Coup de Coeur...

.

J'adore...
Baileys Home and Garden
the products sold on the web

but also their shop and café in Wales...

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Images: Baileys Home and Garden

Checkout the

Baileys Home and Garden

website for more...

Happy Being Me...

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image: flickr

.I keep trying to escape this reality

that threatens to define me

Box me up and go ahead and blind me

Is this really all you think there is to me?

With this mystifying sense of deluded supremacy

You'd go ahead and try me

This misleading sense of equity

With which you choose to judge me

Because you don't feel comfortable in your own skin

You go ahead and blame me

Denying my freedom or the right to simply be

The comb in your hair does it give you such airs?

To think yourself better than we?

Then let that be your portion

'Cause I'm happy being me

.

Omotoke Olagbaju

.

Vintage Vogue...

J'ADORE
Fashion Photography...
.. Capri, 1947

Helen Connor, 1954

Unknown model in Dior day dress, 1948

See below for more of these sublime photos :
myvintagevogue

World Music...

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à (re)découvrir…

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‘Yael Naim’

.

Son répertoire qui marie français, d’anglais et d’hébreu

est très touchant de simplicité et beauté...

J'ADORE..!

Yael Naim

Simply beautiful music..!

.

Liens intéressants:

Gagnez des places pour le concert Privé Europe1

Le Parisien : petit reportage vidéo chez Yael

La suite des Aventures de Yael et David en Amérique

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Keeping Things Whole...

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Image: Shaahin Madani

Keeping Things Whole

In a field

I am the absence

of field

This is

always the case.

Wherever I am

I am what is missing.

When I walk

I part the air

and always

the air moves into fill the spaces

where my body's been.

We all have reasons

for moving.

I move

to keep things whole.
.

Mark Strand

from Selected Poems

A Bientôt..!

.

Off to visit a great friend...

.

.

a great friend makes you feel as though they were looking for you

even before they had knowledge that you exist

a great friend is one who would wish you to get well

before they've even learned what your favorite ethnic food is

a great friend is one who can speak of spiritual matters with you

without even knowing where you went to college

.

a great friend is one who can see right through to who you are

without having seen you face to face even once

a great friend is one who can sense your needs

without having been told what you do for recreation

a great friend is one who knows how to make you smile

without knowing yet what your favorite comedy is

.a great friend is one who knows what you see

without having glimpsed at the color of your eyes

a great friend is one who gives you the gift of insight

before being told when your birthday is

a great friend is one who gives you joy

without trying—without even knowing it

.a great friend is a great thing to have.

have you a great friend..?

.

i hope so

.

i do

.
Back Soon..!

Amo Paris...

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"I love Paris in the spring time
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
.

I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the yearI love Paris,
why oh why do I love Paris
Because my love is here".
Cole Porter
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photo: Spirit of Paris

.

"Amo París en el tiempo del resorte

Amo París en la caída

Amo París en el verano en que chisporrotea

Amo París en el invierno en que llovizna

Amo París cada momento

.

Cada momento del ańo

Amo París, porqué oh porqué lo hace el amor París de I

Porque mi amor está aquí"

Cole Porter
.

*Listen to Frank Sinatra's version of this song...

Gone But Not Forgotten...

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Year’s End meme

2008

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Image: Absolutely Beautiful Things

.1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
I travelled on the upstairs deck of a

double decker TGV..!
2. Did you keep your 2008 resolutions, and have you made
more for 2009?
I didn’t make any last year, this year I'm aiming for
a "bigger smaller life"..!
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, my neighbour,

does that count..?
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes,
and I miss them terribly.
5. What countries did you visit?
Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Italy, England...

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
The ability to say NO more often...
7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your
memory, and why?
Husband and daughters' near fatal road accident...

say no more..!
8.What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Just getting through the year,

alive and still kicking, to be honest..!
9. What was your biggest failure?
Still not learnt to relax...

I'm always on the go and have zillions of things permanently on my mind...
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major as I'm extremely healthy, however my weak back is in
the habit of playing up at the most awkward moments,
e.g before a long-haul flight..!
11. What was the best thing you bought?
All I bought (food, medicines, clothes...) for one particular homeless,
fatherless family (one of many forgotten victims of the 2004 SE Asia Tsunami)
I met on my trip SW Sri Lanka...
12. Whose behaviour made you appalled or depressed?
She will remain nameless;

she knows who she is...'nuff said!
13. Where did most of your money go in 2008?

I wish I knew..!
14. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Reconnecting with my "bestest of best" friends from my childhood
spent in West Africa...
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder?

Happier...I'll soon be reuniting with some other friends
I haven't seen for years..!
Thinner or fatter?

Fatter -I needed the extra weight..!
Richer or poorer?

Much richer for all the wonderful people I met, the experiences I had,

the discoveries I made...
16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
My abdominal exercises

- the more I do, the less my back aches..!
17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Carrying heavy loads

- this is what always does my back in..!
18. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate
this time last year?
No, I don't hate anyone, I never have...
19. What was the best book you read?
As a bookworm, this is impossible to answer, I've read too many
"unputdownable" books in 2007..!
20. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Again, impossible to choose just one...
21. What did you want and get?
A maximum of love and affection...
22. What was your favourite film of this year?
Little Miss Sunshine (in English) Dialogue avec mon Jardinier (in French)
I know, I'm cheating, but they are definately on a par..!
23. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably
more satisfying?
Had my family been free to accompany me on my latest

trip to Sri lanka
24. How would you describe your personal fashion
concept in 2008?
Well, I don't know about fashion concepts...

I've been wearing jeans, and in particular, my Levi 501 jeans, for what feels like

forever (not the same pair..!) regardless of whether they are in or out of fashion;
I've always lived in my Tod's Italian leather loafers - well before they became

the "in" thing to wear;

I simply couldn't survive without my pashminas

(the real thing : from Nepal and India)
and my love of T-shirts is near legendary..!
According to friends "in the know", my style is "sport chic"...

that certainly sounds a great deal better than my own

description of my thrown together "look"..!
25. What kept you sane?

Who said anything about being sane..?

.

Someday, Somewhere...

..

Un jour, quelque part

- toujours partout,

vous vous trouverez,

et cela, et seulement cela,

peut être le plus heureux

ou le plus amer heure

de votre vie...

Pablo Neruda
.

Algún día

en cualquier parte,
en cualquier lugar indefectiblemente
te encontrarás a ti mismo,
y ésa,
sólo ésa,
puede ser la más feliz o
la más amarga de tus horas...
Pablo Neruda
..

.
Someday, somewhere -

anywhere, unfailingly,

you'll find yourself,

and that, and only that,

can be the happiest or

bitterest hour of your life...

Pablo Neruda

Images::danske