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!