inspiration and a blog award

(image credit)

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!

beautiful blog award and freebies

The lovely Kayla of Ramblings of a Small Town Girl was so sweet to pass the Beautiful Blog award on to me! Thanks again, Kayla! I'm supposed to list seven facts about me and pass the award on to a few other people. You might remember the last time I listed seven facts about myself and how...well, how boring it was. These seven facts are a little more about things I like, because I could go on about that list forever...

001. I have very diverse music taste. My last.fm shows everything from British pop (Little Boots, Elle Goulding, Kylie Minogue) to indie folk (A Weather, The Swell Season, Bon Iver) to swing and standards (Michael Buble, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra). I also like classical crossover (Il Divo, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli) and classical (mostly just Bach at the moment).

002. I don't know how to sew. When I was little I made a teddy bear for my Sunday school class, which we donated to a children's hospital. That's the only time I've ever sewn anything, ever. I used to crochet, and I'd love to get back into that. I came across a sweet little television program this morning and it's really inspired me. (I'd also love to learn to knit, but it looks so very difficult!)

003. I love libraries and bookstores, anywhere I can be surrounded by books. People talk about the way books make them feel infinite; I'm one of those people. I could talk for ages about books, my favorite stories and characters and the way they all make me feel. (Don't worry, we'll save that for another entry.)

004. I love collecting quotations! I'd love to have a notebook where I keep them all in one place, but most of the time when I buy a notebook I'm too afraid to write in it because I don't want it to become "used" and thereby irrelevant. Hopefully I'm not the only person in the world who's quite that silly. Anyway, a few of my favorites:
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles." - Charlie Chaplin
"Only the gentle are ever really strong." - James Dean
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde
"Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

005. When I was eight years old I was introduced to one of Claude Monet's many infamous Water Lilies paintings and decided I loved Impressionism. I still remember seeing the painting in a shop window at that age and telling my mom quite adamantly who the artist was. I've been passionate about the movement ever since.

006. I love a good old-fashioned mystery. I used to be obsessed with Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels, and of course the Murder on the Orient Express film with one of the most amazing casts ever. I love the British mystery series Inspector Lewis, too. The stories that aren't about scaring you, but just about solving this intriguing puzzle. I like to occupy my mind and look for clues. I'm not always very good at it, but I like it!

007. On the subject of #001 and #003, I always match certain books and music to certain seasons. Fall is my favorite music season because I usually have a mix of melancholy indie folk (Rosie Thomas, William Fitzsimmons) and vintage-inspired swing (Robin McKelle, Imelda May). The books are almost always historical novels. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is an example of perfectly fall-like books to me. (I've only read the first two in the series so Voyager is of course on my list for fall this year.) Anything by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, they're all my ideal reads for fall as well. My latest interest is the Tudor dynasty so I recently bought a few Tudor-related novels I'd love to read this year, too.

I'm passing the award on to:
A Spot of Whimsy
Provacative Couture
Sprinkled Dreams

Congrats, ladies! I wish I could give the award to everybody. There are so many beautiful blogs out there, both in content and design. Thank you all for making the internet a prettier place.


DOWNLOAD

I was trying to spiff up my layout a bit and wanted to make some of these icons - I'm not sure I love the way they turned out, but I thought I'd share them just in case anyone else likes them. There's 23 icons including most social networking sites as well as a few randoms such as "Follow" and "Contact". They're 220x59 .png files; you can see a few of them in my revamped sidebar. I'd be quite grateful if you wouldn't mind linking back to me somewhere on your blog (text link in the footer, icon in the sidebar, etc) if you use them. Enjoy!

I've also updated my blogroll and some of my favorite blogs in my sidebar, so be sure to check those out!

pretty things and a questionnaire

Photos by {Jessica Louise}. Check out her gorgeous photostream!

The lovely Kristin from Crimson Rosella tagged me with a little bloggy questionnaire! Thanks so much for thinking of me, Kristin!

1. Why did you start blogging?
Well, when Jen (of Sprinkled Dreams) started the fashion blog SHE - Style through Her Eyes she asked me (and a few other girls, including Karen who still posts with us) to be a part of it; that was really my introduction to blogging. I was extremely eager to work with her on SHE because we have a lot of similarities in our personalities and we're great friends. Starting out on something like this with a friend is a great way to experience it. We have so much fun sharing ideas with each other and working to build up the site as a team. I decided to start The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower as my personal space for inspiration and sharing. It's grown into something of a fashion blog for my own personal style, but I'm hoping to continue to work with it and bring in elements of other things I enjoy too, such as art, books and music. I see it as a sort of scrapbook of things I like, things that inspire me. I don't know if any of that really answers the Why part of the question, but suffice it to say that I enjoy sharing things with people with the hope that they'll find something new and exciting to love.

2. Do you prefer Spring/Summer or Autumn/Winter?
Autumn and winter, definitely. I love everything about those seasons. I love the fashion, the holidays, snow storms when you don't have to go out and can curl up with a blanket, a book and a cup of hot chocolate. I'm a big fan of layering and accessories so summer doesn't tend to thrill me from a fashion standpoint. Although, watching all the livestreams from Fashion Week does have me oddly excited. I'm loving some of the trends for next year!

3. What did you notice first: Smokey eye makeup or bright lips?
Absolutely bright red lips. My sister had a make-up caboodle at a very young age because of her ballet performances and she had a candy apple red lipstick that I craved. I've been pretty fearless with red lips every since then.

4. Who are your style icons?
Audrey Hepburn is obvious, of course. I don't know that she's directly a fashion inspiration to me - because let's face it, those skinny black pants are just a far-off dream for some of us curvy gals - but her overall style inspires me a great deal, the classy and graceful way she always behaved. She had this amazing ability to not only be memorable but to be iconic, and she did it all without being outlandish or inappropriate. I think that's a pretty big deal. Class and grace, that was her style and that's what I try to achieve. My own personal version of it, I guess.

5. Describe your personality in 3 words.
Introverted, benevolent, refined. (I'm never very good at answering that question so I tried to be creative. Ha!)

6. If you had to leave the house with only one item of make-up what would it be?
Translucent pressed powder! I'm a victim of Shiny Face Syndrome throughout the day, so that's really a must.

7. Which era do you think influenced fashion the most?
Good question. Fashion in history is such an interesting subject to me, how it evolved and the different movements that influenced it. I think other people could give much better and more fascinating answers to this question than I can, though. Sometimes I think the sixties were incredibly influential because so much happened in those years and so many new things came around. Like the miniskirt, which obviously had a big effect on fashion. Bell bottoms, etc. A lot of things that fashion today seems to still pick up on or use to some extent. The eighties were monumental, too. There was such a stubbornly outspoken element to eighties fashion that seems to resonate still.

8. What beauty item do you always repurchase?
I recently ran out of my Maybelline Falsies mascara and I'm missing it so much! It's definitely going to be a repurchase for a while, I think. My other big ones are the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero and the Urban Decay shadow in Sin. The latter matches my skin tone well, but with an extra shine. I always use that for a base, every day. The glide-on pencil is so easy to use and it has such a dramatic effect. Love it.


And now I'll tag a few folks, but everyone can feel free to answer these questions in your own blog! On the other hand, if you've been tagged and you don't want to answer the questions that's perfectly fine, too!

ArtFashion
Beautifully Invisible
Sprinkled Dreams
The Layered Pancake
Those Things They Said

dream boudoir and 100 followers!

I think this is my dream...gee, what is it? A dressing room, bathroom, vanity, closet. An all-around boudoir. Could you imagine getting all glammed up every day in a place like this? I love the brightness and sheer femininity of it. I'm really not a particularly frivolous person, but I love to daydream about stuff like this. I may have to do a "dream closets" post on here someday because I just love indulging in silliness like that.

I also want to thank everyone who has followed and commented on my little blog - The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower has officially reached 100 followers! I'm flabbergasted, and truly touched. I started this blog as a place to collect and share the things I like; really just a happy place for myself. That anyone else has found it interesting at all is so thrilling. So thank you! I'm hoping to do something special to commemorate. I didn't even entertain that I would ever have 100 followers until just last week, but then I got to thinking: should I make a Facebook page? Would anyone be interested in "liking" The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower on Facebook? I'd also love to do a giveaway, something to celebrate my readers because - I can't believe it - I have readers! That sounds so fancy. Thank you all for making me fancy!

P.S. If anyone is going to be watching Fashion's Night Out: The Show at 7/6c tonight on CBS.com (excited!) be sure to follow SHE on Twitter. I'll be Tweeting my thoughts as I watch and I'd love to be able to chat with you all. Jen and I will be posting all our NYFW favorites on SHE - Style through Her Eyes so watch out for that. (:

versatile bloggers and facts about me

Thanks so much to Porcelain Complexion for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award!

The rules are to list 7 facts about yourself, and also to pass the award on to 7 other bloggers.


Sadly, my little graphic is more interesting than any of these facts...

I've never been to Paris!
Actually, I've never left the States. I'm afraid of flying (and heights and spiders and...) so I'm obviously not much of a traveler. I wish I was! I have so many places I'd like to visit, most of which are in Europe.

I used to ride horses.
For a very long time I road horses and did occasional shows. For someone who was afraid of even the smallest dog as a little girl, I grew up to love horses and road some rather tall ones, too. I guess my fear of heights hadn't established itself at that point.

I'm a novelist...ish.
Last year I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time and won. (That's to say that I wrote 50,000+ words in 30 days.) I'm rather proud of myself for achieving it because I have so many stories and characters scrambling around in my head and I seem to lack the conviction or coordination to write them. NaNoWriMo showed me I can do it!

I wanted to be a marine biologist.
When I was very little and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up (which happened surprisingly often, or maybe I just told people without their having asked) I always said, "a marine biologist." I haven't the slightest idea where that came from and needless to say it didn't actually go anywhere, but it's something that's always stayed stuck in my head.

I've always wanted to speak French and Italian.
I don't speak any languages other than English, which is terribly sad. I've tried learning French, but it just didn't stick. I listen to a lot of French music and watch a lot of French movies so so I know some things, but I'd love to be fluent. Italian...well, it was always a dream of mine to move to a little Italian town ala Under the Tuscan Sun so it'll be nice to be prepared, right?

I prefer to teach myself than to be taught.
About seven years ago I got interested in designing web sites and rather than enroll in some classes I took to the internet. I taught myself the basics of HTML rather quickly and I got a graphics program which I also taught myself to use. A lot of people have done this so it's not a very exciting or unique fact, but it's something I'm proud of. I think this is why I haven't learned a language, though. Teaching yourself something like that seems like something that takes real time and technique, whereas I'm more of a speed-Google learner.

I always make wishes on 11:11.
I do. And I don't know if this makes me a compulsive clock-watcher or if I'm just lucky, but I almost always look at the clock on exactly that time. It's uncanny.


See? I told you. Terribly boring. I'm sure there's something more interesting about me, but I haven't been able to think of it in the hours I've been working on this post. Ha! So now I'll pass the award on to seven versatile and lovely bloggers:

A Spot of Whimsy
Beautifully Invisible
Cafe Bellini
Rosa-Fiona Bettina
Some Kind of Style
Those Things They Said
Tous les Garcons et les Filles

I hope everyone's having a lovely weekend! Oh, and all the clipart from the graphic is once again by Pugly Pixel. The Paris and horse pictures were found on Google and WeHeartIt, respectively.

sweetheart bloggers and things i like

I've received several awards and tags lately - thank you all so much! I'm extremely touched to know you thought of me. I was going to put them all into one big post, but then I thought it might be fun to devote a post to each. So that will be my project for the weekend. Get ready for lots of bloglove!



I'll start out with the Sweet Friends Award, which I received from Provocative Couture and minnja! Thank you so much, dears.

Rules of the tag:
1. Post who gave you this award.
2. State ten things you like.
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment.

Ten things I like:



Audrey Hepburn, natch.
For all her beauty on the outside she was ten times more beautiful on the inside. Her spirit, her kindness and her honesty are things that resonate with me, things I admire. She had so much confidence in the goodness of others. It makes you want to run out into the world and be the person she knew you could be.


Making shapes in the clouds like Amélie.
Yes, I'm secretly still a child. Or maybe that's not so much of a secret. But I love doing this! It entertains me probably more than I ought to admit.


Fifi Lapin!
An adorable and fashion-forward bunny, what's not to love?



(image credits: one, two)
Castles
I like whimsy, clearly. I love fairytales and history and all manner of romantic things like that. So of course I love castles.



VivAndLarry.com and the VivAndLarry.com blog
My lovely friend Kendra owns and operates the most spectacular fansite for Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. It's brimming with all sorts of information about the ultimate classic Hollywood couple, and the Viv & Larry blog is equally spectacular; Kendra has such a passion for classic films and she knows all manner of little details that I find fascinating. She even interviewed Robert Osbourne, the amazing film historian and host of the Turner Classic Movies channel! I can't recommend her blog enough, whether you're a die-hard classic film fan or you're looking to learn more. She's like a walking encyclopedia about classic films.



(image credit: one, two)
Novels
I love reading books and shopping for books and talking about books... A good fiction novel is my favorite, curling up with it on a rainy or wintry night. I'm as happy as a clam on nights like that. Jane Eyre and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca are probably my favorites. I also started reading J.D. Salinger's work just this year and he has fast become my favorite author. I connect so much with his writing.
Like any good book lover, I'm on Goodreads so feel free to add me as a friend if you have an account!



Costume Dramas
Words cannot express the amount of fun I have geeking out over one of those long, detailed BBC costume drama miniseries. North and South (2004) and Jane Eyre (2006) are probably my favorites. They can never be too long for me. I get so lost in the world and I never want it to end. I also love Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Desperate Romantics, Little Dorrit, this year's Emma, Lost in Austen, Pride and Prejudice (all), Tess of the D'Urbervilles and the spunky old ladies of Cranford. Just to name a few.


I Love Lucy
I've seen every episode and it never gets old. I love starting my day with the shenanigans of Lucy and Ethel!


(photo credit)
Vintage Deer
I don't know where my interest in these little things came from, but I just love them. I'm constantly looking for them - the short ones with the great big eyes, especially - whenever I'm in an antique store or the like.


French Macarons
Confession: I've never even tried a French macaron. These little things are next to impossible to find in the States and whenever I've heard of a place here that will ship them out I'm always nervous that it won't be quite like a proper French macaron. I've heard they're almost impossible to make, too, so that doesn't help me. I've chalked it up to something that will just have to wait until I finally get my chance to go to Paris!

Ten bloggers I'm awarding as Sweet Friends:
Art-Pixie
Days in Mayfair
Gal with Curves
Honey Kitten
Kaleidoscopic Chrysalis
Loveaudrey
Mermaidens
Pens and Lens
Sprinkled Dreams
The Layered Pancake


All the clipart I used in my little graphics is from Pugly Pixel. She has the most amazing blog and the prettiest freebies! Go check it out. I hope you all liked this post. I've been seeing these awards going around a lot and I thought I'd try something slightly different with answering the questions. Have a lovely weekend!

me, a stylish blogger?

Last week Beautifully Invisible was so kind as to include me in her picks for the Stylish Blogger Award! I don’t know how it happens that I’m fortunate enough to be listed in such amazing and fabulous company but I will definitely take the honor, especially from a blogger I truly admire. Beautifully Invisible is one of the most intelligent, well-written, stylish, honest and charming blogs I've ever read. If you're not following, you should go remedy that right now!



And now I'm passing the award on to...

A Fashion Adventure
Honey Kitten
Loveaudrey
Pens and Lens
Provocative Couture
Some Kind of Style
Sprinkled Dreams
The Layered Pancake

I hope you all know how wonderful and fabulous you are. I'm constantly amused, educated and inspired by all your lovely posts. Cheers, ladies!

Of course, I hate to be the one to leave anyone out so I thought this would be an appropriate time to debut (ha!) my shiny new blogroll. It's quite a page; I hope my HTML didn't fail me and that it works properly for you all. The list consists of all manner of inspiration for The Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower as well as the blogs of my friends and followers. If your link isn't there, just leave a comment and I'll be sure to add you!

I've been in the habit of posting about Mad Men on Mondays, but I haven't seen last night's episode yet. So while I scurry off to catch up, here's another example of why Christina Hendricks is a true and classic beauty...