Mother & Daughter Buy an Abandoned Chateau, Invite You to Stay as they Restore It

Back in 2013, we broke a story about a couple that bought an abandoned chateau and started a blog to share their journey. Widespread interest, longing and general FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) ensued on the internet. Several years later, we’ve found a similar fairytale: an architect from Austria, Elisabeth Herring, and her daughter Valerie, adopt a neglected 16th…

Oh, Disney, You Never Should Have Fired Kay Nielsen

Kay Nielsen knew his way around a fantasy. The Danish illustrator was raised in a “tense atmosphere of art” (his words) during the Golden Era of Illustration – a time when folks one-upped each another with books bearing golden spines and marbled end papers; elaborately illustrated copies of Grimm’s Fairytales, The Wizard of Oz, and Oscar…

Miniature Book Nooks Belong on Every Bookshelf, It’s Just a Matter of Time

The internet has officially discovered book nooks, AKA bookshelf inserts fashioned as portals to tiny imaginary worlds. BBC News and most recently Buzzfeed found out about the niche hobby, sending book lovers, miniature collectors and pretty much anyone with a penchant for quirky stuff on a wild internet goose chase. Because the fact is –…

Hide Away at the Home of Picasso’s Favourite French Poet

With the first signs of an early Spring, perhaps you might find yourself looking towards summer already and thinking about how you’re going to spend it. With France as my oyster, I began my hunt for hideaways in the south when I stumbled upon a rare gem in the medieval village that has long been a…

The Bread & Puppet Theatre: A Living Museum of American Hippie Culture

The year is 1979. Thousands of people flock to a farm field in Vermont, and wait for their stilt-walking hosts to christen the “Circus Ring” field with their presence. When they do, it’s in a parade of unbridled joy – a celebration of misfits, mainstream dissent, and all the freshly-baked rye you can eat. It’s…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CDXC)

1. Margarita Carmen Cansino, the Brooklyn-born dancer who became Hollywood film idol ‘Rita Hayworth’ Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, her father was from a little town near Seville, Spain and her Irish and English mother performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. During her time at Fox, Hayworth was billed as Rita Cansino and appeared in unremarkable roles, often cast…

The Secret behind 575 Wandsworth Road

On a seemingly ordinary street in South London, past the concrete tower blocks, the off-licenses and chicken takeaway shops, is a strip of seemingly ordinary Victorian terrace houses. But one of these houses is not like the others. Hidden away behind the most unassuming facade, is a work of art and a place a possibilities…

So What Were UFO Sightings like in the Really Old Days?

Who made the little green spacemen, well, green? Long before the midcentury Space Race set the standard for collective extraterrestrial clichés, people were having out-of-this-world experiences that chilled them down to their frilly, 1850s pantaloons. The snag being, of course, that no one had any evidence. In 1919, American author Charles Hoy Fort came forth…

How did the Heart Become the Symbol of Love anyway?

Once upon a time, a knight was really pissed off. He had just discovered that his wife took a lover, and naturally, sought revenge in a joust to the death with his rival. But even that victory wasn’t enough to quench his rage, so he cut out the heart of his wife’s lover and gave…

The 1970 Osaka World’s Fair was Something Else

And here we were thinking that the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and 1964 were impressive. Osaka knocked it out of the park in the 1970. The theme of the Expo was “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” and a total of 77 countries participate, including the USA and the USSR, with more than 64…