Oh Fab Fri­day – how I’ve missed thee! There’s some­thing about a lit­tle vir­tual eye candy that makes a gal happy. I’m lov­ing the fact that the fall shoes are start­ing to come out. Now, before you remind me “Aly – it’s just the begin­ning of sum­mer – don’t bring up fall!”, I have to say that buy­ing fall clothes/shoes are some­thing that I look for­ward to EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR! Well, I fig­ure I got 8 weeks of shoe lust to get out of my sys­tem as I pick out THE per­fect stilet­tos to rock this fall. Don’t worry – I’m sure that many can be worn year round and I promise no boots til at least the begin­ning of August – fair?

OK – so, now that we got that agree­ment in place – here’s a few covet-worthy items for you to enjoy!

1. These gor­geous Chris­t­ian Louboutin’s Laval­liere Bow Pumps just chan­nel that “Mad Men” vibe while flash­ing that red sole. LOVE!

2. I have seen this “COOK” cut­ting board by Joseph Joseph a few times and every time I see it, I’m tempted to get it for my kitchen. There’s some­thing about it that reminds me of the Philadel­phia LOVE sign. I even saw it last week in New York but the price dis­suaded me from pur­chas­ing it (plus car­ry­ing glass home on train – never fun!). How­ever, when I got the email that Cam­bria Cove was clos­ing, after wip­ing away my tears, I was thrilled to see this avail­able for sale at such a great price. I even picked up the Sex & The City Cup­cake apron I was obsessed with as well as some fabu ear­rings. I love a great sale but will miss Cam­bria Cove and their gor­geous products.

3. I was SO dis­ap­pointed in the Meyer Lemon crops this year. Talk about a short sea­son – I still always look at Whole Pay­chex to see if, per­haps, they might have a stray, non-moldy (!) Meyer Lemon but so far no go. How­ever, Williams-Sonoma is going to help me brighten up my dishes all year long. They have added not only a Meyer Lemon Brais­ing base to their food prod­ucts but also Dried Meyer Lemon Peel which will go per­fectly when I start using my new Emile Henry Tagine. Note to self: get Meyer Lemon Trees for the apart­ment and tell the Sous Pug that the trees are for cook­ing, NOT for him!

4. Every week, it never fails – I pur­chase a loaf of sour­dough bread and vow “One Day I’ll Learn To Make It Myself!” Then I remem­ber that when it comes to bak­ing in stilet­tos, well, I’m def­i­nitely in the begin­ning stages of bread. How­ever, some­how I think that this Sour­dough Starter & Crock from King Arthur Flour will help me get over my fears and, per­haps, I won’t be as ter­ri­fied to attempt it myself (and, in turn, tak­ing that $4 and putting that in the Stiletto Fund, right?).  Plus – when you bake (and cook) with qual­ity ingre­di­ents – it can only help.

5. I was in New York last week for an event and decided to take some time that after­noon to visit the Chelsea Mar­ket. While I was there, I always tend to buy a cook­book and I have been obsessed with learn­ing to cook Mex­i­can food lately. Now, we already dis­cussed my irra­tional fear of Bak­ing In Stilet­tos, but I think that My Sweet Mex­ico: Recipes for Authen­tic Pas­tries, Breads, Can­dies, Bev­er­ages, and Frozen Treats, will help me get over that. The book is beau­ti­fully pho­tographed and I read it like a novel the whole train ride home. I am look­ing for­ward to giv­ing this book a whirl over the next few months and post­ing about my bak­ing experiments!

What are you obsessed with this week?