Valentines Day Blues (or blacks!)

Dateless, estranged, bitter and strongly tempted to throw sharp objects at those carrying red roses, I sauntered into valentines day... Or single awareness day as some have decided to call it. Forever alone, I've loved and I've lost and become a walking talking cliche about the material holiday dominating consumer capitalism.

                 

With a best friend battling through a long distance relationship, our only hope of salvation on this wretched day was well...cheap wine and watching west side story. A movie tragedy to top off our personal ones. 

                   

But we quickly realized that we'd need to be well-fed, clothed and housed to take care of this much self-pity. It was pathetic! So we got dressed up and took each other out to dinner. 

                 

                 

Her in a beautiful scallop lace t shirt dress, red tights and red booties; me in a loose tunic dress with studded shoulders, ballet tights and creepers, we took on the evening and shook off the bitterness.

                    

                    

Successfully we conquered valentines day. To check out more of both of our looks, check out our instagrams @emilyinemerald & @danaalsamsam

Ezra Koenig told me to be proud of my selfies

In the world of the gratuitous selfie it seems that capturing photos of oneself has become "pretentious" or "self-absorbed." I would tend to disagree; what is there to be ashamed of in capturing a moment, a shutter click of my life. If red lips and a couple inches of unconcealed skin makes me feel beautiful, I am going to feel that way and I'm going to strut and yes - I am going to take a photo of myself in a full length mirror. 

         

La Fournette French Patisserie

The other day, a Buzzfeed quiz popped up on my feed titled "What City Should You Actually Live In?" My guilty conscience swarmed for allowing myself to waste time on something so silly...but I simply couldn't help myself. Surprise, Surprise - I got Paris, France. 

This post also feels like the perfect setting to recommend two of the absolute best movies I've seen recently. Both being French Romantic Comedies - Amelie and Populaire. These discoveries make me never want to watch an American film again! Give me a plane ticket and a time machine because 1950s Paris is all I could ever want. 

Amelie

Populaire

Winter in Chicago

marked Chicagoans

we travel swiftly on taxi strewn roads,

lemons rolling in a granite bowl.

the strut of our competent heels

bites the sidewalk,

edges smeared by the ashen slush

and the salty speckles splashed

onto backs of black

cigarette jeans.

the snow releases itself

in curtains of harmony

developing the city, top to bottom,

like hand-copied sheet music.

sprinklings of climactic melody

run in sixteenth notes through stitches

of knit hats and scarves.

we don’t flinch

at the roaring of the tracks;

the subway is our lullaby (especially

in the winter when Midwestern ice slices

through ring fingers in thick layers)

discontented mothers search for nothing

in handbags because they don’t understand

that what they’re looking for will wait

for them if they just turn their head

to the sky and              see.

sometimes we walk along believing

that the veil of gray forces us to disappear,

but like the sheer tulle billowed

across a bride’s face,

winter in Chicago

amplifies the beauty of its rushing people

a concealed secret to be revealed

before the world even begins to dream

of Spring. 

I wore a beautiful black turtle neck with a keyhole opening on the chest. My beautiful friends were looking lovely as usual.The macaroons were divine and the company was even better. très belle!