Dress Envy...

My head is buzzing with ideas that I must go try to realize, but I had to quickly post this absolutely stunning would-sell-my-whole-wardrobe-and-wear-a-paper-bag-for-a-year-if-I-could-own-this-dress dress by Marchessa. Sigh....

Blog Joy....

Oh I am so excited I can't even say! My wedding is being featured today by Sarah on her exquisite Classic Bride Blog which I followed religiously while planning for the big day. If you haven't discovered her site yet, you must go check it out. Even if you're not planning a wedding, it's such a wonderful place to discover beautiful images. It's one of my favorite visual holidays! Thanks so much Sarah!

Alice and Olivia...

I am loving these flirty and frilly concoctions by Alice and Olivia.

Ruffles and feathers...these frocks couldn't be more my style if they tried!

Gorgeous Things...

via 1stdibs

A Change of Pace....

I have the tendency to get hyper-focussed (translation: certifiably neurotically obsessed) on individual projects. My etsy shop has been consuming me for the last few weeks as I work at getting it to a comfortably stocked position, and for the last few days I have been working on curtains for the bedroom. It is not going well...these are not dainty panel curtains for the window, but rather "hey honey wouldn't it be great to cover the entire wall behind our king sized bed with full draping floor to ceiling curtains" curtains. And they're toille...and I'm trying to pattern match (because I'm insane). I have been swallowed by voluminous mountains of heavy toille and I think I'm about to go stark raving mad. So I'm declaring the next few days a craft/project/technology free zone. Instead, I'm going to focus on my book...and yes, technically that is another project, and technically I write it on my laptop so I will be using technology, but hey, as long as it doesn't involve measurements or pattern matching I think it counts as a substantial departure. So I'm going to go disappear into my book, and I hope you have a lovely day pursuing whatever inspires you. I'm leaving you with this sublime image found via the gorgeous Couture Millinery blog.

Feminine Fashions...

Dreamy fashions on Emilie deRavin in the March Vogue...I just adore those ruffles and that blush pink color!

Valentines Bliss....

While I'm afraid I did not take Kit of Chic Provence's advice and wear that stunning blue feathered mini dress from my last post for a Valentine's breakfast (mostly due to the fact that I unfortunately do not possess said stunning dress), I think I did pretty well for dinner...

My sweet hubby went all out and declared this Valentines Week, surprising me throughout with little treats. Two days ago he came home from a quick "grocery run" and placed a tiny purple box in front of me containing the sweetest little white and pink gold heart earrings. This morning I awoke to hear him calling out "don't come in the kitchen! I'm wrapping things!" I was then brought coffee and presents in bed (even better than breakfast in bed in my opinion!) One of the more creative gifts were two boxes of heart shaped votives that carried a note reading "to be lit when you want to go out to dinner." He then led me to the kitchen window, placed me on a chair and pulled up the blinds to reveal a sweet message tramped in the snowy front yard...

The "you" part of the message is around the corner (our yard is small!) After a lovely leisurely day we got ready for a dinner out and I enjoyed the luxury of taking three hours to look my best...after all, it is our first Valentines Day as husband and wife! I have to say, one of the highlights of the day was when Jon walked into the bedroom, saw me all dolled up and declared "you look like Belle!" (from Beauty and the Beast, my favorite Disney movie). This thrilled me way more than it should a woman who's about to turn 28 in April, but when I was 11 and that movie came out I thought I might die if I couldn't look as beautiful as Belle in that fabulous ballroom. The idea that Disney animated hairstyles could not be properly duplicated by a pre-teen girl with shoulder length hair was lost on me at the time.

But I felt as pretty and happy as Belle dancing with her Beast as my wonderful husband escorted me to dinner and surprised me with yet another piece of jewelry. But even better than the jewelry was the fact that I was out with my husband, my lover, my best friend in the whole world and we had a wonderful time in each other's company. Here's hoping you all had sweet days full of love and friendship!

Dress Envy...

These are all fabulous, but I particularly love the blue Marchesa mini dress. Those feathers are amazing and the color so gorgeously vibrant! I wish it was mine and also that I had somewhere to wear something like that!

!

Etsy love...

I'm always so thrilled when I find jewelry designs that still surprise me. You get so used to seeing the same ideas repeated and copied (which is not necessarily a bad thing); when you are like me and seem to have just enough money to pay the bills and then feel guilty for spending the little bit that's left over on supplies from etsy for your own fledgling business it's nice to know that you can get the look for less. While I appreciate the skill and creativity that famous designers display and love to see what can be done with the highest quality materials, it's also important to remember in these times of economic hardship and natural disasters like the Haiti earthquake that at the end of the day, having the brand name is not the most important thing in life. That being said, finding designers and artisans who still use their craft to create something innovative and unique is so inspiring to me. It challenges me to put the same care and pride into my own work. I was so delighted today to discover another wonderful etsy artist whose work reminds me of no one else. Scottish jewelry designer Barbara Macleod's work is just stunning; of course enamel jewelry has a long history (the Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts movement being my favorite) but her designs are unmistakably contemporary and yet so feminine and delicate while still being substantial. Here are some of my favorite pieces...

While I can't afford to buy any of these exquisite pieces any time soon (although maybe I can drop hints with my Jon for our anniversary!) it is wonderful to see that there are artful people still dedicated to bringing things of beauty into the world. Have a beautiful day all!

House love....

I've been dreaming a lot lately about what I hope the future looks like; my love and I fortunately share a near-identical picture of how we want to grow old together (although his involves a lot of dirtbikes and mine involves a lot of french antiques). We both want to find that perfect postcard town and buy an old stone house on a big lot full of ancient trees. Recently I spent seven days in the small Ontario city of Gananoque helping my mother to plan the renovation of the dream home she and my father recently purchased, and I think I may have found the perfect destination. This town is filled with the kind of gorgeous historical homes that make my heart go pitter patter. The one above with the red roof is just to die for.

I snapped these pictures through the (moving) car window on my last day in town due to the extreme freezing cold (there was no way I getting out of that car!), but I think they get the picture across.

I just love it when a house carries its own unique personality and even if the particular color scheme is not for me (purple porches just aren't my thing) I appreciate the variety and the fact that the owners clearly care about making their home a thing of beauty.

Ever since I was little I have wanted a house with a turret or tower of some kind with a little wrought iron spiral staircase going up to the top. The lovely buttercream colored house just perfectly fits the bill!

I think this is the one of the most impressive houses in town...hard to believe someone actually lives there.

Etsy love...

I am drooling over Etsy seller Liza Rietz. Such lovely feminine designs, perfectly tailored and many of them featuring one of my favorite things...ruffles!

These lovely hats almost make me happy that it's winter!

Bonnie Bozell....

Ok, so I'm so blown away by the incredible grace and serendipity of life. On our honeymoon in Disneyland Jonathan and I met the lovely and talented Bonnie Bozell who is an unbelievably talented graphic artist. She has a day job running one of the portrait booths in Downtown Disney and my husband saw her work and dragged me down from our hotel room to have our portrait drawn. I was honestly a bit skeptical at first because sometimes those booths can be a bit cheesy, but as soon as I saw her work I was sold. She did the most beautiful sketch of us, but the real beauty was that we got to talking and discovered that we had so much in common. We are both in the process of writing books that have been profoundly influenced by our own dreams. Bonnie is working on a graphic novel (that is freaking amazing by the way, I've seen some of the finished images) that I have no doubt will be published when it is complete. She works in the most amazing collage medium with paint, glass, paper, glitter, and other ephemera. It produces the most stunning effects.

Anyways, Jon and I were so impressed with the sketch she did that we asked her if she would consider doing a painting of us inspired by an image on a graphic novel that had personal meaning for both of us. We ended up going out to dinner with her and her sweetie and having a wonderful time and finding out we had even more and more in common. The next night Jon and I ditched dinner reservations so we could go to Bonnie's place for a Buffy night (because Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer is awesome beyond the telling of it and if you have not given it a chance because it has a funny sounding name you should look past that and discover one of the most complex, funny and well-written shows ever to grace the television screen) and she showed us her novel in process and other works.

So part of the way through the night Bonnie pulls me aside and tells me that she wants to do our portrait as a wedding gift and that she won't accept any payment for it. Needless to say I was so touched; I don't make friends easily and this was the last thing I ever expected to have happen on my honeymoon. So now I have this amazing creative friend on the other side of the continent and aside from chatting about our lives and pursuits, she's been sending me little updates about our portrait. Well, it's finally done!

Done in her own amazing collage style, she's incorporated symbols for love and union from various cultures as well as designs taken from our wedding cake. This extra added touch was never talked about and just goes to show how much time and thought she put into the project.

I am here to tell you that Bonnie so completely captured my wonderful husband that he might as well turn his head, look straight out of the painting and talk to you. It's uncanny. And she walked such a wonderful balance between the inspiration of the very stylized anime image and a realistic portrait of myself. And I really love the expression on my face...it completely expresses how I feel when Jonathan's got his arms around me--totally content and happy safe.

Montreal architecture....

There were so many beautiful old buildings and townhouses in Montreal, but the cold weather prevented me from wandering the streets in search of amazing architectural details. Luckily the street our B&B was on had plenty of beauty for me to drool over, and I did manage to get some other pictures on the way to the subway.

I love how these narrow townhouses were all built with their own individual rooflines, trims, pilasters, medallions and colors. You can just see that they were built in a time when people still really cared about craftsmanship and creating things of beauty.

A lot of these buildings have clearly seen better days, but the good bones are still very evident. I absolutely love the whimsical little balconies of this faded orange beauty above.