Monday Musings

I feel like we had a busy weekend even if it for a change we didn't have anyone over for dinner on Saturday night. We love to invite friends at home but it is also nice to spend a "carefree" Saturday without having to think of the menu, cooking (my husband), cleaning (me) and baking (me again). Especially that we were already seeing friends for Sunday brunch.
Our routine on Saturday mornings this Fall took an unexpected turn since my husband broke a ligament (or two) playing soccer this summer as part of a team-building business trip (note that he never played soccer in his life). He used to go running every Saturday and/or Sunday morning but now he is forbidden from running for at least two more months. So he takes my daughter to fencing instead and then they go grocery shopping while I have some "me" time at home that usually involves some magazine reading. You would think that I have time during the week to read magazines but it is an old habit from my working days, I just can't read magazines during the week, it makes me feel the laziest person on earth. As I have mentioned before, I recently found out that I can buy issues of my favorite Italian magazine on iTunes and read them on my iPad but this weekend I actually bought my first electronic book. I know, I must be the last relatively young person in the Western world to do that. I never thought it would work for me as I LOVE paper books but I really had no plans to go to the bookstore and ordering the book in question would take too long, even with express shipping. My daughter's school has a parent's bookclub that meets three times a year and the first meeting-discussion is coming up soon (and they serve wine and a light supper!) The book is http://www.amazon.com/dp/0670026603">Me before you"
by Jojo Moyes and while I had never heard about it, I decided to give it a try after a friend at school raved about it. So on Saturday morning I downloaded a sample on my Kindle for iPad (yes, you can buy books for Kindle and read them on your iPad) that I had installed six months ago for a reason I cannot remember but never used. I was immediately hooked (which hasn't happened in awhile), and I decided to download the rest of the book. I read 100 pages in almost one setting and I especially liked that the light from the iPad screen keeps me awake and reading at night (I usually drift to sleep as soon as I open a book in bed). This book is an easy and engaging read, so I have to test it next on another, more challenging book but I am definitely surprised at how much I am enjoying reading on iPad (the only problem is, we only have an iPad and my husband has already told me that it is HIS iPad so I see another iPad coming in our lives soon).
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I took advantage of my free afternoon (my husband usually takes a nap in the afternoon) and went to the Zadig and Voltaire sample sale FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK. I don't do sample sales that much anymore because the thing you are hoping to find usually is not there and you end up spending money in other stuff just because of the pressure and the fact of being there. However, while Zadig and Voltaire was one of my favorite French brands while I lived in Paris and it still is, their prices sky-rocketed to a point where it is almost impossible to buy anything in store, even on sale. Unfortunately, I can't simply forget about them because we have a store on Madison that I walk by every morning while taking my daughter to school (and if it's not the morning, it's the afternoon) so I am doomed to lust over their impossibly expensive boho-rock-chic clothes and accessories.
This was the first sample sale of the brand I had heard of but apparently they had at least one before. Anyway, I didn't know what to expect but I was hoping for a lot of cashmere. I went the first day and it was the usual sample sale chaos: the line wasn't long but inside the line for the fitting room and for the register was insane. I left almost empty-handed because there wasn't any thick cashmere and prices were generally high but at some point but my eye spied a bag that I had tried to buy on sale in the summer but had to leave at the store because even with the discount it was still almost $300. At the sample sale it was half of that so it came home with me, along with a silk tunic that in the meanwhile had reappeared in my size. Here are both (sorry for the dark picture, the tunic has golden sequins on the shoulders):

 

There was also this incredibly pretty black silk blouse, almost completely sheer but at $130 it was the same price than the tunic dress above and they seemed to have many of them (while they had very few of those tunics, that BTW retailed for $550!!!). They also seemed to have many of their signature wristlets (these were quite the deal at $55) so I thought that I would try to come back later in the sale (when they usually slice prices) to see if I could get a better deal on these items. I was also interested in the tees but they were overpriced at $55.
So when I came back on Saturday there was no line and they had took 20% off the prices, which isn't an awful lot but enough for me to get that blouse and the tee below (I couldn't resist the "girl on a motorcycle" graphic, even if $44 was still not a great deal). I am sometimes sized out in Zadig because their sizes start at S but I like the oversized look of this one:

I also got a going out golden blazer that fit perfectly (for $150 down from $770!) and one of those wristlets. Then I went to the Crew and everything seemed very blah!

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So without guests to entertain we FINALLY watched The Great Gatsby on Saturday night. I thought I would enjoy it more but maybe it makes more sense on big screen. Both my husband and I thought that the house looked exactly like our daughter's Cinderella's castle and while I thought Di Caprio was a charming Gatsby, I have never been particularly fond of the character. In fact I don't think I really liked the book to start with. At least there was the fashion and I took note as I am invited to not one but TWO Gatsby-themed parties this year (the first one around holiday time).

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As I mentioned above, yesterday we were seeing friends for brunch. I was very excited as I hadn't seen them in four years (they live in London and I never go with my husband when he goes there for work. Ironically he left for London yesterday night). They were our next-door neighbors when we first arrived in NYC and we became very close friends as we had a lot in common (they are French and about the same age) and we immediately connected but they moved years ago to Washington first and then to London permanently. I was so sad when they moved, for the first time I understood my mom and dad when I announced them that I was moving to France. I felt so lonely and abandoned! Anyway, when we first met she was very pregnant with their first baby, who was the first baby I had ever got to be around, and now they are at number three.
We had brunch at Landmarc in the Time Warner tower (probably the most kids-friendly restaurant in the city) and to go there we crossed the park. It was a gorgeous Fall day and actually warmer than I though and much warmer than Saturday. I wore a coat but I was hot in it. I felt Parisian in this outfit in that it came out unintentionally cool, thanks to the Converse (which I love wearing this Fall but I now remember why I haven't worn in so long: I can't deal with laces anymore, they drive me CRAAAAZY!). My daughter was SO pretty in her Zara coat:

This is what I was wearing under the coat. Boiled wool, that is!

When we got home in the afternoon, my husband left for the airport and I went downstairs with my daughter for our building annual pumpkin carving contest. I had never carved a pumpkin before last year but now my carving skills have improved. I don't think we are going to win because the girls (my daughter but especially our neighbor's two daughters) kept pouring glitter and glue on the pumpkin while I was carving so in the end it was a mess and you can't really see the design but I am proud of myself and most importantly my daughter was proud of mommy. There is a price for the "over 12" category and one for the "under 12" category but if there was a price for "Women" I would certainly win as I was the only carving lady.

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Once my daughter in bed I read a bit more of "Me before you" while I was waiting for "Homeland" to start. The last two episodes were amazing and in case some of you gave up on this season BEFORE Episode 4, I invite you to watch it, it was genius (I really didn't see it coming)! I also like Quinn's character a lot and I was happy that we got to see a lot of him in last night episode. I am almost sure he is going to soon replace our Brody as an object of Carrie's affection!
Now, is anyone watching "Masters of Sex" after Homeland? I don't know what to think of it. First of all, while I really don't think there is something terribly scandalous about it, my husband seems to be very disturbed by the sex talk and scenes and almost forbid me to watch it, at least while he is in the same room! And we are talking of a French guy! Which of course makes me embarrassed of keep watching it, like I am watching porn while he is sleeping. Good thing he is travelling a lot! Besides this, uhm, situation, I really like it, especially now that they got rid of the brothel setting (that was a bit of a drag, I think that in 2013 nobody is slightly interested in brothels anymore but maybe I am wrong). Anyway, I think the cast is phenomenal (I have always loved Michael Sheen but all the other actors are extremely good and believable too) and I am really surprised that the writers managed to keep us interested in the storyline after the first episodes. While at first I thought that all we really cared about was to know if these two were getting in bed together or not and that the writers couldn't possibly drag it for one entire season, not to mention more than one, I am really becoming interested in the other characters too. I think the writers are doing a really good job but I wonder how many people are watching this.

That's it! If you have anything to share about any of these, please do, I love to read your comments.
Has anybody read "Me before you"? Anybody is watching "Master of Sex"? Anybody in the city went to the Zadig sample sale?

I did take a few pics at JCrew and I will share them in the next post.