Friday Featured Etsy Seller: Keys and Memories

One of the first Etsy purchases I made was from Keys and Memories. I got a typewriter key pendant in black with a tan letter A. I find the old typewriter pieces so interesting, and I love all things monogrammed - I think it runs in the family. The new square pendants with a fancy font are pretty cute, too.

Thursday Text: The Buccaneers

Last week I finished reading The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton. It was unfinished when she died in 1937 and later finished and published in 1993 by Edith Wharton historian Marion Mainwaring. I mentioned Edith Wharton previously when my friend loaned me the book. Wharton seems like an interesting person as well as a great author. And, yes, this book is kind of a "how-to-catch-a-husband-in-Victorian-England" kind of a book, but that's just the kind I like! What's the latest book that you've read?

More White Kitchens

Ever since I made reference to a white kitchen I have been seeing great examples everywhere. The January issue of House Beautiful had a really great one that I haven't been able to find online. I'll have to make some time to scan the photo. Here are a couple that I found on their site. I'm really liking white cupboards and white subway tiles. Very nice.

Kate Winslet

I like Kate Winslet. I haven't seen many of her movies, but I always like reading her interviews and watching her on shows like David Letterman. She seems very down-to-earth. I love that her wedding ring is a set of bands (both times she's been married). I loved her in Finding Neverland and The Holiday. I don't like that she uses vulgar language. One of her latest movies, The Reader, was a book on Oprah's list. I checked it out once and started reading it, and when I got to the first love scene it was so graphic that I returned it without ever leaving the library. So I can't say anything about her recent award-winning performances, but I think she's a fascinating person. Maybe I'll have to go watch Sense and Sensibility.

Ranunculus

Did you see these ranunculus flowers on Design*Sponge? They are probably one of my three favorite flowers, and I thought that this photo was really captivating. It sure makes me wish for spring... What's your favorite flower?

Friday Featured Art: La Belle Iseult

Since I've changed up the Thursday posts, I thought I'd change the Friday posts, too. I'll probably still do Etsy sellers here and there because there are so many awesome things on Etsy, but in the vein of my poetry revival I also want to include some art that I love. I know I've posted this picture before, but I thought that William Morris was a good place to start. This painting is called La Belle Iseult but is often mistaken for Queen Guinevere. It currently belongs to the Tate Britain. I once wanted my wedding dress to be based on this dress, but then I realized how hot and dense the fabric would be!

Thursday Text: Lullaby

I should probably start with a disclaimer. Although I have a degree in English and so had to read a lot of interesting things, I never quite got the literary analysis bit. (My emphasis was technical writing.) That being said, I enjoy poetry, novels, and the like - even though I may not be able to mine the texts for every last nugget sown by the author. I find the poet W.H. Auden ponderous and interesting, and I like his poem Lullaby without being entirely able to explain why.

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.

Bell'occhio

I was on Martha's web site the other day, and found a place that talked about her sources. Maybe you've already heard of Bell'occhio, but this little shop is new to me. It's a specialty shop in San Francisco that also has an online store. Everything is so fascinating and beautiful. I really like the boxwood garland and the cards and tags and twine and earrings... Go see for yourself!

America's Song

I didn't post yesterday because I actually had a day off! It was like a little miracle. I spent the day archiving photos and making jewelry and had lunch with Tony and walked over to the neighborhood pop machine. And I watched Oprah, which I never get to do. She had some awesome people on to sing a new song called "America's Song" as part of her inauguration extravaganza. Check it out. It was pretty inspirational, and it seems like today will be, too!

Friday Featured Etsy Seller: Marie Fly Fly

I really try to feature Etsy sellers with goods other than jewelry, but I just can't help myself this time. Marie Fly Fly is a beautiful shop run by Marie from Norway. I love the simplicity. And I don't know if she does it on purpose, but I like how the photos on each page are somewhat grouped by color. It's all very pleasing to the eye.

Thursday Text: The Cross of Snow

In an effort to include more poems, quotes, stories, etc., as sources of inspiration, I have decided to shuffle Thursday Tunes with Thursday Text. Today's text is a poem by Longfellow called The Cross of Snow. I first read it in a poetry class not long after I was widowed, so it really stayed with me. I later found out that Longfellow wrote it after seeing a photograph of the Mountain of the Holy Cross in Colorado. Here's the photograph, and below is the poem.


In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face--the face of one long dead--
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

Roger and Gallet

We discovered Roger and Gallet when we stayed at the Chicago Sofitel near O'Hare on our honeymoon. They are the French creators of fabulous fragrances and soaps, most notably the Jean Marie Farina line, which is rumored to have been a favorite scent of Napoleon. Recently when we were in Philadelphia we stayed at the Sofitel there, and they provided toiletries from the Roger and Gallet Oat Milk line. I've got to find out where to order a large bottle of the lotion - it is so luxurious.

IKEA

Of course everyone loves IKEA. It is so much easier to love now that they have a location about a mile from Tony's family's home. I was somewhat limited in what I could bring back with me, but I got this table runner. You have to see it in person - it is very vibrant and pretty in a Scandinavian sort of way. We also ate lunch there, and, after being ill for about 5 days, the meatballs were delicious! What could be better than a tasty meal for $5 and some great shopping?

Martha's Craft Room

My sister is building a new house that has a wonderful attic room. It made me think of the pictures of Martha Stewart's craft room that I found sometime last year. Isn't it fantastic? I would love to have such a simple, appealing, functional space. Read the article here.

Friday Featured Etsy Seller: Danielle Leatham

For Christmas, my sister Sara gave me a snowflake tea towel made by her friend, Dani. It is so perfect for my kitchen, and I love the design. Danielle Leatham makes and sells some really great tea towels in her Etsy shop, often with seasonal graphics. She's closed for the holidays but I'm sure will be back with new stuff soon!

Thursday Tunes: Viva La Vida

When we returned from our big trip, there was a package on the porch from Amazon. One of the items was the Peter Cetera DVD from the night we got engaged. The other was Coldplay's Viva La Vida - finally. I know we're a little behind the times out here in Missouri. It's helping me to get back into the swing of things today, and I'm really liking it. (And I thought it was really interesting that they chose Delacroix for the cover art.)

Dream Garden

I'm back! I really had good intentions about posting while we were gone, but Tony and I had too much fun in Philly, and then I was ill pretty much the whole time we were in Utah visiting our families. (I ate some really bad English chips and when my stomach finally felt better came down with a cold...) Nothing like ringing in the new year in the bathroom! (I know, gross.)

Anyway, while we were exploring Philadelphia, we went to the Curtis Center to see the Dream Garden glass mosaic mural. It was a collaboration between the Louis Comfort Tiffany studios and Maxfield Parrish. Fascinating and so beautiful.