Holy Mary!

I am a big fan of Mary, mother of Jesus. I am fascinated by the way she is held in such regard by so many cultures. I see it as being a bit feminist even.
But no culture does VM with as much style as South America. This panel fabric is one of my most treasured, and I was dying to try something different with it.

Four images of the Madonna. My favourite is the bottom right. We call Her Wolverine Madonna - if anyone threatens Her or Jesus, the gold spikes flick out from all around Her!
Inspired some pictures of OTT lamps someone emailed me, I decided to have a go. I took the bottom two and made this lamp:

It's only 7 inches in diameter, just enough for the two panels, and a piece of black herring bone tape to hide the slight shortfall. Trimmed with pink and black bobble trim and a mad red braid, we love it!
The slightly barmy lampstand came from an unexpected sale next door, DesignMade Showroom. This is a very poshe trade only establishment that throws random members of the public out on their ear if they don't go in with their account holding designer. Except for two days last week when they held a sale, which means that various importers brought their stock in to sell off directly. I went mad at the lamp base table and bought about 8 of them, two floor standing ones and the rest table lamps. This pretty chrome and black faux jet one was on my THIRD trip back for loot!

Anyhoo, today I started another one made from the other two panels and I am in MORE LOVE with those.
And my try at Dr Who related lamps has resulted in them all selling out of the darned shop

My first two shades, both sold, replaced and sold again!

This is all in aid of my stall at the Martinborough Olive Harvest Festival Night Market next Saturday from 4-8pm. We will be dressing warmly, selling lampshades and kits to make them, and promoting a class I am holding over there on 23 August. My sister Jo is coming to help and I know we'll have a laugh, we always do!

P.S. In my search for a decent photo of the panel fabric, I came across another one and I HAVE to have it.

Isn't it lovely! Such a different palette to the other one. I'm already imagining what I could do with it... :)

DiscWorld Casting

 I am currently GOBSMACKED that the BBC is remaking Mapp and Lucia. I think the original TV adaptation from 1985 is an absolutely timeless gem of period television, and one of the most faithful reproductions of a book I have ever seen. Not perfect, but very, very close.
If you have no idea of what I speak, I heartily recommend you track this series down. Made in 1985, it is set in Rye, the town that the Tilling in the book is based on, and around which I tripped happily, visiting the various buildings and squealing. A delicious feast of 1920s fashion, not a shoulder pad, frizzy hair do or glossed lip are to be seen. How often does that happen, that on watching nearly 30 years on, there are no telltale signs?
So whether Miranda Richardson will be able to take Prunella Scales' place, and Anna Chancellor Geraldine MacEwan's, time will tell.
ANYWAY for me the antidote is a bit of fantasy casting of my own, in this case, The Discworld created by Terry Pratchett. MrC and I often play this game together, with one or other pointing excitedly at an episode of Midsomer Murders, declaring the actor on screen to be the perfect Vimes, or Fred Colon. But our favourites of all are the Witches - Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax and Magrat.
So, just for fun, here are my top pics. I confess that there are other possibilities, but many of them are too old now, and so even though this is a game, I still like to feel that there is some hope!

First up, Magrat. Everyone's favourite vegetarian, idealistic, talisman and mascara wearing witch. For me, Olivia Colman is the perfect match. Watching her in Broadchurch, and seeing the more serious side of her acting, I can totally see her pulling off the combination of wet and strong that is our Magrat.

Then there's Granny Weatherwax. She is tough! While the UK is bristling with fabulous actresses of a certain age, for me two stand out. The first I have loved for most of my life. Such a gifted woman, and yet I suspect few people even know her name, even if they recognise her face. Anna Massey. Sadly, however she died three years ago at 74. Such a loss, if only...

 She slips from the vacuous Miss Prism to the sangfroid of an unretired MI6 agent without blinking an eye. A true Granny W.

And then there is the more populous but equally talented option - Dame Judi Dench. She is such a blend of steel and soft, and you never know which is going to come out. I love this photo as it shows both sides to her. You can almost hear the Third Thoughts.

 Heaven help the mortal who gets in her way!

And lucky last, the incorrigible Nanny Ogg. She is a really tricky character, and I can see some truly horrible casting choices being made. And so, I hereby declare my choices in order of preference:

 1. Carol Macready. She first came into my consciousness as Daisy Quantock in the aforementioned series of Mapp and Lucia. She is cuddly, has very knowing eyes, vestiges of a former beauty, and heaps of joie de vivre. So perfect. I love this photo of her!

AND she scrubs up. Those eyes!!!

2. Alison Steadman - known to us mostly from the 1990s Pride and Prejudice, she is an actress of wide ranging abilities, although her sense of comedy is her greatest strength. As Gavin's mother Pam in Gavin and Stacey, she makes me laugh myself silly. And I saw her in Blythe Spirit on the West End, the best thing about a fairly mediocre production. I can see her nailing Nanny Ogg's iron clad sense of herself and love of life.

A great photo of a fabulous woman and actress.

My wild card for Nanny is Pam Ferris. Especially since her portrayal of Ma Larkin in the Darling Buds of May was so like a young Nanny Ogg! It's incredibly hard to find a good current photo of Pam, so I screen captured this one, which was in some weird format. She certainly has the provenance.

BTW, Pam's husband Roger Frost is SO like an older MrC and is SO fabulous on screen, I feel he deserves to be cast also. He is like an aged Ponder Stibbons, but maybe the Bursar? What do we think,  Pratchett heads?

So there you go. My Fantasy casting of The Witches from Pratchett's Discworld. Do you ever play this game and if so, who have you cast and in what?