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Amy Sherald

May 19, 2013 in style + design with 0 Comments

It Made Sense… Mostly In Her Mind

I’m not sure what resonates more–the mind-blowing portraits by Amy Sherald, or the inspiration behind the Georgia-born and Baltimore-based artist’s work.:

quotes The scope of my experiences involving race materialized from my upbringing in the south. While attending private schools and being one of two or three black children, I was raised to be conscious of how I acted, spoke and dressed. This performing aspect of my identity was cultivated from the beginning of my schooling. I learned this was the key to my social acceptance and assimilation. Drawing from these experiences, I am engaging from a personal perspective with the desire to extrapolate meaning on how identity is both constructed and performed within political, social, economic and cultural spheres.” Continue Reading…

Oscar de la Renta and Paperless Post Get Hitched + Thoughts On Elegance

May 8, 2013 in style + design with 0 Comments

Oscar de la Renta is now available to (sorta) graciously announce your wedding, dinner party or girls’ night out. For a small fee, he will even say “thank you” in the ridiculously stylish way that only he can. Through Paperless Post, that is. The famed designer just released a line of wedding invitations, save-the-date cards, stationery and general entertaining invitations. I’m really stanning for Patchwork Tweed II, shown here, in blue. Kinda makes Evite look like Windows 95, huh? I took some of you, wayyy back with that one.

Anyhoo, Paperless Post and Oscar (cause we’re on a first-name basis) will deliver your cards digitally, or print them for snail mail. Check out more of his elegant genius here.

Speaking of elegant, I can’t possibly speak of it and not share one of my fave essays of all time, On Elegance by Lauren Cerand. Seriously, I read it at least once a month, and it never ceases to inspire and d@mn near move me to tears. My favorite excerpts:

I have a theory that elegant people have an aura of impenetrable private sadness, and that good taste and impeccable manners are life’s consolation.

And:

Elegance is survival.

And finally:

Elegance is acceptance, often when all has ended in disappointment. There is always an opportunity to transcend, and move beyond, limiting circumstances. Cut your losses, mind your manners, and, if possible, leave the country.

And speaking of post, does digital stationery violate like all 2,147 of Emily Post’s rules on etiquette?

How do you feel about digital stationery?

Whatever Lola Wants: iFlask

May 2, 2013 in libation, style + design with 0 Comments

I could have really used this flask masquerading as an iPhone in college for tailgating and Dave Matthews concerts. Nonetheless, it’s a great way for a lady to have her libations and still look like a lady. That is, if you don’t think it’s terribly unladylike to drink from a headphone jack.

iFlask Features

Holds 5oz of your favorite beverage
Extremely discreet design
Polycarbonate and stainless steel frame
Includes a collapsible funnel

The iFlask even has a bottle opener on the back for your drinking convenience.

When I come across clever products like this, I always wonder about the motivation behind the product. According to iFlask founders:

Well first its super cool, Duh!! But it’s a great conversation starter. Its super discrete, and it will make you the talk of the town … The iFlask makes it just that much more nonchalant so you can walk around not looking like THAT guy.

Or gal. Go getcha one here!

Postcards from Savannah, GA

April 21, 2013 in life, style + design with 2 Comments

visit savannah, visit georgia, savannah, savannah georgia, visit savannah georgia On the spur of the moment, we decided to take a quick jaunt (just four hours from Atlanta) over to Savannah. It was a total win-win—the girls got their frolic on at Tybee, and I got a total eye-full of architectural wonder in downtown historic Savannah. As with most things of beauty, the devil is in the details. Continue Reading…

The Most Extreme Home Makeover Ever

March 7, 2013 in design, style + design with 2 Comments

white house restoration, white house gutted Can you guess the address of this infamous home?

Brown-Bag It In Style with the Zara Messenger Bag

February 21, 2013 in style + design with 0 Comments

zara basic messenger bag, zara messenger bag, zara bag ‘Member when I was all gaga over that Jill Sander Vasari bag (that highfalutin’ $290 brown lunch bag)? Its clean and no-nonsense design was drool-worthy, but the price tag? No so much. Zara, on the other hand, has a polyurethane (read, affordable) alternative for the budget-conscious. The Messenger Bag is $35.95, available in brown and black, and comes with a strap for easy toting.

zara basic messenger bag, zara messenger bag, zara bag

Here are a few other ways to upgrade your brown-bag experience!

Sometimes He Was The Only One She Could Talk To

January 20, 2013 in style + design with 16 Comments

Sometimes He Was the Only One She Could Talk To by Janet Hill

I need to have this hanging on my wall like yesterday. There’s an air of merriment, but done with an easy hand. Janet Hill, the Ontario-based artist brings to mind something I read in an article by Andrew Solomon in Town & Country: “If elegance is refusal, etiquette is restraint.”

Love these.

Whatever Lola wants: Cement Pearl Earrings

January 7, 2013 in style + design with 0 Comments

I wear tiny pearl stud earrings most days. I’m not big on big earrings, plus the conservative nature of pearls more than compensates should I accidentally say something ugly. Anyhoo, how about these beauties from Metsa Design?

These cement earrings are modeled on classic pearl studs. Each concrete sphere is cast by hand and set onto a sterling silver post. With wear, the colour of the earrings will deepen as the concrete is exposed to the air and the oils from your skin.

What’s your fave kind of earlobe candy?

On shopping (note to self)

December 31, 2012 in dine2, style + design with 1 Comment

good1
Just good advice (inspired by imogene + willie). Speaking of good things, I scored these beauties whilst thrifting during the holidays. I adore them. Continue Reading…

Flu really sux + Dear Kate Undies for that time of the month

December 12, 2012 in style + design with 5 Comments

This is the first substantial thing I’ve written since being under the weather. Actually, it’s the second thing I’ve written if you count this NyQuil-induced tome:

Began a Haiku

On the misery of flu.

To bed instead, yes?

It was a miserable time, and as the old saying goes, things can always get worse. And they did, when Aunt Flo paid me a visit whilst I lay in bed amongst a sea of discarded tissues and my iPad (catching up on episodes of The Mindy Project via Hulu). Talk about bad timing—if you’ve ever had the flu then you know the last thing one needs is yet another body fluid to manage. But manage I did, and I like to think I’m stronger for it (or at least caught up on TV).

But in the midst of my suffering I spent a night or two sweltering in my own fever, yet clad in thick and uncomfortable sweatpants. You know, just in case Aunt Flo chose not to stay confined to the guest quarters. Don’t act like you don’t have a pair for such occasions. And as if the Menses Moon Goddesses were shining down upon me, today I came across Dear Kate, “a pair of attractive, absorbent undies specifically designed to wear during menstruation.”

Whatever Lola wants: Upcycled Old U.S. Postal Service Bags by TerraCycle

November 13, 2012 in style + design with 3 Comments

Waste not, and what not, I always say! And what better way to outsmart waste than with these upcycled bags made from decommissioned U.S. Postal Service mail sacks? TerraCycle is known for producing quirky accessories from material that would otherwise end up in a landfill, but let’s be honest here. Some of their goods are cute enough in theory, but I don’t think I can pull them off in real life. That is until I spied these gems: Continue Reading…

Whatever Lola wants: Bodum Pavina Double-Wall Thermo Glasses

November 4, 2012 in dine2, style + design with 2 Comments

After a stressful day, I have a few go-to’s that are sure to help me decompress: a glass of red wine, a quick run, a hot cup of tea and my latest vice—re-runs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The groundbreaking show premiered over 40 years ago, but the performances and writing are top-notch, laugh-out-loud hilarious. It’s easy to see the award-winning sitcom’s influence in popular comedies like Seinfeld, 30 Rock, The Office and even Sex and the City.

Anyhoo, on a really stressful day, I wait until after the kiddos are in bed, and the Mister has been tended to, then I watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show and sip a cup of tea. I sloooowly sip and savor the tea across the span of at least two episodes. This means that my tea is lukewarm by the end of the first episode, and flat-out cold by the end of the second episode. It’s the epitome of a first world problem, but it really bites.

And it doesn’t have to be this way. Continue Reading…