Wishing a beautiful holiday to those who celebrate, and thanking everyone who has interacted with me on Tumblr in any capacity over the past year for the gifts of your time, attention, and caring. Happy New Year and a Blessed New Decade!
mariaslozak reblogged
Just hit me today, after getting the tree up, that this will be the first Christmas in fifteen years without these guys. The first two Christmases after Harry passed weren’t so bad, because I still had Elvis, but this year he’s gone too. :(
It can be so hard, right? In my case it’s Mischa, especially; an angel in cat form. Long gone but never forgotten and always missed (drat, can’t even write about her without tearing up). I do hope Brat and Buster will be doing their busy best to keep you diverted and make you laugh through the holidays :-)
mariaslozak reblogged
we didn’t need dialogue. we had faces. (movie moodboards)
LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE (1946)
You could have taken anything except my roses.
mariaslozak reblogged
lo-ireese-deactivated20210508
1000 Picspams Challenge | #52
Four Seasons | Winter
“ To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold. ”
There for the beginning, there for the end.
This LP is the one personal souvenir of that era I had handy, but it’s fitting ;-)
mariaslozak reblogged
Regency Christmas romance anthologies, Mary Balogh edition.
Front cover of L’Exposition de Paris, 1900, showing (in the lower half) the Palace of Electricity and the Water Castle. A detailed account of the World’s Fair held in Paris in April to November 1900, the book also includes an overview of the previous international expositions held in Europe and the United States, starting with London’s Great Exhibition in London of 1851.
Sound film (shown on a huge screen, 21 by 16 metres in size), moving sidewalks (at three different speeds), x-ray machines, wireless telegraphy, and the diesel engine were among the new technologies being demonstrated at the Exposition. Art and architecture contributions included the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais; Pont Alexandre III, still the city’s most ornate bridge; the Gare d’Orsay, the world’s first electrified urban railway terminus (now an art museum); and a major focus on Art Nouveau. Parisian events that coincided included the opening of the city’s first metro line, between Porte Vincennes and Porte Maillot, and the second Olympic Games of the modern era. And the Eiffel Tower received a coat of bright yellow paint for the first and only time in its history!
Image via Heidelberg University Library’s digital collection.
mariaslozak reblogged
Soloists from Vienna State Ballet in a sequence that accompanied the broadcasting of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert in January 2013. The performers included Olga Esina, Nina Poláková, Maria Yakovleva, and Kirill Kourlaev, with choreography by Ashley Page.
mariaslozak reblogged
Christmas Arabic vocabulary (MSA)
the photo is in Bethlehem (a Palestinian town south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The biblical birthplace of Jesus).
- Christmas: عيد الميلاد المجيد (iid al-miled al-majid) (m.)
- Merry Christmas: عام سعيد, كل عام و أنتم بخير * (aam sa’id, kol aam w antom bi khayr)
- Christmas Eve: اليوم الذي يسبق ليلة الميلاد ** (al-yawm alladhi yaboq laylet al-miled) (m.)
- Christmas Day: يوم الميلاد (yawm al-miled) (m.)
- December: ديسمبر (dicember) (m.)
- party, حفلة (hafla) (f.)
- holiday عطلة (oo’tla) (f.)
- to celebrate يحتفل (yahtafel) (v.)
- Santa Claus بابا نويل (baba nowel) (m.)
- elf قزم (qizm) (m.)
- reindeer الرنة (arranna) (f.)
- sleight خدعة (khoda’aa) (f.)
- chimney مدخنة (midkhana) (f.)
- christmas carol ترنيمة عيد الميلاد (tarnimet eid al-miled) (f.)
- christmas present هدية عيد الميلاد (hadiyet eid al-miled) (f.)
- christmas card بطاقة عيد الميلاد (bitaqet eid al-miled) (f.)
- christmas tree شجرة عيد الميلاد (shajarat eid al-miled) (f.)
- illumination أضواء (adhwe’) (m.pl.)
- candle شمعة (shama’aa) (f.)
- snow ثلج (thilj) (m.)
- decoration/ornament زينة (zina) (f.)
- to decorate يزيّن (youzayen) (v.)
- stocking جورب (jawrab) (m.)
- wreath إكليل (iklil) (m.)
- bell جرس (jarass) (m.)
- star نجمة (nejma) (f.)
- tradition تقاليد (taqalid) (m.pl.)
- family عائلة (aa’ila) (f.)
- love حب (hob) (m.)
- giving عطاء (aata’) (m.)
- peace سلام (salam) (m.)
- red أحمر (ahmar) (adj.)
- green أخضر (akhdar) (adj.)
- white أبيض (abyadh) (adj.)
- gold ذهبي (dhahabi) (adj.)
- silver فضّي (fedhi) (adj.)
- meal وجبة (wajba) (f.)
- gingerbread cookie كعكة الزّنجبيل (kaa’ket azzanjabil) (f.)
- chocolate شكلاطة (shookoolata) (f.)
- candy cane عصى الحلوى (aasa al-halwa) (f.)
- hot chocolate شكلاطة ساخنة (shookoolata sakhina) (f.)
- church كنيسة (kanissa) (f.)
- Jesus عيسى/ يسوع(isa/ yassu’e)
- angel ملاك (malak) (m. & f.)
- birthday عيد ميلاد (eid al-miled) (m.)
* this is what natives say and it means “ happy year” and “ may you are every year fine/ blessed”
** christmas eve as a thing doesn’t exist, so i wrote “ the day that precedes christmas”
the verbs are in prsent singular masculine form, the adjectives are in masculine form.
thank you a lot @languagesandshootingstars for all the help <3
mariaslozak reblogged
romancingthebookworm-deactivate
I stayed up WAY too late reading Syrie James' RUNAWAY HEIRESS last night (loved it). Which of course means that it was time for a new book today.
And with Christmas only 10 days away, I figured it was finally time to read HOW THE DUKES STOLE CHRISTMAS. I had a lot of reasons to pick up this collection. Four authors I adore, all in book?! Historical Christmas romance!? That cover?!! But the biggest reason?
Sarah MacLean's novella, "The Duke of Christmas Present", the A Christmas Carol retelling in which Eben(ezer Scrooge), Duke of Allryd, actually gets his happily ever after with the woman he once lost.
I mean she may as well have sliced open a sack of catnip and let me roll in it. Because Scrooge and Belle' s separation has always killed me - frankly, I blame that heartbreaking song in The Muppet Christmas Carol. But anyway, holy mistletoe I have been waiting to read this novella. Time for a little Victorian Christmas cheer!
Illustration from a French children’s book, Alphabet Bijou by Madame Doudet, published circa 1896. Image via BNF Gallica.
mariaslozak reblogged
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
mariaslozak reblogged
My Top Ten Regency (Ish) Romance Novels
Notes: The literal Regency lasted from 1811-1820 (during which the future George IV acted as regent for George III, his incapacitated father), but here I’m using it to mean the period from 1803 (the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars) to 1832 (just before the passing of the First Reform Act). Again, this has more to do with the general feel and commonly used tropes of romances set during this time period than actual history. I have no opinion about actual history at this time. I am too tired.
1. A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh (2002)
Exact Setting: 1810s England.
Premise: After the heroic death of his perfect older brother, reckless Kit Butler is supposed to go home and assume his duties as viscount, but his mingled anger and guilt towards the folks at home make that an unpleasant prospect. Rather than marry the woman who ditched him for his late brother, as he’s expected to do, he proposes marriage to Lauren Edgeworth, a very proper lady whom everyone pities for being left at the altar. The trouble is that Lauren doesn’t want to get married at all now; she just wants her well-meaning friends and family to stop worrying about her. The two decide to enter a fake engagement so they can appease their concerned/disapproving loved ones (and maybe show the world how little they care about getting dumped). But then it becomes ALL TOO REAL.
Why I Like It: This was my favorite romance ever for a long time, and it’s still in my top five. Kit and Lauren have the same problem; they’re both incredibly hurt and angry, yet believe that they can’t express their feelings without coming across as bitter jerks (in Lauren’s case because no one was really at fault, and in Kit’s because his family is bad with emotions). They deal with the problem in opposite ways–he behaves badly, while she behaves too well–but it all boils down to convincing others that they aren’t affected, which unfortunately leads to their loved ones not offering the support they need. United in a lie, though, they are able to be honest and influence each other to be more open with their friends and family. Kit is also the perfect amount of “bad, but not evil,” as the Shangri-Las once said. He likes a fast chariot and a bit of scandalously shirtless fighting in the park, but that just makes him fun.
Favorite Scene: Kit accidentally invents the word “sexy” while skinny-dipping with Lauren.
mariaslozak reblogged
afaerytalelife
Victorian Flower Meanings
Source: afaerytalelife
Presentations in the Galerie des Guises of the Château d'Eu during the visit by Britain’s Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to France in September 1843. An occasion that marked a historical spirit of reconciliation between the two countries, this was the first visit by a British monarch to France since the summit between Henry VIII and François I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold more than three hundred years earlier.
King Louis-Philippe stands beside Queen Victoria, who wears a red dress. Queen Marie-Amélie, in white, stands directly behind Victoria, with Prince Albert on her left. The watercolour by Eugène Lami was included in album gifted by the French sovereign to his British counterpart in commemoration of the successful visit.
Source: rct.uk
mariaslozak reblogged
Sunny Winter aesthetic