george lassos the moon.

George Bailey: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary.

Mary: I'll take it. Then what?

George Bailey: Well, then you can swallow it, and it'll all dissolve, see... and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair... am I talking too much?

--- It's a Wonderful Life.

christmas kate.

 

Happy Holidays from Kate Spade!

spend all you have for loveliness.

Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like the curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.

--- Barter, Sara Teasdale

the sentence that changed my life.

"Expect to have your cigarette lighted."

--- Helen Gurley Brown

we don't belong to nobody & nobody belongs to us.

bottoms up.

. . . & Party Season 2010 officially commences.

whenever men are right they are not young.

may my heart always be open to little

birds who are the secrets of living

whatever they sing is better than to know

and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry

and fearless and thirsty and supple

and even if it's sunday may i be wrong

for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully

and love yourself so more than truly

there's never been quite such a fool who could fail

pulling all the sky over him with one smile

--- e.e. cummings, may my heart always be open.

[From DaveysDailyPoetry. If you have not subscribed yet, you must.]

funny doesn't sag.

 
Reese Witherspoon is killing it in her January Glamour spread.

I don't typically go in for woman's mags and romantic comedies, but Reese is my big exception. I think each of us has that one celebrity we just like - the one we feel is a better version of ourselves or would make an excellent neighbor. Reese has been my celebrity alter ego since I was 14 and my friends whispered, "That's you!" in the middle of Legally Blonde. (I think it was the combination of pink resume paper & rapid fire arguing.) Nearly 10 years later and I still take the comparison as a compliment. She always looks stylish, is proud of her Southern roots, readily describes herself as a Type A personality - and she's 5'2 to boot. A girl could do worse for role models.

 

go glam.

 

Hair up, red lips, champagne in hand, a flirty look at the camera, & a gown tastefully trailing the red carpet.

This, my friends, is glamour.

Dita von Teese at Vienna's Opera Ball. January, 2008.

strong arms = weak knees.

Everything about this look is divine.

[Michael Caine & Natalie Wood. 1966.]

speech to the young : speech to the progress-toward

Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.

--- Speech to the Young : Speech to the Progress-Toward, Gwendolyn Brooks.

trick-or-treat!

For the first time ever I work in an office that dresses up for Halloween. Costume ideas have been buzzing through the office for the last week, and I'll be honest, it's gotten me pretty excited about the holiday. I almost regret not throwing a little Halloween party this year, especially after seeing some of Martha Stewart's decorating ideas. Leave it to Martha to make even Halloween so chic and charming.

And for the curious, I dressed up as Alice in Wonderland. But the best office costumes have to go to Elizabeth and Mike, who went as the Wicked Witch of the West and one of her flying monkeys. They looked great!

"how bored i am!" he said to himself, "how bored i am!"

"My wife doesn't care about it," said Charles; "although she has been advised to take exercise, she prefers always sitting in her room reading."

"Like me," replied Leon. "And indeed, what is better than to sit by one's fireside in the evening with a book, while the wind beats against the window and the lamp is burning?"

"What, indeed?" she said, fixing her large black eyes wide open upon him.

"One thinks of nothing," he continued; "the hours slip by. Motionless we traverse countries we fancy we see, and your thought, blending with the fiction, playing with the details, follows the outline of the adventures. It mingles with the characters, and it seems as if it were yourself palpitating beneath their costumes."

"That is true! That is true!" she said.

--- Madame Bovary. Flaubert. p. 81

falling slowly.

"Take this sinking boat and point it home.
We've still got time.
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You'll make it now."

wood & blackboards.

"Masculine vintage" is such an under-appreciated design style. My favorite place for it is in industrial office spaces like these. I have to say, if I ever start my own PR shop, I'll have to seriously consider doing the whole place in exposed brick with black leather couches & wire fans.

Wouldn't it make coming to work in lipstick and silk blouses that much more glamorous?

 

style-list

Five percent American handshake.

Recipe for the perfect man, I think.

jewel tones.

roots vol. I

My grandmother, Anna Healy, graduating from high school. 1942.

Newark, NJ in the 1940s. Grandma, the skinny, silly one in the middle, surrounded by her (very Irish) sisters - Nora, Teresa & Peg.

i hold the dust of these amid changing stars.

O prairie mother, I am one of your boys.  
I have loved the prairie as a man with a heart shot full of pain over love.  
Here I know I will hanker after nothing so much as one more sunrise or a sky moon of fire doubled to a river moon of water.
.    .    .
  
I speak of new cities and new people.  
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.          
I tell you yesterday is a wind gone down,  
  a sun dropped in the west.  
I tell you there is nothing in the world  
  only an ocean of to-morrows,  
  a sky of to-morrows.          

I am a brother of the cornhuskers who say  
  at sundown:  
        To-morrow is a day.

--- from Prairie. Carl Sandburg. 1918.

from your summer cottons to your winter wools.

Fall swept through D.C. this week, announcing itself with wind, rain, and a dour sky. It was a sad end to a warm and sunny September, but I am trying to look on the bright side: bad weather also means good things like scarves, boots, tights, & coats. Time to bring out the staples and add a few new pieces. This year I'm working more blazers, belts, and tousled hair into the mix.

What's in your lookbook this fall?

 

From lookbook.nu.