Feeling Good!

Today I went to Nina's Hair Parlour and as usually it made me feel soooo good! If you don't know about Nina's you should really check out her website http://www.ninasvintageandretrohair.com/

All stylists at Nina's specialise in styling and cutting vintage hair styles. I first had my hair cut and styled by Nina last July, I was kinda late to the game! But once Nina cut my hair there was no going back this lady is genius and a damn nice gal too!

So if you have your hair vintage style I can highly recommend Nina's, not only it is a fabulous experience but it's fun too, I love Nina, she's such a doll! Even if you don't have your hair in a vintage style you can go along there for a one off styling for that special night!

Ok so these are slightly rubbish pictures, cos 2 I took myself but here's the before!

Then this is me and Nina, mid styling!

And the end result, however I didn't picture it in the salon, so sadly the drizzle got to it before the camera did, but still you get the idea!

So honestly, it doesn't look quite as good as when I left Nina's but as I said you get the drift, plus I took the pic myself!

Still it makes me very happy to walk out of a salon feeling so good and groomed!

Thanks Nina!

Old times and fab dresses!

I confess I'm kinda old, well 43, so I've got a lot of years of vintage wearing behind me! When I did a post recently on why I don't do outfit posts I said I would dig through some old photos and post some of my favourite outfits of all time.

I don't want to do them all at once but was trawling through old photos yesterday and found a few, so here they are!

I was a singer in a former life, well earlier life! When I first started out I used to wear vintage dresses but I would find that gigging ruined them totally, without putting too fine a point on it, you sweat onstage, it ain't nice but it's true, so delicate old fabric would just start giving way, I was once about to step on stage when the whole back of a vintage dress fell apart so I had to have someone sew me into it quickly! As a result of that and a few other incidents I ended up having my stage clothes custom made, this is my favourite ever! Such a fabulous dress, I felt the bees knees in it!

Anyone who has tried to photograph me will tell you I really don't like it and I'm not very good at posing for photographs! However my husband made me pose for this and now I'm kind glad he did cos it's a nice shot in the Arizona Desert. That dress though, mmmmm! It's white linen, with embossed detail on the neck and pockets, I love it, though it's another that doesn't fit at the moment :o(

Ah another picture of me when I was singing. This was a great outfit, custom made again, you can see it's halter neck but the lady who made it, did it as seperates, so I had a straight skirt and a full skirt with it. I love this dress!

Oh I loved this dress! I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this pic. It was velvet on the top with rhinestones scattered about, and the bottom was like embossed with the velvet leaves. But it was sooooo delicate. It pulled and tore so easily and my friends will tell you I'm a total klutz! So this was not the dress for me, I hung onto it til it finally died a death :o(

Looking over these dresses there seems to be a common theme, my favourite items must be sparkly!

So now you can see why I don't do outfit post, you can't see the detail of dresses, I'm either doing something or more commonly dancing and drinking!  However one thing can be said my vintage or custom made dressed have always had fun!!!

It's not all excitement you know!

Despite my last post I will admit that my life is not all about going to Photo Shoots and buying for Notorious Kitsch, I need to do the mundane too.

On Sunday I decided I really had to move some furniture around, believe me it was necessity but it also meant that our beloved Cocktail cabinet ended up back in our living room! I'm so happy it's back there!

Of course then I had to set about cleaning and making it sparkly but I'm so glad I did!  Here it is in pride of place next to my smaller cocktail cabinet which is also rather cleverly a lamp!

Then I got to talking with a friend about how vintage cocktail cabinets seem to inspire some great passion and loyalty. We would never ever get rid of ours, I can't imagine never wanting it, it adds glamour to the house!

I'd love to hear about your love affair with your cocktail cabinet, I'm sure I'm not the only one!!

Photo Shoot with Tony Nylons & Fleur de Guerre!

I had a really interesting Wednesday this week! I was contacted on Monday by Tony Nylons about a photo shoot he was doing with the lovely Fleur de Guerre and Miss Aloha from Hula Boogie, they needed a few bits from Notorious Kitsch for their photo shoot.

Obviously as it was for Hula Boogie it had a tropical Hawaiian theme.

It all got very inventive and we ended up using fabulous Hawaiian themed teatowels and tablecloth to make a bikini top and sarong for Fleur!

These are candid shots so apologies for the quality, I will post the real ones from Tony eventually!

I love what Miss Aloha and Fleur did with the teatowels and tablecloth! Mind you I'm not sure everyone could get away with it!

This is Miss Aloha setting up a shot for Hula Boogie promotion with Fleur!

The lovely Fleur in a fabulous Whirling Turban dress, one day I will have one of their dresses!

I've met Fleur before several times but never seen her model, it was a real privelege, she has a real talent for it, not that I doubted it, but it was really interesting to see. You often think that to be a model requires a pretty face and good figure, I don't think that's the case at all, it was hard work, she also had to get into some interesting positions which are entirely unnatural AND she had to wear teatowels as a bikini! A true professional!

So that was my Wednesday! Another interesting day.

Loving what you have!

So many of us are collectors in some form or other, we don't realise we're collectors cos essentially we just buy what we like, but it ends up as a collection, let's face it!

I'm letting go of some of my collection, mostly because after an earlier post Hoarding - Are we all guilty? I realised I AM a hoarder! I hoard pretty things, but I still hoard, so slowly but surely I'm getting rid of what I really really really don't want. Of course in the process you realise you have things you really really do want! So this post is about the patterns I found that I fell in love with again!

I started putting some of my patterns on ebay this weekend, I have sooooo many more to go, but hey some of them are up, you can see them here if you're interested!

And here are some of the patterns I love, will never part with and have either made or WILL make this year, I promise!

This is such a stunning dress, I think the colour on the pattern helps a lot, especially as I have red hair, I need to make this AND in this colour! Obviously I'm talking about the green version!

I really want to make these blouses, not sure what material in though but I particularly like the style with the stripes!

Now I wouldn't feel particularly comfortable in this as I'm carrying a little too much weight for this, but it's adorable, one day!

I have made the whole outfit on the left of the pattern, it looked wonderful, fabulous for summer and great in a vintage hawaiian print!

I've also made this blouse, the one on the left, not the high neck one, sadly it doesn't quite fit at the moment but when I'm back in it I'll take a pic and let you see!

I think I want to make this for summer, it looks so cool!

Althought this dress looks on the pattern like it is a day dress, I think I'd make it for evening wear, it's got a great cut to it and in the right fabric it would look stunning!

Last but not least I love this pattern! I want the whole outfit on the left (mmm all my faves are on the left weird huh?!) the colours look fab, the fabric for the blouse is amazing and btw I want her figure too he he!

So if, no when, I get round to making some of these I'll let you know!

And in view of the title of this post, I'm realising how much I love what I already have!

Outfit posts and why I don't do them!

I love other people's outfit posts and wish that blogs had been around when I was younger, thinner and more glamourous!

I would love to do outfit posts, but as someone who 90% of the time works from home, it's not going to be happening in the near future! However it got me to thinking about what my favourite outfits of all time have been. Now of course most of the time when I've been wearing a favourite outfit, I wouldn't necessarily have a picture of it, so I'm going to trawl my old photos looking for favourites outfits of all time, here are 3 to start with, and then you'll see why I should never do outfit posts at the end!

I hope you're interested in it, I hope I'm not wittering on for no reason but hey isn't that part of having a blog!!

So here we go

This used to be one of my favourite dresses, this was taken, oh god I dunno 18 years ago maybe - yes I'm that old! - but I loved this dress!

Actually I also love the shoes, especially for dancing in! That's my lovely husband I'm dancing with, and the photos are a bit arty cos they were taken by a professional photographer.

This is me with my mate Julie, as we always say Big Red and Little Red, talking hair here! I LOVE this dress, I think it may be one of my favourites of all time, it's gold lame and also it's a good shape for my figure which always helps! This was taken at one of my favourite weekenders the Rhythm Riot.

And this is a perfect reason why someone like me should never do an outfit post! This is a favourite pic of my husbands, I have no idea why, except it is me all over.  That is a beautiful hawaiian print dress, and what do I do, I put someone's boot on with it and then get someone to take a pic, shame on me!  Well it was Viva Las Vegas and perhaps I'd had a small tipple or two maybe!

I'll dig some more out for you to have a laugh at in the future!

Hoarding - Are we all guilty?

As someone who has collected vintage stuff for so long I have come to the conclusion I am definately a hoarder. I say stuff because it's everything, clothes, shoes, jewellery - all of which I wear, but I don't wear ALL of it! Then of course there is homewares, books, clothes patterns, knitting patterns, material, magazines, oh lord you name it we have it! I am constantly finding stuff I forgot I even have.

So with a heavy heart I have started to get rid of some stuff, I find this so hard, especially as I think, but what if I need it, what if I never find anything like this again? Then I remember that this is classic hoarder mentality! How do you get rid of it? Especially when the stuff your hoarding isn't just rubbish as in classic hoarder case but great stuff! Again though, is this hoarder mentality!

I know I'm not the only one, I know this is so common amongst us vintage lovers, but really when does it end.

I'm sat at my desk and in my office (home office may I add!) I'm surrounded by things I should use or get rid!

Here are some examples!

This is a fabulous light shade that I should just get on and put up, why haven't I, I don't know, but here it is sat in my office, not usually on the carpet I may add!! In fact I may put this up in my office, how fabulous would that be!

Yes another pink glass light shade, I know! I'm not even going to tell you how long I've had this and not done anything with it, it's shameful, but partly it's cos I don't quite understand how to put up those lights with the hanging chain, I will though, I promise I will!

Ok this is a classic Fiona stupidity, I had 3 of these and they were for a 50's ceiling light fitting I had and yep you guessed it, I broke one, stupid! So now I'm thinking once I get our bedroom sorted these could be light fittings over the bed. But yep you've guessed it, these have been laying around forever!

And a huge box full of knitting patterns! Now don't get me wrong, my mum knits and so I do use these but I don't need the originals, they are just sat in a box, I could easily scan the ones I like and save them that way! I'm very seriously considering doing this as soon as!

Then there are all these knitting books, honestly I don't think I've looked in them for about 15 years, they gotta go! Oh and that's just a fraction of the knitting books, yep I really am a hoarder!

Then the next 2 pictures I didn't even know I had these things, I can't even remember getting them, that's a really bad sign isn't it?!!!!

First up, some fabulous 1940's pattern magazines, I haven't checked the patterns are all there yet but these are definately going up for sale, the style is too early for me and I didn't even know I had them, that's a gal with a problem!

And the last one, I have NO idea where I got these, why I have them, and what the hell? So they are going, if anyone even cares to have them! To be fair in that box is a lot of other good stuff but the newspapers on the top, who knew I had copies of New York Daily News from 1954,  I am officially a hoarder!

I know, why do I have these?

So people let me know I'm not the only one who has things they didn't even know they had, PLEASE!!