7 posts tagged “shopping”

Today I went to the mall in an attempt to purchase a pair of linen trousers that did not make me look frumpy and saggy-bottomed. I did not succeed, but I did have the magnificent experience of being at the mall on the afternoon before prom.

It took me a while to work out why I was surrounded legions of fresh-faced young girls wearing jeans, sweatshirts, and elaborately lacquered dragon-lady hairdos. When I wandered through the makeup section of Saks and saw several of the same in the process of having their fresh young faces transformed into extravaganzas of maquillage, light dawned. Prom night! Oh glory.

I went up to one of the counters and asked the nice woman, "Is it prom?" Behind her a wholesome and freckly blonde was being transformed into something that would have made a suitable love object for James Kirk in the original Star Trek, and an entire nuclear family (tired mother in shalwar kameez, text-messaging father in rumpled sportscoat, and rapt little sister in Dora the Explorer shirt) watched as inch-long eyelashes were applied to their adolescent representative. Another pair of girls with uncannily similar arrangements of sausage curls waited their turn.

"Oh, yes, honey," she said, and there was a haunted look in her eye. "It's prom all right. It's been prom all week."

Tiny mushrooms from Etsy

(Not my photo.) From this guy to my jars of plant matter.

I now own three variations of a single dress, made by Velvet (not of velvet; they're actually of lovely, comfortable, fine cotton jersey). This is a bit ridiculous of me, but I am very happy with them. I intend to more or less live in them all summer (except to work, because on me they are a bit too low cut for that). I like to imagine that the differences in color and neckline make their essential sameness a bit less obvious, though I also recognize that this is wishful thinking. But they are so nice-looking and also comfortable, I could not resist. I have a feeling they are also quite popular--probably when I am in New York I will discover that everyone owns one--since they keep selling out immediately at all the little online shops. Here they are, as usual not modeled by me, but just scooped up from various websites:

Three dresses, one dress

While I'm on the topic of consumer goods, I would like to report that I seem to have found a product that prevents my hair from being a giant bushy mushroom of dorkitude. This is truly an age of wonders. The product in question is John Masters organic hair pomade (see also here and here). It seems to be made of olive oil, beeswax, mango butter, babussu oil, jojoba oil, wheat germ oil, vitamins A, C, and E, and essential oils of bay laurel, atlas cedar, massoia, and fir balsam -- so, mostly oil, oil, oil, and a side of oil. Yet it imparts only softness and de-puffing factor, nothing sticky or greasy or gross. It seems highly probable that it would be disasterous on hair with less... personality than mine, though. 

I lost my wallet this weekend. I've already cancelled all my cards (there was no activity on any of them) and am going to wait a bit before I go to get a new driver's license just in case someone dropped the wallet in the mail, and besides who wants to spend all that time in the belly of bureaucracy, BUT I do want to get a new wallet. The problem is that I have CRITERIA. I would like my wallet to be:

1. plain (though not necessarily black),
   
2. attractive,
3. not absolutely enormous, and
   
4. possessed of a suitable compartment for change.

I found one online that's absolutely ideal, except: HO HO HO, it's made by Prada and costs over two hundred dollars. Heeeelp meeee.

Bambu

I have a set of these and carry them with me almost all the time. It's nice to know you are always prepared to eat something if it should be presented to you unannounced, and because they are bamboo they even let you bring them on planes. They are also lightweight, sturdy, and not plastic.

Yesterday I threw them into my bag even though the only other things I was bringing with me were my wallet and keys. And lo, they once again came in handy when we arrived at our picnic destination and realized we had all failed to pack any silverware. This also meant that whenever anyone gave me shit about anything for the rest of the day, I could respond: "But I brought a fork!"

I'm afraid the post title is misleading, because I got these, I'm guessing, at least a year ago. But I couldn't resist the temptation of giving some of you this cruel Who earworm.

Recently I took some money that I'd been given in return for a bit of editing and spent it on a bottle of Serge Lutens perfume, Fleurs de Citronnier. The bottle arrived this morning, which works out very nicely as today is serving as my mock-birthday, thanks to our having been out of town on my birthday itself (and actually my spending most of the day at a conference). Happy unbirthday to me! This was rather a decadent purchase, but given my attachment to the tiny vial of the stuff I'd gotten as a sample and have been wearing more and more often all summer, I don't think I'll regret it. It's a smooth, golden orangeflower-based scent with a bit of bright citrus on top and honey underneath, and not too much "throw", so as to avoid the phenomenon of the cloud of scent invading other people's space. I do love the smell of orangeflower -- some shampoo we bought while we were away is scented with it as well and I was continually burying my face in S's hair after he used it.

Farmer's market today. No tomatoes, alas, but eggplant, peppers of various sorts, kale, basil, squash (just a little one, thanks), and garlic.