Things of beauty...

A Friday comes around again; I must admit my grasp on what day it is is slipping, life lacks routine at present. I am learning to embrace the sensation of waking up and wondering what on earth is happening each day.

I have read alot about 'Mindfulness' lately and prior to this new-found knowledge on the topic, my understanding of it was quite basic. I thought it meant stopping and noticing the moment. It can equate to that but it's also, I discover, a much wider doctrine that genuinely means stopping and breathing and attempting to 'just be'. Easier said than done I will tell you! I have been catching myself though, at certain moments thinking 'take this in; this moment, this sensation, this place' and try to momentarily capture the strength of that emotion. We've spent some evenings at the beach this week and I find these moments pour in much like the waves...sunset on the water (a moment), children's squeals as they jump in (a moment), a chilled coolbox drink on a warm day (a moment).

Meanwhile my husband and I had the privilege of attending a ball this week at Goodwood House which, I have to say, was pretty much the best party I have ever been to! Despite being dressed up in Jane Austen-esque regency costume (me in empire line, he in satin pantaloons!) we partied the night away in the most oppulent surroundings. I am here to say that I am becoming mildly obsessed (re-obsessed?) with 80s music; the band just played and played and I never left the dance floor. I love the 80s...! Danced and danced and danced some more - and now my feet still have a reminiscent ache.

And so to things of beauty...

via pretty stuff

Loren Hope designs via pink preppy lilly lover

love this cake...via style me pretty

via crush cul de sac

via this flickr...photograph from Red.co.uk

via Country Living

via crush cul de sac

via bippity boppity boo

My latest mantra: 'Let it go...'

Things of beauty...

Crazy busy week...not quite back in the swing but on my way, I hope. I wish I could say I was having a quiet weekend but the opposite is true - we are hosting a double birthday party for both children, in the garden. It will be sunny! I can feel my yearning for a holiday heightening, starting to count down the weeks to July. We need some family time and quite simply to have nothing to do and nowhere to be for a while. In amazes me how much life ramps up even when you make a conscious effort to keep it edited and easy.

Cameron Diaz...photograph by Mario Testino

j crew summer 2010

via 79 ideas from fri

from voy

by me - my back garden

Kate Bosworth

via edgar modern, painting by Jessica Cooper

photograph by Melissa Schollaert

via poise and vogue

via simple sparrow flickr

via pretty stuff from sushi pedro

Natalie Portman

Olivia P style from from Zara

via modern country style from Cabbages and Roses

via poise and vogue from jak and jil

photograph by Stephanie Rausser

Until next time...

Things of beauty...and some thoughts...

This week has been all about pastures new. In amongst some serious soul-searching and deliberation we decided to go for it and my husband accepted the new job. It was time to make the leap and it's a leap indeed, as he had been with the same company for 21 years. Man and boy. It's the same company that I work for still; think household name, multinational corporation. Before him his father worked there. Along with his mother and his brother in their time. To say it's a family institution is an understatement! So it was with a heavy heart that he tendered his resignation and we now face a very new chapter. So much of our time together is tied up in that company - strange as that may seem. Sometimes places and things can be defining.


I blogged about this decision a week or two ago (seems like a lifetime!), when the new offer was so fresh and exciting, all we could marvel at was the future. Now, with decision well and truly made, the past seems to have become very relevant and so you find me very nostalgic and pensive in this post. In corporate speak this would be described as the change curve...


Notable that even when I have known him 18 years, he still has the capacity to surprise me. When things got really tough at the end when his company were in the final (fairly ugly) throes of trying to keep him, he gathered himself up and showed such integrity and bravery in walking away. Taking the risk. Taking the road less travelled. Made my heart swell. So here's to pastures new...a different road.

You never know what you are going to get in life...

via it's mary ruffle

All you can do is try to live well, make your choices, follow your principles... ;-)

via tiny white daisies

Gorgeously casual Kate Bosworth

There has been a lot of this in our house lately...planning and re-planning, weighing up, thinking it through.

Revolutionary Road

A fair amount of this on his behalf. Posthumous portrait of President John F. Kennedy by Aaron Shikler painted in 1970.

A some of this on mine...my friend D loves this picture, it always make me think of her...'Thoughts of You' by Jack Vettriano.

Funny how I just know this about him and this week he's proved it yet again...

Sometimes you have to look through a different pane of life...

Embrace those new pastures...this is the view from the highest hill around here...