Things of beauty...

Hello there. Returned with a shock to normal life; it's incredible how quickly those holiday vibes fade in the place of normal. I like normal, there is a regularity to it that feels right. The adjustment for the Boos is harder though; they have to get back into home mode and particularly school mode - starting the middle of next week. We must all get ourselves together and do the September 'starting fresh' season. I like this time of year...bouquets of sharpened pencils at the ready.

I feel, after all of my soul-searching, that I have the makings of a plan. I needed a plan. It heralds me getting back to normality in a wider sense; work, family, schooling, friends. I am reaching the conclusion that whilst times have been hard and I have felt decidedly without direction, it's been necessary for me to get where I am now.

via pretty stuff

Blake Lively in US Glamour

via 100 layer cake

via dust jacket attic

via 100 layer cake

via Dust Jacket Attic

Have a lovely relaxing weekend!

Blogging blind date...

There's nothing like meeting a kindred spirit. I made a real life blogging friend and we met up yesterday for a blind date. Amanda from Forty not out is just about the nicest person I could have hoped to have a coffee with and chat, chat, chat about all topics from shoes to motherhood to marriage to babies to blogging and back to shoes again (well boots actually - the perfect winter pair?). Who would have thought that I would meet someone over the internet? Blogging is like the gift that keeps on giving for having these hidden perks. And as for Amanda, who has made a business out of it, all credit to her for carving out her little niche.

OK so it wasn't quite like this on a blustery Portsmouth day, but close...

via tinywhitedaisies

P.S. Amanda has also launched the The Online Stylist where she provides fashion and style know-how...let me just confirm for you, in case you were wondering; 'style' could be her middle name...

So, with that, I will just leave you with something pretty, tall and aspirational...

It must be Friday...

As keen followers of my lovely sister-in-law's blog you will know that today is all about 'Things of beauty'.  I am very honoured to be writing today's post whilst she is away especially as I have been inactive on the blogging scene for a while.  I hope I do her justice and all the wonderful followers of Lou and her scrummy shoes and trust me.... gorgeous boos! - enjoy the images I load up for today (p.s. I am feeling in a softy, romantic mood....you may have gathered?!)

....one of the most beautiful things in life

maybe I should have started with this picture...first comes love 

then comes marriage, I love her bouquet

...bed linen you'd want to wear, look at those ruffles

..Lou will be in her bikini right now...

or perhaps in something more like this

 while I am enlisting the help of mum trying to work out what I am going to wear to Vintage weekend

from one beautiful lady to another...Cameron my idol

Homage to The Sartorialist...

I read an article in UK Vogue many moons ago about Scott Schuman and what he did with his phenomenal blog, The Sartorialist (currently nearing 20,000 followers and counting). At that point in time I had never really considered looking at blogs, had no idea of the breadth and scope of blogging - from photography, to diarists, to crafts, to cooking, to fashionistas, to mothers...honestly I had no idea.

Anyway, I logged on to see what this 'street photographer' did and was literally, instantaneously hooked. I spent that afternoon hitting the 'scroll down' button and looked at every image. It was also around the time Scott Schuman's book was being published; I ordered that too! Maybe it's strange to say, when describing what is ostensibly a fashion/style/outfit blog, but I was moved by the humanness of it. I told all of my friends about it, I made them log on just to see what I had seen. I even wrote to Scott saying that what I had seen had lifted my spirits so much!  Scott wrote back...he said:

Hi there,

Thanks for the thoughtful email.  I'm glad you enjoy the site.

- S

OK so he is a chap of few words, but still!

The thing is - for all that people say that fashion is vacant and unnecessary; that there is deeper meaning in life, that what counts is what is on the inside and not the outside...I say I agree in principle, but then I turn to 'The Sartorialist'. The point I am always grappling with is that what people choose to wear is Important with a capital 'I'. Not every day for sure, sometimes only pyjama days will do. But at least every now and then...

It's not about money as his pictures will attest. It's about style and effort and quirk and different seasons. It's about elegance and appreciation and aesthetics. It's about beauty in all things, not just the conventional. Here are some of my favourites...

If ever there was laid-back summer easy elegance...

This one really caught my eye - love clothes with detail on the back...I like to think she is on the phone, idly wondering whether to purchase that red bra! Yep...I would...

I love how this polka-dot tea dress looks so modern and fresh, especially with the contrast to the 'suits'...

This one is from Sydney, I think she looks so stylish for an office day...

London girls...great picture...and that BAG! It's from here - I had to track it down!

Effortless...and possible for Mummies to emulate!

all images from The Sartorialist

Trying my best...

I do spend a lot of time with women. I work more of less entirely with women, it's women who do the school run at my kids' school, I am not one of those girls who has lots of male friends. Except one or two (D - you know who you are, you secret male reader!) most of my male friends are the husbands of my girlfriends. Blogging is an almost entirely female preoccupation, unless I have yet to stumble on the boy blogs.

What strikes me though is that of the majority of these groups of women I spend time with, there is a consistency in them, no matter what age, lifestyle, type, character; many seem to have feelings of inadequacy about how they look. In fact it's not even just how they look, it's how they present themselves to the world.

Now as we know, I am a self-confessed shopper; I like to shop. I think about clothes and shoes. I make outfits. I wash and blow-dry my hair every day. I fret about my skin. If there is a day when I have a shoddy outfit on (and it's not a Sunday-loll-on-the-sofa-day) I feel somehow not quite right. So I guess you could say I make the effort. It matters to me. I want my husband to like how I look. If I get compliments I like it (who doesn't?).

So the thing I really, really don't get is why so many women just opt out of this element of life? Where they make enormous effort in other areas like their house or their kids or sewing the perfect fancy-dress for the school play, but they themselves look...dishevelled or dare I say neglected. And what is even worse is that when and if the concept of dressing or preening or fashion or just making the best of oneself comes up, some admit they kinda wished they did it.  They say they don't have enough time...the right body... the inclination. The occasional few say they are really not interested at all - but I'm not sure I buy that.

In the book 'The Thoughtful Dresser' by Linda Grant (who incidentally started as a blogger) she defends the fact that everyone has to get dressed every day, why don't we make an effort to do so in way that pleases us and others? Why opt out? Why not make the best of what you have? I  wholeheartedly agree. Maybe fashion is frippery. Maybe frippery is vanity. Looks certainly aren't everything.  But for as long as I can, I do intend to try my very best..stroll in the park anyone?! ;-)

Things of beauty...

Friday again; like tick follows tock! Each week still brings some self discovery. This week I have learned that I need to work out why I am running a hundred miles an hour all of the time. We have a weekend planned of not very much, which is ideal. I will force myself to sit still. I will write a long list of stuff I need to get done and stop stressing about the fact that I haven't done it yet.

In the words of E.E Cummings...'here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life,' and for me it is this: stop and appreciate what's going on around me.

American Vogue...wonderful plait. Isn't it great how in magazines this dishevelled look is 'fashion' whereas if I sported this look in real life people would think 'electric shock?', 'lost her hairbrush?', 'in need of some conditioner?'...

A bunch of dahlias...and a great tablecloth.

via it's mary ruffle

'Sunbeams' by Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi painted in 1900

This is a poppy from my garden...really, honestly it does not look real; my son had to touch the petals to convince himself it was. They come year after year no matter what and I adore them. They only last a day or two...less if it rains.

This shot is from The Sartorialist and I think she is just too cool for school. The hair, the glasses, the lace detailing, the jacket, the lips, the starbucks! Great picture. She oozes cool.

May I say...Jake Gyllenhaal...completely floored me with his loveliness when I saw him interviewed recently on Jonathan Ross. Such a nice chap. And those eyes...wow.

Utterly decadent...my new friend at Dustjacket Attic featured this wonderful ball scene...

An Agrigento platinum cuff...

My latest chair crush...the Eames rocker. So many chairs, not enough room in my house...

An Elie Saab collection on the catwalk...I love how this picture literally looks like a colour chart of paints ranging from blue to pink to green to yellow. Beaded, frothy, lovely.

Natalie Portman...up close...

Whitewashed and clean...

via are so happy

When I see prettiness like this dress it makes me think of Simone at The Bottom of the Ironing Basket, who is this week running a fantabulous 1st blog birthday giveaway extravaganza. Seriously. It's an epic daily marathon of chances to win yummy stuff...ends today!

Love this little jacket...Happy Friday!