literary lady: room, the story sisters & the piano teacher

I love reading and I'm determined to do much more of it this year, so in addition to being part of a book club, I decided to join a 50 books in 2012 Facebook group. It'll be a great way to challenge myself to read 50 books by the end of this year, and I also think it'll be interesting to see what other book lovers are reading.

I'm not sure if I'll meet the goal, but I do know I'll be enlightened in trying.

Here's to my first three reads of the year. Only 47 more to go!

Book 1 - Room by Emma Donoghue.

I was excited to delve into this book and wasn't disapppointed. Room takes its basic plot from the Fritzl case as well as the cases of Jaycee Lee Dugard in California and of Natascha Kampusch and Sabine Dardenne. The story is told through the eyes of five-year-old Jack and packs an emotional punch. Second half is not as strong as the first but is still highly imaginative and poignant. Highly recommend!

Read the New York Times book review.

Book 2 - The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman.

This book is rife with fantasy and magic realism and reminded me of books I've read by South American authors. It's a haunting yet uplifting tale that describes how each of the three Story sisters meet their fate. Ultimately, it's a tale of redemption and forgiveness. The imagery is vivid and the tone may be dark, yet this one stayed with me, long after I had set it down.

Read the New York Times book review.

Book 3 - The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee.

"Sometimes the end of a love affair is only the beginning."
Set in Hong Kong, this evocative historical novel is laced with intrigue and tells the tale of two love affairs, both involving the same man. Did I mention it also involves betrayal and is set during the Japanese invasion of World War II? I quite liked it and look forward to more from this promising first novelist.

Read the New York Times book review.





Next up for this bibliophile is Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier - our book club selection for March, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - a novel my friend Kat has recommended.

What's sitting on your nightstand? I'd love to know.

Dajana (:

drink: silver screen punch

And the Oscar for best punch goes to...

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Happy Sunday, friends! I hope your weekend has been fantastic, so far.

Are you watching the Oscar's tonight? I'm most looking forward to seeing who's wearing what on the red carpet. As for the Best Picture nominees, I've seen and enjoyed The Descendants, The Help and Midnight in Paris (which I reviewed here). I'm hoping to add The Artist to the list when I see it with my ladyfriends, next month.

Although I'm not throwing an Oscar viewing party, I am hosting my Literary Ladies book club today. In honour of the Academy Awards, I'm going to mix the ladies up a bowl of Silver Screen Punch - a fruity concoction the stars will be indulging in at the Governor's Ball following the awards ceremony. Cheers to drinking like a celebrity!

Silver Screen Punch

Ingredients:
1 (6 ounce) can pink lemonade concentrate
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup frozen strawberries
� teaspoon grated ginger
1 cup vodka
1 bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine
1 pineapple, cut into rings and frozen

Instructions:
In a blender, combine pink lemonade concentrate, pineapple juice, strawberries, and ginger. Blend until smooth. Pour into a punch bowl. Add vodka and stir to combine. Just before serving, pour in Champagne or sparkling wine.

Tip: To avoid watering down the punch, use frozen pineapple slices instead of ice cubes. Once the pineapple slices melt, they'll just add more juice to the mix!

Recipe found here.

j.crew update: let's hear it for the boy!

Some new deetz on J.Crew's Canadian expansion! The U.S. retailer has confirmed they'll be opening 5,657 square feet of retail space in West Edmonton Mall on June 7 (read more here and here). Two other stores will also open across the country - on Vancouver's Robson Street in the spring and in Toronto's Eaton Centre this fall.

The best part? For the first time in Canada, the stores will carry the highly coveted men's collection.

�Since introducing the brand in Canada last year, the response to J.Crew has been absolutely electric,� said Jenna Lyons, President and Creative Director of J.Crew in a press release this morning.  �We�re excited to be opening combined men�s and women�s stores and are working to curate our high quality fashion collections for each market.�

I'm excited to get my guy into one of their Ludlow suits. There's nothing sexier than a man in a natty tailored suit. Hellooo!

coveting: smythe jackets

You've probably seen the amazing jackets that designer Sarah Richardson rocks. You know, the ones that we all drool over while watching Sarah's House or Sarah 101? They're made-in-Canada Smythe.

I'm especially loving these two effortlessly chic jackets from their Spring 2012 Collection - the Piped One Button Blazer in black oxford stripe and the Shawl Collar Blazer in blood orange. Both look great paired with casual shorts but would look equally lovely worn with jeans or a dress. They're such a great take on a timeless classic.

And you may already know this sartorial tidbit, but finishing off your outfit with a tailored jacket instantly modernizes and updates your look.  Scout's honour.

Just take a look and you'll see what I mean.

?In case someone I know, with a bit of extra pocket change, is reading this: Smythe is available at Coup Boutique, Who Cares? and Holt Renfrew. My birthday is coming up in March. Just a wee reminder.

Happy Wednesday, friends! Thankfully, it's a short work week for many of us.

Dajana (:

p.s. Judging by these Smythe sightings, Sarah's not the only one smitten with the label. Heaps of celebrities are as well. As is this royal lady.

anthropologie: getting my bond girl on!

Stylish green skirt, check.

Hitting the target, nine times out of ten, check.

Playing Bond girl for an evening...priceless.
















Who says you have to wear jeans to an indoor shooting range? Not me! I was more than happy to don my new Pleated Ponte Skirt when we visited the Phoenix Indoor Range last weekend. It was my first time at a gun range and I was excited and nervous and giddy. I had heart palpitations, but in the best possible way.
It's not every day that one shoots a 9mm handgun, peeps. I honestly never thought I'd enjoy handling a firearm (I'm the girl who gets scared whilst watching CSI) but I surprised myself by loving every minute of our gun slingin' adventure. It was an adrenaline rush like no other!

Scotty and I, along with three other couples, were at the range celebrating our friend Robin's 40th birthday. His wife & my buddy, Patrycia, came up with this super duper idea! I would highly recommend this as a fun birthday activity for men or lady folk. Plus, what's a milestone celebration without a couple of rounds of ammo before dinner?

The friendly peeps at Phoenix were lovely (hi Steve!) and also very patient with our group. Well, mostly me. They gave us a solid safety orientation and let us choose from over 30 different firearms. I picked the small and ladylike 9mm Glock but later on I also tested out the big boy you see in the last few pictures - the Tactical 9mm. That was beyond cool.

My facial expression at the end of this video says it all. Take a gander:




Happy Friday y'all and a happy Family Day long weekend!

I have four days off (four!) and am SO excited to sleep in, take in the Silver Skate Festival at Hawrelak Park, watch some Oscar-nominated short films at the Princess Theatre, and visit the mothership - my local Anthro. Maybe I'll even stop in and say hello to her friends, Zara and H&M.

Let's talk soon, okay? After our shooting escapade we went for dinner at my new favourite resto and I want to tell you all about it. See you in a few days!

Dajana (:

well said.

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"I suppose there may be a hundred different ways of being in love."

~ Emma, in Jane Austen's Emma

blazers, blue dresses and oxfords, oh my!

I came to work one day and soon realized that I was surrounded by not one, but two style doppelg�ngers. 

Take a look:







My colleagues Val and Janet have superb taste, wouldn't you agree? Our grey blazers are all from H&M.

Stylish minds think alike...

Hope you're having a fantastic Friday, friends!

I'm excited to kick up my heels and get my weekend on. I'm playing soccer, visiting a shooting range (say whaat!) and going brunching on Sunday. Should be a good'er! Hope yours is too.

Dajana (:

eat: valentine's sweet treats

The boyfriend and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day; although I have requested bbq'd tenderloin wrapped in bacon for dinner that night. Nothing says romance like bacon, right? (;

Our plan is to have a cozy, cuddly night in - watching New Girl and devouring seasonal sweet treats from two of my favourite bakeries, Crave and Duchess. If those names sound familiar to you, it's because I've extolled their delicious virtures: here, here, and here.

Both shops are offering an assortment of mouth-watering delectables that I'm not about to pass on (no matter how I feel about a day that seems to force romance on the masses.)

Prepare to drool, peeps.

Crave Cookies and Cupcakes???

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I warned you about drooling, didn't I? The choco-tarts are filled with vanilla bean infused caramel topped with Valrhona Caramelia milk chocolate ganache and finished with a pinch of sea salt. And the cupcakes? They're Crave's take on black forest cake - chocolate cherry cake with kirsch ganache. I'll take one of each, please!

Crave has other delicousness up their sleeve. They're offering sugar cookie "love letters" with custom messages written on them.  I'd get "Ja te volim" and "Ko te pito" written on mine - which mean "I love you" and "Who asked you?" in Croatian. Two of the first phrases I taught Scotty to say.

Duchess Bake Shop

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The pink delectables directly above are the appropriately named, L'Amour. They're macarons filled with raspberries, rose ganache, lychee buttercream, raspberry jam and lychees. Can you say heavenly? I've already pre-ordered mine. You probably should, too.

And the sweets in the tea cup? Remember eating Red Hots as a kid? They're cinnamon heart meringues!

So, do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Will you and your sweetie be out on the town or are you staying in and canoodling? I'd love to hear your take on the day between February 13 and 15.

Hope you're having a fantastic Wednesday!

Dajana (:

Matt Freedman

THE GOLEM OF RIDGEWOOD

464 Seneca Ave. Ridgewood, NY
Valentine is open Saturday & Sunday from 1-6 and by appointment on Fridays.
The exhibit runs through Sunday March 11. Valentine will be open until 10:00 on March 10th as part of Beat Nite.
L train to Dekalb
M train to Seneca
valentineridgewood@gmail.com

This exhibition commemorates a film made over 70 years ago by a young member of the Congregation Agudas Israel on Cornelia Street in Ridgewood, Queens. The film, which survives only in fragments, documents the efforts of Rabbi Jacob Weiss to build a golem, a supernatural being made of animated clay, to protect his congregation from their anti- Semitic neighbors in the early 1940s. In 2002 artists Jude Tallichet and Matt Freedman bought the Cornelia Street building thereafter known as �the �gogue� and turned it into a studio and living space. While exploring their new property and neighborhood, they discovered the half-degraded film; they were subsequently able to recover props and artifacts connected to it. In seeking to contextualize these fascinating relics of Ridgewood�s recent past, Freedman and consulting art-historian Frances Rabinovitch have compiled the following timeline.

1

Eden-6000 BCE: G-d fashions Adam from the dust of the ground, and animates him.

Troy-1183 BCE: The Greek warrior Patroclus, wearing Achilles� armor, slaughters 53

Trojans before being killed himself, by Hector, at the city gates. Eventually, to break the

bloody stalemate between fortified Troy and the Greek besieging army, Odysseus the

Great Tactician constructs the Trojan Horse, a gigantic creature designed to protect its

makers and wreak havoc on its enemies.

Attica-540 BCE: The Kroisos Kouros, also known as the Anavyssos Kouros, is erected

to mark the grave of a fallen warrior named Kroisos. The well-muscled nude, an archaic

smile on his lips, bestrides a marble base on which is inscribed this admonition: �Pause

and show pity beside the marker of Kroisos, dead, whom once in battle�s front rank

raging Ares devastated.�

Corinth-323 BCE: Diogenes, a founder of Cynic philosophy, dies. Diogenes is known

for dwelling in a tub, as well as for his praise of canine virtues; he believes that human

beings live artificially and hypocritically, while dogs live in the present, free from anxiety.

Humans dupe others or are duped, but dogs will give an honest bark at the truth. The

name �Cynic� derives from the Greek kynikosm (�dog-like�).

London, England-1189: Richard Coeur-de-Lion girds for the Crusades. On the eve of

his embarkation, anti-Semitic rioting breaks out, encouraged by a rumor that the king

has ordered all Jews in England killed; the rumor is triggered by Richard�s decision to

bar Jews (and women) from his recent Coronation ceremonies. Mindful of the

destabilizing effect of such unrest as he departs for what may be years in the Holy Land,

Richard orders the worst offenders executed and issues a writ protecting Jews in his

realm.

Limassol, Cyprus??1191: Richard conquers Cyprus. Part of the booty is a trove of

Trojan artifacts, including regalia believed to belong to Achilles. Coeur-de-Lion seizes the

armor as a royal perquisite, wearing it at the siege of Acre. Despite his victory there,

Richard falls out with his erstwhile ally Leopold V, Duke of Austria. The Duke in turn

seizes the armor as spoils. Eventually, it makes its way to Prague.

W�rttemberg, Germany-1550: A German mercenary knight loses his right arm in

battle, and an iron limb is forged to replace it. Far from a simple Ersatzhand rigged by

the village blacksmith, the prosthesis is a state-of-the-art construction fabricated in the

technically advanced workshops of Nuremburg and Augsberg. With it, G�tz von

Berlichingen (�G�tz of the Iron Hand�) can grip not only the reins of his horse and the

haft of his lance, but a playing card, and even a quill pen. He continues his military

career, and gains fame as a poet and memoirist. The �G�tz curse� later becomes a

euphemism for the expression er kann mich im Arsch lecken (�he can lick me in the

arse�), attributed to the knight by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who writes an

eponymous play based on G�tz�s life.

Prague, Bohemia-1550: Pogroms rage through the streets. Chief Rabbi Judah Leow

ben Bexalel, anxious to protect his people, sculpts a golem from clay and brings it to life

by writing the names of G-d on the figure�s forehead??or, alternatively, on a slip of paper placed in its mouth, or in its shoe. Rabbi Leow, knowing something of Richard Coeur-de- Lion�s behavior following the London riots 361 years before, deems it propitious to kit out his creation in armor proven on the bodies of two famous warriors, one pagan and the other Christian. In fact, however, only the helmet of Achilles now survives in the royal treasury. Leow somehow secures it for his golem.

Chelm, Poland-1583: Rabbi Elijah Ba�al Shem likewise creates a golem, who wields a

sword (or axe) to kill those miscreants who threaten Jews in the marketplace. Stories of

the Wise Men of Chelm�the proverbial fools of Jewish folk humor??emerge around this

time.

Prague, Bohemia-1648: The Bohemian princes� cabinet of wonders is pillaged in the

aftermath of the Battle of Prague. A centerpiece of the collection, the purported Beast of

the Apocalypse or Seven-Headed Hydra, is seized by the German General Hans

Christoff von Konigsmarck. He removes the Hydra to Hamburg, where it becomes the

prized possession of the mayor.

Hamburg, Germany-1735: Carl Linnaeus, passing through the city on his way to study

at the University of Harderwijk in the Netherlands, describes with a taxonomist�s

precision the dress and rituals of local Jews. He also exposes the Seven-Headed Hydra

as a hoax constructed??allegedly by fifteenth-century monks??using snakeskins and the jaws and paws of weasels. Linnaeus is forced to leave Hamburg quickly to escape the mayor�s wrath.

Frankfurt, Germany-1773: Goethe, having been dissuaded by his father from pursuing

his desire to write, practices law. For pleasure, in a few weeks� time, he pens his drama

G�tz von Berlichingen; the next year he will complete the book that brings him universal

fame, The Sorrows of Young Werther. During this period, he is also at work on what is

now known as the Urfaust, though the complete Faust is not published until 1808.

Vienna, Austria-1782: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composes his canon in B-flat major,

a party piece for six voices based on a text from Goethe and titled Leck mich im Arsch.

When the song is published in 1799, after Mozart�s death, the lyrics are bowdlerized to

La�t froh uns sein (�let us be glad�).

Lake Geneva, Switzerland-1818: Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein.

Diverse sources for her modern myth include experiments by the pioneering chemist and

inventor Sir Humphrey Davy and by the physicist-physician Luigi Galvani, along with 3

Aeschylus�s Prometheus Bound; John Milton�s Paradise Lost; Jean-Jacques Rousseau�s

�mile, or On Education; and both The Sorrows of Young Werther and Faust, by Goethe.

Shelley�s novel is interpreted, in ensuing decades, as a metaphor for the dangerously

hubristic achievements of science, as well as the plight of various oppressed groups,

including American slaves, the starving Irish, and the English lumpenproletariat. Less

well-known is a reading of Dr. Frankenstein�s Monster as �the goyische golem,�

sometimes called �the Mad Jew in the Attic.�

Rochester, New York-1874: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge patents �Comic

Foregrounds�??also termed head-through-the-holes, carnival cutouts, looky-loos, mug

boards, faceless cutouts, and passe t�tes??that allow people to pretend to be,

amusingly, that which they are not. 29 years later, Coolidge paints the well-known Dogs

Playing Poker series, to advertise cigars.

Lyon, France-1884: The Michelin tire company introduces its now-familiar figurehead

Bibendum, accompanied somewhat cryptically in advertising posters by a motto from

Horace�s Odes: Nunc est bibendum (�now is [the time for] drinking�). The figure becomes

synonymous in popular imagination with a bundled-up or �pneumatic� appearance: �I [or

he] look[s] like the Michelin man.�

Ridgewood, Queens-1898-1914: German immigrants found numerous breweries,

including the Diogenes Brewery. Many Diogenes employees worship at the nearby New

Apostolic Church, built in 1910. Congregation Agudas (�Gathering�) Israel is chartered in

1912.

Leoncin, Poland-1902: Isaac Singer is born. His father, maternal grandfather, and

maternal uncles are rabbis. Having found that rabbinical school does not suit him,

however, Singer takes as his middle name the possessive form of his mother�s given

name, Bathsheba (�Bashevis�) and begins a career as a writer.

Ridgewood, Queens-1916: The Ridgewood Theater, designed by Charles Lamb,

opens. An attic storeroom, located adjacent to the projection booth and accessed by a

small door behind the candy counter, later becomes an unofficial clubhouse for

neighborhood teenagers.

Prague, Bohemia-1912: Personal-injury consultant Franz Kafka, employed by the

Workers Accident Insurance Institute of the Kingdom of Bohemia, invents the hard hat.

Ridgewood, Queens-1924: Jewish merchants are taking over German businesses on

Fresh Pond Road and Myrtle Avenue. The New Apostolic Church on Cornelia Street is

sold to Jewish leaders, who rededicate it as Congregation Agudas Israel.

Prague, Bohemia-1925: Young Jacob Weiss, despairing of his talent and stung by his

father�s remarks about the need for a Brotberuf (literally, a �bread job�), gives up the

study of literature and enrolls in rabbinical school. Upon his ordination, he emigrates to

New York.

Ridgewood, Queens-1931: James Whale�s Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff as the

Monster, plays to capacity crowds at the Ridgewood Theater.

Rochester, New York-1932: Edgar Bergman patents a simple device made of curved

wire (the �Bergman loop�) designed to be fastened to the backs of pews in synagogues

and churches, to hold men�s hats during services. In the same year, Eastman Kodak

releases the Standard 8mm movie camera for home use.

Berlin, Germany-1936: The Olympic Games put a pacifist face on Hitler�s murderous

ambitions, and Tilly Fleischer wins the women�s javelin competition for Germany. She is

one of Hitler�s favorites. Leni Riefenstahl documents the games for her film Olympia.

Ridgewood, Queens-1940: German spy Kurt Frederick Ludwig settles in Ridgewood.

He recruits a ring of pro-Nazi agents and couriers, many of whom are brewery workers.

A weekly poker game held at various neighborhood locations is later revealed to have

been a clearinghouse for information passed by the conspirators.

Ridgewood, Queens-1941: Local Jews feel at risk as the German-American Bund

takes root in the area. To reassure his flock, Rabbi Weiss creates his golem. A young

congregant, Elias Bergman, stumbles on the plot; his father, the inventor, belongs to

Weiss�s trusted inner circle. Curious, young Bergman follows his father to the shul, with

Edgar�s 8mm camera in hand. From the surviving footage, it appears that the boy is

discovered while filming. Perhaps considering the uses of newsreels as propaganda,

and presaging the role of moving-image documentary in disseminating information about

the death camps, the rabbi then allows him to film openly.

Ridgewood, Queens-1942: Elias Bergman and Edith Weiss, the rabbi�s niece,

frequenters of the Ridgewood Theater�s attic hidey-hole, become an �item.� Anxious to

enhance his reputation as an artiste, Elias boasts to Edith that he could screen a film at

the Ridgewood if he wished. She does not believe him. Daringly, he replaces reel 2 of

Orson Welles�s The Magnificent Ambersons with his golem footage. A melee erupts in

the theater, but Bergman�s film fortuitously breaks in the projection gate. The

projectionist, not coincidentally, is Bergman�s brother Arthur. He quickly mounts Welles�s

reel 2, and the scheduled movie proceeds normally.

South Africa-1944: Flying Officer Christopher Reuel Tolkien is serving with the Royal

Air Force. His father, at home in Oxford, decides to complete a previously abandoned

project, which he serializes in letters for his son�s entertainment. The sprawling saga of

war between good and evil turns on the subplot of a fratricidal struggle between

Sm�agol and D�agol, two �Stoor Hobbits� (�strong� Hobbits), over a magically inscribed,

periodically dormant, yet uncannily sentient and all-but indestructible weapon. Sm�agol,

the victor, devolves into a misshapen creature that Tolkien christens Gollum, after the

peculiar swallowing noise that the character habitually makes.

Sudan-1965: Leni Riefenstahl lives with and photographs the Nuba. Like Tilly Fleischer,

the tribesmen are adept at spear-work. The same year, in Manhattan, advertising

executive Rudy Perez sculpts the prototype for a new corporate mascot�the Pillsbury

Dough Boy�out of clay.

Ridgewood, Queens-1975-1980: The Agudas Israel congregation is in decline. Regular

services are no longer held in the sanctuary, although a reduced congregation continues

to worship on the site, establishing a smaller ark, with its own Torah, in the basement.

Maintenance is deferred, and the building falls into disrepair. Elias Bergman dies.

Ridgewood, Queens-1984: The Dan Ackroyd/Harold Ramis hit Ghostbusters plays at

the Ridgewood Theater. Critics note that the towering Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bears

a resemblance to both the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Michelin�s Bibendum; a columnist in

the conservative National Review (founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley) quotes

Ackroyd explaining his brainwave: �You created this white monster to sell your products,

and it seems harmless and puffy and cute�but, given the right circumstances, everything can be turned back and become evil.�

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-1988-91: Cartoonist Matt Freedman draws a weekly strip

titled �Professor Tatlin�s Do-It-Yourself Comics� for the University of Wisconsin-based

free newspaper The Onion. Each week, a new project is presented for Freedman�s

followers to cut out and assemble, e.g. a series of dioramas depicting World Leaders

Stranded on a Desert Island, including full-frontal-nude paper dolls of Margaret Thatcher,

Mikhail Gorbachev, George H. W. Bush, and Dan Quayle. The local jobbing printer,

outraged by what he understands as disrespect aimed at authority, refuses to print any

subsequent issue of The Onion featuring nasty pictures.

St. Petersburg, Florida-1996: The search portal Bomis.com is founded. Its name

rhymes with �promise�; the portal privileges �search terms popular with male users.� Its

name is reportedly an acronym for �Bitter Old Men In Suits.�

San Diego, California-2001: Former Bomis entrepreneurs found Wikipedia.

Ridgewood, Queens-2002-3: Artists Jude Tallichet and Matt Freedman purchase the

Agudas building. In accordance with Jewish law, in order to effect the transformation of

the structure from a consecrated place of worship to a private live/work space, the wood

that has lined the two arks of the covenant must be buried like a human body. The

Torahs themselves are donated to the Israeli army.

Edith Weiss Bergman, one of few congregants remaining in the neighborhood, is battling

cancer. She has, however, been athletic all her life, and remains strong enough to walk

her dog, Little Eva. Tallichet and Freedman, out walking their own dogs Sparky, Fleurry,

and Pluto, befriend her. Mrs. Bergman tells Tallichet and Freedman the story of the

temple�s golem, her husband�s footage, and the romantic bet. She reasons that the lone

print of Elias�s film is likely to be where they left it, in the defunct �clubhouse.�

Ridgewood, Queens-2005: Pluto Freedman-Tallichet dies.

Ridgewood, Queens-2008: The Ridgewood Theatre goes bankrupt. The building is

offered for sale for $14,000,000. Tallichet and Freedman tour the premises posing as

prospective buyers and, under the pretext of examining water damage in the attic,

discover a single film canister labeled, in two different hands, �Artie-Bar Mitzvah� and

�The Golem of Ridgewood.� They spirit it back to their home. The film is badly

deteriorated, with only a few minutes� footage intact.

Ridgewood, Queens-2008-2011: Guided by clues in what remains of the film,

Freedman and Tallichet recover parts of the lost golem. The left hand is buried the

garden; the odd object they had previously removed from the synagogue�s safe (in what

is now their living room) is revealed to be the right or �iron� hand. The sword is in the

shed. The head, complete with helmet, turns up in their own attic, which the two

sculptors use as studio storage.

anthropologie: fitting room reviews

In the words of The Cure: "It's Friday, I'm in love."

To celebrate this happy day, I thought I'd share a few items I recently tried on at Anthro.
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?????First up is the Pleated Ponte Skirt.  Love this piece! It's a great weight, the colour is a beautiful saturated kelly green and it's swishy and fun. Initially, I thought I might be old-ish to wear this short length (19'') but with tights and a lower heel (or flats) it's a go. I tried on both a size six and an eight. I went with the larger size so I could wear it lower on my hips. Did I mention how much I love this? Enough to call it my own.

{Pleated Ponte Skirt}

Next we have the highly touted Pieced Column Dress. The Anthro community is abuzz about this Bailey 44 number. Ladies be smitten!  Even non-believers are converted once they try on this figure flattering body conscious dress.  I was in the latter group. I never thought I'd like such a body (and booty) hugging dress, but I sure did. The layering of the material and the diagonal stripes come together to hide imperfections and highlight curves. Yay! Although I like the way it looks, I think it might be a tad too sexy for my fairly conservative workplace. Maybe it'd be alright if paired with a cardigan or jacket, like Molly of Anthromollogies did with the longer version here? Hmmm. No matter, I still highly recommend this dress. For reference, I'm wearing a medium.

{Pieced Column Dress}

Third on the list is the pretty Valparaiso Dress. It's the most lovely shade of emerald green but I'm not sure about the flowy, dolman sleeves. How would I cook dinner in this? ;)  I found the fit much more flattering by tying the dress in the back, rather than in a bow as shown in the online photo. I tried on a size 8 but really needed a size 6. Unfortunately, none were to be had at my local Anthro. Sadly, it's a pass for me.

{Valparaiso Dress}

?Ladies, meet the Scalloped Buttondown. This bright yellow hued blouse is gorgeous! I like the attention to detail - just look at those wonderful scallops! There's such an ease to this blouse and it can be dressed up or down. I tried on a size 10 to accommodate my d�colletage area and there was no gaping. Yes! I particularly love the 3/4 sleeves and can see myself tucking it into skirts (animal print!) or wearing it belted under a cardigan and skinny jeans. All of this golden wonderment for under $100 and it's machine washable. Hellooo!

{Scalloped Buttondown}

?Last, we have the Shawl-Collar Boatneck.  I think many ladies will choose this comfy cozy as their go-to top for weekends and for travelling. It comes in an array of stunning shades, in addition to the bright pink. My friend Karen bought the orange version and it looks fabulous against her dark hair. It's a soft, thick jersey knit and would work well for those of us trying to disguise a big lunch or for those ladies who have just had a baby. It does fit large so try a size down - I'm wearing a small in the photo. I passed on this shirt because I can see myself constantly fiddling with the neckline. Strange, but true.

{Shawl-Collar Boatneck}

Do you have any of these pieces? Or has something caught your eye from the February catalogue? Do tell!

Happy weekending, friends! I hope the next few days are all that and a bag of Lay's Dill Pickle chips.

Speaking of food, this weekend I'm going to nosh on yummy Malaysian food, go curling (a quintessentially Canadian activity), catch up with a good ladyfriend over some drinks and spend Sunday with my little niece.

GO weekend!

Dajana (:

j. crew springs into edmonton!

How about a little J.Crew to brighten up your Wednesday afternoon? The beginnings of the retailer's spring collection arrived online last week, and I am completely smitten with its punchy colours and classic tailoring.

I also did a bit of sleuthing (investigative journalism, you might call it) and learned that J. Crew's arrival in Edmonton may be sooner than what was initially announced.  Although unconfirmed, it looks like J.Crew will be opening its doors in Edmonton on June 7. Yay! I promise to let you know when that date is made official.

When those doors do spring open, I'm hoping these bright yet classic covetables will be waiting for me.











See anything you like? I have a major crush on the gorgeous collegiate green Tillary purse, the neon pink Schoolboy blazer and the warm jade Caf� Capri pants. I really dig these items and am calling dibs on them, ladies.

Are you looking forward to J.Crew's arrival, too? If so, I'll see you on the 7th. Save me a spot in the lineup, will ya?

Dajana (:

p.s. Coming up on Friday... Anthro reviews!