It's Time to Sprinkle Some Stylish Fairy Dust

Reggie recently was the recipient of a Stylish Blogger Award from his friend Lindaraxa, and then again from Acanthus & Acorn, for which he is most grateful and appreciative.  Thank you, ladies.  Considering who else they anointed, Reggie is all a-blush to find himself in such, well, stylish company.

When accepting such an award there are often strings attached to it, for with recognition comes responsibility.  In this case, one is pleasantly requested to sprinkle the award among ten other bloggers whom one considers to be stylish, too, and therefore worthy of such recognition.

But what is one to do when so many of the choices that first spring to one's mind are already taken by one's nominating bloggers, and by others, too?  How many times can one blogger be awarded the same award, I ask?

The answer is that one must accept that many worthy recipients are already spoken for, and one must dig down into one's treasure trove of "must reads" to find, and then appropriately recognize, those who strike a stylish chord and who keep one coming back for more—and who haven't yet been chosen, to the best of one's knowledge, for such celebration.

But first I'm going to play around with the rules a little bit.  To whit:

1. Thank and link back to the person(s) who awarded you—I have done that;
2. Share seven things about yourself—I've already done that before, too, see here;
3. Award ten other bloggers—If I did that my list would be repetitive with others', so I'm only awarding five today;
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about the award—That's next on my "to do" list;

So what were my criteria for choosing the five stylish bloggers I'm awarding the prize to?  I decided to look beyond the world of those who post about interiors, antiques collecting, high WASP-dom, entertaining, gardening, and trad-land (in other words, Reggie's primary stomping grounds) to come up with my list.  I wanted to find a group that I suspected many of my readers might not be familiar with, even though I've recently added two of them to My Blog List.  Most important, each of the blogs I chose had to have content of sufficient depth, breadth, and originality to merit such an award, and whose authors had something to say and a point of view.

Interestingly, all five bloggers I selected are—I believe—gay men, and who often, although not exclusively by any means, explore subjects of heightened interest to such, uh, fellows.  But that is, I believe, coincidental.  What is not coincidental is that each of the bloggers chosen are what I consider to be stylish ones, and whose blogs are full of wonderful pictures, thought-provoking content, and well-written prose.

And so here they are, in strict alphabetical order:

1. Hibernian Homme is a stylish young man whose blog regularly features the works of English writers and artists (and a lot more) of the interwar years, and who is moving to Milan from New England in just a few weeks.  Reggie looks forward to following his journey there;
2. Red Mug, Blue Linen presents luscious photography, often of young men (and some of which is at times a bit racy, so be forewarned), along with lyrically beautiful prose and poetry that keeps Reggie returning—even though he admits there are times that he is not absolutely sure he entirely understands what the author is writing about;
3. Stirred, Straight Up, with a Twist drolly features amusing (and sometimes rather wicked) photographs of stars of the stage and screen of days gone by, frequently accompanied by hilarious, information-packed reporting by its stylish author on the subject at hand;
4. The Haunted Lamp showcases an eclectic mix of images of vintage objects and paraphernalia—much of it owned by the stylish young man who writes the blog, photographs of lost mid-century retail and theatrical architecture and interiors, and antique postcards and other ephemera;
5. We could grow up together is the stylish output of a young fashion photographer that gorgeously chronicles his life and work traveling all over the world in pursuit of his very stylish profession;

And there you have it.  These are the five stylish bloggers that I consider to be worthy additions to the Stylish Blogger pantheon, and which I have not (yet) seen on others' lists for this award.  I would like to bring them to your attention, Dear Reader, as meriting your very stylish consideration.

Image of the always stylish Tinker Bell courtesy of Walt Disney Entertainment

An Embarrassment of Riches

Yesterday Reggie was flattered beyond belief when Little Augury, one of the most elegant and interesting lifestyle and design blogs out there, and a daily "must read" for yours truly, bestowed upon Reggie Darling two--that's right, two--blogging awards.  One, in and of itself, would be an honor; two makes me blush with the hot flush of both intense pleasure in such accolades, and an uneasy nervousness that it is all too much too soon for such as I, a relative neophyte in these environs, confusedly stumbling midway along the path of  life much as Dante did years ago.

Little Augury Bestowing Awards on Reggie Darling

(via Queen Elizabeth Knighting Admiral Francis Drake)

source: LIFE Images

The first award Little Augury gave to Reggie was a "Prolific Blogger Award," which she defines as recognizing " . . . one who is intellectually productive, keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content."  The honor of such an award requires the recipient to "pass it forward to seven other deserving bloggers," referred to as "the Magnificent Seven."

Now Reggie is quite pleased to be recognized as "prolific" in his output, for he does toil away at RD almost every waking hour that his day job at the Investment Bank doesn't consume him (or distract him from his more gratifying efforts writing said blog).  However, I do believe certain of my readers would take exception to the word "prolific," and consider-- perhaps--"garrulous" as a more apt description of his excessive blather.  In any event, Reggie is most charmed and honored to receive such an award, and gladly shares with you, Dear Reader, his own Magnificent Seven of daily must-reads that inspire, amuse, educate, and at times confound him.  They are, in alphabetical order:

Admiral Cod

Little Augury (surprise!)

Mrs. Blandings

The Blue Remembered Hills

The Blushing Hostess Entertains

The Corinthian Column

The Down East Dilettante

These are the first blogs that I check into daily, hoping for new postings to luxuriate in reading, examining, and pondering, and I commend them to you to do the same.  Should you, Dear Reader, track back to LA's posted awards ceremony, you should not be surprised to find some repetition of certain names that also appear on her list.  For we are, I posit, fellow travelers, LA and I.  Therefore, those of you identified above that are doing double duty may rest on your laurels and sit back and enjoy the adulation without the need of  passing on the torch--again.  But those of you who are anointed for the first time by yours truly, and you know who you are, are, I am afraid, expected to feed the Prolific Blogger Award beast and pass on the torch to your own Magnificent Seven.  With recognition comes responsibility.

You may ask, but aren't there other names that Reggie reads daily?  Yes there are, many in fact.  And there are several that Reggie would dearly love to include in the above list, should such magnificence be extended to, say, twelve names.  Those would include Architect Design, Lindaraxa's Garden, Privilege, The House of Beauty and Culture, and The Neo Lifestyle.  There are also several other names that would appear on Reggie's Magnificent Seven list, but who don't because the frequency of their delicious posting is somewhat sporadic, as it is clear their authors have better things to do with their time than post with rabid frequency.  The two that come most immediately to mind in that category are Emily Evans Eerdmans and Frognall Dibdin's Shelves.   And I would be remiss were I not to mention An Aesthete's Lament, the recently departed and greatly missed Zeus of the Lifestyle Bloggers and in front of whom Reggie bows in subservient and glorified worship, yelping admiration. Were Aesthete still posting today he would certainly lead Reggie's list of Magnificent Seven, ahead of all others.

The second award that Little Augury bestowed upon me as one of her Magnificent Seven, which really is a fallout of the first, I suppose, was a "Beautiful Blogger" award for, I suspect, the pretty images that I, from time to time, post on Reggie Darling.  And for that I must acknowledge the contributions of my dear Boy Fenwick, my partner on Reggie Darling and in life.  Boy takes most of the photographs that appear on RD, and is a frequent inspiration for the blog's content.  He also edits Reggie's scribbles to ensure that they are not embarrassingly ungrammatical.  This is, indeed, a collaborative effort.

But there is a catch with this second award, which Reggie also bestows upon his own list of Magnificent Seven (take note!), and that is it requires that one must share seven facts, heretofore unknown, about oneself with one's own Dear Readers.  And so here are Reggie's:

1. I was a member of the Yale Whiffenpoofs (look here if you don't know what that is);
2. I once sat next to Princess Grace at a dinner in a villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat;
3. My great-uncle beat the Duke of Windsor at golf in Bermuda during WWII, and I have the score cards to prove it;
4. My great-grandfather hosted Elsie de Wolfe and her coterie of Sapphic sisters at a lunch at the U.S. Embassy in Paris during WWI, a fact I only recently learned from reading de Wolfe's autobiography;
5. Keebler's packaged cheddar cheese sandwich crackers are a guilty pleasure;
6. I once danced next to Madonna at a club in New York; and
7. I know all the lyrics to Rodgers and Hammerstein's "I Enjoy Being A Girl".

So, there you have seven heretofore unknown facts about Reggie Darling.  Are you surprised?  I rather doubt it . . .

In closing, I would like to thank my dearest Little Augury for these lovely awards.  I am indeed flattered.  And to my own Magnificent Seven I now say: get to work!