I Heart...

Rainy Days

In London it's been pouring with rain. I sat at work today with soggy jeans and socks. It doesn't help that I left my rather snazzy leopard print umbrella in a supermarket basket by accident. This weather has made me crave the sort of things I crave in autumn and winter, even though it's June and should be sunny and hot.
So instead of salads and ice cream I've been having soups with baguettes, naughty bars of chocolate and pastries and drinking lots of tea and hot chocolate and lattes.
Today at work I was thinking that the perfect way to pass rainy days is to be at home, with a post-bath warmth, snuggled into a cosy armchair with a mug of hot chocolate complete with a floating marshmallow island. In said chair you could read one of the those amazing books where you can't put it down but as you approach the end you get sad because you don't want to say goodbye to the characters (a recent example of this for me was The Perks of Being a Wallflower).
You could watch a film. What film you watch is obviously up to you. Personally I think grey days call for the technicolour brights of old classics - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Singin' in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, High Society, or any film with Doris Day, because she has such a sunny face.
Or you could simply sit, daydream, watch the view from the window and listen to some lovely crackling vinyl. Burn some scented candles too.

The Best 100 Opening Lines From Books

http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/the-best-100-opening-lines-from-books

The perfect opening line for me is one that is evocative and gripping, instantly plunging you into the world of the novel. Now, not all of these I'd say are great openings, but there are some classics here which are definitely worth a read.
I tend to read more contemporary novels but I'm going through a phase now of devouring the classics since reading Lady Chatterley's Lover recently on holiday, and now I am reading The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy.
Happy reading!

Bardot Top Place as Most Stylish

http://www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/10-most-stylish-women-of-all-time#
I agree with Bardot being number one, as she certainly is my style icon, but Princess Diana, Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole certainly wouldn't make my list.
I'd have (in no particular order): Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Seberg, Anna Karina, Catherine Deneuve, Marlene Dietrich, Dita Von Teese, Audrey Horne (Twin Peaks), Francoise Hardy, and Diane Keaton. I'm probably missing some.

Film and TV Delights

Style Crush: Anna Karina

Danish actress Anna Karina was the darling of French New Wave cinema, and the muse of one of it's foremost directors Jean-Luc Godard. Karina was 17 when she arrived in Paris, and unable to speak French. Living off the streets she got a break while sitting at the cafe Les Deux Magots. She was approached by a woman from an advertisement agency who asked her to do some photos. She soon became a successful fashion model and Coco Chanel helped her come up with the name Anna Karina.

It was through modelling that Godard first set eyes on her.
She wore quite simple clothes, in a slightly dishevelled way and could look both cute and dangerous simultaneously.

Sun-Drenched Grass Banks

We go on a pilgrimage to the country with baskets of food and blankets and honey wine
to lay out and worship the sun and capture her light in our glasses
grass between our toes and river waterfallen on our legs
temporarily forgetting reality and heartbreak (perhaps)
we are drunk on summer and our skin is toffee-coloured
the sweet and bitter skin of fruits in our teeth, seeds, hands and mouths stained by berries
fumbling hands that wander further over and under
broderie anglaise glimpses unseen skin
we are blinded by white light and each other
spilling amber liquid on clavicles and ankles by accident so that it bubbles and froths and cools
we stay in the forest clearing by the waterfall until the shadows stretch over us and the heat fades and brings goose pimples and shivers (of lust or of cold?)
then everything is packed away and shoved into the car, including us
as we crank up the stereo of lazy voices and guitars and silently reflect on our lives