Things of beauty...

Hello, it's me. Here is what I think:

1. Diane Kruger; she is a beauty. Katie Holmes; now, if we were still in 'Dawson's Creek' days she would be the one, Joey Potter was an institution
2. Mascara...never used to be but nowadays it's vital
3. Hmmm...Colin Firth is just delicious but Robert Downey Jnr has that cheeky side - which to choose? As one commenter said: Robert for fun, Colin for life!
4. Of all of Jane Austen's women characters surely Elizabeth Bennett has integrity? Emma Woodhouse is  frippery...
5. Hired help? Well let's say that the more I have the more I want! I am a home maker but find that life gets in the way...
6. Weekend away; right now in this dreadful weather I would choose Vegas for its desert location. Daiquiri, anyone?
7. Cath Kidston in summer, Orla Kiely in winter.
8. Charlotte York; she is so consistent, and that hair!
9. Classic elegance but I keep getting waylaid by the quirks.
10. Ski - and am still learning to do that after many years, let alone mastering a snowboard. Plus I hate the sound they make on the piste...
11. Chestnut brunette - I did try platinum blonde once but it didn't go well.
12. I am a Mac convert through and through; pod, pad, book; whichever form it comes in it is a thing of beauty.
13. Shotgun wedding; when you know, you know. 
14. Impossibly superstitious - no shoes on the table, no walking under ladders, touching wood so as not to jinx, no lilacs in the house...I could go on.
15. Carnivore  - but wouldn't mind being a vegetarian, until I smell roast chicken that is...
16. Spender - 'nuff said.
17. Tulips.

So I think we might be compatible ;-)

Friday finds me rather pensive as life returns to it's normal rhythm. School is back - I have spent my first time alone in a month. Like everyone else I feel a primal requirement to declutter my house. Work has started to get very busy again; hard to keep those best intentions of avoiding stress when it's layered on so convincingly at work. You can only do your best, hey?

Thinking of sunnier days and kinder weather - what is with this rain? And this blog - well I like my blog; it completes me.

via from me to you

Oh to be this carefree...

So much rain this week...

via Sarah Klassen

Love this self-satisfied smile...

via The Sartorialist...did you see his film? LOVED it!

I have a wedding dress crush on this beauty featured by friend Rhi, who is taking her dreams into her own hands with her new wedding planning business...

via Hey Gorgeous

I have developed a slight obsession with the ipad Mulberry app...and a wandering eye between the Mulberry Alexa and the Mulberry Tillie....ohhh decisions! Recite after me: it's just a handbag, it's just a handbag, it's just a handbag!

...Robin Wright Penn...

I just adore this image from Fendi's catwalk show...to me this is Spring dressing personified...

via crush cul de sac

My kind of power dressing by Dolce and Gabanna...perfect black bag...

via a lady's findings

via are so happy

I have started my annual event of re-reading my all time favourite book - 'Couples' by John Updike, set in 1963. No matter how many times I read it it can still stop me in my tracks; the writing and the human accuracy of a portrayal of marriage.

Here's to a restful, re-grouping kind of weekend...

January we salute you.

Things of beauty...

Saturday afternoon. Drizzly day. Trying to get sorted (again!). My husband is cooking up a storm in the kitchen for tonight, when we have people for dinner. After a delightful ten hours of sleep last night I feel better today; more balanced. I was awoken by tractors ploughing the fields around our house and now they look like the soil has been sieved as if it were flour. So, some things of beauty...

Robin Wright-Penn, I think, is just beautiful and natural. In one of her films, 'Breaking and Entering', she has also the most lovely laid-back easy, linen wardrobe. She absolutely masters the 'stylish mother' look in that film. If ever I have a day where I think what to wear? I track back to that look; classic, easy, not too 'done'.

White-washed doorway...

Astley Clarke ring...

We are hosting a dinner party tonight...I'll of course be sporting a ruffled number just like this...err, or maybe not. My guests might think me a tad overdressed.

This is a photo of my table...lily of the valley from the garden. Even though I think it will just be a chilled-out dinner, I can't help making a pretty table...

When it boils down to it...

As one Boo will be away from tomorrow, we will spend Sunday with just my son. He needs to learn to ride his new bike...which will involve alot of running along beside him as he peddles, supporting him until it's time to let go...how apt. Can't help feeling this is a lesson I need to learn this weekend.

I think this wedding dress is wonderful - fretwork lace...by Braedon Photography.

'St Ives' by Ben Nicholson. I really like this Cornish scene.