inspiration and a blog award

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Beauty, the world seemed to say. And as if to prove it (scientifically) wherever he looked at the houses, at the railings, at the antelopes stretching over the palings, beauty sprang instantly. To watch a leaf quivering in the rush of air was an exquisite joy. Up in the sky swallows swooping, swerving, flinging themselves in and out, round and round, yet always with perfect control as if elastics held them; and the flies rising and falling; and the sun spotting now this leaf, now that, in mockery, dazzling it with soft gold in pure good temper; and now again some chime (it might be a motor horn) tinkling divinely on the grass stalks—all of this, calm and reasonable as it was, made out of ordinary things as it was, was the truth now; beauty, that was the truth now. Beauty was everywhere. - Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dallaway

Stunning, no? Virigina Woolf is such a monumental inspiration to me as a writer.

I spent a good portion of my weekend trying to spiff up my little blog's layout. What do you think? I hope it's not too crowded. I was bored with the sidebar and wanted to try something new. I'm not yet finished so pardon some of the lesser aesthetics, like the navigation tabs being all shifted to the side like so. I'm hoping to do an overhaul of my labels and pages sometime this week.

My dear Jen gave me the Blog with Substance Award. Thanks again, love!


- Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five words.
- Pass this on to ten other bloggers that you feel have a substance in their blogs.

Five words could be difficult, but we'll go with... beauty, kindness, imagination, comfort, intellect. I think those words do well to describe what I'd like to convey with this blog, but also the people I've met and the blogs I read.

I'm going to cheat a bit here. I won't be passing the award on to ten other bloggers; I read so many spectacular blogs (check my blogroll for the full list), but when I saw this award, thought about the meaning of it, there was one blog in particular that came jumping to mind. I'd love to pass the award on to the lovely Berenice of ArtFashion. Reading her blog has been such a breathtaking experience for me. With each entry she stimulates and educates her readers, taking them into the depths of art as she sees it, with all its darkness and honesty. Fashion, film, music, writing, visual arts are all things she's passionate about and she has such a great understanding of the meaning behind them. It's beyond fascinating. Bere is a deep thinker, a fearless dreamer and just about the kindest gal I've ever met. If you're not following her blog yet I really can't urge you enough to get over to ArtFashion and see the kind of reading experiences that have been missing from your life!