Feeling a bit blue...

It's been a bit of a blue day. Perhaps it's the cold, grey, wet weather.... Dropped Turtle and Mu at Spanish and pottered about in the local bookstore. I found a lovely book Grace Kelly: A Life in Pictures by Pierre-Henri Verlhac. To quote Publishers Weekly "Kelly's radiance, both on-screen and off transcends the pages".

I also found the magical This is for you by Rob Ryan. A romantic and touching story of thoughts and dreams. Each page has been cut out of paper using a scalpel, sprayed and photographed. He has an etsy shop where you can buy his amazing work, plus a great blog.

Back to get the boys and home to find an invite to a Simon Ogden exhibition opening at Bowen Galleries. Simon uses the colour and patterning of 'found' materials to make wonderful collage compositions, like Minevois Flower (2006-2007).

Images from Amazon, Rob Ryan, and Bowen Galleries

One or two beautiful things...

...I'm loving right now. Simple Song a gorgeous blog over on typepad. Pop on over to have a peek.

Anni B Sweet a beautiful voice from Madrid. Her song Motorway is fab, and she has just released an album Start Restart Undo.

Bob Wolfenson a Brazilian photographer - just love this image of Camilla Finn.

Images from Simple Song, Anni B Sweet and Bob Wolfenson.

Monday, Monday...

A quiet day spent catching up on the weekend. My hyacinth bulbs have finally dried out and become ugly and beautiful at the same time. And the first sign of a distant spring - my daphne have just started to bloom...

A lovely start to the weekend...

Hooray I was able to nip out to the lovely Kiri's yoga class this morning. Kiri teaches traditional ashtanga yoga and I always leave her classes feeling refreshed and with a skip in my step! Below is a random selection of books I've on the go......I stumbled across a 1958 book of Paul Klee prints - one of my favourites is Individualized Measurement of Strata (1930). Just love those colours!

Last night I read The Allure of Women by Francois Baudot. Francois describes allure as a mixture of distinction and grace, authority and gentleness, a singularity.... An interesting book and a beautiful collection of photographs of past and present alluring beauties.

A pretty book I treated myself to earlier this year is Beauty in Bloom by the gorgeous Natalie Bloom. Full of lovely inspiration and beautiful illustrations......

R gave me Eat Pray Love earlier this year. Elizabeth Gilbert had spoken at the TED conference and R thought I'd enjoy the book.  I can relate to Ms Gilbert on many levels.  Update - whilst there were moments of insight in the book, there were also many moments when I felt like "get over yourself woman!". Plus the way she has totally sold out to mass-marketing, goes against the whole concept...

I'm also enjoying Things I wish my Mother had told me - Lessons in grace and elegance. Full of lots of simple, practical and lovely ideas and thoughts.... for example 'You can't change most people. Don't expect them to give what they are unable to give.' 

Have a happy weekend!

A day of beauty and sadness...

I'm loving my camellias from the lovely Jeanie at Next Stop Earth, Newtown. The buds are bursting into lush dark pink blooms. My own tiny white camellia has been flowering outside Turtle's window.....

Farrah Fawcett's death is sad - she has had such a brave battle - and under all that hair she was stunningly beautiful.

And now we hear that Michael Jackson has died - ! So many of his songs remind me of my childhood - he was so talented. So many great songs. Earth Song is just heartbreakingly beautiful.

Lovely inspiration....

I discovered Flora by Nick Knight when rambling through the library on Tuesday. Nick, a fashion photographer, shows his love for the pressed flower collection from the Natural History Museum of London. So delicately beautiful....

And indulging in the decor mags at Magnetix I came across the May 2009 issue of Elle Decoration which featured Martin Bourne's NY apartment. I just love his desk and pale blue wall.....

And lastly Michi Girl's Kat MacLeod image from yesterday was as pretty as ever...

Must rush - am trying a new recipe - baked penne - yum!

The great cookie caper....

My weekly bake-a-thon is still going strong. Although the last batch of cup cakes weren't a roaring success. Mu & Turtle stayed up late decorating the last batch of cookies - yum!

Gotta rush - boys have started Spanish after school on Tuesdays and it's a mad dash across town to get there in time!