Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Friday 3 October 2014

Cover Girl


Yes, it’s me! April 1974 and on holiday with my (now) husband in Cornwall. There is absolutely no mistaking the message here and I clearly did not want my photo taken and chose to be a ‘cover’ girl. Thank goodness for a handy towelling beach robe with hood.  I remember that garment so well and my trendy 1970s shopping bag from which I had recently taken a copy of ‘Woman’ magazine.  In those days Woman, and a similar publication, ‘Woman’s Own’ were full of heart-warming stories of family life, short stories, recipes, knitting and crochet patterns and articles on health. A well-known personality may have featured in a story somewhere but there wasn’t the obsession with celebrity culture that we have nowadays. These were the magazines that my Mother and Grandmother read. Mum subscribed to Woman and Gran to Woman’s Own and they’d swap each week. There were other women’s magazines that I remember from the 60s and 70s, such as Woman’s Realm and Woman’s Weekly which catered for the same market. At college I read Cosmopolitan, a magazine more suited to my age. I can only assume I wanted a light holiday read on this occasion.

As I became a more mature woman with a family I graduated to titles like ‘Prima’ and later ‘Woman and Home’ and ‘Good Housekeeping’. These days I still read women’s magazines occasionally, either in the digital version on my iPad, or if someone kindly passes on a copy. I don’t find much in them to interest me as they seem to be full of articles about fashion, and make-up and far too many adverts. Flipboard and Issu are also great platforms for the occasional bit of escapism and I can read articles from such diverse publications as ‘Women’s health or ‘The New York times - all free - and of course our own Sepia Saturday magazine is available on Flipboard.




I’ve no idea what magazine my Mother is reading in this picture from eleven years ago as I can’t see the cover.


She didn’t find it sufficiently absorbing and switched later to her book, whilst Dad perused the Sports page of the newspaper.






My daughter visited us for Christmas 2011 and posed with ‘Glamour’ magazine so that the photo could be submitted in the hope of publication for a prize.






Discover some great articles at Sepia Saturday this week where our prompt image is a 4th October
1944 magazine cover.  You’re bound to find some good reading and great pictures submitted by contributors. There were lots of themes to choose from including Norman Rockwell, The ‘little guy’ uniforms, followers and parcels from home. I’m sure they’ll have them all covered!


19 comments:

  1. Oh my, don't you look camera shy in that first shot, though your limbs are certainly exposed more than your mom or grandmom would consider lady-like!

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  2. That's quite a beach pose - and he married you anyway. Must've been true love. :))) And you have quite the lovely daughter!

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  3. Nice collection of your family reading magazines.

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  4. Ah, but I knew what was under the hood!

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  5. When I was young, we usually had Woman's Day or Family Circle magazines that were bought with the groceries--I don't think they offered subscriptions to those magazines then.

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  6. My first magazine encounter was with Australian Women's Weekly. Love the first photo. Just perfect for display at one of the major birthday parties !

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  7. I find it strange that I remember the names of all the magazines you mentioned but not one of interest to men from that time.I also thought the cover-up was a means of changing discretely.

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  8. The first photo is perfect for this week!

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  9. The photo of you is priceless!Having just returned from a long trip with too, too many "we were there" poses for photos, I can sympathize. We all felt like doing this! The experience has made me even appreciate the dreaded selfie because they are often so zany. In my book, zany trumps cheese every time. I love the photo of your mother relaxed and looking through the magazine. I've grown very fond of her via your posts.

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  10. I'm still trying to get used to electronic versions of magazines. I like them in principle but like leafing through them physically better.

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  11. that's an hilarious photo! You were obviously quick off the mark with the cover up! Rarely read magazines or newspapers these days, apart from The Week. Must have a look at Flipboard.

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  12. How well I remember those magazines. My mother took "Woman" and "Woman's Weekly". and I also remember her favourite titles (as a dressmaker and stitcher) as "Stitchcraft" and "Pins and Needles". How times have changed as "Woman" now seems to follow the trend of celebrity focus, fashion and make up. A great "take" on this week's theme.

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  13. I don't think there are any photos in either my mother's albums or my own of anyone reading a magazine. Apparently I once told my mother she shouldn't buy the Australian
    Women's Weekly because it was such rubbish, and so she stopped getting it.

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  14. Your daughter posing with a magazine in hopes of winning a prize reminds me that the hubster and I have our pictures in a magazine. A local tourism magazine encourages travelers to take the magazine with them on their vacations and to take a picture with the magazine. Then you're to leave the magazine behind to advertise our home location as a tourist destination. So we took the magazine to the Dominican Republic and had a picture taken and left the magazine behind. No sooner had we put the magazine on a table near the pool when a member of the hotel staff came along and threw the magazine in the trash can. Oh well, we tried. But we did make the magazine anyway.

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  16. Nice piece, Nell. The only 'weekly' I bought on a regular basis, was NME. Occasionally Rolling Stone, if I was flush.

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  17. What a great catch, finding the magazines in all those photos, and a neat way to link to the theme!

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  18. Had to laugh at the picture of you - it couldn't have been more expressive! I have one which makes me smile, of my daughter's hand approaching the lens of my camera!

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  19. The first photo combined with the title 'Cover Girl' is a good commentary on today's craze with celebrities!

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