Things I love, Real and Simple

After an issue-less August I'm chalking up to the move, the September Real Simple arrived and has been delighting me for the past 2 days.

These modular linen tiles from Pottery Barn were featured as a way to hang jewelry with pearl tipped straight pins, and I am absolutely going to copy that idea.

Then there are the fall fashions. I am totally in love with the preppy-diva trend. I love men's ware made fem and think this may be because I was heavily influenced by Annie Lennox circa "Sweat Dreams" as a child. Specifically, on page 102 there is a pair of Stuart Weitzman heels that I an infatuated with. I cannot find a picture of them online and that makes me want to cry, because I can't share their brilliance with you if you don't have the current RS handy, but I will try to describe them, knowing in advance that mere words cannot do them justice – the toe strikes the perfect balance between pointy and rounded, the material is a black and white tweed with black patent leather accents, including 3” skinny heels and a Mary Jane strap just below the ankle bone. They are so me. I don’t want to make love to them per se, rather I want to take them to dinner and buy them a nice piece of jewelry to let them know how special they are.

In my desperate hunt for those beauties I found this AWESOME blog – kindred sole, clearly! – and these cutie patooties from Kenneth Cole’s Unlisted line (Unlisted is to Kenneth Cole as Old Navy is to Banana Republic, with the Reaction line being on par with the Gap - and incidentally the website I would those shoes on is the Gap, Inc.'s new shoe site.)

Now, these shoes are unrealistic on many levels. For starters, now that I live in SoCal I'm not sure I'm going to get a fall. I'm sure people wear fall clothes because they're morons - I've seen girls in Ugg boots and shearling coats in January even though it's still in the 60's - but I don't want to be like that. Second, where would I wear them? To the library at UCSD where everyone else is in flip flops, or maybe ballet flats if they're feeling spunky? Babysitting? It probably wouldn't go over to well if one of my charges impaled themself on my shoe. Finally, at $299 they are ever so slightly out of my price range. Although, compared to these $540 Dior Mary Janes they're a steal!

And I prefer the Weitzmans...