Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--hats! The blog formerly-known-as Project Rungay (one of my favorites, and a daily must-read!) is featuring some of the cracktastic hats of Royal Ascot. Go and check them out--and while you're there, be sure and take a look at the fab series they've been posting lately about the costumes of Mad Men. I never knew before how closely they delineate character progression--I'm always too caught up in saying "Ooooh, look at Betty's pretty dress!"

And I've always wanted to go to Ascot, too. I would find a totally rockin' hat.

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--finding unexpected fun things on YouTube! I had read about a short, Elizabethan-set indie called "Maze" that Keira Knightley made (for free! Just because she thought it was interesting! I love that. You can read more about the project here). And I found a one-minute clip of it yesterday. It looks great, and I hope she'll decide to make a longer film set in the same period soon.

Things I Love Thursday

"But the moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul, and I started to attend" --DH Lawrence

What I love this week--Santa Fe! Here are a few pics of a trip I took there last month. I try to get there at least a couple times a year, it's like nowhere else. The light and fresh air, the beautiful buildings and scenery, the food, the art galleries and museums, it's very inspiring and helps me fill up my "creative well." Wish I was there right now, having a margarita on a sunny patio...

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--spring parties! I have two this weekend, a graduation followed by an al fresco dinner (my baby brother is getting his MBA!) and a Mother's day brunch. These seem perfect for some of my very favorite warm weather clothes--Lily Pulitzer dresses. I LOVE these clothes, they are so bright and fun, and just seem to scream "rich girl's island vacation." (Not that I am rich or going to an island, sadly, but still...). I would wear them all summer long if I could.

For the graduation I have a pink dress very similar to this one, and I have a new green-yellow-pink flowered sundress (bought at a big sale, even better!) that might do for the brunch. Just putting these on, along with a basket purse and a pair of sandals (reminder: must get pedicure) makes me feel like summer is really on its way at last. There's more info about Lily here

What's your favorite warm weather outfit?

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--Earth Day! It's the 40th anniversary of Earth Day today, and you can read some history and info about it here at the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club (which has a special $15 membership offer for Earth Day), and Greenpeace

Things I Don't Love So Much Thursday

What I'm not liking so much this week--ironing! I'm not the best housekeeper at the best of times (I hate dusting and vacuuming, and strangely I also don't like taking dishes out of the dishwasher!), but I don't mind doing laundry. And I love getting out my spring/summer clothes once the weather turns warm and putting away the sweaters! But then I remember the thing about summer clothes--they often have to be ironed....

I need a ladies' maid!

Things I Love Thursday

I love--doing guest blogs! I'm over at the Vauxhall Vixens today, come and visit me there! (and if you'd like me to visit your blog, just let me know...)

I also love shopping for springtime shoes and going for pedicures. The weather is warm again, finally!!!!

Things I Love Thursday

What I love this Thursday--Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs! They only come out around Easter and they are super-yummy, with just the right proportions of chocolate and peanut butter. Cadbury Caramel Eggs are also pretty good, but these are my favorite Easter candies. (The only problem is when I buy a 6-pack they're gone in 2 days. How does that happen??)

What's your favorite Easter candy??

Things I Love Thursday

What I love this Thursday--looking at gardening books! Once St. Patrick's Day and Daylight Savings is behind us, it seems like spring is really on its way (at least I hope so! They're saying it might snow here this weekend...). I love anticipating the sun and warm temperatures, and planning what veggies I'm going to put in the garden this year. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans, lettuce, maybe another rose bush and some hollyhocks. This year I'm going to build some raised beds, so I can plant more--if I can just summon up the energy! (I'm also looking forward to the farmer's market opening in early May)

What are you planting this year?

Things I Love Thursday

Last weekend I got to see Alice in Wonderland, which I had been excited about for a long time! (I love that story in all its wonderful weirdness...). I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. The story seemed sort of half-baked, as if Tim Burton spent so much time on the look of the movie he forgot stuff like character and plot arc. :) But those aesthetics, especially the costumes, were not at all disappointing! I especially loved Anne Hathaway's White Queen gown and want one like it...

Things I Love Thursday

I love perfumes, but it's been a while since I've found a new one to love! (So many of the new ones I try smell too much like a fruit salad, so I just go back to my old stand-bys, like Coco Mademoiselle! Though I'm looking forward to warmer weather when I can go back to using my bottle of DSH's Eau de Trianon every day). I was so happy to see this review of Balenciaga Paris at the Now Smell This blog.







I've been looking forward to this one because: 1) The name, of course! I'm a sucker for anything with "Paris" in the title (though I couldn't bring myself to try YSL Parisienne because Kate Moss is the spokesmodel...) 2) It's a violet chypre. I love violets (one of my favorite perfumes is Guerlain's Apres L'Ondee) 3) And because Charlotte Gainsbourg is the spokesmodel! I have such a girl-crush on her (shallow, I know). I finally got to do a sniff last weekend, and it smells wonderful. Not too heavy, not too fruity-sweet, modern but classic. As the review says, it's "quietly elegant," "modern and grown-up." And it smells "French" to me, perfect for a bike ride along the boulevards and dinner at a little neighborhood bistro. I will definitely be buying a bottle. Yay for new finds!


What are your favorite perfumes??

Things I Love Thursday

When I was a kid, I had lots of Barbies but only a few Madame Alexander dolls (Snow White, Cinderella, Maid Marian, and maybe one other I don't remember). I wasn't allowed to play with them (though I did have a MA baby doll that was my favorite, I dragged her everywhere with me until she almost fell apart! But I still have her). And now I may have to buy a few of my own if they keep coming out with dolls like this! Anne Boleyn and the Duchess of Devonshire, yay! And no one can tell me not to play with them now...

(And if the Lucrezia Borgia doll was blonde, as she should be, I might have bought her, too)

Things I Love Thursday

What I love this week--ice skating! The Winter Olympics are coming up in a couple of weeks, and the US Championships just finished, so I'm looking forward to plenty of sparkly costumes, strange music, and amazing athleticism. Yay! (I especially love ice dancing--they're far more likely to have costumes and routines that are just absolutely freakin' crazy than the others--though the men are no slouches in that department, either...)

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--archaeology! Like this story that came out this week about the discovery of the tomb of Princess Eadgyth, the oldest remains found of an English princess (granddaughter of Alfred the Great, she died in 946). I love stuff like this. In college, I flirted with the idea of studying archaeology (even took a couple entry-level classes) because of my love of antiquities and ancient history, but ended up using that in writing instead. Still, I'm a fan. :)

Things I Love Thursday

What I love this week--birthdays! And mine is tomorrow. (Well, let's say I partially love birthdays. I don't love the "getting older" part. I do love the cake and presents part. Maybe I should ask for botox instead of books this year???)

How do you celebrate birthdays?

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--garden gnomes! Maybe it's because we're having record-setting low temps outside, and it's literally freezing, but I'm having fun planning flower beds and vegetable patches for the summer. And I love to put gnomes amid the plants, peeking out at us. I know they're cheesy, and sometimes even a little scary, but I enjoy their cute little faces and pointy hats in the warm weather.

What's your favorite season?

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--champagne, of course! And party dresses and noise makers. Have a lovely, and safe, New Year's, and I'll see you in 2010...

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--Christmas Eve! My family always has Indian tacos and my dad's "famous" margaritas (which definitely make the holidays bright!). I like having days off work, too. No work until January 4!!!

What are your Christmas Eve traditions?

Things I Love Thursday

What I love this Thursday--The Christmas Story, my all-time favorite Christmas movie! Who can resist Ralphie and his impassioned quest for a Red Ryder BB gun, despite all obstacles (bullies, leg lamps, frozen lamp posts, bogus decoder pins, etc). My whole family loves this movie, and every year around this time my dad cooks meatloaf and red cabbage and we have a viewing party. I look forward to this all year!

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--The Nutcracker! It was my first introduction to ballet performance when I was very small (about 4 the first time I saw it). My mother and aunt took me every year, and I looked forward to it so eagerly. Even now, just hearing those first opening notes gives me a Christmas thrill! I love going and seeing the girls in their beautiful party dresses, just as excited as I was, dreaming of being the Sugar Plum Fairy in her sparkly pink tutu.

Surprisingly, considering how prevalent it is now (and how many dance companies hang their finances on the holiday performances!) it was not a hit when it premiered in 1891. Tschaikovsky, who had just had a big hit with his score for The Sleeping Beauty, was commissioned by the director of the Imperial Theater at the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevoloznsky, to set the score for a new adaptation of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by ETA Hoffmann. The plot of the poem is much more elaborate than that of the ballet, which is divided into two acts (the Christmas party at Clara's home, where she's gifted with a nutcracker by her godfather and later dreams the gift comes to life; and the Land of Sweets, a pretty much plotless stretch where various snowflakes and candies dance for Clara).

The ballet was to have its premier in December 1892, and before this Tschaikovsky selected 8 of the pieces from the ballet to present in concert form. The suite, first performed on March 19, 1892 before the St. Petersburg Musical Society, was better received than the ballet and became instantly popular. (The ballet didn't reach its current pinnacle of success until the 1950s). Tschaikovsky himself did not care for the music as much as he did for Sleeping Beauty and was initially reluctant to take on the task, though he did warm to it eventually.

The first performance was a double bill with the opera Iolanta, on December 18, 1892 at the Mariinsky Theater. There is some dispute whether Ivanov or Petipa was the original choreographer. It was conducted by Ricardo Drigo, with Antoinetta Dell-Eva as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Pavel Gerdt as the Prince. A shortened version was first performed outside Russia in Budapest in 1927. The first complete version was in England in 1934, staged by Nicolas Sergeyev after Petipa. The first US production was in New York with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (another shortened version), followed by a complete production by the San Francisco Ballet in 1944. Balanchine's staging of The Nutcracker began in 1954, and is going strong to this day.

Do you have any childhood memories of the ballet? What's your favorite part? (I do love the Waltz of the Flowers, but I also adore the strangely melancholy Grand pas de deux)