Films, house tours, fashion, and a weekend that arrived just in time
Is it just me, or does Friday afternoon feel like the first real breath of the week? Not because the week has been impossible or my schedule has been impossible to manage, but just because. Yesterday arrived and something in me unclenched. I exhaled. The shoulders droped a half inch. I think perhaps this happens to many of us.
This week the exhale felt different, though. Heavier, maybe. Two things have been sitting with me, and I want to share them briefly before we get to the good stuff, because this space has always been about the whole of life, not just the pretty parts. Skip ahead if you are hear for the pretty, uplifting parts of the blog.
My stepfather is 86. This week my mother has been talking with his doctors about hospice. I am not going to share the details of his health because they are not mine to share, but I will say this: he has lived a full and interesting life. He has traveled the world, he has done everything he set his mind to, he had a remarkable career, and he has been loved by two wonderful families. By any measure, that is a life well lived. And still. Are we ever really ready to say goodbye? I do not think we are. That is simply the hardest part of loving someone.
The other thing is a friendship, or what I thought was one, that did not turn out to be what I believed it was. I suspect I knew. The signs were there and I chose not to see them. And if I am being honest, I am more dissapointed in myself than her. This is why I guard my space and my time and the circle of people I let close.
Enough of my venting. Kim, Juliet, and I always have things to share, so let us meander.
At the Cinema
South Solarit stayed with me long after the credits. Miranda Otto plays Meredith Appleton, an unmarried woman of 35 who arrives in 1927 on a stark, windswept lighthouse island off the coast of Australia to serve as housekeeper to her uncle George, a strict and cantankerous man newly appointed as head lighthouse keeper. Her uncle is played by Barry Otto, Miranda’s real-life father, which adds something to every scene between them that no amount of casting could manufacture. The island is as much a character as either of them. Spare, beautiful, uneasy.
I only just discovered Golden Years. A mischievous couple, retired, who have decided to spice things up by breaking into wealthy homes and throwing themselves parties inside them. Pressure mounts. Families are not amused. The authorities are less so.
House Tours
Emma Burns of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler has one of the most extraordinary homes I have seen in a long time. House & Garden brought us inside her country house in Oxfordshire, a former dovecote transformed into a weekend getaway, and what she has done with it is the kind of thing that makes you stop and look at your own space differently. You enter through an unassuming door on a quiet village street and suddenly you are somewhere else entirely. “I’m surprised every time I see it,” she says. I believe her completely.
And then there is this fabulous Tuscan home. Keith spent many years as the visionary buyer-at-large for Anthropologie, and his eye for beauty did not stop at the shop floor. He and Glen, the company’s former CEO, fell in love with a centuries-old home in Tuscany the moment they saw it, and what Keith has done with it is exactly what you would expect from someone who has spent a lifetime understanding how objects carry stories. Every piece in the house reflects a deep appreciation for craft, history, and the hands that shaped it. Outside, old chestnut trees shade charming guest cottages, a pool looks out over rolling hills, and the garden feels like Tuscany itself distilled into one effortless space. This one will stop you mid-scroll.
Fashion
This one is for the fashion lovers among us. Behind the scenes in Paris for a couture photoshoot for The Sunday Times Style. They brought us along for all of it: the beauty looks, the hair, the Armani Privé and Balenciaga runway pieces, and the chaos of shooting six couture looks against the clock.
What I Have Been Thinking About
What 30 Days in Sweden Taught Me About Happiness. I will let the title do the work. I watched this earlier in the week and am still thinking about it.
And One More Thing
Be sure to visit Kim over at Northern California Style and Juliet at Make Mine a Spritzer. They always have something worth reading, and this week is no exception.
That is everything from me this week. I hope this mornings post gave you something good to settle into. Tell me: is there a film you have watched lately that surprised you? Or a house tour that sent you straight to YouTube for the next two hours?
Follow along on Pinterest and Instagram. for more of the things I am loving this week.
On My Radar:
