Blogmas 20: A Very Merry Vintage Time Lookbook

Hanukkah, Christmas, winter, holidays...whatever your particular turn of phrase you use for this time of year,  it's a time of year for festivities and feasting and family and friends. Whether you like it or not it tends to lend itself to reflection, Christmas is the pre-drinks to the sobriety of New Year as Advent is the calm before the Christmas storm. 

I suggest it is a time for wearing something special and spending some of the bonus time you have to dress up, do your makeup, spend longer on that bathroom routine, or all of the above. This might also give you time for that reflection that seems to be in at the moment. Considering a change in the new year? Will the new year bells ring in a new look?

If it's a major life change or a simply swapping your go-to lipstick, have a ponder while trying out some new looks with some old inspiration. In the form of looks of vintage Christmas pasts, I give you Cashmere and Cushions merry vintage time lookbook!

A classic little black dress moment with Miss Audrey Hepburn

Go Loretta Young for full-on 1950's glam

Big floppy hat, big oversized coat, overdone red lips and you are ready for anything the season throws your way.

Vintage pinafore

A cute little girl dress or short dungarees in the right material and you're done!

Femme fatale - Belinda Lee

The original bunny girl outfit revisited for Christmas...for those Bridget Jones moments. Just be wise when choosing the day for wearing this one!

For the child (or Shirley Temple) within you, that wishes to conjure up the lore of Christmas Eve

Proving that simple, chic pyjamas can look great at any age.

Season's Greetings for every one of my lovely reader's, whether or not you have stuck with us for nearly 4 years or not!

Carpe Diem xx

Blogmas 15: Frozen review

In a world that at times seems almost dominated by the culture of the Disney multinational media corporation, the fact that Frozen burst into cinemas in November 2013 to greet the reception it did makes its success wholly tangible. For those out of the loop Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen sees its revisionist take in the form of a feminist, all-singing all-dancing ice-athon. Disney has taken on Andersen's fairy tales before, in the form of The Little Mermaid and others, but the treatment this one received - Broadway singer Idina Menzel, sisters doing it for themselves Elsa and Anna, court jester snowman Olaf - is entirely postmodern and joyful. 

In my opinion entirely worthy of its fame as the 'best Disney film in a decade'. So, if you haven't jumped on the filmic bandwagon quite yet, take yo 2014 stress, 'Let It Go', and make this one of your winter 2014 films to watch.

Carpe Diem xx

To check out my Little Mermaid post, follow the link below:

http://cupcakesandcosmeticsbyclare.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/image-httpmslitjunkie.html

Blogmas 12: Cashmere and Cushions Winter Warmers

First things first, getting formalities out of the way, welcome back! Welcome to my first post in about 2 whole months and the first of the Blogmas 2014 series. As it is officially 2 weeks until Christmas and I am in full-on Love-Actually-Christmas-countdown, Christmas carol singing mode (you have been warned!), here are my top DVD Winter Warmer picks: 

Gilmore Girls: "Love and War and Snow" (Series/Season 1: Episode 8) - 2000

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2) - 2011

Frozen - 2013

Review to follow!

It's A Wonderful Life - 1946

Review also to follow suit!

So snuggle up, watch out for 2-3 posts a week in the upcoming months, and tweet me using hashtag WinterWarmers or comment with your new favourite, family favourite, or unusual winter film/show picks. 

Carpe Diem xx

Into September: Desk Essentials

Carpe Diem x

Disney and the Happy Ending: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Image: http://mslitjunkie.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/little-mermaid1.jpg

The loving husband. The doting wife. The disneyfication of romance and relationships is not lost on everyone. Ariel, like every other Disney princess since time time immemorial, *SPOILER ALERT* gets royally hitched after her 1 hour 18 minutes aquatic adventure. First wavers (and second) would turn in their graves. The Little Mermaid (1989) was the first film I ever saw in the cinema, aged about five. It is one of the few Disney films that I have not regularly rewatched throughout my life since, so when I watched it again recently I did so alongside the Hans Christian Andersen original (1837). Stark, unforgiving and sprinkled with magic, the tale ends - SHOCK HORROR - differently to the film. Ariel doesn't get her happy ending. A 15-year-old mermaid who travels with a talking tropical fish and Jamaican crab in search of human love and a human soul? I'd still recommend it. At any age.

Carpe Diem xx

Review: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Cloud-men causing weather chaos with hailstones? A grasshopper that plays the violin? Set across the iconic metropolis backgrounds of London and New York, James and the Giant Peach tells the tale of James Henry Trotter and a ladybird, glow-worm, centipede and others, as they leave England to sail in a peach to America. 

My first exposure to this literary imaginarium was the 1996 film, which I was obsessed with and watched over and over again as a child. The book, first published in America in 1961, is justifiably more magnificent, with Quentin Blake's illustrations creating the classic we know today. 

The inclusion of several cultural landmarks, such as London Zoo, might be one of the many reasons why Dahl's treasure is included in The Telegraph's list of 15 best children's books. It would be a sin to slander this book in any way. So I won't. It's a gem.

Carpe Diem xx

And then there was July: A month in photos

For more photography see:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/claremcm/

Carpe Diem xx