Lots of commentary going around about one of our favorites (maybe Bridget, maybe Renee): thinking that what we all do requires time, money, and choice, and that we, as women, should value that option and leave well enough alone. And, when getting down to the nitty-gritty, why not support (or simply just not critique), what one of us might feel important, or necessary.
Really don’t want to get too deep here, it’s just that I’ve been working with women since the age of eighteen; let’s all feel good in our skin.
We’ve all seen it, sometimes great, sometimes too much, and sometimes you just can’t tell.
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.
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.
When fashion week is going on in the big city and you claim you’re a fashion and lifestyle blog and you’re home working, you kind of have to default to the lifestyle stuff, how in the world else can the content be the least bit interesting? There are tons of blogs and social sites out there reporting on all that’s happening, and we’re home watching.
We’ve talked about this before, this is an every day site, accessible to all and existing to inspire to find the good and the style in the every day of every day.
So, here’s what’s been happening: husband and I have decided there’s been much too indulgence in the French trinity of  bread, wine, cheese. Cutting back on all but heck no not eliminating. And back to the gym, this new trainer is all about push-ups. Politely asked the trainer that in addition to the body we could focus on the chin, arms, abs trinity, ha.
Lunch for two inspired by NET-A-PORTERÂ video of some fabulous stylish London woman prepping a salad with one egg for the protein part. Oh, it was beautiful, and sometimes think that vegetables and one egg could do it for lunch but have now lived long enough and have kind of learned that maybe there’s more. Â There’s always so much to do after lunch: work, house, pick-up, laundry, garden, dinner, clean-up, dogs etc etc.
When it’s just two, greens and a piece of cod, quite nice.
Last week Friday for a friend, a colleague, and a friend and a colleague, agreed to wear some fun new Fall stuff for their Fall Fashion Update. Second son DJ’d, and two youngest daughters were there too. Family affair, just how we like it.
Seems like so many rules going on now: eat this, don’t eat that. wear this, don’t wear that, keep on top of your social media, not. We’re going with what we can when we can.
Wearing some Helmut Lang for all the friends. When asked to show some stuff for others they can have their way. The red was good, first choice probably black, haha. Black stretch leather skirt, total score.
Every day dress, obey the rules, not. Hope you’re all having a great weekend and doing what you can when you can. 🙂 It’s been a downright busy back to school week.
Simple post here: while the husband is off in Newport RI and Boston MA getting twenty-something daughters prepped for the new school and work year, we stayed upstate, (teenaged daughters and I), and spent just about every cent we had on their back to school stuff.
One thing we came home with that always brings pleasure and satisfaction, a new stack of dish towels. Tried and true and maybe a bit pedestrian but when you feel like so much is going on all around you there is a feeling of well-being when opening the kitchen drawer and finding freshly laundered and ironed dish towels. No fabric softener here, we want to the real deal. Like scented candles on the dining table, some things are left better undone.
Every day dress, tried and true and finding order in the kitchen by bringing home new towels.
Wishing everyone a safe Labor Day weekend filled with rest and relaxation.
Totally on the edge right about now, wanting everyone to get back to where they need to be come September 1st. Have had this feeling every end of summer since having a couple of kids, simply wanting everyone to get through the swimming, boating, driving, flying, (drinking), safely, and to resume work, study, play.
Last weekend we tucked in about 34 adults for food and drink at the ski house for husband’s office weekend retreat. Dina’s Restaurant, thank you, food was out of the park and you took the edge off of being on the edge.
Every day dress, honestly, a little on the edge. Be safe everyone. xo
With Labor Day weekend on the horizon it could be a good idea to throw it all in. When driving somewhere it’s so easy to toss stuff in the trunk. Had a great summer, kind of looking forward to some sort of schedule.
Seems the more you go, the less you need, especially off duty. For west coast on the go trip, essentials included:
Cashmere wrap and silk scarf, blue jeans and white jeans, denim skirt, black blazer and black workout jacket, black boatneck sweater, white shorts and black exercise pants, tanks and tees, mostly on the black side, one pair of sandals, two pairs of sneakers but really only needed one, one pair of black boots. Â One bright handbag, and most important, handsome husband and two teenaged daughters.
Started in LA and drove up the coast and flew out of San Francisco. Temperatures ranged from 102 to below 60. Â Really into this carry on thing and keeping it light. Such a drag to haul so much stuff all over.
For off duty travel, cashmere, denim,white, and black. Easy.
Now it’s all on duty for Fall 14 Trunk Show. Starts tomorrow, Wednesday, and goes through next week Wednesday, August 13th.
You can do it. With the right stuff off duty travel for seven or eight days with only a carry-on is so possible.
When the mood strikes and usually among the same blood line, we here at every day dress can throw down four letter words with the best of them. You won’t see them digitally, in print, and hopefully never hear them at the dinner table.
That said, there are some four letter words we just love and use regularly: food, real and good food; and wine, usually good wine and often enough fine wine. Butter counts too as we kind of weirdly believe that butter is love.
A couple four letter words it’s taken us about 49 years to get over: diet, lose. Those have occupied way too much head space and have never gotten us to any good place. Still get sucked in, loving fashion and great clothes always makes you want to be thinner, those two words just always lead down the wrong path. While clothes invariable look better on stick thin women, it’s so much more fun to embrace lifestyle too and know that undressed women perhaps look and feel better with a few well deserved curves.
As recently as 18 months ago 35-year-old male trainer that put me through really heavy weight training workouts knew my desperation with always wanting to drop 10 pounds or so. He recommended the banana diet. Yes, 30 freaking bananas a day. Being a believer in all things  actually tried it for about an hour and a half on a cold winter day while out skiing with the family. Result? Disaster and four letter words, not the good ones like real food and good wine, but the rough ones hurled out at two teenaged daughters when getting on the chair lift on a crisp beautiful morning was more complicated than usual. Way to set a good example. Those four letter words were so not right and were set up by some unrealistic diet plan. That banana thing I think was the turning point. Never again. Took that chair lift up, skied down the mountain, and fueled the body with what it needed and one of the paradigms of every day dress: eat some protein at breakfast.
Fashion and fitness magazines always have ways for us lose, diet, or move ourselves down a couple of dress sizes and they always promise it will happen fast. Now even the really good ones like Town & Country and Harper’s Bazaar have entered the email feed with ways to lose. While obesity is a huge health problem in our country and heartbreaking to see in children, that’s an entirely different conversation than what you’ll find here. We’re talking about moving our bodies as much as we can, walking over driving, stairs over anything that requires power to get you up or down, and knowing that life is abundant and setting yourself up with wishful restrictions is not much fun.
Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food is a slim book that’s kept on the nightstand to circle back to when the pull to believe in some magical diet plan or how to lose weight fast comes calling again as it does and will. His premise is sound: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Every day dress on four letter words, yes, sometimes it’s just the best way to express yourself, and usually only among intimates. On our favorite four letter words, food and wine? Yes, and often, and probably for both like Mr. Pollan says, not too much. 🙂
Still in CA, heading back east tomorrow, Sunday, and jumping right back into helping women look and feel great with beautiful clothing. Trunk Show August 6th through August 13th.
Wishing everyone a great weekend with some good, real food. And, if you like, some good wine too.
Friday night and we’re in the country and I’m hanging with my two youngest daughter’s, you know, group like things. 🙂
Worked all week with luscious Fall clothes and now it’s time to get away. Snapped these photos quick upon arrival before 45 minute hill walk with the dogs and here’s what I’m thinking: even though it’s so simple we are all so busy it’s sometimes so easy to let it go. Life is so much easier when you group like things.
Plants of one species like to hang together and look their best when grouped. Only took me 30 years to finally get the Portmeirion in one place all together and now it sits nicely out at the country house above the stove. Been kind of collecting that stuff since the age of nineteen, lots of breaks along the way.
Clients have told me all week that it’s tough to make sense of their wardrobe and they kind of forget sometimes what they have going on. Here’s the simple every day dress solution: group like things. That way you know if you need some new stuff to fill in the holes.
Every day dress, grouping like things, out in the country after a great long work week.
