Getting your hands on this stuff can be tricky. And though Libertine's collection isn't exactly my style, they are sure to have some separates that I will end up loving. The more popular pieces sell like hotcakes, so I was planning a trip to Target first thing on Sunday morning. But I just read that Racked has found the clothing on display in at least one NYC store today!
If you really can't live without Libertine, may I suggest a lunchtime trip to Target?
UPDATE: As of 12:30 PM, Libertine is out for sale at the MacArthur Target. It's already picked-over. :(
While we were in Istanbul, the city experienced some of the hottest weather in 30 years. On one of those sweltering nights, some friends invited us to their home for a BBQ.
Turkish cuisine's appeal is in the simplicity of its flavors. They highlight a few key ingredients and let them shine. Meats are simply dressed and grilled. Salads are served dressed with olive oil and Italian parsley or dill. Vegetables are prepared in olive oil or served pureed as appetizers.
Our hosts served a very refreshing, delicious potato salad. This salad was unlike anything I've ever tasted before, a combination of potatoes, cucumber and yogurt. And, they just sent me the recipe:
Summer Potato Salad*:
1 cup of yogurt 1 clove of garlic, finely diced 1 tsp salt
4 Russet potatoes 1 cucumber, grated Salt to taste
Combine the yogurt. garlic and salt in a small bowl and stir well. Place in the refrigerator.
Boil the potatoes until cooked through. Cool, peel, and mash. I used a food processor and added a little milk. Add the prepared garlic yogurt and grated cucumber and stir until smooth. Add salt to taste. The salad is good right away, but for the best taste, let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours.
SOUNDTRACK: "Stop Me," a reworking of the Smiths' track by Mark Ronson.
* Thanks to Erman and Burcu for the hopitality and the recipe.
We don't grow a lot of cherries in Texas. To my knowledge, we don't grow any. It's just too hot. Luckily, they still find their way to our tables via the local grocery store. And this year they are spectacular.
Every time I eat cherries, I can't help but think of the scene from The Witches of Eastwick. I won't get into the details. It's just too early. But those pits can be avoided all together if you use this cherry pitter from Oxo. It takes out those stones in one swift swoop.
As a Texas girl, I can't help but love this Yee-Haw wallpaper by Paul Loebach. The pattern features cowboys on horseback, oil wells, and even some tiny little football helmets.
We went to Turkey to attend the wedding of our good friend Burak. Not only was he planning his wedding, he was also nice enough to put together a few activities for his friends from the states. So on the night before the wedding he planned for us to board a large passenger boat for a floating party called the White party. Note: you were supposed to wear white.
We spent the early afternoon with another couple of friends on Baghdad Street, the main shopping drag of the Asian side of the city. We planned to cross the bridge back to Europe to change clothes and board the boat at 7 pm, but we had not budgeted our time well.
At 6 pm, we were still waiting in traffic, not even close enough to see the bridge, much less cross it. Luckily, the boat party was planning a stop on the Asian side to pick up more passengers. After a few phone calls, we all planned to meet at the second stop and Burak, the world's best host, was on his way to get white T-shirts for all of the hopeless traffic castaways.
We arrived at the boarding point at 7 pm in three separate cars. Right on time, except that it wasn't the boarding point. Or at least, that was the consensus at the time.There was a lot of discussing in Turkish and then we drove to another boarding point. No, that one wasn't the boarding point either. And so we returned to the original point in a mad rush, parked and ran through a city park filled with picnickers, strays, and fishermen to catch the boat at the shore of the Bosporus.
Even though it was 7:15, the boat had waited. We later realized that this was because the party that was designed for 200 or 300, was attended by only 50 or so. The early boarding time meant that people couldn't make it from work in time. Friday traffic in Istanbul is incomprehensible.
So we took a nearly private cruise of the Bosporus that night to the loudest mix of 80s and Salsa you can imagine. As the natives around us danced, we watched the city slink by, absolutely amazing, shimmering with light, and dotted with glorious, crumbling bits of history.
SOUNDTRACK: "Big in Japan"
The best Alphaville song I'd never heard. But if you're in Istanbul, you'll hear this at almost every club.
I saw a very expensive candle stick in the shape of a bird foot in Barney's last December. Of course, I loved it immediately and pined for it for months. But these gunmetal plated pewter bird feet by Ria Charisse have the same feel and are more my speed at $36 a pair.
I also love this morbid acrylic mirror complete with smoke, ravens, and x's over your eyes. I think it would be fun in an entry way. Deathwish Mirror, $150.
Libertine's new line for Target, scheduled to drop this Sunday, 7/15, may actually be in stores right now. Libertine's collection is the latest in Target's uber-popular Go. International Flights of Fashion series.
