Awwww. I've been going through rather a tough time lately, things have seemed pretty bleak. But I was blown away when this care package arrived from my sister, full of things to cheer me up!
Magazines, chocolate, bubble bath, comedy film Pitch Perfect, a lavender candle, some dinosaur socks, Rae Earl's My Mad Fat Teenage Diary (I love the TV version) and a Quentin Blake James & The Giant Peach bookmark. Thanks, chuck! Kxx
Design and photo (c) Kristen Bailey 2012
Cathy's favourite film is The Wizard of Oz, and she does seem a long way from her English home now she has a new one in Alberta, Canada - but there's still no-one like her.
The Bible verses I included are Psalm 139:13 and Luke 12:6-7 (I like the The Message translation).
* SONG OF THE DAY: Elvis Costello - Red Shoes *
I had to make something special for Rachel's 40th birthday, and once I'd remembered that her favourite film is Cabaret, and put a mood board together on Pinterest, I had the idea for this diorama, which puts Rae on stage at the Kit Kat club, complete with bowler hat.
It's cut from thin card and stitched with sequins, and folds flat for storage.
Design and images (c) Kristen Bailey 2012
* SONG OF THE DAY: Liza Minelli - Mein Herr (from 'Cabaret') *
Screen Search Fashion
is an online resource which provides a guide to aspects of 1920s and 1930s fashion and dress as depicted in non-fiction film from the collections of Screen Archive South East(in collaboration with the Royal College of Art.You can see what people wore on holiday, or at the summer fete or carnival. There's also a section dedicated to work clothes, including unforms. It's great to see original garments wore by ordinary people in real life - something even the best-researched costume drama can not do.
The clips are accompanied by photos of relevant items of clothing from local museums. It would be fantastic if, in turn, the clips could be screened within these museums' displays. I love looking at fashion collections in museums but nothing can compare to seeing how garments were worn, what they looked like in motion, and for which occasions they were worn.
It's a fascinating site to explore - I hope that over the next few years they're given the resources needed to extend the site to include film from the 1940s to the present day (so long as that doesn't include any of my family's 1970s home movies!).
Still from Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (c) Warner Bros 2009
Luna Lovegood was already my favorite Hogwarts student, but since I saw Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince my affection for her has blossomed into a full-blown style crush. She wears the best stuff!
Some of it is really stylish, like the pink linen coat above which she's wearing on the Hogwarts Express when she rescues Harry after his beating from Draco. It has gorgeous puffed shoulders, a big wide collar and cute buckled straps at the wrists. Luna accessorises with functional yet still stylish SpectreSpecs (buy yours here) and her favourite Dirigble Plum earrings (tutorial here).
Then there's the sweet short-sleeved lilac cardigan worn over a loose cotton smock with a Peter Pan collar, worn in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Crochet your own using this pattern.
Images (c) Warner Bros 2007
Luna's taste in jewellery is a little leftfield - her Butterbeer cork necklace, Dirigible Plum earrings and beetle ring - probably homemade as she's a resourceful gal. You can buy yourself a set of Luna Lovegood jewellery but it's much more in keeping with her spirit to try making your own!
Image (c) Warner Bros 2009
Even when her wardrobe choices raise a few eyebrows (her Lion Head hat, the silver dress she wears to go to Slughorn's party) you have to applaud the girl for her individuality. She wears even the most outlandish outfit with quiet confidence, and best of all she's never boring. Tell Luna I love her!
* SONG OF THE DAY: The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet *
Also:
Ravenclaw scarf knitting pattern
Butterbeer cork necklaces on Etsy
It was a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to wander over to the Duke of York's Picturehouse and spend a couple of hours in the dark in the company of Audrey Tatou, watching Coco Before Chanel.
I enjoyed it - it was fascinating to learn about her early life (the film ends just as she's setting up as a fashion designer). What struck me most was how different the garments she started making for herself were from the fashion of the day.
The film shows her making herself simple, comfortable, practical clothes from garments she's pinched from her boyfriends, while all around her the upper class woman are corsetted and wearing enormous frilly dresses and hats which make them look like wedding cakes. The young Chanel's homemade clothes look thirty years ahead of their time.
She's portrayed as a prickly but sharply intelligent character, going from rags to riches but not without taking advantage of a couple of rich admirers on the way. My favourite quote was when Chanel is asked how old she is and replies, "When I'm bored, I feel ancient" - a fantastic anti-aging tip, I think!
Foyer carpet, Odeon Cinema, Brighton Marina
Went to the cinema this week - the Blonde had given me her free ticket to the new Sandra Bullock romcom. I love the sort of carpets you find in theatres, cinemas and amusement arcades - busily patterned so they don't show up the dirt, but zany enough to say, 'Hey, let us entertain YOU!'
There are beautiful specimens in Flickr's Movie Theater Carpet group. Here are a few more I've found:
Very excited - three Torchwood plays this week on Radio 4 just to whet the appetite - and then... Torchwood: Children Of Earth over five nights on BBC 1 next week!
I understand that this might be hell on toast for the unconverted (I wouldn't fancy five hours of Star Trek, for example) but I do love this show, and I'm not normally a sci-fi fan. Doctor Who is pretty good but what I love most about Torchwood is that extraordinary things happen in very ordinary settings (no offence, Cardiff).
Owen and Tosh are no longer with us, and it'll be weird without them, but interesting to see what the new dynamic is. Gwen's husband Rhys is more part of the team, Jack and Ianto are now together, and we meet Jack's daughter!
Ooh and until I saw this bus stop poster, I'd forgotten the new Harry Potter film was nigh - hurrah!
Sarah (here giving you her 'button eyes'), Mister Sarah and I went to an advance screening of Coraline on Saturday, and it was fab - colourful and creepy and full of amazing handmade details, including Althea Crome's unbelievably tiny knitting (see below).
We hadn't realised it was in 3D - we got given the glasses on the way in - and it made the film even more of an adventure. There's a bit in the opening sequence where a needle passes through a piece of fabric and comes straight out of the screen at you - we actually ducked! It's quite scary in parts too - a couple of smaller kids were taken out by their parents when the Other Mother started turning nasty.
For all things Coraline, check out the official Coraline website, and fanblog Evil Buttons. Book-wise, there's a Coraline: A Visual Companion, all about the production of the movie, and of course the original novel and graphic novel.
* SONG OF THE DAY: Johnny Tillotson - Poetry In Motion *
Also:
Empire: Interviews Coraline author Neil Gaiman
Empire: Interviews Coraline director Henry Selick
Movies.Ie: Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French talk about their voice work on Coraline
Village Voice: Stephin Merritt and David Greenspan Conjure an Unusual Tuner for Coraline
Stills from the film 'The Good German', starring Cate Blanchett, via www.screenrush.co.uk
Fashion Era: Fashion and Costume in the 1940s
The Costume Gallery: Womens Fashions: 1940s
HowToLookGood.com: 2007's 1940s fashion trend
V&A Museum: 1940s Patterns to Knit
Captain Jack Sparrow knitted doll (c) Kristen Bailey, 2008
It was The Blonde's 30th birthday, so I thought I'd better whip up (that's 'whip' with the emphasis on the 'h', Family Guy fans) something special. So here he is - a Captain Jack Sparrow doll, based on Jean Greenhowe's 'Pirate' doll pattern, from her Storybook Dolls booklet.
I ran out of time to knit a bandana, waistcoat and sash, so they're made of remnants from my fabric stash. His hair was done by French knitting (on a Clover Wonder Knitter), and then beads were sewn in. Yarrrr!!!!!!!
* SONG OF THE DAY: Mary Chapin Carpenter - The End Of My Pirate Days *
Still from The Golden Age (c) Working Title
I am SO looking forward to the release of
Cate Blanchett is my favourite Elizabeth on film, perfectly capturing the wit, intelligence, strength and vulnerability of Elizabeth I. (Anne Marie Duff coming a close second - Cate does have the advantage of already looking like the Elizabeth we know from portraits).
The Golden Age isn't out till November, so am trying to sate my cravings by watching the trailer, rewatching Elizabeth and flicking through production shots on Working Title's website.
Still and production shot from The Golden Age (c) Working Title
Audrey Hepburn visits Brighton Bead Shop (c) Kristen Bailey 2004
One of my photos has been posted on A Tribute To Audrey Hepburn! Taken in 2004 in Sydney Street in Brighton's North Laine.
The Last Knit (2005) via YouTube
| Props to me dear old Dad for flagging up this lovely, witty animated short. It's directed by Finnish director Laura Neuvonen and stars a clifftop knitter whose obsession gets her into some tricky situations. Fab. |
|
Marks & Spencer Pirates of the Caribbean chocolate lollipop
It's not long now till Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - out on July 7. Look what The Blonde got me!
She also flagged this spoof Pirates of the Caribbean cereal commercial - "The only cereal you can eat with rum!"...
Pete Gofton aka Johnny X (c) J Xaverre
Went with The Blonde to see new romcom Confetti on Sunday. Imagine my shock when, in the final scenes where the couples have their wedding reception, I spotted Johnny X from Kenickie (aka Pete Gofton, aka brother of Lauren Laverne, aka J Xaverre) playing in the wedding band!
The film itself was a pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours but I won't be rushing out to get the DVD. Some the soundtrack choices were great though - including the joyous One Love by Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Ron Sexsmith's Tomorrow In Her Eyes, which hadn't heard before.
BBC Collective: J Xaverre: Pop folktronica from Sunderland
Empire: Confetti review
Channel 4: Confetti review
BBC: Confetti review
This is a great picture of Roald Dahl's first wife, actress Patricia Neal, spotted in a selection of Dahl's photographs on the BBC website.
It wasn't till I watched a documentary about him which she took part in that I recognised her, purely by her distinctive voice, as George Peppard's mistress in Breakfast at Tiffany's (one of my favourite films, d'oh!).
Via 24 Hour Museum:
"A 16th century bed in the house’s crimson bedroom was used in some particularly steamy scenes and Sharon had to make sure that the romps caused no damage to the valuable antique..." (more)
Went to see Hitchhikers yesterday - funny, surreal stuff, though it didn't grab me quite as much as I'd hoped it would. Worth it though even just to see the five main characters turn into knitted versions of themselves.
And it turns out you can buy them as well! Expect to see the knitting patterns appear on the crafty sites soon. 26.05.05 edited to add: Miss Cute Boots presents: Marvin!
Sam Rockwell, Mos Def and Martin Freeman in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I am so looking forward to The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, Alan Rickman as Marvin the Paranoid Android and Stephen Fry as the Voice of the Guide? Fan-bluddy-tastic!
Edited to add: And Bill Bailey's in too - voicing a sperm whale! Now there's a frood who really knows where his towel is.
BBC: 'bloomin' brilliant'.
Empire: 'mostly harmless... very British, very funny'
Guardian: '42 and all that'
Now if that was chocolate sauce I might help him clean himself up... (Ben Stiller can keep out the way though).
Vinyl skirt with lace stripes by Slave 1 (c) Slave 1 2005
Slave 1's designs are wonderful - PVC/vinyl isn't my thing but the silhouettes/cuts are just gorgeous (they would look great in black stretch pinstriped suiting...) and I love that she's into sharp black/white contrasts. She also loves Vivienne Westwood, Tim Burton and Jean-Pierre Jeunet - and you can't say fairer than that.
Go Fug Yourself and the Prisoner of Azkaban... ;)
OK, cancel the double decker I was intending to use to get wedding guests from the church to the reception - I want the Knight Bus! (But in hot pink...)
PS: And the reception will be held at the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture:
A fairly successful charity shop trawl on Saturday left me with a couple of new tops, a slinky sweater, a tiny cuddly Snowman for me mam and a copy of 10 Things I Hate About You - the latest addition to my 'good US high school rom-coms' collection.
But there has been an unfortunate side effect: I'm having impure thoughts about Heath Ledger. I blame the usual post-period friskiness. Still, it's good to know I'm not completely incapable of some good old-fashioned shallow lust. Come to Mamma... grrrrrrrrrr.... ;)
This makes me very happy: Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde!!! Although Legally Blonde 2 Barbie makes me slightly uneasy...
Isn't she pretty in pink?
Blair gives religious employers the right to sack gay workers
This makes me very sad, and regret that this is being done in the name of faith - my faith. Will they be sacking heterosexual staff who engage in pre-marital sex?
Pier fire flares up again
This too is very sad indeed. 'Firefighters have said a fire at Brighton's West Pier, which was probably started deliberately, has flared up again.'
Recent Comments