Woo hoo! The Carousel is back in town, so hop on board and let’s go for a spin around all that is scrumptious in this lovely little world!! Oh Ok Spoilsport, enough already with the over-enthusiastic exclamation marks. I agree. Grey chin hair proves beyond all reasonable doubt that I am not a teenager.
* So first up, my April collage above. Crocheted squares, saucers full of pastel buttons, roses, ballet slippers, a desk I wish I could set up shop at, and right there in the middle, a portrait by the great Russian artist, Valentin Alexandroitsch Serow, called Children, taking centre stage because standing there that little boy looks just like my Finn did this morning before he left for school in his Summer school uniform of shorts, shirt and requisite, Year One, gap, where the teeth used to be…
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* Next along, these divine Miette Wallpaper Cookies spotted on Design Sponge. Did you ever see such pretties? And oh the possibilities if you are clever enough to translate pattern into baked goods! Me I can’t even turn cookie dough into baked goods so the chances of getting fancy with an icing bag are slim to none, because although my darling sister bought me the retro inspired Tala icing bag tin for my birthday I am yet to get to grips with filling it properly, let alone doing swoon-worthy florals on (burnt) biscuits. Still, a girl can dream can’t she?
* Moving quickly on, High Wages by Dorothy Whipple, which was quite the finest example of early twentieth century girl power I have read in a long time, telling as it does the tale of a young girl who equipped with talent and a good eye, takes herself off from the dress shop floor on which she works to the ranks of owner in a period when both her sex and social class went vastly against her. Though my copy of High Wages was the orange and white Penguin, one shilling version bought for a song on AbeBooks, it has not so recently been re-issued by Persephone (with a foreword by Jane Brocket) and is I think, required reading for any woman doubting she has the gall to set up by herself. Or for she who has ever known the futility of loving a man tied to a marriage he cannot leave.
(Ooooh and while I’m on the subject of Persephone look out for Paperback Reader’s “Persephone Reading Week”, running between May 3rd and May 9th, now won’t you?)
* Dreaming about a long car journey. An afternoon nap on a very hot day. Remembering how it was to be pregnant through the hottest Summer this century. Mistaking wind for the flutter of a baby in my stomach. Dipping ginger biscuits in melted chocolate. Wearing a silk slip. Wrapping old books up in ribbon tied parcels just for the hell of it. Waking up with violent scent of Hydrangea engulfing my bedroom. Feeling momentarily, bizarrely, petrified by it. Assaulted by fragrance before I have opened my eyes. Seeing Sophie Dahl reading the very copy of the collected works of Dorothy Parker I have hidden under my bed for fifteen years just in case my Mum takes it into her head to demand it back (you can’t have it, so let it go Mummy!). Misty Morning, Albert Bridge. Dwelling on disappointment…
“Disappointment is considered bad. A thoughtless prejudice. How, if not through disappointment, should we discover what we have expected and hoped for? And where, if not in this discovery, should self-knowledge lie? So, how could one gain clarity about oneself without disappointment? We shouldn’t suffer disappointment sighing at something our lives would be better without. We should seek it, track it down, collect it. One who would really like to know himself would have to be a restless, fanatical collector of disappointments, and seeking disappointing experiences must be like an addiction, the all-determining addiction of his life, for it would stand so clearly before his eyes that disappointment is not a hot, destroying poison, but rather a cool, calming balm that opens our eyes to the real contours of ourselves.”
Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon
* Now contemplating Christmas in April. Quite accidentally, because LoveFilm, in their infinite wisdom have seen fit to send me Christmas Holiday, when I was hoping for Once. Still an afternoon with Deanna Durbin is never a wasted one, and throw in a teapot full of Earl Grey and this years Christmas Planner and I do believe I’ve got myself a par-tay. Albeit a dementedly out of season one, but apparently that’s how we roll around here: I have watched this Target Christmas advert a few times over, because I have never heard Rachel Ashwell speak (she’s got a kind of transatlantic thing going on, as I suppose you might expect), and in one scene during this little video she is, fleetingly, the spitting image of Alison Steadman of Abigail’s Party and Gavin and Stacey fame…
* Still feeling astonished that I didn’t know Cath Kidston and Kirstie Allsop were cousins. Though as my parents like to (frequently) remind me, the gaps in my knowledge are chasms devoid not only of geography and world events, but clearly that which I purport to know. But there you have it. I’m a purporter. One shouldn’t trust me further than you can throw me. Dear Darling daughter, we love you, but you are thick.
* And finally, in celebration of National Poetry month, Katherine Mansfield’s Camomile Tea, because occasionally melancholy comes wrapped in gratitude and contentment.
Create your own Brocante Life Book, plan Christmas, set up routines and rituals or live life the BrocanteHome way with my guided workbooks and planners.
Oh Thank you Kali, you absolute Sweetheart!This water soluable lavender oil is a Godsend: utterly perfect for adding to fabric conditioner or hand rinsing my scrumptious doillies… Happy New Year Honey! Other Things To Do At BrocanteHome Browse the Bookstore Discover a…
When life feels like it is spinning out of control, I do five (irrational) things to kid myself I’ve got a grip on all that seems to be going astray… 1) I tidy out my handbag or if things are really bad,…
Good Morning HouseKeepers! Please accept my apologies for getting you all in a tizzy by falling off the side of the earth for the past week: gloriously, I am not drowning in sorrow but , oh so happily, in Summer, and in…
But oh, HouseKeepers I don’t feel beautiful today. I’ve got sinusitis so bad my left eye has turned black and everytime I lean forward I feel as if my brain is going to fall out. God know’s I could use a visit…
No, no, no Victoria. You are a lovely, funny, misguided young fool and we, the British who really rather adore you and admire your sheer determination to be lots of things you are not, want to tell you that these images for…
The fun starts on October 15th. Wear your party hats. Other Things To Do At BrocanteHome Browse the Bookstore Discover a curated list of books to enhance and support life the BrocanteHome way Browse the Bookstore Life Love & Vintage Housekeeping…
5 Comments
Oh that poem is so lovely!and for sure I am going to read High wages,sounds my kind of story,kirsty and cath?really? well! you live and learn! and yes I too have that book that Sophie was reading,I thought last week she was reading from'the love letters of great men' which I also own,me and Soph are like peas in a pod arent we? Lol! bet she never says lol.
I love the video. Then again, I love Target. I just bought the Shabby Chic line for my daughter's room.She had some very unique ideas for table setting. I like to use white dinnerware and I have chargers that I use. Some of her ideas would serve very well for an elegant dinner to a picnic table brunch.
Hello Alison May 🙂 What a great blog you have! I am so glad you came by to visit my lil blog, Thank you so much for the lovely birthday wish that you left for my mama, she gets all happy each time I read a new one to her, she doesn't get this blogland thing ( I think it is a lil overwhelming for her 🙂 But I know she is happy that I have met so many wonderful people… I look forward to visiting again, your lil man is absolutely gorgeous 🙂 Besos, Rose
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Oh that poem is so lovely!and for sure I am going to read High wages,sounds my kind of story,kirsty and cath?really? well! you live and learn! and yes I too have that book that Sophie was reading,I thought last week she was reading from'the love letters of great men' which I also own,me and Soph are like peas in a pod arent we? Lol! bet she never says lol.
I'm of the notion you can't go wrong with a good Lol Gena… and as Sophie is clearly one of us, I'm sure she would agree.x
I love the video. Then again, I love Target. I just bought the Shabby Chic line for my daughter's room.She had some very unique ideas for table setting. I like to use white dinnerware and I have chargers that I use. Some of her ideas would serve very well for an elegant dinner to a picnic table brunch.
A Shabby Chic quilt was my big splurge a couple of years ago. I just love it!
Hello Alison May 🙂 What a great blog you have! I am so glad you came by to visit my lil blog, Thank you so much for the lovely birthday wish that you left for my mama, she gets all happy each time I read a new one to her, she doesn't get this blogland thing ( I think it is a lil overwhelming for her 🙂 But I know she is happy that I have met so many wonderful people… I look forward to visiting again, your lil man is absolutely gorgeous 🙂 Besos, Rose