Kalimera

1970s

Greece

Sun

Sea

Poetry

The dolphiness

Lyrics : Odiseas Elitis

Music : Linos Kokotos

Singer : Michalis Violaris

'Tween Spetse and Hydra in the open sea

Up pops a dolphiness in front of me

Hey babe, I say, where΄s your petticoat?

Thus undressed you are to seek your boyfriend!

Come on babe, climb in, we΄re off,

And five times round the skies we went.

I have no boyfriend she replied

Just came to see what I could see.

She dives down deep and disappears

Then up and holds the boat again.

Come on babe, climb in, we΄re off,

And five times round the skies we went.

O Lord forgive me, as I bend to look

 this wicked one gives me a kiss

 like lemon trees her breasts smell nice

and all that΄s blue shines through her eyes.

Come on babe, climb in, we΄re off,

And five times round the skies we went.

A sunny song to begin the week.

A sunny heart, body and mind to all

Watch: The girl with the dragon tattoo

In the past few weeks F and I saw saw some lovely films. 

I am in film heaven cause, thankfully, we have similar tastes in films.
I lean towards romance and artsy, some nice police ones, too.

 Last weekend we saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  

 Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

More about the book here. 

Did I like it?Very much.
It is a hard film, but it is well made. 

Here is a preview.

Fashion Friday-Eccentricity

Hello dear friends, 

Today je vais profiter de Fashion Friday to entertain us a little. 

 I like fun stuff, I love eccentricity. Whatever makes people stand out from the mass produced crowd.

There is eccentricity that goes with style. 

 Not all royal choices are happy ones to my taste, but this hat worn by the Countess of Wessex is brilliant.

I love eccentricity in men, too.

There are all sorts of eccentricity, there, of course. 

I like dandy alot,

and I also like a fresh and fun look, 

showing that someone has a sense of adventure, of inspiration and what I classify as good taste.

There is stuff I am not so sure about. 

They sit next to the bad taste crater

but I still feel the urge to congratulate their creators, because they dared put their idea into flesh

This is a shoe by Vassili Zoulias. 

Granny blanket meets traditional Greek tsarouhi shoe.

What about this one?

Reminds me of my mom's hair rollers.

Et pour finir, 

following up on this post, 

Charlotte encore!

Whatever you do, have fun!

Work: A jewellery making workshop

This week we hosted a jewellery making workshop at the shop.

I am very impressed by the joy women younger and older than me felt by creating their own stuff. 

We'll do it again!

Trina Turk's Californian charm

A few years ago I purchased my first Trina Turk item, a scarf, from a boutique in Dallas. You know how I love scarves, well, I wore it probably every day that summer. It was Trina-Turk-scarf kind of summer, bright, carefree and creative.

That's how I'd describe her home in Los Angeles.

Photography, Bonnie Tsang
See more int he current issue of Matchbook

Something for the Weekend

Happiness? 

The color of it must be spring green, impossible to describe until I see a just-hatched lizard sunning on a stone. That color, the glowing green lizard skin, repeats in every new leaf. 

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower..." Dylan Thomas wrote. 

"Fuse" and "force" are excellent word choices-the regenerative power of nature explodes in every weed, stalk, branch. Working in the mild sun, I feel the green fuse of my body, too. Surges of energy, kaleidoscopic sunlight through the leaves, the soft breeze that makes me want to say the word "zephyr"-this mindless simplicity can be called happiness. 

 Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy 

 Every year, when Spring approaches, I take Bella Tuscany from my shelves and immerse myself in Spring.

 I love Italy.I love Frances Mayes' books.

 

Friday's Fabulous finds-Blogs about England

From time to time I think of England. 

 Our young years take the patina of nostalgia over time. The things we didin't know we had, the people that were worth spending time with, the trips we didn't make when we could...

But then, I've always loved England. 

The stories of my (late) grand-father, how he and my grand mother were asked to establish a Greek-Orthodox community in the South of England in the 1950s, the flowery slip covers in my mom's sitting room, straight from England, how odd it all adds up.

Anyhow,

I am in one of those moods these days, 

and I have been going through my bookmarks for those special sites that capture fragments of my memories.

See if they tell you something

~place is irrelevant, oftentimes~,

and tell me in the comments, or e-mail me, if you feel like it.

Life on the East End at

Spitafields Life

Stylish pictures with the occasional remarks on life in the big city at

The bottom of the ironing basket

I like India Knight.
I guess you know that by now.
She recently moved here, but I think you'll enjoy most her posts here.

For the English homey feel, with flowers and croshet, I go to
Attic 24.

Enjoy the bloglovin'

Fashion Friday:Charlotte, Gucci and my first heels

Isn't she beautiful? 

Usually I am not a big fan of Charlotte's or the Monegasque family. I really like Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline. I have admired her for decades for her poise and style, and for the way she handled most of life's turns over the years. Charlotte always looked a little too high browed for my royal tastebuds. I also think her taste in boyfriends is rather below her.
And yet,
I like the way she grows into a beautiful young lady. 

 I love her ad for Gucci, just out this week. She is photographed by master photographer Peter Lindbergh.
 I love the colours, the composition, the products that were chosen.

Gucci and I have a rather long story together.

Long before Tom Ford took over, Gucci was very much what you see in this ad. A printed toile with red and green stripes. Quite obvious, but very stylish.
My fondest memory of Gucci will always be the gift I received from my mother upon graduating from L'Institut Français d' Athènes: 

My first heels. 

Two pairs of Gucci shoes, one in blue one in mocca brown, with the house logo, green-red-green tape and classic guilding. 

This pair is not actually one of my own, but it actually gives you an idea of the style and cut of the late 1980s.

I have so much enjoyed wearing those shoes, eventhough I had no idea at the time of the vintage cult that would follow, and haven't saved them for posterity.

Back to Charlotte, at 26, I love to see her grow into a sophisticated young lady. She certainly has all the background to do so, and I really hope she will. Here are a few of my favorite recent photos of her.

This one in Paris in January.

For Vanity Fair

In Gucci at an equstrian competition 

Here is a video of the beautiful mother and daughter duo.

And here is a video of the Gucci shoot via Hello magazine.

Love behind the scenes!

I hope I entertained you all for this Fashion Friday post. 

Whatever you do, do it with style.

Something for the weekend

I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine.  

 Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. 

They always come with the exact amount they need. 

So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. 

I had to be here for some reason. 

  Hugo

Fashion Friday-Dolce & Gabbana Winter 2013

This week I saw on TV the Dolce & Gabbana show for winter 2013. 

 It was amazing. 

Opulent is the best word that comes to mind. 

 Rich and optimistic, grounded in the solid traditions of the Italian heritage of the house.

 The other best thing is that these clothes can actually be worn. 

Don't ask me where. Women like to get dressed up, even in times of war. 

Even I who am usually dressed down, because of my work style, I love this velvet dress and this embroidered skirt.

And that is even if I have to take down the curtains à la Scarlett O' Hara!

More Dolce & Gabbana here.

Red and Green

Captured in the shop 

March 1, 2012

Blue is for March

anoukb

roost

Scrumptious

Blue is for Greece.

Blue is for Spring.

Blue is for our dreams.

March on.