Happy New Year Everybody.......

There's a world far away from the one we see
There's a dream I will never let go
One thing is certainly true
This moment's for me and for you
So while there's not a thing that we can do

Let's dance
Let's dance

Another voice...

Times in the kitchen were never that busy as in the last couple of weeks....I wish you joy in preparing your New Years Dinner..I love big kitchens where everybody gathers and sits around the table...eating ,talking and enjoying each others company..Lets talk about our resolutions in the year to come...and together keep the faith..we will succeed...

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Painting~~An Old Kitchen~~Frederick William Elwell. Liverpool Museum.

The truest..

The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind.

IIIiits the last Monday of the year....

I hope in the year to come you will find whatever you wished for...and that all your dreams may come true..Now.....Sing a long...with T.D and company...


Painting-The Singer in Pink-Jean Louis Forain.

Love actually...

Postcards from all over the world....Thank you my friends..I love you...

Have a wonderful week ful of joy...I will be back in a couple of days...Bye now.

There he is...

And from my house to yours a Merry Merry Merry Christmas dear one...

Remember

When you were young.....

WINTER..

“Smooth ice

is paradise

for those who dance with expertise.”

This was said by Friedrich Nietzsche....So lets dance together through a winter paradise and do it with style..leaving behind the longest night and the shortest of days.....

IIITS MONDAY

...Just hang in there.....

Snowball fight..

“Worry is as useless as a handle on a snowball”


Fresco painting in Torre dell'Aquila, The month of January (detail)

Footprints...

“If you want to leave your footprints in the snows of time, make sure you are wearing work boots”

Dear you....only a few days to Christmas...maybe a moment to stop in your tracks...and pause...So much to do in so little time...not only in the next days but also in life...Please..put this on your to do list..."to enjoy and be gratefull for all this "to do"...have a wonderful busy weekend...


Picture taken by the Dutchess and her hubby yesterday on a walk in a winterwonderland...One Magical Moment In Time...

Lets GO...

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling, too
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling, 'Yoo-hoo!'
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you

Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up, let's go
Let's look at the show
We're riding in a wonderland of snow
Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up, it's grand
Just holding your hand
We're gliding along with a song of a wintery fairyland

Lovers vow

'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth; But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.
William Shakespeare

Painting~Lovers vow~Holyoake.

First snow..

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event”

A Letter from Santa...

Mark Twain wrote a letter to his daughter Suzy, which he sent from Santa Claus. Take a look at the letter here.

A Letter From Santa Claus

My Dear Susy Clemens,

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me... I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters--I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself--and kissed both of you, too... But... there were... one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock ...
There was a word or two in your mama's letter which . . .I took to be "a trunk full of doll's clothes." Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o'clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to the door. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak--otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse's bed and put your ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be . . . and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susy Clemens," you must say "Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much." Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall--if it is a trunk you want--because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know . . . .If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag--else he will die someday . . . . If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and someone points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus's boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?
Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call
"The Man in the Moon"

IIIIIts Monday..

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

It Isn't..

“Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display - so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow. It isn't the tree not the firelight's glow. It's the warmth that comes to the heart”

BBBRRRRrrrrr.

BBBBrrr....the cold creeps in..little frosty elves with buckets of ice...I told them to stay outside and paint the garden white..


drawing Helen Jacobs

Will you go with me..?

Today I am out...Christmas shopping with the girls....see you tomorrow..

painting~Will you go with me Fido~Alfred Stevens 1859.

Mirror Mirror..

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important...

What are you going to wear on Christmas day....

Painting by Boldini.

Light..

Before the ice is in the pools,
Before the skaters go,
Or any cheek at nightfall
Is tarnished by the snow,
Before the fields have finished,
Before the Christmas tree,
Wonder upon wonder
Will arrive to me!

Emily Dickinson

Picture was taken(and the candle was lit) one year ago...for someone I love very dearly...And now this little light of mine will shine...just for you!

Spirited away..

“Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.”

Well... this will not be an easy thing to do..there is the hustle and bustle of daily (holiday season)life...but do try....choose to rise above yourself..THAT'S the spirit!

IIIIIIIts Monday..

Monday's...bah..HUMBUG

Leaving Home..

One's home is like a delicious piece of pie you order in a restaurant on a country road one cozy evening - the best piece of pie you have ever eaten in your life - and can never find again. After you leave home, you may find yourself feeling homesick, even if you have a new home that has nicer wallpaper and a more efficient dishwasher than the home in which you grew up. ~Lemony Snicket

Home..THE PLACE TO BE ...this time a year...but I am going out for a while..traveling to a little Chateau in France...wishing you a wonderful weekend..stay warm and stay happy..see you soon...hope to be back on iiits Monday..!