• Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.
• Make the best of your circumstances. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with gladness of life. The trick is to make the laughter outweigh the tears.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t think that somehow you should be protected from misfortune that befalls other people.
• You can’t please everybody. Don’t let criticism worry you.
• Don’t let your neighbor set your standards. Be yourself.
• Do the things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.
• Never borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than real ones.
• Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish jealousy, enmity, grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.
• Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about new places.
• Don’t hold post-mortems. Don’t spend your time brooding over sorrows or mistakes. Don’t be one who never gets over things.
• Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.
• Keep busy at something. A busy person never has time to be unhappy.

The origins of the Kelly first appeared, in its original form in the 1930’s but it wasn’t until 1956 that it truly became a star. With its smart tailored-shape it evolved into a ‘50s favorite during the Hollywood glamour years, and has enjoyed an iconic status ever since.

The Kelly bag is named after the actress Grace Kelly, when in 1956, the then Princess of Monaco used one of her two favorite Hermès bags to shield her pregnant stomach from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. Photographs of her covering her stomach bulge with her hallowed Hermès were splashed all over the world and made it onto the cover of Life magazine!

When faced with a pack of nosy photographers, Stephanie Pendersen, in her book, Handbags, What Every Woman Should Know, says that the shy, newly married Princess, not yet wishing to announce her pregnancy to the world, did what any woman would do and hid her secret in her handbag! Such was Kelly’s influence at the time that from henceforth, her essential accessory became known as the “Kelly” bag.

Nowadays, according to Miller’s Handbags — a Collector’s Guide , vintage examples of the Hermès Kelly change hands for large amounts of money. An early 1960s crocodile Kelly, for example, would be expected to fetch anything from $3,000 – $6,000 at a top auction house.

Kelly bags come in 5 different sizes and are usually made from crocodile, alligator, ostrich-skin or plain leather. According to Miller’s guide, they are identifiable by their distinctive metal-tipped clasp, which can be closed with a tiny padlock. Swathed in leather, the clasp’s hidden key often dangles from the handle.

In Handbags, The Power of the Purse, Anna Johnson points out that a 1956 Hermès Alligator Bag took 2 alligators to make a Kelly, with the exotic skin culled from the reptiles’ jowls and the belly. Johnson details the finer points of the making of a Kelly bag; the fact that it takes a single craftsman around 18 hours to produce one of these beauties.

Once the hand-cut skins (selected by personal customer order) have arrived, they are laid out, resembling a mini-dress and the lining or the bag is hand-sewn in. The base of the bag is then created, using waxed linen thread and a tough double-saddle stitch, where perforations are painstakingly made into the leather. The following step is the creation of the handle and then the front flap is stitched and added to the body of the bag. The clasp and the four feet at the base of the Kelly are then fitted and the famous padlock added.

The inside of a Kelly bag is as beautifully and as painstakingly made as the outside, an honored tenet of Hermès, according to Pendersen. The bags seams are smoothed, dyed and waxed.

Interestingly, the penultimate finishing touch involves the Kelly being ironed, to get the wrinkles out the skin. The very last touch is to christen the bag with the famous Hermès Paris logo, and another Kelly bag is born.

Although other Hollywood stars carried this iconic bag, (such as Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich) none had the same impact as Grace Kelly. The Kelly bag now enjoys a cult status and is a modern day moviestar in its own right, featuring in recent TV and Hollywood movies such as Sex and the City and Le Divorce. The Kelly and the Birkin have become two of the most famous designer bags of all time. Victoria Beckham is one of the modern day celebrities famous for her Hermès Birkin and Kelly collection.

Girls are like apples…the best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who’s brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

The little black dress made its debut in May 1926, with a pen and ink drawing in Vogue magazine by designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971). The magazine editors called the dress “Chanel’s ‘Ford,’” comparing the dress to the simply designed, economically priced black Ford Model T automobile.

The dress caused an instant uproar in the fashion world. Choosing black as a fashionable color was itself startling. Before Chanel, black clothing was associated with either the clergy or servants, or with mourning. But the simplicity and economy of the dress appealed to women of the 1930s Great Depression era, a time of severe economic turmoil after the stock market crash of 1929. With this simple item in their wardrobes, accessorized only with a string of pearls or a pair of high-heels, middle-class women and high-society ladies could be equals. As Chanel said, “Thanks to me they [non-wealthy] can walk around like millionaires.”

The woman who, according to expert Amy Holman Edelman, “made the little black dress an art form,” was actress Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993). She wore a little black dress designed by Hubert de Givenchy (1927–) in the role of free-spirited Holly Golightly in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

By the end of the twentieth century almost every major designer from Ralph Lauren (1939–) to Donna Karan (1948–) had included a little black dress in their clothing lines. Amy Holman Edelman, who devoted an entire book, The Little Black Dress, to Chanel’s creation, has called the dress “emblematic of a woman’s freedom of choice, her equal participating in the world and her declaration that, this time, she is dressing for herself.”

Only once in your life you find someone who can completely turn your world around…

You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more…

You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you…

When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement…

They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself…

Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful…

There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around…

You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are…

The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever…

Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again…

Colours seem brighter and more brilliant…

Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all…

A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face …

Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you…

You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon…

You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you…

You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end…

Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.

• Be loved by all my friends
• Get a degree
• Marriage and motherhood
• Have my own business
• Get my own place and have it decorated the way I want it
• Trace my family tree
• Go to Paris
• Write a book
• Be on TV
• Be in the newspaper
• Meet someone famous (I’m not sure why this was a goal for me back then)

I had forgotten about this paper, but I never forgot my goals. In some ways, they ran into each other. Tracing my family tree lead to my becoming president of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association. That lead to my having dinner with Prince Philip (it was not all it was cracked up to be!)

The head of Saint Mary Magdalene now lies there, where it has been the centre of so many pilgrimages. Her skull is displayed on an altar. It is in a rather curious container, as you can see by the photos.

Personally, I find it rather disturbing. It’s a bust of a woman, made of solid gold, with a space to display the skull.

 

According to several Church historians of the 4th and 5th century, the Title of the Cross was discovered in 325 AD when St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great ordered the removal of a pagan temple built by Hadrian over the site of the Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre.

Helena divided the most precious wood inscription and brought the half with the words I NAZARINUS R… to Rome. It is still preserved and venerated in the Basilica di S. Croce, one of the seven main churches of the Eternal City.

In 1998, a careful investigation was commissioned by the Vatican and seven Israeli experts on the dating of inscriptions (comparative palaeography) dated its letters into the 1st century, the time of Christ. This makes it one of the most remarkable and most authentic relics of the Passion of Our Lord. It is the only contemporary document naming Our Lord and confirming the veracity of the Gospels – it also proclaimed that He was the true messiah, the “King of the Jews”