Whoa, whoa. I wish it was Sunday…

‘Cause that’s my fun day…

[Insert sound of needle scratching across surface of record here. If you even know what a record is.]

The Shop Tart likes Mondays. And the Bangles, for that matter. Why? Because she loves her job, her children love their schools, and her husband is more or less happy with his work, although she suspects his job is a little harder than being a third grader or, say, someone who shops and goes out to eat for a living. Rainy Mondays are kind of dreamy, n’est-ce pas?

All the days are lovely, really. As you may remember, the Shop Tart attended a fab party last Wednesday for Mint designer Jodi Arnold. After, she went to Dianne’s for a Wedge and Wine with Molly Harrell who was photographing the soirée and is always entertaining. The Shop Tart loves Molly, because she once took a very flattering photo of her. The next day, as a result of the party and the Wedge and Wine, the Shop Tart immensely enjoyed an STP Dipper at Groucho’s on Forest Drive. Occasionally, she makes the mistake of ordering a Junior STP. Silly girl. Then she just wants a second one.

Conveniently, Groucho’s is right across the street from Bobby’s Shoe Repair, where the Shop Tart had taken her peep-toe eyelet boots to have the heels replaced. Bobby’s is the best. They replaced the heels, worn-down from wandering New York, for only eight dollars. She also needed new holes punched in two belts. Which they did on the spot for free. True story.

Thursday night, the Shop Tart and her husband attended the Songbird Cafe, a benefit for SisterCare. If you haven’t been, mark your calendar for next year. So much fun! Each year, they have several musicians get up on stage and entertain, singing and talking with each other. The music is great, but the banter is phenomenal. This year, Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish, Ken Block and Andrew Copeland of Sister Hazel and Doug Jones of Cravin’ Melon were there. Encore!

The Shop Tart’s mother was wearing a fab necklace she had purchased just for football season. She found it at Miss Cocky, Columbia’s newest spot for stylish Gamecock gear. (Miss Cocky is offering 25% off one item this week because - not sure if you heard - the Gamecocks are ranked 25! Yeah!)

Friday morning, the Shop Tart had to be up early for a trip to Charleston with the other ladies working on the Unmasking Colon Cancer Ball committee. Admittedly, the name isn’t too catchy, but the ball will be a blast, with a fashion show emceed by the Shop Tart herself, food, drinks and music. The event will be held at the Charleston Aquarium in March, so do mark your calendars now. The ladies stopped in various participating stores, Hampden Clothing, Grady Ervin and Saks. They also stopped at Bits of Lace, where the Shop Tart forced one of her fellow committee members into a dressing room and let that nice lady with the long brown hair educate her on the best bras. That nice lady is the bomb; she will change your life with her bra-fitting skills. At Saks, the ladies enjoyed Trish McEvoy makeovers. (Trish McEvoy is available right here in town at Coplon’s. Great stuff.) Artist Andrew Peterson made the Shop Tart pretty, which was a tough task given how many times she had been out late that week.

Saks was also hosting a Masha Archer show. Representative Joan Winter showed the collection and let the ladies try on various pieces. Slide show, mais oui!

Liz LaFitte won a drawing for a gorgeous pair of Masha earrings.

She put them on right away for a photo with Joan.

The ladies picked up a few cosmetics items on the way out, including this Shop Tart favorite. The Shop Tart was in the market for a new scent and headed to the Jo Malone corner in Saks.

After smelling quite a few, she settled on Jo Malone’s newest, Vanilla and Anise. Big smooches to Krissie, the enormously patient Jo Malone specialist.

Is it just the Shop Tart or is a fragrance’s image as important as the smell? Love the clean, sophisticated look at Jo Malone! After more shopping on King Street, the ladies headed to Cru Cafe for lunch. Cru Catering will be providing the food for the ball in March and the Shop Tart can’t wait. Lunch was superb! The ladies started with this calamari appetizer.

They also had fried green tomatoes with roasted corn and pepper relish. No photo, because they were hungry. The tomatoes were lovely, the perfect dish with the Shop Tart’s bubbly.

For lunch, the Shop Tart had Chinese Chicken Salad. This was an appetizer size. The entree must be enormous. The salad was loaded with delicious crunchy things like daikon and had plenty of tender, pulled chicken.

The two ladies across from her split a barbecue sandwich and fries. Yum! Cole slaw on a barbecue sandwich is essential, n’est-ce pas?

After more shopping and location scouting - the aquarium is so perfect, by the way! - the ladies left for Columbia, all except the Shop Tart. She stayed behind, because Mr. Shop Tart was coming to meet her. She had an hour and a half to kill and couldn’t think of a better place to do it than Ted’s Butcher Block near the aquarium. She wanted a glass of wine and thought sitting in a bar alone on the afternoon might make the wrong statement. Ted’s isn’t a bar, it’s a shop. Drinking in shops, no matter what time of day, is always acceptable. She settled in with a glass of dry white wine and a copy of Skirt.

Later, she wanted to leave to retrieve a copy of Elle magazine, leaving her credit card as collateral, but the nice people at Ted’s trusted her to come back. Lovely. When Mr. Shop Tart arrived, he found his wife a bit loopy - the glass of wine was rather large - and they made reservations for dinner. They had planned on trying Trattoria Lucca, but the Shop Tart was tired after her long week and wanted to go somewhere withing easy walking distance. Fig, it was, where they enjoyed a drink at the bar and an amazing meal in the dining room. She has nothing to add to all the lovely things that have already been said about Fig other than that you should have the John’s Island roasted tomato tart-tatin and the Greek yogurt dessert. And anything else that catches your eye. Everything was great, including the service. Mr. Shop Tart accidentally left an extra twenty with his tab at the bar and the bartender actually returned it. And Mr. Shop Tart has been warned by his wife that his weekend money from the bank, often new bills, can stick together easily. Thumbs up for the staff’s knowledge about the menu and ability to recommend and describe different dishes; that always makes tough choices easier.

Although the Shop Tart was far too tired, her darling husband talked her into meeting friends at Vickery’s for one last drink. In spite of herself, she had fun. It’s always a pleasure to kick it old-school with friends from her youth. True cliché: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Mwah!

Happy Shopping and don’t forget to tell them you read it on the Shop Tart!

P.S. It’s raining. At the end of this soggy Monday, wouldn’t comfort food and half-price wine be just the thing? Solstice is serving up great specials like your mom used to make. (But way better. No offense to your mom.) Mahi-Mahi picatta, seared duck a l’orange, house-ground beef tenderloin meatloaf, lobster turnovers, quail with sausage and wild mushrooms…washed down with one of the many wines on sale for half-price tonight. Heaven.

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