Category: Illustration

Celebrate The Royal Wedding and Arbor Day TODAY!

Fun Fact Friday – we wind up fashion week with a step onto the woodland path for today is ARBOR DAY.

Looking for Weekend plans? Will you be in S. County R.I? Sat. April 30 8:15-4pm     RI Garden Symposium, “Gardens & Green Spaces” Browse the Gardeners’ Marketplace where Botanicals Beauties and Beasties will be. 
Where? At the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences
University of Rhode Island – Kingston, R.I. (register to go and get a $5.00 off coupon to use in the Marketplace) More info:
click for web site     Visit the show- or just visit the marketplace.

Rosie ready for Arbor Day but also wearing her crown to honor "the Royal Wedding"
Rosie ready for Arbor Day but also wearing her crown to honor "the Royal Wedding"

Arbor Day is a nationally celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care. Founded by J. Sterling Morton in 1872, it’s celebrated on the last Friday in April. (Learn more.) Morton was from Detroit. Since both he and his wife were nature lovers they moved to Nebraska. There Morton was a journalist and he spread agricultural info and enthusiasm for tress to all who read his words. He and his fellow pioneers missed their trees, but also the trees were needed for windbreaks to keep soil in place, and for shade. Morton became Secretary of the Nebraska Territory, and so he now had more opportunity to stress the value of trees. Arbor day started on April 10, 1872 and it was estimated that more than 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska that first Arbor Day. In 1885 Arbor Day was named a legal holiday in Nebraska and April 22, Morton’s Birthday, was selected as the date for its permanent observance.  The first Arbor Day was a wildly successful event with parades, 1,000 school children planting trees, and ending up at the Nebraska City’s Opera House. Another 1,000  townspeople joined the parade and it was a wild success. During the 1870s other states passed legislation to observe Arbor Day, and the tradition began in schools nationwide in 1882. Today, the most common date for Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, and several U.S. presidents have proclaimed a National Arbor Day on that date. However, a number of states have moved the date around to coincide with the best tree planting weather.

“Each generation takes the Earth as trustees.”  J. Sterling Morton.

The above is surmised from www. arborday.org – http://www.arborday.org/arborday/history.cfm ( A flash animation)

AND NOW YOU KNOW ABOUT ARBOR DAY. Plant a tree this weekend, for yourself, for the earth.

Looking for Weekend plans? Will you be in S. County R.I? Sat. April 30 8:15-4pm

Join the fun at RI Garden Symposium, “Gardens & Green Spaces” Browse the Gardeners’ Marketplace where Botanicals Beauties and Beasties will be. 
There will be something for everyone in the Gardeners’ Marketplace!
 Where? At the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences
University of Rhode Island – Kingston, R.I. (register to go and get a $5.00 off coupon to use in the Marketplace)

More info:
click for web site     Visit the show- or just visit the marketplace.

Millinery and the Mad Hatter?

Birdelli and her Hat
Birdelli and her Hat - ready to go!

No Mad hatters here- but indeed there must be crazed Royals running about. Perhaps reading the Poem of The Jabberwock to calm their nerves?
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

I doubt it! Alas, back to topic, or off with someone’s head (as ordered from the Queen of Hearts!)

Speaking of tomorrows Royal Wedding it impossible not to chat about Hats today. UK and Hats = Royal Gala Events. USA and Hats = Couture Kentucky Derby. Many woman of The South love their hats.  Oh, how yummy a hat can be. In the “early days” – umm I mean up to the 40’s-50’s, “ladies” would not leave home with out a hat. Today hats have had a comeback – fun, funky, silly, outrageous, spectacular, sophisticated, extreme fashion, and magnificent. Everyone can find a hat to suit them in todays fashion. It may be a fashion statement, it may be a practicality, or it may be just be for a smile, all are good reasons to don a hat. Not everyone has a chance to wear an amazing hat made special for them from a millinery. Birdelli did! She went all out to find the perfect hat for the big day, and had it “custom made.” Although she was not invited to the Royal Wedding (shocking) , as the wonderful Fashion Designer she is, she feels the need to celebrate and dress for the occasion! 

“The term “millinery” was not known until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when fine felt, fabric and straw hats were made in the Duchy of Milan and were known as ‘Millayne bonnets’. This is where the modern English word ‘Milliner’ comes from, as the London maker of these feminine caps and bonnets was called a ‘millianer’.

The Anglo-Saxon word for hat, Haet or haett appears to have signified the shape resembling the petasus; meaning, with crown, wide brim and easily removed from the head. Until the sixteenth century, any hat other than the ‘hood’ was a ‘cap’ in English, or a ‘bonnet’ in French. Only the Scotsman calls his cap a bonnet today. … The hat of today is really not much different to that of the 1700’s whereby it consists of a brim and/or crown. Some of the materials used today are different to those used in the past, which gives the difference in appearance, however, today’s milliners are prepared to take the craft that much further, and one Milliner, Phillip Treacy, who works out of London, leads the way with his innovative creations. Here is some of his work.” http://www.millinerytechniques.com/history-of-millinery.html

Philip Treacy creation
Philip Treacy creation

The phrase “as mad as a hatter” refers to the 19th century usage of a mercury-based compound in the making of fine hats. Due to long-term exposure, hatters would often develop symptoms of mercury poisoning, such as tremors or mood-swings, that would make them appear “mad” to others.” Luckily I believe todays hat makers have a better time of it all.

Tarrant Hightopp, The Mad Hatter, Hatta, Hatter
Tarrant Hightopp, The Mad Hatter, Hatta, Hatter

Catch Me if You Can

Sat. April 30 8:15-4pm
Looking for Weekend plans? Will you be in S. County R.I?   Join the fun at RI Garden Symposium, “Gardens & Green Spaces” Browse the Gardeners’ Marketplace-Botanicals Beauties and Beasties will be there. 
There will be something for everyone in the Gardeners’ Marketplace!
 Where? At the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences
University of Rhode Island – Kingston, R.I. (register to go and get a $5.00 off coupon to use in the Marketplace)    More info:
click for website     Visit the show or just visit the marketplace.

On to other types of Marketing….

Birdelli “Vogued” in the window – Catch her if you can!
Birdelli “Vogued” in the window – Catch her if you can!

Birdelli is having a grand time in her “Fashion Week” – she snuck into one of Bergdorfs Windows , they are having a cross PR window. Clever.” Harkening back to an era when travel was more chic than chore, our Fifth Avenue windows invite you to enter the fantastical world of Frank Abagnale Jr. as he flees from the FBI in Broadway’s newest hit musical Catch Me if You Can. “ (http://blog.bergdorfgoodman.com/windows/catch-me-windows )  Well, Birdelli took that to heart; dressed her self up (all from Bergdorf’s of course) and “Vogued” in the window – Catch her if you can!

wonderful French Market Bag
A wonderful French Market Bag

A shout out to Art by KarenaBlog- to honor her followers and Springtime she is running a FAB contest for a beautiful French Market Bag and Woven Sun Hat! Head on over and check it out, it’s well worth your time.

The Botanicals Meet April friends & the Easter Bunny sneaks in.

The Botanicals Meet April friends & the Easter Bunny sneaks in.

The Gang meets April Friends
The Gang meets April Friends including the Easter Bunny

Yesterday was Earth Day – April 22, 1970, more than 20 million people across the U.S. are estimated to have participated in that first Earth Day.41 years later and  41st Earth Day Exceeds 100 Million Acts! The achievement puts Earth Day Network’s Billion Acts of Green campaign well on the road to success for delivering a billion Acts to world leaders at the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to spur action against climate change. It is a fitting new chapter to Earth Day’s historic legacy of inspiring ordinary people to take action against Earth crises.

This blog, these postings, these creatures, this effort is from my heart and soul – this is my  ”commitment to educate friends and family on global warming and to hopefully buy green products such as energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).” I hope you find your passion for the Eco and Earth as well. http://botanicalbeautiesbeasties.com/main/