The Lady of Shallot

I went to a museum and was struck by the size of this beautiful painting, it was huge, I loved the small details in it, like the quilt draped over the boat, the candles, the wreath in her hair, the isolated magpie and golden detailing on her sleeve.

So I wondered what story is behind this?

I read, and it's like a magical fairy story, or a dark and twisted Disney Princess story, so I decided today, or tonight if it's night when you're reading this could be story time.

I'm going to tell you the sotry of the lady of Shallott...

The Lady of Shallot lives in a castle but is cursed by a myserious curse. Her curse means that she cannot look out into the real world, she must only see the world through a mirror. Instead she weaves images into her loom all day long and only glances out her window through a mirror to watch people pass by. But one day 'Sir Lancelot' rides by looking all bold, courageous and wonderful- the Lady of Shallot sees him, she could not help herself but to glance outside at him. The mirror cracks all over and she knows that the effects of the curse are upon her. Knowing her fate, she leaves her tower to find a rowing boat and sits in it, letting it float down the river. She arrives at Camelot where Sir Lancelot sees her body in the boat and says "God in his mercy lend her grace"

I didn't tell you that it was a happy story... maybe I should have warned you. If they made this into a Disney film I'm sure the prince would have found a way to break the curse!

The picture is really famous, I feel very lucky to have seen it in the flesh, it's so wonderful I wish I had a wall big enough to display it!

Jump into a painting!

You may remember a while back me posting about my friend who got engaged under the Eiffel Tower!
It sounded so perfect and fun that I wanted to combine that into what I would get them for an engagement present, I decided on maybe a canvas of the Eiffel Tower.

After looking around and feeling mostly uninspired by what I found I decided to commission a local artist to do the job properly!

Just a few days later I had this:

I love just about every little piece of it. The incredible detail of the structure must have had to have been done with the steadiest hand in the whole world!
Plus, the lush green lawn and blue skies make it seem like such a perfect, quiet place.

I want to be sitting between those neat hedges with you! We could be eating french pastry with the rumble of Paris traffic in the background while the sun shines on us!

Now you're just somebody that I used to know! OooOooh!

This song has been swirling round and around my head all day. I've had it playing on full and singing my heart out and although the nature of the song isn't especially happy (it's actually all about heartbreak from what I can gather) it's cheered me up on this mid-week day (mid weeks are the toughest!) and I hope it does the same for you.



I can't believe it's had so many millions of listeners and I'd never even heard it before! I feel insanely out of touch. If you have a feet phobia, or just think they're gross then maybe look away for the first few seconds of the video. But the rest are insanely pretty, the kaleidescopic pattern reminds me of the 70s (even though I wasn't alive then!) and the body painting looks like it would have taken a looong long time. If i close my eyes the female singer sounds like Katy Perry to me.