True Colors, formerly Amazon Books

I was delighted to find a lot of great books on display at the Amazon Cooperative, now turning into True Colors. How lovely to find that this independent bookstore will continue under new ownership!
Not being gay or lesbian or bi, I headed to the children's section and found The Barefoot Book of Poems. I am thrilled with the gorgeous illustrations and can't wait to find out if True Colors stocks other Barefoot books. Honestly they are so elegant and colorful! Women can sell Barefoot Books like tupperware but it seems too hard to schlepp around boxes of books to farmers markets and the like.
I plan to buy the books about fairies, knights, and celtic ones. In my own misty, romantic girlhood I loved all of that and hope Tristan does too.

Wonderment closing, so sad

I was zipping through Linden Hills this afternoon and saw to my sorrow that Wonderment, the marvelous store full of wooden toys, is closing. Luckily I stopped because it turns out that the last day is Saturday. I found a pair of lovely wooden horses on wheels, just about the only thing left. I had visions of getting bundles of wooden swords and so forth to save up for Baby's later life! But that is the peril of not joining email lists. I cut that out a while ago, since I found that they clogged up my email. Oh well.

Anyway. I found a great little lamb toy at the Tibet store across the street and bought it to save for Easter. They also stock Steiff, one of two stores I know of in the twin cities. There is a blue Steiff bear that is almost irresistible.  Then I went online and admired the adorable little Easter baskets from Pottery Barn. I am not really ready to buy yet, but they are so so cute! I love the idea of personalizing the lining with baby's name.

Bluebell Time at Kew, by tube.

The London Transport Museum has terrific vintage and modern posters, like the one I've copied here. That's not all: they also carry lots of pretty items inspired by the posters of yesteryear. I also really like a spring apron... what is it about bluebells this year? I just love them. Spring flowers are far from blooming in this part of the world, of course, but it's hard not to dream! 

Sweet ornament!

The Royal Shakespeare Company doesn't have much for sale, but there is a great necklace available. The necklace has letters hanging from it; so does the bracelet. It reads, in a very cool script, "Sweet Ornament that Decks a Thing Divine."  It's not at all expensive and so great looking.

Penhaglion's and Poetry

The world is white and lovely, the earth buried deep as the snow comes dancing down. A blizzard, again. The windows are caked, the sky is white, the city has vanished away.

I am reading lots of poetry to the baby lately. Baby books are so dull compared to poems. So I am enjoying the Oxford Book of Story Poems with him. Tonight Husband was in the room and he fell asleep as well, lying on the sheepskin as he listened to me read. A lovely family moment with my sleeping boys. When I was young I had a whole shelf of lovely poetry books and two of them were from Penhaglion, scented with Penhaglion fragrance. 

That made me think of the Penhaglion shop in England, which I visited once, and lo and behold, they have a very nice website. Wow. A gorgeous little silver "egg" for baby's first tooth--what a wonderful present idea. My brother asked the tooth fairy to leave his teeth behind and she kindly obliged; he kept his in a tic-tac box and used to rattle them around. A silver egg is a much nicer idea.

Of course Penhaglion's is really a perfumier. I would love to try some of the marvelous fragrances, especially Bluebell, but I'm not sure where to find them stateside. I couldn't go by the name and (admittedly wonderful) description alone! With heart notes of hyacinth, lily of the valley, cyclamen, jasmine, and rose, it might be just the scent to chase away our winter... I am also intrigued by Amarantine, with bergamot and jasmine. 

What a lovely day in February

My Valentine rosebuds are opening into lush and lovely blooms, and the mountains of snow are melting away from the lawn furniture (ruined, I suspect) and the mist is low, vanishing the city and turnign the trees into lovely ghosts as if on a wild and lonesome moor. I used to love days like this when I was a girl. I could imagine unicorns in the mists and knights and maidens fair.

I was a romantic girl... I used to cut ads for Jessica McClintock out of 17 Magazine and pore over the Banana Republic-as-was catalog, dreaming of adventure. I read ghost stories and wanted to live on Masterpiece Theater or Anne of Green Gables.

Now I realize how much a creature of the Merchant-Ivory/Romancing the Stone times I was, but then I felt fresh and new, a stranger in a stranger land, unique and wandering and wondering. I read Yeats and Anne McCaffrey with equal wonder and pleasure.

There is a gorgeous print at the Wild Unknown. (What a great business name). It's called "home" and it is to raise money for her sister whose house burnt down. But there is no need to have a charitable reason to admire this gorgeous image. I like the other stuff too.

The Elegant Gent

Mens clothes are so much fun to browse online. It's possible to put together amazing looks. The best men's shop in Minnesota is Heimie's. My father shops here with delight. He wore pink and white saddle shoes to my engagement party and regularly sports a fedora (winter) or panama (summer) so he's what you might call a stylish older gent. Heimie's is delightful and the website is fun, too. 

Get a glamorous handmade tie at Drakes. They also sell marvelous horn-handled items for brushing your clothes. The ties off the rack come in several widths, so you can tell if you are a 7, 8, or 9 milimetre kind of guy.

Were you in Skull and Bones? Get the cufflinks here at J. Press, a store I bet you thought was long gone. Or just get the cufflinks and maybe you will be invited to some strange parties.

For leather bags you can't beat Duluth Pack.  The original duluth pack is apparently a leathern bag that rests on the back, supported by a forehead strap. All I could think of when I saw this at their Duluth location was that a forehead callous would be really hard to deal with socially. Nowadays, the bags are much less likely to prove a social liability.

Hats!

I was thinking about clothes again today as we wait for the electrician--he's an hour late so far, and we can't really go anywhere until he fixes the light. We have a host of weird issues in the house right now. The gas fireplace has conked out, the disposall is jammed, and two lights in the kitchen are broken. The handyman we hired to get the mirror out of the bathroom cancelled yesterday.
So, let's think about hats! There are plenty of theories on why people no longer wear hats as a matter of course. I have a theory that I'm pretty sure about. When coal was burned in houses, there was a lot of coal dust floating around. On books in rooms lit by coal fires etc. Now this made everything very grimy in a way we have forgotten today, I think. So gloves kept hands clean and hats kept coal floaters from landing on your head.
I love the fascinators that British women sometimes (rarely) wear. The Duchess of Cornwall and Kate Middleton have been seen in gorgeous ones. I can't really imagine where I would wear one here in the United States except at the annual charity Polo Classic fundraiser we attend some summers. It is a fabulously exciting game!
The Village Hat Shop is a fun place to browse. It has all price points. The "Something Special Garden Off Face" (seriously?) is lovely, with big cabbage roses.
I like the story behind Fascinator NYC. But they need to show more of the hats on models before I will buy them. The website also lists a strange restrictive return policy on damaged goods, which does not fill me with confidence. However, they are gorgeous and glamorous creations that remind me of sea creatures from the deeps.

Nice floral dress at Anthropologie: I would like to see it on a human model, but it looks so nice and summery that I might go and look at it in person. It's nearly 50 degrees out, though February in Minnesota, so I am in the mood for summer. Baby Tristan is nearly over his cold, thank goodness, and was his nice, inquisitive self again this morning. Then we went for brunch at the Sofitel's restaurant Fougasse. It's really spectacular, and they give you loads of Mimosas and coffees. Such fun! Baby ate croissants and for ages afterward I was finding bits of mushy pastry in his overalls. 

Fougasse is a type of bread associated with Provence; it's a good name for this restaurant. The buffet is like nothing else in the cities (as we locals call Minneapolis & St. Paul). The food is spectacular: paella, salmon,  salads, chunks of yummy cheeses, breads, fancy desserts and so forth. Omelettes and roast beef also. It's really excellent. Mystery: the car park was full, but the restaurant not really very much so. Minnesotans are not in the habit of eating at hotels if they can avoid it, so it's not surprising, but awful places are sometimes packed. 

Now it's a nice Sunday evening, dusk, and we're enjoying the twilight. In a moment I'll turn on the lights for the evening--we like to keep them off as long as possible--and baby will eat his dinner...

Loving Lilly

I really like Lilly Pulitzer's facebook updates. It's a good website with a nice blog that is relevant and interesting. I also like their brand story: the juice-stand story is fun. Where did she find the fabric, I wonder? It's cute.

Paper for sale

I miss the days when stores like Neiman Marcus carried large stationery selections; now there seems to be Papyrus and Hallmark. Both are fun but neither satisfies my large and specific demands.
I've found that the Internet is a great place to shop for paper products.
My favorites are Felix Doolittle and FineStationery.com. I have gorgeous address labels from Felix Doolittle. What talent! Intricate, gorgeous watercolors of Boston and Cape Cod scenes... Piles of books, pretty birds, fox hunting, baby scenes, gardens... I have about four different address labels for my different uses: Christmas, the family, baby thank you cards, just me! It's so much fun to have these lovely pictures. I also ordered table numbers for our wedding but didn't end up using them. If you give home-made treats as Christmas presents, you might want to spring for the personalized labels. I adore them and will use them next winter--too busy with baby this year! And my favorites are the mommy/baby playdate cards. So sweet!
I order elegant business cards from Fine Stationery. I also have ordered invitations from Fine Stationery. When my order wasn't going to be ready in time, they found me a similar pattern, did the layout, and then overnighted me the new invite at no charge. It was great. Boatman Geller is fun and William Arthur has the best wedding invitations (because that is who I used!).
I once ordered monogrammed stationery from American Stationery through Neiman Marcus. I just came across their website and it looks as though they have great materials. I didn't really like my stationery--the monogram was huge--but live and learn. I saw a few patterns that I can really imagine ordering as gifts.

Baby shower coming up

A chilly day in January brings dreams of April babies. I'm planning a baby shower for my cousin's third child, a little girl. This chilly Minneapolis shower, which will be pink and green and full of fun! I found darling Lilly Pulitzer notepaper for the prizes for friends who guess the most names of celebrity moms to celebrity babies--so silly, but a fun game that everyone can play! We'll drink champagne and decaf coffee, savor petit fours (so much more chic than cupcakes!) and enjoy fruit salad and whatever else I dream up.

Thinking of pink and green has led to lots of great online shopping. Now that the shower is pretty well set--minus measuring the tables for some table cloths and a trip to a party supply store for a few cute paper decorations and a trip to the florist--oh gosh I have so much to do! Well anyway. Baby is napping so I'm looking for cute outfits for me and him!

English charm

As a college student, I wandered London and England in a daze, reconciling the city of my imagination with the real city around me. Fifteen years later, the two have mingled into one entity: my England.
While I was there, I spent a lot of time window-shopping and browsing in Knightsbridge and on Oxford Street. I walked to Knightsbridge from our pathetic digs in Earls Court and spent ages in Harrods. I bought nothing, being poor. Liberty was a delight, and there I bought an address book and scraps of fabric that I used to patch my jeans.
Lately I've been enjoying online shopping at UK boutiques, though neither Harrods nor Liberty has a good one for U.S. customers.
I recommend Aspinal: I have gorgeous pink leather gloves that never fail to receive raves from friends, a soft white leather baby book for my son, and a pretty charm for my phone to keep it from getting lost in the bottom of my purse.
I also recommend Boden. What charming clothes! I did see a stout elderly woman wearing one of the their embellished long-sleeve tees once, but maybe it was a gift from her daughter. In general it is great. The kid clothes are available in the United States at Nordstrom but I order.
Joules is another winner but sadly they have figured out U.S. pricing. For a while it was a bargain. Joules is also good for riders and polo players.
Any other great English websites for shopping for accessories or clothes? Let me know! I would love to find more websites for charming, unusual baby boy clothes. I only have so long before he rejects sailor suits!