Viva Las Vegas

The King is dead - long live the King! I came across these pictures of Elvis, and had to share. He died the year I was born, but his music remained a big part of my early life. These photographs were taken by Alfred Wertheimer who was instructed by Elvis’s record company, RCA not to shoot in color because they thought he was just a flash in the pan. How wrong they were! Oh yeah - and I know that guy isn't Elvis, that's my actor brother Tom Duncan, but hey thought I'd throw him into the mix anyway ;)

Viva La Diva

I just listed my new line of silk hair flowers on ebay - yay! It took me an absolute age to get the damned listing right, but at least the ones I have are up. Phew. Over the next week I will be listing my jewelry for sale there, alongside my new site going live. Busy times ahead. The flowers are up now at brambleboutique on ebay. My Mum is busy finishing the illustrations for a children's book I wrote, I'm hoping to fire it at publishers over the Summer. Fingers crossed it will be the first of many. Speaking of my Mum - she, my Aunt and Cousin have formed a new company, organizing fairy parties and selling fairy merchandise. I named it for them - however until it's copy written I can't tell you my fabulous name choice - argh... keeping secrets, my worst trait.

Lost at Sea

So although I didn't participate in the parade (due to my sweet little water baby still not sleeping at night argh) I did attend as a photographer :) Here's a sample of what went down at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade this year.

lovely ducky

In this day and age where the news is filled with countless stories of human parents being cruel, or worse, to their children, I find joy in hearing of incidents like this one in the animal kingdom. Six little mallard ducklings in the North of England this week found themselves trapped in a dark sewer - their only hope of survival lay with their mother - whom they had last seen more than a mile away as they were sucked into a drain. The mother duck managed to follow the little ducklings more than a mile, apparently listening to their cheeps of distress at manhole covers as they were swept along below ground. The long journey took her across countless roads, a busy roundabout, a rail line, a housing development, two school playing fields and hospital grounds. It finally ended when she waddled into a street, where her chicks suddenly stopped. For the next four hours she stood over a man-hole cover, until local residents heard chirping coming from down below. Using a child's fishing net they managed to scoop all six from the sewer one by one and reunited them with their mother in a paddling pool.

when hope is gone - part deux

EDIT: There are some sick people out there.

dream on dreamer

On Saturday night I dreamed that I was taking care of 3 bunnies.. It felt like one of those long dreams with very complex other bits to it. The last of it was me carrying 2 of the bunnies and looking for one that was hiding. All of a sudden one of the bunnies I was carrying started biting my neck but it didn't hurt just felt like a pressure. But then I felt something biting my bum! And that hurt - a lot! It was like a long pressure pain then and OWW!! At that point I woke up thinking that the missing bunny had bitten me, only to find there was a mosquito in the room and I now had a lovely bite on my bum (It was hot - who needs blankets!) Anyway, the thing is, that apparently dreams are just seconds long, and therefore my dream was probably a reaction to the bite ie my mind had to make up a story to match the pain I felt in reality. So this leaves the question - why the hell was I dreaming about psycho bunnies?!

on newstands now

Published in 4 newspapers in Scotland today, and I made the front cover next to Dumfriesshires better known export Ugly Bettys Ashley Jensen - yay!

Can't bear to be apart - hehe

Eight years ago this beautiful black domestic cat Muschi (which means pussy in German) appeared from nowhere at a zoo in Germany and immediately struck up an unlikely friendship with a 40-year-old Asian bear called Maeuschen (little mouse' in German). Who to me bears (sorry) and uncanny resemblance to Totoro! They eat together and sunbathe together. Regardless of their differences - sounds puuurfect to me :)

Happy Friday 13th

Not a horror in sight. Just some sweet pics instead! A family of swans in a town in the South of England took a walk along the main street, stopping by the fish and chip shop before returning to the lake.

too hot to handle

95f is not fun - tomorrow it's to be 97f - joy isn't a word that springs to mind either! In New York I spend the long icy Winter praying for warmth and the long sticky Summer praying for that first crisp day of Autumn. Mother Nature simply can't win. Yesterday I spent 9 hrs in the high 90s at the market - dehydration came quickly. I couldn't have possibly drank enough water to satiate my thirst. High 70s/low 80s is my ideal Summer weather - preferably with a cool breeze. I have such a craving for Alaska right now.

My new Sunday residence

I will be at the Brooklyn Flea Market - Downtown on Sundays starting this one, the 8th. Details can be found here:

http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

I'll be selling my collection of original Vargas alongside jewelry and repro prints. And yeah ok the picture above is Cologne in December - but hey - whenever you find love it feels like Christmas or you know whatever.

a darker shade of gray

I feel so lonely. Strange to some I guess who can't imagine that one could ever be lonely - having 3 small children each requiring attention on a constant basis. But somehow I am still very much alone. I have a very bad cold. The kind that makes it almost impossible for you to speak or breathe without coughing up your lungs. My throats so raw I've spat blood down the sink 3 times since I got up. The children are of course being on their worst behavior - it's like they could instantly tell the moment they got up that I can't raise my voice today. My husband is at work, of course. So no help there. My family as you know are over 3000 miles away. I wish I was at my Mums house. The children could play in the garden all day long while my Grandmother would adore looking after the baby. That's the way I envisioned raising a family - isn't that the saying - "it takes a village to raise a child"? Well this village is a one woman show, who's not doing such a great job today. Roll on tomorrow.

Eggs anyone?

Easily the coolest thing I've seen in a loooong time - the Eglu. And yes as soon as we move to a bigger property there will be one in my garden :)

Can't bear to think about it...

I was upset to hear that the first polar bear to swim to Iceland in 15 years has been shot dead by police, even though the knockout drugs that could have spared his life were less than an hour away. The bear was spotted by a farmer strolling along a road near the town of Skagafjördur yesterday morning. The argument going on now is the police man who shot him says he had to do it to protect people who were gathering to look at the bear, and the local vet says they should have closed the road, and could have watched him for an hour while the tranq gun was flown in. Whatever. I just find it a damn shame that this happened. The last time a polar bear visited was in 1993 when sailors saw a bear swimming off the coast of Strandir. It was also killed. Le Sigh...