"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind." -Buddha

"The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly."
Henry David Thoreau

"It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive." Henry David Thoreau

Beautiful Bits

"Russian scientists have discovered gold deposits in the dust of decayed tree stumps. The phenomenon occurs in forests growing in ground where there is gold ore. Over the course of centuries, the trees' roots suck in minute quantities of the precious metal, eventually accumulating nuggets." -Jeff Jawer

So obviously I love alchemy. This bit of info makes me think of nature putting one over on nature by just throwing the two together skipping all the stages in between: from clay to gold. Or just: some clay with gold in it.

Fantasy and Being Real

Cecilia Dean does an awesome post for V Magazine every week called Look of the Week. It's a photo of her standing in the same spot every week wearing her favorite outfit of the week. I love it more than it probably deserves. First of all I have a serious photo diary fetish. And a photo fetish. And a diary fetish. And a fashion fetish. (And in many ways these are all of the things that I'm missing doing lately...) Anyway, moving on.
A few things I've noticed are making me really like her. First of all, in many of the photos she doesn't look as beautiful as she is. Why do I always find it surprising that a woman (read: a woman in fashion, especially) might actually not care about posting a very honest photo in a forum available to millions of viewers? Perhaps I've had too many Southern women in my life... Anyway, in truth I think she's beautiful due in large part to that. I like that she let's us see what she "really" looks like in a fashion magazine full of models spackled into disguise. And that she seems not to notice or care. Anyway, here is one of my very favorites -the first one I saw, too:

(Alright, long story short: go to this link to see my favorite outfit of hers.)

While we're on fashion, I've already written about Tavi at style rookie. This is a lovely neighbor of mine. She has crazy awesome style and is very creative. She gives the definition of a word (usually adjective or adverb) at the start of each post which is where I learned this awesome word "Limerance; An emotional state in which a person feels an intense romantic desire for another person." and many more. I seriously need to ask her if she just sits around paging through the dictionary or what. While I do so love Cecilia's honesty I have always loved a fantasy, too.

Leftover Cuties- "Game Called Life"