HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Considering I just drank sour milk, I hope your Friday starts off better than mine has. No lie - when I poured it out it was actually green. Green, people, it was GREEN! Its not even supossed to expire for another week. What's up with that???

this image is from a recent post by All Things Bright and Beautiful - if you don't know about her blog you've got some serious catching up to do in blogland so go check her out!

WOW

By trying to freeze everything in time maybe we're just tying clinging to the painful experiences of our youth without realizing it. If your house crumbles, it's too late to put up a facade; just get up, leave, and walk away. I need to remind myself to just get on with it. Whatever "it" may be. Let the house fall down, that's what happens with time. We just have to make sure we don't let it crush us.

You simply MUST read this post from Reclaiming Miss Havisham.

Note: the image is from here

On the road again. . .

See I left another good man tonight

I wonder if he'll miss me

Lord knows I tried

But I think that maybe

The thing that I did wrong

Was put up with his bullshit

For far too long

I ain't gonna sleep

I ain't gonna dream

About the things that I used to need

I ain't gonna cry

Or go on living lies

I'm just gonna drive

lyrics from "cigarettes", by: the wreckers

all images from the genius Dark Frame on Flickr.

He seriously is the most amazing photographer I've found on Flickr to date - here are more of his amazing shots:

my favourite:

Beijing Olympic Gardens

I'm sure by now everyone has gotten the same foward that everyone I know seems to be sending to me, but just in case: take a look at some of these pictures-they'll knock your socks off (if you are actually idiotic to be wearing socks in this horribly hot weather that is)!

Enjoy!

There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
My favourite Stewart once told me: "There's only but so far you can walk into the woods before eventually you're walking out.
I need to tell myself that today.

By the way, isn't my bedside table adorable in every way???

Gotsta get back to the reading material . . .maybe next week?

Ok so I totally stole this from the cutie pie that writes Whatever DeeDee Wants.

Isn't that just the cutest name for a blog? I was immediately intrigued by it because my bff Coley's momma is named Dee Dee and that statement would ring true for her as well. In fact, as we speak she's on my case about re-designing her kitchen (for free!)

Anyway, back to what I stole (I've altered the instructions a bit):

Here's how it works: The Big Read says that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read

2) Star those you intend to read.

3) Write "LOVE" next to the books you love, and "ABHOR" next to the books you read but didn't like.

4) Reprint this list so we can try and track down these people who've read only 6 or less and make them read

THE BIG READ TOP 100

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen LOVE (although its not the best Austen book ever)

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte LOVE

*4. The Harry Potter Series JK Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee ABHOR (I know I know, I'm not even human for actually admitting I didn't like it, sorry!)

6. The Bible LOVE

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte LOVE LOVE LOVE (one of my favourites!)

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell LOVE

9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens LOVE

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott LOVE

12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy LOVE

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

*14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier LOVE LOVE LOVE

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

*18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

*20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell LOVE (again, another favourite!)

*22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

*24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh LOVE (but not the best Waugh work ever).

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

*31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34. Emma - Jane Austen . LOVE

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen LOVE

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis LOVED as a child

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres LOVED (this was even better than the movie and that is saying a lot!)

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

*40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell LOVE

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown LOVE

*43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

*46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

*47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

*50. Atonement - Ian McEwan .

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune - Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen LOVE LOVE LOVE - the best Austen

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens LOVE

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley LOVE

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

*60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

?64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (someone remind me what this is about - I do feel like I have read it)

*65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

*66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy LOVE and ABHOR (good book, but it literally feels like your heart is being ripped out over and over and over

68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding ABHOR (honestly, I couldn't get through this one, sad I know, because I love the movies!)

69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker LOVE LOVE LOVE - I've got a great story for you guys to go along with this one!!!

*73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson LOVE I keep this one next to my bed and read it when I'm feeling blue or missing England

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

*76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray LOVE - it took me FOREVER to get through but mostly I just didn't want it to end!

*80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens LOVE

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

*83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

*84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

*85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry .

87. Charlotte's Web - EB White LOVE

*88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

*92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare LOVE

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl LOVE

*100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

P to the S - I'm not the average adult!!! Who knew?

Oh and by the way kids, today's pictures were courtesy of that fabulous photograhper James Merrell (you can find his representation here)

Have a FABULOUS Tuesday my darlings!

Ya'll Gotta Check THIS Out!

isn't it precious?

Scarlet Beautiful has some really lovely things:

I love these little beauties, don't you?

I'm off to unpack from the weekend and clean the disastrous house.

I find that music and shopping really are the best therapy so I'll leave you with these lovely lyrics:

This scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin

Tried to reach deep but you couldn't get in

Now you're outside me you see all the beauty

Repent all your sin

It's nothing but time and a face that you lose

I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose

I'll write you a postcard I'll send you the news

From a house down the road, from real love

There's one thing I want to say so I'll be brave

You were what I wanted, I gave what I gave

I'm not sorry I met you, I'm not sorry its over,

I'm not sorry there's nothing to say

Live through this and you won't look back. . .

From: "Your ex-lover is dead" by the Stars

Have a good weekend!

Parasols

I loooove these things. So did anyone see the above picture in June's issue of Country Home Magazine? I have long since wanted to do something along these lines in the living room - now I'm totally determined!
So I went online looking for a few. . .

The first three are from Pamela's Parasols. Aren't they just pure perfection?

The next few are from Luna Bazaar. I'm so overwhelmed at this point, I don't even know where to begin choosing a few.

So maybe I should just say to hell with the whole mixed idea and buy this lighting fixture instead (also from Luna):

Nahhhh - maybe another room will get that.

Anyway, don't even get me started on the other fabulous things at my new bff Luna's place:

I know I know can we say "Attention Defecit Disorder!"??? Back to parasols.

I reaaaaalllly like this one:

You think I could hypnotize my male suitors with it???

But hey, I need the paper lanterns too! Here's what Luna's got:

OOOOOOOO!!! I got sidetracked again - look at this:

Next, I found this site for lace parasols. I'm not really sure I want to put this sort of investment in this particular project, but they really are stunning so I thought I'd pass along:

Now the Asian Import Store has some lovely lanterns and parasols for incredibly afordable prices so I think a few of these might be the way to go. . .just keep telling me "less is more" "less is more" "less is more" come on people I need to hear it from all of you: "less is more".

But while I'm placing the order I might buy one of these too, yeah?