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Sand Mat A witness has told the trial of John O'Brien that he saw the accused a number of days after his wife went missing, near the housing estate where the blood-stained pieces of her car mat and spare-wheel cover were disposed of.Eugene Aylward was giving evidence at the trial of the 41-year-old, from Ballinakill Downs in Waterford city, who denies murdering 35-year-old Meg Walsh in October 2006.Mr Aylward said he got to know John O'Brien and Meg Walsh through socialising in the Woodlands Hotel.He said that, on Saturday, October 7th, six days after Meg disappeared, he was driving by the entrance to the Sycamores housing estate in WaterfordHe said he saw John O'Brien emerging from a car park beside the estate.He was 100% sure it was John O'Brien and he saw a dark-coloured car there also.Sergeant Patrick J Murphy has told the trial that, during a search of that estate the following day, he found a piece of a car mat under the trees.He said it was blood-stained and there were hairs and sand on it.Two days later, around three feet away, he said he found a triangular piece of timber.The court has already heard that Meg Walsh's blood was found on the piece of car mat and the cutaway section of the spare wheel cover.The court has been told that the Gardai searched that area on hearing that there had been a sighting of John O'Brien there.

Rubber Sole Shoes A North Texas man is helping impoverished children half a world away, two shoes at a time. Perhaps you have seen TOMS Shoes in a store or on someone's feet, but wait until you hear the 'soleful' story behind the footwear.It all began with an appearance on "The Amazing Race" in 2002. Blake Mycoskie lost the competition, but the shoeless children he saw in Argentina won his heart.Mycoskie said, "When I saw these kids running around on glass, or trying to play soccer on a field that had a bunch of rocks, and had no shoes, I immediately wanted to find a way to give them shoes."The former reality television show star started up TOMS Shoes (TOMS for 'tomorrow'), but don't call him the CEO. Mycoskie prefers the title of Chief Shoe Giver."It's an Argentine, canvas slip-on shoe that farmers, polo players, their girlfriends have been wearing for a very long period of time," Mycoskie explained of his product. "For every pair of shoes that we sell, we give one pair away to a child that doesn't have shoes."The Arlington native started selling the shoes out of his Los Angeles loft just two years ago. Since then, he has sold more than 65,000 pairs all over the country, and plans to sell 200,000 more this year. The rubber-soled shoes, which retail for $40-$48, can be found in 300 boutiques and department stores including Nordstrom.Mycoskie's 'shoe drops' have even extended beyond Argentina, to South Africa and Ethiopia.The best part of his success, Mycoskie said, is giving it back to the children. "You can just tell in their face, as they're literally stepping down and feeling the cushion of the shoes, what a new experience that is for them. And it's amazing, every time we do it."

Roller Buckle Last Friday afternoon, while Kennywood officials gushed on about the spirited delights of Ghostwood Estate, the new ride that replaced (at a cost of about $2 million) The Gold Rusher, I spied the eight "people" lucky enough to be sitting in the first two cars of the Thunderbolt.There they were, zooming up and down hills at breakneck speeds, without a single scream, for more than two hours. Then I learned that the "people" were actually water-filled, screw-top dummies taking the Kennywood favorite for a long test run. (The dummies weigh an average of 180 pounds, representing a cross section of actual human weights. Some have hair, a few have smiles, and all are white, not the shade of green I'd expect from roller-coastering for so long.)As a newbie to town and an amusement park aficionado, having the near-empty 40-acre Pittsburgh landmark to roam through was better than blue cotton candy, three hot dogs, a few funnel cakes and fresh-cut potatoes topped with cheese and bacon wolfed down right before getting on a ride.I got to ride Ghostwood Estate that day (more about it later), and I made a promise that I would return to Kennywood the following day, the official opening day, and test all the rides myself.Kennywood's promotion machine encourages one and all to "make a new memory." At my age (51) and my weight (yeah, right) I made memories all right ... and a few boo-boos. Sit down, buckle up and come share the rides with me. And there are no height restrictions!First stop: The Racer. This handsome wooden coaster, built in 1927 and the only single-track racing coaster in the country, packs a thrill. It boasts a respectful 50-foot drop at about 40 miles per hour, and at one minute and 30 seconds, it's just what I need to get my creaky bones cracking. I ride it twice, once in the front seat and once in the rear ... and, yes, the back is better and bumpier. (One Kennywood factoid I pick up along the way: The differently colored cars are not actually racing; weight distribution determines which color comes in "first.")My next stop: Cosmic Chaos. The aliens welcoming me to the ride look so cute (one fiddles with a digital camera, one is stuffing his/her face with popcorn), and I get to spin around in an open-air UFO. But I forget my body cannot take spinning in out-of-control circles at speeds of up to 43 miles per hour while 50 feet off the ground. I close my eyes. I silently beg for the ride to end. And it does, one minute and 40 seconds later, but not before I have spent the entire time screaming, praying and listening to the young woman next to me crying out that the centrifugal force made her "left boob fall out!"Two rides down, 31 more to go. And I am feeling sick, already stopping for a cup of water to ease my nausea.Aero 360 would have turned me into a human pendulum with a 360-degree over-the-top experience -- I thank God it's closed for maintenance. I spot this black and gold steel tower shooting 251 feet into the air. It's the tallest structure in the park; Kennywood calls it the "Pitt Fall" because riders get to ride all the way to the top then free-fall all the way down to the ground. I call it Sissy Suicide, refuse to ride it and start thinking I should head over to Kiddieland.Instead, I head over to the Phantom's Revenge. I sit in the pretty purple and teal car. The first car. Alone. It chugs up the metal track ... higher and higher ... until it reaches 160 feet. I see nothing but air -- where's the track? I momentarily convert back to Catholicism, say a Hail Mary, repent for all my wrongdoings. And then Zooooooooom! The coaster flies at 85 mph (even I have never driven that fast), twisting and turning over banked curves and reminding me that under my padding there are ribs. Sore ribs. But it's the second drop that's the killer -- a whopping 230-foot descent that leaves me quivering and queasy. Wow! This gets my highest fear and fun factor, a 10.What next? I remember how much the dummies loved the Thunderbolt. It's suggested I sit in the last car ... the first one may be scarier (the first plunge is immediate), but the rear gets all the rumblin' and rockin'. Fast? Yes. Fun? Yes. The New York Times dubbed the Thunderbolt "King of the Coasters" (way back in 1974), but it only hits a 7 on my fear factor scale.By now, my ribs ache. My throat hurts. My head pounds. But I want to make more memories.Then I get to The Exterminator. It looks so benign from the outside ... but who knows what evil lurks in its depraved heart? The ride sends me on a whirlwind into total darkness. I fight getting sick as I am violently tossed this way and that way with hairpin turns so sharp and so unexpected I felt like, well, a trapped rat.Other riders leave squealing with delight and returning back to the line. I head straight for the men's room and make a different kind of memory.I rest. I drink more water. I am refreshed but not rebuffed. Even though it's starting to rain, I decide to try the trio of water rides. I get soaked on the Pittsburg Plunge (its spelling pays homage to the days of yesteryear). The ride lasts about a minute, but oh! what a 50-foot drop! Oh what a splash! (Another Kennywood factoid: The "lake" at ride's end holds 200,000 gallons of water.) Another 10 on the fear and fun factor scale. The Log Jammer is too tame for me; the Raging Rapids less so. I still wonder if the group I rode with ever got dry.I trot off to Ghostwood Estate. The interactive ride --"guests" shoot at 200 targets and score points while helping Lord Kenneth rid his Addamsesque abode of ghosts -- is a disappointment. It's a slow, unexciting ride that proves mixing a video game with a dark ride doesn't work. Fear factor? 0. Fun factor? 1 ... the same rating as a cold corn dog.I meander. I listen to the screams at King Kahuna, Pirate, Wipeout, Skycoaster and Volcano. I think that taking a shot on Swingshot -- and plummeting to the earth at 50 miles an hour -- would make me the park's first ride casualty. I look at my water-sodden park map. Two dozen rides to go. I admit defeat. I roam through the park, making note of the "next time" rides.I end up in Kiddieland. I listen to the laughs coming from the Wacky Wheel, Whippersnapper, Steel City Choppers, Pounce Bounce and Red Baron.I sit, I watch, I listen. I am tired. I am aching. I am wet. But I am still making memories.

Rayon Ribbon Bethanie Brandon has been a fabric artist for three decades.Her son, Robin, is just beginning his artistic career.The mother and son, residents of Lucas Valley, will show their work during one of the two weekends of Marin Arts Council's Open Studios - appropriately enough, Mother's Day weekend. They are among 280 artists, from Sausalito to West Marin, who will open their studio doors to the public May 3 and 4, May 10 and 11.Bethanie, 50, will open her garage-studio to show scarves, throws, pillows and table runners, most of them handpainted or appliqu d on sueded rayon. She will also show dresses, dusters and flare-leg pants of her own design.Robin, 13, will show a series of hand-painted skateboards - art that evolved from his hobby as a skateboarder. Last week, he was nursing a broken arm, product of an accident at the McInnis Park skateboard arena.As they prepared to get their home studio ready for public viewing, Bethanie's pride was starting to show and Robin knows to give credit when it's due."She always influenced me to be artistic and supported that, so that's what got me into this," he says. "Her artwork doesn't really influence mine, but her being an artist does."Bethanie saw Robin's knack for art early on. "When was he young and started doing drawings, I could see that he was into color and texture," she says. "I was hopeful. He was surrounded by art at home. We're always doing stuff around art; we have friends who are artists and photographers. But I think it's really in him, not something he picked up on because it was in his environment. I think it's genetic."Robin, a Miller Creek School student, works on a table set up in the family patio. His tools are spray paints, bottled acrylics, a drill. His art is highly fanciful and colorful, evolving lately into studied design rather than the cartoonish motifs of his first boards.Bethanie's art is coolly artistic: the designs are simple, often with an Asian aesthetic, the colors muted. Several of her works hang on the walls of her home, an airy Eichler whose simplicity reflects her artistic eye.On one wall, suspended from a pole, are three ribbon-like hangings inspired by Tibetan prayer flags. On a bedroom wall is a series of bundled bamboo sticks wrapped in fabric and installed behind Plexiglas. On a wall in one hallway is a collage of colored chips made to resemble an American flag."I have always loved the American flag," she confides. "The flag is very fragile and we must take care of it."In the works: a Union Jack. In her plans: a Tibetan prayer flag.Bethanie studied textile design at what is now Philadelphia University in Pennsylvania, and got her first job with J.P. Stevens in New York, designing fabrics for women's coats and suits. When her husband, real estate developer Peter Brandon, got a job in San Francisco, she came, too, and worked for Levi Strauss as a clothing designer. After two years, she joined a startup clothing company, Schram and Company, where she earned her skills as a businesswoman.When daughter Caely was born, Bethanie decided to work from home - and Bethanie Brandon Design was born.First she designed hats, then matching scarves. She soon adapted the sueded rayon she used in the scarves to make pillow covers and throws. "The home-decorating market was expanding enormously just then," she says.The owner of Summer House Gallery in Mill Valley persuaded her to enter the San Francisco Gift

Fashionable Dresses Jennie Washabaugh laughs heartily about a June day in 1934 when she and her husband William Sr. had to borrow 10 cents in order to pay $2 for a marriage license.“We went to the Cambria County Courthouse with $1.90 to buy a license but came up short,” said Mrs. Washabaugh, 92. “We borrowed a dime, got the license and went across the street to a Protestant church to get married.”That dime has paid huge dividends as the couple raised 14 children during their 56-year union, which ended in 1988 when Mr. Washabaugh died.Washabaugh said she will be content to celebrate Mother’s Day today without fanfare or presents.Washabaugh and her oldest daughter, Janet Lamison, 70, share an apartment in Upper Yoder Township.Lamison said her mother has dedicated her life to being an example of self-reliance and hard work, and being a person who can overcome any obstacle.The Washabaugh siblings range in ages from 54 to 73. Five of Washabaugh’s children – Robert, Donald, William Jr., Wayne and Cindy – are deceased.Present at the interview with The Tribune-Democrat were daughters Patricia Lester, 65, of Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, and Nancy McDannell, 63, of Roxbury.“Mommy and dad didn’t even have a honeymoon,” Lester said.Washabaugh quickly interrupted her daughter to say that her husband had to go to work, while she and the two members of the bridal party returned home.“We (the newlyweds) rode in the rumble seat back home so he could thumb a ride to work later,” Washabaugh said.Looking at the matriarch of the Washa-baugh family, few people would guess her age. She enjoys good health except for an occasional flare-up of arthritis.Her hair is short in a contemporary style and she was dressed in a fashionable blouse and capri pants. She frequently wears jewelry, including pierced earrings.“Mommy has a shy demeanor but she’s always smiling and quick to laugh,” Lester said.When asked about the size of her family, Washabaugh responded by saying: “My husband and I talked about it and planned to have two, a boy and a girl,” she said.“But we had two boys and then a girl and they just kept coming after that.”Mrs. Washabaugh came from a family of 10 children.It was love at first sight when Washabaugh saw her husband-to-be at a cousin’s house.“We liked to dance, and when the kids got old enough to watch the younger ones, we would sometimes go out on Saturday night,” she said.They enjoyed going to the Harmony Club in the 8th Ward or the Rocking R in Jennerstown.“There was always music in the house, and dad would never allow us to date, so we danced with each other,” McDannell said. “Mom played organ and piano, and we would sing or put on our own plays in the house.”When Lester was 18, her parents required that she double-date with a sister in order to go out with a boy.“It didn’t take us long to figure out to hide one vehicle and then split up for the evening,” Lester said. “Years later when our parents found out, they weren’t too upset.”The family resided for the most part in a home along the Somerset Pike in Conemaugh Township.In those days, there were no elaborate vacations. Leisure time meant going fishing or enjoying family picnics or taking a ride in the family car.“We used to love to stop at Alwines for an ice cream,” Lester said.The family owned a large Cadillac with a wooden bench added to the back seat in order to accommodate all the children.“When we would stop and all the kids would pour out of the back, we got some strange looks,” Lamison said.“The most often-asked questions were: ‘Are these all yours’ and ‘Is this a church group?’ ”William, whose nickname was “Big Chief,” worked for Gautier Division of Johnstown Plant, Bethlehem Steel Corp. It was one of three jobs he worked to support his family.He would measure and install window blinds and later became an expert at other window treatments.“Dad was strict and never let the kids have candy, just fruits and vegetables,” Lester said. “We always had food. While we may not have had a lot, we never felt deprived.”Much of the credit goes to Washabaugh, who spent countless hours baking, cooking and doing laundry, her children said.“Mommy would get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and bake 13 loaves of bread, which didn’t last long,” Lamison said.“There was always the smell of homemade bread and freshly brewed coffee in the house.”Washabaugh also made cakes and potato pancakes from scratch and always had turkey at Thanksgiving, ham at Christmas and a beef roast for Sunday dinners.“When we went to school, my mother would sew all our dresses by hand and often used precut patterns from W.T. Grants,” Lamison said.Lester said she and her sisters were stylish in their collared dresses, some of which had ruffles and bows.“I could make a dress for about 50 cents,” said Washabaugh, who never used a sewing machine to stitch the garments. “I got a sewing machine later, but never used it. I preferred sewing by hand.”McDannell said it wasn’t an easy life for such a large family, but it was a good life.“When you go through difficult times together, it makes things easier,” she said.The other Washabaugh children are Ronald, Elizabeth City, N.C.; Richard, Tire Hill; Genevieve Wills, Somerset County; Karen Feathers, Stoystown; Virginia Kist, Camden, N.C.; and Dennis, Westmont.Washabaugh has 47 grandchildren, 69 great-grandchildren and 26 great-great-grandchildren.“I’m proud of all my children,” Washabaugh said. “There wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch.”

Fan Cap We all have dreams. We all have hopes. We all have wishes.Some may never be realized.On Friday night the wish of Kelton Scott Edmonds, 6, came true. Kelton loves baseball but is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. Still, he donned his brand new uniform ready to watch the game. The team had other ideas.His new teammates gave him the honor of throwing out the first pitch at the Astros-Red Sox game … well not “the” Astros but the under 10 City of Temple Youth Baseball team that played at Miller Park.A kid with a smile that could melt the hardest heart in a minute was decked out in his official Astro’s cap and told by Coach Jimmy Mullings that he was now officially part of the team. He could sit in the dugout with all the players and even go out onto the field to play if he so wished.Kelton beamed as adults turned their faces to regain their composure. It was hard to tell who was more excited. It was a close call between his mom, Kim, and Kelton.“I had seen him at our games but didn’t know much about it,” Mullings said. “One of the moms organized the whole thing.“Knowing what it means to him makes it worth it.”The league agreed to allow Kelton to play if he wanted.“We have had wonderful support from the league,” Mullings said.Now confined to a wheelchair for the most part because he tires so easily, Kelton proudly stood and walked with the help of his mom to the pitcher’s mound.Astros and Red Sox players lined both sides of the field as the crowd cheered hard.Each Astro player then let go of a single white balloon. Supporters watched through teary eyes as the catcher hugged Kelton when he arrived at home plate.Mayor Pro Tem Patsy Luna proclaimed May 9, 2008, as Kelton Scott Edmonds Day – a Young Temple Hero.It was in June 2007 that Kelton took a fall, like most 5-year-old boys do, and scored an egg on his forehead.Kim, who is a nurse, decided a trip to the ER was in order – just for safety’s sake.Not long after, she heard the news that Kelton had a stage 4 tumor. He was given a year to live.Treatment was administered and continued until about five weeks ago when he became too ill to continue.“The decision to stop any more treatment wasn’t as hard as I thought,” Kim said. “We decided to come home and do things we wanted to do.”Her strength, she says, comes from her faith. “I pray and I always make sure I am smiling when I am near Kelton.”

Fashion Mannequin Links between film, fashion, crime and violence are explored in a festival that will examine how fashion and style in film glamorise criminal behaviour.There is no shortage of examples. Frank Borzage's 1936 film Desire stars the foxy-but-treacherous Marlene Dietrich as a super-glamorous aristocratic crook trying to get hold of a rare string of pearls. The classic 1971 crime flick Get Carter rounds up the whole relationship between the beautiful surface and the darker underworld of the criminal look with a stylish Michael Caine, who plays a violent London gangster, in suits designed by Vangie Harrison.Fashion gets even darker in Dario Argento's 1970 Italian horror film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, in which an anonymous figure in a shiny black PVC raincoat and black leather gloves slashes beautiful young women. The 1981 film Ms .45, directed by Abel Ferrara, is about a vengeful female serial killer who looks dowdy until she embraces her killing sprees and obsessively puts on red lipstick and killer heels.At the Fashion in Film festival around London, designer Bella Freud will present a rare Swedish film, Mannequin in Red (1958), about murder in a fashion house, directed by Arne Mattsson, who has been dubbed the Swedish Hitchcock."The thing about fashion and film is that still the most important aspect is the plot," says Freud. "Some films are so stylised and the costumes are amazing, but the film is boring. Apocalypse Now, which you would never call a fashion film, has got the most brilliant fashion in it. It's so stylish. There is a scene where they lower these dancers in from helicopters and they are wearing cowboy boots and shorts. I thought I'd died when I saw that scene. It was such an exhilarating moment."Some directors have such a feel for how things look that it becomes fashion. This film that I'm introducing, Mannequin in Red, is set in a fashion house, but there is so much intrigue in the woman that runs the fashion studio, who has a white cat on her lap like a James Bond villain. This old harridan also has a wheelchair draped in leopard print, and another one draped in black lace."But despite the beautiful 1950s full-skirted dresses and petticoats – definitely worth a few sketches while watching – it is a gripping film."As a fashion designer I was really influenced by the 1965 film Viva Maria!, directed by Louis Malle, and starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau. It was made in the 1960s but it was set at the turn of the century, so it was a slightly bouffant version of revolutionaries in the early 20th century wearing these long white skirts with coloured cinched-in waists and circus people wearing these flowered shirts. My whole second catwalk show in 1994 was based on this film."GQ's editor Dylan Jones introduces the 1965 Italian cult science fiction film The Tenth Victim, directed by Elio Petri, starring Ursula Andress as a huntress who uses clothes as both weapons to seduce and to kill victims in the "big hunt" – a competitor sport of 10 rounds in which players are both hunter and victim. In one scene she even fires at her victim from her bra, a move later copied in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Marcello Mastroianni stars as the blond-haired victim, her tenth potential conquest."I was surprised this iconic quintessentially Sixties film hadn't been more lauded, actually. It is so of the moment yet it is almost slapstick," says Jones. "The point of the film is that it is futuristic, but like a lot of science fiction it says more about the time that it was produced than the time it is meant to represent. A lot of films that were made in the Sixties have similar themes. The 1968 film Barbarella is probably the most famous one of them. It says more about the hopes and dreams and the short-term iconography of the Sixties than it does about anything else."The Tenth Victim is a very funny film. Mastroianni does look amazingly cool and, whenever someone is trying to represent anything that is remotely Modernist or Futurist, they always put somebody in a polo-neck jumper, which is exactly what he is wearing. Andress as his beautiful hunter could dress in anything and look good; at that point she had such a phenomenal body. She plays this mad sex-maniac and she is very vampish."Often you look back on these films and they are rather shallow affairs. Everybody holds up The Thomas Crown Affair, the 1968 heist film, as being a cool Sixties moment, with all the obvious iconic fashion flag-points. But actually this film inspired many more art-directors and advertising campaigns than it did cinematographers or directors. If you watch it now, the film is incredibly slow, brooding, and pretentious, despite being an extraordinarily elegant film to look at – but the remake is a far superior film. Does The Tenth Victim glorify crime? If you think that The Italian Job glamorises criminal behaviour, then so does The Tenth Victim. It is so far removed from reality that I don't think it glorifies it because it's a farce."Other Fashion in Film screenings include the 1945 melodrama Leave Her to Heaven, directed by John M Stahl and starring Gene Tierney as the wickedly possessive wife whose impeccable dress-sense masks her flaws.There is also Michelangelo Antonioni's first feature film, from 1950, Chronicle of a Love, with the former Miss Italy star Lucia Bose groomed to perfection in high couture designed by the lawyer-turned-costume-designer Ferdinando Sarmi. He was also cast in the film as her husband Enrico.The Korean-director Kim Yong-Gyun's 2005 thriller The Red Shoes is an adaptation of the 1948 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger classic of the same title, and its showing is a London premiere.Follow Me Quietly (1949) features a faceless dummy of a serial killer used by police to track down a criminal in a noir thriller by Richard Fleischer. And Marleen Gorris' 1982 feature-film debut, A Question of Silence, tells the story of a bunch of women who decide to kill a boutique owner with clothes rails and shopping bags in a metaphorical gesture of violence against being exploited by men.Does fashion in film glorify violence and can we see this throughout cinema's history? The festival's curator Marketa Uhlirova, based at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, thinks it might. "We wanted to explore the link between cinema, crime, fashion and costume," says Uhlirova, "and soon realised that certain patterns were emerging for us across film history and a variety of genres. The thread that weaves throughout the whole season is a concern with how and why fashion and clothing have been so instrumental to cinema's crime-narratives."We were particularly fascinated with how film often pinpoints specific garments and accessories, such as hats, gloves, shoes, handbags, or jewellery – and how these begin to function as objects of desire, murderous weapons, clues, evidence... There is something very poetic about that. But some of our guest curators identified sartorial gestures, rituals and even mistakes as worthy of examination – take the turned-up collar, or the blood stain.""Cinema definitely has a tendency to show criminality as stylish. Not that real criminals can't be stylish [in fact, a short film by Dino Dinco, one of the artists involved in the new commissions, looks at real LA gangsters' obsessive preoccupation with clothes, and specifically focuses on the ritual of ironing], but cinema often exaggerates the glamorous or dandyish element of criminals and their criminal acts."Fashion is all about fabricating the ultimate arresting image and, on top of that, it can be very obsessive and indulgent. It is all artificiality, which makes it inhuman – and this is why it can make crime absolutely captivating in its cruelty. It's generally the baddies and the troubled ones that are portrayed as glamorous and gorgeous, not the goodies."Having said that, I would argue that fashion doesn't just glamorise crime – it can also sensualise it. Just look at some of the silent films in our season, or the sumptuous horrors by Bava and Argento, or some of the artist-films we are screening at Tate. Fashion rests on the surface, it has an excessive preoccupation with dress and grooming – and this usually signals something dark."

I’m confused. This past week in NYC was unseasonably balmy (75 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-April) and I found myself relegating my black tights to the back corner of my closet and going bare-legged with my skirts and dresses. Then today rolled around, and although it wasn’t exactly January again the cold and damp made me long for a thick sweater. So—on to the confusion.I’m browsing around online as I am wont to do, and I’m thinking of gaps in my wardrobe. I need a slightly oversized cashmere cardigan, preferably black, that I can snuggle into when it’s chilly outside, like this one from Vince , except in black cashmere—like I said, I’m looking….I also need a pair of dressy flat sandals (right now I’m favouring these flat jeweled sandals by Cynthia Vincent, because wearing my Rainbow flip-flops to work everyday just isn’t going to cut it.cynthia_260408.jpgThen I realize I’m shopping for winter- and summer-wear at the same time and I’m mentally planning out how to wear each of these items—this week. So, what’s the deal? Sandals or sweaters?