A gorgeous, sunny, breezy May afternoon spent in beautiful Newport, Rhode Island, is certainly not a bad way to spend a birthday. Touring two of the fabulous “summer cottages” of Vanderbilt brothers William K. and Cornelius II was a perfect thrill, and I’m now going to make a habit of going through my photos from the trip with Dario Marianelli’s score for the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation in the background. If you’re ever in Newport, take a few days, if possible. One for the Newport Mansions, so you’ll have plenty of time to linger over the fascinatingly informational audio tours (Marble House especially has a particularly entertaining history, and swoon-worthy interiors) and leave yourself time for traversing the grounds; load up your iPod with some Bach in advance. Bring your walking shoes for another day at the Cliff Walk where you’ll have the absolutely stunning water to one side and the backyard of America’s Gilded Age to the other. And one more day for shopping and dining on America’s Cup Avenue, with a sojourn down Bowen’s Wharf and a few stolen meditative moments on the docks at sunset. Perfection.
P.S. My dress is a darling little thing by Liz Claiborne which you can get for $40 right here.
my blog-reading routine
On my browser: Feedly
On my tablet: Flipboard
Back in March Google announced that it would be powering down Google Reader, and this week the beautiful HelloCotton will be closing as well. With all of these changes going on, I wanted to drop in a little list of links here in the hopes of making subscribing to your favorite blogs as easy as ever.
The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower has gone through a transitional period in my life, as my may have noticed or even, in some cases, acted as a sounding board over. I appreciate every moment of this journey, from the place I’m at now – so vastly different, and perhaps all the more fulfilling, than what I expected – to every wonderful surprise along the way. While my focus changes, the biggest difference visitors will find here will be a continued and blissful simplicity. Updates may not be as frequent as they once were, but they’ll always be from the heart, and hopefully they’ll continue to inspire a life of simple elegance. I love having the opportunity to collect all of the things that entertain, enlighten and inspire me; and if I should bring something new and interesting into someone else’s life as well…that’s the icing on the cake! For those who would like to continue to receive updates (thank you for that!), I’ll round up the collective options (that I know of) for keeping connected.
follow options
RSS Readers:
Feedly – a new reader with a lovely design that makes reading your favorite blogs a breeze. You can even import your Google Reader subscriptions with the click of a button!
Bloglovin’ – the very popular site now allows you to create a profile and make your reading list public.
MyYahoo – keep your blogs where you get your mail and news.
Bloglines – a longtime reader which recently got a bright new update.
E-mail – get updates delivered straight to your inbox.
Reading Apps:
(you’ll have to manually add the blog to these)
Feedly – iPhone/Android
Flipboard – iPhone/Android
Bloglovin’ – iPhone/Android
Pulse.me – iPhone/Android
Social Networking Sites:
Facebook (Profile) – my personal profile, open to subscribers or friend requests.
Facebook (Page) – the blog’s own spot on Facebook.
Twitter – tweets about both this blog and Literary Inklings
Google+ – the latest from both blogs.
As ever, if you have any questions – or if you have a favorite blog-reader I didn’t mention – feel free to contact me or drop me a note at any of the sites just above. Good luck!
