4 1/2" of heel. Ms. Stefani, you do not f*** around.

Summer brings out one of my biggest weaknesses: my love of preposterously high strappy sandals. I loooove strappy sandals, and I love a high heel even more.  Towering over guys like an Amazon?  That’s just part of the fun.

The problem is, I already have more high-heeled sandals than I really need. If we’re going to be completely realistic about this, I have a limited number of venues to which I can reasonably wear a sandal with a 4″ heel, and, dude, I live in the north.  While I admit that I have on occasion worn glittery strappy sandals on the street in January for the sake of looking especially smoking, it takes a special occasion to convince me to wear shoes like this during most of the year.  (An especially cute guy in dire need of being tortured, for example.)

Needless to say, none of this stops me from loving on the insanely tall sandals all over the stores and the internet.  And if I’m going to embrace impractical shoes, I might as well pick ones that rock.  As always, no one makes stilt heels with more attitude than L.A.M.B., which has a whole array of sandals that sport heels north of 4 inches.  Some shoe porn after the jump.

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The Black Forest Cake, my absolute favorite cake of all time

It’s my birthday, and because it’s been an unexpectedly hectic few days leading into today, I don’t have a new post.  So I’m subjecting you to a birthday version of Cravings, Longings and Desires.

My Favorite Cake

The black forest cake you see at the top of this post is, in my humble opinion, the best cake in the entire world.  Possibly the universe.  Dark chocolate, a very, very light frosting (almost like a freshly whipped cream), and just dripping with succlent, ruby red cherries.  I could seriously eat an entire cake.

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I loves me some Narciso Rodriguez...

This is a toughie, ladies. I love Narciso Rodriguez at all times — he does clean and elegant like nobody’s business.  But this dress?   I could actually wear this one.  In my real, actual life!  Brunch?  Absolutely!  That puts it several big steps up on most of my objects of lust.  Sadly, the price, uh, distinctly does not put it closer to purchasability.  But I can still look and lust.  Yum.

Dear Rain:

I know that it’s not officially summer yet, and I should enjoy my last few days of spring.  I know.  Spring is my favorite season, even.  I am all about the tulips and the hyacinths, for which, by the way, I thank you.  But I am so over this rain thing.  Rain is good in its place — I love a good thunderstorm — but this drizzle that drags on for days and days leaves something to be desired.  You know that absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?  I’m not really a Rules girl, but just think how much more everyone would appreciate you if you poured on the drama.  A couple of sunny days — then a big thunderstorm.  You see what I mean?

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Princess Jasmine in today's Middle East

Who hasn’t wondered how the Disney Princesses would have fared today, or what comes after “happily ever after”?

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Future Flora Lamp at MoMA Store.

This week the online shopping roundup continues to the big world of furniture and home goods.  Naturally, clothing ourselves is key (not to mention required by law), but everyone likes to live in welcoming surroundings too.  Today, I’ll cover some of the best sites on the web with which to clothe your place.  Admittedly, my decorating tastes slant slightly toward the modern, so the roundup is slanted accordingly, but with luck there’ll be a little something for everyone. My favorites after the jump!

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The regal Pomegranate Noir scent

Father’s Day is this weekend – hurrah!  It’s a time to celebrate dad and all he’s done for you (you know, helping bring you into the world, putting up with your preteen meltdowns, being there when you need him). Really, though, if you have a Dad like mine, you’re still buying gifts in the hopes of making up for those preteen meltdowns.  It’s a miracle I made it past the age of 14.

It should go without saying that I’m always on the hunt for great Father’s Day gifts, and I’ll be tracking my progress this week through a Father’s Day Gift Guide series.  Today: the scent gurus at Jo Malone.

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So, the recession drags on.  It has recently been brought home to me that I spend too much money on, well, pretty much everything.  While I’m still not hurting for money for basics, which makes me pretty lucky, it would be idiotic of me not to give some serious thought to buckling down to saving some more money and increasing my emergency cushion a little in case something happens.

What I most need to do, really, is just spend more deliberately — give more thought to what I do and don’t spend money on.  I’ll be working on that.  But one item that I’d really like to work on that will actually require some thought and planning is my grocery bills.  As I mentioned recently, I am a total grocery impulse shopper.  This makes my cooking life pretty entertaining and frequently an adventure, but it also has the drawback of sometimes saddling me with completely bizarre foodstuffs that I have no idea what to do with, or 2/3rds of the ingredients for a recipe that I can’t quite make.  I also haven’t really spent a lot of time thinking about what the most cost-effective use of my money is; my tendency is to buy anything healthy that I am at all tempted by to encourage myself, even if it turns out to be pricey.

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As the week draws to a close and we come to grips with the horrific shooting at the Holocaust Museum, a letter in today’s Washington Post reminded me of the amazing capacity we as humans have to find meaning, inspiration and hope in the face of tragedy:

James W. von Brunn — racist, domestic terrorist and anti-Semite — never knew that when he and his then-wife sold their Lebanon, N.H., home in 1982, they sold it to a Jewish family.

The von Brunns had moved to Maryland before we looked at the house, and he was incarcerated when we bought it, imprisoned for attempting to hold hostage members of the Federal Reserve Board. When we moved in, we realized we’d bought it from an anti-Semite survivalist because he’d left behind several boxes of anti-Jewish books. We immediately added them to the trash.

Anyway, James W. von Brunn, we want you to know we took great pleasure in living there despite the hate-filled man who occupied it before we did. We celebrated Passover Seders, exchanged Hanukkah gifts and raised two wonderful Jewish children there.

GAIL CHADWICK

Wonderful, non? Irony is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

It’s Friday, and I’m both sick and tired.  So I’m copping out … Time for a blind item, one I actually witnessed with my very own eyes!

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