graceful fumbling.

Some of my favorite mornings are those where I wake up earlier than expected, for no particular reason, and throw together an outfit that ends up being perfect, an outfit I'd never pick out with more time or more important places to go. This typically happens on a day off, usually during the odd weekday off, no shower, maybe some eyeliner and I'm out the door.

I tend to spend days like this running errands. Fun errands. Could be a trip to the post office, could be a stop for a coffee or tea. A random purchase (Stationary? A gift for a friend's baby)? The idea is to be blissfully, if subconsciously, disheveled. An armful of packages and last minute letter decorating supplies, like tape, worn as a bracelet. Two different bags for different reasons. One pen here, one magazine there, messy hair, and who gives a rat's ass?

When I am on the go with nowhere to be, I am always at my best. I may be holding up the line a little, I may be carrying too many things at once (something I am oddly drawn to do), but I can guarantee that I am happy.

P.s. Jane Birkin is that girl

The Easy Wedding

I love people who do it all. I love admirable women who do it all, who appear thoroughly creative in every avenue they pursue. Milla Jovovich is one of these women. Mother, singer, actress, model, fashion designer. I love her somewhat throw-away, layered, thirties gone seventies glamour style. She seems to experiment her way through life, and I find that inspiring.

p.s. look at how smiling & happy the people are in the background

*Top photo by The Sartorialist from style.com

Airstream summers

The other night I went to a spa party. Have you ever been to one? I never had. This spa party was about 6 girls gathered together at a place called Moondance Botanicals. In between applying cocoa face masks and drinking champagne, we all closed our eyes and made a wish and then shared our wishes. Everyone except me wished for some version of a country life. Each wish included the words farm, animals, garden.

I definitely have my own bucolic reverie. I am habitually conjuring my future with varying shades of wellington boots, messy ponytails, and chipped nail polish all set in a modernized farmhouse surrounded by pine trees and wildflowers.

There I am baking bread, barefoot, waving down a long dirt driveway. I dream of throwing huge parties where the guests stay in random Airstreams and tents that are scattered around the property (hopefully by a lake or pond). At these parties there is loud music blasting, tables lined with food, a trampoline, dogs...

Sometimes I have a coastal Maine vision. An open grassy field with an elevated wood-plank walkway that cuts trough from the gravel parking lot to the house. There might be a barn, boulders in random spots, a windmill? Other times I see vague images of the house from Housesitter with Goldie Hawn and Stever Martin, the one with a separate house for the bedroom.

Then there is the what-could-actually-happen-dream. In that dream I am surrounded by high ceilings and big windows. Hard wood floors made of wide beams. Somewhere a long and heavy wooden table. Lots of natural light, color, and a balance of open spaces and cozy. I want an entire cabinet filled with beautifully aged quilts for guests and for winter. I want a fire pole. I want an outdoor shower.

Isn't there a freedom to the country that you can't find anywhere else? I think that the silence of the country is what can be the most uncomfortable for people. Time has a different value when you are living closer to our historical human experience. The silence of seeing things differently. The weight of time lifted by the freedom to live the way one chooses. With or without a rowboat.

Fever Ray

Ooh, didn't this just come at the best time.

Bat For Lashes

Bat For Lashes, I like her style. There is something I can relate to going on in her music. Plus, I am always drawn to a bohemian spirit. 

Flowers, feathers.

What taste, what wild & creative

person arranged this magnificent

bouquet?

by Sarah at Saipua,

Design Sponge

What a treasure trove.

(Never written out trove before).

New & Nostalgia

My boarding school friends will attest to the glory of receiving the March J.Crew. It was the clear marker of spring. The first glimpses of summer vacation and what you'd be wearing to have fun somewhere, out of school, breathing freedom.

There is an accidental charm of a skirt worn with boots and socks that inspires a mood in me of running toward the lake ready to jump in with your clothes on. I love 1970's fashion, and this has all the whimsy of Ali McGraw in Love Story.

Not to mention! I am determined to unearth a story on Gayle Spannaus, J.Crew's magnificent stylist. When I look at this outfit I think to myself, I get it! She get's it! The past is there, yet still it feels so new.