16th December: Christmas Songs and a whole lot of lost hair

I blogged about Elizabeth's Taylor amazing collection of clothes, jewellery and art a while back in my post  Father Christmas if you're listening when the collection was unveiled at Christie's. Well after it doing a whole tour around the world it was all sold for a whopping $150 million last week! The four day sale had items fetching way over their estimate with the jewellery itself reaching $116 million (£74.9m). A 16th century pearl necklace sold for an amazing $11.8 million (£7.6m). A 33.19 carat diamond ring given to her by Richard Taylor sold for a whopping $8.8 million (£5.7m) A proprotion of the money is going towards the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation. Some very lucky people will be getting some lovely presents this year. I think another quick letter to Father Christmas is in order.

Before I start rambling everyone please remember to enter my competition!! All you have to do is design your own Christmas jumper online, send it to me with a little description about your idea! For more details go to my post 12 Days of Christmas Jumpers. Your jumper will then be looked over by me and my cat and you will be in the chance of winning some fabulous prizes and believe me they are fabulous! Well my cat thinks so anyway.

So last night Mummy and Daddy Second Hand Rose took me and Mr.Boyfriend to see Christmas with The Rat Pack as a surprise for his birthday. Obviously it wasn't the real Rat Pack, sadly I don't see Frank Sinatra coming back to life anytime soon sadly. If he did I think I would jump on him, squeeze him, propose to him and offer him some cupcakes. Sorry Mr.Boyfriend.

Christmas with the Rat Pack included Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and the three amazing Burelli sisters with gorgeous costumes on that made all the men stare and drivel. I'm watching you Mr. Boyfriend. There was a superb fifteen piece orchestra along with some bloke on a piano that I must admit did look a bit like Elton John.

The singing was outstanding, they were incredible, the dancing was fabulous and the whole show was scrummy dilly umptious. Frank, Dean and Sammy were in gorgeous suits with the shiniest shoes on, they looked oh so handsome. Mr.Boyfriend did have to stop me from running onto the stage and kissing them a few times.

The funniest bit was there were all these eighty year old women whooping, cheering, standing up, wolf whistling and whaling the group, I can't blame them really. So if you fancy going to hear some amazing music, see some fabulous dancing or just want to stare at yummy men in suits for two hours you can find some tour dates here. If you want to find out more about them go here and if you want to hear their amazing voices and drool at them without leaving your computer, check them out here on Youtube. If you end up listening and staring at them all day, I don't blame you.

So this and the fact that The Only Way is Essex stars have released a Christmas single (yes you did read that right) got me thinking about Christmas songs, I don't mean Jingle Bells and We Three Kings of Orient Are, I mean more like Mistletoe and Wine and Mary's Boy Child. Before the X Factor got involved every year artists fought for the top spot to have the number one Christmas single with a Christmmassy type song, now its more like a money making machine for Simon Cowell (yes, I am just a tad cynical).
The charts didn't actually begin until 1952, but before then there were popular Christmas songs from the likes of Frank Sinatra (who else?) and Bing Crosby. The first ever Christmas No1 was by Al Martino called Here in My Heart, let me warn you its not 'Santa Baby' and it may have your Grandma running for the Kleeenex.

There have been zillions of Christmas songs from 'Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer' to 'Lonely this Christmas'. What is nice to see is that some of the really old songs like Rudolph by Bing Crosby which was done in 1950 is still popular to this day, even if there are a couple of rude versions. One of the most popular Christmas songs has of course been 'Do They Know Its Christmas'(check out the mullets) by Band Aid. A myriad of stars including Bob Geldof, Sting and David Bowie got together to do a Christmas song to raise money to help the Ethiopia famine. The song became the biggest selling single in the UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week. Very popular Christmas songs include Cliff Richard's Mistletoe and Wine and Mr Blobby's Christmas Song which was a number 1 in 1993, god I love this country.
Other ones include Chris Rea's Driving Home for Christmas one of my personal favourites and a song which is probably my favourite Christmas song by Jona Lewie called Stop the Cavalry, I dunno its probably all those men in uniform.

The top most popular Christmas song in the UK is All I Want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey, I think its probably the fact that a) she is gorgeous and b)she is in a sexy Father Christmas costume for quite a lot of it, I understand boys. So who is going to be Christmas Number 1 this year? Well its really between X Factor winner's Little Mix with their song Cannonball and The Military Wives Charity single Wherever You Are

I've been meaning to show you all my new hair for well, ages. I got a mammoth of it cut off on the 13th of October ie D.Day. I had at seventeen inches cut off, yes you read that right seventeen. I had been thinking about it for ages, but I was forced to get it all cut off due to me being pretty ill (long story, I won't make this into an episode of Holby City) and getting my blonde locks in the biggest and hardest knot ever because all I could do was lie in bed, watch Dad's Army and eat a hell of a lot of Mummy Second Hand Rose's soup. To be honest I was struggling to keep it in a good condition and ended towards the end I had it up a lot anyway. So this seemed a sign to finally get the haircut that I had been too much of a sissy to get. After many many hours of Grandma Second Hand Rose, Daddy and Mummy Second Hand Rose and even Mr.Boyfriend using my tangle-teezer and an awful lot of de-tangling spray, we had to cut the big knot out. So I went to Toni & Guy on the 13th to transform my hair into at least something good, so I could look people in the eye and not wear a beanie for the rest of my life. So here is my transformation:

Me with short hair and cold ears

Me with my long locks

 Please everyone tell me what you think before I dig out my woolly hat that my Grandma made me.

This is my first ever outfit post, this is what I wore to the The Rat Pack show.

If anyone is actually interested I will tell you all where the things I am wearing are from. The big silver spotty earrings are from Asos. The necklace is a Vivienne Westwood necklace. Before you all start thinking I'm a label whore, its a necklace that I was given for my 16th birthday by my parents, which I wear every day and its a bit like a good luck charm. I haven't got any Christian Louboutin's yet so I'm starting to wonder about its good luck properties.               The fur coat is the Boohoo coat that I bought off eBay which you can read about in a post that I did here. The top is a black and white peter pan collar top from Dorothy Perkins. The blue ponte mini skirt is also from Dorothy Perkins which you can find here for £12. The ochre 80D tights are from Asos which you can find here for £6, the spats are ones I bought an age ago, I'm officially in love with spats and am wishing my feet will grow so I could wear some real ones without looking like a clown. 

The driving gloves are ones I bought off the beloved eBay and finally the handbag is also from eBay. Its not one of those New Look knock offs, it is a real vintage handbag from the 40's in great condition. 

Since I started this blog it is the first time you have all seen what I look like, so now I have clarified to you that I'm not a 65 year old truck driver from Lancarshire, not that there is anything wrong with a 65 year old truck driver from Lancashire.

Everyone enjoy all the Christmas songs, because trust me you will here an awful lot of them this week and by the end of Christmas you will be able to recite them backwards. Just make sure your Dad avoids the Karaoke machine, him singing Slade's, Merry Christmas Everybody at the top of his voice with a paper hat on, isn't the best thing you want on Boxing Day after recovering from the Christmas Day hangover, believe me.

Second Hand Rose

XxxX