Tuesday 28 February 2012

New York garden love

When I first saw this garden I said, whose is this piece of paradise?
It's situated in New York,
and I love the kind of New York houses that mix
absolute urban to boarding on the countryside.
 I am so glad it belongs to one of my favorite actresses, Julianne Moore.


To me, it looks so her, sophisticated, intelligent, with the touch of a secret attraction.


I have dreamed of this kind of fountain for our home. So far we haven't found a craftsmanwho could make it, so one day I shall DIY it!


Ah this picture!
It makes me dream, it transports me right on the spot.
This, dear friends is actually a treehouse.
How original, how primitive, how secluded is that?
Absolutely dreamy to me.

Dear Julianne, 
I trully wish you enjoy your little piece of heaven in New York!

  All images AD. 
Full article here.
love, Irene

Monday 27 February 2012

Lent Monday




Wishing you a blessed Lent. 


love, Irene

Friday 24 February 2012

Friday's Fabulous Finds: Country Mouse-City Mouse


When was my previous FFF post? 
2011?
Can't be serious!
Oh OK, then.
Time to catch up with what catches my eye every week.
I hope you can join me, too!


This week I found a lovely article on style. 
Men's style.
I love men's style. 
I would gladly dress most days in men's clothes.
They are so practical and no nonsense. 
I'd add pearls or a broach and bracelet, but I love the cut of men's clothes. 
Anyhow.
The article reads Country Mouse & City Mouse.

What Are City Clothes?
Broadly speaking, city clothes are made to match the aesthetics and demands of city life. That means they’re largely built for business.
Defining characteristics:
  • An urban color palette of gray and blue.
  • Solid-colored suits.
  • Business-striped suits.
  • Small-scale checks in conservative colors.
  • Worsted wool.
  • Black leather shoes and accessories.
  • Color in patterned shirts and (in some cases) ties.
  • Dressing down from suits with conservative blazers.
What are Country Clothes?
Country clothes are defined by their sporting heritage and their ties to the colors of the outdoors.
Defining characteristics:
  • A country color palette featuring the colors of nature, like tans, browns, and greens, with sometimes-bold complimentary accents, like burgundy and orange.
  • Frequent use of bold patterns, like checks and multi-colored tweeds.
  • Suits often replaced with sport coats and odd (non-matching) trousers.
  • Sporting details like hacking pockets, ticket pockets, patch pockets and leather buttons.
  • Fabrics with soft finishes and sporting heritage, like tweed, corduroy and flannel.
  • Brown leather accessories, including suede and heavier shoes and boots.

The post ends with the phrase;
No matter what you choose to wear, let it be informed by a hundred years of history and tradition.

Since that is bound to include famous eccentrics.
So I'll gladly join the company.

Read the full article here.

Have Fun!

  love, Irene

Fashion Friday-Marni for H&M

It is everywhere on the net, but I couldn't resist posting on my own hub 
first,
 because I love Marni, 
second 
because I have always loved and worn Marni-esque colours and prints, 
{notice my hommage to Marni in my new header}
third 
because the previous Versace - H&M collaboration worked marvelously,
 says I who am not a Versace fan, 
fourth 
because where Sophia Coppola is involved, good taste is to be expected, 
and fifth, 
because there are pieces and prints that I'd love to wear. 


I love the sarong style and flat sandals.



Yes, you've guessed, it is my favorite print.
I also like opaque tights with lighter dresses for Spring. 
A versatile combination.


I like the no-no blue and brown combination.
And you know how I love scarves!


Probably not with socks, but I love the cut of the suit.


 Sophia Coppola created the commercial set in Marrakech. 
Tastefully decadent, golden 20s.
And here is my girl, all hands and grace for the behind-the-scenes film.




All images
 Marni for H&M collection.
In selected H&M shops, March 8, 2012.


Keeping myself up to date via Vogue UK.


Linking to 



Have fun, 

love, Irene

3 colour news for 2012

Get ready for some Spring colour inspiration!


::A::


Pantone's "Color of the Year" for 2012, 
Tangerine Tango
"a spirited reddish orange, providing the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward".



::B::



Dulux presented its colour palette for 2012. 
It is inspired by different places and cultures, from Tuscany to Australia to the Carribean
 The yellow palette (you know I love yellow, don't you!) is inspired by Panama.
Here it is



::C::

You see a picture, you love the colour and you want to paint your den wall the exacr same colour?
There is a tool just for you.
Sherwin-Williams have a tool called Chip it! whereby you upload a picture and get the colour palette match.
Like here;
This is what I came up with my current header
(based on a Marni for H&M print)


Be inspired
 Be inspiring

love, Irene

Thursday 23 February 2012

Industrial chic in Athens



{ Look at that "table"! I love it!}


{Floor!}
{I love botanical prints}




:Athens:
 :Entre Deux Guerres:
:Collector:
:Web:

Established in 2001, by Alketas Pazis, D4I had been operating as a prop house for the filming industry, specializing in locating, rescuing and reclaiming mid-century modern and industrial antiques.
It has contributed to the sets of more than 900 commercials and film productions, in Greece.
Currently, located in a 400 m2 factory from the 50's, is operating under the new name 'Temporary-Showroom', and has expanded to the trading of the collection.

Being probably the most extensive collection in Greece, it focuses on a more exclusive European segment of the avant-garde modern movement.





All images: Casaviva Greece



love, Irene

A trip to the mainland



The village


The church


The river


Looking down


Looking up

Some pictures from our recent day trip. 


love, Irene

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Hotel on the mountain

Over the weekend we have began to travel and visit old customers.
Due to past company policies we had been cut off from them, but need made us push harder (nothing to lose, everything to gain), and the company to allow us again the freedom to be in touch with our clients.
With retail sales plumeting, contract business has the potential to keep us busy and we hope it will provide us with some additional top up orders.
I thought you might like to see some of these places. 










Please keep us in your prayers,
Have a lovely rest of the week,

love, Irene

Monday 20 February 2012

Greece economic crisis:update


Dear firends,
If you read this blog quite often, you may have noticed that I have some time to write about Greece's current economic issues and our own finacial straights.
The thing is, we have the bank statements piling up, right on my desk as I type, the bills piling up, bank people bullying us, a bank seasing our few savings, the shop's turnout being 1/4 of that of the same period last year.
So, why are we open yet? Why am I posting beautiful clothes and interiors?
Because that is the best for my sanity and the sanity of my family.
Because after the trial of being for the first time in your life faced by issues a respectable and lawful citizen such as your parents and grandparents never had to face, and having to face ever changing laws, one bill after the other after the other, you have one choice: 
keep walking, keep living.
We put our faith in God, we put our lives into God's hands.
In better financial times it seamed an exageration to my rational mind. We will work hard, we will manage. Now, I totally believe there is nothing more to be done about the ever added taxes and special contributions we are being asked to pay. 
We keep walking, we keep doing our bit and hope that God will provide.

If you have missed the issue before or rely totally on mainstream media, I post the links to two recent articles, one in Vogue Italia, one in The Guardian, that are worth reading, plus some readers' comments.

When all is said and done, good beats evil and light beats darkness. 


"Europe without Greece is like a child without a birth certificate"
(VALÉRY GISCARD-D'ESTAING)



Outside, a little higher, the Parthenon towered over the strong walls, like a bright and eternal miracle, that continuously dialogues with the wonderful sculptures that originally decorated it, through the glass structure that interweaves the Acropolis Museum. Greece must be saved at all costs. It treasures so much about all of us: the basic and timeless idea of aesthetics, the wonderful fragrance of the concept of democracy, the cradle of thought, of philosophical speculation. Life goes on in Athens, despite a thousand difficulties...


Read more on Vogue.it here.


Shame on Europe for betraying Greece

Capitalism is triumphant as EU states sacrifice the Greek people in a desperate attempt to appease the gods of speculation
Read more in The Guardian here.



 The EU's terms do not begin to match the altruism the United States showed to the defeated Germans after 1945. America did not pauperise West Germans as many in France and indeed Washington wanted. America guaranteed their security, then gave them loans from the Marshall Plan that allowed the West German economic miracle to begin. Greece has invaded no one and committed no crimes against humanity. Yet the EU, which boasts that solidarity is its founding principle, is forcing it into destitution and chaos.
...

The EU cannot take responsibility for what it has done and be magnanimous for reasons British readers may not grasp. Raised in a Eurosceptic country, we do not understand how an absolute commitment to the European project was a mark of respectability on the continent. Like going to church and saying your prayers for previous generations, a public demonstration of commitment to the EU ensured that the world saw you as a worthy citizen. If you wanted to advance in Europe's governing parties, judiciaries, bureaucracies and culture industries, you had to subscribe to the belief that ever-greater union was self-evidently worthwhile.
Currency union is – self-evidently – a disaster. Admitting that would bring a loss of face too great for the European elites to bear. To take the most discreditable example, Germany and Holland have benefited enormously from the single currency holding down the exchange rate for their goods, while imposing effective tariff barriers on southern Europe.


The French economist and consultant to the French government Jacques Delpla stated on July 2, 2011, that Germany owes to Greece 575 billion Euros from Second World War obligations (Les Echos, Saturday, July 2, 2011). On September 18, 2011, the German newspaper Die Welt admitted that Germany owes to Greece many billions of Euros at least from obligations arising from a forcibly obtained loan from Greece during World War II.



"Bailing out" Greece is doublespeak for bailing out the foreign banks that negligently lent to her, and that are disparately needed by the euro elite to finance their failing Euro experiment - hence the bail out. (And then you will be all surprised when those bankers next award themselves bonuses). Were it not for that symbiosis between the banking and euro elite, there would be no bailout. But what is good for them is bad for Greece.
Sure, Greece, or rather its hopeless socialist government and privileged bureaucracy, would do better in the short term under a "bail out" than under a default. But this would be at a cost of condemning innocent Greeks who had no part in this to a life time of tribute, extracted to support all the aforementioned. Worse, their propped up economy would never be able to properly liquidate the malinvestment mistakes from the Euro bubble years - which would condemn their society to lingering depression and all that entails.
In short, Greece should follow Iceland (which has just become "investment grade" again" - not the eurocracy. In any case, the second the eurocracy calculates their life-support crony banking system can withstand a Greek default, Greece will be dumped. This will, ironically, be the best thing that could happen for her.

love, Irene

Saturday 18 February 2012

Fashion Fridays: Thinking of Spring

Baby, it is cold outside.

But I think of Beautiful Spring.


My favorite go to place for deceptively simple but oh so chic clothes.

Well made
Comfortable
Stylish


Here is my Toast LBD as worn today at work.

Take a look at the Toast shops. 
Very much similar to how I style my shop.

 





All images toast.co.uk


love, Irene

Best buys