One Line A Day Journal
$16
I need this because I've been using Facebook as a mini diary. Each day I write a short paragraph about what happened and I make it my status. For example, on Saturday, my status was: "Today: Starbucks x3. Wore a tie. Had a fabulous time at my soon-to-be sister-in-law's bridal shower! After wards, shopping w/ Kristin. 3 pencil skirts. 1 cardigan. 1 blouse. Driving & singing along to Buble's newest CD while trying to avoid hitting the cheap costume's running about the streets. Highlight: seeing my brother dressed up as Johnny Cash. Watching "Criminal Minds" show. So happy about gaining that xtra hr."


Ruched Waist Shift Dress
Remember the days when you had time to trawl a flea market for a whole afternoon on the off chance that you might stumble upon the perfect vintage dress? We fell in love with this 1940s print and designed the perfect vintage dress.
89 British pounds - will be fabulous with vintage black shoes + gray stockings & gray cardigan.


Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities
$34 - Is it possible to unite the tastes of scientists, art fanatics, and vintage shoppers into one hard-bound book? We think that this encyclopedia of engravings culled from the pages 19th-century Webster's dictionaries makes a strong case in the affirmative. Inside the handsome retro cover, over 1500 different biological and mechanical specimens are portrayed by alphabetical order in their original, skillfully illustrated splendor. Use this refrence guide to impress friends by dropping the names of anything from an acipenser sterlet to a zeppelin!


Sixties Wool Mini
55 British pounds. I am so into pumpkin this season.


Silk Pinspot Dress
Choosing a lovely dress to wear in the run up to Christmas is one of the unsung rituals that make this time of year so special. This is the perfect dress for looking elegant and beautiful amidst the tinsel.
125 pounds - For the "Iris" look in the film "The Holiday". Paired with a set of pearls.


Burnished-leather belt
$48 - Will be perfect with everything. With jeans, over cardigans, around dresses, over an a-line coat...

Vintage Czech Shoulder Bag
Produced during the Cold War era as Map Bags for the Czechoslovakian Army, these bags are loaded with bohemian artist chic style.  Plenty of room for boring stuff like business cards, pens, work papers, your brown-bagged lunch, etc.  Plus spaces for cool stuff like your secret decoder ring, your lucky rabbit's foot, secret mission documents from headquarters, etc.  The two large interior pockets will hold smaller laptops and the whole thing can be buckled closed and even locked! (small key included) $40.00


Tartan Coat
$119.00


Vintage Grey Stylized Deco Dinner Plate
Produced from the 1920s to the 1960s, these nostalgic pieces are about as honest and pure as dinnerware gets.  Clean, simple shapes decorated with the colors and patterns reminiscent of their era. $18 each.


Ralph Lauren Classic Crested Wool Blazer
Our iconic custom blazer is tailored in Italy from lightweight wool with a chic slim fit and accented with a handmade bullion crest for luxurious heritage finish.
Can be worn over a cotton dress with flats.


Vintage Uniform Buttons - set of 6
The Genuine Article - Buttons from the French Foreign Legion (Legion Etrangere), the French Navy & British Bobby Uniforms. $6.00


Rugby Wool Beret
An homage to chic international style, there's no doubt that our fashion-forward beret is the perfect way to capture that oh-so-elusive je ne sais quoi. $29.99


Calvin Klein Dress, Long Cross Back Gown
An absolutely stunning silk dress with very flattering details: pleats at the bust and wide straps that crisscross at back. $198


Tahari by ASL Short-Sleeve Plaid Dress with Belt
Pretty plaid and flattering princess seams


Lauren by Ralph Lauren Dress, Quintessa Long Sleeve Turtleneck Sweater
Ultrasoft merino wool jersey is crafted in a sophisticated sweater dress silhouette, belted at the waist to create an essential look of the season.
Pairing with brown leather "bomber" jacket and tall brown boots.


Alfani Sleeveless Boatneck Belted Dress

My friend, Richard Byrum, is the one giving this talk at the library. We've had lunch a few times and he is purely fascinating. He quotes poetry to me as I eat salads. I call him "Lord Byrum". He looks the part in his usual tweed blazers. He's a lawyer who is very much into British literature, classical music, languages, history, poetry, and even more excellent things.

So you should go.

My Political Science professor just recently admitted to being a Marxist so that has made conversations very... interesting. He started out this morning with asking about what we thought or heard regarding the TEA party protests in D.C. this past week. It has been a bit surreal hearing so much negative coverage on these tea parties that I have been so actively involved in. It was even more strange that everyone in my class was constantly referring to "them" in such a way that couldn't mean anything friendly. I doubt any of my classmates had a clue that there was "one of them" amongst the class. Everyone has a totally wrong idea about what its all about... as did my professor. Thankfully I was able to speak up a little about it. My professor had the wrong idea that many people there were fighting the health care reform bill proposed by Obama mainly because it hurts the corporations. I certainly know that the dozens of my brave friends who attended that event amongst 2 million others were not there to defend the insurance corporations. So sad.

Our country needs health care reform. We all agree on that. But this plan that a majority of Democrats are trying desperately (they're dripping with desperation) to pass is simply a bad idea. First of all, it requires that every single American who can afford insurance (gov't gets to decide what you can afford) are required to do so. There is no choice in the matter unless you want to be fined. Obama has taken a value like economic fairness and has tried to apply it to the irresponsibility of those without health care. But in so establishing this value, he breaks it himself by requiring citizens to buy a product that they won't necessarily need. Sure, they do the same with auto insurance but you still have the choice whether to drive (on gov't roads) or not. With this bill, the mere act of existing requires you to have to buy health insurance. Another infringement on our choice.

Buying insurance is like a gamble. Consumers are betting that by buying into health care insurance, they will one day get a "pay back" in one way or another when they need medical attention. Sure, its wise to have it but I think you should have a choice.

President Obama tried desperately in his address to Congress and the nation on September 9th to keep the bill from sounding like "radical change" which generally freaks a majority of citizens out. Wise political move. But now you have a law proclaiming "if you don't buy this product, then we'll fine you richly". Not many people seemed to catch that part of his speech. For some reason, the Republican rebuttal didn't even mention this.

Obama presents further values: Freedom. Choice. Competition. And yet again he breaks them! His speech suspiciously makes it sound like you will be given more choices and that the "healthy" competition between insurance providers will reduce prices and raise the quality of care. Not when only 5% of Americans are expected to even go on this Gov't plan, as stated by Obama. It maddens me how he implicitly defines the application of these values selectively (including economic fairness)... as if it were being taken for granted that we all agreed with him on how to define them.

While the Republican rebuttal was, for the most part, lame, Dr. Charles Boustany did raise a few good points and reminders. This bill is creating 53 new government bureaucracies and raises taxes on job-creators by $600 billion. It also is cutting Medicare by $500 billion. While Obama says it will not add to the nations deficit, ("I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits") we all know how the government works... lots of wasteful spending. He's hoping to reform existing systems and get rid of waste and abuse of funds. To say that he will fund this by finding savings within the current healthcare system is a long-shot. Again, the plan Obama is proposing will cost $900 billion... but only 5% of Americans would probably even sign on?

And don't even get me started on the Ted Kennedy sympathy ploy that was applied at the end... disgusting. I hope he and Mary Jo Kopechne are having a good heart to heart discussion right now.

I know this is a rather controversial subject and I'm still learning all I can. Its difficult to "know all" when there are politicians with motives, parties with desperation, slanted news coverage, and special interest groups intent upon keeping certain information out of the hands of the public. Its a rough world.

But I would encourage you to read Obama's speech from the 9th and try to gather as much information as you can from a variety of sources. Wall Street Journal Opinion and Drudge Report have been my favorite online sources. This is an extremely important topic to all of us and we should make informed decisions and let our elected officials know of them.

Cheers.

When my grandfather was stationed in Paris during WWII... he went into a perfume shop to buy something for his gal back home. Having heard that "Chanel No. 5" was all the rage... he stepped up to the counter and asked the lady for one. She started spouting her rage off on him... in a shrill Frenchy voice (which he loves to reenact) she repeated, "Chanel No. 5!! Chanel No. 5!!! All you G.I.'s want is Chanel No. 5! No imagination." She huffed off and got a bottle for him. He felt small.

One time at a social event, I held a tiny baby girl for over an hour... mostly cradling her on my chest. When I finally passed her off to someone else they started sniffing at her... which looked odd. I looked at said person, questioning the reason. They finally exclaimed, "Megan! This baby smells like Chanel No. 5... you're lucky its a girl..."

Those are my Chanel stories.

"For a chic day wear look, pair Burberry Prorsum's Tweed coat dress with a long sleeve 'black' tee. Priced at $2,500.00 this Black-and-ivory tweed short sleeves coat dress with epaulettes on shoulder has a self-tie belt at waist, a round neck, two button fastening patch pockets on front, a self-tie belt at waist and button fastenings on front."

 
Loving the design and vintage sophistication.
Just wish I could afford it! :)

1. "A Confederacy of Dunces" - John Kennedy Toole
"The story is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated but slothful man still living with his mother at age 30 in the city's Uptown neighborhood, who, due to an incident early in the book, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters."

Also one of the most horrible books I've ever read because Ignatius truly is a horrible person. But I couldn't put it down because of the genius dialogue and the scathing insults. You may love it. You may hate it. At least you will have a much larger vocabulary afterward.

Excerpt regarding his former girlfriend, Myrna: "Her logic was a combination of half-truths and cliches, her worldview a compound of misconceptions deriving from a history of our nation as written from the perspective of a subway tunnel.... Myrna was, you see, terribly engaged in her society; I, on the other hand, older and wiser, was terribly dis-engaged."

Ignatius is explaining what should be studied for a proper education: "Then you must begin a reading program immediately so that you may understand the crises of our age," Ignatius said solemnly. "Begin with the late Romans, including Boethius, of course. Then you should dip rather extensively into early Medieval. You may skip the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. That is mostly dangerous propaganda. Now that I think of it, you had better skip the Romantics and the Victorians, too. For the contemporary period, you should study some selected comic books.... I recommend Batman especially, for he tends to transcend the abysmal society in which he's found himself. His morality is rather rigid, also. I rather respect Batman."

2. "Damsel in Distress" - P.G. Wodehouse
My favorite of Wodehouse works. George Bevan, burgeoning young american musical composer, fancies himself a knight-in-shining-armor when in the middle of Piccadily Circus a fair maiden flings herself into his cab to escape the obese pursuit of the dragon - her brother Percy, heir to the family title and vigilant protector of the family name. Our hero's fair lady Maud does indeed live trapped within the tower of Castle Belpher to which he repairs in swift pursuit of happiness. Definitely could not put it down and this was my second reading of it. Hilarious dialogue. The impressive vocabulary of Wodehouse is overwhelming and I end up going through the book with pen in hand... underlining constantly.

3. "Flight of the Falcon" - Daphne Du Maurier
"As a young guide for Sunshine Tours, Armino Fabbio leads a pleasant, if humdrum life -- until he becomes circumstantially involved in the murder of an old peasant woman in Rome. The woman, he gradually comes to realise, was his family's beloved servant many years ago, in his native town of Ruffano. He returns to his birthplace, and once there, finds it is haunted by the phantom of his brother, Aldo, shot down in flames in '43. Over five hundred years before, the sinister Duke Claudio, known as The Falcon, lived his twisted, brutal life, preying on the people of Ruffano. But now it is the twentieth century, and the town seems to have forgotten its violent history. But have things really changed? The parallels between the past and present become ever more evident."

The New Yorker also happened to call it "extraordinarily dull." I enjoyed it for its Italian influence since I'm studying Italian now. But the story is also intriguing and darkly mysterious.