Monday, October 12, 2009

Congratulations, Laura & Keith!

My friends Laura & Keith were married yesterday at Bowdoin Chapel in Brunswick, Maine.












Keith & his family are of Scottish descent, so all the men in the family wore kilts, and there was a professional bagpiper playing at the ceremony.

Laura spent months planning this wedding, and the details were very special -- everything from the favors, which were CDs this musical couple recorded of themselves performing at a local club, to the handmade paper flower centerpieces to the "album covers" that served as table designations.



From beginning to end, a very special day for a very special couple!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Autumn evening at the Maine Coast

My friend Mary Ann was visiting this week from LA, and I took her to my favorite place on the coast. I'm going to let the photos tell the story! (Click on each photo for a larger view)

























Friday, October 2, 2009

Funky Friday ~ October 2nd



I've borrowed a friend's Nikon and am practicing with it so I can take photos at her wedding reception on October 11th. The other day, I took the camera with me to the local Audubon Center. Just as I was leaving, I spotted 4 wild turkeys as they made their way across the parking lot and into the woods. I think turkeys qualify as funky!



Earlier, I took a nice, relaxing walk through the woods and fields. The center used to be a private farm, and the land borders the Presumpscott River.



There were signs of fall everywhere, from crimson leaves...



... to apples on the trees.



The fading light bathed the marsh in a golden yellow glow.







As the sun set, I prepared to drive home...



...happy in the knowledge that the Audubon Center will be there, just down the road, whenever I am ready to go back and explore it again.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Funky Friday ~ September 25th


[bakery shop window, Flushing, New York]

It's Funky Friday - time to make plans for a wonderful weekend! Wherever you are, whatever you do, make sure to make the most of every day.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Funky Friday ~ September 18th



This is a picture of the Miss Portland Diner that I took several years ago and manipulated using Photoshop Elements. Pretty darn funky!

Enjoy the day & have a fabulous weekend! I am off to Massachusetts tomorrow for my cousin's wedding. "All you need is love, doo ta doo doo..."

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Some of my favorite quotes


Imagination is more important than knowledge.
~ Einstein



Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.
~ Oprah Winfrey



Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
~ Melody Beattie



Evolved individuals know that people who are not intuitive can be dangerous to work with, since they are guided solely by the current appearance of things that are in reality, changing. Evolved individuals seek out others who have intuition and vision - a form of intelligence that comes from cultivating the instincts, observing the direction of change, apprehending the evolution of ideas.”
~ Lao Tzu



To live content with small means... To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion... To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich... To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly... To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart... To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never... In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common... this is to be my symphony.
~ William Henry Channing

Saturday, September 12, 2009

My take on Julie & Julia



Yesterday I went to the movies. Think that's not a big deal? It isn't, really, except it was the first time I'd stepped foot inside a movie theater in about 5 or 6 years. I have been watching all my movies on DVD and totally ignoring the fact that theaters existed. Until now. I was supposed to meet a friend, but she never showed up. I have to thank her, though, because without her prompting I probably would not have gone, even though I had heard from several people that Julie & Julia is a fun, uplifing movie, and I was keen to see it.



What no one had mentioned was that it was shot at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens. I used to live near there in Sunnyside, Queens, so a lot of the New York images were so familiar to me. They brought me back to that time when I lived in New York. And that was fun for me.

But what I also enjoyed were the shots of Paris (I've never been, but that city resonants with me), the interior shots (I would just die to have an apartment like the one Julia Child and her husband had in Paris), and the vintage clothes. I used to wear lots of vintage clothing when I was in my 20s, and I even sold it for awhile, and so I was tickled to see all the period fashions in the flashbacks to Julia's life. But what I thought was quite clever was the way they had the modern-day Julie wear vintage pieces. And her pins! In just about every scene, she was wearing some sort of funky little pin. Whoever styled the clothing for this movie really did a good job of creating a personal style for Julie. I'd love to know how she dresses in real life! But even if this was simply the work of one designer's imagination, I got a big kick out of it and thought it really worked for the character.

Of course, no discussion of Julie & Julia would be complete without a mention of blogging. You probably know already that Julie was a blogger. I won't tell her story here -- you need to go out and see it on the big screen -- but it does bring home the point that blogging can lead to big things, in the same way it led to big things for Petite Anglaise. We think we're just chatting to ourselves -- but who knows! Maybe one day the world will be reading our words.

For a peek at the movie, and a link to various cooking blogs, check out the movie's website.



[Note about photos used here: Before today, I had never used any photos but ones I had taken myself. However, on the movie's website they included photos that could be downloaded as wallpaper, so I decided it is probably OK for me to use those photos to talk about (promote) the movie.]