The Way to a Woman’s Heart Is Through Her Sole

Love and Louboutin's

Shoe story 2:

A guy we knew just did a very cute thing for his girlfriend. Upon the arrival of her birthday, he gifted her with a neatly wrapped package. She opened it to find a Gucci shoebox (10 points!) but after lifting the lid, immediately realized something was amiss- this was not the neatly folded and sealed Gucci tissue paper.. whatever was going on here?

She lifted the impostor paper to find… a pair of her own, old, worn out shoes. (uhm minus 10 points!?). She gingerly lifted them out and just as she was about to glance to her beau in confusion she saw a small slip of paper. It read “These shoes will magically transform into a new pair of shoes of your choosing, as soon as you decide what they are. Miu Miu? Louboutin? Gucci?” Not only did he gain 100 points for sweetness and originality, but she knew she’d found a keeper.

See, in my family, we know that one of the marks of a good man is one who understands the need for many different pairs of fantastic black shoes. He was out of his depth with the shopping, but he came up with the concept, arranged to get a Gucci box from a friend who had just gone shoe-shopping (we don’t hold on to those sorts of things in small, NYC apartments) and gave her just what she’d always wanted- shoes, and understanding.

Fundraising, Not Just For Politicians Anymore

Recently, my dad told me about something that’s going on in the NP Girls’ homeland, Minnesota. If y’all tune in to any news besides Perez Hilton, you’ll know that last year’s Minnesota senate race was a big giant mess. The two top candidates, Norm Coleman and Al Franken, had such close numbers of votes that recounting was necessary. But not just one simple recount, oh no, this recount was nearly never-ending. The costs of the process were so great that both candidates, who had long since completed their campaign fundraisers, began running new fundraisers, to pay for the cost of re-counting their own votes!

This gave my dad a great idea. If politicians can hold recount fundraisers after-the-fact, why can’t we just decide to hold a fundraiser or two.  Our lawn in Minnesota is infested with moles, that like to dig big tunnels for the lawn guys, the dog, and any visiting small children to fall into. These little buggers are tough to remove, so Dad’s going to have to call in the Molinator- and trust me, he doesn’t come cheap. We’re comissioning the Molinator Fundraiser signs now.

Alexandra would really like to have a larger apartment, since her adorable pupster Henry Elliot takes up a little more space than one would expect a 12lb. critter to do, so she’ll soon have the HelliotRaiser benefit for apartmental improvement.

As for me, well, yes, I do just happen to look this good, but the fabulous shoes I wear out all the time? They aren’t going to buy themselves. Meet me at Bergdorf Goodman (2nd floor shoe salon) for the BootsForWalking indoor walkathon fundraiser, for myself and the Azzedine Alaia boots I’m coveting this season…

Make A Splash This Weekend

This weekend, you’ll need to be prepared for getting a tan, or for making a mad dash into the movie theater. We’re hoping for sun and fun all weekend long, so here’s a stylish way to go-

Saks is having a great designer swimwear sale..

And just in case of rain.. avoid the wrong kind of splash with a Marc Jacobs umbrella

Bringing Back the Dickey

You know we're just kidding; don't try this at home!

I was recently out with a guy friend, who was lamenting the cost of his dry-cleaning bill for shirts. (Don’t get me started, a women’s shirt usually costs three times as much to clean! - a mystery to ponder another day). Back in the day, people had it figured out. Women didn’t want to have to deal with the cost or time of laundering their husband’s shirts several times per week. Someone figured out that, as men wore other layers over their shirts at all times anyway, they really only needed to appear to be wearing a shirt. A dickey was a portion of a shirt including collar and a partial front and back with top button or two that one stuck under their sweater or coat. It was a joke even at the time.

I’m not against bringing it back under special circumstances. It’s summer, who really wants to be wearing all those constricting layers anyway? Just make sure you remember what you’ve got on - it could bring a little conference-room awkwardness if you toss off your blazer during a meeting and end up showing a little bit more than a powerpoint presentation!

How to go From NP to Just Plain P

"Bling" water- not exactly Bloomberg's Best

On a recent grocery store visit, I came across this ‘gem’. “Bling Water” is a glass bottle of water embellished with Swarovski crystals (61 of them, if you were wondering.) The bottle doesn’t seem particularly reusable, and other than the sparkles, not that pretty. While I can perhaps understand paying an extra $0.50 for the privilege of carrying in shiny water bottles to an outdoor party or something, these completely blew my mind.

That’s right, folks, the picture above does not lie. The water was priced at $29.99. Again, not that bad, since for that price you’re obviously getting a whole case of these bedazzled bottles, right? WRONG. One. Bottle. If you are in the no doubt tiny minority of customers purchasing this water, we love you, but you’re probably reading the wrong blog. On that note, if you want to buy water for $30, I’ll be happy to bedazzle some bottles for you. For the ten cents and five minutes it’ll take me, I think I’d make quite a profit.

Going Postal

Ugly Mail Forever??

I just went out of my way to go to the post office to get pretty stamps to affix to my Mother’s day cards and Birthday Thank-You notes. Now, I’m not generally a huge proponent of the post-office, as the bulk of our mail these days is junk mail, and outmoded catalogs. Even if I wanted to order something, I’d do it online, and I don’t really need to save $20 on a new set of tires for my pickup truck at the moment.

That said, there are still legitimate reasons to utilize the postal service. Cards, invitations, and thank-you’s are rarely if ever acceptable when e-mailed. And, as long as I am putting in the effort to select a pretty item, use my bestest handwriting, and address it to someone with care, I think an envelope should have a pretty stamp. Imagine my dismay when I came to the checkout only to be informed that the lovely Heart and Sunflower stamps I wanted would be sold to me today for $.42 each (in a book of 20) and then would proceed in a few days to be raised to $.44, necessitating the addition of .1 or .2 cent stamps, and negating the single, pretty stamp effect I had been trying to achieve.

My NP mind had no choice but to go with the Forever stamp. The ubiquitous brown, boring stamp that did nothing for the beauty of my letter, and made me just a little bit annoyed. The darned post office needs to make up their mind. Either sell me pretty .44 cent stamps or just give it up and only sell the forever’s. I know they need the revenue, but I need pretty mail, and they’re really not helping.

Have Prophylactics Become a Luxury Item?

Nouveau Knocked Up