There’s a good chance you’ve already seen the new Wren collection on Refinery29, but I like it too much not to post. It is a vacation sort of collection. I’m still in getaway mode from Charleston, and with another trip on the way (we’re going to visit Drew’s family in North Carolina) I just want to wear cheerful colors and sandals and straw hats.
Yesterday was the first day of spring, and it couldn’t have been nicer. When we got back to Atlanta we found the trees beginning to bud and the flowers blooming, and there’s something about good spring weather that makes even boring, mundane Mondays cheerful. I celebrated by running outside and going to the library (I checked out this book and this book) and then to the thrift store to shop for the spring store update (which I promise is coming!).
Ruche celebrated the official start of spring by releasing a lovely new lookbook, and they’re also giving away a $40 gift certificate to one reader. If you want to enter, it’s easy. Just take a look at the lookbook (or the shop lookbook section), pick out your favorite thing/outfit, and tell me about it in a comment. If you don’t have a blog profile just be sure to leave an email address or a way for me to get in contact with you if you win. Best of luck!
Update: Congratulations to Kate for winning the Ruche gift certificate!
My favorites: 1. Dear Creatures Hannah Dress . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Sweet in the Sun Wide Brim Hat . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Golden Sand Wedges.
Photos by Drew
Dress: Amy dress, gift from Duskin
Sunglasses: Karen Walker
Bag: thrift store
Shoes: Madewell
Here’s why I was missing for half the week. On Thursday, Drew and Rufus and I took off for Charleston so Drew could meet up with his college friend and I could see my mom , sister, grandma and aunt before they left on their cruise for the Bahamas. It was great spending time with my family. On Thursday night my mom and sister and I went to a seafood restaurant in an old ’40s naval wharf, and afterwards Ashley and I were still antsy so we took a nighttime run all over Charleston. It was pretty amazing. We ran down Meeting Street from our hotel (an 1850s place that Robert E. Lee had stayed at) to the Battery, cut through downtown, tried to find the old haunted jail but went through the college instead, wishing we could go back in time and go to school in such an amazing place. I don’t know which was more fun–running through historic district after historic district or weaving our way in and out of drunken St Patrick’s Day crowds. It was funny.
The next morning brought breakfast with my family (I had oatmeal, like usual), shopping with Ashley, and after their boat left, walking all over Charleston with Drew. I walked in insensible shoes every day and banged up my feet pretty good, but it was worth it. That first day we must have walked miles and miles just exploring different parts of town, trying to escape the crowds. King Street and its shops are great and Meeting Street is busy and good, but so far my favorite part of Charleston is the French Quarter because it’s quiet (er) and sometimes cobbled, and because the history is so fascinating. One of my favorite streets, Queen Street, used to be a slum back in the day, which you could never tell now. The old tenement buildings have turned into fancy art galleries and apartments. I looked for but couldn’t find Catfish/Cabbage Row, which was the setting for Porgy & Bess. And when I was on beautiful, cobbled Chalmers Street doing frantic iPhone searches to find out which house was Josephine Pinckney’s I had bad luck and gave up. It was hot and I was getting hungry.
We had lunch at this wonderful little French-ish place called Gaulart et Maliclet that served lots of healthy, vegetarian/vegan-friendly food in a town I wasn’t expecting to find any in. I’m no vegan (more like a fake-vegetarian/pescatarian) but I got a vegan sandwich that was amazingly good. After lunch we walked through St. Michael’s Cemetery and back down Meeting Street to see the Battery and rest in the park on what must have been the most beautiful, blue-skied day of the year. It was hot and felt like summer that day, but next to the water it was breezy and springlike. And we sat in the grass and I did my best to keep my dress free of grass stains. It’s one of my favorite spring dresses. When the lovely Stephanie Tran of Duskin sent it to me last week I felt like the luckiest person in the world.
At night we met up with Drew’s friend and had an amazing fish dinner and then to this bar that served up fancy ’30s-style drinks–gin fizzes and everything. I was sad to leave Charleston the next day. We went to a little Brooklyn-based coffee shop called Baked (not very southern of us, I know, but sometimes a muffin and good coffee sounds better than grits) and then went to Magnolia Cemetery, which definitely deserves its own post, which I’m going to write up in a few days.
There is a huge set in the National Archives‘ Flickr stream called Documerica, and there must be thousands of old photos in it. In the 1970s the EPA hired a bunch of freelance photographers to choose an area of the US and take photos of everything relating to environmental concerns and everyday life of the people who lived there, and the finished project is massive. There are photos of everything from life in American cities, coal mine country, how Americans vacationed, wildlife, to old falling down buildings in the 1970s sun . . . . Because I’m still hugely inspired by 1970s desert towns I had to pick David Hiser’s Utah photos as my favorite set. They make me want to time travel.
There seems to be no shortage of New Zealand labels making clothes I’d wear in a heartbeat. I just found out about the label riddle me. this, and am wanting to wear most of the things in their A/W 2011 collection, because like most southern hemisphere winter collections it would work pretty great for a northern hemisphere early spring. Just take away the furry hats and tights and it’s perfect.
