Uta Hubert . Memories ....

 

My mother was born in 1938 in Lunen, Germany.

She met my father while he was stationed in Dortmund . They married & my mother joined the British Army.

Sadly, in her early 60's, my mother was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (also know in US as Lou Gehrig's Disease) *.

She struggled on for almost 2 years .

Valentines Day would have been her 73rd birthday.

Nearly nine years on and I still miss her dreadfully and think of her each day. 

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_neurone_disease

Film Fanatic......part 2.

Since part one I have been slapping my head "Oh how did I forget...."

So here is part 2 and we now have all my strong recommendations of the 60's.

1)Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American crime thriller film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The film also stars Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder, Evans Evans and Mabel Cavitt.

In the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued with Clyde, and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They do some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative.

The duo's crime spree shifts into high gear once they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), then with Clyde's older brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a preacher's daughter. The women dislike each other on first sight, and their feud only escalates from there: shrill Blanche has nothing but disdain for Bonnie, Clyde and C.W., while gun-moll Bonnie sees Blanche's flighty presence as a constant danger to the gang's well-being.

2)The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a 1962 film, based on the short story of the same name. The screenplay, like the short story, was written by Alan Sillitoe. The film was directed by Tony Richardson, one of the new young directors emerging from documentary films, specifically a series of 1950s filmmakers known as the Free Cinema movement.

It tells the story of "a rebellious youth" (played by Tom Courtenay), sentenced to a borstal (boys' reformatory) for robbing a bakery, who rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor's (played by Michael Redgrave) prize runner."

Set in a grim environment of early-1960s Britain and like other films which deal with rebellious youth, it is a story of how the youth chooses to defy authority, in so doing securing his self-esteem (at the probable personal cost of continued confinement). The film places its characters thoroughly in their social milieu. Class consciousness abounds throughout: the "them" and "us" notions which Richardson shows reflect the very basis of British society at the time, so that Redgrave's "proper gentleman" of a Governor is in contrast to many of the young working-class inmates.

3)Georgy Girl is a 1966 British film based on a novel by Margaret Forster. The film was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, Alan Bates, James Mason, Charlotte Rampling and Bill Owen.

Georgina (Lynn Redgrave) is a 22-year-old, working-class Londoner. She has considerable musical talent, is well educated, and has a rather charming if shameless manner. On the other hand, she believes herself to be plain, dresses haphazardly, and is incredibly naïve on the subjects of love and flirtation; she has never had a boyfriend. She has an inventive imagination and loves children.

Georgy's flatmate is her so-called best friend, the beautiful Meredith (Charlotte Rampling), who works as a violinist in an orchestra, but is otherwise a shallow woman who lives for her own hedonistic pleasures. She treats the meekly compliant Georgy like an unpaid servant.

4)Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse. It was directed by John Schlesinger and stars Tom Courtenay (who had understudied Albert Finney in the West End theatre adaptation of the novel) as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles played Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes, Finlay Currie and Leonard Rossiter also feature. The Cinemascope photography is by Denys Coop, and Richard Rodney Bennett supplied the score.

The film belongs to the British New Wave (or "kitchen sink drama") movement, inspired by the earlier French New Wave. Characteristic of the style is a documentary/cinéma vérité feel and the use of real locations (in this case the city of Bradford in Yorkshire).

5)The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols.^[1] It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder Willingham. The film tells the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), a recent university graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and then proceeds to fall in love with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross).

he soon-to-be 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock flies back to his parents' house in Southern California after graduating from a college on the East Coast. At his graduation party, all his parents' friends want to know about what he is going to do next, something Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable and anxious about. His parents ignore this and are only interested in talking up his academic and track successes and their plans for him to go to graduate school. Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's business partner (they are law partners), asks him for a ride home from the party. She invites the nervous Benjamin in and attempts to seduce him, removing her clothing. Mr. Robinson arrives home but neither sees nor suspects anything. A few days later, Benjamin contacts her and clumsily organizes a tryst at a hotel, beginning their affair.

6)Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The novel was based on the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.

The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), hiding at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner and manager, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), and the aftermath of their encounter.

Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted a re-review which was overwhelmingly positive and led to four Academy Award nominations. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best filmsand is highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics.

7)Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and then-newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, and Barnard Hughes; M. Emmet Walsh is an uncredited, pre-fame extra.

The film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is the only X rated film ever to win Best Picture.

The film follows the story of a young Texan named Joe Buck (Jon Voight), who works as a dishwasher in a diner. As the film opens, Joe dresses himself like a rodeo cowboy, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City in the hope of leading the life of a hustler.

Joe's naïveté becomes evident as quickly as his cash disappears upon his arrival in New York. He is unsuccessful in his attempts to be hired by wealthy women. When finally successful in bedding a middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), Joe's attempt to "talk business" results in the woman breaking down in tears and Joe giving her $20 instead. Joe meets the crippled Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a third-rate con man who easily tricks Joe out of $20 by offering to introduce him to a well-known pimp, who instead turns out to be a religious fanatic (John McGiver). Joe flees the scene in pursuit of Rizzo, but he is long gone.

8)2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. The film deals with thematic elements of human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. It is notable for its scientific realism, pioneering special effects, ambiguous imagery that is open-ended to a point approaching surrealism, sound in place of traditional narrative techniques, and minimal use of dialogue.

The film has a memorable soundtrack—the result of the association that Kubrick made between the spinning motion of the satellites and the dancers of waltzes, which led him to use The Blue Danube waltz by Johann Strauss II, and the famous symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, to portray the philosophical evolution of Man theorized in Nietzsche's work of the same name 


9)In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 film based on the John Ball novel published in 1965, which tells the story of an African-American police detective from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a racist small town in Mississippi. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture (notably beating The Graduate) and Best Actor. It starred Sidney Poitier, Warren Oates, and Rod Steiger, and was directed by Norman Jewison.

Philip Colbert, a wealthy man from Chicago who was planning to build a factory in Sparta, Mississippi, is found murdered. Police Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) comes under pressure to quickly find his killer. African-American northerner Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), passing through, is picked up at the train station with a substantial amount of cash in his wallet. Gillespie, heavily prejudiced against blacks, jumps to the conclusion he has his culprit, but is embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is a respected Philadelphia homicide detective who had been visiting his mother. After the racist treatment he receives, Tibbs wants nothing more than to leave as quickly as possible, but his captain recommends he stay and help. The victim's widow, already frustrated by the ineptitude of the local police, is impressed by Tibbs' expert ability when he clears another wrongly-accused suspect Gillespie has arrested on flimsy evidence. She threatens to stop construction on the much-needed factory unless he leads the investigation. Unwilling to accept help but under orders from the town's mayor, Gillespie talks Tibbs into lending his services.

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There we have it. All my very loved 60's films. 

These are only my views and of course there are many other greats but some of these have put me off eggs for life !!! *

*cool hand luke

All info lifted from wikipedia   

Film Fanatic...

I have been a film fanatic for as long as I can remember . 

Encouraged by my mother to watch black & white films of the 60's - I still love these  films I first saw in my early teens.

I am always amazed when people have not seen any of these films but yet call themselves a film fan.

This has become my ultimate suggestion list of 60's films.

1)A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Stan Barstow. It stars Alan Bates and June Ritchie as two lovers in 1960s West Yorkshire. The photography was by Denys Coop, and the music by Ron Grainer. Filming locations included the towns of Preston, Blackburn, Bolton, Salford, Manchester, Radcliffe and St Anne's-on-sea in the north-west of England.Victor 'Vic' Brown (Bates) is a draftsman in a Yorkshire factory who sleeps with a typist called Ingrid Rothwell (Ritchie) who also works there. She falls for him but he is less enamoured of her. He then learns she is pregnant so he proposes marriage and the couple move in with her domineering mother Mrs Rothwell (Thora Hird), who looks down on Vic. Ingrid has a miscarriage, Vic has regrets and comes home drunk. The couple then consider the possibility of making do with a 'kind of loving'.

2)Kes is a 1969 British film from director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. The film is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines in 1968. The film is ranked seventh in the British Film Institute's Top Ten (British) Films and among the top ten in its list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.Outside cadging money and day-dreaming at school, Billy has no positive interests. His greatest fear is ending up working down the pit as a coal miner, but he has no apparent escape route from what would ultimately be his fate. That is until he finds an outlet from his pitiful existence through training a kestrel that he takes from a nest on a farm. His interest in learning falconry prompts Billy to steal a book on the subject from a secondhand book shop as he cannot get a borrower's card for the public library.

3)Tommy is a 1975 British musical film, based on The Who's 1969 rock opera album musical Tommy. It was directed by Ken Russell and featured a star-studded cast, including the band members themselves (most notably, lead singer Roger Daltrey plays the title role).

Ann-Margret received a Golden Globe Award for her performance, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Pete Townshend was also nominated for an Oscar for his work in scoring and adapting the music for the film. The film was shown at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.

4) A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British film adaptation of the play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney adapted the screenplay herself, aided by director Tony Richardson, who had previously directed the first production of the play. It is an exemplar of a gritty genre of British film that has come to be called kitchen sink realism.The film follows the fortunes of Jo, a 17-year old schoolgirl, and her relationship with her domineering, forty-year-old alcoholic mother, Helen. After sustaining a fall after school, Jo meets a black sailor called Jimmy who invites her on to his ship to attend to her grazed knee. They soon start a brief relationship, after which Jimmy returns to his ship and departs. Relations between Jo and her mother become strained when her mother meets and marries a new man, Peter Smith. Feeling rejected by her mother, Jo starts a job in a shoe shop and rents a flat on her own. She meets a gay textile design student, Geoffrey Ingraham, and invites him to move in with her. When Jo discovers she is pregnant by Jimmy, Geoff is supportive of her, even offering to marry her, saying at one point, "You need somebody to love you while you're looking for somebody to love." Inevitably, Helen re-appears on the scene after the failure of her relationship with Peter, a selfish lout. She moves in with Jo, which causes tensions between her (Helen) and Geoff. Geoff decides he can no longer stay at the flat and moves out, leaving Helen to care for Jo and her impending baby. Symbolic of Helen's disdain of Geoffrey is her return, near the end of the film, of the bassinet he gave to Jo.

5)Darling is a 1965 British comedy/drama film written by Frederic Raphael, directed by John Schlesinger, and starring Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, and Laurence Harvey. It is considered one of Schlesinger's best films and an insightful satire of mid-sixties British culture. It was a breakout role for young actress Julie Christie, who, much like her character Diana, went on to become an international star.Darling tells the story of a trendy young woman named Diana Scott (Julie Christie) who uses her sex appeal to achieve fame and fortune. Initially she draws the attention of a television journalist (Dirk Bogarde) and convinces him to give up his family to be with her. After growing increasingly bored with this relationship, she begins moving and sleeping around in the upper circles of society. She secures increasingly important modeling and acting roles, attracting the attention of the international nobility, but real happiness proves harder to attain.

6)Poor Cow is a 1967 British drama film directed by Ken Loach, based on Nell Dunn's novel of the same name.Joy is an 18 year old woman who runs away from home with Tom; this proves to be the first of many bad choices. She marries and has a boy, Johnny. Tom is a thief; he becomes mentally and physically abusive to Joy and ends up in prison, leaving her on her own. Joy takes a job as a barmaid and then, to earn extra money, becomes a prostitute. Her life spirals downhill until her son goes missing and she realises what is most important to her.

7)Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.Arthur Seaton, a young machinist at a Nottingham factory, is having an affair with Brenda, the wife of an older co-worker. He also has a relationship with Doreen, a woman closer to his own age. When Brenda gets pregnant, Arthur asks his aunt for advice on aborting the child. Brenda's husband discovers the affair, and his brother (a burly soldier) and a fellow soldier give Arthur a vicious beating. After recovering, Arthur returns to work, and the film ends on an ambiguous note, with Arthur and Doreen discussing marriage and the prospect of a new home.

8)Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller/horror film directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions of terror.

Its controversial subject and the extremely harsh reception by critics effectively destroyed Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom. However, it attracted a cult following, and in later years, it has been re-evaluated and is now considered a masterpiece.Lewis is a member of a film crew who aspires to become a filmmaker himself. He works part-time photographing lurid pictures of women. He is a shy, reclusive young man who hardly ever socializes outside of his workplace. He lives in his father's house, leasing part of it and acting as the landlord, while posing as a tenant himself. Mark is fascinated by the boisterous family living downstairs, and especially by Helen (Anna Massey), a sweet-natured young woman who befriends him out of pity.

9)Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film directed by François Truffaut, in his first colour film as well as his only English-language film. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury.
The film starred Oskar Werner as Montag and Julie Christie, who was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role award for the dual roles of Linda (Mildred) Montag and Clarisse.The central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this future, means "bookburner"). The novel's title refers to the supposed temperature at which book paper combusts. Although sources contemporary with the novel's writing gave the temperature as 450 °C (842 °F), Bradbury is believed to have thought "Fahrenheit" made for a better title; however, in an introduction to the 40th anniversary edition of the novel, Bradbury states that a person he spoke with at the local fire department said "Book-paper catches fire at 451 degrees Fahrenheit". The "firemen" burn them "for the good of humanity". Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as issues in American society of the era.



*all info lifted from Wikipedia

Vintage Loves.

I love to buy vintage things and finding something no one else has is really exciting . Even more so if it still has its packaging and of course if it is cheap !!

There are still so many things sitting in charity shops that are so much better than you will find on the high street and generally better made and higher quality . 

Here are just a few of my finds from the last few years.
Starting with these pose angels I found cheaply (£3.99) even though pose dolls are already reaching higher prices.

Gaytimes crockery is British made. I have several pieces ,I love the 70's bright design.

This mirror is from the Dawn Doll range. Early 70's I think.

Vintage Avon from the late 60's "My Prettiness". I have loved this range for years but have all the bits I want now. 

These both contain perfume still.

My husband found these mats still in there box , unused for a couple of pounds.

CRAFT5 - Pay It Forward 2011

I first heard about this project on FaceBook & it seems to be cropping up everywhere, such a great idea.

There is a group on Flickr if you are interested to join in http://www.flickr.com/groups/1628061@N22/

I am looking forward to see the progression of the project.

My first two pieces are now ready to send to their new owners. They are both stitched pieces .

TINY GIRL is going to a secret location !! SURPRISE !!!!

 This is worked on 28 count evenweave in cross stitch over one hole only. The design in inspired by a note book from Paperchase.

The second piece was inspired by a photograph !!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kidcrayola/5000441339/in/set-72157624794125311/
Haley was on my list and I knew she would love my idea.

 This was sketched on to the fabric & then free hand embroidered . I am really pleased with the outcome.

 Of course I am lucky to work in a place that sells so many great items for stitching of all types.

http://www.theframeworkshop.co.uk/Scripts/default.asp

A new start ...

Well this is really all new to me but here we go....

I have recently re found my love of stitching and decided I would like to share my sewn adventures and a little of the rest of my life.

I love all types of stitching but to me , it has to be an art form so kits are not my passion, I prefer to design as I go, seeing how the piece works out as it grows.

To start I will just share a couple of recent pieces I have completed. 

Firstly a bargello case I made for a dear friend.

 It was a lovely piece to do .

Secondly a piece of free hand embroidery I have done for my sister , she will be 40 soon. I do hope she likes it. 

I tend to draw straight onto my fabric & then stitch. Sometimes I sketch first on paper but then pen I use soon fades away so a mistake is not too bad.