We Float Like Two Lovers In A Painting by Chagall

Nothing could be more true and right now I'm in love with everything and everyone around me, and I can't stop snapping my shutter because everyone and everything around me is so 

Beautiful.

Tennessee as always is just what i need.

I can't even explain it,

there's something to be said for Good People, they seem to be in low supply these days,

but Nashville has a magical world full of them.

My boots are dirty and I feel light as a feather

Day wear consists of swimsuits, Daisy Dukes, vintage sunglasses and 40s

and at night we haunt the streets screaming Rocket Man and Rocky Top

and now the only thing I can think is "WHY LEAVE?"

Amelia and Dale picked me up from the airport and I was immediately whisked off to Fairview

(aka Amelia's farm where the view is the fairest in all the land where we were raised to know how to shoot straight, not be spoiled brats and always raise a ruckus.)

This is basically it: what the past 14 years of our best friendship has looked like.

I've found that

that opens every door

It's just nice to not be in a city that's a cesspool of competition, pretension, and judgement

Just remember

(typography by Stefan Sagmeister, a brilliant mind. You can see more of his work here.

This one is a particular fave.)

I love fashion and style just as much as the next vintage obsessed Edie Sedgwick wanabe

but sometimes there are other things in life.

Well must be on my way to venture into another Southern Summer Night.

Lots of original photos coming soon though and hopefully my own photo website.

Oh and once I get them from Brys, definitely some amazing photos from last night, in which we went to the End to see our friend Oli play, only to be surprised with a super intimate performance by the Brunettes!

Michael and I were such groupies it was kind of embarrassing, but we've only been singing along to their songs in his '87 Mercedes since we were 16.

The night ended with a surprising twist, but I'll save that story for another time.

xx

CMS

A Visual Treat

Ready for this!

Oh And this

Oh And I've been dying to see this. It was at the Angelika, and I think that I might have missed it, but if anyone knows somewhere that it is playing or has a copy, I will open the doors of West 10th for a private viewing and we can all wear Valentino and have a fashion orgy or something.

n'est pas?

Oh And this is one of my favorite movies and I think we should watch it as well.

I'm just trying to be visually stimulated. It is imperative to my sanity right now.

Less drinking, more drawing.

Hopefully I won't stay out until 5am tonight and sleep until 3pm so I can hit some galleries or a Museum before I leave on monday.

Feel free to join me.

xx

CMS

Hang Me Out To Dry, You've Wrung Me Out One Too Many Times

There's been a lack of color reflecting from me to you, you to me

I've had my magenta flash filter and telephoto lens on my diana hoping that the people will start to look like their 35mm counterparts.

Apparently, I read that the "creepy crawlies" are when your aura pulls inside your body,

and I'm pretty sure my aura's been swimming under my skin for way too long.

So i'm on a scavenger hunt for inspiration

The feeling you get when you meet someone and you know, you're sure, that you are going to be great friends

When you're fifteen different places in one night, and you don't really know how you got to any of them.

Waking up to a house full of your friends because no one wanted to go home and then

ordering delivery.com challah french toast and champagne because that's how real New Yorkers do hangover brunch.

I'm drawing everyones face that I love in my sketch book so I can know just how their face wrinkles when they smile, while taking bubble baths and drinking tea.

Karl Lagerfeld said

'The imagination can transform all sorts of personal insanity into elements of self-invention, and you need to make use of this.'

Long story made short...

I'm trying to take his advice.

So for all of us out there looking for beauty I give you Erin Fetherston.

She basically never goes wrong.

This video epitomizes my hopes for fall to be a surrealist meets baroque meets gothic wonderland.

Oh and let's have a seamstress tea party... i'll even make vegan petifores

because i have to sew myself one of these!

Oh and I'm totally over that beatoff R Patz and I've found my true FBH (Future British Husband)

Josh Beech will you marry me?

but don't worry, I'm not an expatriate, yet

Oh and even though much to my chagrin, I recently saw it in the book section of the epic black hole for your soul  aka Urban Outfitters  it is still one of the most captivating, well-written reads I've had in my hot little hands in quite some time

Read it. Love it. Let's discuss it when you're done.

BUT I'm in The City for the weekend, so I must be off to throw glitter in the eyes of strangers and ring the wrong doorbells, ya know, the usual.

xx

CMS

Burlington is beautiful.  It's just what i needed for my head and my heart.  I've seen wild foxes and bunnies, and even walked along the beach.

Betsy makes us cupcakes and grilled cheese, and just the feeling of being in a home with a family is a feeling that can't be replicated.

I feel ungrateful and petty for being for spending the past month moping in NYC with Mariel.

Sometimes I just don't understand the blasé.

There's a difference between overindulgence in the beauty that is a pair of Christian Louboutin heels,

and being so obsessed with yourself that you get excited by your shadow.

Maybe I'm just going to the wrong places but

the scene is dead and I'm still restless.

I think at the end of the day

I'm just a small town kind of girl in a big city kind of world.

A friend was recently baffled by how I could be uninspired by the opportunity and fever of the city

but being back in the countryside has made me feel more creative and in tune with myself than I've felt all summer.

Kind of like this...

And no more of this

(at least not in excess)

I think this time away will give me the reinvigoration that I need to look forward to another year of creating and meeting new people in the city.  It's just been a case of wrong time wrong place this summer. 

There's a reason there's a song called

New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

because that's exactly how I would describe my relationship with the island.

Anyways, here's a little preview of the birthday weekend.

more to come.

xx

CMS

Distant Silhouettes Somehow, We Shared a Cigarette Somewhere

This weekend I found hidden treasure, I climbed dark stairways into exciting places, I held hands with the kind of people who don't let go, I turned off all of the lights and spent a night in candles, I unplugged the TV and started a new book, I talked about the future with the people I know will always be a part of it, I wrapped myself in sequins, I got too drunk with the first person I ever got too drunk with back when we were too young to be too drunk, 

and 

we were the mad ones, the ones who never yawn or say a common place thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop, and everybody goes 'awww."

(10 points to those who can identify the quote, because you've read the book, not because you're a hipstar)

It was just what I needed. An amazing birthday. And a reawakening of senses that I have let dull in the passing weeks.

Tomorrow I leave for Vermont to be reunited with Mariel

and then after a rendezvous in Montreal it's back to the dirty south, where my spirit can be free for just a little bit longer before fall term begins.

I think I will feel like this

(photos brought to you by a spread by the inspirational Antonella Arismendi

titled On The Road. Which seems to be the theme for my day if you've picked up on the trend, you literary beat buffs.)

Anyways...

Here are some things that resulted from the felicitations

thank you amelia for the perfect records
thanks mama Jackie for the Diana F+ Collette
and the new book i can't put down

and the Marc Jacobs boxer booties and Jeremy Kelsey crocodile loafers, both of which give me terrible blisters, but I'm okay with that.

and some new touches to the a.p.t.

this was us on our night that we couldn't stop listening to au revoir simone

can you tell?

I'm learning to remember that everything works out in the end, and if they don't then it's not the end. And what you like, you will find again.

xx

CMS

Sleeping with the Romantics

Lazy on rainy city days.

The thunder tonight sounds like bombs.

My dad, Amelia and Michael are all here and life is good.

Pictures of the birthday festivities coming soon.

xx

CMS

Paranoid Lunacy

Our apartment might be inspired by petifores, flowers and Alice in Wonderland,

but two catwomen live here.

and if you know me at all, this video basically explains everything

and it's inspired by the femme fatal designs of Jonathan Kelsey

and if you know anything about me, or have ever seen my closet, you know that I take shoes very seriously.  If I could be naked for the rest of my life and just wear amazing footwear and maybe agent provocateur lingerie, I would be the happiest dominatrix in the world.

But until the gays take over the world and make public nudity de-categorized as indecent exposure, I guess my fetish for impropriety will have to be confined to the walls of west 10th.

And the Prada lookbook for Fall/winter '09 is rad

Oh and this is a very important announcement

My birthday is in 8 days!

My sister Amelia and my husband Michael are both coming up to stay at west 10th

And so is Papa RJ

It's going to be a celebration for all celebrations

And I already found the dress (which will remain unseen by any eyes but mine until the 25th, but let's just say it was the vintage sequin steal of the century)

and if you want to make me the happiest girl in the world, you will add these shoes to my collection so I can stop walking all the way to the Prada store in Soho just to visit them.

As you can tell from my last post, and the beginning of this one, Alice in Wonderland is a very important part of me.

Mariel and I have decided that the story that explains our lives merits a quote scrolled on the living room wall 

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'

`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

We're also obsessed with this Vogue photo shoot interpretation of the story and featuring some haute couture heavy hitters

See it here

and be inspired.

And in honor of being told I look like Zooey Deschanel for the umpteenth time, here is gift, because at least I apparently resemble someone who does good work.

xx

CMS