Are You Looking Forward to Spring?

We all know that everybody is ready for roses and grass and budding trees flowering hedges. It's been such a long, drawn out, and endless winter so far. Do you have any rituals that help speed the time to the Spring?

Obviously, this shop clerk's outlook on winter is improved with fashion. Does anything sing "Spring" like a bird feeding its young on your head? That, and the cheeriest of smiles, will get you through the last days of a grey winter!
Here's another working girl, who seems to believe that wearing the briefest of hotpants will make everything heat up. I find her use of a nice warm cozy turtleneck to be practical as well as fashion forward.

Maybe all it takes for you is to throw on an old rag of a dress - pull your hair back out of your face carelessly, and have a casual, no-fuss, no frills, chatty bit of gossip over a beer.

Whatever you do, don't forget to have a chat with your daughter before you leave the house! You don't want to be to blame for her social fiasco. (Click on image to get a larger, more legible one.)Let's have a fun no-prize contest. I am giving up on prizes for awhile. You all are too smart for me! I'm running out of prizes!
Who is this little charmer? Hint: every single one of you know her name!

Usually, I'm not a huge fan of cowboy/western style design. But the designs of Paris artist and designer Michel Haillard have opened my eyes to the possibilities. I find this work imaginative, humorous - and downright beautiful!





If you'd like to see more of his designs, and his sculpture, click here.


Who was the Queen of the Mist? And why is she posing with that barrel?

The Queen of the Mist was Annie Edson Taylor - the first person to go over Niagra Falls in a barrel - and a forgotten American heroine. A 63 year-old teacher facing unemployment and povery in 1901, Taylor decided to take up the P.T.Barnum challenge and send herself over the Falls as her one hope to reverse her fortunes. Had Taylor been a man or a young beauty, she might have found the fame and fortune she hope for. Instead, she was ignored and derided, robbed and abandoned by her managers, impersonated by an actress, and eclipsed by Bobby Leach - who was the first man to go over Niagara Falls (ten years after her feat). She died in poverty at the age of 83.


She spent her final years posing for photographs with tourists at her souvenir stand, attempting to earn money from the New York Stock Exchange, briefly talking about taking a second plunge
over the falls in 1906, attempting to write a novel, re-constructing her 1901 plunge on film (which was never seen), working as a clairvoyant, and providing magnetic therapeutic treatments to local residents.

Annie told the press, after her journey over the Falls, "If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat... I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall."

Seriously, now. Could Dolly Parton rock a hair do in high school or what?! A true example of "the higher the hair, the closer to heaven."

And, just because they're fabulous ...

I don't know about you ...
but I'm completely convinced these 18th century French litho prints ...are the original steampunk art! I love the way the artist has created his figures from a myriad of items and shapes and vegetation. Marvelous!

Were you lying away nights, worrying about what the perfect birthday gift for me would be? Please, let me put your mind at rest. I hate the idea of you suffering that way. Just pick up one of these for me, and it will be most warming received.
So, what is it, you ask? It's a 19th century French breeding cage. This handsome cage of carved wood and zinc roof, in the form of a grand public building is 4' high 2' deep and 4' wide. I would so promise to get a pair of Lovebirds if I had this!

Here we have the stylish and radiant couple from the 1960 Kalisher-Simpson wedding. Don't they look happy beyond words?! They are both totally styling in those hats!

Well, now I'm off to watch Duel in the Sun on Turner Classic Movies. Nothing like a little lust in the dust on a gloomy, grey, rainy, sleety, wintery afternoon! (Is 'sleety' a word?)
You should go make something beautiful!

♥´¨)
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(¸.•´ (¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥