The Provincial Lady Series, by E.M. Delafield
If you are looking for a fun and charming read, with a strong feminist undertone, for the following festive weeks, please give this classic series a go! The first book is set almost a century ago, but the heroine is far from a flapper girl and you get access to her uncensored reflections on married life with young children, domestic life in the countryside, her neighbours, but more importantly, her career as a writer taking off, blossoming, and even taking her to America. I found it immensely entertaining.
For me, the appeal lies in her being very candid and putting into words often embarrassing and controversial thoughts, feelings and questions that I can perfectly relate to, but doing it with a touch of naivete and self-humour that makes one forgive her anything.
I enjoyed the first two volumes – Diary of a Provincial Lady and The Provincial Lady Goes Further (or in London) a while ago and as it always happens to me, I can’t recall most of the details, but the general way the story made me feel. That was enough to prompt me last week to download the last two audiobooks – The Provincial Lady in America and The Provincial Lady in Wartime, the latter also including The Provincial Lady in Russia.
It’s a real treat, I hope you enjoy it!
And Just Like That…
Everyone and their mother has covered this in the past week and I will make no exception this time quite simply because it is something I have been genuinely excitedly anticipating. It’s also something that made me leave a lovely dinner and party early, just to have time to watch it before I met my best friend to visit the Sex and The City Apartment pop-up on Saturday!
And Just Like That the sequel to Sex and the City is here and in my humble opinion it is worth watching for the outfits alone, if not for the main characters (minus Samantha, I know, let’s just get over it) and a peek into their lives as middle-aged women with teenage children, facing ageing and career challenges, wanting to stay relevant, alive, connected to our rapidly changing reality and lifestyles.
I already wrote about some of my favourite outfits that ‘leaked’ earlier in the year, but there are definitely more where those came from! And I will tell you this about me and SATC – I don’t remember 90% of what happens in the series, as my best friend rightly pointed out this weekend, but I remember many of Carrie’s outfits and often find myself googling these for inspiration. Enough said.
Very Pery – Pantone Colour of the Year 2022
Very Peri is 2022’s Colour of the Year according to Pantone and it is a periwinkle blue with an undertone of a red-violet and it should relay a sense of freshness, movement toward the future and a reflection of the digitalized world. I am always interested in their choice, but I never knew how they make it.
Apparently, the colours are chosen through in-depth trend forecasting by the institute. Pantone looks at everything from the year’s mood to fashion, entertainment, art, music, travel and social media, among others, to make its decision. Twice a year, the company hosts, in a European capital, a secret meeting of representatives from various nations’ colour standards groups. After two days of presentations and debate, they choose a colour for the following year; for example, the colour for summer 2013 was chosen in London in the spring of 2012.
If you work in a creative industry or if you’re just looking for colour inspiration for a new item of clothing, your nails, a home renovation project etc. Very Peri will keep you on top of the zeitgeist!
Pinterest Predicts 2022
After Pantone’s colour of 2022, I bring you Pinterest Predicts 2022. You will see a lot of forecasting and trend predictions at this time of year, but as someone who loves and uses Pinterest heavily I am partial to their discoveries and I know they’ve been spot-on in the past.
There were a few that caught my eye, like Hellenistic Revival (see below!), Pearlcore, Limitless Luxe, Batter Up, Be Jewelled, but in fact, they are all worth exploring, particularly if you are an artist, work in a creative industry or if you simply enjoy fueling your creativity for personal projects! There’s something here for everyone and Pinterest actually gives suggestions for business owners on how to bring the trends to life.
I hope you find inspiration, as I did!
Greek Columns Decor
For a while now I’ve been meaning to share some images featuring Greek columns as decor elements. It all started with the one above, which I spotted on TAT London’s Instagram months ago. I just love the aged Greek column near the shinny powder-blue Smeg fridge. Then there was the exquisite greek column side table of Tanbir Kaur, also spotted on her Insta.
The one thing I wanted to bring back with me from my trip to Greece in September were a couple of miniature decorative greek columns which I wanted to display in my bookcases, but the morning we left the store I meant to buy these from was closed, so I was left empty-handed and heartbroken. Of course, there are numerous options online (Etsy has everything, just look at this beautiful set!), but I think I will wait, as I am planning another trip to Greece next year…
Lastly, you can’t have missed the Greek-inspired candles trend, which I wrote about before. They come in all shapes and sizes, from busts to full statues, but also various column designs.
Do you find Greek columns as exquisite as I do?
The Beauty Tray
I stumbled upon the beauty dashboard last week and I instantly thought… I could really use this in my life! Having a relatively small bathroom, with no sink counter, I have to balance my portfard on the edge of the bathtub or sink, which has often resulted in accidents, spilling and breaking things and generally making a mess I have no time to clean.
So in case you struggle with the same issue, I did a bit of research and have found a few other similar solutions, so you can decide what works best for you. They all seem simple enough, yet very effective solutions.
Grown-up, by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I can’t get over this four verse poem that summarises one of the biggest dilemmas of adulthood and ‘mom-life’. For a long time I’ve tried to identify what it was exactly that gave me an apparently inexplicable restlessness and dissatisfaction at the end of the day, even though I rarely retired at half-past eight, I rarely felt better for it. It was the lack of meaningful activity, whether intellectual, cultural or social… which easily comes about in the daily life and routine of everyone, particularly of a working mom.
Source – Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am so happy to have invented Miss Onion’s Exquisite Finds to put an end to that feeling, to give myself a pretext and motivation to do something else, to seek inspiration, to better myself and cultivate my mind every day. Next year, a fresh professional challenge awaits, but I hope Miss Onion will survive and thrive through it.
Is there any better metaphor than domestic as a plate? I need to explore this lady’s life and work more. She is a treasure chest waiting to be discovered and this book might just be the best starting point.
If this letter has offered you a moment of inspiration, kindly forward it to others who might enjoy it too. And if you have been forwarded it, indulge in all previous Miss Onion’s Exquisite Finds and subscribe to the weekly letter.
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Merci!
