January still

I've been back from Paris for a week and a day now. My jet lag is gone, but January is still here. I took Neko for a brisk walk today, and boy was it brisk.

This is a photo of one of my few but -- I think -- well chosen purchases in Paris. It's the Caroline bag by Lili Cabas. Great bags, great prices. I wanted a red bag; I don't know why. This one is cool and I love the vertical silver lines. Plus, I didn't pay a fortune for it. I found it in a small, funky shop near my apartment. The main Lili Cabas store is in the 10th, on Rue des Petites Ecuries. So forget Lancel and the Champs-Elysées.

I took my Seattle friend to Lancel because she was intent on buying a bag from there on sale. The bag she bought was not on sale, and it was expensive. The store was overheated, made worse by the intense lighting on the upper floor. It was like being in an oven, with an extremely tenacious Franco-asian saleswoman following my friend everywhere. That bugs me about the Lancel shop at the top of the Champs. They have a better selection than the Rond Point store, but boy are they clingy.

At the same time, I understand that they don't want people pawing their pretty things. The saleswoman at the Rond Point store tried to do a little pre-sales wheeling and dealing, but it did not work on my friend. I saw a lot of pre-sales W&D going on. It felt a bit like living near Place de Cliché, as I did for a few years. At all times of day, the racoleurs would be out on the sidewalk soliciting passers-by. On the night before the sales officially began, lots of stores in the Marais were open. As I walked past, stopping to look in the windows, people would come out of nowhere and offer me special, illegal deals. Tonight only, cash only. Not interested.

Best shoes! Ever!

I don't like object worship, fetishism for possessions or the tendency to turn compulsive shopping into a noble pursuit. But I do like well-crafted things, especially shoes. Good craftsmanship is not enough, however. And being beautiful is not enough in a shoe. A shoe has to be more than tolerable or comfortable to wear. It has to be heavenly to walk in. I walk a lot; I enjoy the feeling of walking and like to be conscious of what my feet are feeling when I walk.

This may be why I have never been a fan of super high heels. They are uncomfortable to walk in. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. Women wear high heels because they think this will attract men. Wearing high heels is a desperate act. At least in my opinion. So there.

The rant above is just a lead-in for the photo of my new shoes. They are made by CYDWOQ (see video). They have a slight negative heel, but any resemblance with "earth shoes" ends there. Remember earth shoes? My dentist and I were laughing about them today -- both of us are old enough to have worn them and dumb enough to have bought an original pair. Man, the pain! The tendonitis! And what ugly suckers they were!

Compare earth shoes





with my CYDWOQs:

Spring into it

Roxy made some lovely cupcakes with orange/cream cheese frosting for Easter Sunday brunch. Notice how she color-coordinated the cupcake paper holders and her icing decorations.



















Carolyn had some left over paint that she used to decorate her hollow eggs. Don't they look perfect with the chamelias?