sometimes sneakers

IMG_2313IMG_2323IMG_2322

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

IMG_1780IMG_1771

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.

IMG_1769IMG_1773IMG_1781

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

IMG_2303IMG_2291

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.

photo

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

bring it home

IMG_2114IMG_2115

Haven’t posted since last week Saturday, busy week. Two weeks in France can set you back a bit, no complaints.

Travel abroad teaches so much. Always fun to bring it home. Tonight’s dinner snapped on the iPhone made from last weekends ham for the dozen or so teenaged girls for a Sunday morning post football game sleepover. Ham and Lentil Soup and Grilled Gruyère Sandwiches on days old sliced crusty bread. Anything I read about French cooking tells me that they never waste a thing, use everything to everything.

Every day dress, bring it home.

 

dress for dinner

IMG_1832IMG_1833
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

1411941132919_Image_galleryImage_Mandatory_Credit_Photo_by

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.

IMG_2174IMG_2186

Every day dress, sometimes short, keep it balanced.

oh, man

IMG_2075IMG_2097

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. 🙂

IMG_1961

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

IMG_2073IMG_2063IMG_2057IMG_2066
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

phone home

IMG_1898

Kids think we’ve been out of touch: after a quarter century or so of doing it all every day, feeling okay with not always phoning home. After putting down a good solid foundation why not take off for a while, good for us, good for them. We’re here barely speaking the language, they’re home figuring stuff out without us.

IMG_1916IMG_1918

For visiting French provincial hill-top villages, wore the same black jeans as the day before, black tank for when it was hot, flat boots, and of course, like the women of France, added a scarf.

IMG_1954

New black leather quilted jacket came out later, love this new piece and it will get plenty of wear, maybe another quarter century? and it goes with absolutely everything. Fun to throw over a dress too.

IMG_1875

Love in France, celebrating twenty-seven years of marriage, yes, we will phone home, and we’ll be back at it with you all sooner than you think. 🙂

Quilted Black Leather Jacket | Worth New York Fall Winter 2014