Dresses for Princesses - Trip to London Part 1/3

I was up in London the other day as I went to see the Grace Kelly Exhibition at the V&A Museum.  The show was quite small compared to the original "The Grace Kelly Years" which I saw in Monaco in 2007, naturally logistics prevented all the exhibits being sent to the UK.  Nonetheless I was able to take a picture of one dress at the exhibition entrance:-

Also on display at the V&A is one of Princess Diana's dresses - this is the "Elvis" dress made by Catherine Walker and worn by Diana several times, including a trip Hong Kong in 1989. 

Diana sitting for a formal portrait in 1990 by photographer, the late Terence Donovan.

The donors of the dress were The Franklin Mint who bought the dress in Diana's famous 1997 auction at Christies in New York.

Duckling Update!!

The ducklings are growing really fast - here is a little pic of them earlier this week.  Thankfully there are still 7.

Walkies with Mum - keep the line straight now please!!

Ballet Promotions at The Bolshoi

Today I was thrilled to learn of the promotion to Principal Dancer of my 2 favourite dancers at The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Russia - congratulations to Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev(pictured here in Don Quixote).  This is a real achievement for both dancers to be promoted to the top rank at such a young age. Fanstastic news from Russia!

Photo credit - D A Kelley, Orange County Register

Fleurs et Raisins

I had a lucky "Buy It Now" find on Ebay this week and here she is a Fleurs et Raisins Plisse!! Worn here in the flower knot with my silver Bolduc scarf ring (Scarf Ring II).

Here worn as a bow using my Bolduc scarf ring.

Here I decide to experiment a little and I simply tied the scarf around the neck and then did a mini Friendship Knot with the ends - I think it looks quite cute!

Here are a few detail shots of the scarf - the pink flowers are roses and lilies and the border has honeysuckle flowers around it.  I like the pink flowers and purple grapes - they are my kind of colours;-)

The scarf features cornucopias of grapes and flowers - as a fan of flowers and of flower arranging I think this scarf was a "must" for me.  As with all plisse scarves, it is interesting to see how different the scarf looks tied/worn compared to stretched out - the red in the outer border (which you can see in the photos above) becomes quite predominant and the yellow grapes seem to feature heavily!

Spring Ducklings!!

Spring is really blossoming here in England.  I have some lovely flowers in my garden and over at my sister's pond she currently has a brood of ducklings!!  2 weeks ago my sister went to feed the wild mallard ducks that visit her pond only to be greeted by 10 ducklings as well!! It seems Mrs Mallard had been secretly nesting...Sadly 3 ducklings have been lost and we think it is the local owls as they seem to disappear in the night (the owls are probably feeding their own babies) it is sad but that is nature and why Mrs Mallard had 10 ducklings - anyway here are a few little pics of the ducklings (when there were 9) they are not too good quality because the ducklings would not keep still and were a little shy of me!

Busy feeding with Mother, Mrs Mallard

Busy forraging the banks of the pond watched by Dad, Mr Mallard.

I think there are 8 here on the banks and in the water with Dad and 2 Uncles!

Let's see what else there is to do....off we go......

Plisse Ideas from Hermes

I was in scarf conversation with a scarf friend and she has a plisse minus the H booklet that usually comes with plisses so to help a friend out I have photographed one of my booklets to post here for the ideas.  If you click on the photos they will enlarge so you can see more detail.
Photo credits are to Hermes.

Hermes Formula 286

Hermes Formula 296

Hermes Formula 288

Hermes Formula 266

Hermes Formula 290

Hermes Formula 288

Hermes Formula 292

Hermes Formula 236

Hermes Formula 298

Enjoy!!

Carre en Carre Plisse

One of my scarf friends was asking about my Carre en Carre Plisse so I though I would post some photos here!!  This is a great design by Hermes and by the time I realised I "needed" one I had missed the boat as it was a best seller.  However I was able to find one in Berlin in a plisse version:-

As it comes out of the box:

Stretched out in the hotel room!!

At ease!

I have worn the scarf here in the flower knot first with a single knot knot and second one without a single knot before pulling the edges through a ring it makes quite a difference as you can see.

Scarf Ring II

Well I was so pleased with my gold Bolduc scarf ring which I bought recently(New Scarf Ring)  that I could not resist getting another one in the silver/palladium.  So as I was in London yesterday I went to Harrods and got one:-)

My little bag of treasures!

Beautifully packaged as always with Hermes!

The Hermes Caleche

The rear detail.

Sisters! Silver left and Gold Right - it is a bit difficult to tell them apart!!

Maybe this shot is better!

Here shown on my Per Astra ad Astra plisse - silver left, gold right. The silver definitely looks much "cooler" than the gold.

The silver ring on my Dancing Pearls Plisse - this works very well as the overall tone of the scarf is cooler.

And finally worn as a butterfly/flower knot.

On my journey home there was a fantastic "grey" sunset and I got this amazing shot of the sun's rays from the train so I thought I would share it with you!