I don’t know how I never knew that previously, but I now spend 80 to 90 percent of my life imagining what the France-set spin-off would’ve looked like (chic sleek), and what the three Parisian Angels might’ve been named (Lu, Colette, and Therese maybe), and which one of the fatales would’ve had the hottest handbags, and prettiest pied-a-terre, and killing-est karate kicks (it’d be a three-way tie).

Oh, what could’ve been!

I’d been waiting for this Woolrich Woolen Mills button down to be released since I first spotted smartphone pics of it snapped last summer during Pitti Uomo. I wasn’t sure I’d be up to pulling off a piece with such an Afro-funked feel to it, but when I finally tried it on, all my Anglo inhibitions faded fiercely to black.

Sometimes I get a little sick of the two chambray shirts I’ve worn repeatedly the past four or five years. The addition of polka-dots to this Gitman Vintage offering shifts things a little more Preppy, a little more Prairie, and a lot less predictable.

I’m really hot and/or cold on most of the Native American/Pendelton-y prints that have trended their way into fashion lately, but this Topman piece has an almost sandwashed, Saved By The Bell feel and fit to it, so it keeps me looking more 1980s Slater, less 1880s Squaw Warrior.

I’m probably about as patterned-up as possible now, for spring. What I’m gonna do next to keep things un-basic and un-boring, I’m not just sure yet.

For 60-year-old sketches of children’s playthings, there was something rather grown up and modern about many of them.

So I picked my three favorite prints out of the dozens available, and my plan is to scan them in – combine, rearrange and minimize the layout(s), and create one perfect piece to print out and frame.

A timeless, un-traceable work with nods to Ancient Roman artifacts and to backyard games of Cowboys and Indians. Doesn’t make sense in a sentence, but on a wall, in a frame, I think and hope that it will.

The toy prints which I didn’t purchase can be found and enjoyed here.

But the four pairs above are the damage I’ve done to my wallet/closet floor in just the past two months – and yet I still don’t feel as if I have that one perfect pair of shoes I can wear every day with any outfit.

Surely, at least some of my outfits will work really rather well with my tawny New Balance hikers.

And other, more 70′s-ish scholarly outfits would pair properly with the hard-to-find Cola-colored Clarks Wallabees I eventually tracked down in England.

And even though they’re more orange in person than I quite know what to do with, the Irish Setters lace-ups I proxied in from Japan will simply have to be the perfect accompaniment to at least ten outfits this season, or I’ll never be able to justify their price tag to myself or anyone sane.

I might still not have one perfect pair of shoes that can get worn with all of my outfits, but fortunately I can pair a perfect outfit with every new and old pair of shoes that I own. If that basically makes me a half-black Bradshaw-born baby, then so be it.

That’s what I’d do today, if I hadn’t basically been doing that the past two weeks or so.

Event founders Larry Felitto of J.W. Hulme Co. and Kat MacMillan of Pierrepont Hicks and @mrsphicks Shoes are at it again, launching NorthernGRADE’s cooler, if not frostier, spin-off SnowGRADE on Saturday Feb. 25th. Here they share the story behind their new pop-up, and tip us off on which American-made goods they’re aiming to take home.

Why did you decide to spin-off NorthernGRADE into SnowGRADE?
Larry: The response for the last NorthernGRADE event was overwhelming and more and more I kept hearing from attendees and vendors alike that we should do more of these throughout the year. People really had a great time.

SnowGRADE is adding workshops into the mix. What can people expect to see and learn?
Larry: There will be an axe restoration workshop, a home brewing 101, leather care workshop, leather tooling workshop and the fellas at Marvel Bar are talking about doing a cocktail workshop. I’ll be front row for this one!

Kat: Peter Geye is a local author, who wrote a book called Safe From the Sea. He’ll be there talking about his book and signing copies. His book is about a man and his father, an old sea captain, coming to grips with their relationship… it takes place outside Duluth. It is such an appropriate book for SnowGRADE. And Peter is quite a guy.

Tell me about some of the new vendors who’ve come on board for SnowGRADE.
Larry: Best Made Axe Co. and Northern Brewer are two that I’m most excited about seeing. Both companies, although not menswear, exemplify the heart and soul of SnowGRADE; the idea of American made, craft, durable and quality.

Kat: I am so excited to welcome Byrd and Belle’s modern and gorgeous iPad covers. Moonshine Coffee is providing the coffee, which is so delicious I will probably be highly caffeinated all day long.

Kat: Rancourt and Co. is coming in from Maine. They make traditional handsewn shoes and boots. Frost River is coming. Their bags are awesome! We’ve got a great crew.

How have you tempted out-of-towners to brave the Minnesota winter and attend the event?
Kat: I think folks from elsewhere feel Minnesota in February is something they have to do at least once in their lives. It’s about character building. Or something.

Is there anything you’re hoping to bag at the event for your own wardrobe?
Kat: A Cause and Effect belt. A Byrd and Belle iPhone case. There is a pen at Askov Finlayson that I have to have. It’s apparently used by the State Department and it’s very heavy and can write upside down or underwater, since I am always writing notes while scuba diving I have to have it!

Larry: Fairbault Woolen Mills just launched a line of beautiful new scarves in a variety of colors, I’ve got my eye on one of those.

Larry: I’m also a little disappointed I didn’t pick up a hat from Ball & Buck at NorthernGRADE so I might have to spring for it this time around.

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And there you have it. Better pad your wallets and bundle up, boys. SnowGRADE’s gonna be ice hot!

Those close to me are convinced I can’t go six days without buying a new vase. I can appreciate their concern, but really, vases are one of the basic building blocks of interior decorating. And as long as you’re mixing them in with boxes and books and objets and art, you should be able to avoid visitors mistaking your home for a vase museum.

Out of my most recent batch of home decor purchases, less than a third are technically vases, my critics will be (un)pleased to know. I’ve been pounding the pavement on One Kings Lane with increased frequency and found this vintage Mexican abalone box during my favorite Tastemaker Tag Sale of the Fall, curated by designer Darren Brown.

Brown offered some kooky, California folk art vessels shaped like bearded Jesus-lookalikes in the collection as well, which didn’t quite seem like they would’ve worked in my home.

But Jonathan Adler’s reversible king/queen vase referenced the same 70s, fuzz-faced vibe in a subtler and less psychedelic way, and for four hundred dollars less.

With the Adler vase, the abalone box, and the metallic paint-splattered pot I found on Etsy, I’m seeing if a hit of retro, hippie-commune chic can add some unexpected and eccentric echoes to the otherwise genteel tablescapes of Tudor Mansion.

“Ryan Phillippe loved the Stretch Cotton T’s from Santa Monica-based brand Dune A4 that he bought one in each of the line’s 95 colors.”

Or.

“Gwyneth Paltrow is such a fan of the ultra slimming Dario jean by Dan & Ann Tan that she bought an 8th house in London for no other purpose than to store the 7,000 white pairs of the denim that she swears she was born to die in.”

It seemed gratuitous and wasteful and also sorta boring to purchase (and then wear) any clothing item in such bulk-like quantities. And, for a long time, any time I ever loved something enough to buy even a second version of it – just a year or two later I’d be on to some different fit, fad, or aesthetic mission and feel like I’d wasted my money not just once, but twice or, oh God, thrice.

But now that I’m older, and sorta smarter, and more settled in my self and style, more and more of my wardrobe is made up of reliable repeats that I love wearing in any and all of the colors/sizes/styles I have them in.

Most of my multiples are cheap and chain store-ish, but I suppose that’s what cheap, chain stores are really best for. (Although the Levi’s Vintage 1950s T’s run a pricy $90 per pop, which seems expensive even for a CW tv celebrity; but the fit and fade is so yesterday that I can’t help having a ton of them today.)

After all, guys are about twice as persnickety about clothes as gals, and when you find a piece that you find yourself slipping into Sunday straight through Saturday you know you’ve officially found your sartorial sweet spot. And it becomes quite sensical and not too In Style-ish to stock up on such items and build up a stable of staples.

I’d still recommend not to ever go all Phillippe on any one item though. Three or four wardrobe repeats seems sage still, but beyond that you’re just begging the fates for boffo buyer’s remorse somewhere down the road.

But their drying-blood color and futuristic fighter-pilot shape feel fresh and forward-looking, which is what this time of year is for, when it comes to one’s look. They combine with the rest of what I’m slipping into these days, and yet quietly clash as well.

That’s just sorta how we Olsen Twins always do things.

Even I, a born Brit half raised by soap operas, was unsure if I’d take to the upstairs/downstairs drama of the haves and have-nots at Downton when I sampled season one over Christmas. But the series is so warm, well-cast and witty that none of its characters come off as stuffy and not one of its scenes ever feel stale.

Like in real life, every turn in the story twists about in ways which are thoroughly unpredicted yet instantly feel pre-ordained. Three episodes in and you feel you’ve known Lord and Lady Crawley and their three spit-firey daughters your entire life. And that they, and their sweet and scheming servants, are as much your family as they are one another’s.

Season 2 crosses the pond this Sunday onto PBS and marches its characters into the fateful call of the first world war. (Oh, Heavens!) Since everything’s bound to be so different for everyone at Downton now because of that, having already screened season 1 shouldn’t at all be considered a prerequisite for tuning in this weekend and enjoying the story. In fact, I’d think a light haze of confusion might make the war-torn drama go down all the more effectively.

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And, for the record, I don’t actually know much about the Kardashians, but Kelly was and Taylor, I guess, now is my favorite Housewife. (I like ‘em leggy and un-lucid, apparently.)

One of the pieces I’ve been most excited to install was the above bust portrait from Russia. The image is originally off a postcard I retouched to eliminate needless negative space, and I threw in a free nose-job for the old Soviet while I was at it. I shaved a good 10 years off his schnoz in under a minute, that’s how deft I am with digital knives.

The abstract water color I commissioned from my very own artist-in-residence, M. Hurlburt. Over the course of six or seven nights I had Hurly render similar pieces in endless shades and shapes – and in the end, drove him to madness and myself to giggles by choosing the very first one he’d completed. When it’s right, it’s right, but sometimes you don’t know that until you first go way wrong. (For, like a whole week.)

The colorized photo of this sun-streaked courtyard had been sitting around, unframed, for at least three years. Probably more like four. I wasn’t ever sure whether to go modern or antique-y with it, so in December I finally decided to not really officially decide, and just jam it in a twenty dollar frame that wasn’t up to any good anyway, and call it a day.

Really/obviously, I’ve been thinking, and perfecting, and waiting too long on all this. Hand me the hammer, and let’s just nail these things.

And this sparkling vintage cricket ball!

My household Santa rejected this box of Elephant brand noodles as an “official” Christmas present, so I was handed it, unwrapped/unceremoniously, early on the 24th as a reject gift. But its packaging was so cheery and charming, it’s earned “official” status in my heart.

I don’t drink soda pops all that much anymore, but I still have a super strong sweet tooth for unique, extinct, or international soft drink (bottles). We’ll see what this CocaCola branded, coconut water-colored Limca goes down like.

After departing India, Santa’s sleigh must’ve stopped in England somewhere along his journey to my house to pick up this vintage postcard book featuring the small town in England in which I was born. Although it was a gift for me, it was my Mom and Dad who most enjoyed flipping through the photographic reminders of the first place they called home as husband and wife.

Santa didn’t forget to Buy American this year though, and these Thurmoc Slippers from Hickorees are not only puppy belly-soft, inside and out, but they’re packaged in the greatest, grandfather-ish box.

Kris, Kelly, and Sabrina showed up on Christmas too…

With a 34-year old piece of gum and a sticker of Kris on one of her earliest cases.

Petrified, deadstock chewing gum is quickly becoming the hipster sweet of the year, if no other blog’s told you so just yet.