What Will It Mean?


I'd love to hear from those of you "in the know" about the recent purchase of Elle Decor.

What do you think it will mean that Hearst now owns:
House Beautiful, Veranda, Country Living, Town & Country and Elle Decor?
Good Lord, talk about a monopoly. 

Wouldn't it be fantastic if someone created Living, Etc. U.S.A. ?  



Found the news posted on All the Best.

From Paris...

...to RICHMOND, VIRGINIA!



If there ever was a time to get my butt to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, it will be in February.
Works from The Picasso Museum in Paris are coming February 19 (through May 15).



Yowza!  I cannot wait.










 I LOVE this one.
Portrait of Olga in an armchair
 Fall 1918









All pictures from 1st Dibs.
The accompanying article/interview with Chiyo Ishikawa (Seattle Art Museum's Deputy Director) and Marlena Donohue is fascinating.

Read all about this most special exhibit HERE.


Settling In....


Downton Abbey!!  Tonight at 9 pm.
Way better than any Bravo (at least for tonight!)

~save our forests~

following Rowans post i am posting this for the benefit of uk readers to my blog

our ancient woodland is in terrible danger and needs all the support we can give


~click the picture to take you to the petition~

So Much

I've got SO MUCH to do this weekend.  It's fairly early and I'm already running late.  I just want to be here, surrounded by whiteness and calm.  If there was ever a day that to be extra grateful for coffee, today is that day!












~living in the past~

no, not the jethro tull song (and a very good song it is too)

i realised today, while having a bit of a dance to the lovemongers and pearl jam while making my porridge, how i reached a certain time and then stopped~meaning that here and now in 2011 i have been existing in a weird 1990's time warp.
its as if i found a time/place i was comfortable in and decided to stay there.

weathering the time and trends that have come along since.

in fact my sister just popped by to pick up my veggie roast for her birthday dinner tomorrow (my little sister is 40 and i am 44 next week!) and drop off 5 cd's of music we made for the assorted parties we would hold in the late 80's and early 90's (the garage party, the garden party, the house party, the beach party~ahhh now they are blog posts in themselves!) and i realised neither has she.

i got up this morning and dressed myself in a pair of black leggings, my green boots, a short khaki dress, oversize man's cardigan and a long blue and white scarf...my sister turned up in black leggings and battered parka coat, black and white scarf and biker boots~it was quite freaky, but in a good way.

~*~*~*~

ahh those were the days and i miss them~parties, festivals and the music...and the clothes...my t shirt with the logo 'wild, green and fairly hip' or the one with jelly babies...*sigh*

i keep having little moans on the odd occasion i go into a clothes shop that 'i hate it all' even the new 'old' lets revive the 80's/90's/grunge look. there are times that cannot really be revived because the spirit of the time has been lost and this is one of those times and the little spirit that lives, lives on in poor old souls like me and my sister who cant let go.

i have very specific ideas as to clothes and i very rarely find what i want in shops so they are mostly second hand...well, recycled really from a certain online site...except for my beloved cardigan, a replica of my original one~a la kurt cobain~ that, i am happy to say, the Edinburgh woolen mill still make, and is impossible to find as a recycled item~oh and my DM boots...i have a thing about not wearing someone else's boots.

oh my this picture makes my heart skip a beat...


sometimes swampy will give a sigh as i appear in layers~skirts/dresses over trousers, striped long sleeve tops under floral short sleeve shirts~of often clashing colors and patterns but leaves me to happily meander through my day~although today he was shocked to find me quite co-ordinated. i think i shocked myself actually.

well its time to make some fairy cakes for the birthday party tomorrow and restrain myself from licking out the bowl!




Brown Has Never Looked This Good

Cozy, furry chocolate-y goodness.

Happy Friday night, everyone.
If you lead an exciting life like me, you'll be going to bed soon after a yummy dinner of Vietnamese food, watching some tube, and catching up on blogs.  Holla.

Bff Day


Some cigarettes that we try not to smoke


My Best Friiend & I in my room(:


Well as you can see today I was all day long
with my best friend, she is just the best & I
love to hang out with her, I hadnt seen her
for a while but this day I went with her to
the mall so we talk & laugh & we buy a
raspberry smothie haha thas the tradition
so it was really cool

~dirt & worms~

no this is not a gardening post!

i had the first of my twice yearly diabetes 'MOT' today and although the results from the last two months blood results are good they are just not good enough plus i has put on a few pounds since my last appointment.
of course i knew this, as i put in my last post~my body knew something was amiss so i started to put things right. so all i really need is to do a bit more than i have been to put it right and keep my blood sugar levels sensible.

because of my medication i have hypo's so when out and about need to have something in my bag.
i have been leaving it too late in the episode to have something to eat so need to keep an eye on it and act sooner.

so on the out-list are biscuits~like the shortbread we have in the kitchen, the half a tea spoon of brown sugar in my porridge (thank you all for yor tips, they are very appreciated and noted!), marmite on white toast (why does marmite always taste better with white bread toast?).

snacks are now a small handful of nuts or an oatcake...





the bread is now soy and linseed~which is actually very nice

 

when i was first diagnosed with diabetes we joked that the strict 'diet' imposed upon me comprised of dirt and worms.
of course it is actually just the kind of healthy diet that everyone should follow, but sometimes it does seem very strict.

i did discuss with my lovely diabetes nurse faye (the clinic is actually called the chronic disease management clinic which i hate) the issue of low fat foots and was pleased that she had my own view that foods that are promoted as being low fat are generally rubbish.
one thing i always have in our fridge is natural yogurt and i always avoid the low fat versions like the plague...actually when searching out my yogurts in the shop my comment is usually 'no, none of that low fat crap'~so yay! i can keep eating my favourite yogurt!
and the box of mini green and blacks chocolate i received at yule will not go to waste as i can have one after a meal now and then...after a meal so it wont make my blood sugars spike the way it would any other time.

~*~*~*~

yesterday we dyed my hair with some dye i bought in a health food shop~well it didn't work, my hair looks exactly the same!
poor swampy did it for me and it made his back ache so much (ongoing severe back problem-poor swampy) he had to sit with a hot water bottle against his back for the evening.
well i bought a different kind today while in lymington, buav approved and with the exciting name of spice red. well doing a two day skin test (so far so good) and a strand test, it looks very nice indeed.
i shall of course post a photo.

The end of something & the beginning of everything

Well as you can see my name is Karen but Im better known as Lalen
since I was 3 years old(: the reason well it was because my
cousin couldnt spell my name right so he told me lalen and now
everybody calls me liike that! and it doesnt bother me at all(:
So I had another blog but I guess is better to start a new one :D
because I dont know I guess that if I start a brand new blog I
want that if someone read it I want them to see the real me
so I hope you liike iit(:

English its not my first language as you can see
so Im a real Mexican girl the kind of girl that
knows english but not as well as norteamericans do :P

so thats it for now

love

Color Palette...

...For my first client!!


I met today with the most delightful 10 1/2 year old and her lovely mom.  The mom had contacted me last week through email asking if I did consulting, even though Pillow Mint had closed.

I had so much fun talking colors, patterns, duvets, sheets, and quilts!!  (Oh, how I miss my store...)
The daughter was quite keen on this Pottery Barn Teen duvet cover.  After a bit of discussion, we learned that it wasn't the floral pattern she liked, just the colors.

I can't wait to get started!!  They want to paint the walls, but are choosing to start with the bedding and pull a wall color from it.

I can't believe I'm actually going to get paid for having this much fun!

Stay tuned to see what I pull together!

Let the Sun Shine In

It's cloudy, foggy, quite gray and cold this morning.  A good match, perhaps, for my less than sunny disposition.  I'm a bit heavy in my heart and feeling ever so gloomy.  I am so grateful for hot coffee, warm blankets, and a furry little dog in my bed.

How great would it be to wake up in this beauty?  Take a look at this sunny spot near the river Waal in The Netherlands:













All photos:  insidehomepage.com

~hey look~

here is a somewhat fuzzy photo of my 'new' hair~i think the camera is on its last legs.
it doesn't really show how 'bitty' it is but you get the picture!



those are my new glasses as well, nice old fashioned tortoiseshell frames. i am so glad i went back to my optician and had them changed from bifocals.

*~*~*~*

i am just gently kicking myself as i have just missed one of my favorite films 'Plainsong'~ its a very beautiful, at times sad, film but i adore it. so much so that i have seen it about 5 times.
i have just added the book (by Kent Haruf) to the birthday gift list my sister has asked from me.

i have only managed only fifteen minutes of yoga practice today. for about a week i have really struggled to wake up in the morning and this morning i woke feeling absolutely exhausted. i had an early night last night and almost slept right through-none of my usual insomnia.
so i shall be having another early night tonight.

~*~*~*~
as well as my yoga i have seriously looked at the food i have been eating recently~the trouble i have is a combination of poor appetite, being too tired to prepare food or eat it when it is ready and my more recent outbreak of the smell of cooking food, especially meat, making me feel queasy.
i realised how dreadful my diet has been lately and how that really is not helping my m.e and fibro~so now i am back to eating well again.
i have returned to my old vegetarian diet, lots of raw vegetables, some fruit (because of my diabetes i can only have limited fruit, and no ripe bananas which are my favorite~i have an ongoing craving for a brown bread banana sandwich) i add bran to porridge (with a half tea spoon of brown sugar!), seeded bread~you get the idea.

~small things make a difference~

Jeffrey Says Pink!












Yum Yum like bubblegum!

Jeffrey Campbell Spring/Summer 2011


~wool in pocket~


i have been working away on my friends wrap/shawl and when i reached the point that my wool was small enough it sat in the pocket of my cardigan~this way i can wander into the kitchen to make tea and take my work with me, without, as i usually do, trailing wool on the floor behind me.

i am glad to say my daily yoga practice is going well and while i am not feeling better, mentally i am feeling much more positive. i only do a very gentle ten to twenty minutes daily and there are some positions i cannot do any more but what little i do feels so good.

i am a happy bunny with the introduction of a piece of £1 technology.
now usually i hate new technology but i have been using kodak easyshare to transfer photos from my camera to laptop and it is a surprisingly long drawn out process.
i am sure someone where has to shovel coal into my laptop to get easyshare to actually do anything!
swampy suggested picking up an sd card reader-which i plug into my laptop and then put the memory card into that...well my photo uploading is now easy and painless and more importantly fast. so i no longer dread sorting my photos.
funny how something so small can make things so much easier...now if only i can find something to make my itunes experience easier!

~*~*~*~

i have a confession to make.

i went to the hairdressers on friday.

if you remember from previous posts i have been cutting my own hair for some time.

well to be honest it had started to drive me mad, especially during my hot flushes and was looking a mess. so i booked an appointment, trudged down in the freezing cold and sat in that dreaded chair swathed in a nylon poncho, avoiding looking at myself in the mirror.
it turns out the girl who cut my hair grew up in the same road as me and knows my mum, i remember her as a very small girl-it meant we had plenty to talk about and i am very pleased in that she cut my hair exactly as i wanted it and i am very pleased with the result...so much so i have already made an appointment to have a trim with her.
i had a good 3-4 inches cut off the lengh so its just above shoulder length, lots of layers and she thinned it out-i am sure there was enough hair hair on the floor to knit a large jumper! when i am feeling brave enough i shall post a photo.

~what new thing do you do last week?~

Would You....

...do purple curtains?



 Or a purple tablecloth?




Tuck a purple chair in the corner?



 Soak in a purple tub?



Dress your bed in deep plum?

I would.


all photos:  JORDI CANOSA
 

Wasted Away Again in Bravo-ville

Have you ever watched "Million Dollar Listing?"  I just saw an old episode this afternoon.
I like Josh's grandmother (Edith Flagg) and I think she and I would be great friends.


This guy seems weird.  I can't remember his name; I just kept calling him Albert.  Do you see the resemblance?  Or is it just me?!



(I'm dating myself again, but I was a die-hard Little House on the Prairie fan....)

Why do I waste my time watching this crap?  I guess it makes folding laundry less painful....