Which books are you giving as presents?

Here's my list:

"Audrey 100: A Rare and Intimate Photo Collection Selected by Audrey Hepburn’s Family."
by Ellen Fontana

Maira Kalman's "And the Pursuit of Happiness."

"The Invisible Bridge" by Julie Orringer

"Cleopatra: A Life," by Stacy Schiff

"Frank: The Voice," by James Kaplan


What about you?


(Photo by Uniform Studio.)

What are you reading this week?

I've been swamped with different work projects this week, plus trying to get everything set for the purchase of the little Victorian house. As a result, my reading materials are really stacking up...but, I did start The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It's really wonderful!

What are you reading?

(Photo by Jessica Alena.)

The Bookshelves of Celeste Tumulte

This Lyon, France girl has fantastic style!

Book Art

Mixed media artist and author Lisa Occhipinti appreciates books for their graceful prose and aesthetic beauty. They serve as both material and muse in her art...

Perhaps that is why she is always looking for beautiful new ways to turn covers and pages into art.

Her book, The Repurposed Library, will be re-released next year.

Elizabeth Bennet's Email Inbox

Katie at Little Toil of Love tipped me off to this!
It was created by Mark Brownlow at Famous Inboxes blog.

I love how Charlotte Collins posted wedding photos on flickr and Darcy sent an email with the subject line: "The answer's still no, then?"  The apparent response: "Stop emailing me you stuck up prejudiced prig."

Very funny!

Tumblr Tuesday

This:

...and more...

Over on my Tumblr page. So glad the site is back (at the moment.)

Did you miss it too?

Shabby, Ultra Chic

I was in Venice, CA on Abbot Kinney Blvd yesterday. I couldn't resist taking a few photos at the home decor store, Bountiful:


The store and all its back rooms are packed with treasures.There are even couches, armoires and statues of saints (!) in the rafters:

The front of the building still displays an old hardware store sign.But it doesn't take long to figure out that this place isn't selling hammers and nails...

It's incredibly expensive. (You could spend $20,000 on a couple of columns...)


But it's really a feast for the eyes...



And great inspiration too...



More about the store here.

Tumblr Outage

Did Mark Zuckerberg hire away
all the Tumblr engineers
to work on the Facebook redesign?

Sigh.

Dani Padgett's amazing SF apartment (and cat)

Dani Padgett writes on her flickr profile that she's in a creative slump, but you'd never know that by looking at her amazing photos...








The pictures of her cat and friends are lovely -- and so is her San Francisco apartment!

Elizabeth Bennet's Zombie Combat Kit

Are you a fan of Pride, Predjudice and Zombies?
Well...the book's very enterprising marketing team is rolling out a full-blow social media campaign this month that includes an Etsy shop for Ms. Bennet, where she's selling
a Zombie apothecary kit (for $100).

Take a look:

Ms. Bennet describes herself this way on her Etsy profile page:

"I, Elizabeth Bennet, lived a life of peace and propriety in the English countryside until a pustulent plague of unmentionables rose from the earth and began to wreak havoc on dear Hertfordshire. Thankfully, my sisters and I were trained in the most vicious defense techniques: swordplay, hand-to-hand combat, musketry, and sharp wit. Thus, my life has been devoted to fighting off the dreadfuls (as well as the attentions of a distasteful man named Mr. Darcy). 

I hope you will benefit from this zombie prevention kit, as well as a hardcover copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a tale inspired by my family’s struggle to defeat the unmentionables."

The kit includes "Bleed-Banishing Balm, Gnaw-be-Gone Purifying Poultice, Reanimate and Perambulate Smelling Salt."

What is it about Jane Austen that inspires such cleverness?

The Sweetest Little Cottage

I was searching the Internet today for information on renovating Victorian cottages when I came across a New York Times story on this fantastic little house in the Catskills:

It was an old hunting cabin that Sandra Foster
turned into the romantic Victorian cottage she had always wanted.

You even have to use a ladder to get to the sleeping loft!

And look at the front porch:

So cute!

Saturday Tumblr Update

I'm so addicted to Tumblr at the moment! Lots of new stuff on my page!

(Open photo by Abby Trys Again.)

"You're under the lucky star now"

I keep a small lot of fortune cookie slips in an old silver locket.
The lucky star one is my favorite...

Top photo by Look Left and Look Right; bottom photo by me.

Some good news!

I'm very excited to tell you that we got the house!! (Not the one above, that belongs to Mr. Disney)... We got the little Victorian, equally as grand in our hearts!

(Photo by Tatini.)

If we don't get the house...

We could:
1. Keep looking.
2. Take a break from house hunting and clean the carpet in our flat.
3. Go to Paris for three weeks in January.

*

We still haven't heard any news. (The sellers have until tomorrow to decide.)
I'm trying to distract myself.


(Photo by Le Portillon.)