Welcome to Friday Favorites, a weekly series where I share interesting articles, books, fashion finds, recipes and more.
Good morning friends! Happy Friday Favorites to you. It is a beautiful sunny day, the birds are chirping and it is going to be 84 today!
I am a little bleary eyed this morning, we had a friend over for dinner and cocktails last night and I stayed up past my bedtime. Nothing a strong cup of tea won’t help.
We served, Sweet & Spicy Thai chicken which I shared on last weeks on Friday Favorites, it is sweet, spicy and delicious. I also made rice, pickled carrots and Thai cucumber salad. And for dessert, vanilla bean and dulce de leche ice cream.
Hopefully the weather will hold because we have plans for a cleanup in the yard, fertilizing everything and maybe potting up a few containers. I’m leery to pot anything because it is supposed to get cold again this week. What are your plans?
I’ve got lots to share today so let’s get to it!
Friday Favorites No. 525
Food
Carrot Cake Pancakes, it’s like dessert for breakfast.
If you love Thai food and want to create it at home try this scrumptious recipe for Pad Thai!
Pimento cheese lovers you might want to kick up your recipe a little with champagne!
Looking for new additions to your spring and summer table, this tortellini pasta salad would make a delicious addition.
Link Love
The Lost Textiles of Andy Warhol
How A TikTok Ban Would Deal A Blow To Creators, Businesses And The American Economy
How the Smiley face Became a $500 million Business
How Covid Has Changed What We Wear and How We Feel About Clothing
Lily Pulitzer Fans you will find this article interesting. Works By Suzie Zuzek, the Artist Behind Lilly Pulitzer’s Original Prints, Head to Auction for the First Time
The State of Women Isn’t Working
40 Life Changing Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once
Books
Lady in Waiting
Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed “the greatest disappointment” and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact.
A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne’s life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret’s closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her “mad blood”; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.
With unprecedented insight into the royal family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic, at times heart-breaking personal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance.
The Forgotten Seamstress
In the early 20th century, Maria knows that, as a shy girl with no family, she’s lucky to have landed in the sewing room of the royal household. Before World War I casts its shadow, she catches the eye of the glamorous and intense Prince of Wales. But her life takes a far darker turn, and soon all she has left is a fantastical story about her time at Buckingham Palace.
Decades later, Caroline Meadows discovers a beautiful quilt in her mother’s attic. When she can’t figure out the meaning of the message embroidered into its lining, she embarks on a quest to reveal its mystery, a puzzle that only seems to grow more important to her own heart. As Caroline pieces together the secret history of the quilt, she comes closer and closer to the truth about Maria.
The Lady’s Maid
Young and timid but full of sturdy good sense and awakening sophistication, Lily Wilson arrives in London in 1844, becoming a lady’s maid to the fragile, housebound Elizabeth Barrett. Lily is quickly drawn to her mistress’ s gaiety and sharp intelligence, the power of her poetry, and her deep emotional need. It is a strange intimacy that will last sixteen years.
It is Lily who smuggles Miss Barrett out of the gloomy Wimpole Street house, witnesses her secret wedding to Robert Browning in an empty church, and flees with them to threadbare lodgings and the heat, light, and colors of Italy. As housekeeper, nursemaid, companion, and confidante, Lily is with Elizabeth in every crisis–birth, bereavement, travel, literary triumph. As her devotion turns almost to obsession, Lily forgets her own fleeting loneliness. But when Lily’s own affairs take a dramatic turn, she comes to expect the loyalty from Elizabeth that she herself has always given.
Two Gardners
A legendary editor at The New Yorker during its first thirty-four years, Katharine S. White was also a great garden enthusiast. In March 1958 she began publishing her popular column, “Onward and Upward in the Garden.” Her first column elicited loads of fan mail, but one letter in particular caught her attention. From Elizabeth Lawrence, a noted southern garden writer, it was filled with suggestions and encouragement. When Katharine wrote back her appreciation, she reported on her Maine garden and discussed the plants and books that interested her. Thus began a correspondence that would last for almost twenty years, until Katharine’s death in 1977.Â
Two Gardeners is a collection of these luminous letters, edited and introduced by Emily Herring Wilson. The letters bring to life the unique epistolary friendship between two intelligent women, the “formidable” Mrs. White and the “shy” Miss Lawrence, both avid gardeners .
NEED MORE BOOK RECOMENDATIONS?
If you have already read these books or missed something I have featured before on the blog check out My Bookshop on Amazon.Â
Finds
Anthropologie
Boden
PotteryBarn
Williams Sonoma
UNTIL TOMORROW
I hope you enjoyed Friday Favorites and found something to make or read. Have a wonderful weekend.
Thank you for spending part of your day with me, I always appreciate it. If you have missed a Friday Favorites post you can find them all here.Â
I hope to see you back here tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings with Kim and Juliet.
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You always have interesting reads. I enjoyed the one by the woman who had Covid and lived to tell the tale. Bill Gates and the technology I haven’t quite grasped yet. The food looks fantastic and the book I’m interested in is the letters between the gardeners years ago.
Brenda
Here it’s sunny, but we’re in for snow again tomorrow.
Great Friday post. That tortellini recipe is calling my name! Thanks
Great shares and recipes. I wish I was a reader. You share great books. I read magazines and have tried to read books many times. I think I get distracted. My husband loves to read.
I’m going to have a lot more knowledge about Wikipedia after I’ve played this game a few times! You always have great finds.