Things of beauty...

Hello! So, I am incredulous that it is my little boy's birthday tomorrow; Boo 2 will be six years old! How did that happen?? So tonight I need to deck the house out with birthday bunting - as I do whenever it's someone's birthday - and wrap quite a few presents (yes, I went a tad overboard at Toys R Us), to get ready for the big day. A family tea party with cake will follow. Of course this time of year always makes me think about when I had him, especially as it's when the rugby season draws to a close and on the day I was in labour, my husband insisted on playing rugby and then called me from the sideline to check my progress (contractions still regular, but not alarming!). Oh how different things are with the second child! We both knew it might take some time, but still! The weather has turned back to its seasonal norm so no sun and overcast. Exactly as it was this time six year's ago.

My thoughts this week have been quite exclusively on what I eat and drink. I have been on a detox all week and to say it's been an obsession would be an understatement. I live for food and spend most of my time wondering what I will eat next so it's been very hard to get excited about juices, soups and steamed vegetables. An interesting sojourn into dieting though, and one I hope not to persist with; I did it for health and for a kick start (see, I am already talking in the past tense...I am near the end!). But it does make me see what discipline is required to keep to a diet.

There have been beach days and country walk days this week, as predicted. We are nearing the middle point of Easter holidays - 2 week's down, 2 to go!

Things of beauty here with a delicate, lace-thin disposition....

Sigrid Agren at Elie Saab, Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2011

I love this image...I studied Jane Eyre for my dissertation at University...oh Mr Rochester!

via day dream lily, photograph by Candice Lesage

I like this scarf...

scarf by artlab via etsy

How beautiful is this? A tree-lined boulevard in Prague - photograph by my friend Natasha - If you want to read a love story to brighten your day read her blog ...

Spring time in Prague..

Ooops, look, he just creeps in the mix sometimes...soooo lovely.

gorgeous George...

Photograph by Polly Wreford

photograph by Mikkel Vang

Keira Knightley

from Cabbages and Roses

from jcrew

jil sander uniqlo

 Natalia Vodianova by Jean Baptiste Mondino via Beauty Fetishist

via swoon photograph by Juliet Elizabeth Photography via The Wedding Row

This symmetrical window and chair arrangement speaks to me...

styled by Tricia Foley

Absolutely stunning picture here from Vogue China...

photograph by Paolo Roversi 

Here's to a healthy weekend that features Birthday cake!!

Things of beauty...

Here we are again! Some weeks, Friday arrives and I feel like I blinked and the week flew by; today is one such Friday.

I have been thinking about childhood and how each stage of your children's lives seems to be the defining stage. But then it passes and you realise that it was just one phase in the whole journey of parenthood. I have attended lots of school events this week and have observed the Boos standing amongst their peers. The realisation hits every time how much they have grown. Especially my daughter, whose contemporaries have been by her side at her school since she was 4. To see them all grow up - how worldly and mature they seem now. And just to cement that view, Boo then returns home and asks me 'what is antidisestablishmentarianism Mummy?'. Pipped to the post by 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' for being the longest word in the dictionary, apparently. You have to think on your feet as a parent! They break up from school today for nearly a month....eeek.

A weekend ahead of more activities - I am longing for some quiet time. It's Mothers Day on Sunday so maybe then? I have tactically scheduled a duvet day on Monday...can't wait.

...the stunning Natalia Vodianova photograph by Annie Leibovitz...

via Toast home

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1885

photograph by Polly Wreford

I just love this buttonhole...the second I have posted lately...buttonholes should be worn more often I think.

Photograph by Braedon Photography

Photograph by Mario Sierra

via skona hem

Almost certainly, we will have some beach time this Easter holidays...



There is something about this row of scarves that I  just love...

via tiny white daisies

The bun: my new happy hair do - although mine will never be quite as resplendent as SJP's...

Photograph by Sara Kauss via Hey Gorgeous

Daddy has been working alot lately...

Photograph by Mario Sierra via Sarah Klassen Haute Design

Photograph by Lars Ranek

Photograph Mikkel Vang

Have a wonderful, restful weekend...!

Tell all...

Hello, it's time to share again...I like to have these little audits every now and then! Are you with me? If you had to choose an answer of the two options below, could you? I know from responses before that sometimes people really struggle with this! Life is full of choices... xxx

Emily Blunt via Sunday in bed

Emily Blunt or Emily Bronte?

Baby boy or baby girl?

Gift from a friend: bunch of flowers or homemade cupcakes?

Getting dressed: lots of layers or clean minimal lines?

Skittish magazine devourer or absorb-every-line book reader?

If you could: spend money on art or invest in stocks and shares?

Raybans or Oakleys?

Little white lies or forever truthful?

Natalia Vodianova via pretty stuff

Best asset: face, body or mind?

Love a good argument or neutral and non-confrontational?

Sunday lie-in or early morning walk?

Bloody Mary or Strawberry Daquiri?

Sunrise or sunset?   

Secret-keeper or ready to spill the beans?

Ocean-front house or mountain chalet?

Doer or thinker?

via this flickr

You can not be PERFECT at everything, you can only do your best...

Some very good and well-timed advice from my dear friend D. She dispensed this advice on our real-time messaging system at work; she in the Netherlands, me here. As this statement flashed up in a little window on my screen I just kept re-reading it thinking 'yes, of course!'. So obvious. I love her simple wisdom.

The blogging community has shrunk this week as I entered the realm of Twitter. Where have I been?! Such an obvious extension to this forum. I contacted friends and kept up with their day to day lives, interspersed with some celebrity voyeurism. What could be better?! One such twitter friend Sophie, posted this gorgeousness of Paris with her beau, sporting her Lou, Boos and Shoes giveaway clutch bag! I love a happy ending and good handbags do go to good people!

Whilst on the topic of how the Internet shrinks the world, another good blogger friend of mine (who shall remain nameless), residing entirely in another hemisphere has found her true love on line and is counting down to meeting him for the first time in a matter of weeks. Despite societal 'scorn' of the use of the blogging/facebooking/flickr/twitter medium to form relationships, you have to admit it connects people in a way that is simply awesome.

This weekend will be spent preparing Boo for a ballet exam on Saturday (eeek), catching up with good friends for dinner and generally trying to wind down from was what a bit of a week...

I just love this image - how beautiful is she?

via it's mary ruffle

by Jamie Beck

For my friend E who is learning to live with her daughter's cheeky toddler-esque ways...

via patterson maker

We are trying awfully hard to be this, after a fairly disastrous week of parenting decisions; you know when you just try and try to be rational and supportive to your kids and it just comes out all wrong?

via cowparsley

Valentine pretties...I am not big on this particular holiday celebration...but the pink is always nice.

Diaphanous Natalia Vodianova...

One corridor in life always leads to another...it's a long journey with many doors!

Here's to a healing, restorative weekend...