An interesting day!

Yesterday I spent some of the day with with one of the best known photographers for What Katie Did , he has also done a lot of pin up work, including with our favourite pin up of all Fleur De Guerre. He is very kindly using some products from Notorious Kitsch as props for some of his shots!

I don't have any of those shots and the following are candid shots so please excuse the rather poor photography, I was only an observer and only have a point and shoot camera, but it was a really interesting process to watch!

The models were Ximena and Adam a really lovely couple who I know thought they looked crazy when doing these shots but when you saw the movement which I clearly haven't captured here (sorry guys!) it looked really good! I looked at the shots and they were brilliant! They were also very professional considering they were getting far too much verbal encouragement from me and Julie!

Why is Ximena in a grass skirt? Well one of the shots yesterday was for Julie otherwise known as Miss Aloha who runs a fabulous club Hula Boogie so you see the grass skirt attire becomes clear now! You should certainly check Hula Boogie out if you're near the London area, it's a great night out!

Here's a pic of Miss Aloha herself showing exactly what she wants from the shot whilst Adam looks on!

The other shots he was working on were standard 1950s type shots, unfortunately I didn't take any of them I was so engrossed in the process!!

It was such an interesting day, lovely company and I can't wait to see the end results. 

I'm Fiona and I'm a vintage fabric addict

There you go I've said it! I had no idea I was until I sorted all my fabric out last weekend. I LOVE vintage fabric, I'm pretty definate about what I like, it's not everything, but it seems I have far more than I thought I did. I mostly buy fabric that I can eventually make something out of, I'm not into having fabric for the sake of it. The fabric above I have a lovely little summer top I've made - but not completed whoops! I also have enough to make something else!

This one is my absolute favourite, I don't know why, and I don't know what I'm going to make from it but I have loads and although you probably can't see, it's a slubby silk, it's divine!

You can see a theme here can't you? Colour and exotic places he he! I'd like to make a summer dress from this, I think it will be so lovely and cool!

Another half made blouse, naughty huh? I love this fabric too, really must get on with the sewing!

Stupidly I don't know how to rotate this photo in blogger, sorry! This is going to make a fabulous blouse, I love this colour but know it doesn't work for a lot of people, however when you have red hair it works so well!

And last but not least!

 

I only took pics of the printed fabrics, shamefully that was 80 pics, yes 80! Didn't even take pics of the plain fabrics, so I now know I have to get on with sewing this year, big time! If only to clear some space in my house, eeek!

I shall try to remember to photograph my projects that I work on for you to have a look at! Whether successful or not!

Oh and thanks to Super Kawaii Mama for the inspiration for this blog post, she posted on Twitter this morning saying 'Does anyone have vintage fabric scraps they want to sell? 30's, 40's 50's era' I then realised I had a problem as even parting with scraps is hard! Check out her very fabulous blog, she always looks so glam!

A stylish inheritence!

I wanted to show you something which we inherited recently as it's so cool. My husband's mother sadly died in November, even more sadly as they're not a particularly close family, however her passing seems to be rectifying that to a certain degree. She hadn't left a will, so family and friends thought it would be appropriate to share amongst us all, which I think is a great idea and whatever was left went to charity.

It probably goes without saying that the things we loved no one else did!

I will pop some of the other items up at some point, but thought today I'd post a pic of the fabulous 50's kitchen cupboard we got.

It originally had glass doors, which we still have but I thought it looked much nicer with some of my 50's china, without the door, so they'll go into storage.

I will do a post on some of my favourite china too as well, I LOVE this stuff, I never use it which is such a shame but it's so cute to look at!

Here's another pic, I stole a clock from our stock as I thought it really finished this area of the kitchen off (is it stealing when you own the company?!!). I love our lime green kitchen and think the black clock and black china really set it off.

Small pleasures!

Let's face it sometimes we're all so busy in life to kick back and appreciate the small pleasures in life!

Yesterday I had a coffee meeting with my old web designer (I don't mean old in age!!), I really love our meetings, we think quite similarly and brainstorm without it feeling like intentional brainstorming, which is no mean feat!

But the small pleasure - apart from meeting with a great friend - is coffee, I love coffee, it's ridiculous how much I love coffee. I have never loved flavoured coffee though, until I tried Dark Cherry Mocha at Starbucks over Christmas OMG! OK I know it's got chocolate in too, so it kinda doesn't count. Yesterday I had another one with, oh yes, whipped cream! It feels very naughty to be having whipped cream in January when everyone else is dieting, so then it feels soooooo good!

The fab filofax was a prize I won at Domestic Sluttery, I was very happy to win this and yes I'm using it and yes it's making me more organised!

The best repro Chalkware ever!

Yes she's a repro! This is the latest addition I have up from my favourite guy who does repro chalkware. He is so talented! I was lucky enough to visit his home and see his own personal collection. I was truly gobsmacked at the vast array of truly beautiful wall masks from very elaborate art deco women to 1950's mambo dancers. I was even more gobsmacked to find out that he had made every single one from an original and sold on the original. He is the most talented guy I've ever seen doing these.

Sadly he's not selling any on ebay at the moment, but I'll be sure to let you know when he is next! He's also not ridiculously expensive.

Here is a couple more from him, truly fabulous!

Fun at the Trade Fair, really!!

Yesterday I went to Top Drawer which is a trade fair where all us retailers go to try to find amazing new goodies for all you lovely customers. Of course it's successful or not depending on what type of place you have. For Notorious Kitsch the prospect of finding new goodies is always few and far between, fabulous retro and vintage repro providers are a rarity, you either have companies that think that vintage is just blue background with cute pink roses on it, or companies supplying pure rubbish but with a retro twist.

So finding all the goodies that you see on  Notorious Kitsch is actually darned hard work! Of all the suppliers I saw yesterday, for us there were only 2 that were suitable for us.

Of course, we always stock products from the very fabulous Anne Taintor and we were very excited to seem some of her new line, so I thought I'd put a few piccies up to show you what's coming up at Notorious Kitsch really soon!

I'll let you know when they come in, although I won't be doing a lot on Notorious Kitsch on here, I'll give you a quick update from time to time!

I'm back!

Yes really I am, and I promise to post more often in 2010!

Apart from swearing that I would post more often to my blog, I also promised myself that I would sew more often in 2010. I love sewing, I find it really therapeutic, but I spent so much time last year building my business http://www.notoriouskitsch.co.uk/ that I neglected myself and doing things just for enjoyment.

I've spent the last couple of weeks sorting through my fabric and patterns, yes it's taken me that long.

Today I sorted my fabric and rediscovered some fantastic prints that I have which I really must get around to doing something with, I'll let you know as I get round to it.

I didn't have a whole heap of time once I had done that, but I found a scrap of fabric my husband loves, he's got a laptop bag in it, and I thought, hello, there looks like there is enough here to make him a wallet. I made it, it's a bit rough, and the next one I try will definately be more refined, contain more credit card pockets and be finished off better but he's really happy!

So here it is my first attempt!