What I'm Reading At The Moment #2

That Summer In Paris by Morley Callaghan

"One dark cloudy afternoon I had called for Ernest and when we came out to the street, a soft rain had begun to fall. It was one of those soft early-summer Paris rains. I was coatless, Ernest had brought a raincoat. We could have got a taxi, but the rain was now so gentle and the air so soft he said, "Let's walk". "

Great name, Morley Callaghan.

What I'm Reading At The Moment #1

DV. by Diana Vreeland.

"Of course, much was the influence of Diaghilev. The flavour, the extravagance, the allure, the excitement, the passion, the smash, the clash, the crash........this man smashed the atom!

Edith Piaf.

Today is Edith Piaf Day at Ivanhoe Books. I'm wearing one of my favourite necklaces pictured here - you can't read the words because I can't take photos in focus but it says "Je Ne Regrette Rien" in tiny gold letters on the white porcelain disc. It's from Comfort Station in London and I covet all of their pieces. The necklace is photographed on the Raphael book for no other reason than it gave good background colour. This is not to detract from Raphael. I love him too. I have enough love for all.

My brother likes to sing me "Je Ne Regrette Rien" when I'm a bit down. It helps.

More More More....

Butterflies....

I had to take down the post-it-window-display-extravaganza last week because the blistering sun had bleached out all the colour and it was becoming a bit illegible. So....in honour of the start of summer I have filled the window with butterflies. It's hard to get a good photo in the day because of the reflection but I think you can kind of see the jist. I think it will look better at night with all the lights shining on them. I'm going to do a drive-by tonight to see if I can get a better shot. The butterflies are all hanging off fish wire. It took eight hours. I am officially bonkers.

Book Club.

I have recently joined a book club. This book club has one other member. This is she. Her name is Kelly. She looks intimidatingly clever here. Uh oh. Our book club is called The Forces Against Sobriety Book Club.

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The Quilts of Gee's Bend
$50

Happy Birthday!

Morrissey is 50 today.
I love him.
Happy Birthday Mister!
xo

The Ossie Clark Diaries.

I finally got my hands on a copy of this book that didn't involve me having to harvest my body organs to raise the funds. Hooray! It's wonderful. These are just a selection given in the book of what the diaries looked like in their original form. Incredible! Excellent! Next Level!

(they look more amazing when you click on them and enlarge)

Fashion Photography Now!

I love the photography of Tim Walker.

I would like to live in one of his photos.

Fashion Photography Now
$25

Record Store Day.

It was a month ago - 4/18/09 - but I LOVE my Amoeba Record Store Day t-shirt. I'm wearing it today and it's cheering me up NO END.

More Dash Than Cash.

Back in the nineties British Vogue used to do a great section every month called "More Dash Than Cash!" - it was high fashion at high street prices and was my favourite part of the magazine - the stylists became even more inventive making accessible, affordable pieces look desirable. I guess it disappeared at the beginning of the 2000 when we all had more cash than dash - but I'm happy to report that it's back! I noticed it a couple of issues ago but it might have been back for longer. I love the one in the current May issue. It features Liberty prints which I'm always susceptible to go a bit bonkers for. Some of the prices are still a little out of reach for mere mortals - such as the highly covetable Isabel Marant patchwork dress which is listed at around 350 GBP which would be around $575 - but I did manage to track down the Aldo suede shoes shown on the 3rd image from the top. I got them in black and they're on sale here in the US! I can't wait to get them and thread some Liberty Lawn through as laces!

The Handy Book of Artistic Printing

The Handy Book of Artistic Printing
$40

Hay.

The Hay Literary Festival starts on Saturday.
I've always wanted to go.
Every year my Mum gets me the program.

Storage/ Display

I like items of furniture that double up as storage and display vessels.

From: The Way We Live With Things We Love
$45

The Way We Live With The Things We Love.

The Way We Live With The Things We Love
$45

Toni..

Last post of my photos I swear! But look at these! My Mum is pretty cool.

Shark & James.

These are 2 of my best friends. They are hilarious. The two of them will dress up at the drop of a hat. This is a case in point. The rest of us were lolling about reading, snoozing and drinking beer - these two were crawling up cliffs, wearing animal masks and getting up to general tomfoolery. I took these! I didn't chop off their heads!

Rose Garden.

This is from the Rose Garden (at the Huntington)- Jimmy made the pertinent observation that it looks like something out of Willy Wonka!

Desert Garden.

Here are some of my photos from the Desert Garden at the Huntington which I mentioned visiting a couple of weeks back. I got these back yesterday from the developers and I just love 'em.  I kind of like that I obviously have no idea of the parameters of my view finder! It adds an element of surprise when I get the film back - although I've decided that maybe people aren't the best subjects as I keep cutting off heads. The lovely Antonia came to the Huntington too and pointed out that the succulents can look like underwater plants - I concur.

Tulips From Above.

I've been obsessing about the quilts of Gee's Bend for a while and Grant sent me this photo because it reminded him of them. It's a photo of tulips from above. I like the purple and yellow stripes at the top.

Princeton Architectural Press

Princeton Architectural Press is one of my favourite publishers and their new Fall 09 catalogue arrived today. It's gorgeous. I can't wait to order some new books. Catalogue time is a bit like Christmas.