I was in a bit of a funk this week, ducklings. So I gave myself leave to (temporarily) neglect you while I found some equilibrium. It was also the week of Jeff’s first three certifying exams (he passed with flying colors) so things were understandably a bit tense so we preferred to hang out in Covent Garden with each other of an evening than anything else. But a good dose of perspective from a friend has quite busted me out of my three day break.

So far today I’ve done laundry, worked out, sent out a small but decent batch of cold emails for editorial work, put in some work on a novel (yeah, I’m one of those. Blame buddy and future YA bestselling author Caitlin Jacobs), did some freelance work, submitted a couple invoices, and did a load of washing up. I’m feeling downright energetic! This evening I plan on dragging Jeff to the British Museum to check out their Beyond El Dorado exhibit, and then possibly wander a bit in Westminster to take in some November. Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend!

I confess I might have squeed a little…but these are awfully cute creations.

Wow…heartbreaking and beautiful (h/t Caitlin Kelly)

These shoes are all kinds of great.

The kingdom was briefly in peril it seems, but crisis has been averted.

You must admit, his outlook is very soothing. Also, Jeff thinks he’s the greatest painter that ever graced the earth. In his words, “He paints with a freaking knife!”

Halloween is but one day behind us. Here’s something historical and grisly for you.

Gardening for the win! (h/t Kerry)

It might be All Saints Day, but Kate Beaton’s holiday quizzes always require sharing.

Guard your gardens!

Leaving aside that CNN’s headlines are looking more and more like Buzzfeed, this gallery pleases me. I wonder what the leg wraps are meant to achieve.

“Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.”
― Terrence Mann

It’s going to be a good weekend, kittens, I can feel it. Apart from anything else, we’re going to see Edward II, by Christopher Marlowe tomorrow evening. I’ve got projects and applications still to get through, though,  so here are you links and be good!

‘Cause the afterlife ain’t no place to be if you don’t got swag.

Really interesting! Sort of a US version of the genetics map I saw at Science Uncovered a couple of weeks ago.

Beautiful photos but awfully sad.

Oh yes, someday this will be me.

Speaking of the afterlife, we’ve somewhat cute-d it up, but lest we forget Halloween has a creepy, ghostly, barriers between the world coming down sort of history that should be respected. This new trend of cute (or heaven help us, sexy) costumes is a fairly new thing… (h/t Jessica)

I’ll just leave this thing from Bill Watterson right here.

I know I’m not even in the country or anything, but I hate “Black Friday” with a vengeance, so you can only imagine my thoughts on Black Thursday – previously known as the single American holiday dedicated to gratitude and celebrating what we already have.

How weirdly fabulous is this ring?!

Looking for a superbly lovely Instagram feed? Let me make you known (if you aren’t already) to Stone Fox Bride, their non-traditional “[censored] weddings” attitude, and their never ending supply of out of the box engagement and wedding rings. Magpies rejoice!

Tumblr find of the week, the name sums it up.

Good grief, this unexpected mayor has been through a lot!

I’ll take this house, please.

“Love doesn’t think like that. All right, it’s blind as a bat–‘
‘Bats have radar. Yours doesn’t seem to be working.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

It’s been a long couple of weeks, more on that later this weekend, but tonight Jeff and I are getting dressed up and going out! We’ve got tickets to Die Fledermaus and I can’t wait. But until then I’ve got a couple of projects and a cover letter to perfect. (How exactly does one make a major organization fall madly in love with one via note?) I may even try to cram in a museum or two over the weekend as well and hopefully a Skype date with the clan.

This may be one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen.

Celebrating today as the International Day of the Girl Child. In some places girls are aborted before they are born, in others they are abandoned after birth, in others they are married off at horrifically young ages, in others they are beaten and neglected, in others they have no rights to their own bodies as individuals, and in others they are actively targeted and hunted for trying to go to school. Even in highly developed countries girls are at higher levels of risk for sexual crime, gender based violence, high drop out rates, and more limited work opportunities than their male counterparts. Speaking up for girls matters.

Thoughts on Photoshopping.

Does what it says on the tin. US Government Shutdown inspired pickup lines.

A new podcast find.

Punctuation is very important. I don’t get too riled up personally (professionally is another matter), but I know there are minions out there who go absolutely mental over an incorrect apostrophe.

Great find from Jessica! Black and white vs. color photos are interesting to me. For some reason, even though I know better, the B&W sometimes has a quality that makes the events and people they portray seem so much more long ago than they actually are, as if they are a bit removed from reality and more in the way of fiction. The clothes may look different and the technology is new, but the people and the world is largely the same. And really the people portrayed here didn’t really live that long ago. Many children of Civil War soldiers were alive in the 1950s, the decade my own parents were born.  But somehow color makes them seem more present and real sometimes. That picture of Mark Twain, for example, could have been taken yesterday in the garden.

Need a freelance editor? I know a girl…

In the spirit of Halloween, I’m not sure what the scariest book I’ve ever read was textually speaking, but I remember reading Dracula as a teenager and having to turn the book face down on the other side of my room from my bed, close my eyes, turn out the lights and hop into bed in one bound (because monsters, duh) all because the cover of the book freaked me out so badly. It portrayed no suave debonair vampire, but showed a withered face and body with particularly long fingers and horrible staring eyes. What can I say, I have a very active pre-bed-time imagination.

Awkward.

“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
― Salvador Dalí

What a week. Jeff’s under the weather again, I managed to cut both my thumbs slicing vegetables for dinner last night, and I made a stupid clerical error yesterday that really just makes me want to bury my head in the sand. I hate making easily avoidable mistakes, whether they’re typos or social gaffes, because I try so hard to avoid them. Even small things like that make me feel like a fraud masquerading as a competent being, it’s the negative flipside of some Type A tendencies. I am always grateful when my mistakes are pointed out, and I try to be instantaneous about taking responsibility, correcting and apologizing for them…but I still spend about a week beating myself up anyway.

In happier news, it’s Friday, I’ve got work to do, and I’m going to try and get to at least one exhibit this weekend so while my nights might be full of tossing and turning over typos, at least I’ll be getting some culture during the days. It’s also nice and blustery outside, which believe it or not I love, so excuse me while I throw open the blinds and knuckle down to finish a project or two. Tell me what you’re doing this weekend, kittens!

Had a rough week along with me? I’ve got just the thing, it’s perfectly corking! (This one’s for you, Savvy)

For the jeweled corn alone I could love this post.

Paris fashion week this week, I can’t even imagine how exhausted the editors must be. But in that continuing mindset…

These composites of what the “average” women looks like from different areas of the world is quite interesting.

Tumblr find of the week. Since Kelsey’s adventures have me dreaming of Prague…

Midi rings are the latest trend to flit through my fancy. I think this one is delicate and lovely.

The New York speakeasy is alive and well! Until it was shut down…

I’m sorry but I find the history and development of tablet devices a bit funny to watch unfold. First we created a computer without a keyboard because it was more convenient than having one.. but only a couple of years later we invented a detachable keyboard that could plug into our tablets because that was more convenient than not having one. While admittedly charming, I find this latest development downright silly. Consumers, figure out what you want!

Discuss.

Apparently I am a very middling sort of wife – it was all downhill after the red nail polish!

Um, I’d like to direct a Carnegie Hall orchestra, thank you very much. The Marriage of Figaro!

In lieu of another tumblr find, my friend Scott sent me this meme this, which I pass on to you.

“A guitarist or a drummer can get a cold and still play; I get a cold and sound like a wet mitten trying to sing you a love song. Charming.”
― Tori Amos

Jeff and I both caught colds this week and so things have been fairly quiet around headquarters. But several packets of Riccola and an ungodly amount of tissues later, we’re on the mend. We had to raid Boots for supplies at one point, looking slightly like death warmed over, but good came out of it. I’m now the proud owner of a Boots points card, surely the next thing to citizenship for going native.

Tonight we’re hoping to invade the Natural History Museum for their annual Science Uncovered festival (because we are unrepentant nerds, and because I have a natural delight in being able to get into areas that are usually off limits – legally of course!). Other than that I’ve dedicated the weekend to finishing a largeish project for a client and dragging Jeff to Portobello Road with me at some point. The guy’s been working hard on his home study assignments, I’ve been plugging away at freelancing, and with a cold on top of it we haven’t left the house in a couple of days now. Unacceptable!

Interesting report. Jeff and I had relatively cheap cable for a year or so when we were first married, but when our contract ran out and the price was going to go up we just unsubscribed. And we’ve never looked back.

Kids, this alone could be your links post!

NY and LDN fashion weeks are behind us, let’s celebrate with something fashion-y, yes? (Also, American minions. Since we tend to be about 6 months behind what I see in London: muted pinks, skirt suits [in the Dior New Look vein], sheer detailing, and large graphic floral prints. As Miranda Priestly would say, “Groundbreaking.”)

You. Are. Welcome.

Knowing my love of emeralds, Jeff sent me this. Woof!

There is to be another Poirot novel! At first I cocked my head to the side and narrowed my eyes a bit in suspicion, but as I’m no purist (and as apparently Agatha Cristie’s grandchild has approved it) I withhold judgement. Although I KNOW Jessica (the artist previously known as Venice) will have opinions on the subject, she is a devotee of “ze little grey cells.”

Fun fact! In the Edwardian era (Downton Abbey returned on Sunday here in the UK, by the bye, sorrynotsorry for the saturation) there was a brief rage for high society women getting tattoos. Lady Randolph Churchill, nee Jennie Jerome, a famous American socialite and beauty and Winston’s Churchill’s mother, is said to have had at least one. A snake curling around her wrist, no less. She also had an affair with a king, take from that what you will.

Really good tips! I’m alternating between my mobile and digital camera constantly trying to figure out how to take photos. I was not born under a photographing planet…

Hm, perhaps a revival of this curiosity might cut down on street harassers?

SOON.

I find these medieval illustrations of snails in combat to be oddly charming.

Moving. (h/t Jessica)