i'd like to, please

Hope #25.

Send more snail mail.

Especially love letters.

(My I'd Like To, Please posts are inspired by this little blog here. They're part of my plan to make-up Mondays. And the above picture I first saw here, on We Heart It).

august/september bakes

Amaretto Cupcakes, w/ Disaronno sponge and frosting.

This was my thirteenth new recipe of the year, marking off another little thing on the list. So few things are still checked off, right now--but the ones that are, feel good.

I've been watching a lot of the BBC's Great British Bake-Off, lately. So baked goods and the relaxation they bring has been, a lot, on my mind. So, too, has sewing. And crafting. And reading. And writing. (A lot less for the latter, it has to be said. The words are not coming as easily as they once did).

I've been feeling so much more productive. We both have, Arnold and I. Our focuses, in these past few weeks, have changed. I feel like we are making more and more of every minute, eager to learn and produce new things. It's a very, very therapeutic feeling (for me, at least) and one I'm cherishing.

I hope that when school starts again, I'll be feeling just as inspired, in and out of academia.

Speaking of goals, have you checked out The Violet's? They (The Violet) are posting a few new goals each week. And my, they feel inspiring.

still dreaming...

...of that home I will one day have.

And the truth is---well, I will probably never be brave enough or have space enough or a boat big enough to do this, but...

Isn't it such a wonderful idea?

(Courtesy of this blog, Bettyjoy---via Pinterest).

i'd like to please

I am clearly full of hope today...

Hope #10.

Make a wedding cake.

Of course, I have to get so (very) much better at them first.

(I'd Like To, Please posts are inspired by Someday Hopes and the picture above---of a cake that I love---is courtesy of Eat Cake Be Merry).

Oh, and Happy Easter! x

i'd like to, please

Hope #8.

Learn to paint.

Mostly because of this, one picture.

Isn't it amazing? It's just so delicate.

(Posts are inspired by this blog and the picture---which was sadly sold a few years ago---is from this Etsy shop).

good weekend

This weekend has been refreshing.

On Friday I went to a book-signing. In the moody interior of a local bookshop, I queued for 2 hours in the hope of stealing a few seconds with a hero of mine. And steal seconds I did. For many years I have basked in the the wit, humility, creativity, intelligence, empathy and true English gentlemanliness of Stephen Fry and for years I have berated myself for not meeting him when I had the chance (a few years ago I missed a similar book-signing). But now I have. And the humble, true gentleman that he truly is turned up early, signed more autographs and happily shook my hand. I could not have been happier. His new book "The Fry Chronicles" is the second instalment of his autobiography. Sadly as I embark on a second year of literary studies I am unlikely to have a chance to read it before Christmas, but the instalments I have so far read seem as promising and as revealing as the first.

Sunday I travelled to a relatively local seaside town for an arts festival. It is one of the very, very few towns that make me feel genuinely unsafe and genuinely fearful of its populace, so crowded with violence and disrespect do the streets seem. Yet the festival itself was actually very enjoyable. It had the right level of tradition and of surrealism that I often think more main-stream carnivals lack. And it proved that surrounded and engulfed and intoxicated by passion, enthusiasm and creativity, the worst of the world (or your world) can be forgotten - if only for a while.

And that, in a nutshell, was a good weekend.