More peonies...

...from the grocery store...


I love the white ones with the yellow fringe, like ribbon...

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.

We've swooned over clips of Ms. Hepburn singing Moon River, combed through the Internet for pictures of actress with her pet fawn and donned black dresses with four-strand pearls.

Now there's something new to add to the Audrey lure. Author Sam Wasson is out this week with a new book that presents the woman behind the little black dress. His book, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M., gives a behind-the-scenes account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

For example:
Truman Capote desperately wanted Marilyn Monroe, but Marilyn's people thought the role was too saucy for the actress. (Afterall, Holly Golightly was a "lady of the evening.")
Director Blake Edwards filmed multiple endings;
And Hepburn felt very conflicted about balancing her role as mother and movie star.

"Mr. Wasson approaches his subject from many angles," Janet Maslin writes in today's New York Times. "His book winds up as well-tailored as the kind of little black dress that 'Breakfast at Tiffany’s' made famous. And, yes, there’s lots to say here about that dress’s widespread influence. Audiences used to brightly costumed homebodies and Doris Day-type career girls were in for a big, chic, liberating surprise when Holly and her elegant simplicity came along."

I can't wait to read this book. I already know I'll love it. It never ceases to amaze me that -- five decades after the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's -- we all still adore Audrey,
perhaps now more than ever.

Anyone want to go with me to the bookstore?

What are you reading this summer?

Summer books are the best kind, I think. They're meant to be read simply for the some decadent pleasure. Recently when I was reading the liner notes on my dad's Fountains of Rome album, I noticed several quotes from a Bloomsbury Group writer, Elizabeth Bowen. In 1960 she published a book called "A Time in Rome." She makes the city sound magic.

A sampling:

It was April. The idle yet intense air smelled of honey; Rome shimmered below with hardly a stir, and bluer than the sky were the Alban hills....

and this:

It is impossible, in spring, to walk too often on the Appian Way,
under the cumulus piling into the blue...

I found a used copy of "A Time in Rome" on Amazon.com. It arrived yesterday, and I'm so excited to get started on it. I'm also reading another delicious book, "Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes," by Elizabeth Bard. It's very clever and funny.

Speaking of Paris, I wanted to tell you some exciting news: A high school student from Paris will be spending most of the summer with us! I'm busily fixing up our extra room for her now. She's coming to perfect her English, and we're looking forward to learning French. Her name is Emma. We can't wait to meet her in person! I will keep you posted on her arrival.

Meanwhile, back to my original question:

What are you reading this summer?

xo

PS: Above photos from here.

Liss

Lovely Liss of Daydream Lily has been nominated for the Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Female of the Year awards in the blogger category. I'm so excited for her. She's not only a talented blogger and artist, she's a kind and caring person, always willing to lend a hand to a friend in need. During my dad's illness, she helped keep my blog going and I love her so much for that...

If you get a chance, please vote for her here!

Thank you!

xoxo

The Summer Wind

I've been listening to selections from my father's record collection and can't stop playing one of his favorites, Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind." Aside from the fact that it is a small masterpiece of classic American songbook phrasing -- and no one could do that quite like Sinatra -- it's a wonderful memory of my father. It also reminds me of one of the lovely things that makes life in Los Angeles so comfortable: Even on the hottest days of summer, there are morning mists and afternoon breezes that come in from the Pacific.

Our summer winds are always cooling ones here. (In winter, of course, we get the dry wind off the desert which is named for the devil, but that's another story.)

It's the cooling wind that once made this place the citrus capitol of the world and filled our valleys with orange and lemon trees. I live in one of LA's hottest valleys, and on this morning I can smell citrus and jasmine blossoms in the cool breeze. Bliss.

Sometimes there is nothing better than sitting in front of an open window,
with Sinatra on a record player.

Happy Tuesday everyone!


PS: Photo above from Toast.

"The Yardstick of Celluloid Cool"

Jean-Luc Godard's iconic film Breathless is newly restored and back in theaters this month for a limited engagement!


Jean Seberg is the picture of 1960s Paris cool...

I love the glasses and the hat...

And, of course, the t-shirt...

It's so hot here today in Los Angeles. Two hours in a cool theatre watching a fantastic French movie is my idea of weekend bliss!

IndieWIRE poses this question: Can a multi-decades old film be successful in theatrical release? What do you think?


PS: Rodarte is supposed to release a reproduction of the NY Herald Tribune t-shirt this month, but I'm still searching for it online...sigh.

The peony or the rose?

Every spring in lovely Southern California, the Trader Joes markets sell bunches of peonies for $6.99. It's a monumental occasion for us because, otherwise, the billowy flowers are almost impossible to find here. This year, they seemed larger and more vibrant than usual.

I've always thought of myself as a rose girl, but maybe peonies are more beautiful?

A rose will always be a rose, but a peony is like the full moon in flower form,
even if they do smell like cabbage.

Sinatra and Strauss

Hello my dears, my mom on Friday gave me a box of my dad's old records, a mix of classical music, big band and jazz. We spent the holiday weekend listening to them, drinking wine and reminiscing. The music reminded me again of how capacious my dad's mind was. There were so many aspects of beauty he enjoyed -- music, art, literature. Some of the best conversations I had with him concerned all three. It gave me a deep appreciation of the different cultures of the world, especially those of Europe. Before I even set foot in Italy or Austria or France,
I was already in love.

Listening this weekend to Strauss' waltz, Vienna Woods, and Respighi's Fountains of Rome, I was taken back to my New Mexico childhood, when I first realized how big and beautiful the world really was. Music carries us places that words can't quite describe. It also evokes deep memories. I remember my father playing these records over and over on his old stereo.

As they pop and crackle now on my Crosley turntable, I've learned something about my father: With his overtures and waltzes, he had a flair for the dramatic and the romantic. There were no requiems in his collection, just grand happiness. Thinking of that now makes me happy.

I hope you're having a lovely week. I'm excited to get back to posting here more often!

My Dad

Dear Friends, as kind Liss informed you, my beloved father passed away last week after a long illness. I can't tell you how much I've appreciated not only the inimitable Daydream Lily and all the other bloggers who stepped in to keep this site going, but also all the expressions of affection and support you have left here. I feel so fortunate to be part of this wonderful community.

Before I resume regular posting next week, I want to share with all of you a few thoughts on my remarkable Dad. He was born in rolling hill country along the Kentucky-Ohio border, where his surviving sisters live still. For 35 years he worked for General Electric as an aerospace engineer. He held several important patents for his inventions, and if you've recently flown on a Boeing airliner, chances are he'd devised the engine seals that kept you airborne. He loved his family and New Mexico, where I grew up, but his private passions were painting and sculpture. My home is filled with his art and every time I look at one of his paintings or sort through his watercolor portfolios, I'm reminded of how his character combined, in equal parts, an engineer's precision and a gifted artist's sensitivity and intuitive insight.
I will miss that very much.

One of the benfits of being formally jobless during his last illness was that I enjoyed the unexpected blessing of being able to spend a great deal of time with my dad. He'd always loved our moments together and looking back at how much we both enjoyed just going out for coffee and talking,
I so wish we'd done it more.

The hours we spent together during his final year and, particularly, during this past month are something I'll treasure for as long as I live. I had that rare privilege of hearing my father assure me of his unconditional love and of his great pride in the woman I'd become. I vividly recall how my heart soared when he called my daughter Isabella, his only grandchild, "your marvelous girl." It was his last gift to me--and one of the most precious among so many.

After he died, I asked my mother for his paint brushes and I've arranged them in vases about the house, each one a flower of memory, a reminder of the gentle but skilled hand that once held it. In one of our last conversations, my father said to me, "You've always been my shining star."
I know now that, if I glitter, it is with the light he gave me.

a moment

~~

Dearest readers, Tina has asked me to let you all know her dear Dad passed away today. Please say a prayer for her and the family.

♥ Liss

White Cells & Blast Cells

Hello my dears, it's Tina here. I wanted to check in and give you an update on my dad, who is fighting leukemia in the hospital at the moment. For the past week, we've been keeping vigil at his bedside, watching helplessly as his body wages a war against a growing army of white blood cells. A week ago, his white cell count was 23,000 -- twice the normal rate. Today it topped 140,000, mixed with "blast" cancer cells. His hands and arms are covered with bruises. He stopped eating days ago, despite my mom's delivery of home-cooked food.

Yesterday, the hematologist gently asked him to open his eyes.
"Mr. Daunt, can you tell me what I look like?"
My father lifted his head, opened his blue eyes and answered: "You're a handsome man."

This horrible disease will inevitably rob him of his life but it has not yet stolen his sense of humor. And because of this I have hope...

Photo above by Dicky Jiang

Important PS: I am so grateful to the Liss, LenoreNeverMore and the other guest bloggers who have kept English Muse going. And thank you for reading. Love you. T.

ten days of perfect tunes

Hi Everyone, I'm Flaurette from Floddertjeblog. First of all, I'd like to thank Tina for giving me the opportunity to write on her amazing blog. English Muse was one of the first blogs I regularly followed when I started blogging about a year ago, so I'm very happy to be doing my first ever guest post here!

Well, I suppose I have to introduce myself before anything else! I'm a french art student who runs an inspiration blog called Floddertjeblog. If there are any dutch readers, they might recognize the name! Floddertje is a character created by dutch illustrator M. G. Schmidt, my family used to call me this when I was little. Oh, yes, I'm dutch too! Back to what I was saying: I post everything that inspires me, photography, illustration, fashion, music, design, home interiors...(a king of great and perfect melting-pot!). Come visit me!

For this post, I thought I'd share with you two of my recent favourites.
Let me introduce you to Sophie Richards's photography. Be sure to have a look at her blog, she always shares such beautiful delicate pictures!





And last but not least, my favorite doodle by The Notebook doodles who doesn't need any introduction I guess!


So this is it! Thanks again to Tina! I hope she's going well and that she'll be back very soon!

Weekend turns to Monday don't you know...

... Helloo English Muse readers! yup~its' me, LenoreNeverMore* once again...from the other side of the Blog!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I thought I should just share some of my weekend photos today. I live not too far from the beach, about 20 minutes short-slow drive. It's always so nice to smell or taste the salty air...you know weekend has its own scent right?! (sniff-sniff I should bottle it!) Anyway, It's Monday here & I can't wait for my weekend to arrive again! Am I bad or am I bad?! Confession; Monday has never been a friend...Weekend is!!

.

PS: Please send our thoughts & prayers to our Tina and her family. She is still spending her time with her dear father in the hospital. ~Peace be with you darling Tina!

~XOXO*

Weekend* is finally here! ~yesssss...

Answer to the 'Guessing Game' :

The always lovely Brigitte Bardot*

( congrats to those who guessed it right! ...you Clever you ! )

.

Isn't this FUN* ?!

Tina & I would do the above routine one day.

But first thing first...we must find the perfect tartan skirts to match!

Who wants to join...

.

" Have a wonderful weekend everyone! "

much love, LenoreNeverMore*

a.k.a guest blogger

.

-Credits: Bardot via & GIF by L i l l i C a r r é found via Down&OutChic

Friday Inspiration

Hey lovely readers of English Muse, Liss aka Daydream Lily here and I thought Id pop in to share some Friday inspiration or things to get you through your Friday.

• Photography byAnna Ristuccia (featured)
  
• Interview with Architect Scott Weston over at The Design Files - he was the designer behind Australian Vogue Editor Kirstie Clement's home, which I love!
  
• New Foals album - might not be your thing, but I love it!! in particular this song and this song. Any new music your loving right now?? I'm always up for some new music discoveries!
• Guest Curator features over at the ETSY Handmade Blog. In particular the one from the always amazing Frankie Magazine.
  

Happy Friday!!

Let's play a guessing game, shall we?

Can anyone guess who she is ?

Let me be generous & give you a BIG clue...

the clue : she is famous! (I'm generous like that!)

Answer will be revealed on Friday Darlings!

LenoreNeverMore

a.k.a guest blogger

I am a FAN*

.

I'd like to share this CHARMing floral art works by Vera Neumann [1907-1993]

Originally created as silk scarves from the 60s, have now been reproduced

on canvas [available for purchase~HERE ]

.

.

Vera spent decades creating delightful bright designs

that radiated so much charms & optimism.

Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly & John Lennon were among her fans!

Well...so am I, ehem*~ I have a few of her pieces now! (show-off !)

Anyway, those of us who frequent the flea market scenes,

should be on the look out for her silk designs I think.

Simply adore flea markets... get butterflies in my stomach each time

I reach the crowded flea market car park! ~am I alone here???

Do share your favorite things to get when you visit your favorite flea markets

errr...besides the fresh corn-dogs? ~YUM*

LenoreNeverMore

a.k.a guest blogger

Garage Makeover*

.

" my-my-my...how cute is this! "

... The 250 sq foot home in Seattle that was converted recently from an old garage. Michelle de la Vega acted as her own general contractor, and spent only $32,000 for the entire renovation.~Wow Lady! I'm certainly impressed! Check out the entire article and more garage-now home sweet* home tour here.

LenoreNeverMore

a.k.a guest blogger

-Via & Photo NY Times.

"So sorry Tina...I have to do this to your lovely readers!"

Question Of The Week :

.

" Thank You "

[...don't worry it's not even loaded!]

.

LenoreNeverMore

a.k.a guest blogger

" Good Morrrning! "

~Hello Everyone!

Tina & I hope that you had a lovely-lovely Mother's Day weekend.

"...did the kids make you a special breakfast? "

~my-my-my...these photographs by Francesca Bondy are delectable and so drool-worthy no? We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but must admit that I am not a huge eater in the morning. But when the night falls ...well that's another different story~ I devour!!! Anyway, I normally just prefer a simple warm breakfast, a quick omelet; 2 egg whites + 1 yolk on a piece of toast. Either that, or the wholesome goodness of a warm bowl of oatmeal with fresh berries. ~Do you enjoy your breakfast? ...tell me what you LUV* to have (I'm very nosy like that!).

P.S: Thank you Tina & all your readers' lovely comments, certainly make me feel so welcome here~SWEET!

XOXO~

* LenoreNeverMore *

Knock-knock*

"It's me...from the other side of the block!"



Well hello everyone!
LenoreNeverMore* here, and I'm so glad to be one of the guest bloggers.
It's my very first time EVER!...so a tiny bit nervous here, be gentle pretty pleassse...
~Let me briefly introduce myself:
Well, I enjoy blogging about art & design, food, travels and once in a while, even
about men! yup~ men that make me go either 'blush-blush' or 'grrr-grrr!' (my-my...I'm so eloquent with words!).
It all depends on my quirky-hormonal mood or mind!. (I'm quite dangerous like that!).
Anyway, hope to do the same here, to uplift & delight each time I drop by this side of the block..errr I mean blog!
It's going to be FUN* !!!



I've promised Tina to behave myself...errr
But I must admit that sometimes I can't help 'my-juvenile-self' !
(so pardon me... it might be rather cheeky & raunchy)
Just hope that Tina doesn't regret having me as her guest here, in her beautiful blog!




...see you again soon?! I hope...
HAPPY WEEKEND!

*SmiLe*

-naughty photos of Siri Tollerod by Ellen Von Unwerth for Lula
Via=http://www.thefashionspot.com/

A Web Designer's Inspiration File

Hi there, my name is Michael, and I have the pleasure of wasting some of your time this fine day.

Not 'what I'm going to talk about will waste your time'-waste your time', but rather 'if you're anything like me, one thing will lead to another and you'll find that it has grown dark outside and the cat is clawing your leg for having forgotten to feed it'-waste your time.

And I don't even have a cat.

My personal blogging usually centers on web design, film and games (which I used to develop, now I do freelance web design). Today however, in honor of Tina, I thought I'd highlight some of my inspirational watering holes.

Starting with the ultimate rabbit hole: Ffffound. A chaotic stream of design, typography and photography ranging from the cute through the absurd, beautiful and outrageous to the sexy and mysterious. It's amazing. It's driven entirely by its community, and is updated... always. Blink, and there's something new.

Now, it bears mentioning that you do risk coming across nude photos; so depending on your temperament and surroundings... But then, that's true of most of the internet, isn't it? Luckily, their site mechanics seem to magically keep you around the kinds of images you're looking for, so don't let that keep you away.

Of course going there just now, I spent half an hour picking out stuff for my inspiration folder:


I'm a Star Wars nerd as well, did I mention that?


I have no idea how this was done, but wow.


I want these for my new office!


And yes, there's even plenty of room for nesting envy (I've got a folder full of 'God I wish I lived there'-images from Ffffound).

Then there's wine label designs, flower wrapping designs, fashion, ehm..., this guy, fantastic posters, impossible architecture, landscapes like you wouldn't believe and of course aliens from below.

So that's Ffffound. My favorite watering hole of them all

Then there are some of the more eclectic, like Sleevage, a site dedicated to album cover artwork. One of the unfortunate side effects of downloadable music, is the loss of the album cover. I personally love UNKLE's War Stories and Pocket Symphony by Air, which is covered in great detail, including the manufacturing process of the figures used on the cover. I'm also a huge Trent Reznor fan, and Year Zero is about as good as it gets, with regards to making an album feel like a worthwhile purchase.

Then there's Letters of Note, a site that features... ehm... yeah. Me being a science fiction and film fan, this letter from Philip K. Dick talking about Blade Runner was a great read, as was this 'letter', albeit short.

Now we come to something a bit less... arty. Namely Information Aesthetics, dealing in data visualization, one of those things I like to follow peripherally, and in which wish I had some talent. It sounds dull, but then you see the visualizing of the song lyrics from the band OK Go, or the human body as a subway map. I don't have any idea what most of it means; I just like looking at it.

Related, by the way, is Visual Complexity.

Also check out The Ampersand, a blog dedicated to just that. The Art of the Title Sequence (so many memorable ones; I hold a special place in my heart for Bullitt). The Orientalist Gallery, which features paintings of the romantic middle-east of old. My favorite of the orientalists is Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose art I could lose myself in for hours at a time.

I could keep going on and on, but at least let me leave you with Swiss Miss, run by Tina Roth Eisenberg, a Swiss designer living in New York, who runs one of my favorite design blogs, and who is in a sense one of the sources of inspiration for my starting up as a freelance designer on my own.

Whew.

I hope that wastes just half as much time for you as it's done for me.

Editor's Note: This post was created by the very modest Michael Heilemann, computer code master and creator of WordPress' legendary Kubrick theme. His brilliant design helped establish the framework for the modern blog. For more on Michael and Kubrick's secret history, please see the story I had the honor of writing recently for the Huffington Post! -- Tina