Behance and Dribble favorites

Lets be honest, everyone on Behance and Dribble is mindblowingly talented. Here some of my favourite things I have found recently.

Behance:

Rafael Mayani

Patrycja Podkoscielny

Diker Bau branding by Ramin Nasibov

Dribble:

Gorgeous frog from Lan Truong

Monogram stamp by Jonas

Loving this identity from Mackey Saturday 

Book Club - Women's studies

This month I chose books about various famous women and on female psychology.

1. Andrew Morton - Diana, Her True Story, in her own words

This notorious book was the cause of a huge scandal when it was published. Princess Diana contacted the journalist Andrew Morton to help her tell of her true life in the monarchy and her deep unhappiness she couldn't share publicly. He smuggled questions into the palace for her and she smuggled out tape recordings of her responses. This is an updated version since Diana's death which comes clean about the source of the information and that it was Diana herself who spoke to Morton, but at its initial release it was kept covered up that she herself had initiated the book and supplied the information, and was conveyed as if it came from various sources close to the princess. 

On its release it started the ball rolling for her divorce from the Prince, and it is very sad reading of a woman who was quite badly misused. Her husband was quite clearly having an affair with Camilla at the time of his proposal to Diana, but as Camilla was married and he had a duty to produce an heir, he merely found himself an appropriate breeding candidate. Four out of five stars, I found it compelling and couldn't put it down, but now I have read it I don't think I would read it again.

2. Nora Ephron - I feel bad about my neck

I loved this, a collection of articles from the multi talented Nora Ephron who was a journalist, director, screen writer and producer, and is famous for 'When Harry met Sally', 'Sleepless in Seattle' and my favourite 'You've got mail'. It talks about many things, one of which is getting older as a woman. It is very funny and often reads as a love story to New York, which I really like. I want to get more of her books now. Five out of five stars.

3. Pattie Boyd- Wonderful tonight

I didn't have especially high hopes for this autobiography, as last month when I had read several autobiographies, I had found them generally badly written and awkward. I was intrigued by the life of Pattie Boyd though - a sixties icon who had been married to George Harrison of the Beatles, and then to Eric Clapton, and who had inspired several song to be written about her by both. This book was beautifully written and very interesting, if sad. 

Her grandparents were from colonial India and wealthy, she grew up until she was eight in Africa, she then moved to England and went to Catholic boarding schools until she was seventeen and moved to London, becoming a model shortly after. At the age of nineteen she met George Harrison, and married him when she was twenty one and he was twenty two. She was the main force behind the Beatles famous trip to India and became a photographer. Four and a half out of five stars.

photograph by Henry Grossman via harrisonstories.tumblr.com

      

4. Ariel Gore - Bluebird, women and the new psychology of happiness

The premise of this book was that women and men experience happiness through different things and in different ways, and that most studies on happiness have been conducted purely on men. All well and good. The author then asks a group of women to keep a diary on what makes them happy each day... and that seems to be it. It is mainly a rambling story about her own life and makes no direct and logical study on how to be happier. Not impressed. didn't ever get to the point. No stars. 

5. Rosalind Wiseman - Queen bees and wannabes

This is the factual book which was used as the inspiration and the basis for the film 'Mean Girls' with Lindsay Lohan. It looks at the social structures of high school and female relationships, and is a very interesting study. I found this compelling reading but skipped some of the case studies of what to do in certain situations if you are the parent of a teen - I'm not. I will be passing this on to a secondary school teacher friend of mine, and would definitely recommend it if you have teens. She has also written a book about boys in adolescence. Three and a half stars out of five. Interesting, but not a book I would want to curl up with. 

 

Link Storm - For the home

via Terrain

•The website from the magazine Ideal Home

•Habitat's blog

•Beautiful houses at Houzz

•Arty home wares from Tate, I'll also have everything from Heal's please, and Terrain for autumnal natural home and garden bits

•Lots of home DIY's on Design Sponge

•A blog I have been reading for a long time by a professional interior designer who decorates hotels - very glamourous with lots of marble and gold.

Konmari and the life changing magic of tidying up - Part 2 - Books

The second category after clothes in the Konmari process of de-cluttering (see my part 1- clothes here) is books, being slightly more difficult to part with, but still quite an easy category to go through.

I followed Marie Kondo's method, took out each book one by one, and asked myself as I held it 'does this spark joy?'

I didn't get rid of a huge amount of books, maybe two and a half  bags, but I also had a lot of books to return to family.

I like to use my book cases to display oddments and decorative items, and now I have more space to do this. Jon was getting a bit annoyed because previously I had over stuffed the shelves with junk and he couldn't  get to the books when he wanted to, so I've also tried not to over do it this time.

I am enjoying turning books with really nice covers face first to jazz up the shelves and bring a bit of colour, and have organised books of the same height together to bring in more evenness. I also have been enjoying putting books by the same author or from the same series together in stacks.

The vintage tea party books in pride of place.

Turning pretty books face out, grouping books by the same author or type in the same place, and grouping books of the same height together

design books together in the office.

Category wise my shelves aren't perfect, lots of categories are jumbled in together, but I have mainly put all the design books in the office, and have put Jon's favourite foraging books together on the middle shelf in the lounge bookcase because he likes to refer to them often and they happen to look attractive together.

I also have my big old 70's photographic encyclopaedias together on the top shelf, my 80's annuals together on the next shelf down, my beautiful fading paperbacks together, and my favourite cook books in pride of place on the bottom shelf. All my other cook books are together in the kitchen.

Some books did and didn't spark joy for several reasons - there were lots of books I loved for their stories, but hated the covers of, so I used floral fabrics, old maps, and marbled paper to re cover them, and then put them all together in my glass fronted china cabinet .

I was skeptical when she said if you haven't read a book by now you never will, so throw it out. There were several books I had like this which I put aside to take on holiday  - and I could hardly bring myself to read - they were so dry. She obviously has a point.

I re-covered some paperbacks with dodgy covers
in pretty paper and fabrics

The reason I have been enjoying this top to bottom house chuck out so much is because me and Jon moved to this particular house we are living in a year ago, but have never really found proper homes for all our belongings. It has been good to take everything out of the shelves and cupboards, whittle down the contents to things we love only, and put them back in in a more organised and categorised manner.

Marie Kondo is quite firm that you should do your entire house in one go (which she says takes on average about six months) and while going through this process I am starting to feel in general that things in my house are beginning to have proper homes. When I want to get something I know where it will be, instead of having a vague idea it may be stuffed in a drawer upstairs somewhere. 

She also says when you have a place for everything it is easier to maintain tidiness, which I have indeed noticed, and is really great.