IT WAS THE NIGHT before Christmas Eve and I had just finished some last-minute shopping with P and was on the way home when I heard the news that Joan Didion had passed away at her home in Manhattan from Parkinson's disease. She was 87. This news hit me really hard. I had first read The Year of Magical Thinking (the 2005 memoir about the sudden loss of the author's husband, John Gregory Dunne) in 2019 and was so moved by this book that the next year, I read Play It As It Lays, The White Album, and Blue Nights. As I write this by the light of my desk lamp over a glass of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I thought about what it was that really drew me to Didion's work. Perhaps it was because I really connected with the spare, straight-forward yet wonderfully poetic writing of this Californian culture columnist, this acclaimed writer and journalist.
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THE INTERNET is a funny place—it can be both stifflingly small and a place so large, that we can all be "known" in our own little corner of it without ever running into each other. I only discovered Pia Baroncini, the Creative Director of Los Angeles clothing label LPA, today and loved the little glimpses she gave on Instagram of her Spanish colonial home in Pasadena, California ...
ON FRIDAY NIGHT enormous fluffy snowflakes fell furiously here in the countryside, covering everything in a mesmerising blanket of wet snow. You may have watched it falling on our Instagram Stories, for we knew we had to capture it as it would not last. Within an hour or so, the rain fell, and by morning, it was gone, but for a little while, things felt rather festive ...
I MUST CONFESS that I have a thing for beautiful packaging, so when Hermès announced the next chapter in their beauty range—a new nail enamel collection—I knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist.
THOSE WHO KNOW me know that I can't watch films that are violent or scary, or gory or too intense or sad. I just get far too upset and emotionally invested, and often replay the entire film in my dreams later that night. I'd thought that I was unusual, but as it turns out, we make up 20% of the population, those of us who are highly sensitive. According to Genevieve von Lob, a clinical psychologist, when highly sensitive people receive information, they process it much more deeply and more elaborately ...
WE ASKED for your beauty/makeup inquiries on our Instagram Stories recently and received so many questions! So many that we couldn't possibly get to all the DMs and thought we might answer a few of them here. From perfume recommendations to makeup tips for beginners to the best foundation for dry/sensitive skin, here are the things that you want to know ...
THIS PAST WEEK, we were back in London, thinking it might be the last time in a long time again that we would be able to be out and about before another national lockdown. We were also there to celebrate the holidays and two anniversaries. When we were last here, it was May, and things were only tentatively opening up again. All the pubs and restaurants were outdoor seating only, which mean it was difficult to find a table without booking the good places in advance through an app. The weather was unseasonably rainy and cold and we wondered if it had been a good decision to come ...
IF YOU'VE NEVER dreamed of running away to Italy to open a B&B with your husband, Valdirose will change your mind. A family-run Bed & Breakfast situated among the hills of Lastra a Signa, not far from the centre of Florence this beautiful place to stay is situated in a 19th-century building 14 km from the 15th-century Basilica of Santa Maria Novella and Boboli Gardens ...
ON SATURDAY a wild winter storm resulted in a rare red weather warning for parts of the UK. There were extremely hight winds, some places had a beautiful snowfall, while here it was just really windy and rainy and by 10:00pm Saturday night, we were sitting by firelight and candlelight and no wi-fi due to a sudden power outage ...
IF YOU'VE BEEN noticing Japanese things (products, music, philosophies, décor) everywhere lately, you're not the only one—the country and its culture have been captivating sophisticated online circles for awhile now. I came across Osaka-based Truck Furniture a few years ago, but forgot about it until an image from their Instagram feed fell across my path that was so atmospheric, immediately needed to see more ...
TO SAY THAT it has been a strange week is an understatement (more on that later). It has been a week spent nearly entirely indoors and we're going a bit crazy. Christmas is now only five days away and the end of the year, a mere 11. It's strange how a year where not much happened flew by so quickly. It's a pensive, melancholic time, for many reasons, (one being that I hate endings), but especially since it feels like there hasn't been a proper holiday season in a very long time ...
YOU MAY HAVE noticed that aside from last week's Links and one set of articles on Monday, there were no new posts this past week. We spent the entire week in London, taking time off from everything and it was wonderful. We ate Italian food in Marylebone and discovered a wine club housed in bare-brick vaults and lit by candlelight ...
HAPPY DECEMBER! Can you believe that it's already the last month of the year? Feel like 2021 just flew by and don't really know what I did in all this time. Know that had meant to get through more books. I did complete a web design and launch that had been planned long ago, and definitely got a lot of decorating done at the cottage since we've been homebound for the last two years ...
WE HAVE BEEN collecting things we like for the past little while and realised that they all looking lovely together and have a sort of running theme: neutral tones and cosiness, soft light and a kind of wintery feel. There are chunky knits with long cashmere scarves, comfy chairs and coffee table books; slipcovered sofas and quilted handbags, warm wood and winter whites ...
TIG NEWSLETTER subscribers always love Weekend Links best—in fact, it's also one of the most popular regular features on the site and I've often wondered what it is that readers like so much. This weekend was one of those cosy homebody types of weekends: a fire, some drinks, and P made Aubergine & Cauliflower Korma, a vegetarian dish with toasted cumin and coriander seeds, ginger, desiccated coconut and flaked almonds. It was delicious!
