A day to be proud!

On Tuesday I did something entirely different from my normal routine, not that I have much of a 'normal' routine but I'm sure you know what I mean.

My friend Sue, launched her company Pennychoo at a Greetings cards trade fair and I helped her out on her first day. She's a remarkably talented lady and now all the fabulous designs I've been seeing over months are now out there in the public domain and I'm very very proud of her!

Here's me on the stall, it was the end of a long day!

Her designs are very vintage in inspiration and design, it's so great to see cards that are a bit different that the rubbish than I normally see when looking for cards for friends. Her stall was also beautifully put together with a 50's coffee table, magazine rack and other bits and bobs!

Anyway I did get lost on my way there, got out at the wrong tube station, so stupid, but when I eventually got there the work started. It was such fun to see people really interested in her designs, many people were saying that there were so few exhibitors displaying something different and Sue was one of them.

These are some of my favourites, wedding cards are so bleeeurgh normally but this is super cute and you get a 'Just Married Do Not Disturb' sign to hang on the door!! Very inspired!

I'll certainly be stocking some of her cards at Notorious Kitsch, I know she's going to do really really well, I hope she remembers me when she's rich and famous!!

And here's Sue herself! She's going to hate that I put a pic up of her, he he!

I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by very talented inspirational people, I know so many people running their own businesses, designers, artists, musicians etc. It is all very inspirational and I'm very proud to know such amazing people, including Sue, thanks Sue, Tuesday helped me as well!

I HATE compromise!

What could possibly be getting me so irate? Well a while ago, I found out that a sore ankle I'd had for 3 months and had never been seen to was because of my flat feet. Yes people I have stupidly flat feet, it's not something that's just happened, I've had flat feet since I was a little kid, my poor mum spent a fortune on special shoes - oh yes special shoes! - to try to rectify it, but to her despair I still have flat feet. To be honest it's never really bothered me much, never given me much grief apart from I've always found it uncomfortable to wear high heels for any length of time, but hey I love wedgies so that's fine!

But now that I'm 43 apparently time has finally taken it's toll! So when I went to the podiatrist, she told me that I needed to start wearing velcro shoes, VELCRO SHOES!!!! What the hell? I'm 43 not 93! A few expletives were uttered, including me exclaiming that I refuse to wear ugly shoes, at which time she pointed out she was wearing them, now I'm not a rude person but I was very close at the point, what I wanted to say was, yeah and look at them, what I said was, oh ok! Not exactly subtle but it was the best I could do.

Anyway I was given orthotics, and that was fine during colder months but now what?

I refuse to wear ugly shoes!

I've always been super lucky with vintage shoes, I have small feet and have never really had to compromise when it comes to shoes, I can pretty much find what I want, yes I will do a shoe post at some point, I have bought - and parted with - more shoes than I can bear to say.

I want to wear things like this from Rocket Originals!

Or these currently on ebay!

Or these on ebay too!

Instead today I've ordered the ugliest pair of sandals I have ever ordered I have had to compromise, I don't do compromise! I'm so fed up that I've had to spend money on ugly shoes! Actually they're not hideous they're just not nice and no I'm not going to show you! So I did a deal with myself, I will wear my ugly shoes cos they're good for me - oh the catalyst was that my ankle started hurting today cos I've just been wearing sandals I like! - but I will only wear my ugly shoes whilst working from home, maybe to the post office, but that is IT! I refuse to be seen out and about in them!

I figure if I compromise with myself I can continue to wear my pretty shoes when I'm out and about, if I don't compromise I may never wear pretty shoes again and may be in velcro shoes by 45 aaaaargh!

Had anyone else had to compromise in a similar situation? I'm trying to be sensible but it's tough for me, even at 43!!

Too busy to blog!

So again another apology for lack of blog posts, especially to my new followers HELLO!

So what have I been doing that means I haven't been blogging?

Well last weekend I took Notorious Kitsch to Hemsby Rock'n'Roll Weekender. You would think this means just packing up on Thursday and coming home on Monday and you're done, sadly no! Events like weekenders take a heck of a lot of organising before and after, but they are fun.

Now sadly I was so busy I forgot to take pics, how bad am I? The worst blogger in the world in fact! However one of the other lovely stall holders Shona from Heyday DID take pics and post about the weekender, you can see it on her blog here. I know it's cheating but Shona's blog is new and fabulous so give it a read!

The other fabulous thing which is also a downside to doing these events is seeing all the great new stock that other companies have. Fortunately I can't leave the stall too often to browse, but actually I had the worst/best stall next to me, you guessed it Rocket Originals! I love Kay and Martin so being next to them at an event it great, but seeing all those lovely shoes is a killer!

I am the proud owner of these!

I want to be the proud owner of these!

I know you've probably visited Rocket Originals before, but if you haven't where have you been?!!!

In May last year at Hemsby things were much worse, I had Rocket Originals beside me and What Katie Did opposite, what torture!!!

Then of course you have the likes of Freddies of Pinewood who do the best jeans ever and some great tops as well now! As well as many many more sellers with many many more goodies! I had to resist this time but believe me it's very very hard, it probably sounds like fantasy land to most people but as we're trying to earn money not spend it, it can be counter-productive!

What else have I been up to? Well on Wednesday I had a lovely girly evening with Katie from What Katie Did and Shona from Heyday clothing, we decided it was about time we enjoyed each others company more when we're not running about working. We had a lovely chat about life and our businesses, it's so lovely to have other likeminded people doing exactly what you are doing and understanding the struggles and the victories in life!

So I'm afraid this post is very text heavy and not full of pretty pictures I will try harder next time!!

House Envy & Blog Love, it's not dignified!

I'm Fiona and I have House Envy. Yes I have to be honest I do! I often have possession envy, it's not smart or clever but it's true.

The person I envy is the very lovely Mary from Welcome to Deluxeville blog. You really need to visit her blog, every time she finds something it's jawdroppingly good! I can't stand it I have envy beyond envy ha ha!

She does however trawl quite hard to find these amazing things, so she is doing the work, but still the trawling definately seems to pay off.

I stole these pics from her site, I NEED her living room, just for starters!

Please Mary do you think you could donate all your furniture to me?

This is the latest find, how cool is this lamp!

One day I'm going to get myself over there and hope for an invite from Mary to see her place & trawl through the fabulous places she visits!

If you love mid century design & stuff, head over to Welcome to Deluxeville, you'll love it!

Exercise & Vintage dressing!

Let's face it, it just doesn't match up beautifully does it?

I think about this because I have just embarked on a healthy eating & exercise regime, I'm very happy to be doing it, I've been ignoring my increasing girth for far too long!!

However having just been on my treadmill and cooling down before taking a shower I'm sat here thinking, lordy if people could see me now, my hair is scraped back, I have on a t shirt, cropped exercise pants & trainers, there is nothing remotely stylish about my current attire. Now I'm not one of those vintage snobs that thinks everything has to be vintage and you have to look fabulous every minute of every day, but I do resent workout clothes! If I could look nice whilst exercising I'm sure it would appeal to me so much more!! Or maybe I'm just kidding myself.....

I wonder what your thoughts are on the matter?

And the reason I'm embarking on this regime? I can't get into the clothes I want to get into so I made myself a board which hangs above my treadmill of me in all the pretty dresses I want to get back into! I've know I've posted them before but here are a couple, and no I won't take a pic of me in my exercise gear ha ha!!

I NEED to get back in this, it's not vintage, it was made from a vintage pattern to fit me perfectly and it makes me feel a million dollars when I wear it, however right now I'm not sure it would fit on my thigh ;o)

One of my favourite vintage dresses, gold lame, they don't make lame like this anymore, I'm going to get back into that sucker soon goddamit! Oh by the way this was taken at the Rhythm Riot with my mates Ellie and Lisa.

And finally me in my exercise gear


only kidding.......!!

A lovely inheritance!

This is just a short blog post but I wanted to show you what a lovely thing I got when I went to visit my mum's recently.

When I was about 1 year old, my Dad went off on a supply ship for the Navy, he was gone a long time, in fact apparently when he returned I didn't even recognised him! Anyway he did it because at the time he could earn a lot of money doing it, and he was prepared to sacrifice time with me at such a young age in order to provide well for us. It must have been a hard choice to make, except my Dad was a lot older than my mum and he was brought up in much harder times - he was born in 1916, he was 50 when I was adopted at birth - so for him the choice of providing is what men did. When I was younger I didn't understand that, but as I've got older I can see he was from a different generation and that's how he viewed a father's role, as a provider.

Anyway I digress! He travelled all over the Far East region, I don't know exactly where he went but he brought lots of strange exotic gifts back. I remember vividly the battery operated elephant which lifted it's trunk and trumpeted, which fightened the living daylights out of me! He brought wall hangings, tablecloths, china, gosh you name it he brought it, lots of oriental design stuff. Ooooh doesn't writing stuff make you think, I've always loved oriental 50's stuff, maybe that's why, wow never thought of that before!

This visit to my mum's I finally took home the coffee set I've been meaning to for years. I love it, as I said before I love oriental design. He bought it in the mid-late 60's but I guess the design probably hadn't changed much for years!

Here it is

And this is a picture of my Dad he was always a sharp dresser!

It now has pride of place on display in the kitchen with some of my 50s china, cheers Dad!