Sunshine Dog and Sleeping Beauty

Here's a shot of my favorite new dress and my favorite old dog (Sunshine Dog is 13 and still going strong!). I wore my most wordy (or letter-y) dress out last night to enjoy a fancy dinner and drinks (because I was with my fanciest friend) and go see Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty, a sexy, gothic, visually stunning ballet. Look at this:

Gorgeous music (of course), gorgeous dancers, dark fairies and vampires... and sexy gardeners and parasols too! It was strange and over the top and awesome.

Natalie Wood

When I was 15, I realized Natalie Wood had replaced Audrey Hepburn as my favorite movie star, and I just didn't know who I was anymore. Then I went back to adoring Audrey the most, but the fact Natalie Wood was in the running means she's pretty damn awesome. (I very much had a hierarchy of favorites in my youth. And right now. And I probably will in old age too. I like lists. So sue me.)

"Stardom is only a by-product of acting. I don't think being a movie star is a good enough reason for existing." -- Natalie Wood

Style Icon: Billie Jean, the legend

"The Legend of Billie Jean" is the '80s-est '80s movie there is. It stars Helen Slater as Billie Jean, and she starts out with lovely long, blond hair. As seen above and below.

Look at that hair flow in the blowing wind as she rides with Corey Feldman on his super-cool scooter! (This scooter later causes trouble. In general, the plot of this movie is ridiculous and yet very empowering.)

So some things go down, and then Billie Jean is super mad, and she cuts off her hair and becomes an outlaw. That's right, an outlaw! And it's with that haircut that Billie Jean becomes a style icon. 

She also rocks the one-earring look, which I am fascinated by. I could never wear only one earring as I would feel very lopsided, but I like how it looks on her in this context. (I also love it in this modern video by Matrimony.)

So, yes, Billie Jean. She ends up being a hero of sorts and looks good and tough and boyish doing it. Fair is FAIR! (That's their rallying cry. Fair enough.)

A very pink dress

I wasn't 100 percent sure I wanted to own this dress when I tried it on in the thrift store, but it was $5 and an adorable shade of very, very pink so I went for it.

It follows that high-low trend that seems to be a thing right now (a thing that I am not for or against really, kind of neutral about the high-low trend), and it's super-duper comfortable. I wore it to go to the Bechtler Museum of Art in downtown Charlotte, snag lunch and then visit IKEA. We parked in the parking lot with my favorite elevators ever. See how pretty?

At IKEA, I found an owl pillow that matched my dress perfectly. We did no purchase said pillow, but we did come home with a polka-dotted rug. I love wandering through IKEA's showrooms. It's so fun to daydream. That said, the crowds can get out of hand, and by the end of the trip I was ready to skeedaddle for sure. Too many people! Sensory overload! So many prints! SO MANY! Too many. But then we took our rug home and I unwound with a bit of Scandal (Olivia Pope, I love you!), and it was a lovely Sunday indeed.

Polka-dotted sneakers

These are my new shoes, and I really, really love them. Love them. Polka-dotted sneakers for the win.

Doris Day

Doris Day is known as being so super nice, but, really, if you watch her movies, she's always being super sassy to terrible men. (Of course, she always ends up with these terrible men... but she starts out bickering with them and telling them what's what.)

Case in point, That Touch of Mink:

This.