Eyeing ... not buying

I've spent the past few weeks on visits to the East Coast where I've been with my family. I don't want to point any accusing fingers, but good lord, what a bunch of blathermouths. They have talked me into a pulp. Because of the spongey state of my mentality, I have no words left for you, my invisible internet friends. In my free time, I listen to audiobooks (because it's not a solecism if I doze off or miss a few sentences while listening to prerecorded material) or look at stuff on the internet. Stuff that I'm not going to buy.

In the off-chance that you're interested, these are the things I'm ogling these days.

Let's start with the most ridiculous. I am not a bride. At my time of life, the last thing I need is more plates. And yet, I have been in love with Herend's Chinese Flowers pattern for ages. And for only $1,200 or so, these could be mine.

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

Next we have another luxury good (because when you're not going to buy stuff, why pinch pennies?) This is a variation on my favorite all-time Hermes scarf pattern, Hubert Watrigant's "Carnaval de Venise." (Scarf heads: for more pictures and fun facts about this design, click here.)

This version is enlarged to become a massive silk/cashmere shawl, so a border of Venetian masks is added to the basic design. I love it, even though I don't really understand these shawls ... I mean, why you would want to swathe yourself in that much pattern, and doesn't it get hot? Plus the prints are never as crisp and refined looking as they are on silk ... still, I ogle it.

And it could be mine for about $1,500.

This is where we really start to get silly. I like brown. I look better in brown than black. And yet, I own way more black than brown clothing because clothing manufacturers don't want me to be happy. And I won't even discuss how difficult it is to find a pair of brown dress shoes. Even Ferragamo, the most conservative shoe designer EVER can't be bothered to make chocolate brown shoes.

So I have a beautiful pair of chocolate brown pumps that Stuart Weitzman condescended to manufacture a year or two ago. And this bag would look amazing with them.

I may even have emitted a small yelp when I realized that it really is brown, and not just a crappy washed out photograph of a black bag. Still ... not going to happen.

Then there's my sister-in-law's tiara.

I'm pretty sure she'd lend it to me, should I ever feel the need.


Finally, there's the Alice Through the Looking Glass palette from Urban Decay.

In 2010, when Urban Decay's original Alice in Wonderland palette came out, I visited Sephora twice in two days to get one. The first day they hadn't unpacked them yet. The next day, the palettes were already sold out. Color me disappointed (with glitter fallout on my cheeks.)

Then I saw the movie and thought it was so terrible that I'm glad Tim Burton and Disney and Johnny Depp and all the rest of them didn't get a single additional penny from me. So I'm boycotting it, even though its dumb bulky cardboard packaging appeals to my inner Urban Decay traditionalist (if that isn't an oxymoron.)