Annie Get Your (Glue) Gun!

Good afternoon, Kids! Your Uncle Beefy has returned again! I was at least hoping for "morning" but there's no getting around that now. I trust and hope that you all had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend? And now here we are at mid-week! Something of a two for one bonus with a Monday holiday, huh?

At any rate, between long weekend personal obligations and beginning of the week work obligations I've been rather pressed for time on the blogging frontier. (Believe you me, the crickets have been mighty noisy over at my blog as well!) Clearly, Miss Tina managed to scrape together a TON of terrific posts which invariably helps to pick up my slack. As always, Tina, much obliged.

I did want to share with you some amazing artwork from Annie Bastine Koelle while I'm here. Aside from her Etsy offerings, Annie also produces some fantastic assemblage pieces! I love the way she mixes rustic and refined elements along with rich colors and white texture. Though the cut paper details make my hands hurt just thinking about the process! So perhaps I should just model instead. (Yes! I could model! Who do you think came up with that infamous "pointing at the watch" Sears catalog pose?! It wasn't Tyson! But I digress.) Annie also does printmaking, clothing, etc., making her one serious annie-of-all-trades. This woman could provide a serious creative showdown. [Glue]guns blazing!

Julie & Julia

If you loved the movie, you might enjoy looking at the blog that started it all. It's still online and you can find it {here}. Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm back at work. So much to tell you!

End of Summer

Hello everyone. It's been two weeks since our trip to Huntington Lake in the Sierras outside Fresno, and I'm just now uploading some of my Polaroids and Fuji Instax photos. I promise to do a proper post with more photos later this week. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites, taken with the Fuji camera on our last day at the lake. Our little cabin is in the second picture. I miss it already.

I'm going back to work tomorrow after six weeks off to help care for my father. I'm happy to report that my dad is doing much better. The doctors are managing his bone marrow disease with medication and occasional blood transfusions. So I'm hopeful he'll be ok for a little while.

It will be good for me to get back to the office. I'm especially looking forward to Wednesday because I'm meeting someone really amazing: Michael Heilemann, tech genius and creator of WordPress' groundbreaking Kubrick template. By coincidence, Michael is in Los Angeles this week. Check out his fantastic blog, Binary Bonsai, where he is currently chronicling his trip through Nevada and California.

Finally, I want to thank all the guest bloggers who helped keep this blog going during my leave. I love them. (Several of them will be making cameo appearances in the coming weeks!)

Hope you have a nice Tuesday.
xo

T Magazine

Have you seen the New York Times' T Magazine site?  It's so fantastic, with a horizontal Flash format on WordPress.  And the content is beautiful too.

LIFE's Second Life

LIFE may have stopped monthly publication in 2000, but the magazine is alive -- and thriving -- on the Internet. The LIFE site hosts one of the largest on-line repositories of photographs, from never-before-seen photos of Marilyn Monroe to WWII pics. This month, the editors of the vintage tome are spotlighting some of their old fashion covers. Love.

Ok dolls, that's all for me tonight. I guess it's clear how I spent my Saturday. xoxo

Joanna...

Joanna Goddard's mom posted this beautiful photo of Joanna on Facebook! I can't wait to hear all about the wedding. While Joanna's away on her honeymoon, she's been having a fantastic group of guest bloggers writing about the secrets to a happy marriage. So romantic...I love her blog, A Cup of Jo , which now has nearly 5,000 Google followers!

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?

Sofia Coppola's Paris

Oh. So fantastic. Who wants to go? We'll stay with my friend Elaine and eat macrons all day. And sip hot chocolate...

(photos from the New York Times.)

xo

First Comes Love

Good Friday morning, Kids. Yes, your Uncle is back with coffee in hand and a soft smile on my morning face. The sun is shining on the yellowing leaves outside my window. A long weekend that, for once, I will get to enjoy in its entirety. What about you? Any Labor Day Weekend plans? Well, whatever you're doing I thought I'd help you ease into things.

I posted about this piece of Josh Goleman's amazing work up above almost two years ago now. I've watched it a million times and it never ceases to bring on a wave of heart warmth. Every. Single. Time. So, I thought, why not bring it out of the archives lest any of you haven't seen it. Watch it. You won't regret it.

And you certainly couldn't ask for a better way to start a weekend... or a life together.

(If you wish, you can see photos here.)

A Right Anglo

One can hardly take in the title of The English Muse without tapping into one's inherent Anglophile nature. Are you with me? Okay, your Uncle Beefy typically refers to himself as a "Franglophile" given his love of things both French and English but for the moment I shall focus, Kids.

I love to armchair travel on a constant basis... pretending to flit about from shop to virtual shop admiring the wares, the merchandising, and the glorious accents used to offer me assistance while I try to muffle my desperate need to be seen as fashionably international. (This requires enormous mental fortitude and imagination when sitting at the 'puter in one's pajamas... just sayin'.)

One favorite virtual fix is Rockett St. George! They have a vast array of goodies of all sorts that will have you conjuring up images of us having tea at the window of my London flat as we secretly mock the American couple down below (in matching satin bowling jackets) inquiring about the possible whereabouts of an Applebee's. "Ha, ha, ha!" as we throw our heads back. "More Earl Grey? Or shall we have a Pimm's Cup? Nonsense! Let's grab a bite at Albion and then do some shopping!"

To blog perchance to dream.... sigh.