A Treasury Of… Minneapolis Fashion and Interior Design Blog

I’ve learned a little something.

If you’re lusting after something splurge-y on the internet for months and months on end – it can be helpful, instead of waiting and saving and debating and wondering endlessly, rather to just go ahead and order the particular item near the get go.

Once your potential treasure arrives, and you see it with your naked non-web-filtered eyes, you may find you don’t even want the object of your imagined affection any longer and can then focus your funds and your lust on something surer.

I’ve been wanting a Dark Tan Steamer Bag from BillyKirk since February. One finally FedEx-ed its way into my life last week and now, after seven months of anticipation, I’m not sure I’ll keep it.

I still get a kick out of its steel-framed, Doctor’s bag construction and it’s Packard Saw Mill style. But what looked actually Dark Tan AKA Khaki on-line, in person, is Darker than Dark, and Basically Brown.

For three hundred dollars I feel I need to love absolutely every aspect of my bag. And right now, I’m not sure that I do.

So I’m just not sure what I should do.

I offered y’all a little advice, so now send some my way, if you can.

Since my personal penchant for poking military pins into just about anything has spread to my inner circle in recent months, the time had come to restock the troop’s supply.

Four Russian wonders and perhaps a German gem as well? So many of my (and my comrades’) jackets ‘n hats just seem vapid and sad without one.

Rather randomly I was given a pair of Long-Johns by a severely medicated friend for Christmas. (No joke.) I’d forgotten all about them until I was swapping my summer wardrobe out for my fall’s, early last week. Sized Medium, I tried them on for the first time and found them significantly saggy…

…But before I banished them to the basement forever into one of my many cartons of costumes, I figured I might as well fashion myself into a Faux Fur Trapper and photograph the folly.

So I did; and now down to the basement they go.

Hmm. I feel like this unfolded quite quietly.

The Billykirk brothers have launched a spin-off line at Urban Outfitters called The Brothers Bray.

So far there is just one piece: a leather and cotton tote bag for eighty-n-eight dollars. Same über-American aesthetic you’d expect, all worky and rugged – but at a third of the cost of their BK bags.

I thought perhaps this out of nowhere newsflash might lessen my long-lingering desire for a $300 Billykirk steamer bag. But it’s just not.

I was sent some sad news on Sunday so I headed to a place called Cupcake to pick out some happy treats in order to soothe my soul.

Cupcake had a funny new flavor called the Clair Huxtable. It makes me smile and I haven’t even eaten it yet, so it was a very good choice for a very rough couple of days.

(Meanwhile I indulged in a Peaches ‘n Cream cupcake and a frosted Pull-Apart.)

I think I’ll finally enjoy the confetti-topped Clair cupcake tonight with some organic milk and the inorganic resurrection of Melrose Place. A junky party for the eyes, ears, and mouth – it’s just what I need.

As a child of the 80s, huge sections of my school vacations were spent watching NBC daytime. Scrabble and Santa Barbara were my favorites but my local affiliate must’ve not aired Super Password during it’s five year run ever, for whatever reason, or it would’ve been another childhood treasure.

I didn’t really even know the show existed (at least in its late 80s incarnation) until I found it last month in this, the summer of my 33rd year, re-running on the Game Show Network.

But it’s all the better seeing the show with virgin eyes at this later stage in life. The neon-lettered opening credits, the talk show meets Tron-ish set, host Bert Convy’s endearing awkwardness, the has-been celebrity guests…none of these things could I have appreciated appropriately as an 11 year old like I can and (twice a day) do, right now.

And the fashion! At least every other episode Mr. Convy harasses some post-pubescent sister from Gimme a Break or mullet-ed heartthrob from Dynasty about their sweatshirt worn as a dress or Navajo patterned gentlemen’s loafers, to which the celebrity guests always shrug sheepishly and reply, “That’s the style!”

In recent episodes Susan Anton and Marla Gibbs sported shoulder pads so wide, they almost plowed Bert right off his podium.

The TIVO catches twelve episodes of the show a week – and it’s the machine that can barely keep up with me.

I mute and pause the program at just the right moment, forcing my favorite friend to play along with me and the show…thinking how I could get them to guess the word BARREL or STAMPEDE or FRANCE with hopefully just a single one-word clue.

If you get the GSN channel, check or re-check the show out. I halfway/totally think the world used to be a better place mostly because there used to be more daytime game shows where winning even two thousand dollars felt super duper fine.