From Paris: A "Threadbare" Home

Every once in a while I get a combination of lust and envy that makes me not sure where to wager my emotions.  When Anzelina sent over this link from the New York Times, such a phenomenon occurred. 

Can you blame moi?



They so perfectly combine the blend of rustic and modernity that I'm in love with.  Add the lightness of the whole place and I'm soaring through the Pleiades.

How does a young, sweet-looking couple score something like that?  I guess we'll never know!  If I lived here I think I'd stay home forever!



If you want a refill for your prescription of jealousy, visit HERE.  There's so much more beauty within.

Felix Nussbaum, Self-Portrait, 1939

The fly on the glove is my favorite.

Lucifer Falls

It never fails that if I want to see a show, gallery opening, flea market, endless etc., I always miss it.  Another one to add to the eternal roster is the "Lucifer Falls" exhibition of Jeff Bark's ethereal photography.  I'm a sucker for anything like this, but add the moody lighting and corpse-esque (definitely not a word) bodies and I'm rotting in a coffin.

My new goal is to stop missing these golden opportunities. Using a planner again is my first step.

"So taunt me and hurt me, decieve me, desert me"

Every year, when we are surrounded by the beautiful changing foliage and crisp air, I'm reminded of the heartbreaking film, Far From Heaven.  I've only seen it once when it first came out, but still so much of it sticks to me.  A sign of a well crafted piece, non?

The colors, the sadness, the hopelessness, and reason 873 why Julianne Moore is the best thing to happen to Hollywood.  I've been playing Dinah Washington's take on Cole Porter's So in Love on repeat for the past two months which has become my own mental soundtrack to the memory of the film.  Need to watch it again!

Which is a rooster, which is a hen?

Wacky lyrics from a song that came out in 1926! Take a gander if you will!

Jacques Henri Lartigue

A reminder of the days when everyone found a viable excuse to wear their gauziest frocks for a foxtrot.

Found at the eternally inspiring Victoria Thorne.

Appalling Accouterments

Sometimes it's important to walk in front of the gilded full-length mirror, take an honest look at yourself, meditate on what your looking at...and then sob and sob, long and hard.  There, there, feel better?  No?!  Good, because you look like a homeless person.

Gone are the days when I used to drop my money at Costume National, APC, and Alexander McQueen like I could afford it.  When the economy tanked, I realized I was just as broke as I've always been! So these past few years (time flies!), combined with paying of debt and shopping for things for the homestead, my days of glamorous rags have taken an unfortunate turn. 

With the debt recently deceased (HOORAY!) it's time for me to start looking a little more civilized; maybe not the Saville Row bespoke suit, but something without holes in the crotch, shoulders, knees and toes.

(Dries Van Noten Fall Collection)

The Wordy Shipmates

If The Wordy Shipmates was your cup of Puritan tea, read Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower for a dose of some Pilgrim pie.  All that blood shed, in literally my backyard. Yikes! Both books delve into our early history and the parallels to today.  Sarah Vowell was certainly more funny...if that tips the scale for you....

Onto a lighter note...How beautiful is this photo shoot by Karl Lagerfeld?  I remember seeing it in Vogue Deutchsland right around the time I was reading The Wordy Shipmates and falling madly in love! 

Did you know that 10 percent of the United States population are decendants of people who crossed on the Mayflower?

Snapshots from Montreal

Let's start at the only photograph I took the entire weekend NOT relating to food. That's right ONE!

C'est Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.  The next room over housed all the Inuit art from the permanent collection, all wonderfully ivory, smokey grey and black.  The highlight!

Now on to proof that once a fat kid...always a fat kid.

The Marché Jean-Talon is in La Petite-Italie (sounds so much better in French) section of Montreal, and was the largest and best farmers market I've been to.  Filled with gorgeous, mouth-watering produce, artisanal cheeses, baguettes that smelled so good I got goosebumps, among other things...

Crepes from the Pleiades:

And some pate that looked yummers!

If I lived in Montreal I would must assuredly do all my food shopping there!  Sigh...

We visited many other wonderful places, but being the bird of flight that I am,  forgot to whip out the ol' Pentax to document. 

Miss Rumphius and her lupins...

I saw this picture the other day on Broken Blossoms and was catapulted back to second grade, sitting Indian-style around Miss Martin, the student teacher, as she read us "Miss Rumphius."  I think I was the only kid in class interested in this one.  If I remember correctly, Miss Rumphius, as a young woman planted lupins in her hometown, then sets off traversing the globe, planting lupins where she please.  She returns home, an older lady, where her lupins wait for her with bated breath.  Whenever I see a lupin, all these years later, I always think back to that class, and how much I wanted (still want) that to be my life. 

And to think they thought I never paid attention!

Stanze Quattro, Otto, Nove e Quattordici

So in love with the doleful work of Francesco Balsamo!

"Ofelia"

"Notturno con pesce"

"Gruppo di familiglia in un interno"

"Alcova"

More beauty found yonder.

Montréal Weekend

After driving through the gorgeous blood red mountains of Vermont, all foggy and gothic from the storm, then through the weird praire land of Southern Quebec, we arrived in Montreal, the city that proves every bad impression needs a second chance.  The first time I went, we were fully reliant on a guide who had obviously spent about 4 hours in the city.  This time, I did my research (with the help of Lake Jane's city guide on Design*Sponge) and were able to explore some amazing neighborhoods. Now I honestly want to see if I can get my grandmother's Canadian citizenship back!

Some of the highlight's were the Marché Jean-Talon, waking up to the bells of Notre Dame right next to our hotel, the cobblestones of Vieux Montréal, and eating the best since Paris!  My photos will follow as soon as I develop them (film...sorry!).  The photo above is an interior shot of Sparrow, an Art Deco leaning, English pub that stole my heart.  Thanks to pretextes for photo.