Kingdom Of Style

Life With The Duchess

I love staying at the Duchess' house. It's proper old school with classic style wallpaper and lovely muted colours. Also, the palace is quite rural so we have the benefits of lots of land to play on. The downside is that it's so, so cold which means wearing all our clothes at once! My Prince is wearing two fleecey jackets and two cardigans and is currently the size of the Michelin man. I have been taking great pleasure in punching him because he can't feel it!

Queen Michelle

Wear Sound

Soundwaves are really important in our palace. My Prince is forever editing tracks he buys or has made and I have been familiarising myself with Traktor where the soundwave is the key to everything. So yes, we like a soundwave in our palace.

Sakurako Shimizu is a Japanese artist, curator and jewellery designer based in New York and she has created a line based on soundwaves called the Waveform Series.

Voices and sounds are recorded and the shape of the waveform they create are then laser cut into silver, gold or wood.

It's pretty geeky but I think the shapes the soundwaves makes is actually really beautiful and not instantly recognisable as being soundwaves.

Queen Michelle

Hear Her Rohr

Queen Marie and I recently have become excited once again by 'scraps'.

As children, like many others, we collected scraps and swapped them with friends. I didn't actually know that they are really meant for decoupage but upon discovering some in a book shop, we found out that that's their real purpose.

The ones we found were exactly the same designs as we had as children. As we excitedly flicked through the display we picked out the ones which our favourite. I always loved the cherubs and the floral ones, whereas Queen Marie was partial to the brides and grooms and the professions (little illustrations of children dressed up as doctors, miners, nurses etc).

The floral ones do hold a special place in my heart for some reason, especially if they big roses. It's the memory of scraps that make me able to wear all my pairs of Celeste Stein floral tights as they are almost identical in style to floral depictations in my scraps, because generally I'm not into florals.

It was this comparison that has also made me desperate for a pair of Anna Kathrin Rohr's and Saskia Hammen's floral leggings and dresses in their Copy of an Imitation collection.

I would be delighted to wear every single piece in her collection. The colours are gorgeous and the tailoring cannot be faulted. The crochet knit dresses, felted wool loop top, quilted jumpsuit and of course the printed leggings, all have we weak at the knees. Of course I won't be able to get my paws on any so I feel a DIY coming on.

Queen Michelle

Pile It Up

When it's so cold outside there really isn't much to do but pile up on layers and hope for the weather to become milder. I don't go too much for layering, unless it's for the purpose of adding texture or clashing prints, but winter does call for it.

However New York based designer Yigal Azrouel's SS09 collection is making me want to explore layering as I can imagine these clothes looking even better when piled up with each other.

I admit that his work is usually too classic for my tastes but I was pleasantly surprised by his latest collection.

Slouchy t-shirts, boyish waistcoats, coated black cotton tunics and cropped skinny trews, it's all perfect for piling up and slobbing around in after eating too many roast chicken dinners (which I have).

My life really needs an oversized grey sheer jersey t-shirt and I could even get on board with those 90's style pale blue jeans.

Queen Michelle

Garden Stealth

The Duchess' garden looks like a Victorian secret garden, with trees, plants, garden ornaments and little secret spaces. Today I have blended in with my surroundings and mixed my paisley pattern dress with some florals tights. A kind of flora and fauna stealth camouflage!

I really wish I had my own garden to blend into.

Queen Michelle

Sheer ReMixed

I wasn't really celebrating Christmas this year. I chose not to bother and let the festivities pretty much pass me by. I specified a no gift policy but of course Queen Marie couldn't resist just one. She renamed it a New Year present which meant I could enjoy opening it without feeling sad.

Since I am not in the position to buy Queen Marie a gift I have set about making her something instead. She doesn't know what it is but when it's complete I shall be sure to post the result.

I cheated a little and opened my pressie on the 24th Dec, not New Year, and was delighted to find a sheer black beaded dress with a lovely lilac slip underneath.

So pretty and girly. Clearly I was going to have to rectify that immediately. I took off a few inches from the dress, took away the slip and set about seeing if I could drape and hang it to make it a bit more 'distressed ballet dancer'.

DIY one shoulder t-shirt; Bleiht leggings; Pied a Terre shoes

DIY hood/scarf; random mauve vest (which may or may not have come free in a magazine); Bleiht leggings; Pied a Terre shoes

Ann Demeulemeester vest; Bleiht leggings; Pied a Terre shoes

By spending 10 minutes playing around with it I can see it's ripe for being hung in some pretty interesting ways. Exactly the kind of garment I get the most pleasure from.

Ideally of course I'd have a ballet dancers body to make the dress look even more ballet-like, but since I am currently sitting munching into my 4th home baked rock cake today, courtesy of the Duchess, I can't see me developing lithe limbs any time soon. 

Thanks dear Queeny!

Queen Michelle

Forgive me fashion! I have visited...

The Juicy Couture website.

*shudder*

I was on the hunt for this precious charm bracelet

I love all the charms especially the little bunnny. The 'Country Estate' bracelet will set you back $178.

I could use the little axe charm to start hacking the 'hell handbag' into a million plastic pieces.

You can buy it from eluxury.com which is jampacked with goodies.

Queen Marie

Let your burden be light...

Come ye, come ye, all those who are burdened and heavily laden.

Is your heart weary and your cupboards crammed full?

Are your life, your home and your heart overflowing with 'stuff'?

Emotional stuff, household stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff, every- sodding- where.

In life there are hoarders and chuckers.  Chuckers keep on top of things, get rid of all the things they don't want or need. They recycle, they regift, they organise their life to make sure they are not swamped by stuff.

Then there are the hoarders. 

Hoarding can be mild, middle of the road or downright crippling.

My name is Queen Marie and I am a hoarder.

With me it is clothes and shoes mainly. The problem is, I love my clothes, I don't want to throw them away. They are like friends to me. Even the ugly ones, or the ones that don't fit.  I am always sure that one day their day will come. It invariably does. But when you combine that with ornaments, wrapping paper, books, records, gifts to me, gifts waiting to be given to others, you've got a whole world of crap. Everywhere...

When you have this problem, you generally have two options-

1. Roll your sleeves up and tackle it practically or

2. Take it to the Lord in Prayer

Now at this time of years especially, The Lord and the Baby Jesus are pretty busy, so wouldn't it be great if there was someone else you could talk to. Someone whose specialist field was stuff. A patron Saint of Hoarding and Crap. 

Hallelujah here she is, Saint Marie...

Holy Crap! it's me...

This glorious shrine was made for me by the Saint who ordained me - Saint Joanne, The Patron Saint of Household Accidents.  You may know her better, by her everyday day name - Sister Wolf

I cannot tell you how excited and  touched I was by her gift. My first prayer, was one of thanks for the friendship of Sister Wolf. The shrine is shiny,glittery, holy it is a thing of wonder.  It seems pretty godammed sinful to be proud of your own shrine, but what can one do?

So Dear Friends, if you need help, you know who to ask. I understand only too well, the physical and mental elements involved, the lack of actual space and the lack of discipline

Remember that the space you create by releasing clutter will allow all kinds of gifts to flow into your life, on the physical, spiritual, and emotional levels. Letting go of excess makes room for blessings.

God Bless you and all your crap...

Saint Marie

xxx

Roll up, Roll up...

We Queens have many duties.

To inform.

To amuse.

To console...

If your Christmas was less than merry, if Santa seems to have got you mixed up with someone else, you have come to the right place. No matter how bad your gifts were, you can be sure of one thing. Mine were worse. They always are!  Long time friends of the Kingdom will remember wonky magazine racks, carpet sweepers, pensioner pj's.  Classics every one!

But this year, I may have hit a new height or plumbed a new low...

The Queen Mother and King, paid for a plumber to fix my bathroom tap a few weeks ago.  That may seem like a bad present, but it was actually what I asked for, as it was driving me insane. But my mum insisted I have a couple of 'openers' for the day. As I opened the parcel on Christmas day, I thought, 'hmm this feels like toilet roll'  Hmm that's because it was.  4 rolls of toilet paper.  But of course, no ordinary toilet paper, it is fragranced. Oh joy.  

Just when I thought things couldn't get better they did.

Parcel 2 - biscuits!  A box of biscuits...

Now truth to tell, the biscuits are pretty damm tasty.

Almost as tasty as the next gift...

Yesterday before he handed it over my brother warned me it was a 'monster'  He told me the psychosisterinlawfromhell had bought me a 'handbag that SueEllen from Dallas would have rejected for being too flashy'  He advised me to follow his lead and say, it was 'striking' Striking? that is one word for it.  Huge, heavy,hideous lump of plastic that's some more words for it...

Just in case, I didn't know what the monster was, it was labeled - 'HAND BAG'

Mmm smell the plastic people...

Queen Michelle will laugh until she is sick.

Now if you too are suffering from 'bad giftage' and don't know what to do, worry not.

I shall give you an answer on the Sabbath Day.

I promise, it will be an answer to your prayers...

Queen Marie

x

The Far East

Oooh here I am blogging from the Northern lands of Aberdeen! I have a wobbly wireless connection unfortunately so my blogging will be very sporadic indeed.

Unlike Queen Marie I have had no family christmas madness. Christmas here with the Duchess is a nice, quiet affair with the Royal hounds thoroughly enjoying easy access to a large back garden and me enjoying easy access to home baked rock cakes -

of which I have scoffed numerous so far.

Enjoying a bit of nature -

Eating my own body weight in chocolates and rice crispy cake -

I am pleased I don't have to deal with pooing and weeing toy babies!

Queen Michelle