☁

I always adore the styling in the Toast House and Home catalogues.  This is basically what I want my next vacation/summer months to look like.  All images from Toast SS11 catalogue.

☁

Do you guys ever get the wanderlust?  You know, that insatiable need to hop on a plane and fly to someplace new, exotic, and far away?  I have this feeling pretty much all the time, but am especially feeling it this morning.  If you could get on a plane right now, where would you go?  I'd go to England, where the snowdrops are probably signaling the very beginning of spring, and have a nice visit with my sister.

photo by zsita on flickr

☁

On that (new) note.

A bright and colorful window shopping collection.  (Svpply makes window shopping really fun.)  Really, it's all about those tights.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

(Oh and I have no problem listing these things through links as above.  Because we are just looking, not actually shopping...)

☁

If you read this space somewhat regularly, you may have noticed that I haven't posted about clothes lately.  A while back I was thinking about my own relationship to materialism and became slightly disturbed by just how much my blog was devoted to the notion of wanting things.  Specifically, wanting things that I don't really need and that I have no business trying to purchase at this moment in my life.  

Since September I have been on a self-imposed spending freeze.  It started slowly at first, more out of need to drastically curb my spending, but after a while I just decided to keep up with it.  And with the exception of buying Christmas presents (including a few items of on sale clothing for myself) I have stuck to it, more or less.  And it's been surprisingly easy.  Yes I still dream about the perfect pair of Rachel Comey boots, but I'm getting by without for now, and that's OK.  Pretty soon I will have to temporarily freeze my spending freeze out of necessity (more on that later), and I will feel totally OK with that as well.  

In the meantime I have continued to troll my favorite blogs, perusing the internet and magazines and pausing when I see something beautiful that I like.  It's like window shopping--you get to have the nice part of looking and admiring without having to really try anything on.  And it's fun.  So I've decided that bringing a few "pretty things" back to this space is alright.  Because it's nice to appreciate, even from afar.

photo by Lieke Romeijn, one of my favorite photographers

☁

I'm not even sure why I'm posting these images.  They are from a historical house in NSW, Australia, and for some reason they intrigue me.  Maybe it's because I tend to like things that aren't overly "done," in the sense that things are so decorated that they look twee, or overly matchy.  I think good interiors, like good homes, tell the stories of the people who have lived in them.  And when I look at this old house I can't help but wonder about the people who have lived it, including as the article indicates, Miss Aphrasia Maughan.  Aphrasia Maughan, now there's a name.

images and article from Real Homes

☁

My favorite line from one of my favorite movies, Lost In Translation: "and every girl goes through a photography phase, like horses, you know, pictures of your feet..."

Guilty as charged.

(Although, underneath those feet is a 300 foot plunge into the southern atlantic ocean at the Cape of Good Hope, which is pretty cool, I think.)

☁

What is it about us humans that we are always looking to get what we can't have?  When I was little I fantasized about having curly hair even though my blond hair basically hangs as straight as pieces of dried spaghetti.  I've made my peace with my hair (and my looks in general) but I still find myself living as a "grass is greener" person.

Lately that has come in the form of scouring blogs from the southern hemisphere.  Where it is summer.  And hot.  And life seems like the vacation that we northern hemisphere people would take drastic measures to be on.  Of course I'm sure that life down South is just as hectic as anywhere, but still the images of blue skies, oceans and bare skin have me swooning.

Here are my current favorites.  From Australia:  Rummey Bears, Little Pinwheel, Pia Jane Bijkerk.  From South Africa: Size Too Small and Miss Moss.

Photos: top - Yosigo; bottom - Alice Bernarndo

☁

Today I woke up and I felt good.  Good for the first time since the holidays.  I think there is something about January that, well, doesn't bring out the best in me.  The weather here in San Francisco has been truly glorious for the past few weeks, and I today my mood seems to be finally matching the endless blue skies.  So here's to that!

What are you up to this weekend?  I'm having a very "California in February" weekend.  Tonight we are making fish tacos and I'm going to be reading Persuasion, by Jane Austen, for school.  Tomorrow I'd like to take a do some laps in the outdoor swimming pool where I swim, and on Sunday I'm going to watch a friend run her first half marathon!  (There will be some football viewing, too.)

Hope whatever you are up to that it brings a smile to your face. xo

Photograph by Yosigo, via the English Muse.