March 27th Today, I am...

...this adorably clumsy Lucille Ball!

I'm a veteran of television, film, radio and stage. My most notable role, Lucy Ricardo in I Love Lucy (1951-1957), became one of the most well-known and adored characters in television history, and turned me into a household name who continues to entertain generations of people worldwide. I received a countless number of accolades, including winning four Emmy Awards (Best Comedienne, 1952 and Best Actress in a continuing Performance, 1955 for I Love Lucy, and Outstanding Continuing Performance by an Actress in a leading Role in a Comedy Series, 1967 and 1968 for The Lucy Show), being the first female inductee into the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame and later being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2001, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Citation from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1986, and being posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989. I was born in 1911 in New York. My father, Henry, died when I was three years old so I was raised by my mother, Desiree, a concert pianist, and my maternal grandparents. I began performing in school plays as a child and decided to pursue a show business career at age 15. As a blonde and under the stage name, Diane Belmont, I tried my luck as a Broadway chorus girl during the 1920s. I had some brief luck in this endeavour but was ultimately fired from four different shows. I was repeatedly told by people in the industry and acting coaches that I should give up because I did not have enough talent.


other Lucille Ball pictures:

interesting Lucille Ball (and I Love Lucy) facts:

* her family was so poor Lucille couldn’t even afford the pencil she needed for school; she would hoard pencils for the rest of her life
* Lucille was accepted to the prestigious Robert-Minton-John Murray Anderson School of Drama in Manhattan after auditioning with a comic monologue (the others did Shakespeare), but was dismissed after a month because she was too shy to perform in front of her classmates
* I Love Lucy was the first comedy to be filmed before a live audience.; when it aired, department stores closed early and telephone and water usage dropped
* the opening titles of “I Love Lucy” were based on the diamond-encrusted, heart-shaped lapel Desi Arnaz (her husband, co-actor) gave Lucille Ball on her 29th birthday
* Lucile Ball’s natural hair color was brown. She dyed it blonde upon entering Hollywood, but didn’t dye it her trademark red until starring in the 1942 film “DuBarry was A Lady.”
* actresses Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance (Ethel) were rumored to not have gotten along during the first few seasons of the show
* many of the show’s characters were named after Lucille Ball’s close friends and family members
* each episode about Lucy’s pregnancy had to be reviewed by a minister, priest and rabbi in order to ensure that they weren’t offensive to the television audience
* 44 million viewers tuned in to watch Lucy give birth to little Ricky, accounting for 72% of all U.S. homes with TVs at the time
* Lucille Ball was on the very first cover of TV Guide; eventually, she would appear on the cover more times than any other celebrity, a total of 39 covers
* in 1962, Lucille Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu




(facts found at Bio. and BuzzFeed)

March 20th Today, I am...

...this floral vintage hand fan!

I was used plenty in the old days, not so much today (except for special styles, like modern gothic or steampunk, etc.). I am an implement used to induce an airflow for the purpose of cooling or refreshing oneself. Any broad, flat surface waved back-and-forth will create a small airflow and therefore can be considered a rudimentary fan. But generally, purpose-made hand-held fans are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (such as paper or feathers) mounted on slats which revolve around a pivot so that it can be closed when not in use. Since my invention many centuries ago, the folding fan became objet de désir, indispensable accessory, work of art, sign of distinction. Archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that the hand fan was already used in ancient Egypt and Greece. Christian Europe's earliest fan was the flabellum (or ceremonial fan), which dates to the 6th century. This was used during services to drive insects away from the consecrated bread and wine. Its use died out in western Europe, but continues in the Eastern Orthodox and Ethiopian Churches. Hand fans were absent in Europe during the High Middle Ages until they were reintroduced in the 13th and 14th centuries. Fans from the Middle East were brought back by Crusaders. Portuguese traders brought them back from China and Japan in the 16th century, and fans became generally popular. The fan is still especially popular in Spain, where flamenco dancers used the fan and extended its use to the nobility.


Here is a sample of how the fan was used to convey messages:

• If a woman hid her eyes behind an open fan she meant –– I love you
• If she shut a fully open fan slowly she meant –– I promise to marry you
• If she placed her fan behind her head she meant –– do not forget me
• If she dropped her fan she meant –– we will be friends
• If she twirled her fan in her left hand she meant –– we are being watched

other fans pictures:

interesting fan facts:

* inspiration for the earliest fans came from leaves or bird feathers
* fans were made out of silk, paper, sandalwood, tortoise shell and mother of pearl
* fans for men are smaller and more plain than the regular ones
* in former times the manufacture of hand fans was completely artisan; today also industrial processes are use
* a feather fan was included in the gifts given by Christopher Columbus to the Catholic Queen Elisabeth after his first trip to America

(facts found at Teacher Plus and All Handfans)

March 17th Today, I am...

...this golden antique telephone!

Such a beauty! I am actually as hard to get as you'd think, you can purchase me at AliExpress for a very reasonable price! With so many carefully shaped details full of flowers and gentle curves intertwined with leaves. Once again, we can relate this kind of type to the Victorian era (I can't help it, I think it's becoming my favourite period). The beginning of a phone goes a long way back to Alexander Graham Bell, an expert in sound, but not so much in electricity (hence the assistant Thomas Watson). The break-through, actually, happened by accident, while experimenting with two springs connected by a long piece of wire. Bell and Watson were in different rooms, each with a spring, thinking when one of them waggled their spring, the spring at the other end of the wire would waggle too. Instead, the sound of the spring twanging in one room travelled along the wire and could be heard at the spring in the other room. The Queen found the whole process ‘most extraordinary’ and wished to purchase a set of telephones.

other antique telephones:

interesting telephone facts:

* the original telephone greeting was 'Ahoy!', suggested by Alexander Graham Bell and later replaced with 'Hello!', suggested by Thomas Edison
* the very first phone call was: “Watson come here, I want you!" made between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson in 1876 in Boston
* the memorable Nokia tone for receiving SMS text messages is Morse code for ‘SMS’
* Bell’s patent for the telephone was modestly titled ‘Improvement in Telegraphy’
* the Italian-American Antonio Meucci invented a telephone in 1871, which was five years before Bell, but was too poor to renew his patent for it
* in the early days, telephone wires were ranked according to how tasty they were to mice and rats
* as a tribute to Alexander Graham Bell when he died in 1922, all the telephones stopped ringing for one full minute (14 million telephones in US and canada were affected)
* Mark Twain was one of the first to have a phone in his home

(facts found at Knowlarity and Express)

March 15th Today, I am...

...this supercool steampunk watch!

I am made of brass all over, numerous filigrees with floral patterns, two feather wings and a set of leaves forming a second pair of wings, one Swarovski pearl, one resin cameo and a beautiful watch face with mother of pearl front. Steampunk is the science fiction of the steam age, re-imagined with the advantage of modern hindsight. Drawing upon the wealth of historical technology and the scientific fantasies of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, steampunk seeks to reinvent modern wonders such as the computer as the people of the age might have envisoned them. Following in the footsteps of Hules Verne and H. G. Wells, steampunk authors blend history, science and imagination into a world of wonder that might have been. Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that portrays a world where steam is king: without higher technologies to replace it, steam is the dominant source of power, leading to the creation of strange and new technologies which dominate an entirely new society.

other steampunk watches:

interesting steampunk fashion facts:

* goggles are the easiest way to identify a Steampunk
* if you meet a Steampunk, be prepared for florid dialoge last heard in 1850's England
* steampunk includes the supernatural as well
* the term "steampunk" itself, now a badge of honor, began as a putdown, a joke
* steampunk has always displayed a split personality
* Alan Moore's superb graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and its sequels certainly represent the extreme heights to which steampunk will go in its tendency to appropriate past fiction into itself.

(facts found at Cracked and Huff Post)

March 11th Today, I am...

...this beautiful Art Nouveau hand mirror!

We've mentioned Art Nouveau before. The name came from an interior design gallery in Paris, the Maison de l’Art Nouveau. This style uses forms that resemble stems and blossoms of plants as well as geometrical forms. The coming of Art Nouveau can be traced to two specific influences: the first was the introduction, of the Arts and Crafts movement, that was led by the English designer William Morris. Just like Art Nouveau, this movement was a reaction against the cluttered designs of Victorian-era decorative art. The second influence was the latest vogue for Japanese art, especially wood-block prints, which swept up many European artists in the 80s and 90s, such as Gustav Klimt, Emile Galle and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The Japanese wood-block prints consisted of floral and rounded forms, and “whiplash” curves, these were the elements that would eventually become Art Nouveau. Hand mirrors have a long history of use both as household accessories and as objects of decoration. For the most part, they were hand cut and beveled, then framed in an array of metals, such as German silver, brass, silver plate and sterling, some with a gold wash. 

other Art Nouveau hand mirrors:

interesting mirror facts:

* Narcissus was supposedly bewitched by his own reflection in a pool of water, and magic powers are ascribed to mirrors in fairy tales
* the concepts of the soul are often associated with mirrors, which results in a wealth of superstition surrounding mirrors (for instance, breaking a mirror causes seven years of bad luck because the soul which shatters with the broken mirror regenerates every seven years)
* mirrors also have a strong connection to spirits; they are covered when some dies, because according to some superstitions, a mirror can trap the soul of the person who dies
* a broken mirror to this day is said to bring seven years of bad luck; this curse goes back thousands of years ago to the period of ancient Romans
* the first mirrors were often sheets of polished metal and were used almost exclusively by the ruling classes
* silvering—the process of coating the back of a glass sheet with melted silver—became the most popular method for making mirrors in the 1600s
* in some severe cases, the images these mirrors reflected were similar to those we'd see in a fun-house mirror today

(facts found at Encyclopedia.com and  Mirror History)

March 6th Today, I am...

...Leda with the swan!

I am an oil on wood painting by Leonardo daVinci. Leda and the swan is a Greek mythoglogy story in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces and rapes Leda. Leda then gave birth to his children, Helena and Polydeuces, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband and the king of Sparta, Tyndareus. Some stories say she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. Leonardo daVinci was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. One of the most diversly talented person to ever live, he is also considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time. A man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination", Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man. He epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal (humanism = a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism).

his signature:

other daVinci paintings:

 

interesting daVinci facts:

* the name Leonardo daVinci translates to Leonard from the town of Vinci
* Leonardo was raised by his single father (he was the love child of Caterina, a peasant, and Ser Piero, a lawyer and landlord)
* he was left-handed
* daVinci left many paintings unfinished and destroyed most of his work
* he was a vegetarian who loved animals and despised war, yet he worked as a military engineer to invent advanced and deadly weapons
* he invented the bicycle 300 years before it appeared on the road
* Leonardo daVinci had dyslexia, which made it hard for others to steal his work
* he dug into graves at night and stole corpses to study the human anatomy
* he was an accomplished lyre player

(facts found at DaVinci Poster and Discover)

March 4th Today, I am...

...this beautiful Venetian wall mask!

I am "crowned by a magnificent butterfly", I have "a whimsical, yet elegant styling." I am a wall hanging, measuring 20.5'' from top to bottom. I'm crafted of cold cast bronze with a beautiful hand tinted finish. I cost $94.00 and you can purchase me at The Guiding Tree. Venetian masks with elaborate costumes are a traditional wardrobe at the Venetian carnival. Traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December 26) and the start of the carnival season at midnight of Shrove Tuesday. Maskmakers (mascherari) enjoyed a special position in society, with their own laws and their own guild. Venetian masks can be made of leather, porcelain or using the original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design, decoration, and often had a symbolic and practical function. Nowadays, most of them are made with the application of gesso and gold leaf and are all hand-painted using natural feathers and gems to decorate. There is little evidence explaining the motive for the earliest mask wearing in Venice. One scholar argues that covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history.

other Venetian masks from The Guiding Tree:

 interesting Venetian carnival facts:

* everyone (meaning ANYONE) who hid under the disguise could pretend to be someone else and maybe climb the stairs of the Palazzo Ducale to go and salute the most serene Doge
* the carnival could not be interrupted and that meant it had to carry on at any cost
* the Carnival stopped being celebrated after the fall of the Republic because it was frowned upon by the Austrians and the French, but the tradition was preserved in the islands of Murano and Burano
* the typical sweets of the Carnevale are Frittelle and Galani, which can be purchased in every single bakery and patisserie in town, but only during Carnival time

(all facts found at Browsing Italy)

February 25th Today, I am...

...this beautiful carving!

I am located at Musée du Louvre, Paris, which is one of the world's largest museums (60,600 square meters; not quite the largest but has the most visitors) and a historical monument. The museum in its classic baroque style is a part of the Louvre Palace complex, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century. Louis XIV from the Palace of Versailles chose the Louvre as a place to display the royal collection in 1682. Inside, you can find around 35,000 pieces of art from prehistoric era to the 19th century. The most comonly known amongst them is defenitelly Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, also The Wistler's Mother (which you can remember from a Mr. Bean's episode), Venus the Milo, The Coronation of Napoleon and other remarkable paintings and sculptures. In 1983, a new design for the entrance was built (the Grand Louvre) as an underground lobby and modern glass pyramid structure in the courtyard. It is impossible to see all of its sights in one visit because it's so big.

other sculptures and carvings of Louvre:

interesting museum (in general) facts:

* the Museum of Death in Hollywood includes a head severed by the guillotine in France and Liberace’s stuffed cat
* the Phallological Museum in Husavik, Iceland, is the world’s only museum of penises
* the Garbage Museum in Stratford, Connecticut, closed in 2011 after 16 years exhibiting rubbish
* there is a dog collar museum at Leeds Castle in Kent

(all facts found at Express)