L'Influence

It's Great When You're Kate!

I grew up on this lady. Wuthering Heights was released when I was three and yet it went deep into my psyche and stayed there. Since then she has come in and out of my life at different times.

This Woman's Work was a song I loved as a teenager and Moments of Pleasure is my all time favourite song to play when I'm home alone.

I love the fact that she is this ethereal, unknown creature. Capable of beauty and passion and yet she would perhaps pass me in the street and I wouldn't know it was her. BUT, it has to be said she was and is a formidable force. Having watched some old interviews with her on You Tube she had a spark and a manner that immediately told you she meant business.

All wrapped up in this angelic package.

It's great when you're Kate.

   

The Golden Age

If you were to wander around the streets of London at the moment or perhaps venture underground and ride the tube you would see posters for an exhibition called The Golden Age of Couture, Paris & London - 1947 - 1957

It's being held at the illustrious Victoria & Albert museum and if you're in town you should go. If you're not, due to that fact that many thousands of miles separate you from these wonderful gowns then you simply have to visit the website.

It's no secret that if I had pots of gold hiding under my bed and very little to do all day, except eat cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, I would take great pleasure in dressing like this.

All. The. Time.

The nipped in waist, the kitten heels and the dark shapely eyebrows are the things that float my boat and I can't imagine one woman who wouldn't suit this shape. I often think that Nigella is someone who has cracked the sense of this look. She has also brought it right up to date and is able to wear her version of it daily.

Anyway, until those pots of gold do fall out of the sky, my clothing budget is still the same. But that's not to stop me from salivating right throughout 2008 as I gaze longingly at the images every time I enter a new date in my diary. My mother bought me this diary a few weeks ago. Thanks mum, you know a good substitute when you see one!

Cx

A Little Bit Of ........

toast, toast, toast!

My summer wardrobe invariably consists of light tops with suitable bottoms and airy shoes. Nothing evokes more of a sartorial reaction in me than when the clothing companies hit us with their Autumn/Winter collections. Cath did it about two weeks ago and now I am lusting over TOAST. The romance that drips through the pages of the catalogs at this time of year is almost too much but TOAST combines it with a rustic feeling that I respond to.

I'd like some TOAST with .......er.......just about everything please.

CMx

My Faith Is Restored

I, I, I........loved this film. Oh my, have you seen it????? HAVE YOU SEEN IT????? Did you love it?

You haven't seen it????? SEE IT!!!!!!!!

After The Wedding.

As someone who trained as an actor at a wonderful, wonderful school with some amazing tutors I watched this film in awe and wonder. Such capable actors, such a moving score. This story had a beginning, a middle and an end. Simple enough recipe......... you'd think!!!

I haven't come away from a film feeling this satisfied, this warmed, this inspired and this overwhelmed in years.

I mean that, it's been years!

This piece of work has restored my faith in the power of movie making.

Thank you cast, crew, director & writer!

CM x

Feet On Italian Steps

I bought these red shoes in Zurich just before catching a train, through the alps, to Lake Como in Italy. I love shoes that are red more than any other shoes in the whole wide world. Three inch heels or flat pumps, if they are red they are mine.

I put them on for the first time when we headed out for our first dinner in Como. Feeling like Moira Shearer as I half skipped and almost tripped down the stairs of our hotel. The warmth of the Italian sun lending us it's last heat of the day before it disappeared beneath the lake.

Cx

My Name Is Dita

Oh what a beautiful girl she is. I saw her once in a fancy hotel in the heart of London and she is TINY! Bring back glamour like hers, that's what I say. I was never a true fan of grunge and I always kept one eye on the style of Ava Gardner just to keep me sane during that blip in fashion's history.

But Dita, oh Dita! Well done my darling. Very well done!

C x

The Search Is On

OK, so I'm going to knuckle down and actually begin to seriously think about some wedding decisions I have to make.

Like, what on earth one is going to wear!!!!!!

Vera

Carolina

Badgley Mischka

The list, as I'm sure you can imagine, is endless. Pages and pages of gowns, gowns a girl can only dream of wearing. And to think I offered to cut the dress budget.

For what?

I can no longer recall.

You crazy fool Menlove!!!!!!

Sounds To Sleep To

I took this at 21.25 yesterday evening, having retired myself to bed feeling rather shattered. At the time of taking this I was prostrate in bed gazing  out of the window. It seems that I shall be going to bed on a Tuesday night at this time for the duration of time that we spend in this house. You see, Tuesday night is when the bell ringers get together to practice. If you have never drifted off to sleep with the sound of church bells ringing out across the town I urge you to search until you have found a place in the world that will offer such a gift. If only I could have recorded the sound.

C x

My Mitford Moment

Oh to be a Mitford!!!

Well perhaps not, but this is a wonderfully intoxicating and throughly delicious account of this extraordinary family. It's an easy read and the author throws us straight in to life with the family without the help of a laborious introduction.

The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell is a book for the summer if ever there was one.

C xx

The Man, David

I took both of these pictures, a year ago this very Sunday, while visiting David Austin rose garden in Shropshire. Incomparable in their quality, a walk around the gardens leaves joy in your soul and peace in your heart. There has to be more good than evil in the world while the rose still exists.

CM x