11 Random Facts About Me

The Lovely Jen over at Dwell on These Things has flagged me to share the above.

I am so behind in all of my post topics, and not feeling 100% today, so I'm taking the easy way out and getting right to these, so thank you dear Jen! 

1. One of my favourite shows ever was the one season wonder A Year in The Life.  It had an amazing cast - Adam Arkin, Richard Kiley, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jayne Atkinson - and only lasted one season.  I was one of the 5 people who watched it and I have been bitter towards NBC about its cancellation ever since. 

 

 

 

 

 That was 1987, did I mention I can

2.  Hold a grudge?  well not too often, but I am an inherently trusting person and if someone does something really awful that breaks that trust, like say cancel a wonderful TV show, I can be slow to forgive. 

3. I was the first girl to serve as a server in the Anglican Church in New Brunswick.  It was a big deal at the time, thank god, now, not so much.  However, I do not attend church now, but prefer to leave my spirituality and religion up on Walton's Mountain...

4. Cause I love, love, love the first few seasons of The Waltons.  When I still catch an episode now and then and the episode includes Will Geer and Ellen Corby, I sit right down, as I know I am in for a treat.

5. My favourite Popsicle flavour is root beer.  It is also the only kind of pop I will drink.  I am like an eleven year old boy.

 

6. I have a pair of Talbots chocolate suede high heel shoes with a chocolate satin ribbon tie that I can barely walk in and will never give up.  Because I love ribbons.  Grosgrain, silk, satin, printed, it matters not.  If there is a ribbon on something, I am all over it.  That is the eleven year old girl in me.

7. I never, ever, wear a belt.  I have them, but I hate them.  I never feel comfortable with a belt on.  Now I wonder why I have them?

8. Every time I see a hummingbird I get giddy.  Between May and September they come constantly and it never gets old.  But all that giddiness can wear you out.  You wouldn't think it would, but it does.

9. I meditate every day but I am almost never able to keep my mind quiet.  There is a reason I am attracted to hummingbirds.

10. I have never met a book about France - from cooking to fashion to décor to travel to history - that I didn't like.

 

11. When I become a bazillionaire, I am going to have Ralph Lauren help me out - clothes-wise, house-wise, work-wise.  I adore Ralph Lauren.  I am pretty sure he would adore me, too.



bonus fact:

Jen says she is a germophobe.  Just yesterday I searched for a piece of cookie I dropped on the carpet for at least 8-10 seconds, found it and ate.  There's that eleven year old boy again...

There you go, some random pieces of information!  Looking forward to reading the others!  Have a great day out there and tomorrow, we will take a little journey to Italy via Orlando.  Only in America...

stay safe out there!

 

Reviews of other recent treasures: A little Nougat London, A Little Ralph

As promised, here are some other recent treasures I purchased in my non-shopping fall (YEAH, RIGHT!  FFM- I need an intervention!)

The first, are the Ralph Lauren trousers which I added as they completely filled a hole in my closet - brown tweedy trousers (honestly - they really did fill a hole!).  I paired them with the same Joe Fresh blouse I showed you on Tuesday and a new faux leather blazer which I purchased at a local shop.  I truly do not mind that this is faux leater - it was a fraction of the cost of real leather, I already have real leather, and I truly loved the burnt caramel colour.  Looking at this outfit now I think a lovely royal purple or blue would have been divine, but would love your thoughts!

I really love this look and the trousers make my legs look so tall!

The other thing that I purchased, which was ungodly expensive, was a beaded ivory wool cardigan by Nougat London.  When I saw it , I knew I wanted it - it is very luxe and will be lovely for dressy events or interesting when paired with trousers or jeans as below:

In this picture, I am pairing it with the ivory silk tshirt blouse I purchased at the monoprix in Paris. I love this look, probably because it reminds me of Anne of Green Gables and the much bally-hooed "alabaster brow."

A closeup of the detail, including the ivory velvet elbow patches:

This is such an exquisite piece, which I will have to wear lots to get the maximum CPW!  I do love a sweater with embellishments and I am not sad that I purchased this.  I see that the temperatures are actually expected to hit regular October temperatures this week, so I actually brought out all of my cashmere (jeepers - it sounds like I have a lot - I do not - but I actually have 5 cashmere sweaters to my name!

An even closer look at the beadwork.

Hope all is well and that you are having a wonderful week.  It is Friday and I have worked too hard this week.  Rhone Valley, take me away... How were your weeks!

Have a great day and stay safe out there!

Random Saturday Style Thoughts and (in my opinion) my 100th Blog Post

Well, it is Saturday morning and just wanted to share some random style thoughts which have hit me lately:

1) Ralph Lauren's Military Jacket

Maybe some of you love this.  Ralph has obviously visited the Royal Military College of Canada where you can see beautiful young men and women dressed like this:

In my late teens and early twenties, we would have found old military jackets and rocked them with black or white ripped tees, jeans and combat boots.  We would NOT have bought this new.

Would you wear/buy this and rock it like Miss Shiloh Pitt?  Where would you wear it if you did buy it?




2) Sequin dress

Do you really think that J Crew could make a sequin shift dress that was worth $1,250 CDN?

I would be afraid to wear this outside the house.  At the same time, I would have to wear this a lot if I was to get my cost-per-wear down to a reasonable amount of say $100 per wear.  In other words, if you lived around here you would see me rocking this baby for the next ten years to every event I had an invite to!  I got J Crew's lovely sequin dress of a couple of years ago in camouflage that still looks great and which I paid $110 CDN for.  I am pretty happy with it.  Does that make me a luddite?

There are some things I have seen lately, which I think are just lovely: 

This Temperely London Cape can be bought for an ungodly price at Net-a-porter, but allows you to play Cathy from Wuthering Heights...Buy yours here and make sure you wear your black equestrienne  boots with these.

I'm going to need this to go with it:

Again, for a little more than $3000 CDN, this can be yours.  By all means - pick yours up here!

Since I have a long black talbots skirt and lovely white blouse, I may try to recreate this for Christmas parties!

A couple of outfits that I wore this week:

Earlier this week, I finally started wearing my snakeskin skirt:

I am wearing this with some Anne Merino heels from a couple of years ago, a Calvin Klein blazer which is also old and the lovely blue wool scarf I purchased in store at J Crew in July.  Sadly, this does not seem to be available online, but the skirt sure is and I truly love it!

Yesterday, was sombre black (with a bit of blue) as I had to go to the funeral of a friend of mine's father at lunch time:

This is the Judith and Charles dress I purchased in the summer, paired with a Judith and Charles black wool blazer, basic pearls and my new black Arturo Chiang riding boots which I blogged about here.  I thought of you at the funeral Dani, as I saw so many people in what I would consider as completely inappropriate outfits for a funeral.  Call me old fashioned, but I think a pink floral dress belongs at the drunken wake the night before, not for a sombre church service!  And since every woman I know in this town seem hell-bent on wearing black to work on a daily basis, they surely could have pulled something out of their hat!  There, I got it off my chest and feel much better!

Finally, this is my 100th blog post.  I know it only says 96 on your screen, but i have 4 others that I have never gotten around to posting, so for me it is 100! :-) I did not think I had this much to say, despite being a person who talks a lot in "real" life!  I want to thank you all for popping by and I will actually have an upcoming post about my experience in blogging thus far!  As some of you know, I do not have my blog on google or other search engines.  So most people who are here have tripped over me while being elsewhere and for that, I am awfully grateful!

As always, have a wonderful Saturday and stay safe out there!

Designers I love - Ralph Lauren

I blame two people for my aspirational lifestyle desires:

1) Mrs. Miniver (yes, THE Mrs. Miniver of the movie - who deserves her own post), whose house is THE house I have coveted my entire life.

2) Ralph Lauren

Today, we will focus on Ralph.  We don't need to get in a lot of biographical information here - Mr. Lauren is known and beloved by many the world over.  He is my silver fox, who just keeps getting better looking as he ages!  Oh i know - he missed the boat with the Olympics, but everyone has a misstep now and then...

Even better, this is the same Ralph Lauren who is still married to the gorgeous Ricky, mother to his three gorgeous children.

What Ralph sells is LIFESTYLE.  And I want that lifestyle!!!

Look at his new fall arrivals:



Oh if I had a neck of any distinction:



Or a place to wear this delicious skirt:



Or perhaps Ralph and I will just go for a horseback ride this afternoon (wait!  I forgot that I don't ride...)




This little Pima cotton shirt dress is only $198 and has made it on to my fall drool list:



But it is the home collection where Ralph really shines for me...

I see this and I want to rush back up above and get on that little grey sweater and skirt, despite the short neck calamity!  I will need it for cocktail hour!


Of course, we may be up at the chalet and I will need ivory wool instead..



But never mind, Ralph probably has a few things sitting in the closet at the ranch that I can slip into..



Of course, we might be at the beach house...Either way, surely he has a few size 6s hanging in the closet...



I have a few Ralph Lauren articles of clothing and they are generally well constructed.  I have used his paint and found the colours lovely.

Ralph has tapped into the psyche of the individual who wants to live a more glamorous, beautiful life.  And has ruined me forever!!!  But in the best sort of way...

Do you like Ralph Lauren?  Do you have an equivalent to Ralph that you admire and would love to emulate?

Have a wonderful day mes amis!  By now i am in Paris, wondering placidly and happily...