Happy Halloween!

Some fun costumes I found around the web:

A comic book character from Charmed Tasha

Frida Kahlo from Compai

Bert the Chimney Sweep & Mary Poppins from Keiko Lynn

Audrey Hepburn from Atutudes on Etsy

The Son of Man by Magritte from IMG Fave

And ...

This ridiculously cute baby/owl from Martha Stewart.com.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Favorite New (to me) British Word

One can also be "chuffed to bits" (stoked) and "chuffed to buggery" (proud as hell) - and to make things even more fun 'chuffed' is also an auto-antonym, though I have yet to hear it used in the negative sense.

Even though we have been here over a year, I only heard this first (twice!) this week. This does not surprise me as the English are a modest bunch. Not a lot of 'tooting of one's own horn' going on here. I find this both refreshing and frustrating. Probably because I come from a country that is completely the opposite. It is certainly an endearing quality, just not one I am accustomed to.

It is these subtle differences in culture that make me feel lonely and, quite literally, like an alien sometimes. There is this sense of longing for my people, not because they are preferable as people, but because they are what I know and understand. And because all my life I have yearned to belong, it's even more difficult because the message is 'you don't belong'. I know there is something at work here. I know I am being challenged to grow and find my way through this.

This, for me, has been the essence of the expat life. The balance of getting to experience new and wonderous things with the ever present tension of not belonging. Hang with me as I figure it out, OK.

Beautiful Spaces - The Bathroom

I just wanted to share some lovely bathroom inspiration I came across this week:

from Houzz

from Kohler

from Lynn Morgan Design

from Better Homes & Gardens

from House Beautiful

from Brooke Giannetti

It's the weekend. Does anyone have any special plans? I have lots and lots of blogging homework to catch up on. I'm hoping to finally get to the lessons on how to use my fancy camera.

I'm going to admit that my camera really intimidates me. Learning how to use it has really made me appreciate the talent of good photographers and photography as an art in general. There is so much to learn from understanding how the camera works, to knowing what makes a good composition in a photograph to working with light and the art of photo editing. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can, but don't expect too much from me. I'm not sure I've got what it takes to be honest. But, I'll do my best.

Happy Weekend!!

Art & Artists :: Abigail Brown & A Completely Unrelated Conversation

A huge thank you to one of my BYW Blogging friends, Fay Vowell of Bitten London for introducing me to the work of Abigail Brown. I don't know when I have ever been so enamored with someone's art. These bird sculptures are simply amazing.

I think what I love most about some of these is that I have a personal connection to them. These gorgeous guys are currently living in our courtyard:

These funky little guys used to hang out in the backyard of our house in South Africa:

And, we used to see these colorful beauties in Namibia:

I want all of them.  I could be the crazy bird lady! You can see more of Abigail's work HERE.

My oh my, Will and I have been watching the American TV series Friday Night Lights. Here is the conversation we had before we started watching the show:

Setting: On the couch staring at the TV

Me: What do you want to watch?
Will: I don't know. What is on?
Me: You know I cannot figure out the TV situation. My question is more general - comedy, drama, or reality?
Will: Sports
Me: Not an option. How about a drama?
Will: How about a drama about sports?
Me: That is an oxymoron.
Will: Did you just call me a moron?
Me: There is a drama about high school football. In Texas. Oh dear Lord. Should we watch that? (in my head: please say no)
Will: Sure, whatever.

Two weeks later:

Will: Are you ready to watch Friday Night Lights?
Me: I just need to check my email, give me a minute.
 Will: Ok, but hurry, and maybe we can get in 4 episodes before bedtime.

Yeah, we kind of like it.

Curated Links

I usually do these on the weekend, but whatever. Here's some lovely stuff I have found around the internets this week:

photo via The Daily What

I will never get back the hours I spent on this Flickr feed, but I laughed so hard I cried, so it was totally worth it. Laughing to the point of crying is oh so good for the soul, me thinks.

Do you like delicious things? Then I have 7 words for you. Pretzel Tots with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting. Oh yeah. Frosting idea from here. Tot recipe from here. Yum.

If you have not seen A Blog About Love yet, you are going to thank me. No matter your feelings on marriage, this is a must read. I am already in love with these two people and I'm so glad I started reading their blog in the beginning. Your gonna love it!

And last, but not least, photographer Tom Robinson took photos of his friends and family as he shared the news with them that he was going to be a father. This is priceless. How I love creative people!

Hope you are having a good week!

What I Wore

Are we all tired of reading about my outfit yet? Yes, I thought so. I did want to share what I finally decided on though. Thanks so much to those of you who thoughtfully responded to help me choose. This is another bad picture, but at least I am consistent:

Hopefully the professional photographer's shots turn out a LOT better and he has some serious photoshop skillz. The shoot was fun. At one point, he had me pretend I was climbing out of a giant window. It was kind of weird, but whatever.

The jacket (and belt) are actually orange. This outfit is not really something I would normally wear. I usually layer more and would never normally match a belt to anything. But, this was about me trying to look professional, not super fashionable.

Ok, seriously I'm done now. Enough about me. What do YOU think of me? (that's Bette Midler from Beaches). Seriously though, how do these women do these fashion blogs where they post pictures of themselves day after day? Where does that kind of confidence come from? If only.

Goodnight everyone. I'm off to London tomorrow for a conference sponsored by the Chinese Embassy on Chinese companies recruiting international MBA students. Now there is a sentence I never thought I would write. Hope your week is off to a fabulous start. xo, Beth

5 Things - Green

I'm having a thing for green lately:

Green perspex via Pinterest

Green sparkly dress via Pinterest

green shoes via Pinterest

Green jacket via Pinterest

Green accents via Apartment Therapy

I don't expect it to last as I've never had a green thing before. I literally own nothing that is green. So for now, I'll just enjoy others wearing and decorating with green. If this continues, I will carefully consider a small accessory and take it from there. I really don't want to stare into my closet 6 months from now and regretfully remember "my green phase". Honestly, I bet the person who owns that chair up there is already having second thoughts. If not about the chair, then for sure about that deer sculpture. What's going on there? I love how it is trodding upon the skin of one of its real bretheren. As if to say, "I may be fake, but you are dead. So there."

I think I need some sleep. Happy Monday. Have a great week everyone!

Photoshoot Outfit - Help!

Ok, so here are the choices I narrowed down for my outfit for tomorrow. These pictures could probably not be worse. Behold:

It is astounding how bad of a photographer I actually am. Wow. Anyhoo, hopefully you can get the idea. The second pic down the jacket color is way off. It is actually the most stunning jacket - probably my favorite thing I own. A better picture of it below. It's funny though, because of how over the top it is with the embellishment, I'm only ever comfortable wearing it with jeans (kind of like the photo below). It sort of balances it out. The black pants are also one of my faves - they are gabardine cigarette tuxedo pants - yup, dreamy. Even better - someone gave them to me. So the idea is, do I wear something bright (photo friendly? right? i don't know!), or something neutral (look #3), or something neutral, but edgy (#4). I work at a business school, but one of the points of doing this is to get photos of us that are more hip, edgy, fun, etc. Also, I don't own a suit.

Ok, so that's about it. Discuss.

Inspiration - Forgiveness

As if I needed another reason to love Robert Downey, Jr.

I know a few things about the power of forgiveness. I also know a thing or two about hugging the cactus. If there is someone in your life you need to forgive, find a way to do it and set yourself free. If you feel you are in need of forgiveness from someone, you can ask for it and you may or may not get it, but know that the truth is this - you are already forgiven, so set yourself free.

Too serious? Sorry! To lighten things up a bit, my next post will have a ridiculously shallow focus on what I'm wearing to work tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Mood Boards :: Simone LeBlanc

As part of the Blogging Your Way course I have been taking we were asked to make mood boards to help us define our blog style. I have done plenty of mood boards in the past for clients and I did one for this blog a few months back. I remembered being inspired by these amazing mood boards from Simone LeBlanc and wanted to share them with you.

Simone runs a creative services company. Her website and blog are a great place to get lost in creative inspiration. I would love to know how she puts these mood boards together.

I hope everyone is having a good week. I worked early this week and now have one long, glorious weekend ahead of me. I will be catching up on my BYW class and possibly running down to London for a day. I'm sure there are some other less pleasant activities that I am currently in denial about as well (hello ironing, supermarket shopping and shower soapscum).

I am having some professional photos taken on Monday for work and it has been a long time since I have done a photo shoot. I'm going to post some pics this weekend of my outfit options, and I need some advice, so please stop by the blog on Sunday and help me!!

She's Back!

My little traveler has returned from Paris. She was too tired to share about her experience last night, but this morning at breakfast I got a little bit out of her.  She mentioned enjoying the Tour Eiffel, but it seems the 'amazing fresh baguettes' were equally impressive. Hmmm . . . massive feat of architecture vs. fresh french bread. That is a tough one.

photo via Abercrombie & Kent

The people working at the markets in Paris have been around long enough to know that British school girls are told they are only allowed to address French people in French, so when the girls would cheat and try to ask for something in English, the person would refuse until they asked in French. They also had to journal about their day in French. She brought us presents including a sweet little print of Paris and a beret for me - I have always wanted a real french beret! I would have shared one of her pictures here, but, not surprisingly, there are many of her and her friends and very few of Paris! That's what it is all about really anyway - making memories with friends. I'm so thankful she had fun, and so thankful to have her home.

Etsy - Janice Jong

I love this print from illustrator Janice Jong:

Roy G. Biv and A Pattern

1) Hunter 2) Hermes 3) Cambridge Satchel Company 

4) Diane VonFurstenberg

5) Kate Spade 6) JCrew 7) Calypso St. Barths

In Fashion - Weekend Outfit

Because I needed an excuse to buy green shoes:

Source: lookbook.nu via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Music - Major Cover Talent

This one made me say "Day-um!":



There are more over at the cover contest on Mashable.

It's 5:00 am and I am up to see my daughter off for her school trip to Paris. So excited for her and can't wait to hear about her adventures when she returns. I'm looking forward to a weekend with my husband. Just hanging out together, dinner with friends on Saturday and catching up with housework. What's everybody doing this weekend? xoxo!!

Kirtsy Slideshow - Monograms!

I have a new slideshow all about Monograms over at Kirtsy today! Head on over and check it out for some great inspiration and links to do-it-yourself monogram projects. Click HERE.

photo via The Lonny Blog

A big thanks to the team over at Kirtsy for having me!!

Art & Artists - Nama Rococo

There has been some crazy talk around here lately about actually settling down somewhere at some point. It's just talk for now, but it did start me thinking about decorating my own home. I was trying to remember what we have in our storage unit and all I could think about were these french dot wallpaper panels from Nama Rococo, I bought several years ago. I intended to frame them and hang them, but never got around to it (do you guys do that, or am I alone on the Island of Misfit Decorators?). They are really lovely, so I thought I would share the pictures from Nama's website:

This is what I want to do with mine (but I only have 2).

This is what it looks like when applied as actual wallpaper. This would have been my first choice, but I cannot imagine how time consuming and expensive it would be. Isn't it gorgeous?!

This is an individual wallpaper panel. Each one is hand screened and made with different colors. The paper is exquisite and they are quite large (25" x 38"). They really are individual works of art. You can see more of what Nama Rococo offers over and learn more about the process of how they make their wallpapers over at their website .

I can't wait to be re-united with these beauties. I'm sure there is some other good stuff in the storage unit and there will be a lot of fun (and possibly a lot of spiders), when we go through it. Sometimes I have a nightmare that somehow everything got ruined in there, but I'm not sure how that would happen and even if it did, it's all just stuff. Still ... and I hope there are not spiders. I really hate spiders.

Wishlist - TSUBO Shoes

These shoes just catapulted to the top of my wishlist. Gah! Look at them!

photo via Refinery 29

It's a collaboration between Tsubo and Timo Weiland - whose Spring 2012 collection I LOVE by the way. Tsubo is a company that is making comfortable shoes that are actually stylish. Living in England has completely changed my entire shoe strategy situation.* There is a lot of walking that happens here. When I first arrived, I could not, for the life of me, figure out why everyone was wearing such hideous shoes. Then, I started walking everywhere - because that is how you get around here - on your legs. The 'sensible shoes' were beginning to make sense. So began an exhaustive search for shoes that were stylish and comfortable. Nada. I began to panic. I also began to wear the one pair of boots I owned that were comfy and attractive. I began to wear them EVERY DAY. Then, along came Tsubo and I saw a ray of hope and NOW a fantastic collaboration. And from what I can gather, this is just one of an entire line. This is seriously good news people. Maybe not good news for my husband and our bank account. But, good news for me, my wardrobe, and all of the people who are tired of looking at the boots I wear every day.

*Yes, I have a shoe strategy. When you move around the world, you learn (sometimes the hard way**) you must keep things in check in the wardrobe department.

**It only takes one little incident in Heathrow airport wherein the massive box containing your husband's bike falls off of the luggage trolley because the luggage trolley is so overloaded with bags of your shoes, and before you can even get beyond thinking, "oh crap, how am I going to get the bike out of the freakin airport now?" people are screaming at you, in languages you don't even know, because you have blocked the entire flow of traffic and somebody way more important than you, like Victoria Beckham or something, is going to miss her plane because you are carting entirely too many pairs of shoes around the world - to realize that you need a shoe strategy.

Obsessions - Floorplans

I wrote a few months ago about my problem with only having two modes. 1) Utter lack of focus or 2) intense laser focus. These Obsession posts are about the latter. Here is how this usually goes down. I start to wonder about something. In this case, it's the Draper's house in the show Mad Men. As I watched the show, I began to feel the need to know how the house was laid out. How did the rooms relate to one another? Why did Sally and Bobby share a bedroom in what appeared to be such a large house from the outside? Why did it sometimes seem that a doorway led to Don's office, while other times it led to the laundry room? The vague wondering then became an urgent need. I was laying in bed at night wondering about the layout of house that does not even exist. Granted, we were watching Mad Men, like ... well mad men, 3 or 4 episodes a time. It's that kind of show. But still, this is not something that should be keeping me up at night. My only comfort, is that in turning to the Google for answers to these questions, it became apparent, that I am clearly not alone. Behold my magnificent discovery:

from Mambo Deb's Photobucket

I found this in the MadMen Forum. A fan named Mambo Deb took it upon herself to draw up the floorplans, as best as she could figure. God bless her. I love all of her notes making reference to different episodes.

As I began to search deeper, I realized that it isn't just the Draper's house I am curious about. I have been doing this for a long time. Possibly with every TV show I have ever watched. So, when I found the Etsy shop, Fantasy Floorplans, I was pretty stoked. Yes, it's an entire Etsy shop dedicated to the 'fictional floorplans of TV's most popular homes'. If you have ever wondered what Will and Grace's apartment might look like from an architect's point of view, this is the place for you. You can also find Cosmo Kramer's apartment, Carrie Bradshaw's place and the piece de resistance of all TV homes - the Brady Bunch split level! So fun. So, any other floorplan fanatics out there or am I the only one who has completely missed plots, story lines, character development and God knows what else because I couldn't stop thinking about whether the first floor bath is located in a convenient, yet discreet location?

This ...

Is made of LEGOS!

Dude. Wow.

by Mike Doyle

Beautiful Spaces - Take Six

Today, just some miscellaneous image love. Little a this ... little a that. Enjoy and happy weekend friends!

from Megan Young Designs

from Country Home

from Isabel Lopez Quesada

from Madeline Acevedo

via Bright Bazaar

via Birch and Lily Tumblr