Materialistic is not a word that I would use to describe myself, but I love collecting and surrounding myself with beauty and I love to collect books. This blog has given me reason to record and share things that I find to be beautiful. With illness in the family, I have missed the opportunity to photograph all of Autumn's glory so will instead share a picture of one of the columbines that I planted this summer. Despite feeling sick, yesterday I ventured out to bring a friend a birthday gift: the book
DV by Diana Vreeland. Books can be risky gifts but sometimes you know when it suits the person to a tee. My friend is as close as any person I know to possessing the legendary dramatic style that was
Mrs. Vreeland. Of course, when I gave her the book I started to think of other books that I have about beauty and style icons and guides to achieving beauty and elegance in life. One of those books is one that I have read but do not possess:
A Guide to Elegance -For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux. Mme Dariaux, who was the directrice at Nina Ricci, made a substantial impact on me when I read my Mum's copy as a teen and led me to be more inclined to look to some of old Hollywood's stars more than my contemporaries for inspiration. The book also inspired some rather fun fiction that I read in the past year also called
EleganceAn early influence for me, as well as legions of others, was Audrey Hepburn and one of my favourite books on her is
Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit written with love by her son. I enjoy its insight into her humanity that shines so beautifully in her films and her work with UNICEF. My admiration for her led me to
What Would Audrey Do? which I found to be full of useful ways to add elegance and grace to daily life.
Recently, I was able to find a lovely book about another public figure who embodied elegance and beauty:
Grace Kelly - A Life in Pictures. I was thrilled to find this book at a second hand book store and makes me eager to review all of her fabulous film roles -good for a quiet Fall evening in! I was reminded of Grace Kelly when I found this
vintage train case at the thrift store. It is in beautiful condition made in England by Morton of London. Unfortunately my Internet sleuthing has not given me information about the company. The train case is smaller than others that I have seen but that makes it a possible to use as a handbag. What can be held in the train case suggests what is found in Caroline Cox's
How to Be Adored - A Girl's Guide to Hollywood Glamour. A small delicious tome, it includes information on charm, etiquette and personality tips as well as creating a glamorous image. All of the books mentioned require us to concentrate on our personalities to find elegance and style like these beautiful icons of the past. If these women can inspire us to greater humanity, beauty will be found.
My sewing room has welcomed a new tool: a Rowenta Pro Iron! My trusty T-fal is still working but I was getting a little worried as it gets used a lot. The T-fal is fairly light weight which is perfect for garment care. Sewing can benefit from a heavier iron that produces a lot of steam. I have had a few irons in my years of home keeping and have been disappointed with some of them. Many of the more recent models do not seem to get hot enough and almost all of them have an auto shut-off. The Professional model Rowenta is designed for sewers with one of its best features being its lack of auto shut-off. It gets nice and hot and produces a lot of steam. 
Unfortunately, so far all I have had time to use it for is ironing some of my vintage linen tablecloths like this rosy one. It works very well for linen but its weight would deter me from using it for all my ironing. 
The reason for the new iron's lack of use in the sewing room is due to the combination of my children's many activities and the effect of certain flu symptoms dancing through the family. This virus seems to come back to haunt you just when you think that you are feeling better. While I have been under the weather, I have been very thankful for a well organized bedside table well stocked with all you need when needing extra rest: favourite books and magazines, carafe and glass of water, tissues, lovely porcelain flower-shaped tea light, pen holder and basket with lip balm, hand cream and a thermometer. Extra pillows, a reading shawl and my lap top allow me to be inspired by all of the creativity out in blog land.
