We NEED a South Park episode based on this article muhahahaha

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece

Brooklyn Crafts Festival

I've been selected to appear at the Red Hook Festival to sell my wares. I'll be on the waterfront Saturdays and Sundays until the end of August. On another note - who knew hair flowers would be my biggest success?! I'm selling some everyday including weekends - and I'm hoping by Thursday my new shop site will be up - Exciting stuff.

demons

I'll start by saying thank you. I got a lovely email from a reader that really brightened my week. I forget sometimes, that people actually read this, it's always just been a way of me steadying myself when times are tough, reassuring myself of better tomorrows and shouting to the world when the good times are rolling. I'm glad you like it. What follows however isn't exactly pleasant fodder - so I recommend you change the channel now! I used to fly back and forth between Los Angeles and London, 11 hour direct flights without a care in the world. I treated turbulence as if it were a roller coaster, and grinned all through it. I had no fear. These days even a 7 hr flight has me almost throwing up and getting that shaky, sweaty feeling - every slight shudder of turbulence chills me to my core. You see of late, the past 3 years actually, I have felt fear almost every day of my life. It's always of the same variety. I have the greatest fear of dying you see. I know that many parents feel the same, the fear of leaving their children to fend for themselves, but with me its like I can't see something joyful without having that icy chill of "that could be the last time" etc.. My Mother would say it's the Scottish Presbyterian in me. I read an interview today for W Magazine where Penelope Cruz said "I’m always finding very tricky and hidden ways to sabotage any beautiful moment. And it’s something so internal that I don’t think even my friends or family can catch me doing it. But I catch myself doing it. I’ve had that battle since I was a little girl. It’s like, Uh-oh, here it is again, the monster! Go away and leave me alone!" To many that will sound cuckoo - but to me I found myself nodding my head as I read. It's not even that I am a pessimistic person, it's just that I find myself unable to fully enjoy times because of the underlying fear of what lies ahead. Tonight I found myself questioning my religion, I was trying to work out what best fitted my fear, and which had th e most likely chance of reincarnation. You see I always thought deja vu was to do with reincarnation, something like we keep coming back as ourselves, getting many chances to choose the right path, correct wrongs, until finally our lives are perfect and great. Maybe I need to see a shrink, Ally McBeal style, or maybe I need to take up Yoga. Maybe having 3 babies in as many years has played havoc on my brain as well as my hormones! Whatever I do to fix this, I know I have to find a way to lay these demons to rest. Tonight I told my husband I don't want to live to die, for I am dying to live.

Good grief!

A beagle named Rocco that strayed from a NYC yard five years ago, has been reunited with his owners, after being found over 800 miles away in Georgia. Happy days..

life

I'm not having a great day, so it was a joy to see this picture of 3 rare white lion cubs, which have been born at a zoo in Germany. Their Mother rejected them, so they are being raised Knut style by keepers. They are just adorable! My husband burst into a large smile when he saw me tonight, saying I looked like a mermaid, which I took as a complement! Must be the large bosom and turquoise dress that did it ;) I still need your flames on

http://www.pinuppost.com/modern-pinups/belle-bramble/

and also make friends with the fabulous burlesque and pin up costume designer Sickgirl Creations on

www.myspace.com/sickgirlcreations

and vote for me in her blog contest. Speaking of which - sorry to go all "myspace" on you but I got a friends request AND message from none other than Ralph Burch! I nearly squealed, actually between you and me - I did squeal a little :) I've had his pin-ups on my walls for years. I'm starting a run of 4 weeks of shows next weekend, at the Red Hook NY Creates Festival, so I'm busy making jewelry, alongside hair flowers which are selling online amazingly well. We're planning to drive down to Disney World towards Halloween, so that should be fun :) Other than all that I want to be home with my family right now more than ever as I feel compelled to spend time with my Grandmother, my big brothers have eye surgery tomorrow and my youngest brother, is starring in Bard in the Botanics in Glasgow - and this will be the 2nd year I haven't seen him perform. C'est La Vie.

don't mention the war ;)

http://www.chromjuwelen.com

You'll have to do a search for me because I can't get the link to work, but hey yeah I'm there!

The life of a Starlet

So... after appearing on www.pinuppost.com on Saturday (I'm still there - please flame me!) - I've started getting fan mail! They want autographs. I will of course send a snazzy photograph with my best signature - when I invent one that is! I don't think I've ever handwritten Belle Bramble - so this should be fun :)

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...

Goodbye to the fat ladies

One of Britain's best-loved artists, Beryl Cook, died peacefully at the age of 81 yesterday. I loved her lovely 'seaside postcard' paintings of portly ladies having the time of their lives. A great loss to the art world, indeed.

sky high

Some pics I took of the planes at the U.S. Air Force air show at Jones Beach today. The blur is the damned heat - I am burned to a crisp :-/

blue

My parents left town today. They'd been visiting for my newest arrivals Christening, and stayed a little over a week. I feel devastated. You really don't know how much you miss something until you hold it briefly and once again let go. Why did the weeks up to their arrival go so slowly yet the 8 days here flew at record speed? All the way to the airport my eyes continuously welled up. Yet it wasn't until my Mum was safely out of sight did the tears start streaming. I watched them walk from the car across 3 lanes of parked cars to the entrance and felt that familiar hot flush, then as her auburn hair vanished from sight - I dissolved. They were due to depart at 7.30pm and I just checked the flight tracker only to see they're delayed. So now my thoughts are with them, I wonder how they feel - given more time to mull their departure. The week was mixed with all kinds of emotions. My Father has Parkinson's Disease. Seeing his deterioration since Christmas was heartbreaking. My Mother painted my front door frame, cleaned everything in sight, planted out the garden, cooked at midnight for the Christening, and trailed with me to the hospital when I stood on a rusty nail. Not exactly the relaxing holiday one would usually take, but hey - it's our life. I could never express the love and admiration I have for my Mother. She is everything she should be to everyone in her life times a million. I wish them a safe and comfortable flight home.

more dangerous than Al Gore

When I read that ASIMO, a robot which was designed by Honda Motor Co., conducted the Detroit Symphony - my heart sank. To me this is not the way forward we should be looking for. Maybe it's the *cue Cartman voice* damn hippy in me, but robots as smart as this one scare the bejesus out of me.

must see

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. At the Met Gala Anna Wintour looked awesome in a Storm inspired outfit by Karl Lagerfeld. Maybe I'm biased seen as I play the character on the 360s X-Men!

when hope is gone

I wanted to note an incident that happened to me at the weekend. I won't put a picture and I won't dwell on it. It just saddened me greatly. In the supermarket with my husband and children I was pushing the cart when a young woman, early 20s, walked by yabbering on her cell phone not paying attention to what she was doing and walked into my cart. She muttered "ass" and kept walking. Her son, around 6 yrs old, walking while playing his psp/ds whatever, again not looking where he was going - walked into my cart. He looked me in the eye - and said "I'm sorry" in this sweet little voice. I said "it's ok" and smiled. His Mother, and I use that term loosely, turned to him and said "don't apologize to her, she's got 4 eyes - she can see where she's going". I was wearing my glasses at the time. I was flabbergasted. This is what scares me. Here you have this young child being taught to bully others, to be rude, and to have no consideration for anyone. He's doing his best to be a good boy and this woman is ruining him. If this is an example of the adults of tomorrow, then God help us all.

a red night

It's funny how a color can change things so dramatically. My husband ended up in hospital tonight - as that sinking feeling kicks in and I wait for news I change my shirt to a red one. I hear he's been checked in - I paint my toenails red. I hear he's waiting for the CAT scan - I paint my lips red. Suddenly I feel less shaky. I suppose it's my way of coping. Because the children are in bed, I can't be there - so thank goodness for something as simple as color to make me feel stronger. I often live my life in shades of gray, so I rely on color to lift my moods and brighten my life. After the hectic past few months I decided to paint my kitchen a lavender blue, it's so much more tranquil to look at than the previous orangey color. Two years ago following a long, cold winter I painted my living-rooms yellow. I remember feeling ready for Summer like never before. I'm hoping the need for red fades as the night goes on.

UPDATE: With the help of a few IPAs and the return of my love, my red has changed to blue :)

this is my message to you

Call it what you want. I would say here begins my rise to fame. But celebrity is not my goal. So instead here begins my journey to completion. Today marks the day when I woke up. On Friday Liliana started sleeping through the night 12 - 6am, which meant that at 6.30am this morning I listened to my heart and got up out of bed and went running. I ran for 25 minutes in the rain, and it felt great! I got home, did 10 minutes of sit-ups and some toning, and now I feel empowered to continue. Yesterday I cried, I felt so bad about myself. Today I feel like everything is in reach. For years when I felt at my lowest, I would listen to Bob Marleys "Three Little Birds" from an album released the year I was born. The birds told him not to worry and that everything would be alright. This morning when I looked out of my window a little chick sat there chirping away, fluffy down still covering his body. He flew for what could have been the first time. That marked the beginning for him and it gave me a feeling that there is still something watching over me. I know I can realize my goals. I just need to keep on keeping on. My plan for the next month is to keep running, eat better, sleep more. In 4 weeks I start dance classes and vocal training. I'm doing a series of pin-up shoots beginning in July and from that point on I will be opening as many doors as possible. I am excited for my new tomorrow.

The King of Queen

I was just watching some You Tube clips of Queen at Live Aid '85 - I can't believe I forgot how much I loved them! It's not something I have on my ipod or on the car stereo, so I guess I lost them somewhere along the way. Freddie was the ultimate stage-man - so alive, vibrant - such an awesome performer. He makes me smile so easily. Greatly missed. Also he reminded me of Borat so much when he was sitting on the stage in his white underwear. (Sacha Baron Cohen is allegedly signed to play him in a movie).

die another day

Either the new Bond is going to be the best yet or all of the bad karma that seems to be floating around will doom it. Within 5 days an Aston Martin on its way to the set plunged into Lake Garda, and a stuntman has been left in a coma after his car collided with a lorry and crashed into a wall. The latest incidents come just a month after the mayor of Sierra Gorda in Chile, drove on set to complain that the filmmakers had not asked his permission.

for baby

New York City's hospitals are to introduce new technology that simulates the Mother's womb for its premature babies. It will include low lights and special sound monitors that will flash when a neonatal unit becomes too noisy for the babies. When my daughter was in the NICU I was astonished by how loud it was in there, even at night. They had loud alarms going off almost constantly. Every time I held her and accidentally disconnected a wire the noise would make her jump and shudder. The project hopes to complete by the end of 2009.

strange

NYPD Harbor and SCUBA units patrolling the United Nations this afternoon saw a four-foot long beaver swimming in the East River. The 40 lb animal was transported to an animal hospital on the Upper West Side, with breathing difficulties. It's no wonder the poor thing was in distress, the East River's not the cleanest!

My Mother's daughter

As soon as I saw these pictures my husband took tonight I thought of my Mother - who has an amazing ability to either look totally serious or punch drunk in every picture of her! Five weeks on, Liliana seems to get bigger every minute. Seems like yesterday she was curled up in a tiny ball, now she stretches and uncurls into a bundle of blubber. Time really does fly when you're having fun.

Nothing grows in our garden, only washing. And babies.

Dylan Thomas

The blossoms out on the tree in the back garden. Tiny balls of green bursting larger every day. I'm hoping they fall in time for a gathering we're having next month, as they'll coat the ground with something other than dirt! Out front our bulbs are all up, so that's nice. I guess Spring is here to stay. Although I do remember an April snowfall in 2004 that left us with over a foot of the white stuff. I repainted my kitchen blue, reflecting my mood of now. Which is relaxed as opposed to the other blue. The baby has started sleeping 4 hours, which is a blessing. Like the garden, I am starting to wake up.

Men are just like children

They need their naps! I'm sure my husband will be adding the MetroNaps EnergyPod to his list of work-must-haves. Designed to isolate the user from their environment with music and lights while angling your body to take pressure off the heart. Vibrations, brighter lights and more lively music awake the sleeper after around 20 minutes. The pod costs around $600 a month - and is said to increase work rate by over 30% - a sound investment!

RIP Charlton Heston

October 4th 1924 - April 5th 2008

He starred in some of my favorite movies from yesteryear, and will always be a legend in my eyes.

Ladies Day

I would never usually let a WAG (Wifes and Girlfriends of British footballers) name pass my lips for imo they're a bunch of glorified whores, but I give credit where credits due! Alex Curran looked fantastic at Ladies Day at the Grand National horse racing meet. There is an article in the UKs Daily Mail newspaper that shows many pictures of other women there, and it's frankly an embarrassment. Ladies Day used to be just that - ladies dressed in their finest with amazing hats teetering about looking beautiful. In 2008 however, that song - who let the dogs out - comes to mind. Le sigh.