Proust Questionnaire

The Olsen twins tackle the existentially probing 35-question Proust Questionnaire in their new book, Influence.
Today, it is CC's great pleasure to take on the Proustian task!
I encourage ALL my Fellow Fashionistas to complete this survey. It is a splendid, soul-searching way to spend part of your weekend...

Credits: Photos taken by CC except where noted. Questions reprinted via Vanity Fair ; each month, VF interviews a different celeb or artist - check out the last page of any issue or vanityfair.com.

1.What is your idea of perfect happiness? Red wine and S’mores made with marshmallows toasted over an open fire at a remote beach (at right, a photo CC took of a Costa Rican sunset).

2.What is your greatest fear? Losing love

3.What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Insecurity

4.What is the trait you most deplore in others? Selfishness

5.Which living person do you most admire? Diane von Furstenberg

6.What is your greatest extravagance?

Of time: Blogging

Of Money: La Petite Salope dresses! Photo at left courtesy lapetitesalope.com.

7.What is your current state of mind? Peaceful

8.What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Being “nice”

9.On what occasion do you lie? Rarely, but maybe to get out of jury duty… 

10.What do you most dislike about your appearance? My thighs

11.Which living person do you most despise? W

12.What is the quality you most like in a man? Understanding

13.What is the quality you most like in a woman? Grace

14.Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Gorgeous! CC adores! You bet your sweet bippy!

15.What or who is the greatest love of your life? Anthony

16.When and where were you happiest? Raking leaves with my siblings at age 5 in the front yard of my childhood home in Connecticut. (That's CC in the middle; photo taken by my Dad).

17.Which talent would you most like to have? The ability to sew and create couture (Alexander McQueen at right, courtesy style.com)

18.If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My indecisiveness

19.What do you consider your greatest achievement? Getting a law degree and passing the Bar Exam

20.If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? Any of Cary Grant’s co-stars or lovers. Photo at left via blog.skpbs.org.

21.Where would you most like to live? New York City

Photos at right: a doorway in Murray Hill and the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art

22.What is your most treasured possession? A silver ring given to me by my mother

23.What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Loneliness

24.What is your favorite occupation? Painting

25.What is your most marked characteristic? My creativity

26.What do you most value in your friends? Empathy

27.Who are your favorite writers? Borges, Ha Jin, and Truman Capote

28.Who is your hero of fiction? Holden Caulfield or Wonder Woman

29.Which historical figure(s) do you most identify with? The Vietnam War Donut Dollies, pictured at right – CC’s mom is on the left; the photo was taken by a G.I.

30.Who are your heroes in real life? My mother, my brother Bryan and my Spanish Professor Ana Diz

31.What are your favorite names? Caroline, Valerie, Catherine, Trent, Beckett, Wesley, and Lars

32.What is it that you most dislike? Discourteousness

33.What is your greatest regret? Picking fights when it wasn’t warranted

34.How would you like to die? Peacefully

35.What is your motto? Live with style!

Photo at right: part of a Van Gogh-inspired self-portrait CC did awhile back.

So TAG, you’re all IT!

xoxox,

CC

Quickie Quadrangles

Fall for this tag! Here’s a fun survey I recently received from Fellow Fashionista La Petite Fashionista...

4 Things I Did Today:

1. Ran in the crunchy fall leaves in the park near my house.

2. Made oatmeal with apples and cinnamon – like having pie for breakfast!

3. Listed a bunch of stuff on ebay and craigslist.

4. Polished all my black shoes.
4 Things On My To-Do List:

1. Rake leaves (CC took these tree pics in her neighborhood!)

2. Grill chicken for dinner or pork tenderloin if I’m feeling really motivated!

3. Write a letter to my artist friend Sara in Spain. (A series of her ink blot paintings are pictured at left - so gorgeous!)

4. Get teeth cleaned and whitened!
4 Guilty Pleasures:
1. Gossip Girl, Lipstick Jungle, Dirty Sexy Money, Desperate Housewives and other such TV nonsense! Photos of DSM via starpulse.com.

2. Robust red wine and 70% cocoa dark chocolate, pref. together!

3. My bazillion fashion mag subscriptions, esp. Vogue, Bazaar, Elle & W!

4. Occasion celeb stalking on justjared, imnotobsessed and New York Post Page Six.com.

4 Random Facts about Me:

1. I hardly ever wear makeup, but I always have my nails painted.

2. My parents met in Hong Kong at a tailor shop during the Vietnam War. This is a picture of my mom when she was a Donut Dolly for the Red Cross; yes, that is a gattling gun.
3. I love writing old-fashioned “snail mail” letters or communicating online, but I don’t relish gabbing on the phone (but isn’t that photo at left from M.A.C. Cosmetics alluring?).

4. I have four siblings, all younger, 2 brothers and 2 sisters. My sister Mindy and my bother Bryan are twins.

4 Bloggers that I'm Tagging:
Poeta Fit Non Nascitur
Lenore of Lenorenevermore
Lisa of Leeselooks
La Belette Rouge

Anyone else who wants a self-searching diversion, please consider yourself tagged as well, darling!

Honor Thy Father

I don't normally devote my posts to things other than runway style, but I feel that my interest in fashion derives, at least in part, from my Dad, who died of kidney cancer nearly seven years ago. So, here are some things I remember about my father . . .

He always wore a plaid bathrobe to fetch a steaming mug of black coffee from the kitchen before heading up to take a shower.

He was never one of those "embarrassing dads"; he knew the right thing to say, wear or do at any given moment. My father sported pink button-downs and pressed khakis before anyone had even uttered the word "metrosexual".

My Dad understood my interests and helped me to explore them. He bought me my first Spanish/English dictionary and helped me finance a semester in Salamanca when I was in college. He studied French at the University of Virginia before going to Vietnam.

He loved the beach. He always wanted to own a boat, but the closest he ever came was watching them sail by from the beach at the Elberon Bathing Club, which became his summer stomping grounds in the late 1980s. He taught all five of his kids to swim and bodysurf. When I cut my foot on a razor clam in Cape Code when I was five, he carried me all the way to the emergency medical care center, where I got seven stitches.

My dad made food taste better. He had a couple of specialties, including buttermilk pancakes with real melted butter and pure Vermont maple syrup, pasta a la carbonara, and perfectly cooked steak. No matter the time of year, my father grilled. The deck would be completely iced over and he'd be out there in a parka and boots, grilling by flashlight.

Everyone who met my Dad loved him instantly. He had a winning smile, a hearty laugh, and an approachable, charismatic way about him. I guess that's why my mom fell for him (and dumped her then-fiance) when they met in Hong Kong during the Vietnam War. My mom was a Donut Dolly with the Red Cross and my dad was a G.I., and they had gone into the city during some "time off" to visit one of the famous Hong Kong tailors. I did not learn until quite recently that it was custom clothing that brought my parents together all those years ago; I suppose this knowledge has helped to crystallize (or at least legitimize) my obsession with fashion. Thanks for reading, lovelies, and the best to all fathers everywhere.

Photo credits: epodunk.com; epicurious.com