Monday 4 June 2012

Jubilation




Funnily enough, I haven't heard of there being that many Jubilee parties at home in Scotland. In fact, of my friends in England that I have spoken to recently, I'm not sure that even one of them was doing *something* for the Jubilee beyond trying to avoid all the news coverage on tv.


And yet, here in Berlin, there has been quite a lot of Jubilee action. Patently abroad is where you need to be in order to muster up the enthusiasm for a party. We were invited to 4 Jubilee parties yesterday. Since we were invited to a staunch republican's party yonks ago, that was the one we went to.

Essentially, I think it was just a good excuse for a lot of us to get together, the kind of get-together that always seems too much of a faff to be bothered with at home. So it was good fun, and the kids (for it was all people from Orla's school) had a great time. We even had imported British weather just for the occasion, which was, um... lovely.

Stevie was feeling a bit tired though, and he's got a sore back, which might have something to do with us just having driven back from Bavaria. For oh yes, we spent the past few days down south visiting Legoland Deutschland & the Playmobil Funpark again. We got back on Saturday evening, and as I was baking for the party, that meant I got to spend last night getting Orla ready to go back to school today. Because of course you can guarantee that if you've been away for the best part of a week, come back and partied then of course it goes without saying that a fancy dress outfit will be required for the following day. Meet my vision of modern monarchy, Princess Orla:


Today they're having a Jubilee party at school and the kids were to come dressed up, ideally incorporating the theme of red, white, and blue. Because they love to make things easy o us parents. I struggled a bit with the royal theme. I would have loved to have dressed her as a corgi (too hard, & I thought (wrongly) too warm for this time of year), or as the Queen (as she is today, but where would I get one of those dress coats and matching hats and handbags in an age 5, and I'd still like to coordinate the look with a couple of corgi puppies on a lead - too hard and beyond my sewing abilities), and then I thought of dressing her up as the Queen as she looked when she was 5 years old, but when I Googled photos of her, she just looked like any other 5 year old in a fancy dress. So I just went for a nice easy solution: Princess Orla, a crown, a sash, and a robe.

I am never sewing with crushed velveteen again. It was quite hard. I could have done with an overlocker to edge it, and I gave up completely on adding an ermine (white fake fur with black marker pen) edge to it. The sash doesn't sit right because by the time I got on to it Orla had been asleep for early 4 hours, so I couldn't fit it on her properly. I also had to sew three ribbons together for that as I couldn't get anything Jubilee themed here. I do wonder whether when we go back to the UK I will continue to make outfits for the kids or whether I shall just go back to using good old Tesco.

Anyway, in other Jubilation news: today we have been in Berlin for exactly 2 years! 

8 comments:

  1. Love the food photos, everything looks appropriately festive and adorable.

    And the idea of you dressing up your 5 year old as a Corgi for the day just made me crack up, so thank you for that.

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    1. Thanks Heather, I Googled 'dog costumes' and while disappointed that the internet isn't awash with corgi outfits I did manage to find some utterly ace actual dog costumes. There's an utterly brilliant one where you can dress your small dog (poss. daschund/jack russell size) as a T-Rex.. Now I so badly want a dog!

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    2. T-Rex = awesomest dog ever! Are pet costumes not that common here? I feel like that's so "normal" now in the U.S. to dress up your pet for assorted occasions. Or for them to wear sweaters in winter. It's ridiculous, yes, but pretty common. I remember having to put my foot down in college when my old roommate wanted to dress up our new cat in a tiny Frankenstein dog costume for Halloween. I belong to the school of 'animals come with coats, they don't need extras.' Although our dog would appreciate booties in the winter because she hates getting ice in between her little toes. Haha.

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    3. I honestly don't know how much dog costumes have taken off either here or in the UK, but I do know that I like the sound of a cat in a Frankenstein costume!

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  2. Love the pics. Are those food ones with your 35mm lens? gorgeous.

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  3. I think your fancy dress outfits for Orla are totally amazing, and I will be really cross if you go back to the UK and start buying things from Tesco. Also, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

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    1. I do wonder though whether they will get to the age where they just would rather die than wear something home-made. I'm pretty sure that they'll be beyond grateful at least that I can't knit anything beyond a square. :)

      and thankyou, it is a Happy Anniversary indeed!

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