Hanging around with Hanging Baskets

After a week in the new place, I realized that the trend in our new hood is to have hanging baskets of plants or flowers or both on the front porch(es). Furthermore, there's porch furniture to consider. Since my mother-in-law is responsible for advice and opinions on the garden/plant-related element of our house, she and I went out to Rebekah's Garden at the Farmer's Market the other week and got these.



The ones in front are sweet potato plants and the ones off to the side are petunias - I think, but all the flowers have fallen off the sides facing the house so you can't really tell there's any difference between the four baskets. Yes my friends, this is what it's come to.

So here's what those baskets look like when facing the house. Green does well with the peach/pink color, wouldn't you say?



Oh by the way, these things need to be watered at least once a day. I've purchased a garden hose with a "wand" to attach to it and traipse outside nearly every evening to water these puppies. I guess I have poison ivy growing near the garden hose because the other day, before book club, I was a rashy mess after watering the baskets. It is truly a different world.

Caroline's Closet Presents, the Closet

ML has been asking me for photos of our new house. The thing is, even as the furniture is placed and the boxes emptied, I don't know that photos are doing the place justice because, frankly, there's a lot that still needs to be done (don't tell my husband) -- dining room table, more than 10 items to hang on the wall, etc.

Anyway, the point is I realized that the one room I am ready to show you is my closet. My wonderful master bedroom closet. EJ very selflessly gave me the entire space. It's the first room that has been fully set up.

As you may have noted from the updated profile photo - Caroline finally got her closet.

Je T'Aime, Paris

So it's been pretty hectic what with going to France for a week, moving into our new house, the long weekend. But believe me, I'm not trying to make excuses, just explaining myself a bit. Now on to the good stuff.

France was a wonderful experience. Friends have been asking me and EJ what we liked the best and all I have to say is, "all of it!" I didn't care that the euro was kicking my butt and stopping me from buying $300 Repetto shoes (at the actual Repetto store, no less! Mon dieu, it was beautiful). I didn't care that a bottle of water was $6.00 - I really loved the whole experience. The most exciting part of checking out the way women in Paris were dressed was that they generally looked like peeps in New York. The weather was beautiful - sunny during the day and cool at night with no rain for a week - so women donned RayBan-esque aviator sunglasses, roman-style, strappy flat sandals and casual dresses. There's not really a lot of crispness in the general style of clothing as I see here in Columbia - it's more drapey linen. Surprisingly, I didn't see one scarf. As I said, it was warm weather, but from what I've been reading in Lucky, the Spring/Summer scarf is popular here in the U.S. Maybe it was just too hot.

So that's the news from the fashion capitale du monde. I really needed to get that one out so that we can now move on to my new shopping focus: the house! More on that to come. In the meantime, I leave you with this little shot from the streets of Paris.

Get 50% Off Now at Nau

It looks like after just one year the environmentally-conscious high-end retailer NAU is going out of business. What does that mean for you and me, my dear readers? 50% off, yo! Now you might be able to buy one of those super-cool, streamlined jackets they sell. I stress the word "maybe" because in the case of the price of these jackets, one-half off might not make too much of a difference. I suspect the discount will get deeper as they get closer to having to completely shut down ops.

What does this mean for the bigger picture? Well, I guess the green movement is important to many, but not when it comes to paying $300 for a jacket or $150 for a jean skirt. Or perhaps, since the founders of NAU were apparently Patagucci defectors, Patagonia and North Face do indeed have a stranglehold on the big-ticket jacket market.

I would like to formally credit Smiles with sending me the information about this sale. For those of you who know him, how awesome is it that he's the shopping source?! Smiles would like you to note that if Nau is out of the color of the item you'd like to buy, try another color. Another tip is that it took me about 4 tries before my order was actually processed online. So stick with it little shopper bees!

Buy a House, Go on Vacation in France

What's the most logical thing to do when you've sunk the bulk of your savings account into buying a new house? Why go on vacation to France, of course! Phooey on the weak dollar, I need to eat some cheese.

Ok, so that's not really the thought process my husband and I had when we planned our brief trip to France many months ago. In fact, at that point I'm not sure we fully realized that if we planned to buy the house we were then looking at, we'd have to close about 2 weeks before our big trip. Quelle dommage, as they say.

Anyway, for those of you who haven't seen it about 1 million times, here's a shot of our new house. Picture it w/o the palmetto tree, please (i.e. don't get attached to that thing because it's coming out!).



It's on Park Street in the historic neighborhood, Elmwood Park. I love this house, y'all.

As for our France trip, we fly into and out of Paris and for the weekend, we'll take the train to Besancon, which is in the Franche-Comte region. As in comte cheese. Oui, c'est vrai.

At this point, the primary concern is how to pack. EJ insists we pack light in order to carry on, and thanks to the exchange rate I can't go nutty shopping in Paris, so the question is: just how many scarves do I bring?

Who Needs New York When It's All Happening in Colatown?

That's right, I said it. But with a night like last night, it's totally true. Here's what it encompassed. At 6 pm EJ and I met at the Columbia Museum of Art for the Runaway Runway fashion show. Put together by The Columbia Design League, the show was open to the public to use recycled and repurposed articles to create apparel. They ended up having a ton of people come to see the show - and something like 71 submissions - and it was so great to see such a mob come out for something like that. Unfortunately the show didn't start until a little after 8 pm, at which point EJ and I had to leave to go to a dinner in Elmwood Park, but we were able to catch all of the outfits as they had all of the models walk the runway together in the beginning. There were dresses made of neckties, CDs and cocktail napkins. Furthermore, the models were young, old, big, little, male, female and even some cutie little kids were up there strutting their stuff. EJ and I agreed that we felt proud to be Columbians at that show.

But like I said, we couldn't stay for the entire night since we were off to the next event -- dinner at the G's. Now LG loves herself some fresh fleurs, so we decided to swing by Publix in the Vista to grab some tulips. Guess who's shopping at Publix? Tracy Morgan. And guess who decided to give Tracy a ride back to his hotel? My husband. For some reason, I was mortified and couldn't even look the guy in the eye the whole time which was fine since he was sitting behind me. With him was his lovely fiancee Tanisha, who is described in most of the photos of them that I've seen online as his girlfriend but he introduced her as his fiancee so maybe I'm announcing some scoopage here?

Once we dropped off Tracy Morgan and his fiancee Tanisha and EJ settled down off of his star-struckedness, we came to the G's house where the whole wonderful gang was celebrating the end of their latest shoot. Oh yeah, the G's are two of the four partners that run the ever-so-cool, Mad Monkey, a production company based in our Cola, SC. I get the proud privilege of working with them, so does EJ, but most importantly they are wonderful friends and soon-to-be neighbors in Elmwood Park. Holla!

Not bad for a Thursday night, wouldn't you say?

Reasons to Love Spring in Columbia, South Carolina

1) It starts in March(ish)

2) Sweet tea

3) Chicken salad

4) Skirts

5) Sandals

6) Outdoor seating at the Publick House

7) All the events that are happening in April - oyster roasts, fashion shows and the ballet, OH MY!

Kiehl's Products Like Bars of Gold

Tonight I opened the tube of Kiehl's Pineapple Papaya Facial Scrub I bought while in NY two weeks ago for work. Well let me tell you it took me straight back to the stress and ultimate high of purchasing Kiehl's products at the L'Oreal corporate shop a couple of years ago. Let's just say I had a friend who worked there, and let's also just say that she hooked me and others up with the ability to buy Kiehl's products at discounted prices around and after the holidays. I am still scared to fully disclose the nature of my connection.



Why so petrified? One of the women who worked in that store was a complete stickler for the rule that the corporate store was/is for employees only. Walking in there was akin to standing outside Mars with ZA so many moons ago trying desperately to seem like we didn't want to get in when in reality we were standing on newspaper dispensers to get noticed and ultimately chosen to go inside (I'm petrified, but I still really want it to happen! = I want to buy the Kiehl's products with a company discount, but I really don't want to get busted doing it, risking humiliation and - egad - the inability to buy.)

So I got to thinking about a brand and all that it does to build its reputation and get us to be such loyalists that there are now certain Kiehl's products I put on the same pedestal as bars of gold - the PP facial scrub I just mentioned, the musk perfume and the creamy eye treatment with avocado. Is it because I was able to buy it at a discount for a limited time frame that I now covet it so, or is it because that woman was such an impasse I now consider it a point against her to have purchased any of the aforementioned products? Either way, it's genius.

Nana Handbags by Sally Peek

Ok so I've been scooped by the Free Times, nonetheless I felt I had to write about Sally Peek and her incredibly funky line of handbags, Nana. I'm sure you can guess who her line is named after; well as it turns out, each style of bag is specifically named after a woman in her family. How sweet is that?

Today CC and I went over to Sally's to purchase some cutie items from her Spring line. Here's Sally - how can you not want to buy something from her?

And here are some shots of her workshop.

And here is C, doing some damage.



Supporting Sally's business, and therefore my wardrobe, is something that just feels good. She's such a friendly, creative person, there is zero guilt involved in buying a new bag per season.

At a winter sale hosted by her cousin, I bought this little number - a Sally bag - for myself.



Today, I sprung into Spring with this style - a Mombo (which, by the way, is her Mom's nickname). Look inside!



Ahem, subtle hint: Mother's Day is May 11, which is just about a month away.

Men in the Women's Clothing Section

I've been meaning to write about this topic for quite some time. Gentlemen who accompany your ladies on shopping expeditions,: we salute you indeed. Many men, my husband very much included, would never dream of going with their gals into store after store only to be asked, repeatedly, "Do I look fat in this?"

Being a supportive, couple-oriented kind of a guy, however, does not give you free reign to get in my way when I happen to be browsing the racks near your loved one. In fact, please get out of my way. You tend to walk slowly and not pay attention to the fact that you're in other people's way. Why not take a seat on the couches made specifically for your purpose?

I guess it gets me so hot because I am acutely aware of the opposite situation when I'm in the men's section with the hubs. Furthermore, I make sure to get out of a guy's way if I am by myself shopping for my man.

Ok, so do we have a deal?

Sprint's New $99 Per Month Plan

It's happened - Sprint finally did something right! You may have seen the commercial with the CEO introducing the $99 per month for unlimited internet, text and phone calls. Well I'm writing this post today to tell you it's true. About one week before the commercials aired I had to increase my Sprint monthly plan to $200 per month because I was going so far over my minutes due to my current self-employed status. The next thing I know, those commercials are airing and I am furious. After stewing about it for the past two weeks I finally just called Sprint to determine if they were indeed going to screw me, but no - I was able to change my plan to the 100-bucks-a-month option and I couldn't be happier. Thank you very kindly, Sprint.

From Pirate Boots to Pine Tree Pollen

It was great being back in NYC last week among the truly fashionable and fabulous, but it was incredibly jarring coming back to Colatown after 10 days in the city. Mind you, I am settling in here and am loving the pace of life and the weather. But NY is definitely a helluva town.

The pirate-esque flat boots seem to be holding on over there. Boots over the jeans, but for the most part, they're flat or with a little heel. Fashion-forward indie guys and skaters are still wearing skinny jeans, but I didn't see too many women with the skinny jean and flats that was so popular a little while ago.

Meanwhile here in Columbia we're covered with a layer of yellow-green pine tree pollen. It's everywhere! It's all over our cars - inside and out - and all over our clothing and shoes and interestingly it gets inside too and as a result, my desk is covered. I feel for people with allergies. This past week it was in the 70s so the shorts, golf shirts and running shoes abounded on the guys around town while the girls were wearing shorts shorts and super huge sunglasses. It's tiring, but we are a university town. I didn't go to the Carolina Cup, but I have a feeling there was a lot of strapless and a lot of minis. I'm sure Jolie and/or Skirt! will have some photo coverage soon enough.

Colatown

Here are some things that fascinate me about Columbia.

Regular-sized trucks, monster wheels
Now this is a regular siting -- I guess it's the everyman's version of a monster truck because it's your basic pick-up with ginormous wheels. Odd.

The "did I go to high school with you?" stare
No, you didn't. I promise...but you may have seen me around town>?

Our local DHL delivery person
He or she can never get it right. All you have to do is leave a sticky note on the door - what's the big deal? And you wonder why I haven't fully embraced online shopping?

Charlotte's Shopping Web

Well I found another shopping oasis this weekend with KH - Charlotte, NC! We were able to spend the night and it was a grand time indeed.

We dined in an establishment proudly boasting that they serve as much local produce as possible called Ratcliffe on the Green. It was quite good, our only complaint was that there were too many richy-rich items on the menu like fish stuffed with foie and wrapped in bacon! I ordered it and it was magical, but all those additions ruin the purpose of ordering fish, wouldn't you say?

The strolling and shopping scene is happening in the neighborhood called Chantilly (...Lace and a Purty Face...yes that song was on a tape loop in my head the entire time there). There are a handful of cute shops and a few restaurants - enough that you can spend a good hour, including eating lunch, toodling around.

Then we were off to Eastland Mall where our good friend Katie Spade was having a shoe sale - there were a number of styles for only $50! Good grief, lady - what are you doing to me?

The next day we drove out to Concord Mills which has an Off 5th (the Saks "outlet") which was running a "buy more than one item, get the second 50% off." Well shoot, more shoes here I come! If it wasn't officially official before that I had enough, it certainly should be at this point.

My current favorites are the KS lemon metallic flats (pictured below) - I mean, how could I resist?

Trendspotting: Spoons

I was thinking today about the concept of saying something new about a piece of work, a movie, a program on TV, a play, a work of art - anything, really - that's already been overly reviewed. My pal EW seems to have hit the nail on the head when it comes to giving a fresh perspective on an aspect of culture that is fairly mainstream.

I don't necessarily have the knack for saying something new about what's out there, but as you know, I'll definitely say something! On that cheery note, I share with you the following.

- Prints of spoons are increasingly popular. When I visited KH in Boston in December, we went to Madewell, the new retail chain started by folks from JCrew. I bought a white Tshirt with a print of blue spoons (wore it today to a brunch with the book club girls). Futhermore, this tote bag is currently for sale at Target.



Need I say more about the spoons? Ok, I'll say just one thing more -- I think the reason the print is so popular right now is that it's becoming indie cool to be a foodie. There are a million books and memoirs about the culture of food in the US, people's travels and food, etc. Furthermore, the organic craze has come and gone and now the local food movement is gaining ground. Food is cool, hence eating utensils en vogue.

- I've been saying this to a lot of people here in Colatown, so I figured it's high time to share it via the blog: I believe that if Columbia, SC put as much effort into business and the economy as it does into politics, it would be thriving. It's very strange to me that Litchfield Beach seems to have better restaurants and shops than Columbia.

Shopping for a Candidate

Every so often I feel the need to prove I am not a completely shallow shopper. At times I shop for worthwhile endeavors - no, not "green" items - presidential candidates, people!

I'm hearing from my pals in NYC that their local media is making our beloved state look pretty scary, with peeps speculating on the Obama-Muslim connection and the like, so I think it's time this intrepid reporter send a little progressive news back to the homeland.

According to The State, "thousands" of people gathered for the annual King Day rally at the State House on Monday for MLK Day. The NAACP invited all the presidential candidates to the event, but the democrat candidates were the only ones to accept the invitation. I was one of those thousands there on Monday (in fact, I'm convinced The State captured me in a photo of the crowd, but that's not the point here) and I can tell you first hand that people were engaged with the various NAACP speakers, and thrilled to be there to hear the three candidates speak (each had 10 minutes).

Here's a photo of the crowd from my perspective:



Around me, kids were being hoisted onto shoulders to get a better look at the candidates and campaign volunteers were exchanging cellphone numbers to meet later that week to go door-to-door in Orangeburg.

Ok, ok...it wasn't a total utopia. There were some protestors:



That one was for my Yankee pals!

Kicks-ing It

Cruising further down Devine Street away from Van Jean and towards Earth Fare you'll come to the shoe store Kicks. Right now it's having a 90% off sale and I was the lucky buyer of a pair of brown sandals for a mere $40 - they were the last pair and originally priced at $172. This place is definitely the best shoe store in town. There's also Sophie's in Five Points, but the shoes at Kicks are a little more stylish. The point is, get your clothing at Van Jean and your kicks at...

Van Jean Wilder

Last night the book club was all abuzz with - among other topics of conversation - the super sale at Van Jean, located at 2734 Devine Street. Now I know I haven't been able to consistently blog about the latest and greatest in shopping because well shoot, I really don't go shopping in Colatown as much as I used to. But don't you worry my friends - I haven't totally abandoned the faith. In fact, I was thinking about doing a little run through of all the worthy shops in the Five Points and Vista area because heck, it's not like Lucky Magazine is coming here anytime soon.

On that note, please get yourselves over to the Van Jean sale. The word on the street is that this store was started by a woman who used to work at the Columbia Museum of Art. Well it's no wonder because her store is truly an apparel museum. Key brands include the wonderfully preppy Milly, the trendy with a vintage flare Mayle, urban cool Vince and 3.1 Phillip Lim (current trunk show).

Now Van Jean isn't the kind of store I can stop in every month and pick something up, but when there is a sale it is more like a saleabration. I spotted a Vince royal blue cashmere sweater that is currently selling online for $235 for $112. Yes people, this is a 50% - 75% off sale.

I'm Once Bitten Twice Shy

Guess who rang in the New Year with some major purchases? Ok, it wasn't really the new year, more like one week into the new year, still it's been a while since I went shopping so this was a big event.

As most of you know, I recently branched out on my own as a consultant/project-based worker. Well my cute little clunker - Dell laptop from 2001 - really wasn't cutting it as the primary means to supporting my small business. So I took the plunge this past weekend and bought a MAC book. I'm finally one of the coolies! Now I can sit in the airport and tippity-type away while proudly displaying the apple all aglow. Ooooh! Does this mean I need to upgrade my iPod that only plays every third song? More on that to come.

I was so thrilled by the fact that just one hour in Best Buy jetted me into the modern day, technology-wise, that I decided to treat myself to a visit to Steve and Barry's (which I like to call Steven Barry's). Can you believe everything in the store was $9.89? Everything. So I finally invested in a few items from SJP's line, Bitten. It's funny because to look at them now on the website, it looks like I paid more for the Tshirt, but less for the two pairs of pants. Here's what I got:







If you can bear going into the miserable mall, go check out the SJP stuff and if you can bear the video "interview" they have running on a loop in the store with Miss Sarah herself, then you deserve to pay less than 10 bucks for any item of clothing.

Shoes: Let's Get Em

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to get to visit my BFF KH in Baahston. It was, as they say, wicked awesome. I was able to get all of my holiday shopping done for the family and for myself - wow! - five new pairs of shoes. Look out, Kelly.

So check out these cute little numbers dear readers, and guess which two pairs cost only $20.00 each.









I have to call attention to these boots because my most faithful of readers will recall when I blogged about my beloved black boots that I finally had to dispose of after years of fashion fabulousness. Well it looks like these will be the wonderful replacements! The bad news is I'm not sure I'll be wearing boots in SC as much as I did in NYC. I guess these will have to be saved for visits back "up North."



I think this photo that KH sent me yesterday really says it all.