Happy four in the morning

A little something beautiful

                   

                                                                                                 

"You can always tell what a man really thinks of you by the earrings he gives you. I must say the mind reels!"

-Holly Golightly Breakfast at Tiffany's 

Sometime ago my best friend Rebekah (top) and I did a photo shoot. I've just come across these two pictures and the quote sprang instantly to mind.

We took over a thousand pictures that day, so I'm pretty sure I'll never finish sifting through them, but that's half the fun =).

Saturday morning

It's a beautiful April morning and all the windows in the house are open, letting in slightly chilly but wonderfully fresh, spring air. I was woken by a sneezing fit (oh joy! Spring = allergy hell) but it was so beautiful out that I couldn't go back to sleep. Usually I would have been out in the garden as soon as I was dressed, but today I decided to stay in my pajamas and make pancakes. A very good decision. It took me almost two hours to actually make breakfast, but once it was made it was delicious.

My garden has been doing beautifully, and a few days ago I cut a bouquet.

It got a little wilted so I cleaned it out a some.

The roses were rather sad, but still beautiful.

I'm hoping they perk up a little now that they have a vase to themselves.

There's something indescribably lovely about wilting flowers, just before they hit that indescribably depressing state of nearly-but-not-quite dead.

Madeleine Castaing

I have a new hero. Her name was Madeleine Castaing.

She was an interior decorator beginning in the late '30s. In 1941 when the Nazis requisitioned her beautiful country home La Maison de Leves (Which she had painted an unusual shade of pale blue)

she moved with her husband and two sons into Paris and opened an antiques shop. An antiques shop. In the middle of occupied Paris.

She was in my opinion the Audrey Hepburn of interior design. They were both unique, confident women who liked beautiful, unusual styles and confidently used said styles with such taste that they became and have staid hugely popular. The difference was that rather than using the understated rather zen look that Audrey used in her own home and life, Madeleine used a plethora of colors, patterns, textures and eras to achieve a delightful and romantic look that was dubbed le style Castaing.

A few of my favorites are below.

Madeleine Castaing died in 1992 at the age of 98.

Elephants

According to tradition an elephant with it's trunk turned up is good luck. I'm ashamed to say I don't remember who's tradition...but I like it therefore I have claimed it.