Love Letters and Gentlemen.

What had happened to us that we sneered at expressions of love and devoured stories of alienation and rage! Give me the hearts drawn on napkins, the men who walked on the street side of the sidewalk.

The kind that, after years have gone by, will still leave a note on your mirror; you lean in to read his flourishes and you can feel the ease of his words- When I see you, my darling, in the morning before showers or in your studio covered with paint, with hair matted and tired eyes, I know that you are the most beautiful woman in the world.

(includes excerpts from The Notebook and A Year of Pleasures)

The Allure of Italian.

Fashion photographer Andrea Blanch gave herself a very difficult assignment a few years ago: Go to Italy, find gorgeous men, photograph them and interview them about love and sex. The following is a quote from an interview with her:

They really know about love and seduction. They've been doing it forever. You don't really mind that it is a game because they play it so well. Once you know that's what it is, the dance is wonderful. When you don't know it's a dance, it's very dangerous. I wish there were more American men who could handle the dance.I think that when they're with you and when they're seducing you, they are totally present, their attention is with you, they're paying you compliments, pursuing you. A lot of it has to do with their narcissism -- that they want to prove to themselves they can get you; on the other hand it makes a woman feel terrific. They're not afraid of the women sexually. I've had Italian women say that Italian men are terrible lovers. Maybe when they're with a foreign women they're different. They are from a culture that really appreciates beauty. And they are very beautiful!

First Loves.

Years from now, when my daughter asks me who my first love was, I don't want to pull out the old photo album, I want to point across the room and tell her 'he's sitting right there'.

Stories from Europe

I have had my share of wandering in Europe, there is nothing better than those moments. This is a little description I wrote to romantasize all the little moments that seem to only happen when we are strangers in a foreign land. For many of my travelling companions, Europe was the backdrop to a love story whether short or long...

There will be twenty-four hours in Berlin. Every second will be filled with the boys of last summer and all the unanswered possibilities. Your memories become a montage of the night on a park bench in the Kreutzberg district, listening to the rattle of the S-Bahn and the beating of two hearts separated by an ocean. You are lying on the floor of his flat with five hours left in Berlin and already drowning in shots of herbal vodka he brought back from Poland. And from his stereo (or was it from his lips) slips the words 'there’s still a little bit of your song in my ear...'

There will be bottles of Chardonnay and Bordeaux scattered on the kitchen table of our Montmartre plat in Paris, remnants from the night before when all you remember are flashes of a stroll along the Seine, the blaze of cafe windows, and cocktails at La Favela Chic. Drunk on summer and the charms of Europe, we laid on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower and watched Paris become the City of Light.

There will be days beside the ocean in Lisbon and nights at clubs down by the river at the docks of Alcântara, in sequined minidresses with the sea still in our hair and the boys of the day still on our arms.They whisper sweet nothings in your ear, the city fades away, and you wish you knew Portuguese.In the end, it never matters. He turns to you and speaks an international language.

4 Things Everyone Should Do.

1. Take a trip

2. Meet a handsome stranger

3. Fall in love

4. Stay forever

(the photos my own, from trips to India, Russia, Paris, and China)

Something I Remembered...

The simplicity of one's beauty lies in the complexity of another's heart.

- quoted years ago by an old friend

The Way We Were.

I love the scene in Sex and the City based off of The Way We Were when Carrie confronts Big outside The Plaza after his engagement party.

Carrie: Your girl is lovely, Hubbell.

Mr. Big: I don't get it.

Carrie: And you never did.

The Total Agony.

A truly great line in a truly great movie, one of my favorites. I always watch it during the holiday season so this post is a little late in coming, my apologies!

A Literal Snack #1: Sticky Cinnamon Buns

I already started doing "Romantic Snack" postings, but since I also wanted to include pretty pieces of my life into this blog, I thought I'd photograph real food too! I'm a bit of a foodie and I love to cook, but most of all eat, of course!

This week, I resolved to keep working on perfecting my sticky cinnamon bun recipe that I first saw on Oprah and have been tweaking ever since. Above are the process photos from start to finish.

It's Your Story.

The greatest love story ever told is your own.

With You Instead.

No one would choose to be with someone else,

if he could be with you instead. (from Felicity)

The Kind of Girl That Believes.

I'm the kind of girl that cries during Disney movies, the kind that cannot control the tears when the Beast gives Beauty his library. I'm the kind of girl whose favorite storybook growing up was Cinderella, the kind that memorized every line when she did not even know how to read yet. I'm the kind of girl that will always believe in fairy tales, the kind that believes in happily ever after.

- my own words.

Look Up.

from weheartit.

Worth It.

a story from LeLove.

"through some twist of fate we found each other. actually, you found me. you, l'étranger, settling in another city, another country. i was supposed to help, i guess that didn't pan out quite as expected...

so we met and we laughed and we shared wine and stories. and i came home with a smile and a promise we'd see each other again. soon. and we met again. and again. and we marveled at how much two lives could resemble one another with so much land between them."

- story from LeLove

A Sweet Idea.

One of the sweetest ideas I have come across.

I would love to have this in my own house someday.

Back from the Holidays!

Dear Fare L'Amore,

So sorry to have abandoned you over the holiday season, I hope that you will forgive me. Now let's get back to love, love, love....

Always,

Jasmine