UP LIFT - via Bungalow Classic

And here for you.......

some anti-doldrums pics lifted

by moi-meme last November

from Bungalow Classic a blog(ger)

with a delicious talent for lifting

some of the best visuals from around the internet.  (I have never wanted a Barbie physique but I must say - legs that look like this in ankle laces make me very desirous - of a Cinderella evening in skimpy slippers and a very full skirt)

Even with sun and 80+ degrees here in L.A. this past week

instead of being out and charging about I still favor using this time of year for resting, re-charging,

and dreaming.

When I used to live in cold places, chilly nights would often be spent with plant catalogs and sewing.

With a warm animal close by.

Now I just dream too much about shopping and summer dresses.  Because Spring is still sometimes a surprise too soon here.  And I never feel properly dressed for the new season.

And I think I SHOULD be painting.

It's a funny twix and tween thing.

All that oppositionality (is that a word?) still lives in me.

Between cold and light.  Hello!  How are you?  What are you doing?

Most of December, This Was on My Mind - Steve McCurry Expresses It Best

I just don't know what to think anymore.  The news from Paris this morning is awful.

And the feelings are overwhelming.

After the many heart-rending events of 2014

I've been at such a loss.

As a world, we seem bent on hate and destruction.

I posted recently on my personal Facebook page, that if we allow ourselves to be intimidated into

silence, by either terrorists or the other "Powers That Be"

we are surrendering our Human Rights, giving up the fight before it might even have begun.

I asked, while we have the means, shouldn't we speak up?  If not for ourselves, then for others?

Where is Mercy, where is Compassion, where is Reason?  And I address that to players on all sides of the violent global equation that we are locked into these days.

And what do I do with my life?  Console myself with my garden and my pretty pictures and hope it all passes?  I just have the feeling that things are going to get much worse before they get better.  Can things yet change again for the good in my lifetime?

Not so sure.  We are all Charlie.

Steve McCurry Retrospective
Villa Reale di Monza
Monza, Italy
October 30, 2014 – April 6, 2015

Finding the Sublime
CT Gallery
112, rue Saint-François
74120 Megève
France
December 16, 2014 – February 8, 2015

http://instagram.com/stevemccurryofficial

Just Cuz It's Friday...........

And I've put my feet up.

And tried to

turn off my brain......

Doesn't mean I've stopped

thinking of you.

No, I'm here to wish you.  A.

PhenomEnAl Weekend!  

(We're in December already?  Really?)

First six pics: via Bungalow Classic, last one via the Guardian

Just Some Things

That I have loved this week.

(Annika Van Holdt via SFGirlbyBay)

Don't try this at home? I did something similar once and on a lovely spring day a giant gust of wind came through my open windows and knocked EVERYTHING onto the floor.  Shattering one or two valuables.  Has this ever happened to you?

(John Singer Sargent)

  What's not to like?  How gorgeous is that dress and the light on it?

(from Robert Frank's "The Americans" - H, for Hollywood!)


And Hello!  Have Good Weekend WHy Don't You?

Grey is O.K. If It's Paris or Picasso

At the end of three weeks of running just as fast as I can

the last two of which have been a little bumpy "en plus".......

(Picasso and dog)

What better respite, solace, and consolation?

(Edith Piaf)

Than the greats and greys of Paris.

(Colette looking out her window at the Palais Royale?)

If you ask Mr. Paradis, outside of home improvement tasks

(Gargoyle, Notre Dame)

I've mostly been as good company as this character here.

Apparently I just need to sit a spell with my good buddies and let a nice glass of wine chase my worries away..........

 LOOKS GOOD TO ME!  (How's your weekend been?)

(Second pic above via The Guardian - one of the many Picasso pictures one of his grandsons, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, has recently turned over to John Richardson, Picasso's friend and biographer.  All others, via Chamade, Vintage French Photos.)

Thanks to Elizabeth for reminding me I needed some captions.  I woke up Sunday a.m. thinking the same thing!  For more details go to Chamade above.