royal wedding celebration

Beautiful and cultivated, Princess Mafalda was the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife, Elena.

She married Prince Phillip of Hesse against the wishes of his parents. They had four children. Prince Phillip worked for the Nazis and became an intermediary between the Nazis and Mussolini. He apparently had a high position in the Nazi party. However, he also helped some wealthy Jewish friends escape to Holland.

Princess Mafalda annoyed Hitler by speaking out on behalf of the Jews especially when he wanted Mussolini to crack down on them. When Italy surrendered to the Allies, Hitler decided to take his revenge. He arrested Prince Phillip and imprisoned the Princess in Buchenwald. When the Allies bombed an ammunitions factory in Buchenwald, the poor Princess's arm was badly burned. She died during an operation to amputate the arm.

You can see a photo of the Princess here: Princess Mafalda NB: It's a fair way down the page.



Mafaldine Pasta

Mafaldine pasta was apparently named after the Princess. You can read more about that here: mafaldine pasta

Video of the announcement:
At 17h00 CET there was a Press Conference with the engaged Couple.
See here for Videos of it in Swedsih
Press Conference Part 1
Press Conference Part 2

I have a secret. I watch the Oscars and Emmy's. Not to see who wins, but to see their hair. Last night's favorite was Jennifer Aniston. She was beautiful! LOVED her hair, it wasn't over done or swept back into an updo that wasn't her at all. It was simple and fresh.



This morning we did her style on my oldest. She is getting past the point of piggies and wants her hair down and older (WAH!) so this style fit the bill.



All we did was part the hair at an angle from above her eye to her crown. About an inch and a half up the part, I parted her hair again to the other side. I pulled the extra hair into a ponytail so I didn't inadvertently pull excess into the French braid. I sprayed the hair with water and hairspray and braided down like so. I secured the braid with an elastic and then to make sure it didn't move, I threaded a bobby pin through the elastic and up through the underside of the braid.







Then I pulled the ponytail out and ran my flat-iron through pieces of her hair to give it some "UMPH"


Coming up next:

Nancy O'Dells Golden Globes Hair

Vanessa Hudgens

The aim of the Excessively Diverting Blog Award is to acknowledge writing excellence in the spirit of Jane Austen’s genius in amusing and delighting readers with her irony, humor, wit, and talent for keen observation. Recipients will uphold the highest standards in the art of the sparkling banter, witty repartee, and gentle reprove. This award was created by the blogging team of Jane Austen Todayto acknowledge superior writing over the Internet and promote Jane Austen’s brilliance.



A very warm thank you to Ms.Lucy of Enchanted by Josephine for nominating me for this award! Here are my seven nominees:

Edwardian Emporium This blog is all about the 'Golden Age' - Edwardian times. This is my very favourite era so I like to visit here and be transported back!

The Royal Representative This royal blog is full of the latest gossip, anecdotes and articles about British royalty. I also like August Annotations, Mandy's reviews of books about royalty.

The Lotus Notebooks Here you will find sensitive and well-written posts about books and poetry. I especially enjoyed the post about Emily Dickinson. I like the well-dressed section too - lovely photos.

Romancing the Tome This features articles about book adaptations and the actors in them. I always enjoy reading the latest posts here.

Coffee and Oranges This is a well-written blog all about artists and paintings. I also like Meg Nola's articles at Suite 101.

Reading Adventures An excellent Australian blog all about books. I especially like the challenges and memes!

I'm going to cheat and have a tie!

ART and ARCHITECTURE, MAINLY and

Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover vie for seventh place! ART and ARCHITECTURE, MAINLY has very interesting articles about Australian history, art and associated topics. Elaine at Random Jottings writes excellent reviews and has similar tastes in books! It's also her birthday today. Happy Birthday, Elaine!

Recipients, please claim your award by copying the HTML code of the Excessively Diverting Blog Award badge, posting it on your blog, listing the name of the person who nominated you, and linking to their blog. Then nominate seven (7) other blogs that you feel meet or exceed the standards set forth. Nominees may place the Excessively Diverting badge in their side bar and enjoy the appreciation of their fellow blogger for recognition of their talent.

The Gate Building






The stables

An interesting thought about how our thoughts affect our bodies...

Vicky's husband, Fritz - Emperor Frederick III - spent much of his young life being 'gagged' by his father. Every time he raised an opposing thought, he was silenced. At the same time, Vicky was urging him to speak out. He was in a very difficult position. As the time drew near for him to take up his position as emperor, he was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Vicky felt that she bore the weight of the world on her shoulders. She tried to balance so many things but the strain was so great that she couldn't bear it. Nor could she express it. She suffered greatly, too, over the way her children were raised and how the older ones seemed to reject her. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and spinal cancer.

Alice was never allowed to express her grief at the death of her father as she was too busy caring for her mother and helping to keep 'the firm' running. When her little daughter, May, died, she was compelled to keep that silent, too....she died of diphtheria, which affects the throat.

Serge lived with the horror of what had happened to his father. He also had - I think - some kind of loathing for his body, which was literally obliterated by the bomb that killed him.

There are many, many more examples and the deeper we go into our own thoughts, the more clear it is how we choose to destroy or re-create ourselves....Ho hum...It's a thought which offends many people because we all like to play victim at times. "It wasn't my fault I caught this or that...." It's not a question of 'fault' though, it's more a question of responsibility. Living in the 'image and likeness of God' , our thoughts have tremendous power - far greater than we choose to be aware of, I think. "Act of God" is a something assigned to nasty eventualities - as though a loving creator would be so petulant as to wipe out his/her people! Perhaps 'act of thought' would be more appropriate for many things. "Acts of God" - acting from our highest selves, would surely only mean life and health and freedom.

On 17th February 1905, Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich was blown to pieces by a terrorist's bomb. His wife, Ella, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, heard the explosion and hurried to the scene where she picked up what was left of him with her own hands and, having his remains placed in the neighbouring Chudov chapel, knelt in prayer as his blood trickled down the steps.
Three days later, she visited his assassin in prison, taking with her a Bible and an icon of Christ.
This event changed her life forever. Little by little, she gave away all her jewels and other possessions to create a sort of palace of the poor, where she nursed the most abject patients, built an orphanage and arranged all kinds of work for young people.
Grand Duke Serge was hated in proportion the degree to which Ella was loved. His name has been vilified through history but he was not a 'bad' man at heart. Highly strung, reactionary and probably unable to consummate his marriage, he became more intransigent each year and his treatment of the Jews in Moscow was horrendous (but he was acting, too, on the orders of his brother, Tsar Alexander III, and both of them were under the sway of the Procurator General of the Holy Synod). Serge also took a great deal of interest in the people and truly believed in Tsardom as building the kingdom of God on earth. His servants respected him and were devoted to him (which says a lot, considering 'no man is a hero to his valet'). Countess Tolstoy records in her diary how she visited him to ask for a military position for her son, and how very accommodating he was. She also wrote of his travelling all the way from St. Petersburg to Moscow for one day to attend a wedding of one of his servants.
Ella, who was so different from him, would never hear a word against him. I truly believe that he, for all his faults, was one of those people whom history turns into a monster, when he was just a man, doing his best with what he had...Blinkered he might have been, prejudiced he might have been, but cruel and nasty, he wasn't.

Super simple, remember those twists I did a couple of posts down? Simply do the same thing, only make sure that your final twist goes away from the crown. The secret here is in the parting. Start in the middle of the head and swoop forward in a curve towards the ears. Twist and secure and tie a romantic ribbon to the bottom. I should have grabbed a picture, but she is wearing some of her sisters babylegs that are black and pink stripes with hearts. LOVING the hearts!!!



Happy Valentine's Day!
XOXOXO

Stephanie

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments about the hearts. I appreciate each and every one of them.

I have received some e-mails with pictures of some of the hearts you have come up with. Keep them coming! I want to see how many heart hairstyles I can get on this post!

This first one is from my friend that I have had since we were sophomores in high school. Our timing on everything is pretty consistent. Weddings were 20 days apart (she was my maid of honor, I her matron), first and last babies were within weeks of each other, we even live four miles apart. I love her. This is her sweet chocolate covered K girl. Look at how cute her hair is! She did the knot the opposite way of normal and proceeded to do a heart with little clips! Brilliant! It gives you so much control over the shape of the heart!





Thanks Itybtyfrog!

Next is one I received from Kelly. She tried the heart on her little Jillian. SO cute! Next time I will try the hot pink ribbon! I love the way it makes her hair POP!




Ammy had a great idea if you don't have a long enough ribbon, just twist the halves into ropes and secure into a ponytail! SO CUTE!





Perfect timing! My sweet little neighbor Naomi came over to give Tess a Valentine and I snagged a picture of her on my front porch. She looks so cute with the snow melting on her hair. Her mom pulled all of her hair into a ponytail and did an upside down knot and then rope twisted the hair and held it into place with cute little clippies! Thanks Naomi and Kera! (Kera does all sorts of fun things with her daughters hair...you will probably be seeing some more of her ideas regularly on here).



Check out how cute this one is! Becky did a puffy braid heart with just the top portion of the hair. Darling!



Cindy has been super busy with her daughter Paige. These are TWO heart hairstyles they have done recently. SO CUTE! Thanks ladies!




Debbee did a beautiful heart framing her daughters pretty blonde hair. Thanks Debbee!



Keep those pictures coming ladies! It does my heart good! Blackeyedsue2@gmail.com