Vintage Living

I have always been more interested in old fashioned ways of life-the design, the fashion, the entertainment-than in being particularly modern. Throughout my childhood the eras I loved best changed, from Tudor, to Victorian, to the 1920s, and finally settled on the 1950s, with a few hints of the 1940s and some sprinklings of all my previous favourites.

I think my adoration of the 1950s really set in when I watched Far From Heaven and saw all the divine costumes, cars and houses. I'd liked the '50s before that, but didn't pursue snippets of '50s culture in the same slightly obsessional (or perhaps just plain obsessional, if you ask my friends and family!) way I do now.

It's not to say I don't enjoy living in the present. There are things I don't like about the current time, which I won't go into or I will get into a political rant which will become increasingly less eloquent, but overall it's pretty good, and I don't think there's been any period in history which has been perfect. What I love most is being able to live in the modern age, with it's more tolerant views of minorities and less sexist views of women, and it's many technological advances and other wonderful things, but still enjoy selected bits of my favourite historical era. Dressing in 1950s style clothes, listening to music from that time and visiting places like Ed's Diner make me ridiculously happy and make me feel more like me, in an odd way. I can't really explain it.....there are certain times when I get this internal lift, and these are usually when I get off the train at London or do anything related to the '50s. So I'm sure you can imagine that going to see Imelda May and her band perform at Frome Festival on Thursday night was like heaven for me. She is a rockabilly/blues singer with the best voice I have ever heard and a repertoire of wonderful self-written songs. Her band are perfection, a group of incredibly talented people, and all of them dress in a rockabilly style. I went with my boyfriend who also loved it, and I didn't stop smiling all night. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have, and it is far from good, but I like the colours.
Today I went to Tunley Village Day, which was a proper old fashioned village fete. I loved the tables covered in gingham tablecloths with cross stitch or lazy daisy stitch in the corners. They had face painting, skittles and tennis outside for the children, and a raffle and "Guess The Number Of Marbles In The Jar" competition. Indoors were stalls advertising the local WI (which I am considering joining...is this bad at 21?) and the Bath & Mendip Miniatures and Dolls House Club. The lovely ladies from the BMMDHC kindly posed for a photograph-when I asked if I could take one they said they "would be delighted to", with the best old fashioned manners.

Their work really was incredible, I was especially impressed by the tiny knitted doll's garments. They looked like something from the Elves and the Shoemaker. There were also lots of Fimo miniatures which interested me as I use Fimo a lot myself. They put so much work into these tiny objects.

I don't know how old the village hall is, but there was a certificate congratulating the village of Tunley on saving for the troops during WWII, so I am presuming it must be fairly old. I loved this little shelf in an alcove, when I have a house it shall have quirky little details like this. There was also a lovely upright piano which reminded me of the one I used to do piano practice on at home.
Unfortunately it started raining halfway through the afternoon which drove people away, but when I went outside there was still a pretty view. The flowers are either rose bay willow herb or Himalayan balsam, I'm not sure.

It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. I chatted with a friend, ate a cream tea for the bargain price of £1.50 and a 25p fairy cake, and picked up a copy of The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady for 50p! I love that book, the pictures are so beautiful. I also got a video of Chocolat, again for 50p, which was watched as soon as I got home. It's one of my favourite films, I adore it. The clothes, the music, the chocolate, the idea of the social change and the acceptance and the individuality, it's all exactly my cup of tea...it's completely unrealistic of course, but is such a sweet slice of escapism. There is a TV in my craft room with a video player so I'm squirrelling them away to watch while doing hand sewing.

As of tomorrow I am on what I am calling "Blitz Week"-a week of intense tidying, making and re-decorating. I've been wittering on about doing stuff for so long, it's about time to actually get on and do it. I'm looking forward to it.

Full Bloom

The orchid I have in my windowsill has burst out into masses of divine white flowers with deep pink centres. I always think orchids have a kind of cool beauty about them, and they really remind me of pin up girls because of their use as corsages and hair accessories in pin up art. The colours in the centres are gorgeous.They are lovely to look at when I open the curtains each day, and although I was told they were difficult to care for mine stay blooming on very little upkeep.

I'm working on sewing projects at the moment, hopefully should have something to show tomorrow. I'm excited about finishing things off, mainly clothes to augment my always meagre wardrobe, and eventually having a living space which is actually tidy. Oh how I dream of that day!

Garden In The Rain, and My Weekend In The Sun

I've had quite an eventful time recently, seeing friends and going out to places. I'm loving the return of my social life after months being cooped up indoors with no one to see. A lot of my friends are back for the summer from university, and also my confidence levels have improved so I feel more like seeing the friends who've been around the whole time but who I couldn't face seeing. It's all very positive and lovely!

On Saturday night I went to my friend O's birthday party, at Komedia. It's a great venue with a gorgeous moulded and corniced ceiling. It was great to see O as I haven't met up with her for about a year, and I had a lot of fun. The three comedy acts we saw were hysterically funny, and we had dinner just before the show which was tasty and filling, though the menu had some odd combinations on it. I didn't take pictures as I was having too much fun! I'm planning to go back to Komedia for their Motown Is 50! event-5 hours of Motown music, blissful.

Today I met up with C and J in Bath. We did a bit of shopping as I'd seen a pink Jasper Conran polka dot dress in the window of a charity shop. The dress was a bit out of my price range at £50, but I did find a gorgeous skirt for £5! I haven't taken any pictures of it yet as it needs a slight alteration, so I'll put some up when I've done that. It's a black full skirt with pink polka dotted net. I also got this lovely little box, which I adore. I am a sucker for a bit of japonisme.

C and I went for lunch at The Porter which is a pub which does vegetarian and vegan food (C is vegan) and we had delicious mushroom pie, although the large portion of pie and mashed potato proved too much for me and I couldn't finish it. Again, was kicking myself for not taking pictures, which C thought was insane. Suppose a plate of pie and mash isn't particularly aesthetically pleasing or artistically interesting so it doesn't really matter anyway!

When I got home the rain started pouring down. I was so pleased as I've found the recent extreme heat very difficult to deal with. The garden was all wet and green and verdant.
I was in my craft room when the rain started, there is something strangely comforting about being indoors when a heavy rainstorm is raging outside. I like the view of the chimney pots and the dark clouds outside the skylight.

This plant looked beautiful with it's glistening wet leaves.

And I loved the look of the drops of water on these delicate flowers in a hanging basket.


I have a pretty busy week ahead, the next two days are going to be filled with industry before some exciting activities on Thursday and Friday. Feels a bit like I have too much to do and not enough time for it all at the moment, but I'm just glad things are moving on and getting done and things do finally seem to be changing for the better after a long period of feeling stagnant and unpleasant. I'm planning to write on here much more often, and I should have much more to fill it with as my life become fuller, happier and generally fabulous!

A Lovely Girly Day

I woke up in the most irritated, snappy mood today, the reason being that I was meant to be meeting J at 12.30 in Bath for a girly lunch and shopping, and I somehow woke up at.....12. Once the panic was over, I'd showered and thrown some clothes on, and apologised to the boyfriend for giving him evil glares, it was all fine, and actually turned out to be a lovely day.

J and I went to a vegetarian café for lunch and had delicious carrot and coriander soup. I also had some garlic bread with melted mozzarella as I love the stuff and had been craving some for weeks! Luckily all the walking around I did has probably eliminated some of the many calories. I had intended to photograph our food in an arty Jane Brocket style, but we got chatting and I completely forgot. This is the problem with having a blog, you start kicking yourself over bizarre things like forgetting to take pictures of your lunch.

We did some window shopping and I picked up these little glittery butterflies, which are probably destined to end up as hair clips, and this peacock feather print paper to cover some ugly drawers in my room. We also visited The Real Italian Ice Cream Company, which does amazing Italian gelato-I had a cherry flavour which had a cherry sauce and whole cherries in it, it was divine and only £1.80 for a generous single scoop. I'd definitely recommend it. Walking around Bath in the hot weather was very pleasant, although my feet did get rather achey from my unsuitable choice of footwear (strappy 3.5 inch wedge heels with bows on the toes-a girl has got to keep up the glamour, no matter what!).

I unexpectedly met up with my dad as he'd cycled into Bath, which was nice, and then I headed to the Fashion Museum. Local residents get free entry and as I love clothes try to take advantage of this as much as possible. They had changed the exhibitions since I last went, and the general standard of display was much much higher than on previous visits. I particularly liked this 1979 Jean Muir ensemble, it's so sleek. I loved the cheeky peek of leopard print bra on this outfit-my liking for animal print knows no bounds and I have had to be forcibly prevented from buying some extremely tacky Bette Lynch style garments in the past. I am still lusting after a leopard print coat so am going to set about making one asap!

This beautiful dress was worn by Dame Margot Fonteyn in 1949. The waist is so tiny! I love dresses like this, and dream of having such things in my wardrobe....

perhaps with this to wear underneath (I adore vintage style underwear!).

And this, I want this! Beaded silk jersey with a fur trimmed jacket...mmmmmmmm. This one is from 1960. I love the draped detail on the skirt.

This is a 1980s dress. The shape is gorgeous. I also have a thing for metallics. It is slightly worrying me that my taste is emerging as dangerously close to trashy. I think I may be a drag queen trapped in a woman's body. Oh well, all the better.

This is a dress from the 1920s, it has several different types of lace incorporated into it and ribbon embroidery near the hem. I have loved this dress for a couple of years and keep going back to look at it. I actually have some vintage silk and black lace and silk ribbons to make a similar top and half slip, but I have never got round to it.

Perhaps seeing how heavenly this dress is will motivate me to get started on it.

I definitely need to get some more glamorous clothes. Though perhaps finding more sophisticated places to socialise should happen first-I have horrible visions of beaded hems being swept through pools of lager. Ooh I am all inspired! Looks like the sewing machine will be getting a good workout tomorrow. Providing I manage to wake up before 12, that is!

Feed The Birds....

I went to feed the birds in the park after work today with my family. That's my little sister's arm in the photo. She was liberally chucking bread at the pigeons. My brother, aka Dr Doolittle, managed to get pigeons to sit on his arms and legs!

I know people often don't like pigeons and regard them as vermin, but these ones were quite pleasant. They were nice shiny well fed pigeons.
I've always liked walking around the lake looking at the trees and ducks.There is a little Japanese looking bridge surrounded by bamboo, which I love.

I liked this runner duck, they look so elongated! It was nice to get out in the sunshine after a day of being indoors.

Ravishing Roses

I got given these gorgeous deep pink roses a couple of days ago and have them on my desk in my craft room (more on which coming as soon as it is tidy enough to be photographed!). I think the pink looks lovely with the aqua colour of the walls, it's giving me ideas for lots of things I could do in this colour scheme....

The paint colour is called Hollywood which I thought was fabulous and very me!

Lots Of Earrings, And A Bow Obsession

I have been making lots of earrings recently to use up various supplies. I'm trying to be more tidy and frugal, and as a result of this am trying to use up all my hoarded craft materials before buying more. The earrings vary rather wildly in style, from Turkish inspired boho beaded to 1950s diner kitsch-I just went with whatever was in my head at the time. One dominant theme though was bows. There were bows all over the place!
This is not completely unintentional, as I have a huge ribbon stash I'm trying to whittle down. One of my local craft shops has a bargain basket of ribbons for 45p a bundle, so whenever I've seen something good I've snapped it up, despite not having a clue what I'd use it for. The little Eiffel Towers and pink heart buttons were also impulse buys, but show that everything I buy does eventually get used up!
The same thing happened with the lace I used for these earrings, but I think it goes brilliantly with these cameo buttons. The buttons are one of the best craft purchases I've made recently, I love them! They are so tiny but very detailed, unfortunately my camera doesn't pick up on that.
My Asian influences came out in these earrings with Chinese coin charms and red ribbons. Red is an auspicious colour in China and adds a nice splash of colour. The backs of the coins have dragons on them but I preferred to have the more subtle Chinese characters showing on the front.
These heart and key charms are some of my favourites, they are so pretty and have quite a lot of detail. The blue of the ribbon is so vibrant, and really summery I think. I'll probably make some more of these as presents for friends as I bought rather a lot of these charms....
These ones are made with some beads my friend J brought back from a holiday in Turkey. I'd had them for two years without knowing what to do with them, and had also had these gold hoop findings lying around waiting for the right project. When I put them together it seemed like the perfect match!
These are my absolute favourite! I'll definitely be wearing a pair of these next time I go to Ed's-they are so kitsch and diner-tastic. The teeny tiny cola bottles are meant to be doll's house miniatures but I just envisioned them as jewellery. These ones are silver lockets with some little glass flower beads and bows made with ribbon from one of my favourite boutiques.
Lots of button earrings-hearts....
roller skates....
more hearts.....


shiny faceted cabochons....
juicy looking cherries......

and luscious looking raspberry ice cream cones.

I'm making so much stuff at the moment! I have got to a stage in life where I want to clear things out and use things up and move onto the next phase. I'm really enjoying it and will be glad of the space when I've used the majority of my stash up. It's good news for the blog too as I'm going to have things to write about on a much more regular basis. Yay!