Serving her country the best way she knows how.

via

Photography by Eugenio Recuenco

Lovely, isn't she?

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono so, we had quite a fight.

The musical greatness that was Grey Gardens played its final performance on Broadway on July 29, 2007 so, my dream of seeing it never came to fruition because well, the time just was never quite right. Anyway, Grey Gardens took its premise mostly from the 1975 documentary of the same name.

This film followed Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her equally eccentric daughter, little Edie , who were the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her sister, Lee Radziwill and American socialites in their own right.

As a young mother, "Big Edie" pursued a singing career, hiring a personal accompanist and playing private parties for the most part. Edith's husband, Phelan Beale, abandoned her and his three children, (little Edie had two brothers) when she was 35 therefore, she was forced to depend upon her immediate family, the Bouviers, to support her along with her children.

Little Edie modeled clothes in department stores as a young girl and she attended the Spence School and graduated from Miss Porter's School in 1935. She resided in New York City and lodged at the Barbizon Hotel for Women from 1947-1952. At that point, she returned to the family home, Grey Gardens, to live with her mother. She never married claiming in The Beales of Grey Gardens a documentary follow-up released in 2006, that she always seemed to be drawn to Sagitarians, a bad match for a Scorpio such as herself.

In their later lives, these two women became notorious recluses living in squalor with more than 50 cats and virtually no indoor plumbing. At one point, the department of health interfered and cousin/niece Jacqueline invested over $30,000 in the attempt to clean the place up.

There is much more to be learned about these ladies and many hilarious anecdotes and tidbits of wisdom shelled out in large quantities by little Edie in the aforementioned film but, as my offering, I bring you the incomparable Christine Ebersole in her portrayal of Edie Beale performing Revolutionary Costume for Today as seen at the 2007 Tony Awards :


Inspiration for this number was taken from this:


Little Edie, I loveth thou.

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

Imposter princess.

I thought this was pretty fascinating:


This is a sketch of a woman whose real identity was Mary Baker. In the early 1800's, Mary decided that she was going to go to a town in England and pose as a princess of a fictitious foreign island which she called "Javasu" and claimed that it was located somewhere in the Indian ocean. She even spoke her own "language".

She did a pretty swell job of it too because, the inhabitants of this area gave Mary the royal treatment for 10 weeks before she was ratted on by a woman known as Mrs. Neale who ran a lodging house in Bristol where "Princess Caribou" had stayed under her given moniker.

As it turns out, this woman was never charged with any crime and she later settled in England under her rightful name.

Pretty wild, huh?

If you could, who or what type of person would you like to be for a week, just to get a taste of a different lifestyle?

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista.

Late Night Friday Fill-Ins.

1. Traveling throughout Europe, especially Britain and Italy, is high up on my bucket list.
2. My favorite quote is "The important thing in life is our relationship with other human beings. It's not what we set out to get, but how we go about the daily task of living." and it's from Lucille Ball.
3. Noone really inspired me to start blogging, just the fact that I wanted a spot for me to store things that inspire me, stuff that brings a smile to my face, and I wanted to be able to have a record of my thoughts which often get jumbled up all together in my head and its quite a task to sort them out.
4. Strawberries are best at breakfast.
5. Nothing was very positive in the last dream I remember having but, it wasn't exactly a nightmare.
6. The most enjoyable time to go for a walk is early afternoon, say 2:00.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to absolutely nothing, tomorrow my plans include finally going for a swim in the pool and Sunday, I want to finish my book!

Did you participate in Friday Fill-Ins today? Link to your responses in the comments!

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista.

Reminds one of Hitchcock.

LOVE These from Jacques Olivar :
Uno.


Dos.

Tres.
via Fashiontainment

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

Teddy Girls, a forgotten subculture.

As I was going through my reader this morning, I happened across this post at Behind the Curtain. I was so surprised because, this is the first time I've ever heard anything about teddy girls. I'm not one to toot my own horn but, I'm pretty knowledgeable about life and society in the 1940s-50's. It may be due to the fact that this movement seemed to be focused in and around London for the most part and I tend to go for Americana.

Anyway, I was intrigued and decided to dig around a bit. Its true, not much is known about the typical teddy girl. As far as I can tell, they were considered rather dense and frivolous in their time. Oh, how stereotypes do prevail! There was no set wardrobe but, pencil skirts and pointed shoes known as "winkle pickers" were all the rage as seen here:



Winkle Pickers


The above article is just about the only thing I came across that had any somewhat detailed information on what this lifestyle entailed. Their male counterparts, known as teddy boys should give us the jist of what these kids stood for.

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

I can't recall where I fond this

but, its lovely and it cheers me up.


Sunny Side Up!,
Krista