CUPCAKES AND TEA

Hello Knuckles!

The littlest Knuckles abandoned their toys during naptime, so Mr. Brass Knuckles and I had our own little tea party:

(Truly, the unmanicured toes of the working mother).

(Nom nom nom!  Sunnies, Target; shirt, J.Crew; skirt, Nanette Lepore; shoes, Miu Miu; bracelets, vintage, F21)

As parents you have to have fun wherever and whenever you find it!  Before kids it was all rock shows, late brunches, and lazy Sunday matinees.  Now our idea of a great night is 16oz. PBRs smuggled into Star Trek and drinks afterwards at the local townie bar (where, I should add, the people-watching is equally if not more entertaining than people-watching in Brooklyn.  Hello too-tan blond ladies, Blackhawks jersey guys, REALLY old dude, accountant swinger couple, and DIY Pac-Man t-shirt-wearing bassist).

It seems like all my friends have kids these days.  Parents, how do you manage to have fun now that kids are a part of your life? 

Have a great weekend, Knuckles!

RE-CREATION TUESDAYS: IT WAS OUR FIRST DATE, AND I WAS YOUNG

Hello Knuckles!

There are some outfits I’ll never forget, like the get-up I wore on Mr. Brass Knuckles’s and my first date.

It was a Tuesday night and I was supposed to meet Mr. BK at Arlene’s Grocery for an early evening show before dinner at a low-lit Tibetan restaurant (that I later found out he took many girls to.  Oh hey-y!).  I rushed home from work to change into a ruffled plaid XOXO mini-skirt, thigh-high boots, and a cotton motorcycle jacket.  I’d gotten the skirt at Macy’s and the boots and jacket from Beverly Island in Hong Kong.  The boots were suede and were partially held up by some long ties that I had to wrap around my legs so tightly they were basically tourniquets.  All in the name of love!

In honor of our many years together, the other weekend I assembled this outfit.  Only the jacket is the same.  I had to part ways with the original thigh-high boots because in general I prefer circulation in my legs, and the skirt got too age-inappropriate. 

(Sunnies, Gucci; dress, Patterson J. Kincaid; shirt, J.Crew; jacket, Hong Kong high street; belt, H&M; tights, Wolford; boots, Miu Miu; jewelry, ASOS, Alex+Ani; minaudier, Luella Bartley for Target.  Since there are no Targets in New York City, my dear mother bought the minaudier for me when that collection came out.  It's pre-smartphone and back in the day it had just enough room for my credit cards, ID, house key and cigarette case).

When I donned the outfit above I asked Mr. BK if it reminded him of anything and he looked at me blankly.  When I told him it was similar to the outfit I wore on our first date he shook his head and said, “No, that skirt was plaid.”  WOW, Mr. Brass Knuckles remembered!  Now that’s what I call complete outfit success!  Thanks to that trashy first date outfit we are now a couple of suburban-dwelling MBAs with two kids!  

Have a great week, Knuckles!

DIY FLORAL CROWN, AND I DIDN'T EVEN NEED A GLUE GUN

This weekend Mr. Brass Knuckles and I celebrated our friend's birthday downtown.  I have been totally inspired by floral crowns:

(Lana Del Rey, Bona Drag Ceremonial Collection lookbook; take a second to peruse, it is gorgeous)

so I decided to cobble one together at the last minute to complement my outfit and celebrate the freakishly warm and windy weather:

(Wink wink!)

(Blouse, H&M; tank top, Target; pants, American Apparel; belt, Banana Republic; jewelry, Asos, Target, vintage gold cuff; clutch, Elliott Lucca; shoes, 9 West)

  

 Luckily, I have a huge stash of flower hairpins already, so I just put on a skinny plastic headband and clipped on some purple and black flowers (if you want something more permanent, you'll need a wider headband, some fake flowers, and a hot glue gun.  Cut the flower stems, leaving about 3/4".  Glue the stems onto the headband and voila).

Have a great week, Knuckles!

DATE NIGHT SELFIES, PLUS SELFIES ON MARS

Good morning Knuckles!

This weekend Mr. Brass Knuckles and I went on a much-needed tapas-and-a-movie date night.

(Hat, American Apparel; sweater, H&M from the men's department, I bought this for Mr. Brass Knuckles for his birthday last year but he wasn't really into it.  I forgot to return it, and found it last week in our coat closet and it's now my new favorite sweater; blouse and necklace, F21; pleather leggings, Silence+Noise; bag; Oryany; boots, Gil Torres)

Here's a random selfie from the movie theater:

And here is the extraordinary Curiosity Mars rover selfie released by NASA last week:

(Photo NASA.  Seriously, this is Mars you guys.  Unbelievable).

Have a great week, Knuckles!  Kick some ass!

SANITY IN A FINGERPAINTED WORLD

Hello Little Knuckles!  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

On Saturday Mr. Brass Knuckles and I went on a well-needed Date Night.  He and I have differing opinions on Date Night.  He generally prefers seeing a movie and grabbing dinner somewhere dark and intimate, where we can press noses and gaze into each others' eyes in relative privacy.

I, on the other hand, like to go to wherever is the most crowded place in the city so I can feel like a part of Planet Earth again, and not isolated to my small finger-painted fortress.

But Saturday night we readily agreed on the latter.  We were feeling coop'ed up and needed a break from the id-driven dictators tearing up our house, so we headed to Big Star for tacos and greyhounds.  There were about a million people at Big Star and the evening did not disappoint:

(Dress, French Connection; Shoes, 9 West; Bag, Mulberry for Target)

Okay, I admit that the dress is a little Kardashian.  In hindsight I probably should've worn Spanx or something.  

I bought a pair of Spanx about 10 years ago for my cousin's wedding.  Her bridesmaids dresses were champagne-colored silk, and I swear you could make out every hump and lady lump.  Occasionally I'll ponder the utility of Spanx, but can't bring myself to wear them because no matter what else I'm wearing I feel horribly unsexy and always think of poor Wendy Beamish, Mare Winningham's character in my favorite movie, St. Elmo's Fire.

For your viewing amusement.  Will some please for the love of God make an animated gif of Rob Lowe playing his sax at the bar?

Anyhow, Saturday night was the first time I wore the dress -- it requires a little confidence (luckily, there was plenty of "confidence" to be had at the bar!).

The shoes are a great find from the back of my closet.  I bought these Nine West wedges years ago for a business trip to China.  I wanted shoes that were comfy yet stylish for the plane.  For some reason I stopped wearing them and they were relegated to the closet to gather dust.  They need a little TLC, but after a trip to the cobbler I think they might become my favorite "new" pair of shoes!

Have a great week, little Knuckles!  May it be filled with the wails of funky, funky sax.  SERGIO!

THE FRINGED RHINO MAKES AN APPEARANCE

Back when I was shopping for clothes (it seems so so long ago!), I had a rule that helped me curate an interesting wardrobe (well, interesting to me, at least): always buy the most unusual piece of clothing in your consideration set. 

 So if I'm deciding between two items, I pick the one in the more adventurous cut, fabric, pattern, or style. That's because when I finally take it home and integrate it into my wardrobe, it's gonna look a lot less crazy than it does styled on the mannequin.  I guarantee you that the neon shorts/oversized caftan/palazzo pants/sequin dress you thought you could "never pull off" will look a lot less shocking paired with your old jeans/cardigan/shoes/whatever.

That said, my adherence to this rule has backfired on more than one occasion, meaning I'll buy something, it'll sit in my closet while I try to figure out how to wear it during countless solo in-front-of-the-mirror bedroom fashion shows, I'll forget about it, it will languish in my closet hopefully like Corduroy the Bear until one of my maniacal Salvo purges, and then it will fall victim to that other stupid rule, "if you haven't worn something in a year, throw it out," and I will donate it without wearing it even once, often with the tags still attached (Mr. Brass Knuckles is reading this and woefully shaking his head right now).

Suede fringe skirt, Topshop, $(I don't remember)

I bought this fringed suede skirt online from Topshop shortly after they started shipping to the US. Mind you, this was before the era of US Topshop retail stores; previously I was sending my purchases to a cousin who lived in London, who dutifully shipped the packages to me in New York (CRAZYPANTS, when I think about this process now).

This skirt is pretty cool, but it adds a lot of volume in areas I've already got a lot of volume if you know what I mean. Okay, it makes me look kind-of wide, and I never knew how to wear it, and up until yesterday it was dangerously close to running through its lifecycle in my closet.

But last night was date night, and I was determined to make the skirt work! This is important, you guys!

The problem was, since it makes me look wide, I always tried to wear it with things that are narrow: cinched blouses, peplum tops, tight vests, etc. But this actually accentuated the wideness and brought the wideness to even wider levels.

So this time I decided to wear it was something that's also wide -- something light and billowy, like one fashionable potato sack on top of another, and you know what?  It worked. Wideness, diminished by more wideness!  It's so counter-intuitive, my mind is still a little bit confused:

Here are various photos of me opening doors.  Sorry that they are blurry.  Mr. Brass Knuckles said he is going to start a blog called "Can You Take a Picture of Me for My Blog?" that recounts the demands placed on blog photographers.  Skirt, Topshop; silk blouse, F21; jacket, Hong Kong high street; shoes, Fendi.  

We saw Prometheus. A visually stunning movie, but it was not as good as the hummus plate we shared at the bar with our champagne later in the evening. That hummus was good. Also, I won't spoil it but any woman who's ever had a cesarean would be like yeeeeaaahhh right!

A 24 ounce Modelo and Warby-Parker-esque 3D glasses make any movie more entertaining.

Have a great week, little Knuckles! Kick some ass!