All This Useless Beauty

I have been thinking a lot, on these cold, dark January days. Thinking about things like well-appointed rooms and tattered velvet couches. Time-tarnished chandeliers and chipped crystals. About old plaster walls; and water stained wallpaper peeling along the cracks. About dusty daylight diffused by once heavy, now threadbare curtains. Drawers locked and forgotten long ago and the secrets held within. About sequins and glitter and fraying bits of lace. And about Paris trains.

And while I've been thinking these thoughts of loveliness and decay, I've been listening to this:

{and this.}

and this (which I bought in Paris and listened to on a train):

And I've been making this:

and this:

So that's what I've been up to. How about you?

xo

Bonus Post! This was my absolute most favorite song of the whole year!!! Be prepared to get your dance on:

A Sock-Rockin Year

The end of a year brings on the making of many a list: lists of things to try in the new year; lists of things to do or not to do, to be or not to be; lists of books from the ending year that you should have read, or movies that you should have seen. But my favorite are the lists of the music that you should have rocked your socks to in the last twelve months.

Now, I am a huge music fan. HUGE. And I'm not immune to putting on an air of music snobbery and becoming enamoured of the best band you've never heard. But, I also love ABBA. So, without further ado, and in a somewhat haphazard order, these are the albums that rocked my socks in 2010:


                                          

I was loving Gorillaz and Spoon. I was all over Ray LaMontagne and Mumford and Sons. I shook my booty

with Vampire Weekend, and I blissed out to Beach House.

And while those listens may have been enjoyed with no particular order, there was a definite and very clear top two, and a most definite number one:

The bulk of the year's listening, from road trips, beach days, city days, and days around the house, were soundtracked by Charlotte Gainsbourg and She & Him. But hands down, my socks were rocked the hardest by Arcade Fire.

Wishing you good songs and happy ears in 2011, dear readers!

xoxo