Swirl Barware from CB2!

Let’s hear it for summer weather!  It may not be summer just yet by official standards, but the summer weather has definitely started to put in regular appearances, and a tall cool drink on a rooftop bar or on a sunny balcony is starting to sound better and better.  I’m a sucker for summer parties — I’m seeing guacamole and Alton Brown’s corn dog recipe for this year.  While, okay, I don’t need new glassware to have my summer party, and probably plastic cups would be fine and less hassle, I’m loving all the colorful, festive glassware out there that’s just perfect for a tall iced tea or a cool mojito.  Here are a few of my favorites.

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Because I know you all needed more things to spend your money on, I thought I’d call attention to the fact that Rafe New York is currently running a 40% off sale on EVERYTHING on their site, including both shoes and all their great handbags.  I’m a sucker for Rafe’s structured bags, and I think I might need to snap up the Abigail wristlet for running around the city this summer.  Enjoy!

Giuseppe Zanotti at Zappos!

The roundup continues!  This week we’ve gotten to one of my favorite shopping indulgences: shoes, handbags, and other accessories.  I have to admit, I used to be reluctant to shop for shoes online; something about the unforgiving nature of shoes sizing made me reluctant to buy shoes I hadn’t tried on already.  Thankfully, a whole slew of shoe and handbag sites make returns both insanely easy and free, so there’s no reason to hesitate. Some of my favorites sites after the jump.

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The sun makes a gorgeous picture, but it will wreak havoc on your skin

So, if you read this blog regularly, you know I’m UV-phobic (seriously: you can read about my fear and the related search for the perfect sunless tanner here).  And based on some of the emails I got about my recent navigating the spf aisle post, I’m not the only one with this phobia.

One thing that was so rightly pointed out was that my original SPF post dealt strictly with sunscreen and SPF technologies – while that’s certainly an area that everyone can use some brushing up in, your average person doesn’t want to apply a layer of SPF, a layer of makeup, etc.  So, you asked for it, here it is …

My favorite multi-tasking SPF products, after the jump!

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Folks, I am an impulse shopper.  I know, you’ve all seen my fashion posts, but oddly enough, I’m not talking about clothes.  Clothing I usually stalk and meditate on for at least a few weeks and sometimes a few months before buying.  If I buy something on the spur of the moment, usually either it’s something pretty basic, or I have Lily or AJ along egging me on.  (Those two are pure evil, let me tell you.)  No, what I’m talking about is groceries.

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Image via AdFreak

File this under things I didn’t know, but find strangely intriguing: the Japanese culture has a number of legends involving ghosts hiding in childrens’ bathrooms.  That’s right – ghosts.  Plural.

Japanese school children fear the ghosts of Hanako-san (so terrifying that some kids apparently prefer to pee in their seats in class than brave the restrooms), Kashima Reiko (who is missing her legs) and Aoi Kami (a murderous ghost who hides in the last stall of the girls’ room).  (You can read the legends here – just turn the sound off before you click through.)

Now, American culture certainly has a few scary ghost legends of our own (I once laid awake, terrified, at a sleepover after my friends and I tried to summon Bloody Mary; and who hasn’t been thoroughly creeped out by a Ouija board?); the difference is that the Japanese have capitalized on this phenomenon in a truly brilliant way – one I dare say would never occur to an American …

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I never said that I was proud of my behavior at sample sales

Sample sales have  a special place in my heart – where else can you get high end designer goods at deep, deep discounts?

Even better, two of my absolute favorite labels are hosting a joint sample sale in June.  Details on how you can stock up on some of the most gorgeous yet enduring items around … After the jump!

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A breezy, beachy blue from Laila Azhar!

We’re almost to June, the biggest wedding month of the year, so it’s time to take another pass at wedding guest fashion.  While there are a few rules that are consistently safe for any wedding (don’t flash too much skin, don’t wear white), we all know that there are as many different kinds of wedding venues and dress codes as people can come up with.  (Star Trek wedding, anyone?)  Today we’ll tackle the beach wedding.

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I unfortunately haven’t had opportunity to post much lately (damn work!) but I wanted to take a quick minute to bring this article to Femmeiniste’s attention.  This opinion piece in yesterday’s NY Times, entitled “Liberated and Unhappy”, comments that the many advances women have enjoyed over the last few decades – educational, social, financial – have not, it seems, brought them any greater happiness.

To quote:

“American women are wealthier, healthier and better educated than they were 30 years ago … on some fronts — graduation rates, life expectancy and even job security — men look increasingly like the second sex.”

And yet:

“But all the achievements of the feminist era may have delivered women to greater unhappiness … male happiness has inched up, and female happiness has dropped. In postfeminist America, men are happier than women. ”

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Grilling season?  What is this grill of which you speak?

This, I think, is one of the fundamental disconnects between life in a really big city like New York, and life in the rest of the country.  The back yard barbecue?  Well, when you don’t have a back yard, there’s no point to worrying about whether to buy citronella candles or those new OFF! clip-ons.  You may have room for the people, but there is no place for a grill.  I read an article in the New York Times food section last week about grilling food over an open wood fire.  I don’t know who that article was aimed at, but it certainly wasn’t people living in Manhattan.  I know that in much of the country, grilling in the back yard is a quintessential summer activity.  Honestly, though, to me it seems like something that happens in some kind of alternative universe.  You know, the universe where I look up at the kitchen counters and get gold stars when I turn in a paper.  It seems to go with a suburban, married-with-kids lifestyle that also seems unbelievably remote to me in my current life.

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