Thursday 29 July 2010

Charles Diana Wedding Anniversary

Twenty nine years ago today Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married in St Pauls Cathedral London in a ceremony watched by millions around the world. The weather was pefect and I was there having spent all night in the mall to keep my place at the front of the crowd.
I kept a diary of the three weeks I stayed in London for the wedding and I read in my diary that one man changed into pyjamas and slept in a sleeping bag in the Mall. I managed about ten minutes sleep on my little folding stool. I also note that the 3am queue (the last time it was possible to leave your spot, others in the crowd willing to mind you spot) for the ladies toilet was hundreds of yards long and with an Amercan woman I met we went into the men's toilet which had no queue, after that the crowds were so deep impossible to move. A perfect day.
Below is one of the many samplers embroidered for THE day This one is the design of the Radio Times for the wedding week. It's an ebay purchase and has been expertly hand embroidered on Linen
The sampler below is a Royal School of Needlework design and also expertly stitched, this one has the name 'Worked by Zandra Grindley in California 1982' though it was an ebay purchase from the U.K. I was silly enough to get into a 2am (my time) bidding war with a bidder in America on this one and paid a bit too much as there are a few of this sampler around. Still I am very happy with my purchase but I never bid at 2am now. Lots of wedding china around, the Wade bell on the right would have been full of Bell's Scotch Whisky, I bought it empty at a market. The african violet pot was spotted at a local florist about 10 years ago and the ginger jar from an antique fair.
A very unusual china lamp below Made in England by Derek Fowler Studios. There is a hole just above the faces where the light shines through.


One of a collection of posters I have from THE day. So sad the fairytale wedding ended so badly.







Saturday 24 July 2010

Grey Track Suit Slump

FOUND; the cause of my mid winter slump and the reason I have been unable to post for the last 8 days.
I blame this grey (or gray in some countries) track suit. I always swore I would never wear a track suit but I weakened this winter and bought this one. It was on special and Big W only had grey in my size and I thought how comfy it looks, but how depressing it has turned out to be. Yes it is comfy and doesn't show cat hairs but it also drains all my Royal thoughts and seemingly any and all computer and photography skills I might have.
I have had no option but to turn to my favourite comfort food. Tea and toast dripping with butter (in this case I had no butter in the house and made do with one of those non artery clogging spreads) and honey. Couldn't waste too much time on photos as the toast was getting cold.

My slump didn't stop me going to a large market last week and I found this pretty supper cloth in a box of junk and it was only$2. It was in a terrible state with black marks and stains all over it and crumpled like an old rag. I love a challenge and rescue mission and look at the cloth now. It had a good soak in napisan and then the sun bleached out the last of a stubborn stain.
The cloth is all hand embroidered and has no signs of wear, I hate to see someones hard work go to waste. I also don't like ironing but when on a rescue mission I make an exception. I wish I had thought to take a BEFORE photo.



My new tapestry stand and I think this one might be easier to use, still stuck on that tapestry cushion I started 3 years ago for the Queen's Diamond Wedding Anniversary and one of the reasons I don't have time to slump and frump around in grey tracksuits robbed of even sewing skills.
I am now wearing pink and slowly with the help of the toast and honey coming back to life.



I offered the tracksuit to Charlotte and Emily as warm bedding in their winter day beds but they've refused outright and will only accept something pretty and with flowers as you can see in these pics.


Now for the vexing question!! should I keep that grey thing to remind me of my worst ever fashion mistake, or get rid of it now so I can forget I ever made such a mistake????




Thursday 15 July 2010

Vintage Embroidered Aprons

Showing some of the recently acquired aprons in my collection and the one below has to be my new favourite. The clothes and skin of the dancers are filled in by tiny hand embroidered stitches and I love the suave expression on the faces of the couple. Like so many of my aprons this one has never been worn or washed, just stored away for years. The stitching at the back of the apron is almost as good as the front.
The apron on the right I'm sure was done by the same embroiderer as the dancers as the crocheted edges are identical. Dutch boy and girl scenes were very popular in the mid 1950's so I think that dates both aprons from that period. The Dutch scene apron also looks unworn.
The Charles and Diana apron is a souvenir from the Royal Wedding 1981 and is made from PVC. I don't have any hand embroidered Royal aprons (sigh..) but I know they exist and one day..........





The unworked apron below also I think dates from the 1950's. I would like to be able to say I will show it fully embroidered in a few months but I'm sure those beach girls will be put away again with all my other unworked aprons and join the long queue of items I will never embroider.
I think Gina at patras aprons has a similar girls at the beach apron.
That was lucky, I finished my photography just in time then Emily got out of bed to help.
She is wearing her "what about me" expression and needs some cuddles.





Friday 9 July 2010

Grin Grinned Grinning

For some strange reason unknown to me I cannot tolerate the word GRINNED: or grin even though I can skim past other four letter words in a book and hardly notice. And as for Grinning, that should only be done by Cheshire cats.


I can be settled with a good book by a well known author and come across the word Grinned, usually the Prosecutor or Detective does the grinning, (as in- "zxzxzx", she grinned.)


First time I come across THE word I tell myself to move on and forget what you just read.


Second time, I become nervous and on full alert, my blood pressure rises, as does my heart rate, and there are health and safety issues.


Third time, if he/she have Grinned again, that's it. No matter how good the book is I slam it shut and would throw it across the room, but there are three reasons why I can't do this.


1- I might hit Charlotte or Emily and never be forgiven.


2- I might break a 'never to be found again in my lifetime royal treasure'


3 - As it's probably a library book I might do major damage and have to pay lots of dollars in compensation.


I can accept a Smirk a Chuckle even or a small smile but NOT A GRIN. All this happened to me again only two nights ago and as you can tell I'm still suffering and the offending book has now been returned unharmed to the library.


Gina, over at http://patrasotherplace.blogspot.com/ said she finds the word grammar awful and I think I agree and am sure there are other people who dislike certain words, as for me-I never grin, only smile...

Sunday 4 July 2010

My One Year Blogiversary

Flowers for me on my First blogiversary. The flowers are in a pretty Charles and Diana Staffodshire vase. I've had lots of fun this past year with my blog and a few tears and tantrums if things did not go to plan on my blog. If I gave myself an end of year report card I think it would read something like this.
Enthusiasm: High.
Computer and Photography Skills: Low, much room for improvement.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar: Abysmal-have you no education??
Imagination: Vivid and Creative-too bad those great award winning ideas never leave
your head.
Level of Interest in Blog: Well I'm fascinated by it, I could sit and admire my collections
posts all day. And those posts showing Charlotte and Emily I think are works of art.
Meanwhile the real Charlotte and Emily sit with me feeling neglected, unloved and
hungry and time might be better spent doing a bit of dusting of that collection.
This Royal Doulton figurine is named "Happy Anniversary" and was a gift from my daughter some years ago so I thought it a perfect day to put it on a post. I even gave it a slight dust first and felt a bit like "Mrs Bouquet" showing Royal Doulton.


A coronation apron from 1953 I'm showing today so I can cover all my collection in one post. This I think comes under linens, royals and aprons.

YES! I'm almost finished admiring my blog then I'm coming to bed, please don't lose my place in my book.
I should mention here another anniversary, I gave up having my hair cut one year ago and now I look like the mad cat woman I always was. I call it my Doris Lessing look, now if I could only have more cats and write best sellers about them I would be famous too. Charlotte and Emily will never allow me to have another cat so I suppose the best seller idea will have to go as well.
I gave up haircuts because they were always dissapointing and I was tired of being asked "what did you do on the weekend?" and even if I could remember what I did it probably involved cats, hunting down rare royal treasures at a giveaway price or cross stitching something royal and it all sounds a bit mad even to my ears, so no more haircuts.

Thursday 1 July 2010

A Birthday and an Anniversary


Today would have been Princess Diana's 49th birthday and above is a lovely portrait of Diana made of Nottingham lace. I bought the lace in London and mounted it on a purple background but I don't think my photo shows just how pretty the lace is.


Today is also the 41st anniversary of the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle in 1969. The half apron above is a souvenir of that day.




A child's hanky (unused!!) from the day.


And a mug I found recently at a bargain price in an op. shop. I only have a total of 5 souvenirs from the Investiture, another mug and a childs apron shown on a previuos post.



Here is a picture of my very own little prince, my son sitting in the very chair that Charles sat in at Caernarvon Castle in Wales for the Investiture. The pic. was taken a few years after Charles had been there and it's quite possible I dragged a few small children away and sat my own son in the chair.
I think those other tourists (not known to me) might be glaring at him.




We've had a few very cold mornings here and Charlotte and Emily got out of my (our) bed a bit too soon so they've had to sit by the heater and wait for the sun to warm up my litte sun room. Won't be long now girls...