I’m back again with a bunch of totally disconnected bits and pieces that piqued my interest this week. I hope you have as much fun as I did!

Home decor

• While looking for wire plate stands that hold more than one plate, I discovered this gorgeous plate holder at Bed Bath and Beyond. I don’t need it, but it’s beautiful and someone among my French decor friends must have to have it to complete her look!

Click into photo for source.

• 

  Click into photo for blog post and source.

  I asked Nan from Silver Magpies a question about storing my silver in plastic, and ran across her holiday post about less-than-perfect silver candlesticks. As she says, “they still are perfectly functional, but have suffered some bumps and bashes. There is a lovely term, borrowed from Japanese, being used in the design community to describe this aesthetic — wabi sabi. Perfectly imperfect is a very short description.” I have a couple of silver pieces that are wabi sabi and are difficult to actually use because they are really wobbly. I did find a local silversmith in Wilmette who says that he can fix my broken candlesticks, so for those of you who are local, I’ll keep you posted!

•  As a person who has a mostly love and a little bit of hate relationship with being the family repository for genealogical information, photos, and family dishes and accessories, Alycia’s Gallery Wall gave me a fresh insight and attitude about how important “things” are to our memories. Please take the time to read her entire post and look at her photos of her wall of love.

Click into photo for blog post and source.

• I loved the color on the walls of this master bedroom, and got sucked into the story of how Terry changed up these two bedrooms. I still don’t know the color of the walls, but I’m going to ask her!

Click into photo for blog post and source.

 Reading off-line

• That Summer by Lauren Wittig — Goodreads review here.

Favorite viewing

• I watched The Other Boleyn Girl, an adaptation of Phillippa Gregory’s novel of the same name. I’ve always been fascinated by how the trainwreck that was the Tudor ascendancy to the throne and the tumultuous reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII resulted in the relatively tolerant and stable rule of Queen Elizabeth I. Phillippa Gregory’s novel is well-adapted, but unfortunately its history is pretty speculative. Gregory herself discusses her enjoyment of writing a book about a lesser-known character in history on her web site (here). Despite its historical inaccuracies, the locations and costumes make this worth watching for the Anglophile and costume drama lover.
• You may be watching Grantchester, which comes on in our market on PBS after Downton Abbey. Its intriguing and lovable star, James Norton, also had a lead role in a scary-but-fabulous miniseries ironically called Happy Valley. It’s on Netflix, and I binge-watched the last four of the six episodes at one seating. Totally recommend!

Travel lust

• We visited Highclere Castle this fall — the place where Downton Abbey is filmed. This post from Highclere shows how you too can be treated like a Lady with a capital L for your wedding!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful week and are looking forward to another great one to come. Happy Saturday!

I appreciate your support of my affiliate connection with Amazon and hope that you will click into my links if you decide to purchase something based on my recommendation. Please see my advertising disclosure for details.