pull it in

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November 1st, and we’re headed straight to holidays. Time to pull it in, clothes, time, work, house. A week or two ago out in the country decided to pull in the geraniums and give a try at overwintering them down in the cellar, just like my grandmother Lottie used to do. Cut them down by half, uprooted them, shook the dirt off, and down they went.

It’s not just the cost of buying new plants next Spring, it’s also the time, energy, and full day I’d love to save in actually going out to get them. As you move along you know what you like and what you need so if I can just put them away, half of the lot covered in brown paper bags and the other half hung upside down from the rafters, I’ll be all set come mid-May in 2015. Will have to drive out and mist them from time to time, not really a big deal.

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Fashion wise, it’s been such a spectacular Fall that I have yet to fully plan the Fall Winter wardrobe. While I know the big guns are already all about Spring Summer 2015 and beyond, this is the every day and like I tell my mom I’m often not sure what’s happening even tomorrow night. So, I’ll be about pulling it in and putting it together this weekend. Laptop and Lookbooks in hand, all set. Good place to start might be this Burgundy cashmere sweater and bucket bag. Will go quite nicely with a glass of Pinot Noir, snowflakes flying as I write.

Every day dress, pull it in.

sweater and bucket bag | Worth New York Fall Winter 2014

fun at work

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Feeling that there’s a super magical power in a good sweater and a silk scarf. Monday comes and it’s fun at work.

Not wanting to bore you but this cashmere crew has been the total go-to for weeks now, added the silk scarf to at least look more ‘dressed’.

Colleague Erika has it going on, she’s in heels and a jacket. 🙂 We’re in trunk show mode and days can get downright busy.

Her client Suzanne, while she liked the raspberry jacket, really wanted to know more on the scarf, says she has tons and just never really wears them. Showed her how to tie one on, kind of explaining that the less precious it looks and the more kind of effortless, the better. Oh, we have fun at work.

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Every day dress, hope you’re all having fun at work this week.

 

sometimes sneakers

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In being real, sometimes you find yourself doing the runaround wearing sneakers. Maybe you even have great new boots for the season yet your day’s activities might call for lots of movement. So, sometimes sneakers it is.

Simply make sure you pair them with real clothes and leave those other pants, you know which ones, in the bag. They should be fresh, too, those old running shoes with the wide stable bottom won’t look as clean.

Every day dress doing the runaround last weekend in Boston MA. Same sweater and jacket and jeans as seen all season, pairing them up differently and together, keeping things easy.

Sneakers | Nike

Sweater Jacket Belt | Worth New York

Tank | Helmut Lang

lulu, in provence

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In keeping with the kind of dress and cook thing, had the divine pleasure of meeting Madame Lucien Peyraud, Lulu, last month, while wine tasting in Bandol, France.

She has cooked for family and friends for well over fifty years, at Domaine Tempier Vineyard. Better yet, she’s blended marriage and kids and cooking and working and loving and even sailing all together to create a wonderfully rich life. Husband and I stopped in on our exact 27th wedding anniversary and without saying a word her daughter called her in from the back room to sign the only English cookbook on the premises. And, she was dressed in a dress. 🙂

Lulu’s Provencçal Table, by Richard Olney with foreword by Alice Waters, (the woman who really kind of introduced me to great good food some seventeen years ago at Chez Panisse), is a sweet little keeper of food and lore all taking place in the beautiful French countryside.

Lulu in Provence, you make my heart sing.

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Every day dress, dress and cook, continues. For the record, wore a has seen many seasons Roberto Cavalli dress. Nothing like a good throw-on.

 

dress and cook

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Kind of at a blogging standstill so decided to just jump right back in with the things I seem to do best: dress and cook. Simple they may be but they both move us all through the day.

Yesterday for an off-site client meeting wore the few new things that have been added to the rotation: sweater, scarf, bag. Pretty standard, especially when paired with black jeans, a bit of the difference being doing the sweater in cashmere and making certain that the jeans are hemmed to a good length. So many of us run around in jeans all day and really by paying attention to the length of your pant your style standard can be instantly upgraded.

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Dinner was simple oven baked wild cod, pan roasted organic sweet grape tomatoes, blanched and then sautéed green beans. Salad and bread on the side and dinner done. No cookbook, no google search, no recipes needed.

Not going for any fashion or food empire here, intent is to inspire the women (and men) that matter to me to do small things every day that make their days better.

Every day dress, dress and cook. xoxo

dress for dinner

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There’s something magical about the shift from day to night: a new chapter, a new beginning, another coming together.

To mark the transition, it’s always nice to dress for dinner.

You might change everything you wore before or simply light the candles, reapply your lip and (finally) brush your hair, the key being the mind-set to move beyond.

We love to dress for dinner, whatever that may be on any given day.

Photos taken at rented château in I’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue France | Hermès scarf, worn as dress

Every day dress, dress for dinner, wherever you may be. Yeah, photos a little blurry, we were really liking the wine. xoxo

sometimes short

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Amal Alamuddin, you own sometimes short. Oh my god, those legs! How do you look like that? Your wedding weekend ensembles to Mr. George Clooney, superlatively exquisite.

Your combination of brains, beauty, style, total triple play. Wishing you and yours endless years of happiness.

Loved everything about your Venice wardrobe, late September. Fashion royalty.

Here is what was going on with the every day, late September, in Provence: a simple silk dress picked up for 60€, market day, and probably plus thirty pounds. Balanced it out with flat quilted Dior boots. For the every day, just like you, if we dare, never really want to show too much skin, all at once.

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Every day dress, sometimes short, keep it balanced.

oh, man

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With the men’s wear influence all around us, finally added a pair of brogues to the footwear rotation while in Avignon France.

First time out, oh, man, blisters so way worse than any pair of heels. Needed to medicate and Band-Aid. Un peu de vin de rose helped too. Husband swears there’s an inverse relation with heel height and comfort, not always so. Traveling friend Jenifer shared in that pain and in the treatment. 🙂

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On first try they were perfect, toe box great. It was the heel that was the Achilles.

Second time out, so much better.

Clothes and hair kept simple, could probably have gone without the necklace. A great part of every day dress is that we get to get up and do it all over again and maybe a bit better. Every day dress, oh, boy.

shoes | Church’s

sweater weather in Provence

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Sunny and bright, yet finally sweater weather. Still, and will be, into the white denim, this time added grey cashmere, grey suede belt, black boots and black bag. Good transition outfit, and the wine of Châteauneuf-duPape was even better. 🙂

Transitioning home soon, totally missing the family proper. Every day dress, sweater weather in Provence.

white denim | Citizens of Humanity

cashmere sweater and suede belt | Worth New York

boots | Valentino

bag | Saint Laurent