Last fall I fell in love with this really simple plaid dress that had just about the best shape I’ve seen in a fall dress—a tiny bit fitted around the waist (only dresses I can wear, really) but sort of loose at the same time.  A wide neckline and full three-quarter length sleeves that probably look amazing on and really take the dress away from the retro/’50s direction it could too easily have gone in.  But I waited too long to get it, and as soon as it went on sale it sold out in my size. Oh well.  But it did lead me to check out Ace & Jig, the label behind the dress, and I saw that there were a lot more things just as good.

Right now I’m really into prints that aren’t florals for spring, so I love all the stripes and plaids and checks in their new spring collection.  I like the dark color scheme too, and how easy the dresses in particular look to wear.  Such good simple shapes, and really grown-up ones at that.

Coat and Coach bag: thrift store
Blouse and necklace: Madewell
Skirt: American Apparel (via thrift store)
Shoes: Rachel Comey
Sunglasses: Karen Walker

First of all I can’t thank you enough for your nice words about the last post.  Thanks for all the great food blog recommendations (so many good ones just got added to my reader) and thanks for being honest about what you like to see on my blog (and what you don’t).  I like fashion and will keep doing posts on new collections I like and all, but I’m planning on sneaking some off-topic posts in there too.

If you were one of the couple of commenters who said you liked mundane weekend recap posts I think you’ll like this one . . . Well, our weekend started off pretty busy, really.  My sister Ashley and her husband Danny and their kids Jack and Stella came to Atlanta for a few days, and on Friday we went to the Georgia Aquarium (favorite things: dolphins, sea otters, frogs, sea dragons) and ate at Yeah Burger.  It was so much fun getting to see my niece and nephew; they’re both such strange, wonderful kids who keep getting better and better each time I see them.  And Ashley and Danny are always great to see and have long talks with after the kids go to bed.  I miss them all already, but we have a family trip to Pigeon Forge (Dollywood!) coming up in April, and I know the months ’till then will fly by.

After my family left our weekend got pretty lazy.  It rained for a lot of it, so I stayed inside and read and planned out things to do on a short trip we have coming up.  I made pumpkin pancakes (no photos—I was too hungry and couldn’t wait) for breakfast yesterday, and we ate at La Fonda for dinner and then watched the Christmas episode of Downton Abbey, which was really as good as all you who’d seen it before said it would be.  No spoilers, but it was a perfect ending, and it almost made me forget how crazy some of those season two episodes were.  And now I just want to fast-forward to next year and see season three, with lots of Maggie Smith/Shirley Maclaine cat fights and 1920s Mary Crawley with bobbed hair.

Yesterday a commenter told me that I ought to do more posts on things other than weekend outfits and collections I like, and I think she was right.  I know that a few years ago (and even a year ago) I was writing more about my life and interests outside of fashion . . . kind of boring day-to-day stuff that I was always hesitant to include on a fashion blog, but it was fun and maybe one or two people liked it.  Then I got self-conscious and quit.  I was worried about being narcissistic, and mostly I just wondered who would really care what I had to eat on a Saturday afternoon or what books I was reading.

But, you know, I really like reading about the day-to-day lives of bloggers, even the most mundane stuff that shouldn’t be interesting; it’s real.  Fashion is fine, but sometimes I go through phases of not caring, and sometimes I don’t know what to write about on my blog.  So I think I want to start including some of the other things that I’m into at the moment.

I’ve written about stuff I’ve baked before, I know, but lately I’ve been more obsessed than I should be.  My sister Ashley and her family (who are in town visiting right now!) got me Dorie Greenspan’s baking book for my birthday, and in the few months I’ve had it I’ve probably make 15 things or so.  The book is that good—lots of simple, non-fussy desserts and breakfast foods that almost always turn out. (I’ve messed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but it was my fault, not Dorie’s, and also I just have bad luck making cookies).  Today I made Dorie’s lemon poppy seed muffins for the 4th time and then some more cookies for my family (oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip; they turned out better than the last batch, fortunately).  The top picture is from over the weekend, when I made challah bread for pumpkin bread pudding.  Instead of celebrating Valentine’s day and doing gifts Drew and I just made a nice meal, which I guess is still celebrating Valentine’s Day—oh well.

Does anyone have any favorite food/baking blogs to share?  I’m obsessed.  My favorites so far are Lottie & Doof, Smitten Kitchen, and Orangette, but I have a feeling that there are so many good ones out there that I’m missing out on.

These days all of the fashion weeks just kind of overwhelm me, and it usually takes months before I can really take a good look at any of the collections.  All the amazing fashion week images that keep popping up on Tumblr/Instagram/Facebook just fill up my brain with image overload, and I can’t really focus.  Also, you know, you end up seeing the same shows/pictures over and over again . . . which is fine, but not really exciting; the thrill of the new wears off pretty quickly.  So when I see a photo of a label that’s new to me (and only one photo of it, thank goodness) it’s refreshing, and I can focus again, and I want to go internet sleuthing and dig up everything I can on it.

The label Calla has been around for a while, but I just found out about it today when I saw a photo of its designer Calla Haynes with Leith Clark, who styles the collections.  They were both dressed so well, and in such good prints, that I had to go check out Calla’s label, and sure enough it was one I wish I’d seen before, full of pretty dresses and edgy prints.  Just the kinds of things I want to be wearing this summer.

The photos below are from the autumn collection; I liked the photos better than the ones from the spring collection, though the spring stuff is probably even better.  You can catch glimpses of it in the video below, which is a Leith Clark-styled video if I’ve ever seen one  . . . So pretty.

Photos: Calla Haynes . . . . . . . . . Calla Fall/Winter 2011 . . . . . . . . . Calla Spring 2012 Campaign Video.

We’re getting a cold snap this weekend after a few weeks of abnormally warm weather; the weathermen keep rubbing it in by saying that winter is back, but I’m in denial.  I don’t even really want to look at fashion week coverage—-too many winter coats and tights, blah.  And I can’t even be excited about Valentine’s Day since it just reminds me that it’s only February still.  And besides, it’s a sappy, hyped up holiday.  Who needs it.

In my dreams it’s April already—we have a few trips planned, and I think it should finally be warm by then, at least here in Atlanta.  And I want to wear things like this . . . Le Mont St. Michel is becoming what A.P.C. used to be for me in the good old days (did you see the new A.P.C. collection?  Right now it looks kind of boring, but who knows . . . it usually takes a while to warm up for me).  Simple clothes—not at all frilly, but still pretty.

Now on a more boring note . . . . if you follow this blog on an RSS reader you might have gotten a lot of spam about laptops and things over the last few days.  I’m really sorry.  I looked into it and apparently there are people who buy up old abandoned blog urls and fill them up with spam.  I deleted my old blogspot blog a few months ago, so I think that’s what happened.  I tried to fix a few things so the spam might be (hopefully) stopping, but if not you might want to unsubscribe and subscribe to this one instead:  http://www.liebemarlene.com/feed/.  I’m so sorry for the hassle! Promise I wasn’t trying to sell you laptops.