Summering

This is really where I want to be...



Drifting along on a boat. It can be anywhere. Even in someone's backyard swimming pool...



Or maybe strolling along with my little parasol, trying not to blind the tourists with my incredibly pale legs...


Or standing on the pier at dusk, watching the lights of the city flicker on...

I'm so restless for a proper summer vacation. I want to be off somewhere. Sigh.

For now, I have to be content with looking at these photos, above, from the Toast catalogue website. (They stopped sending me the catalogue in the mail, I guess because I didn't order anything.)

I can't wait until August, when we finally head out to the beach and then the mountains...

Toast

The new Toast catalogue arrived today via Royal Mail. Always makes me happy. This issue is especially beautiful. I'm so looking forward to summer (and weekends at the beach)!

More gorgeous photos {here}.
And my previous Toast posts {here}.
PLUS! Toast stylist Twig Hutchinson.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend...
xoxo


PS: I always think of Joanna when I see bicycles now! She loves them. Visit her wildly popular fabulous blog, A Cup of Jo, {here}!

Tea (and Toast) Break

I adore these images from Toast, the UK version of Anthropologie. (The catalogues are awe inspiring -- and online.)  The robe in the top photo is gorgeous and I love the staircase... And now I'm off for my real tea break. 

Evening Toast

It's evening and I finally have a chance to relax. I've been continuing to flip through the Toast catalogues online. I spotted this picture. I love this look: Boots with black tights and a print skirt. I also love how the scarf matches the jacket. What do you think?

Toast: House and Home, Autumn/Winter 2010

I LOVE the Toast catalogues, maybe even more than the ones from Anthropologie.

Fall

The main reason to look forward to autumn: the clothes -- although fall seems very far away at the moment in LA, where it's 100 degrees today. I'm living vicariously again through the Toast UK catalogue. I especially love the pink tights with the black ballerina flats. How's your weekend going?

Twig Hutchinson Captures the Castle

Twig Hutchinson, star stylist of the Toast catalogues, cleverly updated her online portfolio to look like an actual book, complete with a quote from Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle."

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink..."






LOVE!

" 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 *

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.

Happy Weekend

Weekend To Do List

Saturday:

*Avoid the 405 Freeway (This weekend is Carmageddon here in Los Angeles!)

*In fact, avoid car travel all together.

*Walk to the newsstand to pick up the weekend editions of the FT and the Wall Street Journal.

*Stop by the coffee shop for an iced latte.

*Walk to the market to pick up fresh greens, beets, and dried cranberries for a summer salad.

*Have lunch on the back porch where the canyon breeze is the best.

*Spend the afternoon reading in the hammock under the magnolia tree.

*Take a nap.



Sunday:

*Sleep In.

*Make French Toast and coffee.

*Read the Sunday New York Times.

*Walk to the movie theatre to see Harry Potter.

*Spend the evening at the park, listening to live music.



What are you doing this weekend?


(Collage by Michaela Frame By Frame.)

PS: Here's a very funny story about Carmageddon by one of my former LA Times colleagues.