I am sitting in front of my computer on Sunday afternoon, a whole week after I intended to sit down and think. And write. A full seven days late, over the course of which I have showered just twice, but worn mascara and done my ~ballet exercises~ almost every day. One night, afloat on a cloud of anxiety and exhaustion, I ate (chicken-flavored) potato chips for dinner. I have also probably eaten my baby’s weight in chocolate. I ran once, yesterday, sloshing through the rainy mud of my favorite park like a ten year old. (At the moment I am 100% more likely to leave the house clad in jeggings, a baby, and two gallons of dribble.) And I have spent at least an hour wondering how I might possibly write anything relevant or even just compelling about health, beauty, or fashion. Won’t you please bear with me?
The first ever close-up of Venus, taken by NASA's Mariner 10 in 1974.
According to Greek mythology Aphrodite was born from sea foam, probably fatherless and most certainly motherless. On Olympia Monthly, if I’m especially full of myself (which, due to this week’s round of not-so-bad sleep training, I am) she has two mothers: Lydia & me. Aphrodite, for us, is an amalgam. Just like the Greek goddess, just like Venus: she is the symbol of beauty, and love, and health. She is not necessarily a lady. When we are talking about Aphrodite we are talking about feeling gorgeous, but we are also talking about how our bodies are temples, and how we (do and don’t) treat them that way.
So far we have written about gowns, aphrodisiacs, and hydration. We have discussed sleep, Frida Kahlo’s cosmetics, and one woman’s salvation in flower gardens. This month we will proceed in equally eclectic kind, covering - amongst other topics - these essential issues:
- Salt water cures.
- What does beauty mean, or how does it change, in the context of raising daughters?
- Regimes for winter months.
- Feeling warmth in the creepy dark months.
- Style icons.
- When we feel most beautiful.
- Exercise.
And of course that November playlist is making its way down the pipe...
xoxo, Barbara & Lydia