My Latest Snag: The Talbots Haul.
OMG — Talbots sent over this pair of flats in two colorways after I mentioned them on the blog a week or two ago. I was so excited! I love their Missoni/Bottega Veneta vibe. Very chic and very comfortable. They also sent me this pleated skirt, which I intend to wear with one of my many crisp white button-down tops — but something with a little pizzazz, like this one with pintucking, or this with embroidery at the sleeve, or this with its shoulder flounces. And finally: they sent THIS! So so adorable. I’ll be wearing it with something like this ASAP.
You’re Sooooo Popular: The Talbots Flats!
The most popular items on Le Blog this week:
+The self-same flats I mentioned above! SUCH a great score!
+Heavily discounted Gul Hurgel.
+The key to all of your problems. (HA.)
+This little contraption was clutch for our recent trip to the beach!
#Turbothot: Eagerness as a Virtue.
I have decided that one of the most underrated virtues is eagerness.
I hate — hate! — the practiced cool and indifference we learn to wear when we are in our tweens, when we suddenly realize that excitement about Santa, or Barbies, or theme parks, or Halloween is beneath us, and we strain toward apathy. It’s cooler, we decide, to appear unbothered, above such emotions, in control of ourselves, and we use it as a weapon against those not yet fully divorced of their childish passions.
“Lizzie likes to play with her science kit. It’s so dorky,” we might say with a virtue-signaling eye roll that precariously places us on a ledge above Lizzie and all other insophisticates capable of such embarrassing interests.
This commitment to coolness persists through our teens, our twenties. Somewhere around thirty, things shift — not for all of us, but for many. Hobbies gradually become cool again — or maybe it’s just that we don’t care so much about what other people think any more, and we let our freak flags fly. Gradually, a friend’s deep investigation of, say, how to harvest scallops or how to play violin or how to make the perfect hangar steak or how to needlepoint or even how and why the Boer Wars took place have become attractive, tacitly approved.
Last week, in the Hamptons, the husband of my best friend — also one of my dearest friends in his own right — brought a case of assorted high-end wines and spirits that he had carefully picked out for the vacation. I don’t think we’ve ever drank better. He saved one bottle — a magnum of bordeaux from Newton Vineyards — for our final night, when we savored it alongside grilled ribeye steaks, thick-cut oven fries, and asparagus and zucchini dressed simply in olive oil, salt, and heavy-handed black pepper. He had been excited about the magnum all week, mentioning how much he was looking forward to it, how much fun he’d had picking it out, how decadent it would be to drain this expensive, complex red with the perfect grilled steak. (Plus, what’s not to love about a magnum for a celebratory occasion? So dramatic, so festive — its proportions reflective of the gaiety of the evening.) As he uncorked it, I could read the eagerness on his face from across the room, a smile on his face in spite of himself. It was there, in the candlelight of a vacation in my thirties that it dawned on me that eagerness is a recapturing of childhood, a return to the guilelessness and unguardedness of our youth. It’s a simple virtue, without device or affect, and it is woefully under-celebrated.
Cheers to those among us who make space for eagerness, who shrug off its vulnerabilities in favor or earnestness in the face of something that bring us joy.
#Shopaholic: The Date Night Dress.
+My next date night look is sorted. (Saucy! Giving me major Sofia Loren vibes!)
+We visited my cousin in East Hampton and they had one of these wagons for their two boys. Mini fell in love and spent the better part of two hours in it. If only we had the space…although I think I might opt for this classic!
+Random random random, but I’ve just discovered these round tissue boxes. Such a smart space saver for those of us with limited shelf space!
+More amazing finds for your home.
+We played a lot of Oh Hell on this trip — it’s our absolute favorite card game, and it is assured to make everyone alternately furious and ecstatic.
+Can I rave about this dress a little more? So flattering and easy; I wore it one day in the Hamptons and it was the perfect vibe.
+Speaking of blue and white stripes — this swimsuit would have been a welcome stowaway in my suitcase for the occasion…
+Lessons from a trip to the museum.
+OMG THIS TOP. NOW UNDER $20. WHY IS IT SOLD OUT IN MY SIZE.
+Someone mentioned this in a comment recently, but this Charlotte Tilbury “Flawless Filter” foundation is getting some major buzz. It’s like applying an Instagram filter to your face! What! (See more of my beauty must-haves here.)