Darla: "Oh. You're right. I do look like a walking café curtain."

Carla: "I hated to be the one to tell you, but someone had to do it."

Darla: "And you know …"

Carla: "That I look like I'm about to call "offsides!" at the World Tea-Drinking Championship? Yep."

Darla: "Our home-ec teacher has a lot to answer for."

Carla: "Don't worry, I already spiked the faculty coffeepot with something that causes unpleasant gastrointestinal effects, yet is non-life-threatening."

Darla: "You rock. Also, cute shoes!"

(Thanks to Janet at Lanetz Living for today's pattern!)

Somehow I managed to get on the Talbot's catalog mailing list and this shirtdress caught my eye. LOVE this color green:

I can't tell if it has pockets or not, but it really does look nice. The whole catalog seems full of surprises, including some great cardigans in one kajillion colors and some very very cute shoes.

I haven't shopped at Talbot's in ages — it was always a bit off in a way I think our friends in the UK would call "mumsy." So either they have gotten better, or I have now aged into their target demo. Or both. Both is always possible.

Seen last week on the Collette Patterns blog:

The tone-on-tone of this is really gorgeous. (Click on the image to go to the blog and see a full-length view.) I would love to see something like this on a non-princessy wedding dress, say a simple silk sheath in cream with cream roses along the waist and hem in taffeta or even organza.

While I'm at Colette's blog, I would like to point out how cute these little bias-tape bows are. Adorable!

And speaking of embellishments, I *think* I saw recently a dress with a heart on it, where the heart was made of random sizes of heart-shaped buttons. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Or did I just make it up?

(The dress itself is available here, and it's a larger size, too!)

Thanks to Kathleen for the link!

Yes, I am still obsessed with penny loafers, so it's time for me to share another roundup of them with you.

In some very exciting loafer news, Bass has finally come out with a low-vamp penny loafer (the Brookfield). I wish they were an update (but not this one) on the classic cordovan Weejuns, a shoe I wore constantly from elementary school through high school, but you can't have everything. (The menfolks can have updated Weejuns this spring, though.)

What you can have is them in white, which I think is really cute for summer:

And being Bass, they come in wide widths, which I appreciate, and they have more padding than most of the other loafers I've seen. (You may have to search a bit for the white ones — I see them intermittently on eBay.)

I like these Franco Sarto Ivy loafers too, but I'm not sold on the suede, and all the non-suede options are fake croc. I really, really hate fake croc (and real croc, for that matter).

I haven't had a chance to try these on (unlike the Brookfields) so I think the vamp may be too high.

These Via Spigas Olsins are super-cute:

They're on the expensive side (~$100) but are on sale everywhere right now in random colors (including the dreaded croc) and a bright shiny orange.

(The Via Spigas, with that wonderful snipped-off 1960s toe, don't look so good on a wider foot, I'm sorry to say. If you have narrow feet, they will probably look fabulous.)

This KORS MICHAEL KORS Harper loafer is cute, except for the lug sole. (Why, Michael? Why?) And they're very expensive, at almost $200:

Aldo has a loafer, too, in black, brown, and red (red's on sale!) but I don't like the trompe l'oeil nature of the penny slot (you see how picky I am?):

These Aldo loafers are a little too 1990s for my taste, but maybe the 90s are coming back, now that we've nearly exhausted the 1980s revival?

If you're out and about and see any other penny loafers, please drop me a link!