Liebemarlene at the Hemingway House

Rhiannon Leifheit, one of my favorite vintage fashion bloggers, took a trip this week to Key West,  Florida, where she visited the Hemingway House. I especially love the picture of the cat with six toes. (Hemingway adored cats and now the estate grounds are populated with them!)

Rhiannon has more lovely pictures on her blog, Liebemarlene.

More about the Hemingway cats here.

It's official: Carey Mulligan will play Daisy

After weeks of speculation, director Baz Luhrmann announced today that Carey Mulligan will play Daisy Buchanan in his adaptation of the Great Gatsby...

"I was privileged to explore the character with some of the world’s most talented actresses, each one bringing their own particular interpretation," said Luhrmann, who also considered Blake Lively, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Michelle Williams, Abbie Cornish
and Keira Knightley for the part.

"However, specific to this particular production of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, I was thrilled to pick up the phone an hour ago to the young Oscar-nominated British actress Carey Mulligan and say to her: ‘Hello, Daisy Buchanan,’” said Luhrmann.

She'll star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie roles played in 1974
by Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.

What do you think of Carey in this role?


(Photos, above by Mikael Jansson for Interview Magazine.)

Are you ready for a royal wedding?

I'm very excited about the Royal Engagement!   I need this distraction: Like what sort of dress should Kate wear? And where should they honeymoon? And how will they decorate the castle and all that?

The Internet is buzzing with royal trivia and advice:

For example,  Fashionista offers suggestions on wedding dresses.

The Telegraph suggests that Victoria Beckham design the royal gown.

AOL ponders whether Kate could be queen.

The Daily Beast applauds William's decision to marry a commoner.

The Queen sent her congrats on Twitter?

The engagement china is already set.

And Kate will wear Diana's engagement ring!

Oh, and by the way, the Beatles are on iTunes. 

"French Essence," by Vicki Archer

Ten years ago, Vicki Archer bought and restored a seventeenth-century property in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, and told the story in her lushly gorgeous book, My French Life. Now, in collaboration again with photographer Carla Coulson, she shares her love of her current place of residence -- Provence.

Her new book, French Essence, is definitely on my xmas wish list. Vicki -- who also has a beautiful blog -- knows how to pack a lifetime of beauty, ambience and inspiration into her stylish tomes.

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Studio
• Price: $45

And Now Presenting: Jane Austen on Facebook

Haha...I'm obsessed with these..

Who would you like to see next!?

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Hitch

Hello my dears,

Have you been following journalist and critic Christopher Hitchens' courageous stories about living with stage four cancer?

Hitchens' illness was discovered when he collapsed at the beginning of a national tour earlier this year to promote his autobiography, "Hitch 22". Since then, he has written with humor, intelligence and unflinching honesty about life in what he calls "Tumortown" in a remarkable  series of columns for Vanity Fair.

How serious is his condition? Well, as he likes to point out, there are no stage five cancers.

Again and again during his illness, he has returned to the consolations of great literature. In a Guardian interview over the weekend, Hitchens says that when he conceives his life's work--all the journalism and debates and polemics--he thinks of it as a defense of civilization by which he means, first of all, literature.

(Photo, above, from Vanity Fair.)