Dark Was The Night.

So, I have been immersing myself in a lot of new music lately. I tend to get a bit obsessive about it and listen to things on loop, so I try to get a few at a time so I have enough to not get tired of them!

One thing I have been listening to a lot is a double compilation album called 'Dark Was The Night'. An incredible collection of some of the most important musicians of today, and including a whole list of my personal favourites.

For a fairly well rounded review of the album, check this review over on Pitchfork, my favourite online music magazine. (I might just forgive Mr. Plagenhoef his slight slight on Bon Iver ahem!)

So, at the risk of boring you and giving the impression I am limited in my listening, I won't be posting either of the two divine songs by Justin Vernon/Bon Iver! Instead I thought I'd share this stunninly beautiful heartbreaker with you.

It's a song by Grizzly Bear, and performed by Grizzly Bear with Feist.

Sublime....



If you are interested, you can check out some more of these songs on youtube here.

An Uncommon Man.

I totally love this man.

Justin Vernon also known as Bon Iver. His album 'For Emma, forever ago...' is still, nearly two years later, on my daily playlist. I think it's probably one of three or four album's that I never get tired listening to. Definitely one of my Desert Island Discs.

How many men can write a song about falling in love at the local blood bank, and make it a totally romantic experience?

If you haven't heard him before, do check out that very song, 'Blood Bank' from his new EP, along with a couple of songs from the 'For Emma...' album over here.

I think the reason his music gets under my skin the way it does is because it is so heartfelt. Here's a guy who is not just writing clever songs because he can. You can tell he's giving us a bit of his very fiber when he writes these beautiful songs.

And I love that his blog and his flickr is just full of his family and friends. So sweet. And you can feel it in his music.

All that love!

Edit: As I've been going through yet another obsessive-listening-on-repeat phase of his work, I was inspired to write to Mr. Vernon and tell him just how much I love his music. So I wrote him a note the other night... and he wrote back....

How amazing and sweet is that?

I can't stop smiling!

Saltwater.

A gorgeous fashion photoshoot in this months Country Living magazine caught my eye the other day. It included items from a number of my favourite clothing people like Odd Molly, Marilyn Moore and Toast and was of course all put together in such a gorgeous way so as to convince you that if you wore these clothes you would look just like the willowy, svelte model in the pictures.... sigh.

Anyway, these pictures are not from that article, but from the website of a new-to-me brand called Saltwater that I discovered while perusing the pages.

I just love this romantic look.

They are a British company based in London and Cornwall, (how perfect!) and this is their Spring/Summer collection from this year.

In their words: This spring we have been inspired by the American deep south, with beautiful fine china prints, water colour dragonflies, soft cottons and indigo-dyed linens.

Oh I just love this!

My only complaint is that they don't put prices on their website...grr... pet hate and all that. So I can only go on the prices that were shown in the above mentioned photoshoot. Let's just say it's out of my wallet capacity!

Still, it is a look that has thrift store/charity shop written all over it and would be very easy to recreate quite cheaply.

I'll be keeping an eye on this site as I wait to see their Autumn/ Winter collection.

Soon I hope.