CHEATING JCREW

I love most things on offer at JCrew. What can I say? I am a prepster. But over the past several years I have noticed that their prices have been rising steadily. Once upon a time JCrew was at the same price point as Gap. Now a simple t-shirt from JCrew is twice the price of one at Gap (and usually cuter, but more perishable).

So I have started devising small ways to circumvent the high prices. In the case of JCrew accessories it is easy to look for them elsewhere. My latest accessories coop is the vintage-inspired Timex watch featured in the August catalog. I absolutely love its refined-menswear-outdoorsman aesthetic, just not the $150 price tag (I mean really! Isn't Timex supposed to be known for affordable products?). So I did a little Ebay research and found a similar style--with darker numerals and a leather band--for 1/5 of the price. Bingo! And, in the end, I liked my Ebay version even better.

Timex Vintage Field Army Watch, $150, JCrew

Timex Men's Field Leather Watch, $31.99, Ebay

SAVINGS AND LOANS: SIMON PEARCE

Another fun part of my weekend getaway to Vermont? The trip to the Simon Pearce restaurant and store! Not only does Simon Pearce have an amazing restaurant--where I enjoyed an herb rubbed chicken served over fresh pappardelle--but they also have a retail store chock full of incredibly beautiful hand-made housewares. There is no better way to digest after a tasty meal than to wander the aisles of this fabulous store, making a mental list of all the lovely things you would buy if you had the expendable income. Everything in the store is hand-made in their glass-blowing and pottery studio downstairs (making each piece exquisite but expensive!).

Here are some of my favorites (top to bottom, left to right):

Hartland Candlesticks, $115-$195

Hampton Stemware, $48-$60

Barre Serving Bowl, $85-$100

Cavendish Cereal Bowl, $30

See more Simon Pearce products at their website here.

WEEKEND UPDATE: VERMONT AND LE TOUR

My sincere apologies for being missing in (blogger) action recently. I have spent the last six days in the sleepy town of Woodstock, Vermont with my boyfriend and his family blissfully disconnected from the outside world. Days were spent hiking, swimming, reading and eating ungodly amounts of delicious food. On rainy days I even worked on a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle: a pastime I had not had time to enjoy since summers off from elementary school.

To get to the point of this post, evenings in Vermont were spent eagerly watching the epic cycling challenge known as Le Tour de France. For those of you who are not as cycling-obsessed as I am, this year's Tour was a nail biter, with the winner of the yellow jersey only decided by a matter of seconds on the final day of the month-long race. It was also Lance Armstrong's last time competing in the Tour, after having announced that he will retire this year with his record-breaking seven wins. Accordingly, his sponsor team Radio Shack launched an incredibly clever and funny ad campaign that played non-stop throughout the competition. It features Lance talking to his "assistant" the bumbling but sweet 'Alphonse'. These ads are so good they almost make me want to shop at Radio Shack for something other than an obscure car charger or 9 volt battery.

My personal favorite commercial in the series, however, is definitely this one. Hilarious!

Hope you like them! Back to regularly scheduled posts tomorrow!

WEEKEND UPDATE: BRIMFIELD

I know this post is bombarding you with photos. I just couldn't choose! Last Friday, while exploring the Brimfield Antique Show, I took about 100 photos of the booths and the amazing objects on offer. Looking through these shots I realize that I have certain things that I am drawn to: 1950s era tin toys, bold packaging, woodblock letters, and kitschy patriotic items. Needless to say you can find almost anything you are interested in at Brimfield. It is, after all, one of the biggest antique shows in the country! Brimfield is held three times a year in the sleepy town of Brimfield, Massachusetts--in May, July and September--so there is plenty of time to get there and find out for yourself what you might like to collect!

Find out all the Brimfield information here and see (a lot!) more of my photos here.

TAGGED: WILL YOU MARRY ME?

I have so many photos and stories to share from my weekend exploits at Brimfield and a Connecticut-area craft fair, but today is a busy day so they will have to be saved for tomorrow! In the meantime, I thought I would show you this absolutely darling video of a spray-painted marriage proposal. This guy's a keeper!

(Found via A Cup of Jo and made by PR!MO)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: BEACH ME!

This evening I am headed out of the city for the weekend. Tomorrow I will be making the trek up to Brimfield to score some vintage finds at their famous tri-annual antique show (read about here). Then it is back to Connecticut for a weekend at the beach with my family and some family friends. Busy, busy! Hope you have fun plans too!

(Photo by me taken in 2008 at Lake Garda, Italy. See more here.)

JIM DENEVAN

A couple months ago I discovered the beautiful, breath-taking work of the land artist Jim Denevan (I can't remember where I read about him; if it was on your site please jog my memory!). I am particularly enthralled with his sand drawings--huge, sweeping geometric studies that are soon washed away by the incoming tide. Isn't that concentric circle drawing just spectacular? How fabulous would it be to stumble across one of these while heading out for a swim?

Read more about Jim Denevan on his website here.

JEWELRY JONES

I am not sure why, but recently I have been jones-ing for some jewelry. I was thinking something long and metallic. After some dutiful Etsy searches, I have discovered these lovely options:

top to bottom:

GwenDelicious, Brass Vintage Letterpress Necklace, $33 (thanks for the tip A Cup of Jo!)

elsand, Large Geometric Wooden Beaded Necklace, $30

locallibrary, draping gold drops, $40

VIDEO INSPIRATION

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I am just popping in to say a quick hello and point you in the direction of these three amazing videos (because we all need something fun to watch now that the World Cup is over!). The top two are beautiful illustration/animations by the talented 'blu' and 'Bonsajo' which are guaranteed to incite a creative spark in you; the bottom piece is a fabulous Dwell feature on the Albers Foundation. Informative and inspirational: a win-win!

TOO DARN HOT

As you may have heard, it is about 90,000 degrees in New York City right now (well, actually 103 degrees around all of the North East). So I thought I would do a short and sweet post about things that would totally make the heat a bit more bearable. Hope you like them too!

top to bottom:

MoMA Store, Retractable Fan Pen, $12

Klean Kanteen, Water bottles, $17.95-$32.95

Charles & Marie, Alphabet Ice Tray, $32

THE ILLUSTRATIVE AMPERSAND

A while back I wrote a post about 'The Ampersand,' an amazing blog that features a different ampersand every day. I checked back in recently and was delighted to find some serious typographic inspiration. I instantly fell in love with these two illustrative versions: a floral version by Kaitie Daisy (top) and a graphic version by Dan Clarke (bottom).

Check out the typographic eye-candy here.

p.s. Hope you had a lovely holiday weekend! I can't believe we are already into July! Where is this summer going?

I LIKE IKE!

I saw a write up about this absolutely adorable birthday party (designed by Suann of Simple Song for her son Ike's 3rd birthday party) on Kate Headley's blog last fall. Kate is an incredible photographer who specializes in weddings; her expertise in shooting parties is plain from the amazing shots she captured of this awesome party. As you can see the party played off Ike's presidential name with voting booths, campaign buttons, and presidential trivia. So cute!

Needless to say, many of these details would be perfect for a 4th of July party: the roll of tickets, the red and blue pennant flags, the pretty photo booth back drop, etc.

Hope you all have a fabulous fourth . . . I will see you again on Tuesday!