Hydrangea Hill Cottage

Good Monday morning to all of you! Hope you had a great weekend.

As you regular followers of my posts know by now, I kind of like doing these moodboards on Monday. I started out with moodboards from Veranda magazine and then I started saving some from other periodicals. When I came upon this 'Queen Bee' moodboard in an English publication recently, I thought it might be fun to see what I could find that was 'bee related' while really thinking I probably wouldn't find much in fashion or decor. Boy, was I wrong!

As I googled and researched, I was surprised by all the other blogs on this subject, the history lessons I learned and the antiques, art, architecture, collectibles, fashion, needlework, books, home decor and gorgeous jewelry were beyond my expectations. I could have gone on for days researching, but I had to condense what I found as much as possible.

Among many tidbits, I found out that the 'love affair' with the bee motif began with Napoleon when he used it on his crest. Napoleon and Josephine popularized the motif in France and that's why you see so much of it in that country - it's popularity originated there. It became known as the 'Napoleonic bee'!

So, that's the history of it (in a nutshell) - hope you enjoy the art and creativity that has gone into the items you see below. Those Guerlain bottles!! Stunning! And the jewelry!! And everyone knows Alexander McQueen was a genius - who else would think of designing skep dresses!

Strangely enough, as I was putting this post together yesterday, the 1957 song 'Honeycomb' came on the radio......

Have a great day!