Glitter:

OK, I'm just going to admit it. For all the world to read. It's no longer a secret:

Internet friends, I love glitter (Oh, don't act all shocked).

Glitter and the holidays go hand in hand, so if you're like me, you stock up now. I've pieced together a couple of my favorites below. Maybe we can call it, Tracie's Go-To Glitter Guide. I kind of like the sound of that.

1. If you're shy about wearing glitter and/or sequins, I think this Banana Republic sweater is a good way to dip your toe in. 

2. Glitter shell from J. Crew: I have this in black, and plan on getting it in about every other color they offer. I wear it underneath cardigans for a peek of glitter, or on top of button-downs for full force shine. So versatile, for glitter.

3. Platinum dress, from anthro. I seriously wish I had somewhere fancy to go (alright, and a spare $400), just so I could wear this dress.

4. This Free People dress is fun (but maybe on the short, tight side for me. But still, adorable)!

5. I'm loving this beaded skirt, also from anthro.

6. I've seen a lot of sequin skirts this season, but they all seem way too short (and by way too short, I mean basically a belt). I think this version, from Ann Taylor Loft, is just the right length.

7. Sometimes I feel that black sequins/glitter is a little, been there, done that. But this blazer? Why don't I own this glitter blazer from Banana? Why??

8. I can't get myself excited over the sequined Uggs I'm starting to see everywhere. Maybe because they're Uggs, and they're ugly to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I think the kids look adorable in them. But a grown woman needs grown woman shoes. These sequined boots from the always reliable kate spade are awesome, and strike a nice balance between Squeeee! Sequins! and well, grown woman shoes.

9. These kate spades come in other colors, but omigod the navy! Glitter! Sophistication! More glitter! Not black! Can you tell? The navy by far and away is my favorite.

10. Finally, if you're looking for shine, but only a little, this purse from J. Crew is adorbs.

Muppets:

Happy Tuesday, internet! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving--and by that I mean I hope you ate until you had to unbutton your pants (come on, what other day of the year allows that??). At our Thanksgiving this year, I was in charge of making the pies. I don't know what I did to manage my time so successfully, but I was done baking by about 1:00 Wednesday afternoon. So naturally, with all this time on my hands, I did what any red-blooded child of the 70s would do: I took my kids to see the Muppets.

First of all: holy awesome. This movie did not disappoint at all. If you enjoyed the Muppet Show in the late 70s, or any of the 80s Muppet movies, you will no doubt enjoy this. My friend Bob blogged about the movie as well, saying that this movie was a prime example of rebooting a franchise; and I whole-heartedly agree.

There's a million recaps online, and a super awesome Muppet Wiki (which was very helpful in solving the disagreement between myself and the 8 year old: what is the sax player's name? I was pretty insistent it was Floyd, however was proved wrong when a simple search turned up that Floyd is the guitarist [and Animal's handler], and Zoot is actually the name of the sax player). So instead, I leave you with a song that will be stuck in your head for, oh, I'd say the next 2 or 3 days. But well worth it.

Holiday Monday:

New feature here on the ol' bloggity: Holiday Monday; where everything holiday-related will be posted. Since it's still early enough in the season (but never to early to start celebrating!), I thought I'd start off with holiday cards. Of course, it's not too late to have your favorite graphic designer (ahem) design custom cards for you... but in case you're not going that route (really?), I've picked a few of my faves.

Naturally kate spade is at the top of the list (although this list isn't in any particular order, it's never a bad idea to start with the alway adorable ks).

These Peace, Love, Cookies cards are the perfect non-denominational, whimsical way to wish your friends and family a festive holiday season. Running a close second is the Break a Resolution New Year's card, and the Snowglobe gift tags. Adorbs, but then again, I expect nothing less.

Next up is the cute cards over at Tiny Prints. These are great cards, especially if you have a photo you want to add. My favorite is this tri-fold:



Tiny Prints' cards are bright and energetic, and the message across the board is fun.

Also good if you like sending photo cards is my friend (and neighbor!) Sugar and Spice Designs. Since Laura, the owner, is paper crazy (like, ahem, a certain graphic designer), the great thing about her site is that you can pick the paper stock you'd like your cards to be printed on. Besides the fact that she is a small, local business, she is also a photographer; which means that she'll take the fantastic portraits you want to put on your cards (of course, it's OK if you use your own photos--but she's a pretty awesome photographer, so, you know...).



Etsy is a fantastic resource for great cards, but sometimes it's really noisy and there's all kinds of great design shouting at you. Here's some of my Etsy faves:

Good Cheer cards from the Office of Nature

Winter Wonderland from Spring Olive

Map Card by Sara Luke Creative (love this if you've moved recently!)

Tree of Hope by Dancing Pen and Press

Finally, these online retailers all have a great selection of cards to spread holiday cheer:

MoMA

Hello, Lucky

Minted

Pear Tree Greetings

Pinhole Press

What's your favorite place to get your holiday cards? And, besides gift guides, what else do you want to see on Holiday Mondays?

Book club:

Last night was another fun meeting of the Rulebreakers^TM Book Club. The book we were discussing (yes, husbands, we actually discuss the book) was The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.

Overall, book club liked it. The visuals were dreamy--if you couldn't guess from the title, the book is about a magical circus that takes place--wait for it--at night. OK, it's really about a lot more than that (magical challenges, illusionists in love...), but the overall theme was this black and white night circus, and we all agreed that it was a circus that we'd all like to visit. Personally, I felt the plot itself was a little slow-moving, but the descriptions of everything about Les Cirque des Reves--down to the smell--were so so crazy detailed, that it more than made up for it.

Naturally the theme of our evening was the circus--with a dash of black and white--with popcorn, pretzels, black and white cookies, and magic bars (YUM) to eat. Our host Kathy did a great job decorating with the theme of the book, too--black, white and red tablecloths, candles, tickets...

Unfortunately, Erin Morgenstern wasn't available via Twitter (she was nice enough to let us know beforehand that she would be traveling; and she did answer a question before her plane took off [I'd like to think that the flight attendants were all, Miss, you HAVE GOT to turn off your phone, otherwise the plane can't take off! And she was all, HOLD ON! I have an important book club question I have to answer!]).

Since we're trying to be Twitter BFFs with the authors of our books, we have started taking group photos (to tweet back to them). Here we are, in our black and white (and red) glory:

All in all, another super fun book club. Next up is the Steve Jobs autobiography--which happens to coincide with our annual holiday meet, where we get grab bag gifts. I'm hoping somebody gets an iPad (you know, to go with the theme)... but with a $15 spending cap, that might be hard.

Hello:

OK. I know. Lots of shoes here, but I can't help it! I feel like I've been in a shoe drought for far too long--and by drought, I don't mean lack of shoes, I mean lack of shoes that I actually like. This past spring and summer's selection of shoes was really meh; and I was really slow to love anything this fall as well--that is, up until last week. And when these babies showed up in my Facebook feed, it was love at first sight:

Seriously. How cute are these Lucky Brand boots? Like I need another pair of knee-high boots... but the fact that they fold over like this? I'm sold (well, I'll be sold once they go on sale)!

So internet friends, tell me: what shoes/boots are on your radar this fall?