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.