Cecil Beaton

I've always had a bit of an eye and an interest in the work of the photographer - I would say celebrity photographer but that would get mixed up in the connotations of the contemporary paparazzi media lead photographer capturing anything and everything that could never really be considered art. I have a total adoration for the work of David Bailey and while i'd heard of the name "Cecil Beaton" in passing, it hasn't been until reading the novel "Silk" by Penny Jordan in which he makes many an appearance, that I even took to sticking his name in Google. And my - I wish i'd done so before!

Capturing glamour, style and the celebrity, Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) is considered one of Britain's most influential and celebrated photographers even in turn influencing the work of artists like David Bailey. Across the five decades of his work from the 1920s onwards, he captured the faces, the fashions and the places of the then modern world - from Marilyn Monroe to the wedding photographs of Duke and Duchess of Windsor and even as an official WW2 war photographer.

And here is just such a small sample of his amazing, amazing work;

Marilyn Monroe

Capturing for Vogue the model Vionnet [1937]

Audrey

The Queen photographed in 1968 in her White Drawing Room - Buckingham Palace.

Marlene Dietrich 1935


Originalpicture lost to cyberspace

Vogue shoot for Charles James Dresses 1948

Lillian Gish 1930's

His work seems to offer something stylish yet imitate. Now I just need to hunt out books and copies of his work because they are utterly gorgeous more so the black and white ones!

Lovely!

I want to say a massive heartfelt thank you for all you that left me messages on my last post - it means a lot. I'm getting there slowly - thank you all once again!

I know I totally haven't been around lately

For that I apologise I've just been trying to get my head sorted alongside just not feeling anything inspiration wise that would be worth blogging about. I hope your all well either way - i'm getting there slowly, I think being ill taken a lot out of me and I'm still not fixed just want the pain to magic itself away.

I have seen what seems to be a rather pretty and useful collection of make up in Marks and Sparks especially a powder compact and cheap - very cheap nail varnish - i'm gonna have to go back for a treat me thinks! Maybe that's something to use as a basis for a return.

Oh I can't wait till Easter and having three days off! Yey - hopefully being lazy might help me get better! So I hope your all grand - i'll be back to full working normality some time soon.

The vintage film kiss

Sorry i've been utterly neglectful of my blog this week - its a mixture of totally hitting a brick wall with inspiration and just trying to relax and getting my body into some kinda of normality.

But anyway ...

They say, well The Times says that a death of the big screen death as occurred. Apparently it died in the 1970s due to the cult of the indie film, so why has nobody noticed or commented on it before. I guess we all want sex sex sex, so the simple yet passionate kiss disappearance has gone unnoticed. That is until you remember the kisses of;

Breakfast at Tiffany'sGone with the WindBetty Grable and Victor Mature - Footlight Sernade

Kiss of Death

From Here to Eternity.

So do you think the classic kiss is lacking in the films of today? Or are they just as noteworthy?

LIFE: Random Wishes ....

... of things to achieve in my life in no particular order maybe most of them by the time I'm 30 [if not 35!]. I'm totally lacking blog inspiration at the moment being ill for the past however weeks gets me thinking;

#1. Move in with JJ. #2. Visit PA & Falling Water. #3. Stay in a cottage by the sea. #4. Own some [tiny] piece of Tiffany jewellery. #5. Be a qualified dispenser. #6. Marry my guy. #7. Finish that book I started writing ages ago [I really must dig that out again].

#8. Learn to knit.

#9. Try and become somewhat green fingered. #10. Own my own vintage shop come traditional English tea room. #11. Honeymoon in London in a posh hotel. #12. Pay off all my debts [practical and somewhat boring I know!]. #13. Visit Russia.

#14. Engage in baking and making cupcakes and cakes on weekends.

#15. Have babies. #16. Dine in the Ritz. #17. Print off all my blog entries and comment and keep them in a folder to keep for the future [I did start this and somehow stopped]. #18. Have that gingerbread man/women wedding cake. #19. Visit the Camden Passage Market. #20. Finally get around to seeing Mr and Mrs Andrews in the flesh [well hanging from the wall]. #21. Own our own 1930s home.

#22. Visit Paris.

#23. Adopt a child. #24. Learn which constellation is actually which. #25. Get my firefly and laurel flower tattoo. #26. Finally sort out and label all my photographs so I have at least some mild idea of who and where they were all taken.

What are your random wishes?

Cakeeeeeeeeeeeee

I sooooo want a wedding cake like this - how much fun is it? I'd just be nibbling the dolly mixtures off it all day mind you. I just had to share it with you after peeping a glimpse of it in a tiny little cake decorating shop in York.

Ah fun fun fun!

Thank you all for your great well wishes - i'm getting better and apparently no longer look like a ghost - which is always a good thing i'm thinking?!

A thank you and a mountain of scarfs

I want to say a massive thank you to everyone that posted me a great well yesterday. I bit the bullet and I went to the doctors - I apparently have a very very very painful bladder, urging on kidney infection. It's horrid to say the least - think period pain multiplied by about five. I have some antibiotics [I get a bit obsessed about learning all about pills now I'm working in a dispensary] so hopefully they might work some kinda magic. I feel better knowing what's wrong I just want the pain to go away now!

But back to business;

One of my addictions is scarfs, some people swoon over shoes, handbags, mine is scarfs - the more the merrier. I blame Primark for this addiction [its easier that way] they always use to sell their pretty pretty ones so they always seemed value for money and really they are just a jazzy, fun and cheap way of altering or adding something to an outfit.
My scarf mountain from left to right - my brand new street seller one [see below] pink sparkly from F&F Tescos £9, blue & black desert scarf - Primark £3, purple sparkly - Primark £3, white & black desert scarf - Primark - £3, pink wooley scarf - M&S £5, purple & black spotty [reverse-able] H&M £10 and purple multicoloured - Primark -£1.50. You can totally tell my favourite colour in purple, no?!

My find of the week [last week] or my "treat for the week" as I call it was a £2 scarf I stumbled across in York. Admittedly it was from a street seller so god knows what I was funding handing my my money over - but it was just calling for me.
I just love it, its so bright and thick and just right for the spring time. Perfect!

What's the one accessory you can't fail to walk past without swooning?

I'll be back soon

I've been a bit neglectful of my blog lately and i'm sorry. I'm far from feeling my happy cheerful self at the moment - in other words i'm feeling very ill and in a lot of pain and I have no idea why. I may have to drag myself to the Doctors tomorrow which really won't go down well with work because i'll have to have the day off. And i'm someone that is petrified of the doctors.

I'm sure its nothing major, but pain is never good, especially when pain killers do NOTHING to make it go away.

Hope your all well and i'll be back when the pain lets me x

Spring happy times

It feels so weird that its March and therefore 'Spring' already - if only the weather could be more spring like but at least over the last day or so its been more sunny. I'm so very bored of snow - especially with more forecast for the end of the week [oh the joy], its nothing like when you were a kid and you wanted it to snow all the time. But at least there are signs of life in the garden, some pretty bulbs, the sound of birds and some blue in the sky.

Is it only me or is this year really zipping away in a whirlwind?!

Not that i'm complaining too much, I'm rather looking forward to this year especially summer and autumn when things should be falling more into place with things in my life that will get sorted and a big, brand new, shiny chapter will start. Lots of things need to fall into place first but its good to hope, right?

I 'won' well more given an amazing goodie bag of The Sanctuary products at work the other week for the job I did over Christmas. I've always heard amazing things about Sanctuary products [I guess they are the next indulgent beauty/bath range after Soap and Glory that people rave about] but I've never had chance to try any of them, and now I guess I have no excuse.

What isn't pictured is one shopping bag and another big gold weekend bag and a pair of exfoliating gloves. The latter I wish I had found and used years ago - if you have dry skin, or skin that gets a bit rough they are the perfect invention even though because your wearing gloves it makes it feel like someone else is washing you.

New Look has some fabulous offers on at the moment - a lot of their tops and knitwear are being reduced and I grabbed the bag [above] for £5 down from £12 - bargain and a perfect new bag for work. Also grabbed the purse for a fiver too can't go wrong at that price. H&M also have some smashing bargains on knitwear too atm.

The only bad thing though is from having five days off in a row and having to go back tomorrow - I really want to just stay home!

An adventure into vintage crafts - crocheting

So alongside last years adventure into learning and completing an embroidered tablecloth the next adventure and project would have to be learning to properly be able to crochet. You may have noticed when I'm taking photographs of things for my blog as a silent witness under the object often lies a crocheted doily like here;

When my gran died last August, so did the last crocheter of the family. Along with her two sister, they were all greatly gifted in this delicate craft, from making gorgeous table centres to edging on tablecloths and handkerchiefs.

I've made crocheted things in the past [I made a huge blanket when I was about 14ish and still have it on my bed] and I've always been around crocheted things. I've had crocheted doily's on my dressing table since I was little, but I've never really thought anything of them. I was considered strange enough at school for being able to sew and to do anything more would have probably made me even more of a social outcast. I guess the death of my gran and my new found need in using something to protect the backs of my compacts when I have them displayed upon my dressing table made me try and attempt to learn.
While the designs look hard, crocheting is relativity easy to pick up. All you need us a hook [which cost as little as £1.30] some cotton [can be a little hard to find in the shops these days] and learn the basic stitches.

So i've started with doily's; mainly because they are the perfect size for displaying my compacts upon and make good use of the reminder of my gran's cottons and hooks, plus I've inherited all her old crocheting books and patterns, mainly from the 1950s and 1980s.

This one and my first ever attempt [above] in fact came from a 1970s pattern quoted as one ideal for beginners. Luckily they gave you a patterned picture chart to follower rather then the mere worded version. I've definitely caught the bug for it now, while it takes a bit to get your head around the different stitches and just where things are meant to go, your work is produced really fast - which is always a good spur to carrying on and doing more.

There's a tonne of patterns out there, there's even a few magazines on the market and whatever can be knitted you can crochet the same thing - from tops, scarf's, blankets, everything especially for babies. Additionally having a good search on the internet often reveals some interesting vintage finds - I've taken a few off Crafttown.com - which offer some pattern from the 1930s onwards mainly orginally published in magazines and pattern books [you just have to take care in differentiating between the American and British terms for the stitching as they are somewhat different at times].
Now i'm having to be patient to wait and see if the correct wool for the scarf above from Crochet Today magazine [an American import which you can find in WHSmiths and is a great publication if you want a contemporary insight into what crocheting can make] will turn up at this side of the ocean. Its a wool, or as the American's term it 'yarn' called Alppa Love by Debbie Stroller who did all the "Stitch and Bitch" knitting books. Either waiting like a very patient girl, finding a possible replacement or asking very nicely for it to be shipped over by a certain special someone :)

But how very snug and warm does that scarf look?!?!