fall and the ankle boot

Is it really September 1st tomorrow? Oh, summer, I'll miss you.



In other news, I'm excited about the Coclico Daman Hidden Wedge Ankle Boots I scored on Gilt Groupe today. I guess with these beauts on my feet I won't be so sad to see summer go...

rules of civility

Looking for an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable book? I suggest you pick up Amor Towles' Rules of Civility. I finished it in two days even at my slower than slow current reading pace. When I reached the epilogue I wanted to shout at the pages "wait, wait, wait!" "I'm not done with you!" "Don't end it so fast, buddy, tell me more!"

With characters driven by money, love and lust, and champagne, the story evokes F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton. Set in New York City at the end of the depression, Rules of Civility follows Katey Kontent through jazz clubs and the 21 Club, from the Lower East Side to the Hamptons as she meets a host of characters - elegantly dressed upper crusters, fast-talking working girls, playboys with pocketfuls of cash, aspiring artists, and snotty debutantes - who change and shape the direction of her life. Unlike Fitzgerald's boring, insipid Daisy Buchanan or Wharton's tragic, scheming Lily Bart, Towles' Katey Kontent is a witty, well-read young woman, a fast-talker herself, who I couldn't help but adore.

basic brown boots that are anything but boring

My cousin Bree requested that I post a fall brown boot roundup. She's looking for a basic brown boot for under $400 that can be worn with everything. Bree has two littles, so I decided to include only flat boots because I think she would wear them more than boots with heels. In general I prefer the look of a low-heeled boot. These are all fairly "basic" but all have a little added something so they are not so basic they're boring.

Bruno Premi, $230


Frye Melissa Button Back Zip, $328



Aldo Brue, $345


Juicy Couture Carelton Convertable, $375



Sam Edelman Patrice, $275


Frye Paige Tall Riding, $348
(I have these in the "multi" color and LOVE them)

Enzo Angiolini Zemi, $129

Do you have a favorite pair? I'm loving those Sam Edelmans...

atsuyo et akiko: the perfect gray (baby) tees

I want them all. For Stella...and for me. Too bad they don't come in lady sizes.

montana and michigan and home again

We're back! We spent last weekend in Bozeman, Montana for a wedding. Montana is gorgeous. We loved it. The wedding was out on this ranch with hay bales and rolling hills, and a big, open sky, and two teepees.

We discovered a favorite breakfast spot in Bozeman called the Stockyard Cafe. If you're ever in Bozeman go there. And get the banana bread french toast. It is to die for.





After Montana we flew to Michigan for a little vacation at Walloon Lake. It's easy to just sit out on the dock and gaze at the water and the amazing beauty of it all so we did a lot of that. We enjoyed visiting with J's mom and sister, and taking turns dancing Stella around the living room to J's mom's old records. We also ate a LOT of pie (cherry pie, peach pie, peach + blueberry + cherry pie, strawberry + rhubarb pie...you get the picture). It was pretty fantastic.

girls girls girls

Check out the video J's company (HEIST) created and our friend Austin shot for the new Girls single, Vomit. And, hey, it was mentioned on Pitchfork yesterday!

hither & thither guest post

I'm over on hither & thither (one of my favorite blogs) this morning giving tips on flying with a baby. Take a look! And if you don't already follow the adventures of Ashley and Aron of hither & thither you should... They love to travel, their travelogues are inspirational, and just had a little cutie pie named Hudson.

xo

on the topic of buying books

The subject of book buying came up over dinner a few weeks ago with friends Andie and Darcy. Andie and I studied at college together and we met Darcy at a publishing company we worked for a few years back. We are all avid readers so it's not a strange topic to come up over dinner. I think that they were a little incredulous, though, to learn how many books we buy on average per week. Before going on, I'll ask you this. How many books do you buy a week or in a month?

Having worked in a bookstore for years I know how important it is to buy books. How important it is for the bookstore's livelihood, and how important it is for my psyche. I love the knowledge that I have new worlds to explore on our shelves. I love being surrounded by them, and being able to share our library with friends.



Buying books for us means supporting our local bookstore. It means browsing the tables for new releases for 30 minutes, catching up with the booksellers, sharing our finds and then deciding what we want to bring into our library and what we want to buy as gifts. We dread the day there will be no brick and mortar bookstores to linger in on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

So we buy books. On an average, we buy around 3-5 books a week. Before Stella I used to be able to read through that many in a week. But, things change when you have a baby.

Yesterday Andie brought my attention to this wonderful quote which I have to share:

"He should live with more books than he reads, with a penumbra of unread pages, of which he knows the general character and content, fluttering round him. This is the purpose of libraries.... It is also the purpose of good bookshops, both new and secondhand, of which there are still some, and would that there were more. A bookshop is not like a railway booking-office which one approaches knowing what one wants. One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye.

"To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoon's entertainment. Feel no shyness or compunction in taking it. Bookshops exist to provide it; and the booksellers welcome it, knowing how it will end."

--Economist John Maynard Keynes, as quoted in a Canberra Times piece headlined "Bookshops about more than just purchasing.

With that, I'll share our book purchases so far this week:

1. Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons, called "[A] rare treat; a debut novel that is pretty much flawless" by Alyson Rudd of the Times (London).
2. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. This got two thumbs up from John Evans, co-owner of Diesel, and scored a starred review in Publishers Weekly: "A smashing debut novel...remarkable for its strong narrative, original characters and a voice influenced by Fitzgerald and Capote, but clearly true to itself."
3. The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. Besides the fact that this was recommended by my bookseller friend, Grant, this buy was clearly influenced by the fact that I am totally and completely addicted to True Blood (hello, Eric Northman!).
4. D&AD, The Copy Book. A gift.

What books are on your nightstand?

happy happy

Happy birthday to my love. And happy 8-month birthday to our girl.

baby brogues

Love these Boumy Brown Brogues!

[via BabyMine]

heath ceramics visit

On Saturday we made a pilgrimage to Heath Ceramics in Sausalito. I snapped a few photos.








I had to resist the urge to buy everything in the store.








We came home with a big blue bowl, and two small blue bowels with white tops. Love!