This.

Feathered fairy

Many Halloweens ago, a good friend of mine decided to dress up as a booger... She was like "I'm so sick of girls trying so hard to be pretty on Halloween. Everyone's like I'm going to be a fairy." 

In related news, I was a fairy for Halloween this year. What can I say? It was a last minute costume, and Party City is bursting at the seams with fairy wings, and you know what else? Sometimes you do want to wear something pretty on Halloween. Although a booger costume would be way more original. 

We hit a masquerade party at a friend's gallery before going off to the mountains this weekend. It was good times. My hair was purple. My dress was thrifted. It remains the best dress ever, ever, ever.

A little girl was at the gallery, and she had fairy wings too so we bonded over having awesome fairy wings together. Having fairy wings is pretty awesome. And so are ruffled dresses. And purple hair. And Halloween, just in general.

Oh the mountains

We popped up to the mountains this weekend to look at gorgeous views and buy really good cheese.

We didn't see snow actually falling, but we made it in time to see the last bits melt! Snow, it is a big deal in North Carolina, especially in October!

Mount Jefferson: What a gorgeous view!

It's definitely worth a two-hour drive to see this sight!

Sabrina

How about a little "Sabrina" this Friday morning?



Oh how I love Sabrina. She's so dowdy (although not really at all because she's played by Audrey Hepburn), and then she goes off to Paris and gets all chic and chops off all her hair and all the men want her. I love it.

Style Icon: Clarissa who explained it all

I've discussed my love for the '90s and how I feel it was the perfect time to be a teen... One of the reasons for this feeling is Clarissa Darling, the girl who explained it all.

She was all over the place. Her style was disjointed, experimental, fun. She was a teen, and she was experimenting with fashion, and it was great to watch.

Clarissa: Wearing hipster glasses 20 years before it was cool.

She was very '90s alternative, never a prep (that was the worst thing to be unless you were Zach Morris), always cool. And the show was great too. She had that annoying little brother, and her best friend Sam, who was super-duper dreamy and came to her window with a ladder, climbing on in. (I was a major shipper for those two, but it never happened.)

And, okay, you could never say Clarissa's style was classic I mean, I suspect that even at the time it was a little... gawdy (although I swear there was a time in history when that side ponytail she's rocking in the first picture was considered totally awesome), but it was interesting and original, and, once again, fun. Oh Clarissa, she really did know it all

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is perfect television programming. It has whimsy, style, love and mysteries. It has weird aunts and beautiful dresses and pie lots and lots of pie.

I should also mention it's a very, very strange show, one of the strangest I've ever seen (hence my love for it). The main character is Ned, who has the ability to bring dead people (and plants and animals) back to life with a single touch (he touches that thing again and it goes back to being dead). He uses this power to bring fruit back to life and bake it into delicious, delicious pies. He also uses this power to bring murdered people back to life, find out who murdered them and then, along with the help of a private detective, put those murderers behind bars! (He has to touch the murder victims and put them back to death again because the universe tends to balance those things out, but there is one exception...)

He brought his dead true love Chuck (nickname for Charlotte) back to life. So then they're in love, but he can't touch her because she'll die. Talk about a tragic (and tragically funny) romance. Also: Everything Chuck wears is perfect. Also: Kristin Chenoweth stars in it as a tiny, sexy thing in love with Ned. Also: Chuck's two crazy aunts used to be synchronized swimming champs. Also: It is just the best show ever.

If you like Amelie or Penelope, you'll love this show. It has the same saturated style. Every scene is beautiful. Every plot is as quirky as quirky can be. Shamefully, it only lasted on season, but isn't that the way with the best shows? (I'm looking at you My So Called Life and Firefly). Ah well, at least we got a little slice of this fabulous pie!

Style Icon: Clementine

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is maybe the perfect, sad romance. I think it is the best story about the beauty of a bad relationship -- how being in love never feels wrong, how you never, ever regret it. When you break up with someone (or when they break up with you), you do want to wipe your mind of all the memories because it's those beautiful memories that hurt so much. But, of course, you don't really want to wipe them out. That's the lesson, right? You'd do it all over again.

But I'm rambling here. I really meant this post to be about Clementine's mad style.

Her style is sloppy, which I love. She also looks comfortable in her big orange sweater and long gloves, and she loves COLOR. Clearly, and we love her for loving color.

I liker her ever changing hair colors. Those braids make me want to grow my hair out.

Clementine is also blessed with that exquisitely beautiful Kate-Winslet face. (Did you know Kate Winslet married a dude who had his name legally changed to Rocknroll in real life? Just a little trivia for you there.)

Color. Tank tops. Cleavage. Over-sharing. Bracelets. Messiness. These are all part of Clementine's charm.

Above is my favorite Clementine look, and such a great moment. Jim Cary is pretty cute in this movie as well. I think I had a coat like Clementine's back in the '80s when I was a kid. She looks so fun and cute. Sprightly. Oh my darling Clementine, how we do love you.

Jane Fonda

There are so many Jane Fondas. There's the Jane Fonda who was married to Ted Turner. The Jane Fonda who protested the Vietnam War (and really ticked off a whole lot of people). There's the Jane Fonda who did aerobics. The Jane Fonda who sexed it up in Barbarella, and the Jane Fonda who was Henry Fonda's daughter.

I have two favorite Jane Fondas -- Jane Fonda in "Barefoot in the Park" (or just the general, '60s Jane Fonda where her eye makeup was perfect and her hair was high) and present day Jane Fonda.

Barefoot in the Park Jane Fonda was gorgeous, fun, giggly, lovable and super stylin'. She was a free spirit, a manic pixie dream girl before the term was coined.

Present day Jane Fonda is also pretty great. I recently listened to her Ted Talk, and I love how positive she is about aging -- about living a good life for your whole life, about making your last chapter a really great one. Plus she still looks fabulous, although now she's less giggly and more of a force to be reckoned with.

Fall, fall, fall!

Colors are changing in the mountains, and it is beautiful!

Loving It

 Lately I've been loving...

Small town mountain fall festivals with beautiful printed flags

My adorable niece and nephew getting their faces painted

Fall wild flowers

Cute kids running around in leaves and throwing them up in the air

Huge rainbows in grocery store parking lots

Loving layers

We went to the mountains this weekend, and I was super excited about. The mountains, they are my favorite.

Happy face! And bare arms because it was still warm in the Piedmont.

Up at my parents' house it was much cooler, so I put on a cardigan...

And then the wind picked up when we went for a walk on the island near their house (there's a river nearby, hence the island).

The leaves have fallen! I am wearing leggings and boots! And a thrifted dress! And a thrifted cardigan! And a (non-thrifted) jacket! Layers, people. I love, love, love layers!

SI: Patsy and Edina

The stars of "Absolutely Fabulous" live up to the name -- always over the top, always a little off and always absolutely fabulous, sweetie darling.

Sunglasses, high hair, garish prints, a cigarette and a bottle -- this is the signature look of the duo (don't try this at home kiddos!).

They are obviously complete trend-chasing train wrecks, but they're also quite fun, aren't they?

I so love their enthusiasm and sexy over-40 style. More is more! And for Pasty, less clothing can be more too! (And those cat-eye sunglasses! Meow!)

I mean, if you're going to spend your life being an over-the-top, totally shallow, booze-swilling train wreck, this is the way to do it -- wearing serious accessories and hanging out with your best friend. (No judgment, Patsy and Edina. No judgment, although you may want to look into rehab...)

Goats and a dog (and a dress and a jacket)

Yesterday on a walk, I was surprised to see all these goats hanging out in our small city. Goats are not a common sight here, and I was tickled pink. Tickled pink, I say! I enjoy a good goat sighting. Also, I am wearing a polka-dot dress, clogs and a nice blazer cause it's mildly chilly (woot!).

So the goats have apparently been rented by the city to clean up some kudzu (and clean up they did -- ate it all in a day as far as I can tell). That dog is the goat dog, and I love him so so so much, and he loves me too, you can tell in this picture. Sadly, there was an electric fence separating us.

Rita Moreno

"Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life." -- Rita Moreno

So, so beautiful and such a great skirt flipper ("America" is one of my favorite movie musical songs ever.)

Style Icon: Elaine

Elaine hung out with the boys in granny dresses, chunky shoes, big coats and big hair and God bless her for it.

She always seemed to be quite covered and quite comfy -- all the better for cracking wise.

The fair

I went to the fair! And I won a stuffed dog at a game of chance! My fall to-do list is getting knocked out one by one (because it IS fall despite the weather being in the 80s and 90s).

I love going to fairs at night -- the midway is so pretty. And I think it's a romantic date, possibly because I grew up watching "State Fair," the musical, over and over and over again. If you romanticize something at the age of 7, you pretty much romanticize it until you die (and by "you" I obviously mean "me").

Things that rock about the fair include the midway and games and animals (but don't touch them!) and large produce, but the thing I look most forward to is the food. Robert and I shared a foot-long hot dog (covered in coleslaw as is appropriate) and pickle chips.

Oh how I love pickle chips. Robert introduced me to them early on in our relationship and for that I am eternally grateful. (I really can't overstate how yummy I find them.)

So yes, my idea of a romantic date is pickle chips dipped in ranch and posing with my man in wooden farmer cutouts and also going on the Ferris Wheel and spending the whole ride rambling about my height-induced anxiety, but then saying "That was awesome!" the moment I get off...

Yep. The fair is my idea of a darn good time.