Posts by: Ciara Bird

Well looky here. A couple of pictures brought me out of my blogging coma. I’ve been pretty “offline” lately, not spending much time on blogs or my personal instagram. Its just getting so saturated and redundant, my brain needs a break from the constant staged visual of everyones lives and everything in general. It’s all beginning to look the same to me, I’m not getting a jolt of inspiration or awakening from anything online these days.

I’m trying to spend more time just living, enjoying my life and the things I worked so hard for. 2015 has been such a breezy relaxing year. I’m really excited about my current position and upcoming projects… 2016 is going to be magical (glitter emoji).

 

 
I HAD to repost this from Miss Moss. I am falling to pieces over Paloma Wool‘s most recent collection (of course its No. 4). so good. ordering one of everything immediately.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
this collection is what my dreams are made of. i just want to live inside it. everything matisse and picasso.

God, I agree so much.

A week after debuting his fall-winter 2015 collection inspired by Diana Vreeland, Vogue UK featured an interview with American designer Marc Jacobs by Suzy Menkes. In the interview, he talks about young designers, the new collection and social media.

“You know, I am an older person now, I’m going to be 52 in a couple of months,” Jacobs says. “But I look at young fashion and it seems like it’s all the same – the idea of what is edgy or cool. It’s style with no substance; it doesn’t really seem born of anything. I don’t see the rebellion or edge in it. It just looks like a cliche: salad oil in the hair, Frankenstein shoes and the trappings of punk and all these other thing.”

He also goes on to take an anti social media stance. “I am so appalled by the whole social media thing,” he says. “I don’t get it, it doesn’t appeal to me, neither does a computer, or working on a laptop. I don’t want to read a book on a device. I like a book with a hard cover, and text on a piece of paper.”

Reposted from FGR

 

 

 
I’m in LOVE with Hotel Covell, a new 5-suite boutique hotel in Los Feliz! I’m gonna try to go for drinks next week and steal inspiration for decorating our new place.

I discovered it on Sight Unseen, and am equally/obviously also obsessed with the interior designer, Sally Breer.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
my god. so so good.

 
During my time in Italy I read, An Italian Affair by Laura Fraser. It was the perfect romantic tale to visualize and set the mood while exploring and hilariously, the main character also chose to read books set in the places she traveled to.

Here are a few of my favorite passages:

And it pleased Him that this love of mine,
whose warmth exceeded all others, and which had stood firm
and unyielding against all the pressures of good intention,
helpful advice, and the risk of danger and open scandal,
should in the course of time diminish of its own accord.
So that now, all that is left of it in my mind is the delectable
feeling which Love habitually reserves for those who
refrain from venturing too far upon its deepest waters.
And thus what was once a source of pain has now become,
having shed all discomfort, an abiding sensation of pleasure.

—GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, THE DECAMERON

You board your boat, the boat to Ischia, and climb to the top deck, where the air is fresh and cool, the sun sinking behind the silhouetted island in the distance. Traveling by boat is romantic, pulling you away from shore, leaving a vast emptiness of water between your old life and an entirely new place.

The problem with Americans, he says, is they think a little affair will destroy a marriage. How can they be so claustrophobic? It puts far too much pressure on the marriage. That’s what will ruin a marriage.

“After thirty-six years you decide to take up smoking now?” he asks. You smile and tell him it’s all his fault. “When I get back,” you say, “I’m going to have to find a lover like you.” “Inutile,” he says, and laughs. Your only hope is to teach someone, he says. Then he becomes more serious, avuncular. “You’ll find someone,” he says. “All you need is a man who is older than you and younger than me. A professor of literature who speaks Italian. There must be some of them in San Francisco.” “They’re everywhere,” you say, “like German tourists.”

He says that he himself is not complicated at all. “I’m a simple person,” he says. “I like art, I like women, I like the sea, good food, cigars.” He unwraps the cellophane on a cigar and lights it. “I like pleasure,” he says. He smokes quietly for a moment. “Sometimes,” he says, “my wife thinks I’m too simple.”

You tell the professor you’ve never met an intellectual like him who is so uncomplicated, who seems to have no hidden dark corners in his psyche, though you suspect there are a few he isn’t talking about. He’s so comfortable with himself, seemingly so content with his life. Unlike many of the talented, intelligent men you’ve run into, he isn’t arrogant on the surface with deep insecurities lurking just beneath. He doesn’t seem like he’d ever be threatened by strong, smart women, just amused. He’s easily delighted, and relaxing to be around. You’re glad at least to have a glimpse of that type of man.

“The Decameron tales describe the endless varieties of love—adulterous passion, courtly love, enduring marriages, homosexual love, forbidden love, infatuation. The moral—if you can call it that, and why not—is that finding pleasure is more important than any of the constraints society might put on people’s inclinations to “forgather” together. As one storyteller comments after a tale of adultery, “And by proceeding with the greatest of discretion, they enjoyed their love together on many a later occasion. May God grant that you enjoy yours likewise.”
This, you think, is what Italians read in school instead of The Scarlet Letter. No wonder they’re better at flirting.”

It’s a shame. American men must be superficial. They want youth and beauty right up front in their faces. That isn’t interesting. European men like to discover what’s beautiful about a woman. Every woman is a mystery, and you have to find what makes her most beautiful and gives her the most pleasure.

“Richard Meier,” he says. “Everyone should know that name. Forget about the paintings here, they are mostly second-rate paintings by first-rate artists, or first-rate paintings by second-rate artists. But the architecture is amazing, the building is an extraordinary work of art. This building will last for centuries.”

“You know,” he says, “in order for me to truly relax, I have to be outside my country, and even outside of my language. I can’t relax in French.” “Why?” you ask. He shrugs, and tries to explain. “If I speak French, I might as well be in France. There is an inherent nervousness. I have to get outside of it all.”

“You know, my dear,” he says, stroking your hair. “It isn’t a bad thing to always know that someone on the other side of the world cares about you, that someone is always thinking about you with pleasure.”

“When you go to a place and have an extraordinary experience,” he says, “you can never return.”
“That’s true.”
“I could never return to Ischia,” he says.
“No,” you agree. “Never.”

The professor begins to list his defects. He is a little vain, he says. He doesn’t do well at dinner parties, doesn’t like to make chatty conversation. He dresses too hippie for his wife’s taste. He doesn’t know how to fix anything around the house. He isn’t all that ambitious; if he were really rich, all he would do is travel the world and stay at great hotels.

xx

Happy Valentine’s Day lovers.

a pretty incredibly accurate description of myself.. and capricorns in general by susan miller.

Capricorn is the sign of the fair and wise leader, and ruled by Saturn, this sign makes careful decisions that are never done in haste. If you are a Capricorn you may have had to grow up fast when you were little, perhaps because you were the eldest, in charge of helping your mother take care of your younger sisters and brothers. Or maybe events in the family were such that you had to become very realistic and practical quickly. No matter—remarkably, Capricorns tend to live their lives backwards, becoming younger, freer and more spirited with each passing birthday.

Capricorn rules all things that are valuable from the past, such as antiques, landmark buildings and other real estate, estate jewelry, old stamps, Krugerrands and other old coins, valuable autographs—you get the idea. Capricorn covers anything historical, and most Capricorns are history buffs. Also, Capricorn is associated with very big money, whether that require managing family money, overseeing the funds of a behemoth multi-national company, trading client’s stocks and bonds, or being a lawyer related to estate management. Capricorn is not highly emotional, but keeps feelings well-balanced, one reason they do so well in managing money.

Capricorn is reliable, trustworthy, careful, dependable, very practical and realistic (all big reasons for their success), and they are also kind and status-conscious. The last attribute—status-conscious—may have surprised you, but it has to do with the sign’s ambitious need to reach the top of the mountain.

Capricorn women tend to either be very successful in their own right, or marry highly successful, well-known men. Indeed, the woman Capricorn almost always marries well. Family tradition is extremely important to Capricorn, as much as it is to Cancer, and most Capricorn women, no matter how busy they are (and Capricorn women are that for sure), she will always find time to attend her children’s recitals, plays and parent teacher conferences. Most Capricorns enjoy delving into their own ancestral history, or that of their mate. Capricorns are usually concerned with their legacy and reputations, and will fiercely defend their own honor.

Being compared to Kate Middleton, Michelle Obama, and Kate Moss doesn’t hurt either. Read the full post here.

Beyond the Lights is definitely one of my new favorite movies.

even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
-c.s. lewis

it’s hard for me to chit chat with people because the things i generally want to discuss most never even think about.

xx,
C

Summer Sundays often have a way of turning into those lazy lounge days where I feel perfectly OK doing nothing. It’s on these Sundays that I usually drift to that pile of daydreams and bounce them around with b and today was no different. Once he dozed off I began catching up on a few of my favorite { blogs } and came across one that resonated perfectly with my current state:

“There are certain kinds of success most people find easier to quantify. They usually involve better than average salaries, stock options, and benefits. I have none of those, sometimes I allow myself to feel like a loser because of it. Some creative people I know get by this way because they have no other choice. It’s even harder to stay my course knowing I have a corporate resumé to default to if I give up my real dreams again. Trust me, the only thing harder than working over time at a day job for a measly ten vacations days a year is to wake up every morning and realize you are the only captain of your ship. You can stay in bed all day wondering if you’re really as brave as you thought. I would be lying if I did not admit I struggle almost every to get out of bed for that very reason. There is no timesheet, no punch card to clock in or out, and confidence or sense of certainty a “think positive” infographic on Pinterest can instill in you. Even so, you have to get out of bed and do the best you know how and just have faith. 2014 has been infinitely more challenging on an emotional level than I thought, doubt seems to be a strong theme. But the only thing I’m more afraid of than being lost or having “failed” by the end of this year is not living the life I really want to live. That is the state of me. All that to say, I’m doing away with this bullshit one year rule and replacing it with a lifetime.”

Read the full post by Haleigh of Making Magique here.

1, 2.

 
the only way to deal with an unfree world
is to become so absolutely free
that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
-albert camus

all i’ve been listening to lately is jhene aiko, rochelle jordan and tinashe.

 
“Try to say nothing negative about anybody for three days, for forty-five days, for three months.
See what happens to your life.” – Yoko Ono

 
my thoughts have been dangerous this week.
and I definitely should not have read this article: 10 reasons you should never get a job.
do not read it— it’ll mess you up.

“Luck is basically ambition. You have to have ambition, if you don’t have ambition luck won’t come either.” — Snask.
This will be my motto for the month. Watch the video here, Via Bekka Palmer.

woah. hello, hi. it’s been over a year since I posted and a billion things have changed in that time. I finally moved back to Los Angeles, worked at a fashion company and joined up with Social Gypsy (lost myself, found myself)— then 6mos later moved BACK to Charlotte, started a magazine, moved in with my guy, got a kitten, started a new job.. and promptly decided to move back to Los Angeles (Spring 2014) to further my design career, have some adventures with the boy and just figure out what the hell I want to do.

I don’t plan to post everyday or even regularly, but I figure this is a better place to rant, document my magazine hoarding penchant, post random ratchet rap lyrics (sorry— guilty pleasure), design projects, inspirations and favorite quotes from books I’m reading.. If you’re interested I will always be more active on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram.. but let’s see where this takes us.

C