Week's End - The Plum Plum

It is a very plum plum.. -Count Laszlo de Almásy, The English Patient (film/screenplay).

As soon as I read that Toronto's Hazel Smith of The Clever Pup had opened an etsy shop, I clicked over to The Plum Plum. Familiar with Hazel's paintings from her charming blog, I was delighted to see some reproduced on paper goods. So far, there are a couple of journals, sepia postcards, & The Plum Tarts.

The latter are Hazel's marvellously evocative paintings of les femmes fatales & artist's models of the 1920s Paris art scene. Now they grace blank note cards (glossy card stock/4.25 x 5.5 inches with white envelopes) in a set of four (or separately). These are high-quality, well-priced cards. I ordered a set o' Tarts & two Marie cards. Problem: how to allow the cards go, to fulfill their destiny. Solution: I've ordered the Marie notebook & look forward to showing it off at the Phillips Collection café soon. I'm convinced that it will add to my aura of mystery & general savoir-faire. (Allow me my delusion-illusions.)

The Plum Plum is la crème de la crème. Well done & congratulations to Hazel. Now, let's keep her busy!

bonne nuit/bon week-end

[collage images by Hazel Smith/The Plum Plum/all rights reserved]

Mediterranean Makeover

Hmmm. [photographs via everything turquoise; only alice; Life in Italy; casasugar.com; ralphlauren.com; moi]

Week's End - Summer Sparklers

Fourth of July Eve pix-into-collage. Though I have approximately 1 million (I counted) photos of various Fourths (including in France & Italy, explanation forthcoming), no time to organize them & scan. I dearly wish I could be a girl on the beach with sparklers this year.

More tonight or tomorrow. Perhaps with a bit of coherence, even? Maybe.

[Girl on the beach by Peter Stackpole, LIFE Archives; remaining by John Dominis for LIFE' girl in converse sneaks by D Sharon Pruitt/Creative Commons flickr set ]

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble,
Ancient footprints are everywhere.
You can almost think that you're seein' double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs...


...Someday, everything is gonna be diff'rent
When I paint my masterpiece.

Happy birthday, Bobby.

full lyric, here

[vintage postcard image by D Sharon Pruitt/pinksherbert photography/for Creative Commons Use by poor people like, uh, nonprofits; Bob credit, here; random personal photographs in collage; someday, I'll find the flattering ones. Must be some sort of undermining thing.]

Federico's film that changed everything...

It must be everywhere today but I can't let it pass without saying something. La Dolce Vita (the movie, not the saying) is 50 years old today. More thoughts another time...but I keep hearing Anita Ekberg say: "Marcello...come here..." in that nutty high voice at that goofy Trevi Fountain. (photos from screen shots).ciao belle.

Amusement: make an album cover

Thanks to Jamie at Small Expectations for her post (& to A Bird in the Hand blog where Jamie happened upon the instructions to make your own album cover). Mine isn't as cool as Jamie's but I've never used the text function in Picasa, so that was fun. I wanted to spend more time on the fonts but kept it to 10 minutes tops. Following the rules: 1) the first random Wikipedia article was about the HMS Achille; the last random quote on Quotations page was by Leon Tec, MD: "A sailor without a destination cannot hope for a favorable wind." So there's the album title: Hope for a favorable wind. The third photo (in middle column at bottom) in the last seven days of flickr page that loaded was by NenePhoto & titled Boccadasse, Genova, Liguria. See? I can't get away from Italy! ciao-ciao

Moreau Inspiration

The real J.M. Then inspiration for Steven Meisel's Cinema Stills shoot in Vogue Italia (October 2003). We love J.M. for many reasons but making under-eye shadows acceptably sexy (yes!) was a major achievement. That & not being classically beautiful but being considered gorgeous. As she was & remains. ciao!