Just call her Your Cuddly Highness.
Queen Elizabeth II's official 9oth birthday is this Saturday. In point of fact, she was born on April 21, 1926. But because the weather tends to be rather poorly in London at the time of year, the Brits long ago moved the annual pomp-and-circumstancy events surrounding the monarch's birthday to the second Saturday in June.
This year, there’ll be a whole weekend of events — Hey, you only turn 90 once … er, twice — starting with a big church service on Friday and culminating with a street party on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace on Sunday.
And if Her Majesty feels the need to take a nap at some point during the festivities, has one North Carolina company got a gift for her! Durham-based Spoonflower says it's sending two specially produced corgi pillows as a present to the Queen — whose affection for the low-to-the-ground, Welsh-native herding dogs seemingly is rivaled only by the ubiquitous purse she's always seen toting around in photos.
That's in addition to the 90 other corgi pillows they've already whipped up at Spoonflower — a website that lets users design, print and sell their own fabric, including fabric printed with photographs of their pets. As a custom fabric design company, Spoonflower doesn't make or sell finished pillows. But its Spoonflower Handbook, published by Abrams Books, includes a how-to section helpfully (and rather hilariously) entitled "How to Create A Doppelganger Dog Pillow."
The Queen, though, was a special case.
“It is a token of our affection and admiration for the Queen – and her life-long love of corgis,” Spoonflower president Allison Polish said of the custom-made corgis. “This year marks not just the Queen’s 90th birthday but also – less remarked – the 83rd anniversary of her love affair with corgis.”
Even better, they’ve made a life-sized pillow of the Queen herself (yep, complete with purse). Spoonflower says it hopes one day to present all 90 pillows at Buckingham Palace. If that falls through, it may auction them off to support one of the Queen’s favorite charities.
No word yet on their plans for that Big Queen Liz pillow.
