May 31, 2012

how to be Beautiful

But she smiled as she raised her feet out. Her toenails now, they were her little foolishness. This week she'd painted them a metallic purple. Most days they'd be buried in work socks and boots, but she knew she had sexy toes. It was just one of those silly things that helped her remember she was female.

Black Rose



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Footgym painting feet 

 

 Think on your feet 

 

For this reason, your feet need to be in decent shape by this point in the year.  


INDEPENDENT

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"You look . . .amazing is the word that springs to mind, with spectacular coming right behind it."
"Thank you."
"From head." His gaze skimmed down to her silver-heeled sandals-and the ruby-red toenails. "To toe."
"My mama always said a woman wasn't groomed unless her toenails were painted. It's one of the few pieces of advice she gave me I agreed with."
He'd barely glanced at the rubies, though his amateur antiquer's eye judged them to be vintage. But the toes. The toes were terrific. "What?"
"The gift." She smiled. It was hard not to be pleased, and a little bit smug, when a man was enraptured by your feet.


Black Rose

May 30, 2012

why did you decide to be a....?


Hunter considered it a fair trade-off. His emotions, his thoughts, were there for anyone
who cared to read them. His life was completely and without exception his own.

Second Nature



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Bill Drummond: 'The creative urge is in us all'

For his latest project, former KLF frontman Bill Drummond has given up interviews. He will only answer 100 more questions – and let the Guardian ask four of them. He shares his thoughts on whisky, burning £1m and cake circles






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"Impressions make fascinating little paintings, don't they?" 
He smiled at her fully, as he had the day before when she'd tipped him. 
Lee wasn't sure why she'd felt he'd been laughing at her then any more than why she felt he was laughing at her now. 
Despite herself, her lips curved in response. 
He found the smile a pleasant and very alluringsurprise. "You're a very odd man.""I've been told that, too."


Second Nature

May 29, 2012

closet case

“Wanna see my closet?”
“I’ve seen it three times now. Yes, it’s the queen of all the closets in all the land.”
“Well, Parker’s is the queen.”
“Parker’s is the goddess of closets. You take queen."

Vision in White



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Mary Alice Stephenson

The beauty and style expert shows off her newly renovated closets, which take up an entire floor in her Brooklyn brownstone.




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Mac scanned Parker's enormous and terrifying organized closet. 
“Maybe if I had a closet this size, I could keep it all neat and organized.” 
Parker rejected a red shirt and moved on. “No, you couldn‟t.” 
“That‟s cold.True, but cold.” 
“If you kept your closet organized, you wouldn‟t be able to buy another white shirt just because it‟s cute, because you‟d be perfectly aware you already have a dozen white shirts.” 
“Also true, but there‟s something to be said about knowing where your red patent leather belt is when you absolutely need your red patent leather belt.” 
Mac opened a drawer in one of the many built-in cabinets that held Parker‟s collection of belts, neatly coiled in color groups.

Happy Ever After

May 28, 2012

on Memorial Day - may 28th 2012



(image shared through Decor to Adore)



“Love is not enough. But, it is the rock on which all else stands.”

Nora Roberts

Blood Brothers

May 27, 2012

Memorial Day

The banners were flying for the annual Memorial Day parade and picnic. He
could see several people busily scrubbing or painting their porches in
preparation for the event.
It was an event he enjoyed, even with its logistical and traffic headaches.
He liked the continuity of it, the predictability. The way people would
plant themselves with their folding chairs and coolers along the curb, hours
before parade time, to ensure that they would have a good view of the
marching bands and twirling batons.

The Heart of Devin MacKade


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Fire up the grill and kick off summer with juicy burgers and festive flag-themed decor.



Burgers

(Perhaps no one dish represents grilling season better than the hamburger)



American flag



Crafts

(Patriotic Red, White, and Blue)




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May 26, 2012

style advice from the world's chicest Grandmas

Dutch sniffed, gave Coco the once-over. She'd done herself up good and proper, he
noted. The fancy-shmancy dress glittered and flowed down, stopping plenty short to
show off her legs. Her cheeks were all pink, too. And he didn't think it was from
kitchen heat. His lips curled back in a sneer.
“So what's he, your boyfriend?”
The pink deepened to rose. “Certainly not. A woman of my...experience doesn't
have boyfriends.” Surreptitiously she checked her face in the stainless-steel exhaust
hood on the stove. “Beaux, perhaps.”

Megan's Mate



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Style Advice from the World's Chicest Grandmas

Rippl Lady in White Gloves  

 

 Style is one of those things that gets better with age, right? Well if that's true, then you have no better place to look to for inspiration than your elders.

 

>SHINE<


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 Nathan managed to nod through these rapid-fire statements before turning to greet Jackie's mother. This was what she would look like in twenty or twenty-five years, Nathan realized with a jolt. Still lovely, with her skin clear as a bell and the grace that only years could add.

Loving Jack

May 25, 2012

lush lawns and gardens don't create themselves

"She started snooting at me about the gardens and the lawn, and how she wondered I didn't do more than I did with mine, why I didn't take more pride in the home her son has provided me with."
"You have a lovely yard." Not that it reached its potential, but it was, in Roz's opinion, well kept and pretty enough.
"She just pushed my buttons-like she always does-and I just blurted out how I'd been slaving away, and put in new beds and whatnot. I just blathered, Roz, and now, unless you help me out, she's going to see I was lying through my teeth."


Black Rose


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how to work with a landscaping professional for a smooth proccess and pleasing results


Even if you can decorate a living room and bedeck a bedroom with the best of them, landscape design has a unique set of challenges that may leave you stumped. Not only does it require a totally different skill set from interior design, but it also changes and evolves over time - flowers wither, trees mature, shrubs grow and spread. And that's where a landscape pro can prove to be invaluable.




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Roz explained, in basic terms, that they'd do a four-season perennial garden. One that would impress, whatever time of year the in-laws visited. Iris and dianthus, campanula. Bleeding heart and columbine for instant bloom. With spring bulbs, craftily placed annuals, and the foliage from later bloomers filling in now.
And once the massive planters she'd chosen were done and exploding with flowers, the bed would be a showpiece even a persnickety mother-in-law would love.


Black Rose

May 24, 2012

lost in motion

He should have been undistinguished in the plain gray jogging suit, but he wasn't. 
Ruth, despite her youth,recognized that certain men could never be ordinary. 
Some drew notice without effort. 
It was more than
his face and physique, it was his aura.

Reflections




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Guillaume Côté is a man able to fly. This dancer born in Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec attended the National Ballet School of Canada and thirteen years ago joined the company. His technique and ability to communicate on stage are such that it is able to leave the viewer breathless.

Earlier this year, the National Ballet of Canada chose Côté as the star of a video clip to promote the dance company in the world and especially in the World Wide Web.









 

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Nikolai Davidov's leaps were like no one else's. He would spring as if propelled, then pause and hang
impossibly suspended before descending. His body was as fluid as a waterfall, as taut as a bow string.
He had only to command it. And there was more, Ruth knew, just as mesmerized by him as she had
been the first time she'd seen him perform; there was his precision timing, his strength and endurance.
And he could act—an essential part of ballet. His face was as expressive as his body.

Dance of Dreams

May 23, 2012

inviting outdoor nap spots





She liked long naps, classical music and her aunt's elaborate desserts. When
the mood struck her, she could sit, sprawled in a chair, prodding little details of his
life from him. Or she could curl up in a sunbeam like a cat, blocking him and
everything else around her out of her thoughts while she drifted into one of her private
daydreams


For the Love of Lilah


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Create your own curl-up space on a patio, deck, or private cabana.


>SUNSET<



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“Are you going to take a nap?” Jenny climbed onto his back to bounce. “Lilah
sleeps in the grass sometimes.”
“Lilah sleeps anywhere,” Holt muttered. 


Suzanna's Surrender

May 21, 2012

set fire to the rain

One of the choices was Sam Logan. 
But to what extent did she trust her instincts there, 
weighing them with logic and past history?


A misstep with him could crush her a second time. 

She might not survive it whole.




Face The Fire



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He opened his hand, and where her tear had lain was a slice of light.
Grinning at her, he tossed it high, and stars fountained from it, raining down like
little sparks of flame.

“A symbol,” he said, plucking one of the lights from the air.
“A promise. I’ll give you the stars, Mia.”

Face The Fire






May 18, 2012

what's your color personality?





"She knew exactly how it would look when it was done. Full of color and light in
the main salon, then softer, relaxing tones in the treatment rooms."



"The walls of the salon area had already been painted by her own hand. They were
a deep pink that edged toward purple. A
rich color, she'd thought, a feminine
one, but not so girly that a man would be put off by it."


Key of Valor








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Kirche Gröben Lichtspiel






Find the perfect color for your next decorating project. 
 
BHG'll point you to the best palette and give you customized decorating tips on how to use your hue.
 
 
 
 
>BHG<



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