A Right Royal Knees Up

You might have heard by now that England is about to have a party this upcoming weekend! Yes, we are going to have a "right royal knees up" to celebrate "our" queen's Diamond Jubilee with several days of events and two holidays. Queen Elizabeth II is only the second monarch to reach the milestone of reigning 60 years, the first having been Queen Victoria, so it's a huge accomplishment for her and definitely worthy of a party.

I give you a heads-up: this is a photo heavy blog, but if you only began to know how many things I cut out, you would thank me! Let me show you just a small, small taste of the "souvenirs" that are in the stores now, ready to become collectibles down the road.

We start with china and pottery.

Here is the official Royal Jubilee designed ware, but there are scores of others out there.

You could buy a different cup and a plate to use for every day of the month, should you care to celebrate all month long.

Emma Bridgewater has done a whole line you can see by clicking here,

as well as Cath Kidston whose collection can be found here.

Fortnum and Mason has an extensive line, including teapots,

Jubilee Majestic Marmalade with diamond shaped pieces of orange peel sprinkled with gold leaf throughout,

specially blended tea,

and coffee,

as well as a musical biscuit tin that plays "God Save the Queen." The queen was quite taken with this item when she visited the store in the spring, and so was I, so two tins came home with me.

You might prefer this tall tin of pistachio clotted cream biscuits,

or fudge for a gift for you or someone special.

Paper goods are everywhere, including these cupcake thrones,

royal crowns for all the participants,

"Right Royal Trivia" games,

and even pinatas,

or Jubilee crackers.

You can easily satisfy your sweet tooth with special biscuits/cookies,

in characters,

or party style, or

you might decide to entertain with this teapot cake.

Harrod's 2012 annual bear is in the spirit, but he is currently sold out according to their website,

so maybe a waving queen would strike your fancy instead,

or some "keepsake" pillows,

tins of mints,

or one of the ubiquitous tea towels found in every store. 

I think the temporary tattoos might be fun for the party, and I kept wondering why no one had thought ahead to make a Christmas ornament....

but of course, they had.

Two of my favorite items are a Royal Scrapbook

and I wish you could flip through and see this one---a Royal dress up dolly book. Love seeing all those royals in their undies!

So what did I buy? Well, unlike during the Royal wedding frenzy when I bought way too many cups, and now wonder where to display them all, I've used restraint this time. 

So far, I've bought the musical biscuit tin,

and this lovely ornament from Harrod's

and my craziest find of all.

Royal sunglasses for the weekend, as modeled by "Princess" Jordan!

Hope you'll be watching along as we celebrate--either in person or on TV!

Do I need to pick up a little souvenir for you?