I've put it down and said out loud, "That's enough.  I really can't read anymore" but have always picked it up again.  This would be the book I would have written as a preteen.  And these are the reasons why:

• Dark, handsome and filthy rich knight in shining armor
• Smart, independent, stubborn and orphaned female protagonist
• Lots of time spent in libraries
• Adept horsemanship by both main characters and ample time describing it
• Blossoming, intense, almost feral teen-angsty romance

Regardless, I am impressed by Deborah Harkness, particularly the way she uses words to weave the story (with science even!) and the settings into images that can't help but play in your head.  The amount of research that went into writing this book can't have been small.  But I can't shake the fact that this is a love story between a witch and a vampire and the "trials and tribulations" that come with it.  I feel slightly tainted after reading the "steamy" scenes, simultaneously laughing out loud and cringing.  And I'm oddly embarrassed as the witch and vampire form their relationship over doing YOGA and learning to appreciate WINE together.  Seriously?

In all honesty, I will probably finish the book since I only have 100 pages to go and, unfortunately, wait anxiously for the rest of the trilogy to come out.  I'll just have to cleanse myself afterward with a good dose of reality.

Gift guide: The man who makes my day

It's difficult to shop for someone who has practically everything.  Or practically everything that he wants and can afford.  Gift ideas start to verge toward bankrupcty after that point.  Although I wish I could get him those things, I know that he wouldn't really want them.  At least not as much as early retirement.  Here are a few ideas for that hard-to-shop-for, easy-going, always-positive-and-accomodating man in your life.

PS - Isn't it a riot that everyone's birthday is in the spring?  As in a bad way.  On my bank account.

Jack Spade Carryon - I like how this bag is simple yet classic and also nylon for durability.  Because you know that there will be coffee spilled on it and that it'll be thumped on the floor multiple times.

Scotch & Soda gift pack - There's no end to classic goodness that he'll wear until it falls apart

 

A trip to the Maldives - Well, maybe not that trip yet.  Perhaps a plane ticket to another (closer) beach vacation for some much needed R&R.

Sick again

Oh boy, sick again for the third time this year!  My office is like a breeding ground for germs.

I found this letterpress Get Well card on Etsy by ShortGrassDesigns.  Adorkable and I'm sure it would make me feel better in a snap.

Recent read #2

The City & The City by China Mieville

I was first attracted to this novel by one reviewer drawing a parallel to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors but I'll save that for another post.  In order to realize the genius of China Mieville independently, one needs to realize the breadth of his writing style.  This is the second China Mieville book I've read (the first being Kraken) and his style is fluid to fit the story he is telling.  His particular genius in this novel is the setting of both cities - even though plot and character development are a bit weak, the cities shine through as the main focus of the novel (hence the title) and are what really caught me.  If you are an aspiring writer or enjoy getting wrapped up in someone else's imagination, read through this novel and try and pinpoint how he easily introduces the reader to a world that is slightly familiar yet fantastical.  Although I can see how one may relate this novel to Neverwhere through the duality of a city, that's really where the similarity ends.  Except the ending, but endings to these stories can only be as they are.

Next up: Parrot & Olivier and We, The Drowned

Etsy freak

I am a self proclaimed etsy frrreak.  My favourites to browse are letterpress cards and prints.  Year to date, I have spent - well, let's just not get into that.  One of what I think is the most attractive points of etsy is the buyer interaction.  I enjoy getting the personal thank yous and the extra goodies in my packages whenever I order from a seller.  The pride taken in his and/or her work and the pleasure that he and/or she gets out of someone else enjoying it is tangible.

One of my latest purchases was from Two Arms, a print making team from Brooklyn.  They nailed the colours of Texas and I bought a few of these cards as a Congratulations / Happy Birthday / Just Excited to be Writing Ya.

Thank you Karen and Mike of Two Arms and I hope y'all are having a great time in Austin this week.

Gift guide: The younger sister who has everything

I've been wracking my brain for the past few days trying to figure out what to get my sister for her 23rd birthday.  She works for a major athletic brand and subsequently gets all the apparel / shoes / cool tech gear that anyone could want for free.  This makes gift buying terribly difficult.  She has also asked that I not get her something "boring" or functional which further complicates the matter.  I've come up with a few items that are useful and fun:

Urban Decay Naked Palette: A good variety of neutral colours that can work for every occasion.  Plus over 1,000 reviews on Sephora if you're wondering how others like it.

OPI Texas Collection: If the names of the colours don't get you alone (Austin-tatious, Guy Meets Gal-veston), then the colours well.  I may just pick the brighest hues.

Happy Socks: Who doesn't love colourful socks?  I got her some rainbow over the knee ones for Christmas and she seemed to like them.  Maybe some polka dotted ones this time

Pictures from this past weekend

What a beautiful time.  On our way back from the mountains, we saw two big horn sheep and a herd of elk on the side of the road.

I want to move

To Australia.  Just to wear these clothes from Morrison.  And hang out on the beach all the time and speak with an Aussie accent.

I'm angry today

Which is strange because I didn't start off the day angry.  I think things just built upon themselves during the course of the day and I didn't really notice it until now.  Among the contributors were: other people's stupidity, being back at work, car trouble, hearing about others' bad news, realizing that there's no light at the end of the tunnel, my leg smarting, other people's stupidity...

I'm looking for things to cheer me up or at least put me in a neutral mood.  I feel a bit like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music (except without the singing or the pixie cut).

• Crawfish season
• Mardi Gras beads in Vail last weekend
• Noodles / pasta and the effect of all that lovely serotonin goodness
• Another vacation - permanently this time?
• My father typing "OMG" in an email he sent me today
• Sparkly drop earrings

Any additional suggestions?

So unnecessary

Two things that I got on vacation that I did not need:
-Another pair of snow boots. Yes, the Cate the Greats! But they were on sale for 50% off
-A gaping gash on my shin from my ski that sliced through my ski pants and under layer. I probably should have gotten stitches because it's definitely still bloody

Back home tomorrow... Vacations are never long enough.

Friday finds

As promised, below is a colourful yet work appropriate skirt.  Because the print on the cotton red skirt is not floral, I feel as though it is feminine but not too girly.  You could wear this with a navy, green, purple or yellow basic top and not get any looks in a conservative office environment.

I know I'm late to the game but I just discovered Free People's Vintage Loves section.  I am one who could live in t-shirts all day and I could buy all of these vintage tees.  Obviously other people love them as much as I do because a solid portion of the tees are sold out.  I hope FP reloads with new offerings!

More ski real estate?

Maybe I'll drive up to Aspen this weekend and check out some real estate.  The average home is only $6 million.  Thanks WSJ for giving me a goal to aspire to - getting chummy with really wealth people.  For the full article on The Most Expensive Town in America, click the link.





Recent read #1

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

This post is not so much about the third book in the Flavia de Luce series, which unfortunately is still not as strong as the first, but about the main character.  I mainly read this book out of adoration of Flavia.  The protagonist in Alan Bradley's series is pre-teen Flavia, much smarter but smaller than an adult.  Her daily trials and tribulations consist of an inconsistent family life comprised of torturing her older sisters, a distant father and deceased heroine mother and ennui with her small hometown in the 1950s English countryside. 

Using Holmes-like detection skills and her love for chemistry, she sets out to find and solve crimes in Bishop's Lacey.  Flavia is an underdog that has the reader rooting for her the whole way through.  Please pick up The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie if you have an opportunity.  If you like Flavia as much as I do, you'll read the next two books, even though the plots lack the development as the first novel.

Ski lodge

This ski apartment in Switzerland from Desire to Inspire puts me in the mood for going back out to the mountains on Friday.  If only the place we were staying at looked like this.  Thick snow on the roofs of houses always look like pastry icing to me and check out those sumptuous furs!  I'm geared up to hit the slopes again - too bad my body is still not in skiing shape.  Looks like I'll have to let gravity do most of the work.

Wearing colour (at work) is hard to do

Spring time and warm weather. Nature airs its pale green frocks and blushes the slightest hint of pink. The air is softer and the sky is a less intense blue, dampened time and time again by the showers bringing forth those May flowers.

The colour palette for one's wardrobe inevitably mirrors nature's fashion show and thus, peaches, pastels and the paler, frothier versions of summer colours start appearing in fashion magazines and shop windows.

In an office, one starts to see hints of colour in the women's wardrobe but alas, in an industry such as mine, there aren't too many of those(women). Men wear the same blue shirts and grey/black slacks season after season and little varies there. There is, I believe, a certain perception behind wearing more feminine clothing and colours in an office dominated by men. Perhaps you won't be taken as seriously or people think you care more about picking out your outfit for tomorrow than for the presentation due tomorrow. The same applies to jewelry and accessories and excludes admins. Why am I self conscious and even scared to wear colour at work?

In any case, I think the answer, for me at least, is this. When it's 11 or 12 at night and you've been in your cube since 8 am, the last thing that you want to be is:
-Trotting around the office in your 4 inch Italian heels that have been pinching your feet or giving you blisters since you walked to grab lunch
-Shivering in your cute spring skirt, since office air is turned colder as it gets warmer outside
-Rattling your keyboard with your bangles and rings, causing unintended deletions or typos that take an additional hour to catch and correct
-Dressed in a cheery colour when what you really you feel is dour, tired and grey

As a challenge to this statement and how I feel about my own office attire, I will be on the hunt this spring for some classic, colorful and realistic work outfit options that will not undermine your work persona but will break out of the greys, navys, and blacks I know you are all sick of wearing.