We all deserve to own great art.

Monet's Poppy Field

Great art is ……… GREAT.

But there is a problem with a lot of famous artworks in that most of the amazing paintings are locked away in museums, and because of that the only chance you get to see them is to buy a plane ticket, book a hotel, get a taxi to the museum and hope that thousands of other people aren't doing the same thing so that you may get up close, or as close as they'll let you, to see the picture in all it's glory.

Klimt's The Kiss

This isn't something that most of us could do on a regular basis, but modern technology has created a great opportunity for us all to get a good look at these works of art. The rise of the internet allows you up close access to most of the paintings. I know it's not the same as being there and seeing the brush strokes, but every year technology creates innovations that improve our experience of the virtual, so watch this space.

Van Gogh's Irises

What currently technology allows is the recreation of amazing art on products that you can own, and at Hello Brolly we look for the best examples in umbrella form so that you can now walk around with a Monet or Klimt in your hand. How amazing is that!

Monet's Woman with a Parasol

Thanks for reading, and I welcome shares and please leave any comments below,

Karen Lee

July 6th is officially Umbrella Cover Day

Umbrella covers are the little sleeves that come with some umbrellas. Some people like using them, some quickly lose them and some people just chuck them away straight after buying as they think that they involve unnecessary faffing. Covers may be small, but they have inspired their own museum of Umbrella Covers, and a Guinness World Record.

Umbrella Cover Day encourages you to dig out your umbrella covers from the bottom of drawers, the backs of cupboards to celebrate the wonder and beauty in the simplest of things. It's about remembering that there is usually always a story behind the cover; like the umbrella you bought on a holiday when you met the love of your life, or the best ever muddy bog of a Glastonbury, when you listened to your favourite band huddled under your favourite brolly.

Umbrella covers can have other uses too. 

If you are one of those who don't want to use them on your umbrella, they make great make-up brush holders, or if they have a drawstring they can be used as makeshift purses and, as they are usually made from the same waterproof material that the brolly is made from, they are perfect for putting your toothbrushes in when travelling.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

Just some of the umbrellas with covers at HelloBrolly.co.uk

A fun idea for your wedding, involving umbrellas.

Sawer - An Indonesian wedding tradition

The western take on the Sawer,
 as seen on the Offbeat Bride website.

This ceremony should take place in front of the 'sawer' or gargoyle. The 'water' flowing from the gargoyle indicates the continuous flow of priceless parental love for their children.

The bride and groom are seated under an umbrella in front of the entrance to the house. There are two singers, a man and a woman, who sing on behalf of the parents. 

The song, called kidung, advises the couple to treat each other well, living in harmony, and serves as a prayer to the Almighty to bless the couple.

Then the Sawer is showered on the couple.

It consists of:

- Turmeric rice - to symbolise prosperity, and yellow stands for everlasting love

- Coins - to remind us to share our wealth with the less fortunate

- Sweets - to represent sweetness and fragrance throughout your marriage. 

It is a fun tradition that people at the ceremony love to take part in, especially the children as they get to run forward to pick up the sweets and money on the floor.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

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Into the Woods... a stunning woodland wedding.

Here at Hello Brolly we know lots of amazing people who work within the wedding industry, and late last year we all got together to do a stunning Woodland Wedding themed photo shoot for a magazine. 

Hello Brolly provided umbrellas for the day, and 2 were chosen to go with the theme - a standard Petal Shaped cream brolly, and another that we designed especially for the shoot, embellished with some lace offcuts from one of the dresses that were made by the lovely Charlotte Yates from bespoke bridal wear specialists Legend Bridal.

The amazing photos were taken by the husband & wife photography duo Danny & Lizz from DJ Archer Photography, and the stunning hair and make up on our gorgeous model Lorena Jade was done by Janet & Stef Smith from Aspect Professional Makeup and Beauty Services. 

 The 5 (yes 5!) very yummy cakes were designed and created by the brilliant Vicki Ormerod at The Cake Whisk. I love visiting her house, because she always offers up cakes, cakes and more cakes!

 Jaime & Pete Ball from Jamball create amazing hand crafted felt and button bouquets, corsages & headwear. 

All the beautiful table dressings & the complete outdoor visual look was created by Marie Rooney& Jade Ingham at Country Rose Props & Event Dressing

The woodland design invites and place settings were created by Darren Brown at Darren Brown Graphic Design.

Kilhey Court's hotel and grounds in Wigan hosted our shoot for the day which was organised by the brilliant wedding and event planner Gill Bond from GM Bespoke Events, and the very pretty light festoons were supplied by Megan Hawkins from Typical Type

A quick mention to a couple of other friends who also helped out with the planning, and on the day…. - Laura Newton of Love My Trike, a traditional Ice Cream Tricycle & Prop Hire service

- Joanne Harrison from Travel Counsellors who provides a one stop shop for personalised travel with expertise in weddings and honeymoons.

Thanks to everyone involved this shoot is soon to be featured in a Northern wedding magazine and one of the industry's biggest blogs. It's all a bit hush hush, but I'll let you know which soon.

Rain on your Wedding Day brings good luck!

According to quite a lot of religions and various superstitions, the heavens opening on your big day is a good thing (only as long as you have yourself a good supply of umbrellas, hint, hint.)

These are just a few of the reasons for rain to bring good luck:

No more tears - Rain on your wedding day is thought to represent the last tears that the bride will shed as she now enters a happy blissful life.

Cleansing & renewal - Rain washes away dirt and leaves a fresh, clean scent when the sun returns, so rain on your wedding day signifies the washing away of bad memories, tough times or sadness, giving you both a fresh slate on which you can metaphorically write down your happy future together.

Fertility - Rain is thought to signify that you will have children. This belief came from our agricultural past, because as gardeners know, when the rains arrive the ground becomes fertile, allowing for the new growth of plants and vegetation, and in some hot lands there are insects and small animals that lie dormant underground until the rains appear. These creatures magically appear almost overnight making it seem that the rain has created life.





A lasting marriage - A knot that becomes wet is very hard to untie, therefore when you 'Tie the knot' on a rainy day your marriage is supposedly just as hard to unravel. We can thank Hindu traditions for this belief.

Sneaky Kisses :*

Here at Hello Brolly we love umbrellas, and we lurve kisses so we put together some of our favourite sneaky umbrella kisses for your pleasure, and to maybe give you some fun photo ideas for your wedding, engagement, anniversary or 'just because you can' photos.

Stealing a brief moment together 

Casual romantics

Steamy!

Too cute

A colourful kiss

Wowser! We all want to be kissed like that.

Thses photos were all found on Pinterest.

A quick tip to freshen up your old umbrella.

Is this happening to your old umbrella?

When a brolly is old or well used, the fold lines can lose a bit of their waterproofing and water seeps into the fabric.

Don't worry it doesn't mean your brolly will leak onto your head, it just means that it can look a bit messy, and it will take longer to dry.

This problem is due to the edges being rubbed when you roll it up and put it in the car or into the umbrella stand.

To solve this issue get some hairspray and lightly spray the outside of your umbrella (when dry) to give it's canopy a new water resistant lease of life.

Toodle pip, for now,
Karen Lee

The Queen can teach Justin Beiber and Adam Levine a thing or 2.

In the world of having children when celebrities opt for surrogates or caesarians instead of going the traditional route they call it 'Too posh to push', and in the world of umbrellas I have invented a new title for the ever growing number of celebrities who seem to be unwilling to carry their own umbrella,

'Plenty sold, so I don't hold'.

This phenomenon seems to be occurring more often in the past couple of years, and seems to be an affliction that is spreading amongst celebrities.

Now I understand the need for actors at premieres to have 2 free hands for signing autographs whilst leaving funny messages on fan's answer phones and having photos taken all at the same time, therefore Daniel Radcliffe having this drop dead gorgeous brolly carrier is fine, but..........

and it is a BIG BUT.....

Justin Beiber

Adam Levine  & Behati Prinsloo

there is NO excuse for having your personal lackey follow you 2 steps behind whist toting a large umbrella, just because you feel you are too cool to carry your own.


Yes I am talking to you Justin Beiber, oh and whilst I'm on one could you please pull up your pants!!

And to you Adam Levine, you are old enough to know better, and maybe if you held your own brolly your fiancée could be covered too!

The Queen and her umbrellas

Now some of the most well known people on the planet are in the British Royal Family, and the head of that family is the Queen, who has a pretty large retinue (for celebrities who don't recognise that word, think posse) of ladies-in-waiting and security, but guess what.........she carries her own umbrella!

She is one of the most photographed and richest women in the world, who has impeccable manners and exudes grace and style, yet she doesn't feel the need to be followed about by a minion holding her brolly.

As you can see below the future Kings and Queen of Great Britain continue in this down-to-earth approach and don't seem to have an issue with umbrella holding. So listen up you 'celebrities', if an 87 year old lady who has been in the public eye for her entire life can carry her own umbrella, I'm pretty sure you can too!

Prince Charles, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge & Prince Harry and Prince William & Catherine.

President Barack Obama

German Chancellor Angela Merkel
&Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi

Oh and don't even get me started on politicians......at one with the people they represent, pah!

Toodle pip for now
Karen Lee

 

Reclaim the Fairy Cake!

Over the last 5 years the whole of Great Britain has been inundated with cake makers.
I am very partial to a cake or 4 so don't misunderstand me, I DO NOT have an issue with the cakes themselves. I DO however take issue with what these new batch of bakers are calling their creations .........CUPCAKES!!!!

Photo courtesy of  bakinginspiration.com

For at least the 43 years that I have been on this earth, these mini cakes, covered with icing, buttercream, hundreds & thousands and/or metallic sugar balls, have been a mainstay of every school fête, community events and kiddie parties.

They have been created by mums, grandmas, brownie troops and enthusiastic kids, and have been decorated with whatever could be found in the back of a deep kitchen cupboard, and for all this time, and probably a whole lot of years before I was born, they have been called FAIRY CAKES.

Photo courtesy of georgetowncupcake.com

So why do we now have a country full of 'cupcakes'? The ever pervasive influence from our ex-colony, the good ol' U. S. of A., is the culprit. Someone, and there are a lot of claimants to this particular title, decided that if you took the humble fairy cake, gave it an unusual name such as Red Velvet or Lava Fudge, and then covered the top with various sickly sweet concoctions piled higher than the Eiffel Tower, then you could sell them for an obscene amount of money, to people with more money than sense (I only say this because this trend took flight in Beverley Hills!). 

As mentioned earlier Great Britain is full of bakers of all ages, so when this trend crossed the pond many people saw an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon and make a living doing something that they loved, but, and this is my big BUT, they allowed the American name to stay because, to be able to charge the big prices, they couldn't be seen to be related to the humble Fairy Cake.

My biggest objection to the cupcake name is that it's influence doesn't stop just at the fancy shops. Nowadays at the local fairs or the school fêtes the Fairy Cake has been usurped, and a whole generation of children think that the swirly topped, sponge creations, made to fit perfectly into a small hand are called Cupcakes. NO!!!!

Please, I beg of you all, can we keep our British names, don't let foreign invaders take over, and if you are from the land of the free, we like you, we really do, but please can you keep your Americanisms of our great language to yourselves.

To make up for your corruptions of our words, dear Americans it's time we gave you one back, so here it is. You can call an umbrella an umbrella if you wish, but over here it's called a Brolly. Enough said!
Toodle pip
Karen Lee

450 umbrellas & 128 plastic bottles create beautiful art!

In October 2012 I blogged about a project that had Kickstarter funding for the creation of a beautiful dome sculpture 'Harvest Dome 2.0' to be made out of discarded pop bottles and broken umbrellas in New York, well.......

they did it!

The amazing 24 x 18 foot structure was crafted by husband and wife duo Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi who used a total of 450 umbrellas and 128 bottles to assemble the orb.

The project, which asked for $7500, and actually received $7596, aims to raise awareness of the debris that clogs New York’s waterways, threatening fish and other forms of wildlife. The project is the brainchild of husband and wife Alex Levi and Amanda Schachter.

The 24 foot diameter sphere, that is 18 foot tall at it's highest point, has an array of light-emitting-diodes, inserted into each of the bottles and powered by tiny photovoltaic cells to create a glowing effect that looks amazing if you head out after dark.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
All photos courtesy Andreas Symietz.

Did you ever have a shocking moment of 'Ta-Dah!' that you just weren't expecting?

This blog is dedicated to all the innocent or naive people in the world.

I sit here writing this in a shocked state.

Did you ever have a moment of 'Ta-Dah!' that you just weren't expecting? I have just had one whilst listening to Radio 2 whilst they played Gene Pitney's 24 hours from Tulsa.

Now, I am 43 years old, so I know the song and have sung along with the chorus many of times, but I have never really 'listened' to the song. I have always thought it was a sweet song about a bloke on his way home to his wife, just calling to let her know he was close.

How wrong was I !!!

If you are like me and haven't ever connected the dots, I'll tell you what it is really about:

It's about a bloke on his way home who stops off somewhere a day away from home, meets another woman, does the dirty and is basically telling his current girlfriend/wife that he's not coming back!!!

SHOCKED!

I feel like Emma Pillsbury, Jayma Mays' character in Glee Season 3, when she found out what Afternoon Delight was really about (and no I didn't know what this song was about either! I am soooooo naive).

Jayma said in an interview with E! 
"I didn't know it was so dirty, I don't know if I thought it was about pie, but I can remember singing that song with my parents when I was growing up. That's so creepy now."

"My mom and dad wrote me an email the next morning [after the episode] and were like, 'We had no idea what that meant!" Mays laughed. "We're like the most innocent family ever."


And I'm going to give you another example... 

Michael Bublé has just had a really happy sounding song out called It's a Beautiful Day, but take a moment to really listen to the words, and you'll find it's about a guy whose girlfriend wants to take a break, and instead of being upset he's really, REALLY happy about it. I'm going to guess that many of his Bublettes may not have listened too closely.

It's a Beautiful Day's chorus:

Hey hey hey
It's a beautiful day and I can't stop myself from smiling
If we're drinking, then I'm buying
And I know there's no denying
It's a beautiful day, the sun is up, the music's playing
And even if it started raining
You won't hear this boy complaining
'Cause I'm glad that you're the one who got away
It's a beautiful day


So, if like me you are a bit naive (only in some things *wink*) I hope I didn't shock you too much, and if you are worldly wise please be kind to us innocents, we need looking after.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

Cheeky Umbrellas - Serendipity in Canada

serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē|nounthe occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. 

Just over 2 years ago I went to Canada to visit relatives. I took my computer to keep in touch with  home, and one morning when I was up earlier than everyone else, I was surfing the net, and had a rootie-toot on twitter. Just by chance I came across a tweet from a umbrella company based in Vancouver, Cheeky Umbrellas. At this time I was on Vancouver Island, but a few days later I would be staying in Vancouver, so I thought that it would be worth a chance to see if I could set up a meeting with the owner/designer Jen.

I know, I know..... I was on holiday, and in the normal world I wouldn't recommend doing business on your hols, but I'm not normal (never a truer word was written!), and couldn't pass up this opportunity after I found out how cool the brollies were, there just wasn't an equivalent brand available in Britain.





I tweeted back and a couple of emails later I was all set up to meet Jen at Lonsdale Quay (this is the first  and only time I've gone to a business meeting by ferry).

Jen turned up toting a rather large bag, designed for skis I think, filled with loads of gorgeous, stylish, quality umbrellas with quirky secret messages on the underside. I loved all the brollies, the quality of the fabric, the mechanism, even the soft feel handle was a delight. 

I loved 'em, wanted 'em, needed to get them in my web shop. So 2 years and 1 whole month from the date of our meeting, these Cheeky umbrellas are finally available on our Hello Brolly website.

There are 4 designs which are available in both long stick and folding styles.

These are the secret messages that can only be seen by the person under the umbrella.

Cheeky not only do these secret message brollies, they also do some very stylish ladies golf umbrellas that have vented windproof canopies. My mum and dad are lifelong golfers (I've dabbled but never seriously), and I have seen many boring golf brollies, or worse still, golf company branded brollies (eeeeek!), but in all this time, I have never seen such gorgeous golf brollies as these Cheeky ones.

Cheeky's gorgeous Golf Umbrellas.

So be one of the first people in the UK to have a Cheeky umbrella experience, just click here to go to the Cheeky page on the Hello Brolly website.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

We have a lot in common with Josh Groban!

I was watching Josh Groban in concert in Manchester the other day (a birthday pressie from my hubby), and for some reason it popped into my head that we have a lot in common.

OK this may seem a bit weird but just go with me here.....

Josh Groban has lots of great fans, but he isn't exactly mainstream (yet).
Hello Brolly has lots of great fans too, but we could always do with more, so please tell your friends.


Josh's fans are discerning, and appreciate that he hasn't changed his unique style to chase a more mainstream audience (he still sings songs in a variety of languages on each album).
Hello Brolly customers are also very sophisticated, and appreciate that here at HB we could buy in all sorts of umbrellas, and aim for a mass market, but our ethos is 'Why buy the ordinary, and bland when you can find beautiful umbrellas that are different and unusual'.

Josh believes in creating great music, and goes to great lengths to get amazing musicians from all around the world to play with him (his band consisted of musicians from Russia, Cameroon, America and his choir was from good ol' Manchester).
Here at Hello Brolly we also go to great lengths to source stunning umbrellas from all over the world, we have umbrellas from America, Canada, UK and China.

You only have to see Josh on programmes like Never Mind the Buzzcocks (which he's been guest host a few times) to know that he likes to have fun, and doesn't take himself too seriously.

At one point in the concert, when Josh was chatting to the audience he uttered this line...
"I've just realised that I'm strange.......... but that's OK 'cos I sing pretty."

Well I've always known I was strange, and I definitely don't take myself seriously, which is probably not a revelation to you if you've ever read one of my umbrella descriptions (check out the descriptions on Palm Tree umbrella or It's Raining Cats & Dogs if you want proof).

Like Josh my being strange is OK, because it let me create the entire Hello Brolly world, everything you see encompasses my strangeness and hopefully shows how much fun I have doing it.


Lastly Josh may not be to everyone's taste, but the people who love his music will be his fans forever.
Hello Brolly has a selective clientele, and we hope that you will also be our fans forever.
Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

It's Recycle Week - 5 cool things to do with your old umbrellas

1. MAKE A BAT COSTUME

Old umbrellas can make great bat wings, and even the ears are made from umbrella parts!
Find out how to make this masterpiece, step by step, here: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2006/how-to-build-a-better-bat-costume

2. MAKE A DECORATIVE FLOWER DISPLAY

Use some decorative ribbon to tie a nice bow part way up the umbrella so that the flowers can sit in at the required height. Buy a nice bouquet of flowers (or you can use plastic flowers) and create a nice arrangement. Only use half of the umbrella if you plan on a door hanging or use flowers all the way round if you plan on standing the umbrella in a pot.
Idea & Picture courtesy of http://greenparadisehomes.com

3. CREATE A CHANDELIER

If your long stick umbrella has a torn canopy, but the frame is still intact have a go at this new take on the classic Crystal Chandelier.

4. CREATE A NEW WORK OF ART

Art has no limitations. Check out this dress made out of a broken umbrella, bubble wrap, and buttons for an art installation in Chicago.

5. CREATE A POOCH PONCHO.

This lovely pink jacket was created by Recycling Zychal  out of old umbrella canopies, but if you are handy with a sewing machine why not have a go yourself.