My history in pictures!

Well history is a bit of a misleading word, some pictures from the old days is more like it!

A while ago I was contacted by someone who'd come across a website of a photographer who's name now escapes me, how awful huh? Anyway he tooks pics of me and Paul my husband at a club in London years ago, like 18 years ago approx, I think I can't really remember! Then he came to our house at the time and took some pics of us at home, these were featured in a Sunday Mag at the time, again so long ago I can't remember which one. But I thought you might want to see them.

They are great for me as they are so stylised and also remind me I was young once, oh yes I was! It's also interesting to see that is was the time when I had a much more 40s look than the 50s look I soon adopted and still have today.

I hope you like them!

You've seen this one before when I was saying how much I love this dress and oh those shoes, how I miss them!

This one makes me laugh, my hair is enormous! And let me tell you that is ALL hair I have very thick hair!

These 2 make me laugh, he wanted me to look at my husband adoringly - well he wasn't my husband at the time - now I love Paul very very much, but I'm really not the adoring little woman type so these are very out of character for me, still I seem to play the part well ha ha!

I love this picture of Paul!

Ah this brings back such memories, we found that 40s suite at a junk shop at the end of our road can you believe? Are those were the days when you see stuff like that everywhere, that would be near enough £1000 now, I sadly can't remember what happened to it or in fact that great radio! Where did these things go?

I hope you enjoyed a little journey into my past!

Vintage Regrets

I don't know why but I was just thinking about my vintage regrets today. You know those things that got away, the things you nearly bought but didn't and have regreted ever since!

One of mine was an amazing lime green sparkly lucite bag in Phoenix Arizona, it was so beautiful, and a really unusual shape too, I didn't get it because in my stupidity I was thinking mmm I have nothing that will go with it, DOH! I can't believe I was this stupid, I wear a lot of green.

I'm pretty good if I see something I like, having bought vintage stuff for years, if I can afford it I buy it, I will even buy something if I see that's cheap and fabulous as I know I'll find someone who wants it. However sometimes I'm just plain dumb and regret my none purchase for a really long time. Another one I remember is another lucite bag, this time one of those lovely amber colour ones in the beehive shape at a reasonable price, yeah I know stoopid!

I've also sold things and regreted it, this is something I'm learning not to do with age! I used to often do the car boot sales at weekenders, like Hemsby (mmm maybe 18 years ago now) at the Rhythm Riot and places like that. I've always had too much stuff so recycled at these events, oh btw this was the time long before ebay was around or popular! There is one dress I remember selling, the thing is I don't mind if I sell to the 'right' person it's when it's the wrong one! I saw her in the dress later that night and nearly demanded she take it off right there and then, it fitted her but it didn't 'fit! aaaaargh I often think of that dress.

I'm parting with some stuff at the moment and really happy to report that this skirt - the one I was lamenting about parting with in an earlier post has gone to a friend of mine in the US, she'll pick it up at the Rockabilly Rave, YAY I know it's gone to a good home and will be well loved :o)

And I am learning as I get older to buy when I see! This lamp, we saw in a vintage shop in Topanga Canyon near/in LA. We loved it but it was expensive, we got in the car drove for about 10 minutes, turned round, went back and bought it, and we're so glad we did. There was more drama we shipped it back to ourselves and despite fabulous packaging it snapped in half, WHAAAA! So we had to have it restored - costing us even more - but still we don't regret it.

She's pretty huh?

So I'm wondering what your vintage regrets are? I'm sure you have some, oh one thing I always buy is shoes, whoops, so I have no vintage shoe regrets. Please let me know yours!

We have a new bedroom YAY!

We have a new bedroom YAY! For some time now I've been wanting to move our bedroom into the biggest bedroom in our house it's always been my intention, but hey you know, life and time passes by and you never get around to it. But this weekend I thought, nope this is it I'm doing it!

It doesn't sound like a huge job but my husband is disabled so if there is furniture to move, I have to move it, hence the delay! This weekend we got to it though, and I'm soooooo pleased we did, there is no way I can show you our old room, eeek! But I took some pics of the new room. It's nowhere near complete, it needs pictures on the wall, shelves and we have vintage lighting to install but the bare bones are there and I love that I've found a home for one of my favourite pairs of curtains! I like a room to grow though, so I'm happy with the bare bones to grow organically!

I love my dressing table and it seems happy in it's new place.It's part of a set, the chest of drawers is in the top photo and I have a wardrobe, now in our 'clothes' room!

I finally found a place for my cute lucite bags! Although it's not a permanent home, I'm going to put shelving up to display these and the next lot too

Oooh you can see my lovely curtains really well in this pic the colours are so fantastic!

These are some great earrings displays I bought a while ago on ebay, so much easier to decide what I'll wear for the day. I have a gorgeous set in that blue box my friends bought me for my 40th birthday I would have really opened it so you can see!

You get to see the matching chest to the dressing table here plus a great valet stand for my lovely husband to hang up his trousers at the end of the day. Finally we've found just the right place for our cute 50's rug too, and finally a nice place for my trusty old travelling case. See close up below.

My trusty travelling vanity case, it's very very bashed up because it travelled with me all the time I was a singer which was for quite a few years, so it's seen a lot of use, it also got to the US the first couple of times we went when restrictions weren't so strict on the airlines, I felt so swanky boarding the plane carrying this!

So now it's happy in retirement in our bedroom!

To complete this room, I have a 1950's ceiling fitting that I need to install, then I'm looking for a couple of mid century lamps for the bedside cabinets, I'm going to put up some shelves and get some more things on display, then some artwork, I'm on the look out now!

Hope you enjoyed it, I ache like hell with all the furniture moving, but I'm happy I did it!

Things you just have to part with!

I've been collecting vintage clothes, music and homewares since my late teens, and over 20 years later that's quite a lot of stuff. My husband also did, but obviously since we got together in our 20s it's been a joint collecting habit.

Over the years our tastes have adapted or we've moved and don't have room for certain stuff, so we have sold stuff on and off for years. However over the last year or so we've realised we just have too much stuff! Of course we wouldn't have if we didn't continue to buy more stuff but we do, and we just have to admit to it. I've talked about hoarding before and I know many people who love old stuff do hoard to a degree. We're pretty strict on ourselves now, plus we're pretty skint at the moment, so that always helps!!

However there are always things we struggle to part with aren't there? This post was prompted by a skirt that I just put up on ebay today, I kept looking at it and not wanting to sell, but really it hasn't fit me for years and years, and yes it's very cute but it's just got to go. Here is it!

And here's a close up!

How fabulous is that print? I honestly don't know why I like it quite as much as I do, except I do like the colour combo and print.

It's tough parting with stuff but a lesson to younger vintage collectors if you don't sell or swap around you'll end up like we have, honestly we can't even remember owning some of the stuff we have! We are very slowly getting rid of lots of it. We won't ever stop buying but we're learning we have to sell now as well.

The other advantage of going through everything is you find things you'd completely forgotten about that you fall in love with all over again!

oh and if you're interested, but that's not the reason for this post, my ebay id is redpeters click here to see what's up there! There's some really weird stuff too which I have no idea where it came from ha ha!

Peek Magazine Launch at What Katie Did Boutique!

Hello all! I'm so bad, I should have done this last week but I really wanted to include a video in my post for the first time ever!

I recently bought a Flip video, super easy to use, although my first attempt looks decidedly amateur, I think my short stature has to be taken into account when I video stuff in future he he!

Anyway the week before last I attended the launch of Peek! which is a new magazine produced by the rather fabulous Tony Nylons. Not only is this exciting enough but it was held at What Katie Did's Portobello Boutique, I was sooo excited as I haven't visited it before and I know they have been revamping recently.

It was lovely to see not only Tony and Katie, but the lovely Fleur de Guerre, Jenny from Yesterday Girl and my events buddy Shona from Heyday Clothing - you'll see her briefly in the video, I wish you could hear the original soundtrack of gales of laughter!

So I decided to let my video do the talking, it's horribly shaky in parts, there is some dodgy editing and for some reason I keep getting the girl with the pink hood in shot, but hey you live and learn!



So there you have it, my rather amateur start to a film career ha ha!

My hope is that you get a sense of what a fabulous store What Katie Did is in London and you take a visit next time you're there, I know I will!

My Previous life, intrigued? You should be!

Well you all know me as either just me on this blog, or as Mrs Notorious Kitsch or some of you know me personally!

Here we have another bit of me, I really thought twice about sharing but I am kinda proud and it was a really fabulous time in my life.

I used to be a singer in an R'n'B band, for years and years, we toured around the UK and Europe and basically had a ball! We were called Red Peters and the Solid Senders and here we are on video!

The sounds quality is pretty poor but you get the idea. We had such a ball, such a laugh, looking back it was fabulous and I wouldn't have swapped my time doing it for the world! I got to work with some talented, fun and hilarious people. There were some wild times and there were some times when we were just in a minibus for whole days on end! Life on the road, fun but hard work

I love this first one, partly cos I remember the after show party, whoops! But partly cos it shows us just being on tour, great memories!


I was encouraged to share these by both Helen who runs Pin-Up Parade and Natasha who runs Natasha Bailie Vintage Clothing, thanks ladies for reminding me about my 'previous life'!



If I remember rightly the place caught fire the night this was taken, we ended up doing part of the show outside in the snow as in our youthful enthusiasm we thought it was rather romantic and the show must go on! We were allowed back in to finish the show, it was quite an eventful night!

I hope you enjoy!

Buttons & Bows, well no bows actually.....

As you get to know me more and more you'll reason how random my thinking is, which in turn makes my blog posts rather random!

I'm back onto the subject of sewing today, that's because I started making a pair of trousers at the weekend which I couldn't finish as I hadn't thought to get buttons for them ahead of time, oh yes I am that stupid!

So clearly I trawled through all the pretty vintage and repro buttons I have, searching for the right ones, and I thought how much I love buttons! Buttons really make a garment, they seem such insignificant things but actually they can transform dull to dynamic. So I took some pics of my favourites.

I'm a sucker for anything sparkly, whether it be jewellery or buttons, well yeah anything ok!

I love green, well red heads should you know! So whenever I see nice vintage buttons at a reasonable price I snap them up sharpish.

Does my button obsession ever end?

And finally prove that some modern buttons are just as good! These are so stylish and I know will look fabulous on the project I'm planning.

I do promise if I ever get around to finishing something I will let you see, well only if it looks good!