A Glimpse of Marilyn Monroe

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Marilyn Monroe, National Portrait Gallery, Vintage style icons

Last weekend saw a trip down to London for my best friend’s birthday. Such a fab evening out to celebrate a very special lady. Before we went out I took the time to hang out with the rents and my lovely sister. We went on a bit of a whim to the National Portrait Gallery, there were two exhibitions that we had a look at… The Royal Family Portraits, “that” picture of Kate Middleton and finally the Marilyn Monroe picture exhibition. All three were really good. Not entirely sure about the Kate Middleton painting but hey she will always be beautiful, I love her 🙂 

Another lovely lady was, of course Marilyn Monroe. I don’t know lots about her life, only really from the film My Week With Marilyn, which by the way is an incredible film. She really is an interesting lady and the photographs on show at the National Portrait gallery are amazing. Lots show her in such natural poses whilst filming or just chilling out with friends and other artists. Others are magazine cover pictures which again show some really beautiful natural poses of a gorgeous lady. 

She clearly had a troubled life and dealt with issues of self-esteem, confidence and self belief. In fact watching My Week With Marilyn made me realise she really was a lady with a lot of issues, drink, drugs and depression. You need to watch it though. Putting all this aside she was an incredibly beautiful lady. Her classic look shaped and influenced so many women and her bleach blonde hair and red lips inspire so many women creating the vintage look. 

I, of course, had to buy a momento to show on the blog. I bought a selection of post cards, here are some of my favourites. Any books that you can recommend on her life please shout. 

 

 

 

 

 I love how she can do sexy and natural. She really was a true vintage queen 🙂 

 This is definitely my favourite picture of her though, so so so soooooo beautiful 🙂 Do you see how much I like her? hehe..

There’s the classic vintage look.

Not entirely sure why the pictures have suddenly gone blue..!! Sorry but hopefully you have a little glimpse of the exhibition. If you can try and get down there it’s a great way to while away an afternoon. 

Happy vintage hunting, reading and learning about the past. 

Lots of love,

Olive & Emxxxx

 

 

 

A little piece of history.. vintage postcards

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Vintage Postcards

Just a quick little post to share with you the gorgeous vintage post cards that I picked up when I was on my trip to Normandy in France. I had read an article about vintage post cards in the fabulous Homes & Antiques and came across some lovely and incredibly unique originals when I was wandering round one of Normandy’s quaint sleepy little towns.

The Homes and Antiques article taught me that sending post cards became all the rage at the turn of the 20th century. With the early 1900’s being a period where the rich wanted to share their holidays with the world. Of course not only were they sharing their holidays but also their wealth and prestige, they could actually afford to go on holiday. This created a huge boom in sending post cards and post card manufacturing.

The post cards below are pretty old, dating back to what I think says 1905 and 1907 so they are from the beginning of the boom period. The handwriting suggests a lady has written them. I just fell in love with the gorgeous and intricate designs. They are protected by a plastic cover and are in fantastic condition but very delicate. I am unsure of their worth, they probably are worth very little however I really feel that I have picked up a little bit of history here. My next job is to translate what they say. I just love that I can now share in this lady’s adventure. I promise to look after them and keep them very safe.

So without further a do, have a little look at my little piece of history…

Here’s what was on the back….

And a closer look at the post mark shows… it’s either 05 or 06.. any guesses?

And my other little find.. This one is my favourite of the two.