Kingdom Of Style

The Secret Garden

Quick quick!  Get yourself a cup of tea and some buns, The Secret Garden is about to start...

As you can imagine, this is one of my favourite films and this is by far the best version.  Even if the mardy, bossy little cow kind of reminds me of myself in a way.
*looks slightly abashed and ashamed *
Queen Marie

It is more blessed to give than to receive...

There are lots of way to give to charity, most of them easy.  In fact you can give to charity without getting off your arse.  So it takes a special kind of person to not just get up off their arse but to travel to another continent and put themselves through a challenge in the process. We are proud to call one such special person a very good friend of the Palace. Lady Rebecca! In December she will be be doing the biggest challege of her life!!!  Cycling 390km (240miles) across India to raise as much money as possible for a charity called women for women (www.women-for-women.org), and to start she needs to raise £2,800. In her latest email she says

"I have now started to freak out a bit.  I have been looking at all my paperwork for the event and have realised that I need to get all this money in to the charity by the 14th of September!!!!! So being slighty disorganised and never having any time for anything I have left it kinda late.  I'm going to start by begging all of you to kindly donate WHATEVER you can afford!!!  I really am so grateful for all your support and help."

Just click on the link below to donate

http://www.justgiving.com/rebeccabarbour

Even if you just pledge the money you would have spent on a magazine or a caffe latte, it might not be that much to you but it will make a BIG difference to Rebecca and the charity in question. She will also be taking stalls at car boot sales in the coming weeks.  Both Queen Michelle and I have started to gather things together, and let's be honest, I could supply the whole boot sale. Thank you for reading this and if you can help in any way, you are sure to get your reward in heaven...

Queen Marie

£7.50 for a roll of sellotape!

Who in their right mind would pay £7.50 for a roll of sellotape. Mmmmm, me actually, if it looked like this... To be pedantic, this is tape that looks like lace and oh how lovely it is. I found it at rockett st george which is a very silly name but not a silly website. Big things, wee things, stuff for houses, stuff for gifts, it's all here. I warn you it is however vvtempting and I have already performed the Credit Card Code twice today already (unlike all you weak willed minxes who followed in the footsteps of your other monarch...)

Queen Marie

ps Mrs Fashion, I may have to rethink the effectiveness of a husband deterrent!  I would not be surprised if you carried out this flagrant code breaking right under his nose...

Codes Are Meant To Be Broken

Hands up gov'ner, I did it. I have broken the Credit Card Code already. Net-a-Porter made me do it.

In my defense your honour, I had a dreadful week which climaxed today with a client who was more stressed than me to point they were nearly crying. And it's a bloke. So to say I needed some serious therapy is an understatement. And therapy in the form of online shopping, post DJing, is just what the Doctor ordered.

So me and my credit card, went and bought these.

Yup. I bought the Marni shoes. They were there, miraculously in my size, so I bought them. What can I say? I'm weak. I'm feeble. I use shopping to relieve stress. I'm a walking cliche. Everything men ever said about women and shoes is right.

But, when those babies come to me next week, all will be well with the world again. Will I even wear the shoes? I suspect they may end up like the Chloe wedges - sitting looking like little works of shoe art that occasionally get an outing but more often than not, just sit looking pretty. And they make me happy.

So yes. I broke the Code. Do I regret it? Not a single bit.

Now, on a secondary note, I'm going to clear up some questions I get asked when I'm playing. I figure I would just give prospective questioners the answers first so they won't need to bother me mid-mix:

1. No, I don't know who's playing Pressure. I may design the posters but that doesn't mean to say I memorise every goddamn DJ.
2. No, I don't know how much it costs or if they take switch and yes, you get in via Oswald Street.
3. The toilets are down stairs through the back
4. No, I have no idea where Paul is or where he's DJing now, all I know is I GOT HIS GIG!!! So nae luck.
5. No I shan't look after your jacket whilst you're out having a cigarette. Do I look like a cloak room attendant? Am I playing tunes with coat hangers? No. Now f**k off.
6. No I don't want to go to Pressure with you and I certainly don't want you to buy me chips.
7. No I don't want a drink.

Ok, so I think I've cleared all that up. Now please, random boys and girls, stop asking me these inane questions and let me get on with my job. Or I'll hit you with my Marni shoes. And they will make you bleed.

Queen Michelle

Monoblock Madness...

Tonight I took a drive down memory lane.
I drove past my big Grans old house and had a horrid shock.
My gran loved roses, iceberg roses in particular.

The front garden was a rose garden and was her pride and joy. Everytime I see or smell a rose I think of my Gran. But tonight the roses were all gone. The whole garden had gone.
In it's place wasa sad square of monblock.
The trend toward monoblocking is not only ugly but more importantly is having important an important effect on our everyday environment.

If you've paved over your front garden to create a space to park your car, you're contributing to the risk of flooding. It's common sense, really: when grass or earth is covered by concrete or tarmac, rainwater cannot be absorbed, and runs off into underground drains putting more pressure onto cities' sewage and drainage systems, many of which date back to Victorian times and are already stretched to their limits
The London Assembly is calling on the government to introduce legislation to limit the number of gardens in an area which can be turned into driveways, and for greater planning control.

We should all be asking ourselves - what price we are willing to pay for a parking space.

Being selfish and lazy is never a good look.
So say no to monoblock and yes to flower power...

Queen Marie

The Credit Card Code...

Both Queen Michelle and I have had pretty stressful weeks and today has been a doozy of a day.
Speaking to her earlier, she voiced the very real concern, that later tonight, after her dj duties were complete, she could find herself online doing damage to her credit card but giving her some much needed retail therapy.
As I will not be there to try and stop her it got me thinking about the very real need we may have for a Credit Card Code.
In effect it would be just like the Green Cross Code that taught us to safely cross the road...

STOP
THINK
MOVE YOUR MOUSE TO THE LEFT
MOVE YOUR MOUSE TO THE RIGHT
MOVE AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD
NOW CROSS THE ROOM AND PUT YOUR CREDIT CARD BACK IN YOUR BAG

REMEMBER KIDS! THE CREDIT CARD CODE MAN WON'T ALWAYS BE THERE WHEN YOU GO ONLINE!!!

Queen Marie

Why have I not seen this...

In much the same way that your other monarch wondered last week why she did not have something in her wardrobe, I find myself asking this question about the film above.

Whenver I ask that question, the first person I turn to is - Sir Dan ,The Home Entertainment Envoy to the Palace
He will either explain the reason why, or with a minimum of fuss supply the item in question to the Palace in order that I may remdy the situation.

Don't Come Knocking is a 2005 film, a comedy-drama road movie directed by German director Wim Wenders and written by Wenders and actor/playwright Sam Shepard. The film was shot on Super 35mm by Franz Lustig. He and Wenders emphasized the influence of painter Edward Hopper on the cinematography.
Shepard stars as Howard Spence, an aging, hard-living Western movie star, who, disgusted with his life, flees by horse from the set of his latest western filming in the desert outside Moab, Utah. He hits the road looking for refuge in his past.
I can see no reason why I should not love this film as I love love love Sam Shepard, Wenders and Hopper.
So I must turn the matter over to Sir Dan and await his reply...
Queen Marie

The Long And Short Of Shorts

I'm quite open minded as to the clothes I'll wear. When necessity comes calling I'll even wear a swimsuit and if I absolutely had to go to a traditional wedding I'd probably even do full on pretty without the edgy! So really, not many things are completely off limits to me. I do of course say "Oh my god I'd never wear that!" only to pitch up in it a month later. But I usually know when I'm talking crap and deep down I'm already planning what I'd wear with the Not In A Million Years item. However there is one single item that I can truly say I just can't wear - shorts.

The only reason I'm even talking about them is because they are everywhere you turn in the shops in their various guises - bermuda shorts, denim hotpants (yeah, cheers for that Moss), city shorts (what?!), even bubble hemmed shorts - they are all there.

I see the value of shorts of course. Terribly practical if you're a girl that can't sit with her legs shut or suffers from bad chaffing. They can even look pretty damn cool (I'm thinking Future Classics here), especially in the form of a playsuit on a lithe young creature, but for me, well, I just can't seem to bring myself to wear them.

Although, let me say I have tried. I own a pair of browny green tweed knee length shorts, a bit like plus fours actually, which I wore with ankle boots and bright blue tights, but the downside was they itched like crazy and Queen Marie kept calling me Oliver Twist every time I wore them. But since then (it was about 2 years ago I bought them) I haven't repeated the experience.

I think really it's an age thing. Whilst Ms Moss seems quite content to wear her Daisy Dukes at 30-something, I personally think it's a tad 'eww',  for lack of a more intelligent word. Of course when I do see photo's of creatures rocking their shorts I go "oh maybe if I did them a bit like that I could get away with it". Like this girl on Facehunter.

Isn't she the cutest? She's got the look just right - simple, with little quirky additions like the braces and bow tie. The only thing I would say is she looks slightly like a waitress. Buy hey, does she look bothered? Not a bit. Now, be a good girl and go fetch me a coke. Lots of ice.

Queen Michelle

Is it still Thursday?...

Queen Michelle and I seem to be stuck in a time vortex. Never has a week seemed to move more slowly. Ever!
I was convinced that yesterday was Thursday and did not find out it was in fact only Wednesday until about 6.30pm. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are trying not to look at the clock but it sits there taunting us, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock,tick tock

*whimpers and turns clock to face the wall*
Queen Marie

I'm 'It' Again!

OK so I've been tagged again. GG tagged me and now I must offer some interesting facts about me. Um, that's tricky. After the first time, I really have ran out of stuff to tell you!

But first I have to tell you the rules of the game:

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged and to read the blog.

Now a lot of people of I'd perhaps have tagged have already been done. So instead, I'm going to open it up to anyone reading this blog who wants to be tagged. Just leave a comment telling the readers you've tagged yourself and we can all read about you. Yeah, I'm all about breaking the rules.

OK here goes - my random facts.

Random Fact 1:
I seem to be quite a good hairdresser. For some reason I can cut hair into proper styles. My father used to be a men's hairdresser when I was little and had his own shop. I used to sit in on Saturdays and watch him cut hair, and obviously I must have taken it all in, because I too can cut hair. I used to practice on my cousin Allana and my Mum. They had the best hair on our street!

Random Fact 2:
If my creative job dried up I'd like to be an archeologist. Although my love of history is somewhat at odds with my not liking having dirty hands. I could just wear gloves to dig I suppose.

Random Fact 3:
I have a tattoo

Random Fact 4:
I had (teeth) braces when I was 17 and I hated them so much that after a day I tore them off with pliers. My dentist was not best pleased.

Random Fact 5:
As many will know by now I love medieval history and I think it's because I grew up under the imposing glare of the ruins of a 12th century castle, slighted by Oliver Cromwell. An angle of the North tower remains. Part of the curtain wall can be seen and traces of later buildings remain. Filling much of the North side is what remains of the gatehouse. Little remains of the upper rooms, except one jamb of a fine fireplace.

I used to go nearly every day and climb around the castle and imagine who lived there. It has dungeons which were sort of blocked up, but you could get it if you didn't mind being in a foot of water. I once went down a few steps and saw the cells, but wouldn't go any further for fear of the whole thing collapsing on me!

The castle was important during the Scottish - English wars, and was scene to an infamous event known as Wallace's Larder. An English garrison was stationed at the Castle, and Wallace arranged a decoy fire in the village. When the English went down to investigate, Wallace and his followers stormed the castle. Wallace had the entire garrison slaughtered and thrown into the dungeon hence Wallace's Larder.

I believe that in some past life I had some connection with the castle, hence my strong attachment to it.

images from: http://www.scotlandone.com

Random Fact 6:
I believe in ghosts, aliens and I love a good conspiracy theory.

Random Fact 7:
The first thing I ever sewed was dress for my Sindy doll when I was about 11. It was based on a picture of a dress I saw Diana Ross wear.

So there you it. That's as interesting at it gets I'm afraid.

Now a lot of people of I'd perhaps have tagged have already been done. So instead, I'm going to open it up to anyone reading this blog who wants to be tagged. Just leave a comment telling the readers you've tagged yourself and we can all read about you on your own blog. Yeah, I'm all about breaking the rules.

Queen Michelle