For me, ironing has always been a peaceful relaxing activity. I would set up the ironing board in the living room by the couch and have the unearned in a basket on one side and an empty basket on the other to place the newly ironed pieces. I would lower the ironing board so I could sit on the couch and watch something on television while I ironed and work away. It’s quiet, peaceful and easy to do, so ironing was a favorite chore.
One of the fears people have about adopting mesh heads is that we will become clones of each other – all looking the same, but that is not something we really need to fear. There are many mesh heads from which to choose. There are many skins that can be applied to each head. Different hair colors and styles, different eyes, different skins with varied makeup. All theses styling choices give us variation. If you doubt that, look at this showcase. Sure, I would love a mesh version of my own face, but with the many mesh heads out there, it is possible to find something close. The Ever head from Lelutka is the one that feels closest for me.
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Don’t you love it when the sun is bright and streams in through the windows creating an interplay of light and shadow in your home? I know cats love it as they shift to follow the light. I am more a shade person and will shift from the sunlight into the shade, but I still love to see the beams of light moving across my home.
My dress is a super-feminine lace dress from Gizza called Cara. It is very demure and feminine from the front, though there is a bit of a surprise from the back as you shall see.
I am relaxing in the living room from my new cottage by dust bunny that I picked up at The Arcade. Through the windows you can see the greenhouse as well. The side tables and the pitcher of baby’s breath and the book on the far table are all from the dust bunny collection at The Arcade. Scarlet Creative’s Amelie sofa seems made for this sweet little cake of a house. I changed the pictures in the frames from the DRD frames I got at December’s Arcade. I thought it might be fun to put in old family photos, so the pictures are of my grandmother, great grandfather, great-great-great grandfather, a family reunion in 1901 and other old family photos.
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One of the surprises when I moved to Oregon were the magnificent magnolia trees. I had seen them in pictures, of course, but I thought of them as southern trees, not trees to flourish in the Pacific Northwest. But flourish they do. They are in bloom now.
Magnolias have such a grandiose beauty, without fear of being gaudy or flamboyant. They just are what they are. They don’t hide their exuberance, their size or their extravagance. It reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
The scarf that is belted to this dress from NYU reminds me a bit of the exuberant magnolia petals. With a color-change HUD, there are 10 plain or 10 print scarf options. The dress itself comes in 10 colors that match the scarf options.
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I spent far too much getting this dress at The Arcade, but I console myself with knowing that the color-change HUD makes it several dresses in one. Besides, it has the prettiest color-change HUD in SL history.
Friday was the vernal equinox and it came with extras this year— a solar eclipse and a supermoon. Spring, however, came to Oregon long before the equinox. Already the daphnes and magnolias are in bloom. The air is rich with fragrance and spring’s showers paint everything a lush green. There is such an abundance of life in Oregon, all fed by the wonderful rain that if you live in Oregon, you must come to love.
The crazy thing about gardening in SL, I can have wisteria and magnolias at the same time as hibiscus and lavender, isn’t that amazing?
The Palmer Lodge. Construction and Design by Trompe Loeil
Neon Bang Bang Sign by Apt. B. Coffee Mug & Coffee Pot from Schadenfreude, Takeout from Sari-Sari’s Cafe Happy. Coffee and donut from tres blah.
Commoner’s Cluster of Candles and Mudhoney plant fame long view of the lodge.
Tres Blah left some dirty dishes by the sink.
Emery released pencil skirts and sweaters at Collabor88 this month. Both are great separates for mixing and matching, but the pencil skirts in particular are investment pieces. They are beautifully crafted as you can see in the picture below where I am sitting and you can see that the interior is lined so there is no alpha messing up the picture. Continue reading
Relaxing at Agent Cooper’s desk with a damn fine cup of coffee from Schadenfreude.
When my father died, my sisters called to tell me. It was not unexpected and was, in many ways, a relief for him and everyone who loved him, but that does not lessen the loss or the finality of death. They gave me the news and I sat there, quietly stunned at how much more painful it was than Thought it would be. I think I whimpered, trying not to cry. So my oldest sister said, “Go make yourself a coffee. It’s a good thing. I’ll call you back after you’ve had a coffee.” I had to laugh to myself, because coffee as comfort is so very much the legacy of my dad, a first generation Swedish American.
Such a messy desk! some of the mess comes in a great collection of clutter from Tres Blah at The Arcade that are must have pieces to turn houses into homes.
Coffee is a ritual for Scandinavians who consume more coffee per capita than any other people in the world. Most people in the US are familiar with coffee breaks at the work place, but in a Swedish American home, there are coffee breaks every day, when we would all sit down together and enjoy a good cup of coffee with some bread and cheese or some fruit or a dessert. And by all, I mean all. Children get coffee with milk as soon as they are old enough to hold a cup without spilling it. Continue reading
How many of us have predominantly black, grey, and white clothing? How many homes have all white walls and neutrals with a “pop” of accent color? We don’t have achromatopsia, so why do we live like we do? Why are neutrals considered more tasteful than active, vibrant colors?
Did you know that those classic white statues from ancient Rome and Greece were not originally white? They were painted and full of bright gaudy color. I wonder sometimes if the centuries of elevating their pristine monochromatic grandeur are why we are so shy with color in our lives today.
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This Spring session of The Arcade has one of the most exciting Arcade sets of all time. For once, it’s a good thing to get lots of commons while seeking your rare. You will need several pieces of the common wall to surround your manor house with a beautiful courtyard. Anyway, it’s just an extraordinarily complete collection with 2 houses, an outbuilding, landscaping and interior furnishing, even a well and a wooden cart.
Yesterday was World Book Day. That, combined with the wonderful Primavera in Toscana set from 8f8 at The Arcade got me thinking about my favorite books of the past year. What rose to the top was Elena Ferrante’s magnificent Neapolitan novels. Now, the novels mainly take place in a poor neighborhood in Naples, not in a rich manor home in Tuscany, but know, we Americans are supposed to think there is no difference, right?
Actually, the wall reminds me so much of the wall surrounding the Spanish military base where I was living with a Spanish family while attending my senior year in Algeciras, Spain. The one difference is that the wall in Spain had flowers on the top, trailing down the white walls. There were always two guards outside with a sign “Todo por la patria” on the wall next to the guard station. Can you imagine an American military base with a wall covered with flowers?
I love the contradictions in this dress and coat from NYU. NYU specializes in minimalist design, the aesthetic beauty of a dress and coat coming from the lines and forms of the clothing, not from embellishment or patterns. The dress has this severe post-war austerity except that slit on the skirt is thoroughly modern and not the least bit austere.
John Freeman of The Australian wrote of Elena Ferrante, “Imagine if Jane Austen Got Angry.” The Neapolitan novels tell the story of two women, from their childhood to adulthood. There is a lot of anger in her novels, but also humor and love. They seem so raw and honest, as though the author cannibalized her life to tell the story, though we cannot know as Elena Ferrante is very private. Still, the narrator in this Neapolitan tetralogy is named Elena and plans to be a writer. In terms of the usual publicity authors relentlessly pursue, she said she did all she needed to do for her book, she wrote it. I love that!
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