Let us begin this letter... #23-24

#23

WRITE AN OLD FASHIONED LOVE LETTER

Let us begin this letter, this prelude to an encounter, formally, as a declaration, in the old-fashioned way: I love you. You do not know me (although you have seen me, smiled at me). I know you (although not so well as I would like. I want to be there when your eyes flutter open in the morning, and you see me, and you smile. Surely this would be paradise enough?). So I do declare myself to you now, with pen set to paper. I declare it again: 
I love you.

-Neil Gaiman

They can be funny...

(via http://iamhilarious.com/dear-jessica/)

On the back of an old receipt...

I am not looking for grandiose measures of tireless affection. I want to be rooted in your deep voice. I want reassurance that if I run, you’ll chase me with the legs that seem twice as long as mine. A love that is quiet as it is loud. That shakes my belief in the will of another’s heart.

(via http://dailybooth.com/ambbsaidwhat/19414592)

The beginning of something new...

I tell my friends about your silly line, but you half charmed me, so I’m laughing with, not at, you. Would you take me out to dinner, someplace nice? Made up, I’d listen to stories of Haiti, come back to look at your paintings, kiss you, & nothing more. Something could develop, or not but we...

Something romantic...

I will hold your hand for the rest of my life. I love you. Katie

...or something sweet...

I bought you a cookie...but I ate it. ©

I was waiting for


the
longest time
and then
you
were there
standing
in front
of me
.

(via  http://lovequotesrus.tumblr.com)

There is something beautiful about a piece of paper, be it ornate stationary, a sticky post it note, a random bit of paper that was lying around or the back of a magazine, when somebody took the time to write something on it because they were thinking about someone. In a time when we would rather BBM, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, E-mail, iMessage or Tweet someone, I (read we) seem to have forgotten the power of a hand-written love letter or just a note that says I was thinking about you or I love you, which can be just as powerful.

They can be cute...and on fridge doors...

In one of my favourite movies, The Notebook, Noah, a poor lumberyard worker falls in love with Allie, a girl from the right side of the society tracks. They have a fight, break up and she gets sent away by her parents without the knowledge that Noah wrote her a letter every day for a year after they separated. She reads them years later...

My Dearest Allie, 

I couldn't sleep last night because I know that it’s over between us. I’m not bitter anymore, because I know that what we had was real. And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I’ll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent the summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that’s what you've given me. That’s what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I’ll be seeing you. 

Noah

So I would like to try my hand at writing an old fashioned love letter. Maybe I’ll start off with a love note and work my way up to a letter? And these notes do not always have to be serious and profound, they can be sweet, funny, cute, sexy, but they always need to be heartfelt.

Today you leaned over and whispered in my ear:

“If you were a piece of furniture, you would be a lamp.”

It was probably the sexiest thing I have ever heard

you say because I know you’re right.  All you have to do is reach out and touch me to turn me on. 
(via http://youremymuse.tumblr.com)

Another amazing way of telling someone you love them is through lyrics in a song. I recently saw the new Twilight Saga movie, Breaking Dawn Part 1. Thank goodness for an amazing soundtrack, because the movie...not so amazing. Saying that, I’ll still go and see the last film in the series...go Team Edward...and read the books...AGAIN :). I found a couple of gems on the soundtrack, including two of my new favourite love songs. The lyrics are to say the least, beautiful. Please do yourself a favour and go and give them a listen...you can thank me later.

Turning page

I’ve waited a hundred years.

But I’d wait a million more for you.

Nothing prepared me for

what the privilege of being yours would do.

If i had only felt the warmth within your touch,

if i had only seen how you smile when you blush,

or how you curl your lip when you concentrate enough,

I would have known what I was living for all along.

What I’ve been living for.

Your love is my turning page,

where only the sweetest words remain.

Every kiss is a cursive line,

every touch is a redefining phrase.

I surrender who I’ve been for who you are,

for nothing makes me stronger than your fragile heart.

If I had only felt how it feels to be yours,

well, I would have known what I’ve been living for all along.

What I’ve been living for.

Though we’re tethered to the story we must tell,

when I saw you, well, I knew we’d tell it well.

With a whisper, we will tame the vicious seas.

Like a feather bringing kingdoms to their knees.
-Sleeping At Last

A Thousand Years

Heart beats fast

Colors and promises

How to be brave

How can I love when I'm afraid to fall

But watching you stand alone

All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow

One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don't be afraid I have loved you

For a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

Time stands still

Beauty in all she is

I will be brave

I will not let anything take away

What's standing in front of me

Every breath

Every hour has come to this

One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don't be afraid I have loved you

For a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me

I have loved you for a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

One step closer

One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don't be afraid I have loved you

For a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me

I have loved you for a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more 
-Christina Perri

-There is nothing wrong with
the way I light up
when you're around-


-I am yours to keep-

I fell in love with you because of a million little things you never knew you were doing 
(via inspiredbythisfeeling/tumblr)


-No matter what I do. I always forget to forget you-

I love you the same way I learned to ride a bike; scared but reckless.
- Rudy Francisco

-I’ll flirt with you every day-

-I can’t wait to hear your heart beat when my head is on your chest-

-I want to finish your sentences-

You’re the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said, you too & we decided we’d know each other a long time.
-Brian Andreas

The way you make me feel is like,

Smelling fresh cut grass or being in the back of a convertible under the stars. Or returning home from a long trip or just driving with no destination in the summer. It’s like the feeling you get when you get an ‘A’ on your report card and your parents tell you how proud they are. Or when you hear your family laugh together or the whooshing of a tunnel when you drive with the windows down. It’s like when you’re outside on a hot summer day and you have a cold glass of water or when you talk to an old friend after a month or two, yet the two of you are still as close as ever.

It’s like the feeling you get when you hear your favourite childhood song on the radio for the first time in years, you turn it up and feel so alive. Or lying in bed watching a snow storm, knowing you don’t have to get up for hours and to just lay in the warmth of your comforters for hours. It’s the way your stomach flip flops during your first true kiss, or how your body feels when you take off in an airplane for the first time. Or when you drive around in the front seat of the car that belongs to the boy you like and even though you should feel scared beyond control because he’s driving so fast and stupid, yet you feel so safe and alive. Yeah, that feeling.

The way you make me feel, feels good to me.

(via http://jleunnng.tumblr.com/post/319242708/the-way-you-make-me-feel-is-like-smelling-fresh)

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i

like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere

with such a silence and such a darkness

no one can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have

the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such

sunlight as will leap higher than high

through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my

most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

-ee cummings

Two friends made a bet that the one would be engaged and married to his girlfriend by a certain date. His friend was not so sure and accepted the $100 bet. Needless to say, the fact that this piece of paper was saved and framed...Steve won :).

Even a random note found on a plain can inspire one person to do something they have been afraid of doing for years...

"This is your moment. The right time is NOW!

A note to a stranger can change their lives...

"The girl at the coffee shop is 1/2 in love with you..."

A note to a stranger can also save their car battery...

"...the whole world isn't full of dishonest people."

And even a little note on the door can get your heart beating a little faster...

#24

OWN MY DREAM CAR

It needs to be black, pretty and fast. That is all.

Keep you posted.

Rachel

xoxo

#np...2

Florence + the Machine - Shake it out

This is definitely my summer anthem for 2011. And the whole album is amazing!

The Civil Wars - Poison and Wine

Rihanna (ft. Calvin Harris) - We found love

Sara Bareilles - Hold my heart

Blue October ft. Imogen Heap - Congratulations

Two of my favourite bands/artists in one song.

Keep listening.

Rachel

xoxo

They were kissing... #16-22

#16

KISS A GUY AND DO THE HEEL LIFT

Kiss (verb)
kissed, kissing, kisses
1. To touch or caress with the lips as an expression of affection, greeting, respect, or amorousness.
2. To touch lightly or gently: flowers that were kissed by dew.
3. To strike lightly; brush against: barely kissed the other car with the bumper.

1. To engage in mutual touching or caressing with the lips.
2. To come into light contact.

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom

- e.e. cummings

Seriously, I do not know one girl who has NOT wished to be kissed like this. A toe-curling, heel-lift-inducing kiss... It is amazing how much writers, poets and musicians have written about kissing...it's because they are magical and tell a person exactly how you feel about them with only a small part of your bodies touching, that's special, right? 

And pictures of people kissing...in train stations, on buses, benches, bridges, balconies and bathrooms, at the beach, the breakfast table and bonfires, in bars, cars, cafes, magical sunlight, libraries, alleys and parks, in the snow, kitchens, phone booths and laundromats, on motorcycles, ledges and kitchen counters, on rooftops, piers, ferries and ferris wheels, at carnivals and natural history museums, under umbrellas and under starry skies...

Instead of saying it with a picture, the more romantic among us put it down on paper...

"They were kissing. Put like that, and you could be forgiven for presuming that this was a normal kiss, all lips and skin and possibly even a little tongue. You'd miss how he smiled, how his eyes glowed. And then, after the kiss was done, how he stood, like a man who had just discovered the art of standing and had figured out how to do it better than anyone else who would ever come along." 

-Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys)

...and my favourite...
Have you ever lost yourself in a kiss? I mean pure psychedelic inebriation. Not just lustful petting but transcendental metamorphosis when you became aware that the greatness of this being was breathing into you. Licking the sides and corners of your mouth, like sealing a thousand fleshy envelopes filled with the essence of your passionate being and then opened by the same mouth and delivered back to you, over and over again - the first kiss of the rest of your life. A kiss that confirms that the universe is aligned, that the world’s greatest resource is love, and maybe even that God is a woman. With or without a belief in God, all kisses are metaphors decipherable by allocations of time, circumstance, and understanding. 
-Saul Williams

So here is to heel-lift-inducing kisses, kisses on top of cars, kisses that touch your soul and kisses during riots.

#17

HAVE A CAPPUCCINO AT A STREET CAFé IN ITALY

I am not even a big coffee drinker, but Italy is my top European destination that I really want to visit. Or maybe any European street café will do.

#18

GO BLOND FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS

I don't want to say it too loudly...shhh...but I am actually blond :), but found that brunettes have way more fun. I am also a fan of the recent ombre hair, darker on top, lighter at the bottom. See, the best of both worlds I think?

#19

TAKE A SHOWER IN AN OUTDOOR SHOWER

Au naturel in nature.

#20

ASK SOMEONE I JUST MET TO GO ON A DATE

My innate shyness might make this a bit problematic, but I'm willing to courage up and do it.

#21

BE SERENADED

It's the musician thing, ok, so no judgement. It doesn't even have to be any good, just sweet, funny and a bit awkward. Think Ashton Kutcher's character serenading Amanda Peet's character in A lot like Love. He sings I'll be there for you and it is quite simply adorable. Have a look over here.

And let's be honest here, who has not wanted someone to sing something to you, something special that makes that person think of only you? My favourite, bibbity boppity boo, wants to be serenaded with the song Shameless by Garth Brooks. Here are some of the lyrics, which totally explains her selection...*sigh*...

Shameless

I'm shameless when it comes to loving you...

You see in all my life...I've never found

what I couldn't resist, what I couldn't turn down.

I could walk away from anyone I ever knew...

but I can't walk away from you.

-Garth Brooks

#22

GROW A HERB GARDEN

Just like the plants so longingly need the sunshine that they crane

their little necks to the window and just like the window needs

handprints and smudges and the residue of lips kissing goodbye

and just like those lips need to form themselves in funny shapes

to mouth out words and those words need wings to find themselves

to ears and those ears need Q-Tips to clean them for hearing and those

Q-Tips need the cotton and that cotton needs strong hands to free

it from its branches and just like those hands need to be held,

cut and bleeding as they might be, I need you.

-Tyler Knott Gregson (excerpt from Just Like)

Ok, to be totally honest, I pretty much just need a rosemary garden. LOVE rosemary. The fact that I kill any plant just by pure neglect and apathy, and sometimes just by proximity...might prove to be challenging.

Keep you posted.
Rachel
xoxo

#np...1

So these are posts where I want to share some of the music I'm listening to at the moment...be it old, new, chilled, dance beats or just something with a sweet melody or crazy brilliant lyrics.

So enjoy :).

1. Lana del Ray - Video Games

2. Colour Academy - Through Telescopes

3. Christina Perri - A Thousand Years

The new Breaking Dawn Part 1 soundtrack is brilliant. I will share some of the other tracks soon!

4. Andrew Belle - Make It Without You

5. Coldplay ft. Rihanna - Princess of China

And for an amazing review of all things music related, including the new Coldplay album, pop over here: SPIN/CT. You can thank me later :).

Keep listening.
xoxo

I would rather look at you... #11-15

#11 
WRITE A POEM 

So that is how I learned the lesson that everyone is alone. And your eyes must do some raining if you are ever going to grow. But when crying don’t help and you can’t compose yourself, it’s best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing or a simple song of hope. And that’s why I’m singing, “Baby, don’t worry, cause now I got you back. And every time you feel like crying, I’m gonna try and make you laugh. And if I can’t, if it just hurts too bad, then we will wait for it to pass, and I will keep you company through those days so long and black.” 

-Bowl of Oranges by Bright Eyes 

As I previously mentioned, I envision myself somewhat of a writer (still delusional, I think), and I have actually written some poetry before, but I want to write a beautiful poem, not necessarily about something profound or life changing, or love or death, just something beautiful. I have so many favourite poems and pieces of writing that I would love to share with you, but there are so many...but I really want you to read them all...but there are so many...dilemma...

My favourite poet is E.E. Cummings. I'll share my favourite poem of his a bit later, but the following one is also beautiful (via bippity boppity boo):

Let It Go

let it go
the smashed word
broke open vow
or the oath cracked length wise
let it go
it was sworn to go

let them go
the truthful liars
and the false fair friends
and the ‘boths’ and ‘neithers’
you must let them go
they were born to go

let all go
the big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest
and all things
let all go dear

so comes love.

One of my favourite bloggers, bibbity boppity boo, also shared her favourite poem on her blog, here. It goes like this...

Litany

“You are the bread and the knife,

the crystal goblet and the wine.

You are the dew on the morning grass

and the burning wheel of the sun.

You are the white apron of the baker,

and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,

the plums on the counter,

or the house of cards.

And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.

There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,

maybe even the pigeon on the general’s head,

but you are not even close

to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show

that you are neither the boots in the corner

nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,

speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,

that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,

the evening paper blowing down an alley

and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees

and the blind woman’s tea cup.

But don’t worry, I’m not the bread and the knife.

You are still the bread and the knife.

You will always be the bread and the knife,

not to mention the crystal goblet and-somehow-the wine.” 

- Billy Collins

Two beautiful pieces of writing, The Invitation and The Dance by Oriah will change your life...trust me. I'll give you a little preview of each, but please go and read them both. They are both beautiful and extraordinary.

The Invitation

...I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human...

The Dance

...Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break you heart. And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again...

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of the breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don't say , "Yes!"

Just take my hand and dance with me.

I also recently saw the movie Beastly. It's a modern day version of Beauty and the Beast. Not great, but worthy of a look if only to remind us of the age-old lesson that beauty is only skin deep and how you treat people is far more important than what you look like or own. As part of an assignment the two lead characters (instructed by a blind teacher played brilliantly by a hilarious Neil Patrick Harris) need to analyse a poem and this is what they read (it was also the inspiration for the title of this post). It is called Having a Coke with You:

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles 

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them 

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully

as the horse 

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it 

-Frank O’Hara

#12 
CALL IN SICK TO WORK ONE DAY AND SPEND THE DAY DOING WHATEVER I WANT

I might be giving away my age here, but think Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a movie released in 1986...yes, 1986. It's an old school classic. Make your way over here to take a look at the trailer.

#13
ACCEPT MY BODY

These words were written by E.E. Cummings...it gives me goose bumps every time I read it.

I, with the utmost certainty, assume that this will be on my list forever...yes? No? Maybe? Hopefully not!! I have come to the conclusion that this is a decision you have to make every day. Decide to love your body. Every day! And find somebody who will love your body every day. Real men will fall in love with who and what you are, not what you look like.

I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it’s these things I’d believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything.” 
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

#14
SEE A FIREFLY, CATCH IT IN A JAR AND LET IT GO

They make me think of magic...

#15
HAVE A PARTY, BONFIRE AND SLEEPOVER ON THE BEACH

It just looks like something that would be so much fun to do with a bunch of friends...creating memories!

And there is just so much to do...

Keep you posted.

Rachel

xoxo