Leçon, comment plier un foulard

It looks as though it's going to take some trial and error to get the hang of this tripod-and-timer self portraiture.  We're still in the early stages; hopefully the results will improve with practice.

This is a super-simple, easy-peasy scarf tie, but one that looks nice and stays in place. 

Start with a long scarf, drape around the neck with one short and one long end.

Wrap the long end once around the neck.

Take the long end and pass it downward through the loop.

Et voilà! 

If you don't want the ends quite so long, start with the short end even shorter, wrap twice around the neck, and tuck the long end through one of the loops.

Edited to add:  I took some tuxedo shots last night, but need to fiddle with the exposure as they came out rather dark.  I'll post tomorrow.
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Wear a Tux for Ceara

This is Ceara Sturgis, an openly gay high school senior.  Her Mississippi high school, Wesson Attendance Center, refused to publish her picture in the yearbook because she's wearing a tuxedo.  They refused to mention her name in her senior yearbook.  (Thanks, Style Spy, for bringing this to my attention!) We're publishing her picture, and encourage everyone to do the same.  Let's make her senior picture the most published in history!  If you have a blog or a Facebook page, please think about giving this young woman our support and post her picture and story.  The high school principals Ronald Greer and Oscar Hawkins should be ashamed of themselves.  This is just so wrong.

Une femme is taking this one step further, I'm wearing a tux for Ceara tomorrow (or as close as I can get, based on what's in my closet).  Spread the word, and please blog if you do the same.
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Twisted encounters of the the third kind...

 "The Twisted, I think it's following me!"

Despite my best intentions to keep purchases to a minimum right now, fabulous items that bring a needed twist to my wardrobe somehow keep throwing themselves in my path.  First it was the orange Fluevogs.  Then over the weekend, this necklace winked and sparkled and made wild promises of funky glamour from it's shop window perch.

Before I tell you where this came from, I'll preface by saying that I've been at best lukewarm to this whole lucite jewelry trend.  Been there, done that back when we all were wearing shoulder pads and rainbow eye shadow.  But this one, with the waist length and champagne gold baubles had unique appeal.  Shall I tell you?  It's from Chicos!  (Unfortunately not available online yet, but if there's a store near you, give them a call. Here it is on the website, AND marked down!)  I know, I'm hearing the kneejerk, "ugh, Chicos!" from some of you, but you really should think again.  Sure, there are the caftan-y things and the over-embellished and boxy, but they also have some fantastique yet reasonably priced accessories and some great pieces mixed in with the more Boca Raton stuff. Here's a closer shot of this necklace, which I wore to the symphony Saturday night to loads of compliments:

So I thought I was safe. After all, how much of this kind of luck can one femme have in a single month? Then  yesterday, Belle at BHB dangled a Holy Grail at an incredible price from Beladora2.

An Hermès Collier de Chien!  Now this is definitely a twisted piece, and one I've wistfully gazed at for the last couple of years behind the glass case at Hermès, but thought was beyond my reach.  But here it is.

I'm going to have such fun with this!   I picked up from Belle de Ville yesterday and we had a chance to catch up a bit.  Belle looks as gorgeous as ever.

I did procure a tripod over the weekend, and have figured out how to use my camera's timer function.   Look for some upcoming scarf tutorials, perhaps as early as this week.

A bientot!
~

Polyvore Nation

Un peu de twist by deja pseu featuring J Crew jeans

While catching up with some back issues of The New Yorker yesterday, I stumbled across this article about Polyvore from the March 29 issue.

"Think Black,” the title of the set made by Fabz_Reen, in Indonesia, is a reference to “Think Pink,” the exuberant opening number from “Funny Face,” the 1957 movie about the fashion world. The cadences of the film clearly still echo through the popular fantasy of what constitutes a fashion magazine: a dictatorial matron sweeping through skyscraper offices, as Meryl Streep did in “The Devil Wears Prada,” fifty years after Kay Thompson played a caricature of the legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, fretting about failing the “American woman who stands out there naked waiting for me to tell her what to wear.” In reality, the American woman has not waited to be told what to wear in some time. Vogue and Bazaar now compete with the more populist shopping magazines, like InStyle and Lucky, whose low-key editors have replaced lush, fantastical spreads with practical shopping advice and catalogue-style layouts. Polyvore’s user-generated model abandons the queenly paradigm altogether. The site has 1.4 million registered users, two hundred thousand of whom are, like Helmer, dedicated “creators”: amateur stylists who put together thirty thousand sets a day and post them on Facebook, Twitter, and their personal blogs. Kerry Diamond, an executive at Lancôme who has done business with Polyvore, describes sets as “the cyber equivalent of the inside of a school locker door.”

“Our mission is to democratize fashion,” Jess Lee, Polyvore’s twenty-seven-year-old vice-president of product management, told me recently, as she picked at a huge Caesar salad at Fred’s, the restaurant on the ninth floor of Barneys on Madison Avenue. “To empower people on the street to think about their sense of style and share it with the world.” She believes that the “Funny Face” days are history. “Newspapers and magazines are, like, these things outside that get wet,” she said. “They’re like roadkill.”

What do you think?  Will Polyvore, fashion blogs, twitter and the Next Big Internet Thing bring about the end of the reign of Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld as Grand Arbiters of fashion?  Or will there always be a place for glossy fashion magazines?
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Sunday Music Corner

She was no dazzling executante; her runs were not at all like strings of pearls, and she struck no more right notes than was suitable for one of her age and situation. Nor was she the passionate young lady, who performs so tragically on a summer's evening with the window open. Passion was there, but it could not be easily labelled; it slipped between love and hatred and jealousy, and all the furniture of the pictorial style. And she was tragical only in the sense that she was great, for she loved to play on the side of Victory. Victory of what and over what-- that is more than the words of daily life can tell us. But that some sonatas of Beethoven are written tragic no one can gainsay; yet they can triumph or despair as the player decides, and Lucy had decided that they should triumph.

A very wet afternoon at the Bertolini permitted her to do the thing she really liked, and after lunch she opened the little draped piano. A few people lingered round and praised her playing, but finding that she made no reply, dispersed to their rooms to write up their diaries or to sleep. She took no notice of Mr. Emerson looking for his son, nor of Miss Bartlett looking for Miss Lavish, nor of Miss Lavish looking for her cigarette-case. Like every true performer, she was intoxicated by the mere feel of the notes: they were fingers caressing her own; and by touch, not by sound alone, did she come to her desire.

Mr. Beebe, sitting unnoticed in the window, pondered this illogical element in Miss Honeychurch, and recalled the occasion at Tunbridge Wells when he had discovered it. It was at one of those entertainments where the upper classes entertain the lower. The seats were filled with a respectful audience, and the ladies and gentlemen of the parish, under the auspices of their vicar, sang, or recited, or imitated the drawing of a champagne cork. Among the promised items was "Miss Honeychurch. Piano. Beethoven," and Mr. Beebe was wondering whether it would be Adelaida, or the march of The Ruins of Athens, when his composure was disturbed by the opening bars of Opus III. He was in suspense all through the introduction, for not until the pace quickens does one know what the performer intends. With the roar of the opening theme he knew that things were going extraordinarily; in the chords that herald the conclusion he heard the hammer strokes of victory. He was glad that she only played the first movement, for he could have paid no attention to the winding intricacies of the measures of nine-sixteen. The audience clapped, no less respectful. It was Mr. Beebe who started the stamping; it was all that one could do.
.....
But before he left Tunbridge Wells he made a remark to the vicar, which he now made to Lucy herself when she closed the little piano and moved dreamily towards him:

"If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting both for us and for her."
.....
Evening approached while they chatted; the air became brighter; the colours on the trees and hills were purified, and the Arno lost its muddy solidity and began to twinkle. There were a few streaks of bluish-green among the clouds, a few patches of watery light upon the earth, and then the dripping facade of San Miniato shone brilliantly in the declining sun.

"Too late to go out," said Miss Alan in a voice of relief. "All the galleries are shut."

"I think I shall go out," said Lucy. "I want to go round the town in the circular tram--on the platform by the driver."

Her two companions looked grave. Mr. Beebe, who felt responsible for her in the absence of Miss Bartlett, ventured to say:

"I wish we could. Unluckily I have letters. If you do want to go out alone, won't you be better on your feet?"

"Italians, dear, you know," said Miss Alan.

"Perhaps I shall meet some one who reads me through and through!"

But they still looked disapproval, and she so far conceded to Mr. Beebe as to say that she would only go for a little walk, and keep to the street frequented by tourists.


"She oughtn't really to go at all," said Mr. Beebe, as they watched her from the window, "and she knows it. I put it down to too much Beethoven."

--E.M. Forster, Room With A View

Though it wasn't the performance in the youtube clip above, we had the pleasure of attending a rousing perfomance of Beethoven's 7th symphony last night at the Long Beach Symphony.  This season has featured Beethoven's symphonies to celebrate what would have been his 250th birthday year.  Last night's program opened with Beethoven's not often performed Symphony No. 2, followed by The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra by Corigliano. (I'd seen The Red Violin and loved it but didn't remember the music being quite so discordant as this piece.  Apparently this concert piece was composed separately.)

Next season, the Long Beach Symphony theme is "From Russia With Love" which will feature works by Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and others.  If you, like une femme believe there's no such thing as "too much Beethoven," there is one more concert left in this year's series, which will feature Beethoven's 4th and 5th symphonies.
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Foulard de la semaine

Some cooler, breezy weather this week had me digging out my warmer foulards, but 'll admit, I really haven't been feeling the large silk carrés lately. (I'm sure this too shall pass.)

This scarf was purchased on our first Paris trip in 2007 at one of the touristy stores on the Rue Rivoli.  The colors coordinate with almost everything else in my closet.

If you've been sitting on the fence contemplating giving scarves a try, now is a great time.  Great lightweight scarves are available everywhere, and at price points that won't make you regret a little experimentation.  Go for a long scarf rather than a square, in lightweight materials with texture that will "grab" when you tie it (avoid slippery fabrics, which won't stay put).  When you see French women wearing scarves, the look is restrained and "just threw it on," so keep it simple.  Have fun!
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Picture (im)Perfect

I wanted to thank everyone for their kind and supportive comments on yesterday's post.  You all are generous, gracious and gorgeous yourselves!

I'll beg your indulgence once more, as I wanted to expand and clarify a bit.

First, in my family "fat" was shorthand for a whole raft of feelings and situations that had nothing to do with adipose tissue.  When my mother said "you look fat in that" it could mean anything from "the sleeves are too short" to "the color is unflattering" to "the fabric looks cheap" to "the hem is uneven" to "I just don't like it."  So even though my knee-jerk reaction was to fire up those old "look fat" tapes, what I really saw when I looked at the picture the first time was that my legs looked disproportionately short, probably due to the camera angle.  But once the body-negative stuff gets activated, all of the rational analysis goes right out the window.  (And despite my family's prejudices, there's nothing inherently wrong with looking fat. Being above a certain size doesn't preclude having great style. Selecting clothing that fits, works with our proportions, enhances our best features and flatters our coloring will do wonders for all of us.)

Another reason I've been reluctant to post modeling shots is that I don't want to give the impression of fishing for compliments. Some of the old "good girl" conditioning, I guess. Don't "toot your own horn." But I need to remember that I don't react that way when other people post these what-I-wore pics and I really enjoy seeing how people put themselves together, (usually I find it downright inspiring!) so I'm doing my best to let go of that bit of conditioning as well.

So many of us, it seems, place a thin film of expectation of how we "should" look over our own images that clouds and distorts reality.  It's not our image that's the problem, but our own expectations of it.  When I can lift that film and look underneath, often what I see is just fine.  Many years ago, after a vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, my mother-in-law was sharing some pictures she'd taken.  "Oh, you're not going to like this one," she said.  In the shot, I was in a bathing suit, sitting in a very unflattering position.  But I remembered that day, what a great time we'd had at the beach, and saw the look on my face captured in the picture: happy, relaxed.  "Actually I think I look pretty good," I told her.
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(Slightly) Twisted Corporate

As so many of you liked the "Corporate Up" POTV ensemble from Monday's post, I thought I'd actually wear to the office this week.  I think it worked well and here's the result.   I carried my dark olive green Lancel bag, just to throw another color into the mix.  Once again I'm feeling the need to apologize for a) the lousy photo quality, and b) mirror shot.  (The contortions required to get all of me into this narrow mirror while holding the camera steady don't make for great photography.  I have "buy a tripod!" on my to-do list for the weekend. Yes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.)

I'll also admit that after seeing this shot, I almost didn't post it.  I mean, those light colored, wide-legged pants aren't doing me any favors, are they?  My mother's Prime Directive ("you shouldn't wear that, it makes you look FAT!") still echoes in my head. 

But then I remembered my recent impassioned manifesto that we need to see more images of how clothing looks on women who aren't 5'11" and 112 lbs, so I'm pouring myself another glass of wine and clicking Publish now.

Edited to add: Are you able to be objective about your own appearance, especially in pictures?  If so, were you always or did it take some work?
 ~

Une femme recommends...

I'd started using some Clarins skincare products a couple of years ago after receiving a free sample, and am quite happy with their Brightening and Super Restorative lines.  Of course, the most important thing to consider when choosing skincare is how it makes your skin look and feel, but Clarins really sweetens the deal with their gift-with-purchase options. Rather than a few teardrop-sized skincare samples, disco-glitter eyeshadows and death-becomes-her-colored lipstick packaged in a shoebox-sized cardboard container, Clarins give you the stuff you actually use. Right now Macy's is offering the creme-de-la-creme of Clarins promotional gifts with the purchase of two products (1 skincare). The sample sizes in this particular gift are great for travel yet are substantial enough to last 2-3 weeks.  If you need to restock any of your skincare products, now's the time!
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The "Favorite Piece, Three-Ways" Challenge

A few weeks ago, Karen experimented with using a favorite piece to create three different looks, and challenged us to give it a try.  It sounded like a worthwhile (and fun!) endeavor, so here goes:

Last year I'd purchased this Talbot's cardigan, but had only really built one workable ensemble with it, which I wore quite a bit last summer and fall.  This ensemble below served well for casual office days and weekends. (There are white jeans in this mix, a bit hard to see against the light background.)

Tank: Chicos

Jeans: NYDJ

Sandals: Seychelles

Bag: Gerard Darel

Necklace: Ralph Lauren

Here's closeup so you can see the detail on the cardi.

Occasionally, I do need to dial the Corporate up a notch for meetings or visiting Higher Ups, but don't want to lose my newfound twist. Below, I buttoned up the cardi and added my navy blazer, taupe trousers and the orange 'Vogs.  As a variation, I could probably add a camisole under the sweater, and unbutton one or two of the top and bottom buttons to create more of a waistcoat effect.   We'll still have plenty of cool-ish days to give this a try before summer kicks in.

Trousers: Banana Republic

Jacket:  Talbot's

Shoes:  Fluevog

Earrings: Argento Vivo

"Paris" pin: Chanel

Forgot to add the bag, but would probably carry the brown YSL Muse with this grouping.

Finally, here's the Saturday early-movie-and-dinner-avec-le-monsieur ensemble.  This is my favorite so far!

Crinkle silk tank:  Eileen Fisher

Jeans: Gap Edition

Bag:  vintage magazine clutch from ebay

Necklaces:  Nordstrom and JCrew

Watch: Raymond Weil

Thanks Karen, for issuing this fun challenge!  It was a great exercise and helped me find multiple ways to style this cardigan.  If you find yourself grouping the same pieces over and over, I'd highly recommend an hour or two of playing Polyvore on the Floor to experiment with new combos, and snapping some pics to assess the overall looks.   Look for more POTF here in coming weeks, as I continue to explore new Twisted Classic ensembles.

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Sunday Music Corner

I always enjoy seeing the "greats" appear on Sesame Street.
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Foulard de la semaine

This is the scarf shown in Wednesday's ensemble.  I've rarely met a leopard print I didn't like, but snatched this one up for the light, soft colors that seem to complement almost everything in my closet, and the incredibly light weight of the rayon fabric.  I can wear all day and forget I have it on, vraiment! 

Here worn wrapped loosely around the neck twice, then the top end is tucked down through one of the loops.  Easy peasy! 

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Twisted at the office...

(This is my very first attempt at Polyvore on the Floor, so please bear with me!)

Here's my first classic-with-a-twist ensemble incorporating my new Fluevog shoes.  I'm rather pleased! 

And here's the "live" ensemble:

Wore the new shoes all day today and did errands at lunchtime that required some walking.  Even so, I came home and didn't feel the need to take them off until I was ready to start my above artistic endeavor.  Two thumbs up for these shoes!!

Navy jacket and coral tee - Talbots
Jeans - Gap Edition
Shoes - Fluevog
Bag - YSL
Watch - MICHAEL Michael Kors
Scarf - can't remember brand, purchased at Bloomingdales.
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Who's zooming who?

  Is Tory Burch really just Chico's with an attitude?  You decide.

Tory Burch, $174. (on sale at Nordstrom)

Chico's, $89.

Tory Burch, $495.

Chico's, $79.20.

Tory Burch, $325.

Chico's, $119.

While I recognize that there are some differences in styling and materials, the overall aesthetic sometimes seems strikingly close.

Can you guess which of the two retailers offers this unfortunate top?

~

Enfin, je presente les chaussures oranges!

After one false start and some patience and effort, they're here!  No "strict" shoes, these.

This pair of Fluevog "Coffee Macchiato's" are apparently the ONLY pair in this color and my size that were shipped to any US Fluevog store.  Lovely Sales Associate Bree from the LA store tracked them down for me and ordered them shipped from the NY store.  A week later they arrived on my doorstep; I opened the box and....they'd sent the wrong style!  Bree got right on the phone and rectified with the NY store, and had the correct pair sent.  (If you live in the US and are looking for a particular pair of Fluevogs, give Bree a call at 323-951-9555.  She's a shoe angel!) 

I picked up on Saturday (returned the wrong pair to the LA store), and am head over sculpted 3" heels for these shoes!  Not only is the color just as bright as you see in the top pic, but they look amazing on, and are un.be.lieve.ably comfortable!  They feel really good, seriously.  The straps hug the top of the foot nicely (and each one is adjustable for a custom fit), the arch support is great and the design is well balanced so they really don't feel as high as 3".  I also had a chance to look at the black and taupe colors in this style while I was at the store.  Both are also fabulous options if you like the style but prefer a more neutral color.

Alas, I can't wear today as we have rain in the forecast, but tomorrow these babies make their debut!  I almost hate to get these soles dirty, though!

Orange 'Vogs, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways....
1.

Samedi, après-midi by deja pseu featuring Fluevog shoes

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Sunday Music Corner

Still rockin, still good lookin.
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Foulard de la semaine

(Bonus Round)

This is the lovely hand-woven silk scarf I purchased last year on Granville Island in Vancouver.  Worn très simplement, bien sur.

Weighing In on Les Rondes

Apologies if this rambles and is a bit of a rant.  It's a topic that's close to my heart, having lived it for most of my life.

Tish at A Femme d'un Certain Age kicked off a lively discussion last week with these two posts, and then Duchesse at Passage des Perles followed up with some thoughts of her own. 

I'll admit to carrying more than a bit of baggage of my own on this topic, having been a stocky kid in a fat-phobic family, and having spent the years from my early teens through my twenties living with eating disorders of varying degrees of severity.  I started dieting at age 13 and a weight of about 103 lbs. because I thought I should be as thin as Twiggy, the models in Seventeen magazine and the actresses on TV, and no one around me discouraged that belief.  My mother had her own weight issues/insecurities, and my father had inherited from his family certain WASP-y hangups about weight and food (excess weight is indicative of Lack of Character and lower social class, and acknowledging physical hunger Is. Not. Done.)  So no, I'm not neutral here. 

Obession with weight and food is a life-stealer.  At worst, it can cause disease and death.  At best, it makes one's world increasingly narrow.  I'm certain that my strenuous dieting (and periods of anorexia) at such an early age stunted my physical growth, and certainly shifted my focus away from my potential place in the broader world back into a circular obsession with pounds and calories.  (In fact, this narrowing of focus is well documented among people experiencing starvation.  At the time, I thought it was only further proof of my "weakness" and "lack of character.")

While I do think that young women of today are more aware and media-savvy than I was, I still have to wonder about the damage being done to young bodies and psyches when a single, narrow standard of physical beauty or even just acceptability is promoted.  But it seems that anytime there's a discussion of increasingly skeletal models or attempts to show attractively presented women above a size 4, the chorus invariabley chimes in, 3, 2, 1...But What About Obesity??  So much worse!™

I've seen other articles/studies that back up the quote that Duchesse posted, stating that girls who diet are more likely to be heavy later on.  Would my weight be lower today had I not spent years starving myself, periodically bingeing and eating far less less healthfully than if I'd never had an eating disorder?  Without a time machine and the ability to rewrite history, I'll never know.  But I do know that I wasted far too much mental and physical energy on trying to achieve a size/shape that just isn't realistic for me and never was.

Nancy in comments on Duchesse's post said: One of the things that really annoys me is when weight is presented as a dichotomy: either extreme of thinness or obesity. There is a middle ground; it's where most of us should live, and it's ok!   Yes!!  I'm annoyed by this too (see "3,2,1" above)!  The vast majority of us fall somewhere in between skeletal and obese. Presenting only uber-thin images of women is doing nothing to stem increasing obesity among the general population, and I'd argue that it's actually accelerating it, by encouraging women and even young girls who are not overweight by any stretch of the imagination to diet and wreck their metabolisms and set themselves up for years of eating disorders and higher weights.  As Duchesse pointed out in comments over at A Femme, it's hardly "promoting obesity" to present a few isolated images of larger women, when 99.9% of the time, only the thinnest and youngest are presented as "aspirational."  But why can't we see images of beautiful clothing modeled on women who are size 8, 10, 12, 16?  Who are older than teenagers?  Why does "aspirational" have to mean "impossible for 95% of us?"  Street style blogs used to be an alternative, but now even they seem to focus on either the young and very slender, or the fashion industry insiders.

The result of this, (and I'm in agreement with Duchesse here) is that it's skewed our perception of what's "fat" vs. what's normal and healthy (hint: a wide variety of sizes, due in no small part to genetics).  I'm the first person to say that not enough people here in the US are eating healthfully or being optimally active, but a healthy diet of real food in moderate portions and daily activity do not always result in a culturally sanctioned physique.  I've personally known women who devote much time and energy (agonizing over the precise number of points in a salad, spending hours daily at the gym) trying to achieve a body that has no basis in their own genetic reality, to the degree that the rest of their lives get short shrift, while being applauded by their peers for their "discipline." I find this disturbing and sad.

I'm also admittedly thin-skinned about the moralizing subtext that seems to tag along whenever weight is discussed, having been ingrained as a child with the belief that my non-slender build was somehow a moral failing (despite eating the same food as the rest of my family, fixed and portioned by my mother).  So the needle on my Sanctimony Meter shoots over into the red zone when I hear or read people stating we should stop complaining, that super skinny images of women in media should "motivate" us to "push the plate away" and "get up off the couch and get some exercise."  Or "if you'd just do xyz you'd achieve 4% body fat just like I did!"

Marketers claim that we don't want to see images of women who are size 12 or 65 years old, that it doesn't sell products.  I'd disagree with the first part of that statement, but probably agree with the second part, which is really their motivation.  People who feel insecure are more likely to spend on products that promise to fix them. (Sal at Already Pretty addresses this beautifully here.)  Some women have stopped looking at fashion magazines, stopped watching television, removed themselves from those impossible images. And if you want to do that, fine.  But visual media do have an impact on our culture, or advertisers wouldn't pay the billions annually that they do to present their products.  I've come to believe that cutting ourselves off from our culture isn't the answer, raising our voices to change it is (even if it's writing letters to CEO's you know will never be read, or impotent bloggy ranting).  And keep teaching our kids media literacy, so they learn to question and deconstruct the images they're presented, and ask "who profits?"

Summary: Life is short.  Eat real food, move around whenever you can in ways that you enjoy, and re-evaluate your beliefs and values periodically to be sure they're serving you.  Question and discard those that aren't.  In the end, a little roll of fat around the middle doesn't say anything about the kind of person you are or how much you loved and were loved.
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Une femme recommends...

After this product was recommended by probably half a dozen people, including two facialists (in response to my complaints about the large pores and rough skin texture on my nose), I decided to cash in a gift card and give it a try.  I was pretty skeptical; the "sonic cleansing" claims sounded vraiment gimmicky to me.  I've been using morning and night with my regular cleanser, and in just a week's time have seen noticeable improvement in the texture of my skin.  On my nose especially, the pores appear smaller, and the skin is smoother, less pebbled.  Makeup no longer settles into my pores, which had been a problem even with a good primer.  I've tried various exfoliants and glycolic products over the last few months, but the Clarisonic has really yielded more immediate and visible results. 

The machine needs to be charged only every few days (so doesn't need to take up precious bathroom counter space) and is waterproof so can be used in the shower.  I wouldn't have believed something that seems like the equivalent of an electric toothbrush for the face would actually make a difference, but it does!
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Foulard de la semaine

This sheer silk chiffon square is just for fun with the ruffled edges and insect menagerie print.  Here I've folded diagonally, then draped "cowboy kerchief" style with point in front.  Cross the ends in back, then bring back to the front and tie off-center.

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Sunday Music Corner

I was introduced to Alain Stivell's music by some friends back in the early 80's in Princeton.  (I didn't attend, but my ex was in grad school there.)  Stivell sings in the Breton language, which is related to Welsh Gaelic. Lovely, isn't it?
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Twisting the Mix

J'adore this Suva Wear top I bought a while back (on a recommendation by Duchesse) but when worn alone the pattern makes my bust look HUGE.  Inspired by Karen's post a few days ago featuring a lovely D and G printed top, I was determined to work this into an outfit that could go to my business casual office. Here I paired with a Talbot's leather jacket to break up the pattern a bit (the weather here has turned cool again), black jeans and more traditional jewelry (pearls, faux and gold bangle). My Arche boots are worn underneath the jeans.  Think this could also work with my J.Crew tuxedo jacket, purchased on deep discount at the end of the year, and some pumps.

Have you been experimenting with new looks lately?  Any revelations?
~

A visit from the Bijoux Fairy...No Fooling!

Behold this bit of magnificence that arrived yesterday!!

It's my first Wendy Brandes original piece, a redesign of my wedding ring!  Here's the closeup: 

Isn't this **spectacular??**  I LOVE the edginess of the design and finish of the metals.  The bands are each a bit different and are stacking but connected on the back, like Wendy's Siobhan ring. I'm really glad I took the plunge and went with mixed metals (white and yellow gold) as Wendy suggested; it's a much more interesting look.  I can't stop staring at it!! 

Wendy was great to work with through the whole process, "11/10" to borrow a favorite expression from Faux Fuschia. We had some challenges with the original stones as some of the smaller ones were too damaged to be reset, but Wendy searched out some amazing replacements, and didn't stop until she was satisfied with the quality and look.  I couldn't be more thrilled with how this turned out, and am so happy to have something so unique and Twisted!

Mille mercis, Wendy! 

(My finger was a bit puffy when this pic was taken and has expanded from not having worn a ring for a few months, but should be fine in a day or so.)
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