Hi Everyone, Well, I hope this finds you well lovelies. I've just returned from a very beautiful day out in Northumberland celebrating the christening of the son of one of our very dear friends. It was such a lovely time spent relaxing with family – it made me realise today, watching my Husband and little girls having so much fun and switching off from Twitter for a while – family really does mean everything.
Now today I'm going to hand over my Sunday blogging duties to a friend who'd like to share something about her own family with you – partly in celebration of my latest project, Love My Dress Vintage Wedding Gallery, and partly to make a little bit of an announcement as to what she's been up to these past few weeks.
Rebecca, over to you 🙂
♥ ♥ ♥
Hello readers! Today I'm delighted to be able to finally share with you a project I've been working on for a while and am so close to being able to unveil. My new home in the blogosphere will be revealed tomorrow at www.florencefinds.com. Please read on to find out more about the inspiration behind the name and site and then please do join me in celebrating the launch tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!
Florence and Jack, circa 1940…
Whilst developing Florence Finds in recent weeks, I remembered this image of Florence on her wedding day and wanted to share it in the Love My Dress Vintage Wedding Gallery. Florence was my maternal grandmother and her story explains why she inspired the name 'Florence Finds' for my newest venture.
Florence and Jack met in Liverpool and married in 1940. They set up home in Bootle, Liverpool and were bombed out of their first home during the second world war in 1941. As a result of the bombing, many people (Florence and Jack included,) moved to Speak, where my Mum was born a couple of years later.
I suppose it would be naive to assume that all the nostalgic images we now see through rose tinted glasses produced happy marriages and never ended in d-i-v-o-r-c-e. (Is it ok to use that word on a wedding blog?!) But thats what happened in Florence's case. Jack was a 'messer' as my Mum would say and when Florence refused to be the female embodiment of a doormat, he walked out on her – my mum was just 5. But just as a wedding defines the start of a married woman's life, so it did Florence's.
Don't forget this was the 1940's, and Florence was the source of much gossip. She had to go out to work, (cleaning for the local farmers wife) to provide for my Mum, {no child benefits back then}, sewed her clothes and brought her up herself as a single Mum. I happen to think she did a pretty impressive job 😉 Florence wasn't just a mother though, alongside her work she loved her home. My Mum has vivid memories of living with relatives and she and Florence got their first home, a 'pre-fab' for just the two of them, when she was 11. The pride Florence took in it was immense and it instilled in my Mum a real passion for her home, which I too inherited. Even in her later years, Florence remained the epitome of chic. In her well earned retirement she continued to dress smartly and take great care over her appearance, tend the garden of her little flat, cook and travel.
It's a romantic take, but whilst scanning in this visual reminder of her story, I realised that although the image is over 70 years old, the life isn't that far removed from so many women these days. Never more than now have our lives been so multifaceted and varied, yet I'm sure Florence would revel in so many of the things that I enjoy today and would have had advice on the juggling act that every woman's day to day life involves. Hence Florence Finds was born. A new project, inspired by a timeless yet very modern story.
Florence Finds is a lifestyle blog for modern women. Like the best bits from your favourite magazine, there will be fashion and interiors, beauty and food, travel, culture and thought provoking discussion, every weekday. Expect to see finds that Florence would have liked, that I like and you will like too.
Thank you Annabel for allowing me to share Florence's story and the beginning of a new journey, I hope you'll all come along for the ride!
Rebecca
xoxo
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
