The Diva

Rekha - India's Greta Garbo

 

 

A reluctant child star, Rekha is often described as a bit of an ugly duckling who turned in to a swan. Chennai born, she was apparently considered too dark and plump for the fashion of the day, but I've seen some of her early stuff and I call bullshit on that. Look at her in the video below, she looks divine. (Enjoy the marvellous moustachioed men heralding her entrance.)

 

 

She wasn't much interested in acting at the beginning, it was just a means of supporting her family but spurred on by the hurtful comments about her talent and her looks; she embarked on a strict diet and yoga routine, slimmed down, improved her Hindi and began choosing her film roles more carefully.

 

She starred in a lot of films with this guy and rumours did what they do and everyone started saying they had 'a thing going on,' which was super controversial because he was a married man... (gasp)

 

 

 

This culminated in a film that totally exploited the idea (way ahead of reality TV,) where Rekha played a character who was having an affair with the guy, popularly known as The Big B, and also starred Amitabh's real life wife Jaya, playing, you guessed it, his wife which enabled this deliciously tense scene of awkwardness to happen...

 

 

And they never made another film together again..

 

 But Rekha took her (alleged) broken heart and used all the FEELINGS to create the role that would become her most famous and define her in Bollywood hereafter. That of the beautiful, artistic but tragic courtesan Umrao Jaan 

 

 

She did a whole bunch of films after this, including a lot of independent and art house films.

Many subsequent leading ladies have claimed Rekha was an inspiration to them and her ability to sustain her career over the years has often been remarked upon. As has her seeming ability to resist the ravages of time....just by diet and yoga (naturally!)

 

 

 

Recently turned 61 #vampire

 

 

A true Bollywood icon. Her guarded privacy around her personal life gives rife to all sorts of speculations, like a continued devotion to Big B, and adds an extra aura of mystery about her. She's like a classic Hollywood star of old and is one classy lady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ten reasons why I fricking love Bollywood babe, Helen

A lady who exudes sass, sex appeal and seriously enviable dance skills.

Helen's family were poor and trekked from Burma to Mumbai when she was just a child, after her father died during the second world war.
 She was basically sent off to be a sexy dancer to support her mother and two siblings as they were penniless and starving; but she got her Bollywood big break at 19 years old, staring in Howrah Bridge.
 She was then a frequent sight on the Indian silver screen, one of the first big 'item girls,' women who primarily appear as dancers in films, rather than actors; although Helen did actually appear as an actor as well as an item girl in several films.

These songs are still great, as are Helen's performances, some of the images are a bit 'of their time,' though, which was generally the 60's in India...so a bit weird and inappropriate at times. Like the 1960's generally.

Here's a few extra reasons why she is FAB-U-LOUS............

The first - we've all been in the dumps where love is concerned at some point, (unless YOU are always the heartless cad we turn to drink over,) but we can't all rock it in a cage like Helen can! (Let's all just ignore the slightly creepy guy "Monicaaaa my darling-g)

The second - Can anybody else do wanton sexy gypsy lady better than Helen (I don't think so but I challenge you to find someone!) Those guys at the start are like "Oh yeeeah!)

The third - The woman is a party all by herself and can even make giant beach balls sexy, plus check out how she effortlessly skips over the jagged rocks! (clearly no health and safety on Bollywood film sets in the 60's)

The fourth - this should really be the first but oh well - not just a pretty face, the woman can dance! Four separate styles showcased here. Also four different languages, although that part is down to Asha Bhosle's vocal skills.

 

 

The fifth - say it with me..."Papaya Papaya Papaya!" ... "CocOnuuuut,"

 

 

 

 

The sixth - Only Helen could save this Bollwood meets Hammer Horror song and dance number. The song itself is surprisingly sweet considering the look of the scene. Look out for the cockatoo attempting to upstage Helen.

 



 

 

 

The seventh -  move over Coyote Ugly, can you balance a bottle of beer on a sickle? Our girl Helen can...

 



 

 

 

The eighth - need someone to just have a drink and dance with, Helen's got your back, check out the party pooper man towards end. Boo! You have no place in this scene, take your moody disapproving expression and begone!

 

 



 

 

 

The ninth - Helen's big break - mere naam chin chin chu shows off Helen's infectious dance style and versatile image, Howrah Bridge is a great film, style wise think Poirot but Bollywood.

 



 







The tenth -  I love me some Flamenco Helen and line dancing pirate men, what was Shammi Kapoor thinking though!! This one is a prime example of how hard the women have to work to compensate for the men often looking superfluous..

 

 

Basically - All Hail Helen - Queen of the Nautch Girls...



Comforting Crochet

The last few weeks have been very tough for me and unfortunately I haven't felt able to do many of the projects I had planned for my two weeks off work.

I did however manage to finish this crochet blanket I've been working on for my nephew's upcoming birthday.

 

I like the fairly simple repetition of crochet; unlike cross stitch, where you need to stay alert or risk a major error in the pattern; crochet allows you to relax and let your fingers do the work.

The Pirate King

I stitched this patch for my other half as he is a big fan of the One Piece manga and anime series. Straw Hat Luffy is his official favourite (I suspect buxom Nami is his real favourite though!)

I used soluble canvas so I could stitch it straight on to felt, it's fairly easy to use but you need to give it plenty of soaking time in hot water to dissolve the canvas afterwards or it ends up very sticky.

 

Yatta!

 

I plan to do a few more characters soon; if not the whole of Luffy's crew; at least Chopper as he's super cute and my personal favourite Nico Robin.

Divine Bathing...Lush Style

So Lush opened a brand new store in Oxford Street, London, a few months ago now; it's huge, has lots of exclusive products and a spa. (insert some kind of awe inducing sound effect here if you like, I am.)

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to go and see it yet (sadness,) but some of the exclusive products are beginning to come in to other Lush stores now (harumble! - you're only going to get that if you listen to 'Bleak Expectations' on Radio 4 - but never mind, I like it.)

Lots of stuff is still Oxford Street only for the moment so I was very grateful when one of my friends offered to pick me up some bits as she was making a pilgrimage of her own.

It was hard to know what to ask for as there were so many new things; more than I was even aware of to ask for; so I just picked a few of the cool sounding bath bombs and these are they...

 

Yoga Bomb, this is a beautifully warming and relaxing bath bomb that slowly fizzes away, revealing layer upon layer of bright colour and sparkling golden glitter. I used this in my hotel room in Glastonbury after an enjoyable but brisk climb up the Tor and back. I was more than ready for it, it was heaven. It's apparently good after exercise, like yoga, but also allegedly good for hangovers too.(You can get this one in other stores now - thankfully for those of us who don't live in London.)

 

The Sacred Lotus - This is a pretty but fragile bath bomb, designed to float in your bath like a lotus flower on an idyllic and clean pool, the sort you might see in a Bollywood song and dance scene, but rarely in real life. It has a heady floral scent, with a strong jasmine note, reminiscent of the Jasmin and Henna Fluff Eaze Hair Mask. This bath bomb hides a secret - silver glitter -  a lot of silver glitter. It looks very pretty, suspended in the lilac coloured water. The purple petals breaks off and slowly foam on the water while the yellow centre fizzes away, unveiling the sparkles. The overall effect is very calming and relaxing, creating quite a meditative bath.

Divination Reusable Bubble Bar - I haven't used this one yet, because, alas, I no longer have a bath, although I hope to rectify this in the future. I love the concept behind this one though, it's shaped like a pendulum and comes on a string so you can play with it like the real thing. The string is also very handy for holding the bar under running water so that you can get your bubbles. Reusable bubbles usually do at least three baths, often more, depending on how long you keep it under the water and whether you dry it out in between baths. It has a rose, amber and patchouli scent, invoking, appropriately, thoughts of incense and other mysterious magical things. Also, it looks really cool.

 

Finished and Framed (Finally)

After months of on off stitching and lots of pricked fingers along the way, I've finished my Goddess of Prosperity cross stitch kit by maia (anchor).

I fell in love with this kit as soon as I saw it, I'm a big fan of Chinese wuxia films (lush, epic, fantasy drama, usually with lots of death defying martial arts, magic swords and doomed tragic lovers,) and this image really brought those films to mind. In particular, a favourite of mine, I first watched when I was around 13, it's called 'A Chinese Ghost Story,' and the goddess here reminds me of the beautiful heroine, a tragic ghost spirit enslaved by an evil tree demon, seeking redemption (check it out, it's quite silly but very pretty.)

 Here are a few close ups of the work in progress, she's such a big piece that it's easy to loose the details when I try to take a picture of the whole thing. I was filling in the backstitch here, which in many ways is more fiddly than the cross stitches that make up the bulk of the picture.

Here is a close up of some of the lovely floral details which really came to life when I started on the backstitching..



Here she is just before I took her off the stitching frame and went to get her stretched and framed. It was the first time I've ever had something professionally framed, I usually just do it myself but the finished piece was long and thin and I couldn't find a frame that really fitted so I decided to take it to a framers as they could custom make the frame as well as stretch out the work and make sure it was straight etc...

I think with big pieces that take up a lot of time and that you want to last; it is worth the extra expense but I felt pretty nervous leaving her in the shop as the process took about a week and I was anxious about whether I would like the finished frame. Thankfully, I did.

The finished project on the wall...

 

 

 

 

Reasons why I love Glastonbury

Literally everyone has a dog..

Shops and cafe's, in accord, have no problem with you taking your pooch in to their establishments..

A man can walk down the street with an old fashioned bow and a quiver full of arrows and nobody even bats an eye..

You can wear whatever you like, however outrageous it might be perceived elsewhere and people still smile nicely at you when you pass each other..

Sunset up the Tor is a group event, sometimes strangers share snacks..

The chalice well gardens feel the need to have a sign asking people not to hold group ceremonies or drumming sessions inside the gardens...

It's totally cool to skinny dip in the dark and mystical pool of the white spring, as long as you arrange it with the elusive person who hold the keys to the gate..

Sunrise up the Tor is always memorable, whether you're watching a group of german ladies invoke the maid of avalon in rainmacks or being offered free champagne...

Overhearing other conversations while out for dinner; it's all astral projection, crystal cleansing and soul searching. Whether you're in to that or not, it's still more entertaining than the stuff you usually hear when you're not in hippy glastonbury..

I don't know if I believe in the power of the Ley Lines, but glastonbury is on one and it does have an atmosphere about it which you feel as soon as you get off the bus. A languid sort of feeling comes over you and it feels good!

Glastonbury probably has the largest collection of Indian and Tibetan stuff outside of India and Tibet...

It's so pastoral you feel like you're walking around in a poem..

Various religious and spiritual beliefs seem to rub along very amicably in a way that would be nice for the rest of the world to take note of..

The Tor, that big beautiful hill which once you're up there, literally takes your breath away and makes you forget the back breaking climb to get there..until next time anyway..

The Red Spring and it's surrounding garden, so beautiful, so peaceful and perfect to spend the day reading a book and feeding the blackbirds and magpies..

The White Spring, hidden inside a cave like building, echoing with the roaring sound of the spring bubbling up around you. A deep bottomless looking pool in the centre. You can feel myths coming to life in here..

In short, Glastonbury, I love your beauty, your history, your myths and spirituality. Your tolerance, your hippyness, your fearlessness and your craziness.

You're pretty awesome and I look forward to seeing you again next year.

Xxxx

For Fox Sake!

 

A cute little felt fox I stitched.

 

Here's hoping this iconic critter, synonymous with the British countryside and these days, our litter filled cities too; is left in peace and that the government doesn't go through with their crazy notion of making fox hunting legal again.  

Bringing in the May...

 

Bluebells, a surprise present from my new garden to me...

 

We moved in as winter began, so its only in the last few months that I have really had the chance or desire to start venturing in to the garden to see what is already here.  I'm trying to resist the urge to start planning and planting straight away, I want to give the garden time to show me what is already happily growing and which areas catch the sun throughout the day...

 

As tired as I am of hearing the cloying phrase "spring has sprung!" I do in fact, love spring, it's probably my favourite season and not just because it heralds in my birthday.  It's the stirring of new life; plants turning green, trees turning in to confetti, animals building nests and engaging in speed dating to produce cute mini versions of themselves. The light slowly returning and making you realise just how much you've missed it... Spring is exciting, it's a season of change, all things start to seem possible again The lethargy of winter isn't quite over but it starts to feel like it could soon be...

The blossom this year has been pretty spectacular with minimal rain and winds to crash the party and send everybody home early. The parks have been full of blossoming trees, garish daffodils and jewelled tulips. The crows are building their nests and all the tiny song birds are out and about...




Magnolias are one of my favourite spring blooming trees, there's just something so irresistible about their flouncy goblet shaped petals. Like land stuck water lilies, swaying in the breeze...

I bought this tree for my garden recently and I hope it will provide me with many beautiful clarion calls of spring for years to come...

 The new garden has two established trees and the masses of blossom on this pear tree promises a lot of fruit to come, possible more than we will know what to do with...

My Japanese maple tree has happily survived the winter and is starting to open up its dusky red leaves, the bright early morning sunshine and last golden rays of the sinking afternoon sun are the best times to view the plant and the play of light on the leaves is a thing of pure pleasure...
 

The Wishing Chair...

Once upon a time there was a girl who read a book called 'The Wishing Chair,' and after she read it, she decided she wanted her very own rocking chair. If it also flew her to magical places, that would be a bonus...

Well as rocking chairs were hard to come by back then, being decidedly "not on trend," and the girl had little means of her own, being very young and without the magic of the internet, she had no luck finding such a chair.

Many years passed and the girl grew up and became distracted by many other weird and wonderful things, but in the back of her mind was always the childlike desire to possess her very own wishing chair.

Finally there came a day when the girl realised that rocking chairs were finally "trending right now" but she realised to her dismay that they were either terribly expensive or cheap on eBay but many miles away and with "collection in person," as a condition of sale.

The girl almost gave up hope...

Then one day she found herself wandering  through a car boot sale when lo and behold, there amidst the dust and the dirt and the all pervading smell of fried onions that always seems to invade car boot sales, the girl spotted, at last, a rocking chair.

 

It was a thing of joy to her although up close she realised it was a little battered and most definitely what could be described as "pre-loved."

 

But no matter, armed with a trusty brush and a tin of so very purple paint, she was able to transform it in to a magical bohemian wishing chair of wonder and if it isn't quite able to physically sprout wings and fly her to mysterious places, at least she can curl up in it with a good book and imagine she somewhere far far away.

 

 

The End

 

Not just for Valentines...

Hearts! Who doesn't love hearts? They're such a pleasing shape, unlike the real thing...

 

I stitched this folk art inspired heart the other day on to a wooden pendant.

I like the contrast between the (literally) soft embroidery floss and floral motif; against the hard background material of the wood.

 

 

Bilbo and the Butterfly

I took a stitching project with me when I visited my parents the other day. Their little foxy dog was intrigued with my wooden butterfly pendant.

Stitching on pre perforated wooden objects is fun because you can immediately utilise the project without having to frame it or stitch it on to something else. This makes it especially good for jewellery and other accessories like key chains etc...

It can present different challenges to stitching on fabric though as there is no 'give' with the material. You cannot manipulate your needle and thread in the same way as you would with fabric. Starting off and finishing off can be a bit more of a fiddle and I think overall, you have to sacrifice a bit more thread to the project.

I'm very happy with the end result of my colourful butterfly pendant though.

 

 

Red or Dead or My Undying Love for Henna

I love Copperhead, one of the new shampoo bars from Lush Cosmetics; created to add shine for darker hair tones with red Persian henna for shine and condition and cocoa butter to soften the hair as well.

Coffee and roasted cocoa extract blend with Fairtrade vanilla absolute and vetiver oil to create a rich intoxicating fragrance, that is equal parts exotic spice market meets decadent chocolate temple.

I've used shampoo bars before, they are great for travelling as they are so light, make no mess and last for ages. However, as my hair is long, fairly thick and quite curly, I've found them a little too drying for regular use in the past. They can make my hair a bit fluffy.
I usually use Lush's 'Cynthia Sylvia Stout,' a liquid shampoo that adds weight and is good for shine but I wanted to try the henna shampoo.

I was initially a little sceptical about Copperhead, the henna aspect intrigued me; I'm a redhead and I use Lush's Rouge Henna to enhance my natural colour, creating a darker but brighter end result; but I wondered how much difference the shampoo bar could make with so little henna going on to my hair for such a short time.

I was wrong and was really impressed from my first use at how shiny my hair was afterwards and the cocoa butter really seems to have helped counteract the tendency to make my hair fluffy. In fact, after a few uses, I was asked by several friends at work if I had recently dyed my hair as it was so shiny. 

It's definitely become one of my favourite Lush products already and I think it will be one of my staple products from now on. 

I just hope they bring out a few more products in that delicious aroma.

More henna love below with the gorgeous mehndi I had done in Pushkar in India...

Totoro To-to-ro

The end of 2014 saw some big changes for me, biggest of all, moving house. Amidst all the upheaval of house moving, house unpacking and work being the busiest it is all year, I didn't find time to work on all the stitching projects I had planned.
However, with the year still fresh and currently rather sunny where I'm sitting, in spite of the rain, I've felt the urge to start crafting again.

What better way to be seduced back in to stitching than with this adorable little guy?

 



I'm a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki films and I love the sweetness of 'My Neighbour Totoro;' it may not be as sophisticated or dynamic as some of the later epic tales like 'Spirited Away,'  'Princess Mononoke,' and 'Howl's Moving Castle;' but it retains an understated charm that bears repeat viewings.
Totoro himself of course has gone on to be the definitive Ghibli icon and regardless of whether or not you buy in to internet rumours of dark, tragic implications throughout the film (denied by the director,) it's hard not to fall for the mountainous ball of fluff.

Bohemian Granny Squares

 

You know, the ones your bohemian grandmother would make, the one who spent her youth in Asia chilling out with Tibetan monks and learning yoga from a guru in Kerala. That one.

Using my new found crochet skills, I used up some bits of colourful wool that had been lying around FOREVER in my sewing basket.

 
 

These squares are all the same pattern but I tried to achieve different looks by changing the colours of the thread in different places and in different ways to create unique looking squares.

I hope to master a few new designs in the near future as I am planning to incorporate all my random squares in to one big blanket eventually.

 

Halfway to Heaven

I haven't been able to do much since I hurt my dominant hand last week while practising yoga. I've watched a few films but it seems odd not to be stitching at the same time.

I watched a film called 'Murder By Death,' on Netflix which is very much "of its time," with some painfully hammy foreign accents and Peter Cook pretending to be Chinese. I thought it would be a murder mystery like Poirot or some other Agatha Christie style of film. It was supposed to be hammy and slapstick but seemed to be somewhere between Monty Python, without the cleverness and a Carry On film. 

I had to follow it with the French biopic of Edith Piaf, 'La Vie En Rose,' to feel better about myself. That was good, if a little bleak. Gerard Depardieu seems to have stopped aging a few years back.

 I also watched 'Ishqiya,' a really enjoyable Bollywood black comedy thriller starring the always wonderful Vidya Balan, she's such an interesting actress to watch and seems to have a good eye for unusual box office success stories. I look forward to catching the sequel.

 

 

 

 

Well this ends week one of the torn ligaments saga, hopefully after a second week of wearing the itchy wrist support of restriction, everything can go back to normal and I can start stitching again.

 

 

 

Here are some progress pictures of a big project I've been working on, I've done over half of the cross stitches but there will be a lot of detailed backstitching and French knots before it's completed.

 

She's an oriental goddess of prosperity, another Maia creation.

 

I loved her the minute I saw her, not least because the image reminds me of a long time favourite film of mine, 'A Chinese Ghost Story.'

 

Incidentally, Xena Warrior Princess owes a debt to that film for some of its plot lines.

My Heart!

What an unfortunate week I've had, managing to tear the ligaments in my right arm doing yoga wrist stretches.

YOGA FAIL

In all my years of practising yoga, I've never managed to injure myself to this extent. I feel kind of foolish and also disbelieving, plus ouch!  

I have to wear a wrist support for two weeks and as I'm right handed, this is a pain in all the ways...

In desperate boredom I decided to have a go at a small cross stitch project, using my left hand to do the stitching. I had to call upon the assistance of my partner for some needle threading though and I probably still overworked my right hand a little, it's hard to break the habit of a lifetime.

This was the first time I'd stitched on perforated paper and I liked it, very useful for stitching cards I imagine. The only tricky part was initially securing the thread to the paper as I couldn't use my usual  fabric based method.

I've always envied the ambidextrous ability many left handed people possess in a world that doesn't want to acknowledge their existence. I envy it even more right now, though my feeble left hand is doing its best.

Here's hoping the next two weeks fly by and my wrist heals quickly and properly so I can get back to stitching and yoga.

Bollywood Does Shakespeare Beautifully

The tagline for this film is "a love story like no other," which is a little strange given that it's a reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet but it's Bollywood so it doesn't have to make sense.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Romeo and Juliet is the most adapted Shakespeare play out there, but I'm too lazy to check that fact right now.

It's directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and as I'm a big fan of several of his other films, 'Devdas' and  'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,' being my personal favourites, I was very excited to be able to watch this at the cinema.

It's big, bold, brash, beautiful and surprisingly risqué for a big Bollywood film, I've seen actual kissing in a few independent / art house type Hindi films but the mainstream still seems to prefer dramatic eye gazing to lip on lip action. I don't really mind this as I think sex is overused in film anyway but it's still nice to see some boundaries being pushed regardless.

There's nothing here a western audience would bat an eyelash at but you only need to read youtube comments branding it as porn, to see how challenging the actors, particularly the lead actress, probably found some of those 'intimate' scenes. Women, as is the norm pretty much everywhere else in the world too, get most of the hassle in Bollywood. Their reputations are more easily damaged in the eyes of their peers and the audience choosing to watch or avoid them.

So it makes me really happy that the actress Deepika Padukone seems to be doing very well in Bollywood right now, Ram-Leela and her other recent film choices have pushed her in to the top spot and she seems very much to be the actress in demand.

Ram-Leela is the kind of film where you know, more or less, what's going to happen but the clever thing about it is that you still find yourself caring about what's going on and hoping for a happy outcome even though you know it's not possible because...remember...you're watching 'Romeo and Juliet' not 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'

The location, the costumes, the music, all conspire to make you feel like you're lost in a crazy world where it could be set a hundred years ago for the most part, but then they pull out their mobile phones, drive cars and mix modern jeans with classic gagra choli's and gorgeous layered lehengas.

I'd kill for all of Leela's outfits in this film, also for her dancing skills.

I enjoyed spotting some places I visited in Udaipur during some of the scenes as well, even though it filled me with an intense longing to be there.

Misako

The most ambitious cross stitch design I've completed to date, (dragon aside.)
A beautiful design from Maia, part of a set of kits inspired by traditional Japanese art with a contemporary twist. I love the Art Nouveau addition to the traditional oriental elegance.

The intricate background was a challenge for me, lots of careful counting was needed as well as a great deal of patience.
I find shading in the squares of stitches I've already completed on the pattern sheet is very helpful to remember where you are, so when you pick the pattern back up after a while, you know what you've done and how much you need to complete.
However, I may have to find a new method for when I start following some patterns from my embroidery books as the idea of drawing in any book makes me distinctly uncomfortable.

There wasn't a great deal of backstitch to do with this design, which meant once I finished the cross stitches, it didn't take long to finish the rest.
She took me quite some time to finish overall, especially as I tend to stitch on and off in general, sometimes spending weeks stitching regularly and sometimes letting projects sit in a cupboard for a few months.

I'm very happy with her though and hope to get her professionally framed at some point to best preserve all my hard work.

By george I think she's got it...

After many, many attempts, my brain seems to have finally allowed me to grasp the basics of crochet, yarn round the hook and all that. Enough to practice some double and treble crochet knots and some tentative attempts at circular crochet at least.
 I've still a long way to go before I'm showing off / boring you with dozens of pictures of adorable amigurumi critters; but I've mastered some basic granny squares and so I was able to create this giant granny square blanket, in preparation for my new nephew, due next month. (Hope he likes it!)