Five Favourite French Books

In just five short days I will be on my way to France, and three weeks of European summer! Although I’ve travelled a fair bit I’ve never been to Europe. Apart from wanting to live in England one day, I’ve always wanted to visit France. Probably since the first time I saw Madeline, when I was about six, I’ve wanted to go there. It’s a school trip and I’m extremely excited. We are going to Paris, Rennes, Bordeaux, Nimes, La Ciotat, St Malo, Tours, Carcassonne, Arles and Nice. As there are five days to go I decided to make a list of my top five favourite books set in or about France.


1. Memoirs of a Showgirl - Shay Stafford

Shay Stafford was a girl from Brisbane who moved to Paris to work at the Moulin Rouge and then the Lido. I happen to love this book so much because not only is it about moving to Paris it’s a showbiz memoir. The fact she comes from the same city as I do also makes me realise anything’s possible! She wrote the book with the help of her husband who wrote the next book on my list.





2. A Town Like Paris: Falling in Love in the City of Light - Bryce Corbett

Bryce Corbett (wife to Shay Stafford) is an Australian journalist who moved to Paris when he applied for a job there, on a whim, while working in London. One of my favourite chapters in this book is when he talks about going to Italy one weekend for a festival where there is a huge tomato fight in the streets.





3. Madeline - Ludwig Bellman

As I mentioned earlier, as a child I loved Madeline. The fact that I’ve wanted to go to France for so long and the fact I chose to study French in high school I put down entirely to Madeline’s influence. I wanted to live in a house “all covered in vines” so badly. I can still recite bits of dialogue from the TV show by heart, let alone the songs.





4. Eloise in Paris – Kay Thompson

I love Eloise no matter where it is set, but Eloise in Paris is my favourite of the series. Eloise is a girl after my own heart. How can you not love someone who thinks linguine makes admirable fake nails? The fact I love these books may point to me having a slightly childish sense of humour, but I’m not bothered. If you have seen the movie but not read the books I would urge you too. The movie – even if it does have both Gavin Creel and Julie Andrews in it- is, in my opinion, not nearly as good as the books.





5. Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux

Written in 1909 this book was, of course, the inspiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical. I think this book is a must read for any fans of the musical. However, don’t expect it to be like the musical, it’s much more gruesome. It’s a gothic horror rather than a romance. The plot of the musical does also differ quite a bit from the original novel. Even if you’re not a fan of the musical I would recommend this book. It’s nice and creepy without being terrifying or totally disgusting.

Eton Mess

The other day I put my culinary skills to the test, In order to make dinner for my Grandma’s birthday. For the main course I made Moroccan chicken with couscous. I love couscous. For desert I made Eton Mess. I’ve been meaning to try to make Eton Mess for ages now. It’s a meringue based desert usually with strawberries and cream. It’s an English dessert that dates back to the 18^th century. It’s traditionally served at Eton College’s annual cricket game against Winchester College, hence the name.

I was wearing this apron, which I made from this tutorial, for the first time. Everything went fairly smoothly. There was an incident where I may have almost set the fire alarm off, but let’s not dwell on that! I made the mess using a recipe from The Delicious Miss Dahl but with berry compote and fresh strawberries. I made my own meringues too.

It was very well received.

My sister like it so much her eyes turned red, wierd.

Last Sunday's Outfit

I do realise that it is currently closer to the approaching Sunday than the previous Sunday, but better late than never, right? So this is what I wore last Sunday. I am much more a skirts girl than pants and I didn’t really have any non-denim long pants, until I bought these! I’ve only worn them once and I already love them. There is so much fabric used in each leg that they swish when you walk. It’s like you get the advantages of pants and a skirt all combined in one garment. It does actually look like I’m wearing a skirt if I stand still. I don’t think I’ll be wearing them with a black top though or I may end up looking like a witch.

I like to think the pants look quite 1930s. Although I’m sure they’re much wider than they would have been in the thirties. They remind me of something a glamorous young suspect in an Agatha Christie novel might wear.

(picture from Natasha Bailie Blog )

This is just how wide these pants legs are!

Beret: Barkin’s

Belt: Target

Sweater: Vintage

Pants: Dotti

Coat: Katie’s

Saturday’s Outfit 21/05/11

I have new shoes! I bought them last weekend at Novo in the city, but Saturday was the first time I’d worn them. I’ve wanted a pair of brogues for simply ages. It was actually quite hard to find any in Brisbane. I was so excited when I found these.  I hardly took them off all day Saturday. I just wore them around the house. I wore them to a dance shop and one of the ladies there said she really like them and asked if I was a rock and roll dancer. I wish! I’d love to be able to do a Lindy Hop or the East Coast Swing, but I guess I’ll be sticking to tap for now.

Top: SES

Shorts: Dotti

Tights: Myer

Shoes: Novo

Autumn

I often wish I lived in Europe, but especially during autumn and winter. We just don’t have a proper cold season in Queensland. I much prefer winter to summer, unlike most of my friends. However, I think autumn has always been my favourite season. When I was little this was just because my birthday was in autumn, but now I appreciate how pretty everything is in autumn. It’s also not as ridiculously hot in autumn so you can wear scarves. I love scarves.

 We’ve had an unusually wet autumn this year, but I love the rain so I don’t mind. Unfortunately there aren’t really many of the amazingly coloured trees that make autumn so great near our house. We do have one deciduous tree in our yard so I took a photo of it. It looks a bit lonely though.

Outfit Post

Ooh ah, it’s my first outfit post! You’ll have to be lenient and excuse my inexpertise. I managed to not get my shoes, or my very cool tights, in any of the photos I took. I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to camera timers. I took the photos in our garden.

Skirt: op shop

Shirt: SES

Cardigan: SES but I decorated it

Scarf: Some shop in Melbourne

Handbag: I bought it in China at the markets

I Think I'm in Love...

Burberry Acoustic is my latest obsession. Basically, the clothing brand Burberry has this promotion where they dress bands up in their clothes and film them playing acoustic covers of their songs in picturesque locations. Not only do the videos sound absolutely fantastic but they look gorgeous too. To me Burberry has always been representative of a quintessentially English brand and these videos are just the same. Watching them makes me long to be in England, it just looks so pretty. Most of the artists seem to be relatively unknown British bands with awesome accents. They also tend to be quite cute, which is always a plus.

See the entire playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=53FCE734F52B7B6C

Oh No Not Again

Yes I'm afraid it's another Royal Wedding Post, but I just found this very interesting article over at The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century all about the flowers in Kate's bouquet and their traditional meanings.

My brother also found this awesome picture. I don't know who made the picture or where it came from, but it's so cool!

The Royal Wedding

Come on; don’t pretend you weren’t even a little bit curious. Although I wouldn’t call myself a royalist or anything I was pretty excited for “The Wedding of the Century” or whatever they’re calling it now. Why? I just love princesses and pretty dresses – I’m essentially still a four year old girl at heart. I love all things Disney princess related and The Princess Diaries is still one of my favourite movies.

I watched the entire ceremony and I really enjoyed it. The guests looked great (perhaps with the exception of Princess Beatrice’s Hat), the music was wonderful and there were trees inside the Abbey!

What was she thinking...

Of course what we were all waiting for was the first glimpse of Kate’s dress.

I though it looked amazing: elegant and classy but not so understated that it was boring. I’ve always been a fan of Chantilly lace so I loved the sleeves on Kate’s dress.  Apparently the dress details a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock to represent each nation of the UK, but I couldn't see the dress well enough to notice.The dress had a very classic, timeless appeal to it, some have pointed out its similarity to the dress Grace Kelly wore when she wed Prince Rainer of Monaco.  I think it is the kind of gown that will still look beautiful 50 years in the future. I also thought her veil was particularly lovely.

My favourite thing from the wedding has got to be this though. Cartwheeling Clergy Caught on Camera

Pictures from newsodrome.com , kidzworld.com , downeu.com and abreakingnews.com

Steal like an Artist

Austin Kleon describes himself as "a writer who draws" and he's probably most well known for his book Newspaper Blackout which is a collection of poems created by blacking out words in newspaper articles.

Instead of starting with a blank page, poet Austin Kleon grabs a newspaper and a permanent marker and eliminates the words he doesn’t need.—NPR’s Morning Edition

The other day I read this article on his blog and I think it's great. He talks about the idea that nothing is original and that in fact we are "the sum of our influences" and nine other things he wished he'd known earlier.

The Article:  How To Steal Like an Artist(And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)

Image from http://www.austinkleon.com/

Hello

Hi, my name is Rosemary. I’m 17, in my finale year of high school (yay!) and this is my blog. Unfortunately I can’t actually travel in time. The name of my blog was a suggestion from my Mum, because I love cool, old things but mainly because I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Doctor Who.

So, a little more about me: my passion is music, in particular musical theatre. I love to read: a bit of everything really, but some of my favourite authors are Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh and J K Rowling. As I mentioned previously I LOVE Doctor Who, some other TV shows I like include: Beautiful People and The Mighty Boosh. If you hadn’t already noticed, I’m a little obsessed with all things British. I also love old Hollywood films, in particular the musicals, and vintage fashion.

I’ll probably be using this blog to talk about a mix of these kinds of things. So if you actually hung around to read what I just wrote Hi, nice to meet you!