Who? Me?...

.

5. I have an incredible amount of patience for some things,

and absolutely none for others...

.

4. I love the aroma of freshly ground coffee...

.

3. I have a special, unshakable, deep-rooted love

for Paris...

.

2. I don't like people with no sense of humour,

I've no idea how to

relate to them;

I find they take themselves too seriously...

.

1. I’m more interested in ideas than what other people
are doing in their (private) lives...

Yours Truly...

.

Photo: VintageVogue
.
° When I was 12, I was in a car accident that, by all laws of physics,

should have killed me.

I still don’t know how I survived.

.

° I seem unable to work unless I am surrounded by clutter.

If I file things away neatly, I immediately

lose them.

If I stack them up in big teetering piles, I somehow know

where everything is.

.

° My heart still breaks much more easily than it should.
It doesn’t take much.
I keep waiting for it to toughen up a little bit,

but it never does!
.

° If there is one thing I can't tolerate, it's gossip.

I have no interest whatsoever in the private details of

other people's lives, famous or not...

.

° I think of my blog as a hobby; a place for me to play

and share things that I like.

Its completely different from what I do

"in real life"...

Personal Style...

.

It wasn't until I'd been collecting favourite home interior

photos for quite a while that I started to see

some common elements...

Of course, that's why professional decorators advise clients to start

clipping photos of favourite home interiors before they even think

about decorating their own home.

It's true that when you spend time finding what you like,

you end up being able to separate your own taste

from the trends you see around you...

.

Here are just a few of the many elements that have emerged

over the years in my personal collection...

.

quirky, unfitted kitchens; solid stone sinks, antique cookers and

linen curtains instead of cupboard doors...

Vogue June 2004

.

extra large mirrors,

bare wooden floorboards and stunning leather pouffs...

Photos: Living Etc.

..antique leather Club armchair, mis-matched bric-a-brac,

book-lined walls...

Photo from stylist Atlanta Barret's site, Beach Studios, in the UK.

.

Gone But Not Forgotten...

.

Year’s End meme

2008

.

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..?

.