Black Floor Friday

I am desperately in love with black! Flooring or walls, paint or wallpaper, flat, stainged, high-gloss....I don't care it's all fantastic! I feel you have to a have a pretty open and uncluttered space to make it work though.....I have neither :-/ Oops.

I enjoy the first picture immensely as the diversity of the colors and such give so much depth and texture...I ADORE TEXTURE! Fabrics, paints, you name it!

I don't know if I will have time to post anything over the weekend. I have a dear friends 30th birthday party tonight, another's tomorrow and then a baby shower I am helping to throw on Sunday night. It will be an Alice In Wonderland themed party and I am soooo excited about it! I'm hoping that the weather cools a bit as we are having it on the back patio and should the heat prove to be too much it will be moved inside (which means I get to stress about the cleanliness of my house! UGH!) and worse yet, I don't get to go buck wild with lanterns and twinkly lights! WEEEE! I will try to get as many pics as possible and hope that some turn out well. That will be Monday's post most likely!

Lovies!

Watery Wednesday!

So Wednesday will now be an excuse for me to share my complete smitteness (yes, I invent words....a lot) with underwater photography. The first photo is a black and white of a favorite painting of mine (The Young Martyr) that I saw at the Louvre when I was 19. It's haunted me ever since. The people that have the talent (and equipment) to capture the loveliness of these photos are inspiring. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

PS. Today the theme is (obviously) the black and white shots that I've been accumulating. Sigh.

Interior modifications.

Gosh there are some great ideas and inspirations that I saved off the Domino Magazine website before they bit the dust (my heart is still a little broken over this). Hope you enjoy them and are as inspired as I was! Such neat ideas on book storage! I LOVE books and don't like to keep them hidden away but they can end up looking cluttery, I think these looks work just perfectly!

Now I just need to get my hands on their official book!

Men's fashion

A recent perusal of an H&M magazine has inspired me to said tweaking of the Mr.'s style. Hence the purchasing of awesome sunglasses during the weekend jaunt to the coast. The Mr. has always been a fan of the old school chicness of the likes of Gene Kelly and such. Unfortunately, finding a balance of cool 50's look and translatable fashion for today has always kept him from wearing anything more than t-shirts and jeans. It seems that dressing Rockabilly or Greaser is the only option but those looks are so specifically stated that you can't do it half way and doing it fully leaves you open to no other options but bowling shirts or fedoras.

This H&M shoot has laid out pretty perfectly how to have an "inspired" look as opposed to replicating item by item that specific time era. We'll see how it goes.

(Sorry about the pics, I don't know how to work my scanner)

Now to get him into some sky blue pants. ;-)

Finds at the Coast aka 4th Anniversary

Thanks to a generous and loving family member (who paid for our room) we were able to take an overnight trip to Cambria and San Luis. The weather was warmer than we prefer but much cooler than back home which hit a record high out of nowhere while we were out of town. We enjoyed our stay immensely (how could we NOT?) and picked up a couple goodies whilst we were there. I gave the Mr. half of his anniversary gift which he sported our second day there and was stopped and complimented and oggled repeatedly. They are vintage Italian leather and obviously the cats meow. (Gosh, I LOVE ebay)

I am slowly amassing an plethora of foliage for the bathroom and have several different fern already. I saw this little puppy and decided to add it to the collection although it delights and frightens me at the same time. It's called a rabbit foot fern which is part of the delight but at the same time I can't help but think of tarantula legs when I see it's spindly appendages. EEP! Whimsical and weird at the same time. I found the starfish and snail at the same nursery as the fern and knew they had to be added to the collection.

Once we made our way south to SLO we mostly moseyed (gosh, that word always looks wrong to me) around browsing shops without much luck till we came across Paper Sky (I think???) and I picked up several sheets of wrapping paper that I plan on framing (now to figure out where to hang them) On to urban Outfitters where I found the hat, jumper and pantaloons/petticoats. (???) I was quite pleased, all on clearance!!!!!!! I found some sunglasses for the Mister and am quite pleased at his willingness to let me tweak his style from time to time.

The drive back was quick and uneventful and we made it home at a decent hour. All in all a lovely time.

PS. The Kidlet that will never keep any of the cools hats I buy him on top of that large noggin is now quite taken with mum's hat. nothing is better than snatching it off her had plunking it on his own and grinning with glee. What a ham! He was eating beets btw, he's not a flesh-eating zombie baby. Just to clarify.

Got to Start Somewhere...

It's a rather daunting task figuring out what to write for THE FIRST POST!

Seeing as I have told no one, as of yet, that I am even doing this should make this a bit inconsequential though.

So here it goes....

There are things in this world that are hideous and saddening, but there are also so many things that bring joy. Life itself is ultimately exquisite and so I start this blog just to point out some of that beauty from time to time. It's so easy for me to complain so I will use this as an opportunity to remind myself of the loveliness!