Fashion

Every Sunday night, I look forward to one thing, and it is not seeing my students' faces come Monday morning. Downton Abbey is a highly addictive Masterpiece Theater series that started last year, and now we are in the thick of Season Two. Set in Edwardian England, it is the story of the Crawley family, the owners of the ancestral Downton Abbey. After the only male heir to the family fortune and estate dies on the Titanic, the three Crawley daughters are left scrambling to find suitable husbands to ensure that all is kept within the family. The drama that takes place in drawing rooms is contrasted with the drama of the servants in the chambers downstairs.

Everything about this series is just incredibly detailed, which includes the clothing. Many of the pieces the actors wear are originals from the time period, a fact made even more astounding when you think of the delicate netting and beading. As the eldest sister and the family beauty, Mary Crawley's clothes are pieces of art, worn by the artist as she tries to seduce men in the family drawing room or on a hunt.

Inspired by these images, I pulled out several pieces from my own closet. The materials and the designs are very much in keeping with the Edwardian styling, even though they were purchased a few years back at stores more known for catering to fashion forward teens. The challenge with these pieces is to wear them with something more masculine or more casual to make them more modern. No one wants to walk into a bar looking like an extra off a set.

The same can be said about the antique shoe buckles and brooches I've collected throughout the years. Even though these pieces are delicate, I've worn them with just jeans and tshirts, and I'm always surprised how these pieces can make even the simplest outfits suddenly special.

By the way, for those who love the series, there is a companion book that gives fascinating background information about the time period. ~m~

Fun?

Envy.  That is probably the best word that I can come up with when I watch the show House Hunters International on one of my fav channels, HGTV. We all know the show: people's lives are so stressful that they need to find an escape. Not just any escape... an escape abroad. If only.

Now, there is the rare show where a family is being relocated from the good ole' USofA to Bahrain or Bangkok, but on most of the shows that I have seen, people more or less throw a dart and choose a new country in which they are going to start fresh or get back to their roots. The budgets are, for the most part, ridiculous. These people will not have to worry about the airfare to get them, and their young children, to France, Latvia or Costa Rica. I also think it is a riot when these people don't speak a lick of the language spoken in the country...how do they survive once the cameras are off and their lives in their new home country begin?

My favorite part of the whole show is the family that is willing to move into a fixer-upper "so that we can make it our own".  Last week I watched the family that was moving from D.C. to Morocco who appeared to be utterly disgusted when being showed the 1200 year old riad that they were contemplating "fixing up".  I have included the link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSHwjpH2hVc ) because this is the first episode where I was so appalled at the buyers' attitudes that I almost, almost, changed the channel.  

The one that I am watching at the moment is the 40 something single woman who is experiencing "desconectar" and longs for her Spain, the place where she needs to escape her 15 hour a day LA work life. REALLY??  Wow, what I would do to pack up my kids, husband, house and just plop ourselves into some 800 year old farm house in the French countryside. For now, I have to settle for watching the HHI episodes and reading amazing books written by these people who have the means to relocate to amazing places and hope that green is a color that suits me. ~c~

Here is the French country house that is currently for sale. Looks like a bit of a project, but nothing we can't handle...right?

Fun and Food

In a bind, one can be very creative.  Last night, I witnessed a flash of creativity (and brilliance, I might add); my son needed dessert, and he found a solution to the lack of sweets in our house.  My little boy has a sweet tooth, but really, should that be a huge surprise to anyone?  Don't most children have at least a teeny, tiny bit of a sweet tooth?  In a desperate craving for something sweet, he took it upon himself to create this fun, tasty and easy dessert.  After watching him go through the cupboards to see what he could find, I suddenly saw a glimmer in his eye when he shouted out, "S'mores, I can make s'mores!"  Up to this point in his life, we have always made s'mores on a campfire at the lake.  But I tell you, this little boy was on a mission and he was going to have himself (and treat the rest of us as well) some s'mores.

I have put his recipe here, with his permission, of course (and only 3 ingredients).

We call it "Campfire Not Necessary S'mores":

• 1 bag of mini marshmallows
• Nutella
• Graham crackers, broken in two parts

• Spread a nice layer (or just glob it on) of Nutella onto both halves of the graham cracker
• Place several mini marshmallows onto one half
• Place one half of the graham cracker onto the marshmallow side and you have yourself a tasty treat to curb that sweet tooth after dinner.

It really was a nice finish to dinner, and there was no gooey mess to scrape off of fingers.  We all enjoyed them so much that he decided that he is going to take a plate down to a neighbor who is hosting a dinner party this evening.  Fingers crossed that we have a chef in the making!!
~c~

Fashion

One of the best Christmas gifts I received this year was from my partner in crime, the co-author of this blog. Over a Christmas brunch, I opened up an unique, handmade bag to find a copy of a book I had been lusting after since it was published. Written by the editor of In Style magazine, Hal Rubenstein, 100 Unforgettable Dresses is ridiculously glamorous and informative.

I don't know how he managed to edit down all possible choices to only a hundred, but yay for him. Some of the dresses were not chosen for their beauty but for their impact on popular culture, such as the Bob Mackie creation for the Carol Burnett Show in the 70's that made fun of a certain famous green velvet curtain dress from Gone with the Wind.

My favorites, however, are those dresses that when I first saw them on screen, I instantly fell in love. Looking at these dresses made me second guess the Hello Kitty snuggie I was wrapped in while looking over the tome, but not every girl can own a shredded tulle Versace dress like Carrie Bradshaw. Thank you for the incredible gift, friend. ~m~

The green dress from Atonement

Cecil Beaton's Ascot Dress
from My Fair Lady

Donatella Versace's dress
for the Sex and the City series finale
a.k.a. "The One I Would Maim and Possibly Kill For"

Fashion

Happy New Year's, all! Two of my New Year's resolutions were to drink more water and blog more and talk less about blogging more. Since I've already had a Coke Zero (that counts, right?), I thought it was time to ring in the New Year by writing about jewelry.

A couple of years ago, I picked up a hardback copy of a book by Elizabeth Taylor called My Love Affair with Jewelry in the clearance aisle at Barnes and Noble. It was twenty bucks, but I just had to have it after leafing through the pages. The book is basically a catalog of all of her jewelry and the incredible stories behind each piece. I have read through it so many times, culling ideas for inspiration, that the binding has fallen apart. Any thoughts of replacing the book vanished when I found out that it was out of print and that Amazon had used copies starting at $175 (WTW!). So, my tattered copy is always within reach of my art books, and I've been looking through it more since the recent auction of her jewels at Christie's.

A few days ago, I was lucky enough to stumble upon some incredible vintage pieces at a local thrift store that instantly brought to my mind Taylor's movie Cleopatra. Take an extraordinary historical figure, add some insanely glamorous Kohl eyeliner, violet eyes, a turbulent love story behind the scenes, and some breathtaking jewelry, and you have one great source of fashion inspiration. One piece is an incredible Art Deco buckle, done in the Egyptian Revival style. Even though it will look beautiful on a simple leather belt, I have several antique buckles that I wear as pendants and bracelets, and I think this one will look pretty incredible as a statement piece.

The other piece is this necklace that doesn't seem as old as the buckle, but it is still clearly vintage. I love snakes, and this piece reminds me of the famous headpiece worn by Taylor in the movie. The snake details are very subtle and not quite as over the top as the buckle, but I love that there's a slightly exotic, Egyptian feel to it nonetheless.

The inspiration

I know these pieces may seem too "costumey" for some, but if there's anything that Taylor taught us, it's that life's a little too short not to wear what makes you happy. ~m~