fresh flowers, good books, projects, & prettiness: summer.

More at alicebgardens.blogspot.com.

i find you stunning, but you are running me down.

May 6, 1957.

bon anniversaire.

Today is my birthday.

I have always believed that my 23rd year will be my best. I am old enough to be completely independent, but still revoltingly young. Old enough to have learned a thing or two, young enough to still have plenty more to discover. The perfect balance. And it cannot be wasted.

Here are my resolutions to make the most of this beautiful year:

+ learn when to say no. never be afraid to say yes.
+ make better use of my time.
+ gorge myself on bright accessories, pretty stationery, new music, & fresh fruit.
+ actually style my hair instead of relying on ponytails every day.
+ smile more.
+ look for more chances to help people in little ways.
+ . . . & big ones.
+ love openly, laugh loudly, & fight for the kind of life i want.


And many more on Channel Four!

vacation.

I want to get away so badly. I miss the Mediterranean. I'd settle for California.

They are both so far away.

rock & roll.

everything will turn out all right.

mrs. parker & the vicious circle.

Inventory

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

--- Dorothy Parker (1926)

red lips & white pearls.

"Looking at yourself in the mirror isn't exactly a study of life."

--- Lauren Bacall

grandmaster luzhin.

"He burst in upon her as if he had butted the door with his head, and dimly catching sight of her reclining in a pink dress on the couch, he said hastily: 'H'llo-h'llo,' and strode all around the room, supposing that everything was working out very easily, wittily and entertainingly and simultaneously suffocating with excitement. 'And therefore in continuance of the above I have to inform you that you will be my wife, I implore you to agree to this, it will be absolutely impossible to go away, now everything will be different and wonderful,' and at this point he settled on a chair by the radiator and, covering his face with his hands, burst into tears. . ."

--- The Defense, Vladimir Nabokov, p. 103

dream it. do it.

Today is a makeover day.

Today I woke up with the weary realization that I am far - so, so far - from being the kind of person I want to be, and instead of resigning myself to this unhappy fate of cynicism and neurotic ticks, I decided to do something about it. I decided to dig out all the ugliness and junk that has accumulated over my personality and leave only what is good, pure, supportive, and kind. I decided to give myself, as my mom put it (ceaselessly) while I was in high school, "a serious attitude adjustment."

Easier said than done, I know. But the little things help. Smiling at people on the metro, watching what I say at work, looking for small ways to be thoughtful for friends. In general, an attitude of industry and care has been carrying me throughout the day, and by noon I had become a cheerful and goodnatured creature again. The world is such a beautiful place, and I am beginning to feel, once again, like a worthwhile contributor to it.

+++

“Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.”

-- Hortensio. The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene II.

contentment.

Spring, it is so good to see you again. You were sorely missed.



From SweetBlue Photography @ etsy.com.

i just want to be ok today.

Open me up & you will see,
I'm a gallery of broken hearts.

I'm beyond repair - let me be
& give me back my broken parts.

hither by thy help i come.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

--- Colossians 3:12-17

+++

O, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

the resurgence of the gentleman.

Oh, Mad Men, you are truly the gift that keeps on giving. As if your booze-fueled, interoffice romps weren't enough, you are changing the landscape of America's previously barren wardrobe. Thank you for nudging 20-somethings firmly in the direction of all things dapper, sartorial, and well-groomed. I am so terribly grateful.

The latest illustration of Don Draper's far-reaching, womanizing arm can be found in the New York Times. The Fashion section has a piece this week on the generational gap between tie-shirking baby boomers and today's tailored youth. I'm smitten with the slide show accompanying the article. No ugly sweater parties here!




“There’s a sense that this return to style, or to a consciousness of how you look, is an attempt by young men to recover a set of values that were at one point very much present in American society and then lost."

By all means, gentlemen. Find them again!

the washington ballet.

The Washington Ballet has published a beautiful new book, Wonderland, to commemorate 10 years with Artistic Direct Septime Webre and to raise funds after recent budget cuts from the city.

I've been itching to see Webre's Washington-specific re-envisioning of the Nutcracker, which will return to The Warner Theater this year, but these images make me want to rush out for season tickets. They're absolutely charming.

pop art is for everybody.

"What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

--- Andy Warhol.

let the wild rumpus start.

But the wild things cried,
"Oh, please don't go -
We'll eat you up, we love you so!"

And Max said, "No!"

shindig!

Let's form a band called The Mod Squad. It'll sound like this:



. . . & this:



And our one hit wonder will be called "My Dress Is Micro-Mini (Your Tie is Oh-So-Skinny)."

I honestly believe we can reach at least the Top 10 in the UK.

i wrap myself in the robes of your whiteness which is like midnight in dostoevsky.

Am I to become profligate as if I were a blonde? Or religious as if I were French?

Each time my heart is broken it makes me feel more adventurous (and how the same names keep recurring on that interminable list!), but one of these days there’ll be nothing left with which to venture forth.

Why should I share you? Why don’t you get rid of someone else for a change?

I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.

Even trees understand me! Good heavens, I lie under them, too, don’t I? I’m just like a pile of leaves.

However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes—I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It is more important to affirm the least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and even they continue to pass. Do they know what they’re missing? Uh huh.

--- from Meditations in an Emergency, Frank O'Hara.

the girl in the grey flannel suit.

Oh, J.Crew. You are an endless source of inspiration. All hail the soft, warm charm of cashmere in the fall.


More at J.Crew.com.