You Frivolous Mommy!

Now we are talking Lilly

I love the new Lilly Originals...Bravo!

::Bon Weekend::

(Picture Source:Beautifully captures the essence of a Paris icon. Here)

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever".

Mary Poppins

Enjoy your weekend.

Queen Mom Forever!

She was one of the assets of British Monarchy. She was everybody's grandma.

The one I would like to become one day: Fiesty yet gently smiling. Fashion conscious yet independent. A true royal in the sense of duty and grace.

And now I can indulge my love with this book: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography

What amazing times, what amazing people! You won't be surprised to know that I have a picture of hers in her rose garden on my workdesk. I do believe that Royalty should set an example especially in times such as ours when there is lack of purpose and a general desorientation.

Read an excerpt from the book in Vogue here.

Love me, I'm a WASP

A couple of years ago I had bought a book called A Privileged Life: Celebrating Wasp Style. It was nice and interesting and it has certainly become a classic, none less for its extremely wasp and quite famous cover. It was written by a woman and it celebrated style icons like Lilly Pulitzer and C.Z. Guest

A new and promising book has come up now, on the subject of the vanishing Patrician class.  Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor is written by a ma. It is not painted in Slim Aaron colors. It is rather sepia, actually, and full of White and Christian guilt and self deprecation.it does have its nice moments and an acute sense of humor.

From Vogue's article:

Your full name is at least six syllables, {tick} but you have a clubby nickname like Bootsy or Scrote {God, no!}.

There is really nothing to eat in your fridge, which contains only marmalade, wilted scallions, out-of-season grapes, seltzer, expired dairy products, and vodka. Atop the fridge is some chewy or salty or otherwise challenging snack.

{not quite. freezer is doing OK}

Your desk is accessorized with dry pens from defunct banks, postage meters for sending first-class letters in 1971, and a classroom’s worth of wooden rulers.

{now you have me!}

You play a sport, such as crew, polo, sailing, court tennis, paddle tennis, golf, or skiing, that typically requires a large or intricately carpentered space unusable for any other purpose, expensive equipment, and a willingness to endure cold and/or discomfort.{does the treadmill and ab machine count?}

You own a sporting-breed dog, named after a strong liquor.

{no, but I do have acat named after AL (Pacino)}

(For men) You will never experience the pleasures of leather pants or a shark’s tooth on a thong dangling in your chest hair. {not a man}

Your temperament alternates between affable and peevish.{blase}

You don’t articulate your upper body in sections; it moves en masse or not at all.{no, I'm Greek Wasp}

You are slow to pitch in on manual labor and not particularly handy, though you may pride yourself on the rarely called-for ability to carve a watermelon into the shape of a whale. {sooo right!}

As a youth, you wore Lacoste shirts in a vibrant effusion of pinks, yellows, and greens, flipping up the collar points to appear, in theory, studly. 

{yes, still do once a year}

You now wear dull, molting colors of khaki and battleship gray, and tweeds.

{They suit me, all right?}

In winter, you wear down vests and cardigan sweaters over turtlenecks like an old-time skier (to compensate for setting the thermostat at 60°).

{Can't kick old habits}

Your guest room features hand irons for doorstops, ladder-backed chairs with suspect caning, and change dishes inscribed with French sayings—ne parlez pas d’amour—faites le!—and filled with safety pins and bobby pins and orphaned screws.

{the works!}

You are reserved upon first meeting, used to being told you are intimidating, and slow to depend on people because you hate being disappointed. This has often led people to read you as aloof or smug.

{always. I'm a mommie-made snob}

Your tableware consists of anything that abhors the dishwasher: gold-rimmed chargers, etched-crystal wineglasses, pedestaled fruit plates, egg spoons of translucent horn.

{I love mil's silver}

You subscribe to the belief that you don’t have to do anything you don’t feel like doing in order to establish your financial security, because there will eventually be some sort of inheritance to tide you along.

{one must never lose hope}

You are fiercely—but privately—emotional.

{I am a A Room With a View fan}

Your written correspondence is laden with plus signs and ampersands, their deployment suggesting the management of untold complexities unbearably tedious to relate.

{you get a picture}

No matter how down in the dumps you are, you respond to “How are you?” with a reflexive “Tip-top!”

{Chin up, my friend!}

Have Fun!

Mama O and Mama Sarah

This is apparently the new 'must have' in books, as far as female culture is concerned: Mrs. O: The Face of Fashion Democracy deals with, who else but Mrs Obama.

The truth is, she is the new fashion phenomenon badly needed bythe fashion industry in times of financial recession. Thus the very successful title. Fashion bible Vogue jumped at the opportunity and offered us an interview with the author, which you may read right here.

As happens with many books our days, this one too originated from a blog (written by no less than four bloggers!). You can visit it here and have a peek inside the book, too, right here.

For another interesting insight, read this article on Huffington Post. It starts like this:

"Forget lay offs and mortgage foreclosures, the real tragedy of this recession is the impact on our wardrobes".

In the antipodes of fashion povera worn by black American royalty, Sarah Palin famously spent a lot for her campaign outfits, as urban legend has it.Read the Huffington Post retrospective here. I look forward to reading Going Rogue: An American Life. It is the least I can do for a woman of such expensive taste, who, according to Huffington Post has received $1.25 million advance from HarperCollins for her upcoming memoir.

Now that both Reps and Dems have their ladies covered, we civilians might as well head for a tea and a sneak peek into the latest issue of Vogue.

Where, trully, real life happens!

A bientot!

My favorite childhood toy

What was your favorite childhood toy?
Submitted by A Pretty:Simple Life.

I couldn't resist answering today's Typepad question.

My blond hair~blue eyes baby boy doll...No wait, he does not count as "toy".

 
Starting over. Legos. Lego bricks. I built and built houses and schools, villages and cities...I really loved playing with Legos. My children are unimpressed. Hmm...Maybe I should give it a try with my little one...He is blond. He does not have blue eyes. But he has the same name as my childhood baby boy doll!

La Bruni and the French

Mme Bruni has a new website, I learn. Good for us. We are going to take a closer look at her preferences. Do not be fooled by that subtle appearance and the permanent smile, though. There is an iron will behind that woman. Look what she did to poor Brice Hortefeux!

Poor man, he looked so healthy!

When you read the BBC article read down to the funniest part:"When he was ousted in a July reshuffle, André Santini, the former secretary of state for public service, questioned his removal given that he had "lost several kilos". "

The politics of lifestyle by Mme Bruni. Still, it is interesting, even amusing to see her transform into a courtoise, very much in the French tradition. Quoi, the royalty of our times.

N.B. Speaking of the French. I found this really adorable.

"In the space of a few weeks, I have been propositioned by at least a dozen men. As I wait to cross the road, at Saint Michel, a man old enough to be my grandfather leans over towards me and whispers seductively in my ear: "Jolies fesses" (nice bum)."

At last, a place where men still act like men...and women are acting like hmm...Carla...Now, I really want to go to Paris!

LLD (Lovely Lilly Dress)

I haven't seen anything that beautiful from Lilly Pulitzer in quite some time. Lulu has an old fashioned cut with a very nice contemporary print. Thumbs up to the Lilly team!