Finally, as Brit, it warmed the cockles of my heart to see Her Majesty take a break from her busy year of Diamond Jubilee festivities to bring her own special magic to the Oscars ceremony.
(And yes, I do know Billy Crystal isn’t gay, but that would have spoiled the joke. And besides, I still have very fond memories of him as Jody in Soap).
A couple more Oscars posts I think and then we’ll get back to talking about knitting.
What was with all the nuns on the Oscars red carpet? Are they doing a remake of the Sound of Music or something?
Gwyneth went all Mother Superior on us – an utterly gorgeous dress though she’s not a good enough actress to make the born again virgin stuff convincing.
While Shailene Woodley turned up as the demure young penitent.
Gloriously, and rather randomly there was even a real nun walking the carpet. Mother Dolores is a former co-star of Elvis’ who now stars in a documentary about her life as a nun.
And speaking of the Sound of Music there were huge cheers at our Oscar party when Captain von Trapp FINALLY received his Oscar – a moment spoiled only by his refusal to lead the auditorium in a rousing chorus of ‘Edelweiss’.
(With honourable mentions to Princess Charlene and Gwen Stefani).
Appalling things obviously happened to the original dresses the following three ladies were going to wear, but adversity couldn’t dampen their determination to attend as they fashioned replacements out of stuff they had lying about round the house.
Fortunately Vicky Beckham is tiny enough to fit into one of David’s knee bandages without any need for alterations.
Melissa McCarthy did extraordinary things with waxed paper lunch bags, unbleached of course for added eco-friendliness.
Anne Sophie Bion resorted to that old friend the bin liner (trashbag if you must) and didn’t even try to disguise it. She’d be terrible on Project Runway.
Princess Charlene must have suffered some sort of awful accident as she made yet another attempt to escape her loveless marriage, but she still made it to the ceremony while wearing a neck brace.
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And poor, poor Gwen Stefani clearly had a terrible accident with the ketchup bottle at the Vanity Fair party itself but still soldiered womanfully on.
Every year many starlets model themselves on other, more successful, movie stars, hoping that a little of the magic will rub off on them.
Mena Suvari covers as many bases as she can by copying both a cartoon character AND a bird.
Some of the ladies took their inspiration from further afield. Both Michelle Williams and Angelina Jolie decided to channel icons of 19th century British literature.
It sort of doesn’t matter what Michelle wears, while she keeps with that gamine cut she will always be Oliver to me.
Angelina, poor girl, tried at every opportunity to divert attention from the wooden stump under her black velvet gown. Seriously, what was she thinking with all that ridiculous posing? Please tell me she was having a laugh.
Many ladies of course take their inspiration from birds for their Oscars attire.
Heidi Klum would be all kinds of useful if you were trapped in a coal mine.
While Anna Faris had struggled her way through an oil slick to be with us.
Unfortunately for Anna, Rose Byrne did oilslick black sequins much better than she did.
Yay it’s that time of year again, when we break off from the normal serious business of this blog and have fun at the Oscars.
First up, two ladies who this year took inspiration from the kitchen.
Jennifer Lopez decided to pay homage to the great British baking revival by coming as a cottage loaf, albeit one who needed who needed stronger tit tape.
Whereas Rooney Mara clearly had a team of Michelin-starred waiters fussing over her bosoms for days.
So there’s this adorably crazy lady out there who custom makes soft toys for kids based on their own drawings, which are totally and utterly and completely awesome. And I desperately want one for the Minx.
The only problem is that she can only make four toys a week, has a waiting list as long her arm (well, duh!) and is so swamped she’s not taking any new commissions until she’s found some other softie makers to help her. So if that’s you, please contact her pronto quick.
If it’s not you and you just want to commission one of her toys, please forget you ever saw this post. At least until the Minx and I are on the list.
Child’s Own Studio can be contacted here.
Are you watching the Oscars tomorrow? I’m going to an Oscars party, and hoping there’ll be enough crazy dresses for some ‘Separated at Birth’ posts on Monday. Have fun and keep your fingers crossed!
It’s taken me ages to put together my Blogshop review, mostly because I thought I ought to use some Photoshop to put it together and Photoshop still takes me an agonisingly long time. But the fact that I can do any Photoshop at all is a testament to the teaching skills of graphic designer and blogger extraordinaire Bri Emery and commercial photographer Angela Kohler, who together are the team who make Blogshop happen.
This workshop is billed as ‘where blogging and Photoshop totally make out’ and if you write any sort of visual blog, you’ll find the skills you learn here invaluable – from putting together photospreads and mood boards, to designing blog headers and social media buttons, to creating animated gifs and retouching photos (which is taught using professional photo portraits of the participants, taken by Angela). It’s the only course out then which focuses on Photoshop from the perspective of bloggers, so while it’s expensive it is so, so worth it.
It was great to meet up again with some groovy local bloggers – Cassandra from Coco+Kelley who hosted the whole event, Erin from Apartment 34 and the inimitable Uncle Beefy, who made us some utterly delicious churros (of which more hopefully next week). It was also a chance to make some new friends – Jennifer from Art & Lair, Lisa from With Style & Grace, Alisa from Alisa’s Garden and Shannon from Happiness Is… (who both sat at my table and were incredibly patient with my thousands of questions).
The amazing space (that turquoise wall is to die for) is the Fred Wildlife Refuge, a fabulous photography studio and event space on Seattle’s Capitol Hill; with all the props and accessories being provided by Scout Vintage Rentals. And I’ve already told you about the great goodie bag.
The one downside, and this is just a very personal opinion, is that, although the course is billed as being for beginners, it’s really quite challenging if you’re as much of a Photoshop ignoramus as I was. Bri and Angela and their two interns were patience personified, but I would have got more out of the course if I had previously been familiar with the layout and the buttons and the concept of layers etc. I feel like I do understand a lot of the basics now, but I’ve looked at the notes for some of the more advanced techniques we were shown, such as masking, and I am still deeply confuzzled.
But we’ll see, you may have noticed me using Photoshop in some previous posts and hopefully you’ll see things getting prettier round here over the next week or two. Just promise me that if you’re a complete Photoshop beginner and are thinking of doing this course that you’ll have a little play to familiarise yourself with the program first. This set of beginners’ tutorials from Mashable looks like it would be a great place to start .
Photoshop experts out there, how did you learn? Are there any books, courses or online tutorials you can recommend? I really want to get this thing LICKED.
On a final shallow note, Bri is just the most ridiculously photogenic person EVAH, thanks to her translucently pale skin, shock of platinum hair and the cute bright colours she wears. Here she is with Jennifer from Trophy Cupcakes, who was here to do the course and also injected cupcakes and gift cards into the proceedings. .
Oh, and I was just about to hit ‘publish’ when I found this video of the Seattle workshop on the Blogshop page. See if you can spot me peering in deep confusion at my screen (the silhouette above will give you a clue) or, if you’re really quick, the shot of me in a long ginger wig (additional clue below).
BLOGSHOP – Seattle from GMP on Vimeo.
Well I tried but all that was left on the website was a scarf and a pair of floral leggings and I think floral leggings are a bit too mutton-dressed-as-lamb even for me.
I’ve blogged about my love for Greek designer Mary Katrantzou before, so I was thrilled to learn that she was producing a limited edition capsule collection of nine pieces for TopShop. And my goodness they’re beautiful and so surprisingly WEARABLE, particularly the figure-skimming silk tunic and blouse.
I’ve started stalking eBay, but the prices are absolutely cray-cray. Please TopShop make some more!
Did anyone out there get any pieces? Are they as lovely as they look?
