... and hoping for a year full of memorable moments.
Happy New Year!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Buttercup Bungalow gets a "Liebster Blog" Award!
Kim Grey of the ever-lovely lamb & blonde has just awarded Buttercup Bungalow a Liebster Blog Award! "Liebster" means favorite or beloved in German, and the award helps to draw attention to blogs that aren't too well known -- but should be!
My love of lamb & blonde -- and Kim's aesthetic / curator's eye -- are well established. The world through Kim's gaze is a beautiful place, full of enchantment, elegance and beauty. To be picked by her for a Liebster Blog Award is a REALLY big deal for me!
With the award comes the opportunity to pass it on to five other deserving blogs. In no particular order, my selections are:
The sweet delights of home, crafting, cooking and kids. Warms my heart.
Unabashed romance from a beautiful dreamer. A gal after my own dreams.
Los Angeles through the eyes of a local artist. She pulls me out of my reveries about the past and shows me that there is a whole lot of interesting stuff going on right here in the present day!
One woman's on-line inspiration folder. Her decor vibe is "Romantic vintage, floral designs and a relaxed elegance". What's not to like about all of THAT? Oh, and she lives by the sea in Ireland. Sold!
A creative, a Corgi and a fascinating diary through divorce to the wide open world beyond. A wonderfully personal blog that reads more like a diary, with lots and lots of wonderful photos and quotes.
Thank you all for sharing yourselves with the world!
A glimpse of stocking was oh so shocking!
What IS it about legs, lovely legs?
On a man or a woman, a well turned leg is a thing of great beauty.
(Yes, I'm a "leg woman". A man with nice legs turns my head!)
The advantage women have in the "leg department" is stockings (which don't necessarily feel like an advantage, though they look good), and heels. There's no denying the allure of an elegant shoe, one that accentuates the curvature of the instep, the contours of the female ankle and calves.
All the great Hollywood sirens have known this -- and used it to their advantage. With the possible exception of Katharine Hepburn, who did things her own way, and got away with it because she was inimitably and always gloriously herself.
Whatever happened to showing "just enough" skin? I'm tired of too much skin on TV, in the movies, on the street. I think men's imaginations need a bit more mystery to work with. Then again, I am old fashioned to the point where I'm thoroughly -- probably hopelessly -- out of step.
Oh well ... nothing new there!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The Sweet, Solitary Pleasure of Reading
Inseparables (Florence Fuller, 1900)
via Thomerama
Whilst Reading: A Portrait of Sofia Kramskoya, the Painter’s Wife (Ivan Kramskoi, 1866)
via KindlePapers
The Reader (Henri Fantin-Latour, 1836-1904)
via Women Reading
Leisure (William Worcester Churchill, 1858–1926)
via Women Reading
Young Woman Reading (Hermann Jean Joseph Richir, 1866-1942)
via Guarisco Gallery
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Cult of Beauty: Saoirse Ronan in Vogue
Bewitching photos of actress Saoirse Ronan in Vogue (US) December 2011, as photographed by Steven Meisel.
It's enough to make the Pre-Raphaelites swoon! (Precisely the point).
Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012
The ads and the show for this collection were pastille perfection. A fashion show AND a carousel? Does it get more flight-of-fancy pretty than that?! No.
Another Christmas behind us ...
I hope yours was a good one!
I'm afraid I was a bit Grinch-y this year, but there is always next year for a re-do. My Kitten Girl's health has begun failing more seriously than before, and I can't be completely certain she'll be with me next year. She's been mine for sixteen years, and contemplating life without her is more painful than I can handle with complete equanimity.
Still, hope springs eternal. Rainbow Bridge and all of that.
I'm on a week's self-imposed blogging vacation from my primary blog The Daily Corgi, which means I'm blogging ahead of time and scheduling posts when I ought to be leaving the entire thing alone and taking a REAL break.
Alas, I think I'm a "Type A" blogger!
I'm on a week's self-imposed blogging vacation from my primary blog The Daily Corgi, which means I'm blogging ahead of time and scheduling posts when I ought to be leaving the entire thing alone and taking a REAL break.
Alas, I think I'm a "Type A" blogger!
Laurie
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Vintage Ad Loveliness: 1920s
These 1920's lovelies have been lingering on my hard drive for a few months now. It's high time I release them from that limbo!
Wish I knew the illustrators' names ... if you do, please leave a note in the comments.
Enjoy.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
While I'm away ...
If you're a regular follow of Buttercup Bungalow, you know it's been a while since I posted. There's a very good reason for it: The Daily Corgi. I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger with The Daily Corgi blog, facebook pages, etc. It's growing by leaps and bounds, and right now there just isn't enough time for me to tend to that and Buttercup.
So Buttercup Bungalow is on hiatus, but it will be back eventually. In the meanwhile, might I direct your attention to a wonderful new blog (and soon-to-be online shop) from friend and fellow blogger Kim Grey? It's called lamb & blonde, and it reflects Kim's exquisite eye and appreciation for life's beauties, big and little both.
Kim's blogging and "curating" of images has been a source of inspiration to me for a long while now. You can see a list of her blogs (all worth visiting) at her blogger profile HERE. She also posts on Pinterest HERE.
Here's to finding the beautiful in every day.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Lovely rooms, lilac and rosy hues ...
Every woman needs a LBD ...
... Long Black Dress!
Indulge me in a fantasy post (I know, they're basically all fantasy by this point -- but isn't that half the fun?)
Pinterest
I openly declare my love of the allure of being utterly and completely (or very nearly) covered up. And while we're at it, covered up in layers of rustling silk, chiffon, crinoline ...
... bold lace and a bit of crinoline ...
... gloriously composed in diaphanous swathes ...
... looking every bit the part of the woman standing at the edge of the sea at dusk, dark skirt billowing in the mist ...
... battling urban ennui in a declarative statement of a coat (here I AM!) ...
... or playing dress-up as a modern day slightly dark-sided Alice (drink this!), or a Little Woman Jo?
This is some kind of greatness. Not quite costume, far more than merely clothing. It exists somewhere in between. Only on the runway, perhaps, or in the magazines.
But also very much in my imagination. That may be the best place of all!
All images via my Pinterest boards.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Those certain shades of blue ....
I never really was a big fan of blue, until I began blogging (that is to say, collecting images in earnest) a couple of years ago.
Now it's one of my favorite hues ... it just has to be the right kind of blue, and all of these are.
I did a post a few days ago about how the Summer shades of blue are slowly fleeting for the year, and I guess I needed to remind myself that although blue has many faces -- in fact, precisely because it has so many faces -- it is flexible, versatile and adaptable to the entire calendar year.
Although I can't say I've ever seen a blue Valentine (not even the film) ...
p.s. Since beginning my Pinterest boards, I've begun gathering new followers here to the blog. My curiosity is piqued, and although I don't know how much feedback I'll get (Buttercup has been pretty non-interactive, as I'm so caught up in my other blog), I would like to know why you signed on, and -- for those of you who've been hanging around for a while (the silent majority?) -- what is it you like best about my blog?
How would you describe it to others?
Do you ever share it with friends?
I realize the blog is extremely "web 1.0" looking, but I'm looking for quality of content here more than anything else. I spend (probably too much) time looking at images on-line and in magazines, so my eye knows precisely what I like. If I don't absolutely LOVE an image, it doesn't get on here.
Trust me, that leaves a whole lot of pictures in the discard pile :-)
This blog is a space for me to let my completely dreamy, enthusiastic, emotional, visual-seeking self take flight. My actual environment and mode of dress looks barely like anything here, but a gal can dream, and this is where I do some of that dreaming. It's where a side of me comes out that not very many people know.
Thank you for being here and sharing in my little curated gallery of lovely things. A beautiful thing is twice as lovely when shared.
Laurie
p.p.s. If you don't Pinterest yet, you have to start!
Although I can't say I've ever seen a blue Valentine (not even the film) ...
p.s. Since beginning my Pinterest boards, I've begun gathering new followers here to the blog. My curiosity is piqued, and although I don't know how much feedback I'll get (Buttercup has been pretty non-interactive, as I'm so caught up in my other blog), I would like to know why you signed on, and -- for those of you who've been hanging around for a while (the silent majority?) -- what is it you like best about my blog?
How would you describe it to others?
Do you ever share it with friends?
I realize the blog is extremely "web 1.0" looking, but I'm looking for quality of content here more than anything else. I spend (probably too much) time looking at images on-line and in magazines, so my eye knows precisely what I like. If I don't absolutely LOVE an image, it doesn't get on here.
Trust me, that leaves a whole lot of pictures in the discard pile :-)
This blog is a space for me to let my completely dreamy, enthusiastic, emotional, visual-seeking self take flight. My actual environment and mode of dress looks barely like anything here, but a gal can dream, and this is where I do some of that dreaming. It's where a side of me comes out that not very many people know.
Thank you for being here and sharing in my little curated gallery of lovely things. A beautiful thing is twice as lovely when shared.
Laurie
p.p.s. If you don't Pinterest yet, you have to start!