First Night Design | Mandarin ducks will “mate for life and…”

Re-blogging because I’ve just sold another of these cushions!

First Night Design

Mandarin Duck Throw Pillow

I was chuffed to sell this Mandarin Duck Throw Pillow over Christmas. It is a piece of ancient Asian art that I am particularly fond of. According to a quote from children’s writer Katherine Paterson on GoodReads (the only quote about mandarin ducks on the site!), these birds “mate for life and will die of loneliness if separated from their chosen mate”. Yes, I’m a sucker for evidence of loyalty.

The image is available on many other products at the following galleries:

Zazzle USA
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

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“But you have no chocolate!… My dear, how will you ever manage?” – Art of Quotation

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal

“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you.
But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?”
Madame De Sevigne ( Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne)  French, writer…

via “But you have no chocolate!… My dear, how will you ever manage?” – Art of Quotation

“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to…” – Art of Quotation

“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.” — Oscar Wilde, Irish, writer, playwright, novelist, essayist, poet

Source: “A writer is someone who has taught his mind to…” – Art of Quotation

Keep Calm & Then Scream Tea Cup | Zazzle #Sold!

Style: Bone China

Ready for your coffee, tea, soup, cider, or other tasty beverage, this fine porcelain mug complements both casual and formal table settings. It features a subtly fluted rim and an elegantly curved handle. Serves as a great housewarming gift!

• Dimensions:
  • Height: 4″
  • Diameter: 2.8″
  • Capacity: 10 ounces
• Microwave and dishwasher safe
• Strong, ceramic construction
• Meets or exceeds FDA requirements for food and beverage safety

Source: Keep Calm & Then Scream Tea Cup | Zazzle

Take care and keep laughing!

“Photography, like alcohol, should only be allowed to those who can do without it.”

“Photography, like alcohol, should only be allowed to those who can do without it.” – Walter Sickert, German, painter, printmaker

Source: “Photography, like alcohol, should only be allowed to those who can do without it.”

First Night Design | Dame Gladys Cooper #Quote #Actress #Cards

Miss Gladys Cooper [1888-1971] in Fancy Dress Greeting Card by FirstNightVintage

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Looking into a mirror on her deathbed: ‘If this is what virus pneumonia does to one, I really don’t think I shall bother to have it again.’ IMDb

I do hope this is not apocryphal!

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Miss Gladys Cooper [1888-1971] Greeting Card by FirstNightVintage

Unless you’re a theatre buff, you will probably only know Gladys Cooper for her grand ladies on screen such as Bette Davis’ mother, Mrs Henry Vale, in Now, Voyager or Beatrice Lacy in Rebecca.

In Now, Voyager (1942) [Wikipedia]

I always find it enchanting to see how beautiful these wonderful actresses were in their younger days. Have you ever seen a photograph of Ethel Barrymore when young? I think you’ll be surprised. Which reminds me that I have a terrific theatre postcard of her brother John with which I must do something before the century turns.

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | James McNeill Whistler #Quote

Self-Portrait by James Abbott McNeill Whistler [Wikipedia]

Oscar Wilde: “I wish I had said that.”
Whistler: “You will, Oscar, you will.”
― James McNeill Whistler

Is it apocryphal! To find out more about this very famous quote, click here.

Related

• The Monty Python Oscar Wilde Sketch

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Love is Not Love… Tote Bag #Valentine

Love is Not Love… Tote Bag © Sarah Vernon

A very quick post to tell you I’m back! Yesterday was exhausting as I waded through thousands of emails. To say I’ll catch up with your posts from the last few days would be extremely stupid as I know from experience that it just ain’t gonna happen. But I hope to start afresh today.

SONNET 116

[The italics denote which part of the sonnet is quoted on the bag.]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | “It’s discouraging to think…” #Coward

Portrait for Noël Coward’s last Christmas Card

“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” Blithe Spirit, Noël Coward

Take care and keep laughing!

W. H. Auden Says It Best!

FROM THE ARCHIVE 15th January 2013

Portrait of W.H. Auden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was rather amused the other day to read this quote by the poet  W.H. Auden:

“We are here on earth to do good unto others.  What the others are here for, I have no idea.”

Auden’s poetry certainly does me good.  However, if I never hear Funeral Blues (Stop All the Clocks) again—the poem read by John Hannah in Four Weddings and a Funeral—it will be too soon!  Read it, yes.  Hear it at funerals, no!  A friend of mine, an actor and Anglican priest (a rather marvellous combination and a rather marvellous friend), says there has been no lessening in the number of funerals using Funeral Blues or, for that matter,  Robbie Williams’ Angels.  No comment!

The Auden I love above all else is Night Mail.   Predictable of me?  Perhaps.  Give yourself a treat and…

Source: W. H. Auden Says It Best!

Colette says:

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.”

Source: Colette says:

First Night Design | Silhouette Sunset #Photography

Silhouette Sunset © Sarah Vernon Buy at Redbubble

One can get very sick of sunsets. At least, I can. It’s rare for me to find a sunset photograph exceptional. I find Silhouette Sunset exceptional and I can say that with impunity because it was captured by Mr FND and not me! He took it from a beach on the Akrotiri Peninsular in Crete, near to where we live. Looking at makes me exceedingly peaceful.

Silhouette Sunset Laptop Skin © Sarah Vernon

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‘When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.’ Mahatma Gandhi

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Silhouette Sunset Cushion © Sarah Vernon

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Quotation #3 – Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet

This is my third and final quote for the challenge Jane Morley invited me to join — thank you, Jane!

Jane started with a Winnie-the-Pooh quote and I cannot finish the challenge without adding A.A. Milne’s silly old bear.

E.H.Shepard

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered.

“Yes, Piglet?”

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.” 

Here are three lovely people with three lovely blogs I’m tagging for the challenge. Dear friends, if you are pressed for time, please don’t feel you have to take part.

• You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the photography of Cindy Knoke. Whether a flower, a rose, a hippopotamus or an elephant, Cindy has a way with a lens that puts many photographers in the shade.
• Peter from Counting Ducks has a ready wit when it comes to the foibles of human nature. You will find yourself laughing and crying when you read his stories.
• Katherine Scrivens is a Bristol-born artist who lives in Denmark. While she is known for her silhouette paintings, the great thing about Katherine is that she is always up for changing her style. At the moment, for instance, she is taking her inspiration from Holbein.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Quotation #2 – Motele in Auschwitz

Following Jane Morley‘s tagging of me for this challenge, my second quote is also something I stencilled on that bathroom wall I mentioned yesterday! It is part of a poem written by an eight-year-old boy, Motele, which was published in a Warsaw Ghetto newspaper, Gazeta Zydowoska, and translated from the Yiddish by Dr. Marie Syrkin. Dr. Syrkin included it in her book, Blessed is the Match: The Story of Jewish Resistance. Motele did not survive.

Child survivors at Auschwitz [Wikimedia]

From tomorrow on I shall be sad – from tomorrow on.
Not today, no! Today I will be glad.
And every day, no matter how bitter it be, I will say:
From tomorrow on I shall be sad, not today!

It is an anthem for life and despite its sad provenance, it lifts my spirits immeasurably.

Here are three lovely people with three lovely blogs I’m tagging for the challenge. Dear friends, if you are pressed for time, please don’t feel you have to take part.

• Anne of Vanilla Rock posts recipes for the most delicious food and works wonders with a Thermomix, a kitchen gadget about which I had never heard until I discovered Anne’s blog but that I now yearn to buy. You’re in for a treat!
• Writer Adrienne Morris of Nothing Gilded, Nothing Gained posts about America’s Civil War, the setting for both her novels, providing fascinating historical snippets that feed my passion for history.
• Silver Screenings is my idea of heaven. I was drawn into classic British, French and American movies as a child, so much so that I almost didn’t go on a school cruise when I was a teenager because one or other of the TV channels were to show Stagecoach with John Wayne and Clare Trevor while I was away. There was, of course, no way to record in the early ’70s. If your passion matches mine, you’ll love this blog.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Quotation #1 – Rose Macaulay

Undiscovered Country © Sarah Vernon

The beautiful Jane Morley from View from a French Hillside has nominated me to take part in a quote challenge, which requires three quotes over three days and the tagging of three other blogs each day. If you want to revel in glorious photography (available as greeting cards) taken in an around her French home, I can highly recommend a visit to her blog. There’s a tea room, and a boutique — Galerie de La Maison — attached should you find yourself in South West France!

Rose Macaulay

My first quote is from the British writer Rose Macaulay [1881-1958] and is one that I stencilled in old gold around the petrol green wall of the bathroom in my second London flat. I say it to myself every time I look at the mess around me!

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“At the least, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.” Rose Macaulay

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If you visit the artist Clive Hicks Jenkins’ blog, you will discover gorgeous photographs of the Macaulay family home in Wales which now belongs to Clive and his partner Peter.

Here are three lovely people with three lovely blogs I’m tagging for the challenge. Dear friends, if you are pressed for time, please don’t feel you have to take part.

• Life in Russia — An American living in Russia cannot help but have a different perspective. We are fed so much manipulated rubbish about Russia that it is a breath of fresh air to read about the reality. Look out also for his beautiful re-telling of indigenous fairy tales.
• Gigi of Rethinking Life is a hoot. She posts photographs of flowers and her beloved Chicago, ponders on the nature of politics and peace, and writes charming, life-affirming tales with some unexpected stings that gladden the heart.
• Juli at juxtaposed skewers the appalling state of UK politics with her cutting verse and biting comment and is not to be missed.

Take care and keep laughing!