Candy-colored Deneuve | Spooky Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

This bittersweet movie has been on my mind lately. (Have you seen?) It's not to everyone's taste - every word is sung - but there's a famous candy-colored set (the clothes and wallpaper match!)...

The opening credits (here) are so beautifully choreographed...

And the movie of course made Catherine Deneuve a star.

And since it's Halloween! Something from the spooky end of the Deneuve spectrum...

Deneuve plays a *very* unhinged woman in Repulsion, and it does a good job putting you in her shoes. Too good...

Cracking up, Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion

Because I seriously felt unhinged too! As I fell asleep, I could've sworn I heard my walls cracking (like the movie) & thumps in the flat, even though I was home alone (like the movie).

{Luckily: The next morning, I saw the plaster in the hall had cracked (the cracking noise) and fallen to the floor (the thumps). I was NOT crazy, yippee!}

~ Have a candy-colored and spooky Halloween! ~

(Images via Musicals in Vancouver, Flow TV, heavensabove, Film Forager, Movie Mail, Criterion Forum, Seattle Times, Somewhere in the Depths of Cinema, and "Repulsion" film stills via heavensabove.)

I want candy

{Pile of British candy}

I can't help it, it's all this Halloween talk! And if, like me, you've a thing for British candy, but find yourself Stateside of the pond, all is not lost! Where to find candyliciousness in 3 major East Coast towns...

Cardullo's in winter, Cambridge

Boston & Cambridge: Cardullo's not only has piles o' British candy, but the most expensive sandwich - over $100 for a caviar sandwich!

Rodman's, Washington, DC

DC: Rodman's, the "Weirdest Little Drugstore in Washington," is a savior for Brit-candy hunters in the wilds of DC.





Tea & Sympathy in the Village

Manhattan, NYC:  Tea & Sympathy has carried British candy since the last monarch (it seems!)

Humble London Tube candy machine

Confession: My candy sources in London aren't as fancy as the above. We just buy from the nearby petrol (gas) station or the candy machines in the Tube (subway). :)



(Images via Muffin Top, Eric Rolph at panoramio, DC Beer, Chris J Russell and just some photos.)

Play with your food

What better time than pumpkin-carving season for food art? :)

by Saxton Freymann, from Play With Your Food

I'd love an Anna the Red bento box!

Carl Warner's foodscapes

Kevin Van Aelst

And pumpkins of course!

P.S. Many apologies to anyone I've been trying to follow (or trying to follow me) - I've had major problems with Blogger for ages! I have a new appointment with the computer doctor & hope everything works OK soon.

(Images via 1; 2; 3; 4; pumpkins - 5a/5b/5c/5d.)

London love

Thank you everyone for being so sweet about our job news - though I'm feeling guilty for calling London winters "un-fun"! There's so much to love in London...let us count thy ways...

{Berkeley Square}
The sweet pockets of green

"I've got nasty habits. I take tea at 3." -- Mick Jagger

Afternoon tea!

Karen Millen dresses

View from Waterloo Bridge

Seeing this when you step out the front door

Those street styles

{Chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall}
These guys

{Recent Grace Kelly fashion exhibit}

The amazing V&A, always

(Images via 1; 2; 3; Millen - 4a/4b/4c/4d; 5; 6; street styles - 7a/7b/7c, 8a/8b/8c; chefs - 9a/9b; 10.)

Change is in the air

Hope everyone had a wonderful fall weekend! Thank you for all your sweet comments Friday - I've been off the grid, but can't wait to catch up on your blogs. :)

I'm excited. For 4 years, I've been living a nomadic life in London, Cambridge, DC (with stints in Hawaii, of course :))... All for work and love. But as of this fall, our jobs are going to let my significant other and I spend more months together in the States each year!

We still have to go between the East Coast and London sometimes, but I'm psyched to not face another London winter (3pm sunsets are un-fun!) and to be less footloose.

The first side effect? We took a trip out on the lovely East Coast to celebrate and soak in fall color. I could get used to this. :)

~ Wishing you a lovely fall week ahead! ~

{Photographs of changing fall foliage taken in Hudson Valley, NY.}

The composer next door

{Chopin museum, Valldemossa, Mallorca, Spain}

I always thought it must have been so dreamy for Chopin's Mallorca neighbors, back in the day when he lived & composed there. So I was thrilled to learn our new neighbor is a composer!

{Valldemossa, Mallorca}

The neighbor's been hard at work on a piece for London's Covent Garden & I love closing my eyes when spellbinding piano music fills the air...daydreaming of old Mallorca. :)

~ Have a dreamy, spellbound weekend! ~

P.S. Isn't it great when neighbors make life nicer?

P.P.S. I'll be traveling and offline rest of today, but can't wait to visit your blogs when I'm back!

(Images via Recollections of a Vagabonde and Travelpod.)

Transatlantic yum

{Hot chocolate souffle}

{Chocolate + fresh cream}

{Can't wait to try! Chocolate pot with raspberries & kick of *chili*}

Why do small luxuries matter so much on flights? Gu Pud English sweets might be the richest mini-treat I've had on a transatlantic trip. The decadent chocolate ganache just melts in your mouth!

{Oh Gu Pud, expand across the pond? Non-UK chocoholics can't always fly over for such delectableness!}

(All images via Gu Pud.)

Photo du jour: Moonshine

A calm, still night in Honolulu.

{Photographed in Hawaii, of course :)}

Yauatcha in London

{Yauatcha's excellent dumplings, cheung fun and lotus rice packets}

Oh dim sum! You delicious little things, you're so hard to find in truly tasty (not bland, over-greasy, over-salty) form. (This is sadly true even in Hong Kong!) Thankfully, Yauatcha gets it right.

This is not your typical dim sum house, no loud din or foodcarts.

And it might be hard, but save room for beautiful tea & bonbons!

P.S. Yauatcha is Michelin starred. :)
P.P.S. On a totally different note, it's late musician Peter Tosh's birthday. I've listened to Downpressor Man since childhood & it got me through challenging times...music can have such power.

(Collage 1 images via Le Petit Patissier, Town & Country Travel and London Chow. Remaining images via Yauatcha; last image via London Evening Standard.)

Beautiful ballerina: Suzanne Farrell

Just some ballet beauty for you today (and dancer I love :))...

~ Wishing you a beautiful week! ~

{As Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream}

{Lovely even in rehearsal clothes! With Arthur Mitchell and choreographer George Balanchine}

{Afternoon of a Faun, with Peter Martins}

(Images via Seeing Things, Academy of Achievement, Great Dance, Mad Men Unbuttoned and King Douglas.)

Amazing race

If you think paddling across 41 miles of open ocean in a sliver of a boat, battering large waves from every side, sounds crazy...you're right! Congratulations to my crazy brother for completing the Molokai Hoe in Hawaii - one of the craziest races in the world!!

And I couldn't mention Molokai without sharing a picture, could I? :)

~ Have a crazy-wonderful weekend! ~

(Images from Hawaii Magazine, Canga and Hawaii Pictures via UH Today.)

Hampstead Heath, London

{The Heath inspired C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}

A dreamy place to stroll...

To run...

Fly a kite or take-in vistas of London...

{Kenwood House Museum, Hampstead Heath}

View art in a beautiful setting...

Even bathe in open-air ponds!

Or get lost (happens to me a lot) and daydream away.

P.S. While in Hampstead, don't forget the Hampstead crepe stand...

Or, if you fancy a pint, The Flask pub...

(Images from Little London Observationist, The Guardian, nielsfrenzen, embleton, LondonTown, English Heritage--Kenwood House, London Evening Standard, Katherine MacDaid, Matt Maran via Studio House Cards, La Creperie de Hampstead, Gourmet Traveller 88 and TimeOut London.)