Things of beauty interlude...

Temporarily, our life has been thrown into a state of flux. Sometimes, things you believe to be safe (like jobs) are not, and you have start afresh with new assumptions. This week I have learned that my patience is not as extensive as I had thought. That I too quickly leap to conclusions, even though common sense should prevail. That I misuse semi colons (according to Boo's crib-sheet on the matter). That I have some awesome friends, who when it matters, form an emotional huddle. A wigwam of support.

I've felt oddly hemmed in after the Christmas period; still no school for my children, so days spent killing time. The recline level has gone to extremes and my son announces daily that it's a 'pyjama day'! I have had to explain that the beauty of a pyjama day phenomenon is that it does not occur every day!

As ever the final week of holidays is a week too long! It's not long until I return to work and that is starting to fill my thoughts. I feel like I need to go back and retrace how this last six months of absence came about. I need to walk in those same steps and see if I can create a different outcome. If you want things to be different, you have to do them differently.

I have had some lovely guest bloggers post their thoughts and there is more to come next week. Thank you for your wonderful welcome and warm comments. I like the different slant on things and whilst I am staying in the background, I am still here :-)

via coco kelley

via brown dress with white dots

via pretty stuff

via grey clouds and red days

via comptoir des cottoniers

photograph by chris nicholls

...oops how did that get there?!! Bradley Cooper....

via a well traveled woman

via this flickr

Here's to success and a fresh start...

Things of beauty...

More reaching to the inner corners of my conscience this week; still weighing up what this little life is all about. The week passed with its normal rhythms...school runs and homework schedules. I caught a cold and so the days have gone by with a fuzz around my head. In an unprecedented move, I started wrapping Christmas presents on December 1st. I have never ever been this organised!! It is because I have time this year; there is time to get things done and I am loving that.

I have set plans in motion to return to work in the new year; I do this ruefully in some ways, knowing that it might set me back. I need to use this blog as a barometer; if in future it seems like I am stepping back into the shoes of the stressed, frazzled, unhappy person I was, can you let me know?!! It always amazes me how commenters here notice things about me before I notice them myself. It must come through in the writing. So if you could be my guiding light, I would appreciate it.

This weekend I have some treats lined up, some 'me' time and some family time. Wonderful beautiful things this week...cat eye make-up and freckles and general prettiness...

...such a lovely half smile...Gemma Arterton...

...love the sparkles; look closely...

...it just doesn't get better than cupcakes...

...encrusted beauty...

made from pages of books via teaching literacy

Have a wonderful weekend...

Things of beauty...

What a week...moments of greatness and moments of mundane all rolled into one. My youngest has been ill so we have spent a fair few days holed up at home, passing the time with DVDs and baking. Tough for my eldest who has had to sit it out with him some of the time, but entertained herself with puppy obstacle courses; that puppy can really learn! So cute to see them out in the garden together - she and the dog. I get these moments when, despite the additional work of having a puppy and the walks that are required each day, I see her and remember this is why we did it. He has rocked her world.

Can I just say...the dress...was after all not fate! There was one left and it was damaged so I received a very apologetic email (even more apologetic when I directed the lovely people at Purple Haze Couture to my blog post!). They are trying to source another but so far, no news. Ah well, maybe it wasn't meant to be!

I have thought about your comments on natural beauty and taken stock; we have to make role models if they don't readily present themselves. I think this is just the adjustment for me from raising a young girl to raising a young woman; it's a shift of thinking but I love that there are a host of friends out there who have advice for me. Thank you.

This weekend we are seeing friends and laying low; embracing the autumnal season, carving pumpkins and eating (more) apple crumble...the detox starts next week :-)

photograph by stephanie rausser

photograph by jamie beck

Ralph Lauren show...photograph by jamie beck

...beauty...

via young blood

Oh Olivia P...

painted by Jessica Cooper

Diane Kruger

impossibly lovely chocolate bisque via canelle et vanille

...vintage Molly Ringwald...oh the 80s, I heart you.

...ever gorgeous Giovanna Battaglia, editor of Italian Vogue

...I like the utility and the antique together...

...couldn't resist...aren't greyhounds just so...calming?

Things of beauty...

I write a lot about my children and my life and my home but rarely about my husband. Odd, as he is of course such a big factor in my life. At the moment he is working very hard and Monday to Friday has become a time when we pass each other in the hallway and I think...how long ago it seems that we were away together on holiday. I miss him. It's a double edge; half of me wants to support him utterly and be the dutiful corporate wife. The other half of me wants to say - was this the deal? Did we choose this? We hardly never see each other!

I loved the comments I got this week, especially those recommending new blogs to read. It was wonderful to cast that net and get such a response. Almost without fail I loved them all - so I guess that shows we all like the same thing. One though was particularly notable as the writing is just...heart-achingly good. It's this blog and as the writer Meg says, she likes to pen notes to the man she will marry. Don't think she's met him yet - but it got me thinking, if I was writing to my husband many years ago what would I ask for?! Certainly one proviso would be time together on a fairly regular basis! Isn't it ironic that we marry for love and then work hard for the future and in the process spend less and less time together?

Atleast it's the weekend and that means family time and chilling out and togetherness...

photograph by olivia graham

via copenhagen cycle chic

London...this is where my husband always seems to be...I miss him...

via skona hem

via luna and chloe weddings

via here

I like this; a bit much for the school run maybe but still...via crush cul de sac

photograph by aaron delesie

photograph by elizabeth messina

via atlantic pacific

photograph by emma lee

Its how I feel,,,via better than fine