A magical umbrella sky.

In Águeda village in Portugal their beautiful day has multicoloured sky. One of the streets in this pretty little village is transformed into a beautiful sky of brightly coloured umbrellas suspended by strings attached to buildings on the either side of the street. The installation is an initiative by the council, in the small town just south of Porto, and is part of an art festival call Agitagueda.

These beautiful pictures were captured by 35-year-old photographer Patrícia Almeida who writes: 

“In July, in Águeda, some streets are decorated with colorful umbrellas. I read about it and I became curious, so, during a Saturday I went there to take photos of the two streets decorated with the umbrellas. Before driving to Agueda I used Google maps to find those streets, but when I got there I did not need the map. I was inside the car and I saw the umbrellas hanging in the sky."

"It was somehow magical. I just walked several times along the two streets and took the pictures. I felt like a kid, amazed by all that colour! Walking under that sky made of umbrellas reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, it is something completely unexpected that made me smile."

"I tried to take photos of both the umbrellas and their shadows on the floor, and, since I like details, I also took some pictures of the umbrellas without the surroundings. Later, I reflected about it, and I was wondering how could something so simple make you feel happy and have such an impact on people."

She has named this series 'Umbrella Sky'.

I'm connected to Prince William & Prince Harry!

This doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with umbrellas, but I thought Id' share it anyway.
I'm excited because now I'm only 2 degrees of separation from Prince Harry & Prince William!

I'll explain............a few weeks ago I met Ben Hunt-Davis the Olympic gold winning rower, and got to hold his actual GOLD medal!
Then I was watching the Olympic rowing the other day when Great Britain's Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won Team GB's first gold medal of the 2012 London games, and it cut to a shot of Prince Harry and Prince William in the VIP section smiling and cheering, and they were sat tight next to Ben Hunt-Davis, who now works with the current GB rowers.
So I have met someone who hobnobs with royalty. COOL!

Open your hearts with Umbrellas For Peace

The McCord Gallery & Cultural Center (Illinois, USA) is inviting children and families of all ages to participate in a global activity that has brought people together for the common goal of making their world a more peaceful place.

The late artist Matt Lamb created the Umbrellas for Peace global art project after the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon. In May of 2002 he met with 38 children of the victims of the terror attack, and they painted umbrellas using them to express their feelings of grief, and to find their hopes and dreams. A painted umbrella parade followed in Washington, D.C. , and since then over 2 million children and adults from 29 countries have participated in the Umbrellas for Peace program.

Matt Lamb often explained that he used the umbrella as a metaphor for protection,

"It does not discriminate and all people are safe under the umbrella. A closed umbrella lying on the ground is nothing, but pick it up and open it and the top becomes a shelter and can also be representative of hopes, dreams and aspirations. The underside of the umbrella can be a place to park your concerns and fears. The shaft of the umbrella represents the universal energy, which leads to the spokes that represent the individual’s strengths. Umbrellas for Peace helps children and adults use art to express their positive emotions by painting them onto the umbrella. The individual will artistically design umbrellas that represent their values of world peace. It teaches children peace, hope, love and creativity."

If you are in Illinois, USA, once again this program is being offered to children and adults of all ages. McCord art instructors will be on hand to guide the creative process.You can be part of it, enroll now by either stopping by the McCord Gallery & Cultural Center, at 9602 W. Creek Road (129th and La Grange Road) in Palos Park or phone 671-0648.

(McCord thanks the Great Lakes, Bank of Choice for its sponsorship of this project.)

Program schedule:

Four days to choose from with all classes running from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.: Monday, July 9; Wednesday, July 11; Monday, July 30; and Wednesday, Aug. 1.

Fee is $5 and includes an umbrella and paints. This project culminates with an opportunity for all to march with your umbrellas in the Autumn in the Park parade to be held in Palos Park on September 15th, 2012. This is an event that shouldn’t be missed.

Make an Umbrella clothes line

Rainy Day Ideas

What can you do with your old umbrella (once you've bought a deliciously cool one from Hello Brolly).

Make a Clothes Line!

An old umbrella makes a handy clothes airer. Just strip off the fabric and hang the frame upside down from your shower curtain rail (make sure your old umbrella has a hook style handle), and then attach your wet clothes with clothes pegs.


When your clothes are dry the best thing about your new clothes line is that it folds up for storage.

The world's most expensive umbrella!

The world’s most expensive umbrella was created in 2009 when Italian Formula One mogul Flavio Briatore and designer Angelo Galasso partnered up to create Billionaire Italian Couture, the “first international couture line exclusively for men”.

Made of high quality crocodile skin, this umbrella will certainly help you stand out in a crowd. Just to make the umbrella more exclusive, Briatore and Galasso have made sure that each one is full of individual details. Best of all, the crocodile skin most likely guarantees that the umbrella won’t turn inside out on a windy day.

At a price of 'only' $50,000 it ought to come with a tracking device in case you leave it in your billionaire friend's luxury yacht.

Marilyn Monroe's umbrella sells for $19,200!

At Julien's Auctions in Las Vegas on June 27, 2009, this Evans Swenson white umbrella, used by Marilyn Monroe in a 1949 photoshoot on her first visit to New York, was sold for an amazing sum of $19,200. 

The photo shoot was with Andre De Dienes on Tobey/Jones Beach.

1 school = 2,400 Brollies & 1 World record attempt

Students want to help build a school in rural Kenya, and they just might break a world record while they're at it. To build the school, the Schools for Kenya club at Shorewood High School in Seattle has been raising money for Free the Children, an organization that let's children help children.


They've raised $6,000 so far, but need $8,500 total to finish the project. But, they're tackling this fundraiser by trying to set a new world record for the largest umbrella mosaic. On the field at Shoreline Stadium on June 1, at 4:30 p.m. approximately 2,400 umbrellas will be raised to form the shape of an elephant holding an umbrella, or, an "umbrellaphant."

"Everyone really embraced [the idea,]" said Bethany Smith, President of the Schools for Kenya club. "From there, it just kind of snowballed and turned into this big "umbrellaphant" event."

Smith said that the students at Shorewood High School won't be able to break the record and create the "umbrellaphant" on their own. They're asking anyone with $5 and an umbrella to join them on June 1, get in the "umbrellaphant" formation for just 10 minutes, and help them break the world record for the largest living mosaic.

The record is currently held by 2,115 participants at Bradman Oval Bowral, in New South Wales, Australia who created an umbrella mosaic depicting Mary Poppins and her umbrella.