This is a post dedicated to what I've been admiring on-line and doing off-line.
First of all, I've been very much enjoying the collections at New York's fashion week. There's been a lot to like! Something that really caught my eye though was this utterly lovely fabric that designer Monique Lhuillier used for her evening gowns. It's malachite, isn't it? Swoon!


Images from here.
I have also just finished (*sniffle*) watching possibly the very best detective series/ noir thriller I've ever seen in my life. It's from Britain and it's called The Shadow Line. I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly gripping, exciting and well done it is. The story begins with the murder of an underworld drug lord and the rest of the eight part series is about the subsequent investigation by both the police and the criminals he associated with into who murdered him. It sounds like a fairly ordinary detective series, doesn't it but it is really dark, dark, dark stuff and I loved it! Here is the trailer for it and here are some clips and info about it on the BBC website. ...and here's a mostly spot on review of it from The Guardian.


...and Rafe Spall. Wow wee - my new favourite British actor!

Images from here, here and here.
I've also just finished series two of The Hour. You can read my review of the first series here. This second series is much, much better but still deeply flawed. Again, it was very lovely to look at, but the plot...hmmmm. Still, when the plot started to irritate, there was always the lovely Bel and her wardrobe to admire! I mostly don't agree with this gushing review of it on The Guardian.


Images from here and here.
I've also finally started reading a book I've been keen to start for ages: Don DeLillo's Underworld. If you haven't read it, it's an enormous historical novel about the bomb, the Cold War and a baseball amongst other things. The story opens in 1951 at an important baseball game in New York that is being watched by Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason and J. Edgar Hoover. It then jumps forward to 1992 and then goes back and covers the decades between. There's a good review of it here. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Image from here.
I've also come across the following bits and pieces that may or may not be of interest:
1) Punctuation marks I'm in two minds about.
2) Dr. Seuss had a passion for quirky hats! Who knew?
3) This story book castle - The Swallow's Nest.
4) Lori Practico's portraits.
5) This pretty use of mirrors in a house in North Queensland.
Happy weekend!