Lux Lotus

TRUE STORY: I found an Eight of Hearts card on the ground yesterday

The "A Fine Frenzy" contest is over, sure (winners announced: Tuesday), but this "eight things that drive me crazy in the best way" listmaking thing is addictive. Feel free to add yours in the comments. At the mo':

1. Getting a table at Falai on Friday night with no resy! And the fact that when I accidentally ordered a 'GIANT PILE OF FISH' appetizer (nooooo!) they took it back with a smile
2. Later at home, drinking Acqua Panna straight from the bottle
3. Matching "St. Barth's Blue" fingers and toes
4. TIE: a) My silver cuffs, I just love them, and b) wanting to go do karaoke for the first time after some rosé (Age of Consent, c'mon!) but deciding I can wait until I go to Tokyo in a few months!
5. Gokuri 'Miracle of Grapefruit' soft drink
6. The Virgins' Rich Girls (Thanks Lulu for the tip--I stole it from her list!)
7. Sleeping in tomorrow.
8. TIE: a) My bone-straight, $20 East Broadway blowout and b) the pair of leather angel-wing hairpins I bought at Project No. 8 when sculptor Seth Kinmont was minding the shop as a favor to his friends who own it while they are traveling (they have a gallery in Berlin and a design your own clog shop in Brooklyn; we agreed: equidistant)

Luxloves: The Trifecta!

DREW BARRYMORE + GUCCI + JEWELRY [VIA WWD]

A Note + A Contest (Continued)

Pictured: A Fine Frenzy.

Thank you for your entries! I will be announcing the winners next week but the A FINE FRENZY contest is now officially closed (although if you have made your list and want to send it in anyway, I will find you a prize; you know how I am). My fascination with yesterday's list continued today, when I wore my pink shoes and grey dress and walked my french bulldog friend up to Happy Ending (where I returned him to his grateful owner who had the whole day to work on his fashion collection; he says this fall he will make me a cape with a belt, thus fulfilling all of my sartorial dreams at once) for the season finale of Amanda Stern's excellent music + reading series, featuring my client Jean Thompson. It was really brilliant; there were like 100 people there and they didn't want to stop clapping! I was all for it. Another author I'm working with, Anne Landsman, came and she is really fun in addition to being phenomenally talented (but I already knew that). We share a fascination with hot polo players and hot riding boots, which is the sort of thing one can only discover over a lychee martini and a 'mr. ginger,' respectively. Also, I amused the people I was sitting with by recounting how my no A/C, 90 degree apartment was not so conducive to productivity today; in contrast to my usual hyper-efficiency, I spent most of the afternoon lying by the fan and sending around this photo with the caption: he look lika bunny. Yes, yes he do. P.S. Any Lux Lotus readers planning to be in Southampton this weekend? I'm going for the afternoon on Sunday and I have no idea what to expect. Tips?

FIDDLE-DEE-DEE

You know, I have only got one entry so far (AND I LOVE IT) but doves, it's a good contest, it's easy and you can do this. Here's a list of eight things driving me crazy in the best way TODAY:

1) My new! hot pink! shoes from ACROSS the ocean! Better even than I wished for!!!
2) Buying a dress to wear to a party on the way to said party, and having a moment of desperation actually turn out AMAZINGLY: grey, trapeze mini style with a sexy-sweet peter pan collar, deep pockets, a sloping neckline in back and a great big loose tie at the nape. For fifty bucks! Meow.
3) Purposely using a slight cocktail buzz to expand my picky tastes at Via Quadronno, (pate = yum, actually). I am still light years, perhaps GALAXIES, away from eating oysters -- nice try though!
4) The 'SUMMER OF LOVE' psychedelic art show at the Whitney, and getting to see it during private viewing hours
5) Remembering how I forgot to get an air conditioner and using that as an excuse to buy all the magazines and iced tea I could carry at the shop downstairs (and update while I'm writing this: the fact that my FAVORITE EX-BOYFRIEND is bringing me a fan right now)
6) The pitcher full of sweetheart roses on my kitchen counter. Aw, PRETTY!
7) Hitting Takashimaya, Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel in one fell swoop with Jean Thompson this afternoon
8) Going to bed early so I can wake up at the positively UNGODLY hour of 8:30 for breakfast with my neighbors. Who could say no to a french bulldog!? (Noted, "Bulldogs are adorable, with faces like toads that have been sat on." -- Colette). YES:

9) And of course A BONUS-- saying I'm not going to do something (blog) and caving in after less than 24 hours. What can I say? except, SERIOUSLY, back to the break. XO.

A Note + A Contest

I am taking a break from Lux Lotus for a little while but first: a contest! Lux Lotus reader Jessie Brown of Cornerstone Promotion wrote in to see if I'd be interested in doing a music giveaway for A Fine Frenzy whose debut album is coming out soon and I said if I liked it, I would. I gave One Cell in the Sea a listen over the weekend and it's pretty good, so here are the rules. You have a week to enter, and I'll be back to announce the winners shortly thereafter. Just send me a list of the top eight things that are driving you crazy in the best way this summer. Here are mine:

1) tracy turnblad doing 'the roach' in the (original!) film hairspray
2) suntory boss "super blend" coffee in a can
3) '70s hippie style jewelry, you know: mostly Talitha with a dash of Heavy Metal Parking Lot-esque van chic
4) the 'giorno horse' totebag by alena hennessy
5) the idea behind wiimbledon (although not quite the execution)
6) beryl markham
7) the fantasy of owning one of lisa yuskavage's works
8) my new favorite andy warhol quote: "They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

The Smart Set: June 25 - July 1

In this week's edition of The Smart Set for MaudNewton.com: 7 or 8 reasons I guess that it was just a dream...

Image: Juergen Teller, Sleeping Girl (Kirsten Owen).

What You Can't See

The pre-reissue Ray Bans that I gave Kevin for his birthday this weekend, and the four dollar cherry red aviators (with red lenses!) that I picked up on the boardwalk after we took a totally spontaneous trip from the idyllic cottage in the quaint village of our adulthood to the tacky beach of our youth for the afternoon. He's gone now for the summer, to meditate in the woods for a while, which he totally deserves as a karmic reward for being my faithful chauffeur and confidant since oh, about the tenth grade. Rode the Chinatown bus home with a potted rose bush on my lap, which seemed like a good idea at the time (and still is because it's safely ensconced in my apartment now and you know, I feel like I earned it). Kind of a stressful evening but nothing a glass of chardonnay, a cigarette and a nice phone chat with the long-lost (all my fault, I'm afraid) Miss Jen Bekman couldn't fix. I know, I know, when I'm bad I'm even better.

Looking for something to do tonight (Monday) in New York? Let's get lit.

My Life in Pictures: It's Not a Movie but We Can Still Have a Soundtrack

The words every woman longs to hear: Gramercy Tavern at 7:15?  Sound good?  Uh, that sounds GREAT. I'm in this groove lately where everything's out of the blue, but I've been spoiled absolutely fucking rotten so it's a good blue. Maybe even my favorite shade. For instance, I had every expectation that I'd work late tonight, but instead I knocked off at 7 and ate cheese and chocolate (random fact #8: I like taking pictures of food if it appears especially delectable) and talked about a million pleasant things; I wish I could remember that line about the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto: was it "It breaks your heart to be encased in such perfection"? Tomorrow evening, I've got a country house invitation pending if I get up by 8 [crickets] and meet my deadlines. Next up: two events (one, two) next week in New York. Right this second: this remix of Feist is killing me.

If you're in NYC this weekend, stop by Lux Lotus ultrafave (possibly the most perfect boutique on Earth) Project No. 8 for a summer sale:

Girls Write Now (comme des garcons)

Tonight was my first official board of directors' meeting since agreeing to join the board of Girls Write Now, "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998." It was pretty brilliant and I'm looking forward to well, everything.

Afterward, I took the long way home and walked about forty blocks, which was fortuitous as everyone's favorite bond trader, everyone's favorite venture capitalist and everyone's favorite best-selling author all serendipitously called me while I was flaneuring about and so I casually mentioned my goal of "creating new opportunities for rich men to write checks." Of course they think that's genius.

Windowlicker

I don't own a television (it feels superfluous) but you know what seems essential to me right now? A home video projector so that I can watch movies on the wall of the building next door. And maybe if I were as cool as my pal Nancy, I could host U.S. premieres!

[Epson MovieMate 30s, $749.99]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST.