I am a summer girl. I love fruity, cononuty things, crazily spicy food, and hot weather.

Somehow people never believe me when I say that I like hot weather but I always remind them that I lived in Bangkok for several years, where the temperature is roughly 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity every day, much of that time without air-conditioning. So yeah, I like it hot. I could happily live my life wearing nothing but sundresses and sandals.

As such, spring is my season for shopping binges. I am a sucker for the bright candy colors and the cheerful picnic accessories (never mind that I have no picnic table nor yard to speak of) that stores stock their racks with before the trees even have leaves on them. I love the fantasy of summer in all of its bright, optimistic glory.

Sucker for summer that I am, I’ve made some purchases as of late that I’m obsessed with and maybe you will like them too.

Note my artful spring photography.

Biotherm’s Eau de Paradis
I bought this when I was stuck in this tiny departures area at Berlin’s Tegel airport and the plane was delayed but there was no food and I was starving and my blood sugar decided it would be OK to buy perfume at Duty Free. As soon as I bought it I felt guilty, even though it was only 30 Euros. (Which is like 50 dollars! Ugh, never mind.) Then a food kiosk opened and I ate a giant salted soft pretzel and felt much better.

Anyway this stuff is amazing and summery and I am glad I bought it after all. It has notes of sandalwood which makes it kind of sexy and musky as well as being fruity. It also comes in this pretty pink glass bottle, which is all cold and heavy and feels good when you press it against your face and pretend to be ethereal enough to live in a perfume ad.

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch I’m halfway through with "Girls in Trucks" and already I’m trying to ration out chapters because it's just so good I don't want it to end. Following Sarah Walters, the main character fumble through her teens and 2os is sometimes like talking to an extremely close friend and other times closer to reading my own journals.

The book starts off in Charleston, South Carolina where debutantes like Sarah are taught to be proper and have good manners so they’ll land a successful husband. But Sarah has much more that she wants to explore and so she goes to college on the East Coast and ends up in New York where it appears she dates some of the very same dysfunctional men that I have.

"Girls in Trucks" is honest, funny and easy to relate to, a great book to read in the sun with an ice tea or a Corona.

This Dress by Flying Tomato
This is one of those dresses that is loose and comfortable, yet perfectly skims your body and enhances a small to midsize bust. (They've shrunk back to normal). It is made of the softest material ever and the print and cut make it look like it came from Free People or one of those brands that does catologue shoots at abandoned gas stations where barefoot models wearing crocheted rompers paint each other's cheeks with vaguely racist streaks of finger paint. Sigh. I know I will wear it out by July.

What are you purchasing for summer?