Euphoria

I want this.

You had him cultivate the land

Praised be

Doesn't this picture remind you of A Handmaids Tale?

Gertrude Käsebier

'And if their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame..'

Barbara LaMarr

from belles célébrités femelles'

A wolf without a foot!

Come! Come sit by the fire and lets look at some family photos together. This is La Famiglia Monteforte. My grandpa is the dashing child in the middle. Great-grandma Ana was a wealthy dame in her time (her mother even more so...couldn't even speak English!) and owned 16 houses on North 5th and 9th Streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Great Grandpa lost it all on the tracks..pffffff (TMI?)

This is the boys (Grandpa, Frankie and Jimmy) in front of their home on North 5th St.

Proclamation Fenestration Restoration

Clean Windows = Happy Home

Fräulein Freitag

Her "Mount"ship

A few weeks past, Katie, Micah and I ventured up to the Berkshires to restore our souls to purity, admire the burning foliage and to visit Edith Wharton's house, The Mount! 'Twas most refreshing for my bones as it was for Edith when she was trying to escape city life and her nutzo husband. She was kind of like a Martha Stewart character, starting her literary career with books about decorating and gardening.

Will Mother Stewart come out with a Pulitzer Prize winning book any time soon? I'll keep you posted.
The Mount straddles the gorgeous hills. It sits pale and lucid amidst the murky forests.

Katie palliates my scrupples in the "Giardino Segreto..."

One can't visit the Mount with out a visit to the pet cemetary.

She wrote 40 books in 40 years!

My friend went to Florida and all she got me was this lousy mug

Not really. My bosom friend got married and went to Florence for a two week honeymoon. I was so happy (jealous) for her!! Here is what she found for me... she knows me TOO well. She still should have packed me in her purse, Lorde knows I'm tiny enough!

'Round and rather

Come on in! I'll fix you a gin and tonic, or is it a champagne cocktail you prefer? Have you seen the new Brooksie picture? Decidedly devilish we thought.

How perfect is this house? It's from a 1908 version of Ye Planry House Plans catalog. Daily Bungalow has copious amounts of Bungalow, Arts and Crafts, pre-World War II, etc. floor plans and nourishment. Please take a look!

"The girl of the Seventies"

So said Yves Saint Laurent of Marisa Berenson, model and actress. She only did three movies, one of them a silent role, yet her modeling was really top drawer. Her grandmother, the "shocking pink" Elsa Schiaparelli, claimed she was awkward and ugly, but her grandmother's 'frenemy,' Diana Vreeland thought otherwise. Vreeland, editor of Vogue at the time, took Marisa under her wing, and propelled Marisa's modelling career into the highest paid of its time. Awkward family dinners, I dare say.

whisqui

The reason for all this bantor being, I saw "Barry Lyndon" this weekend! Beautifully done by Stanley Kubrick. Some of the scenes were masterpieces alone, with its art direction (which Oscar it won).

kirainet

L'Oiseau Volage

By George Barbier

1914

Cue Edith Piaf singing "Les Feuilles Mort."

Escape to Witch Rock

Is it really called Witch Rock? Probably not. But so it was called by my older brother, who has been obsessed with it since we were kids. For a while it was the only thing he was painting. Today was a great day to see it, with the stormy seas and gale force winds.

Catbird blogged about this article, it shows what it looks like now after restoration. I think I prefer the Grey Gardens way it used to feel though. Maybe that's just the crotchety old lady in me.

More on deck

Fir Tree in Snow

When I look out and see the things I see
I often wish I looked more like a tree
A fir tree straight and thin and tall and dark
Handsome, clean and powerful silent stark
Covered in winter with a lacy white
That hangs the branches down a lovely sight
Buried in snow drifts hiding graceful shy
Towering upward reaching for the sky
Darker than other trees darkest of green
On earth no lovelier sight is ever seen

~Eyvind Earle

Manfred Alois Segieth

Doesn't this just reek of East Germany?

मेरा नाम दान है

from FriskoDude

Patience My Pet

Here lies the gorgeous work of Mon Petit Fantome! I was a great and long-time admirer of his work. Alas! One day I decided to enter a competition to win a free gift from him, and won! After patting myself on the back, I waited for the parcel to arrive. When I gingerly opened said parcel, I quickly rushed to the fainting sopha and grabbed my hankie. 'Twas the most beautifully packaged article I've ever recieved! Inside lay a papercut of a wolf, which was then immediately hung on the wall next to Mums, Dadums and Uncle Gustav Klimt! Thank you! For anyone else go check out his etsy shop hither and his blog thither! Do it NOW!

Ergosterol drops for vertigo

printemps

style.com

In Paris, the shows are always so much more interesting (Bruno Pieters, Lanvin, Ann Demeulemeester), but my favorite was Celine. Phoebe Philo is back! Always a favorite of mine, I'm glad her style hasn't changed in the four years she's been gone. Motherdom did her well.

You're traveling with me through forest and sands

Do you know those songs that you hear once, you like them, but then you hear them again and they seem so much more timely? For the past two weeks I've been listening to 'Forest and Sands' by Camera Obscura over and over again. It makes me excited about when the snow will come down and I will lock myself in my apartment and knit until March. This is also my future apology..

Camera Obscura-Forest and Sands

Floating Floating

Julee Cruise-Falling

"the eyes are the harmony"

Composition 6 - Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky started painting at 30 years of age! He already had a law degree and was about to pursue his own practice.

This was done earlier in his career, when he finally felt like he was getting where he wanted with his painting. His style would slightly shift, though, later in Berlin when he was a teacher at Bauhaus, then again in Paris. The Guggenheim shows this progression flawlessly.

Arnold Schonberg- Op. 23 Sehr Langsum

Potassium bromide to raise his spirits

I couldn't go to the Ann Demeulemeester show this season with Hilda, this G.D. recession is taking everything from me, but I thought I'd share some of my photos from when I went the winter before last.
The whole show was poetic, ethereal and perfect in every way, right down to the music, lighting and faint feeling of dust in the air. It was held in Couvent des Cordeliers, an ancient convent on the Left Bank, which definitely added to the mystery of it all.


It's up there on my "BEST EXPERIENCES OF ALL TIME" list.

Belladonna for sound sleep

Not to beat a dead horse, BUT these folks were spotted at PS1 on Saturday.  I was unnaturally forward and asked for their picture.  Thank you, beautiful couple, whoever thou art.

"Both were saved: the cobra from a life of servitude and bad music, and the man from a possible death bite..."

At the New York Art Fair this weekend, Jenna and I were not only blown away by the beauty of EVERY single person attending (there's only so much smelling salt), but the amount of inspiring 'zines, books, and art available was almost too much to bear!  

I picked up this book about Aquirax Uno, an amazing illustrator in the 60's.   Feast your eyes on the beauty:  

I'll see if I can scan some more and try and make them not look like a High School project...

Wharton's Weekend

This is what this weekend will look like: Opera gloves, gossip over candelabras, art book fairs, cloisters, and touring manors...you know the usual

I'll fill you in later next week of the gripping festivities..

Lumbaya Puf De

Its 100 degrees, Baris Manco blasting on the ipod speakers, there's diesel fuel blowing in your face, you're trying not to crap your pants and someone (you know who you are) is eating ful medames (beans and chickpeas?) at 7 o'clock in the morning. So went one of our magical mornings in Egypt a year ago today! It seems like ages ago, and although I think I caught cholera it was one of the best and most memorable trips of my life. It was mostly being fanned down with peacock feathers on felucca cruises, finding BANANA ISLAND! kohl eye make up, homecooked Arabic meals, Nefertiti necklaces, caftans and reading David Sedaris in bed til we peed in laughter..

Let me take you on a magic carpet ride (don't you dare close your eyes, hold your breath it gets better!):




for more go to my flickah