Jezebel giveaway at {this is glamorous}

I've partnered with the gobsmackingly gorgeous blog {this is glamorous} for a giveaway of my Vagabond Picnic 14k rose gold ant earrings. Click here for a chance to win, or better yet, click here to buy. After all, I've got mouths to feed. All right, all right- the jig is up. My shrimp has a weekly food allowance of approximately $1.74. And she eats the fancy stuff. Little body, little belly.

Ode to a small thing (not Teepee), volume 2

So sudsy, so satisfying. I find dish washing very therapeutic.

Speaking of soap, Stacy has been furiously soaping and one of the results is her highly-addictive Patchouli Elemi blend. As a rule, I'm not particularly a Patchouli person, but my puppy and her person have been trotting about town, smelling like the most-sophisticates of hippies, and we feel just delightful.

Little Ghost with an SLR

Chad of Mon Petit Fantome in his Jezebel henry and gertrude criminal lovers tee

There is Something About You from his etsy shop

My darling deep deep clementine

Girl Friends, Klimt, 1916-17

In a very anti-fashion week move, I purchased myself this shirt from last season for a song. It's not quite as brassy as it looks here; I plan to wear it here, there, everywhere.

My castle, my books.

Not my usual vicarious lives of the glamorous fare, The Etiquette of Illness was gifted to me by my dear Shirah, and is truly one of the best gifts I have ever received. It's small, slender, essential reading, not just for those presently dealing with illness, but for anyone seeking to build stronger lines of communication.

For your contemplation

Brancusi statue, LIFE, 1949

A room with some lace and paper flowers

Read Sarah from Saipua's perfect guide to Valentine's Day flowers at design*sponge. Do it!

dear virginia, an odalisque on the payphone

dear virginia, an odalisque on the payphone - card, tote, tee all available at www.ilovejezebel.com

The Grand Odalisque, Ingres, 1814

Odalisque, Picasso, 1951

Odalisque, Boucher, 1745

Blossom Dearie, Apr 28 1926 - Feb 7 2009.

It was said of Blossom Dearie (her Christian name) by New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett that "her voice would scarcely reach the second storey of a dollhouse."

On the road to home

the sweetest little Frenchie snowman, shot by Amy in our neck of the woods

I grew up in a town called Merrick, and it's her last name. It's no wonder I like Ms. An Apple a Day so very much- while I love reading her blog, meeting the person was even better.

Signed Jezebel

I've been staring at these all day, via Emma Cassi. I think they'd make a lovely addition to a lovely shop in Brooklyn called Catbird. Speaking of Catbird, I've been posting thrice weekly on Rony's blog. My posts are signed Jezebel.

Grease monkeys

1890s paste pin frm Erie Basin

Having a 9 yr old brother requires attendance at his annual Super Bowl party. My favorite commercial was the one with monkeys- I don't remember who it was for, which perhaps indicates that as advertising, the efficacy was doubtful. Then again, I also don't remember which teams played, so I'm probably not the target market for those multi-million dollar follies.

Eau de Toilet.

For my 13th birthday, my equal parts glamorous and disheveled grandmother gave me a bottle of Miss Dior, which was the ne plus ultra in non-suburban life to me.  Reading Francine du Plessix Gray's profile of Dior in the New Yorker, I learned "He was born in 1905 in Granville, Normandy, the son of a prominent fertilizer magnate.  ('It smells of Dior today,' townsfolk would remark.)"

Domino, April 2005-January 2009.

what Rita Konig said about Jezebel

Dear Domino, one of my favorite magazines and a treasured supporter of Jezebel, is no more.  

The mauve room

Before penning a sweet little story called Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte decorated this dollhouse. The George II "baby house" is up for auction at Christie's, as part of the collection of antiques dealer Roger Warner, a favorite source for some folks like, oh, Walt Disney, the Mitford sisters, and a queen or two.

Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather Moving, Inc.

Paul: Well, this is a nice little place you've got here. You just moved in, too, huh?
Holly: No. I've been here about a year.

In an effort to avoid the above sort of exchange, 93 pairs of hands have about 4 hours to move the First Family into the White House. I feel certain that it really happens something like this:

update: I got totally sucked into watching Sleeping Beauty on YouTube. I worked an overnight last night, so I feel like I deserve it. Plus, Teepee hasn't been this engaged in a movie since Basquiat.

In flight, alight

This morning, Michelle Obama wore a dress by Isabel Toledo. A few years ago, I had the deep honor of sitting with Rachel and listening to Isabel and her husband Ruben talk with equal parts humor, grace, and irreverence about the process of creating. The magic carpet that they sail on, fueled by deep, pacific love and admiration was palpable and led me to crown them, along with Rachel Feinstein and John Currin: caped crusaders, modern day champions of old-fashioned, elusive matrimonial bliss. For more thoughts on creativity, watch the joyous Sonia Rykiel in the above video, by the Toledos.

A humble hail to the chief

To read: Moby Dick, The Golden Notebook, Invisible Man, poetry of Derek Walcott, Gilead- selected favorites of President Obama, virgin lands to me.

That Shining Tree of Life

INAUGURATION DAY 2009
push blooms push

Andrew Wyeth. July 12, 1917-Jan 16, 2009.

The Lovers, 1981.

Kittens called Twiglet and Fellini, and pots of flower soup

Any imagination brimming with equal parts New York nostalgia, mania for English eccentrics and aesthetes, learned, revolutionary ideals, and well-named kittens lounging in nooks both moorish and rock and roll, is of a superior and desirable appointment, in the particular estimation of this vagabond stationer. Acquaint yourself with A Bloomsbury Life (located literally "within spitting distance of Hollywood and Vine" and metaphysically somewhere between Brideshead and Sissinghurst Castle) for more divining.

Ode to a small thing (not Teepee)

Curved needles are so helpful.  I repaired my tattered-beyond-presentable vintage fur coat and beloved black cashmere pop-top gloves with the assistance of one of these friends yesterday.  So satisfying.  

The Recently Deflowered Girl: The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion

My dear Mr. Gorey kept things slender but wicked with this out of print volume, published under his nom de plume, Hyacinthe Phypps. Click here to read the shocking tales of his soiled sylphs. (via bookslut)

My castle, my books.

Indulging in another bit of Charles Higham frippery: Princess Merle, The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon. I was lured in by the truth behind the studio machine's assertion that Merle was a Tasmanian aristocrat.  Truth: she was born impoverished, to an Indian mother and an Anglo father in a crowded, public Bombay hospital and spent the rest of her life fiercely, assiduously whitening her skin and erasing her past.

Ladies Only

Coral, feline, 10lbs

Teepee, canine, 5 lbs

Coral is coming to stay with us for the week.  Teepee has been quivering with anticipation-Coral, too.  Though, as we like to say, Coral is Teepee's best friend, though not entirely so the other way around.  

Chilled white wine and plates of pickles, down on Orchard Street

Repetitive viewings at an early age taught me all I needed to know about kerchiefs and convents, handsome widowers, the humble, and the very grand. Last night, Shirah and I dined like Von Trapps at Cafe Katja.

Happy Birthday!

Teepee turned 1 today. Clearly, she's very excited. Such a big little girl.

Decay of the highest order

Eliza Jane Curtis' Buenos Aires dining room via design*sponge

garden at Aurora

I have lower North Side fantasies. Morris and Essex produces beautiful stationery (stocked at Catbird) and creator Eliza Jane Morris is lucky enough to dine in a beautiful glass-roofed room in Buenos Aires, which reminds me of Aurora. Brunching at Aurora is so very smart, and always calls for a visit to Main Drag, Modest Designs, and Moon River Chattel.

My castle, my books.

I've arrived at Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet a little later than most, though given my goals for 2009, the timing feels impeccable.

Belated tidings.

Akron Civic, Ohio, 1980- Hiroshi Sugimoto

A year of Action.

I like to think of my books as in your possession. -Rilke