Love & Marriage: A 20th Century Romance

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently my dear internet decided to go on strike, for what has seemed like an eternity. I personally think its done so in protest due to the fact that Bradley Cooper is not appearing on Strictly Come Dancing this year, but the engineer disagrees. Who could resist him in tight shirts and sequins shaking his pecks? My cat Jasper is drooling just thinking about it now.
 
So apart from crying over the loss of being able to access Asos every day,(no shopaholic should have to deal with that situation) I've been cuddling down with Jasper and a pack of Fox's biscuits watching some pretty Kleenex worthy tv. I've been engrossed in The Bletchley Circle, Mrs Biggs and developed quite a crush on the Queen of baking, Mary Berry from The Great British Bake Off.

 

'Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance' explores love and relationships through the decades starting of in the early 1900s. Last weeks episode looked at the period between the 1900s and the late 1950s, when life was more about surviving two world wars together, then having date nights each week. There were no 2 for 1 Orange cinema tickets in those days.
 
Last Tuesday BBC Four began a new series on love. I'm not talking about the 4 shots for a £1 let's have a quick fumble kind of love, I mean real deep never ending love that when you see between two people makes you go all mushy inside and start putting hearts over your i's, or is that just me?
 

There are some lovely stories involved in the programme, including one from John who was in the Merchant Navy. "I took Dorothy to Sefton Park, and we sat down on a bench and I said, ‘Darling, I’ve got 25 quid. Will you marry me?" It's hard to imagine a man saying that now, I mean what are you going to get with 25 quid, a Chinese takeaway to celebrate?
 
Divorce wasn't an option in peoples minds at this time and the most important thing was providing a stable and loving home for yourself and your children. Many marriages began with friendship, there was no third date rules, it took two years for my Granddad to hold my Grandma's hand, now that's taking it slow.
 
Marriages survived the terrifying effects of the wars with men leaving home to go and fight, with their wives and girlfriends not knowing whether they would see each other again. The thought of not knowing whether I'd see Mr.Boyfriend and his smile again or not would just terrify me. I'd miss our Dad's Army and Porridge marathons a hell of a lot too. Women used to religiously write to their sweethearts every day and had to deal with the agonising wait for a letter back. Thank god for email and Twitter now.
 

The programme also covered the naivity of people in those days going into a relationship. How many partners you had was not a question and not many people knew about the intimate side of relationships and what it actually involved. There was no Cosmopolitan magazine telling us '50 things he'll love' and 'How to Unleash your inner goddess' in those days.
 
The programme contained some beautiful and moving love stories with some of the couples still being married today for over 70 years, that's an awful lot of anniversaries to have to subtly remind your husband of. The series continues tonight with episode two out of three focusing on relationships in the 1960's and 1970's, when the idea of marriage was questioned, divorce was on the rise and mixed race marriages were bravely happening.

 
I urge you to check this programme out, you can catch up here. It's available for another two weeks, so you have plenty of time to snuggle down with some Galaxy and watch real love stories in action. It continues tonight on BBC Four at 9pm. Who needs Hollwood when you have real can't live without love stories going on around you every day. I won't lie, Liam Hemsworth is pretty hot though.
 
Second Hand Rose
XxxX
 

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Happy Birthday to my Blog! NEW PAGE ALERT=SALE!!

My biggest fan

I can't believe I'm writing this, but yesterday my baby was a year old! No I haven't been hiding a mini Second Hand Rose from you all, I'm talking about my blog. It's hard to believe it's a whole year ago that I nervously wrote my first post 'My big hello to the world' and have now written 94 posts! It's crazy that I've been rambling on to you all for a year now and I haven't been banned for all my obsessing over Christian Louboutin's and Rock Hudson!

I would have written this earlier in the week, but Jasper the cat and I were celebrating with plenty of Sex and the City episodes, chocolate and biscuits, any excuse. Jasper and I happily spent Monday dancing around my bedroom singing Happy Birthday to ourselves, we know how to live. I can't believe that I have 142 people voluntarily following my blog and have had over 18,200 views. My blog has literally changed my life, when I'm out or talking to people, I'm always finding things to write about and share with you all. Everytime my phone chimes and tells me I have a new comment it makes me smile like a kid in a chocolate shop and I value every single word that people leave on my blog, even those 'I can make you rich' scam comments.

I regularly check my stats for the day and where in the world people have clicked onto my blog. Daddy Second Hand Rose and I love looking at all the statistics and comparing them to the day,week or month before, yes we are just a tad geeky. My blog has been a platform for me to gush about everything I adore, I think Mr.Boyfriend is pretty pleased now he doesn't have to listen to me waffle on about Marilyn Monroe or how I wish I had a 1950's wardrobe as much as I used to, that boy deserves a medal.

So to celebrate my blog blowing out its first candle I have added a new page! I've been wanting to do this for a while now and this seems the perfect time to start! The page is called 'My Treasure Chest' and features vintage clothes, accessories and patterns that I'm selling. I have created a page dedicated to all these gorgeous items, it was either that or Rock Hudson.
Over the past few months I've been rummaging around vintage fairs and going crazy in charity shops over gorgeous things. I am starting to sell them to a) Try and start carving a life for myself and b) The Asos sale is just way way too tempting!!

Every week I will be adding new items to the page and I'll be blogging about them too, so please keep looking! I am also offering 10% off to my fabulous blog followers! Just bid and when you've won pop me an e-mail and I will happily deduct the money, or give you a huge squeeze and serenade you, it's your choice.
They will be wrapped securely with love in pink acid free tissue paper to help preserve them and tied up with ribbon.
Here's a sneak peek of what I'm selling, click on the page for more details. Enjoy!

1. Stunning 1980's Black Polka Dot Dress £29.99

2. Gorgeous 70's Blue & Purple Boho Paisley Dress£19.99

 3.Beautiful 1980s Black Lace Maxi Dress£29.99

 

 4. Fab 1960s Dusky Pink Satin Strapless Dress Diamond Sequins £19.99

 5. Fabulous 1970s Orange Shirt with Studded Collar£19.99

Thank you again to you all I really do appreciate you reading this for the past year, I am hugely honoured and very touched that some of you actually spend more then 10 seconds on my page. Pretty please can you all have a peek at my page along with my eBay shop and treat yourself, every girl needs a piece of vintage in her life!

Second Hand Rose

XxxX