See you on the other side of the weekend!

As regular readers will know every now and again I do big events with my business Notorious Kitsch. These events are all consuming and pretty much take over my life for a couple of days before and after the actual event!

This weekend we're at the Brighton Tattoo Convention it's at Brighton Racecourse on Saturday and Sunday, so if you're around pop upstairs and introduce yourself!

Anyway I will really try to take some pic, but again as regular readers know, sometimes these things get busy and I just forget, sorry!

I do hope you all have a fabulous weekend and don't forget to enter the competition before midnight on Monday! You can find it here

See you all next week!

I want it ALL!

I follow a fabulous blog called Retro Renovation they are an amazing resource for info on renovation 40s-70s style. I have in the past spent far too long browsing the site but sadly most of the resources just aren't available to me cos I'm in the UK and it's US based. However yesterday they posted about new wallpaper and fabric prints from Sandersons, I almost passed out!

I want all the prints, all the fabric oh and if we could arrange a lottery win at the same time that would be fab!

Check them all out here for Sanderson's Website

Here's a taster

There's lots more, although I bet it costs a bomb!

Every picture tells a story!

I'm terrible at organising old pictures and have 2 boxes full of old pics which I never look at. However the other day I was looking for a photo, I didn't find it, didn't have much time, but started getting sucked into my picture boxes. Every picture tells a story and when you look back at them you might not remember all the detail, but you remember how you felt at that moment, or where you were particularly or who you were with.

So I thought for fun I would share the first few I scanned, all totally random, all with a story!

First up a picture of my lovely husband which was taken around the a very very long time ago, in fact it was my favourite picture of him when I first met him, and it had been taken before then, we've been together for over 20 years now, so he must have been in his early 20s when this was taken, cute huh?!!

Next up a great picture of my mum and her brother, I love this picture, it's so tender I think between her and her brother and they are really not like that in real life, I'm sure they love each other but they never let each other know, silly really. Still I love this pic, mum looks so sweet and my uncle too!

I love this picture of me and Dad. Obviously I know the year, well I assume it's 1967 as I was born end of October 1966 and I'm obviously still a baby, but I think the curtains and wallpaper are a dead giveaway!

This next picture is the only picture you will ever see of me in a dress above the knee! I used to do a lot of Film and TV extra (background) work and this was set in the 60s, how there got me into a 60s dress I'll never know, the coat is mine, just keeping warm on set in between takes! I can't remember the program but it had Ricky Tomlinson in, he was at our table and was as totally hilarious in real life as he seems on TV!
 He had us in stitches.

Next one was at a club that Rohan the DJ ran soooo many years ago! It was like a Speakeasy, it wasn't really a proper club it was a house of sorts under the railway arches in Camden. You brought your own drinks and it used to go on all night, it was like going to a speakeasy, there was always a good deal of alcohol consumed - as you can tell by this pic, there were no seats, which is why I'm on the floor, it was always a bit hazy cos it was so bloody hot in there, and I do remember when you walked down the stairs you could see people sitting on the loo, yep a real put together event. I do remember one night standing in the alley cooling off as it was so hot, looking up at the stars and thinking how great life was!!

And last but not least, us on tour in Switzerland after a gig, with a couple of deps, one my very good friend Bloater! We played this club quite often, and I do remember us getting rather drunk going back to the hotel and then singing Dion songs at about 5am in the room. I would not have been impressed if I'd been trying to sleep in another room, but we had fun, whoops!

So there you go, some random photos and as I said a story behind every one!

Don't forget to enter the competition if you haven't already, see previous post!

200 follower giveaway!

Well well well, who would have thought it eh? My little blog full of random ramblings would reach the dizzying heights of 200 followers!

Thanks to all the lovely people I've met in the blogging world, I never thought I would meet such great people and read such interesting stuff. I feel blogging and fellow bloggers are part of my life now and if you'd told me that a year ago I would quite frankly have thought you were mad and slightly sad, how wrong I could be!

So in true milestone followers traditions I'm hosting a giveaway.

I could giveaway something vintage but everyones taste is so different, so thought I would giveaway one of my favourite books of all time Fabulous Fifties.

This book is a bible for all 50s design, women's and men's clothes, accessories, homewares, fabric, you name it, it will have it and it will have you drooling too! I never fail to get sucked into this book whenever I open it, I think I would pretty much have everything in there if I had the money and resources!

Here are some inside pages.

It retails at about £50 and I know when I bought it over 10 years - it was £50 then! - I thought about it really hard as it's an expensive book but boy I never regretted spending a penny on it!

THE RULES!

The competition is open to all, all over the world, its a heavy book so if you win and you're anywhere apart from the UK it just might take a while to get to you but it will get there!

You can only enter if you follow the blog, after all it wouldn't be fair for it to be open to all and sundry! You will get one entry by following and making a comment here and another if you mention it on your blog, but you'll need to let me know this as I've got a really busy week coming up and might miss it!

You have until midnight on 31st January to enter.

I'll announce the winner that week, but bear with me, I'm at an event all weekend this weekend, so if I don't announce on the 1st Feb, don't worry!

I know the book is not to everyone's taste but as I blog about mostly 50's era stuff, I felt it was fitting with the blog. Hope you do too

GOOD LUCK!

Not quite to plan!

Well if you're waiting to see what I made I'm afraid my day didn't go quite to plan.

First up I decided that really I ought to sort out my sewing supplies to see what I have so that I don't start making something and then realise I don't have the cotton, buttons or appropriate zip, this happens to me a lot so organisation is the key.

Once I'd emptied my lovely sewing box I could see quite why that 32 spool holder couldn't cope with the supplies I had, whoops!

Yes I actually need 2 more, not even 1 more mind you I had forgotten about the supplies my mum gave me from a friend of hers so that's why it's quite so bad!

Then I got all my haberdashery out and decided I would photo and make a note of
everything I have so that I know what I have.

Here's the mess uuurgh

First thing I found which I absolutely must do something with is this beautiful belt buckle.

I'm unsure of it's era, it's beautifully made, and in fact wouldn't look out of place on anything from the 40's to the 60s I guess. I'm really not sure what I will make that I can attach this too, but I do love it so I'm sure one day it will come in handy

Then all plans failed. Our toilet cistern was coming loose from the wall and I asked my mate Bloater - who handily lives next door - if he could help me (read fix it) sort it out. I really really thought it would be a short job but not something I could easily do on my own. Anyway it turned out to be anything but, it was horrible and no matter what he tried it didn't work, we even had to venture out to B&Q to get new fixings, eventually hero that it is he did it! I was so grateful, the reason I pre-empted it this time was our downstairs one actually fell off on a Bank Holiday once, I had to sit on the loo for 2 hours holding it on until the emergency plumber arrived who then charged us £220!

Here's our bathroom in disarray!

Fortunately we now have a cistern back on the wall and a fully working toilet. Bloater is usually better know for his amazing music but he's a darn good bloke and a great mate too. A bottle of rum will be winging it's way to him soon!

By the time this crisis was over quite frankly I couldn't be bothered to start something new, so I'm sat here with a G&T and a slightly dodgy back from leaning over to hold the cistern in place whilst trying to keep out of Bloater's way!

Weekly round up!

Gosh it's been a busy week, I wish I could blog more regularly and I mean to then I forget and go off and do something else!!

Ah well it does mean when I do a round up I have plenty to chat about!!

As I said in my last post I went to a Trade fair last Sunday to look for new products for Notorious Kitsch. I love seeing what new things suppliers are coming up with and am always excited at the prospect of new stock, it's kinda nice because it's like you can go shopping but it's not costing you anything because you're selling it on!

One of our popular suppliers is Anne Taintor, I love her stuff, it's cute and quirky. They have some really cute new things coming out so I thought I'd give you a little preview with this little pic from the catalogue!

Not sure about the soap cos it works out really expensive but the mini tissue box and nail files are very cute!

So I went on Sunday, then on Monday I went back to help my good friend Sue from Pennychoo on her stand. This is the first big Trade Show she's done so it was a big deal, it's hard to do this kind of thing on your own, after all you have to go to the loo at some point and it could be when the biggest card retailer passes your stand!

I love this new range she's designed, it was inspired by a cat vase we have in our house by our front door, I had no idea she'd done this range and when I said it's fab, she said oh it was your vase that inspired it!

Here's Sue making sure she has her orders sorted!! She'll kill me for posting this, she hates having her picture taking!

I'm so pleased for her, she did pretty well, lots of people loved her designs and she got interest - and orders - from some pretty great companies, so watch out for her designs on the high street soon!

Ok so that was Sunday and Monday!

Tuesday and Thursday I went and worked for someone else part time, as I said this is my year of getting some debt paid down so I need to do some work for people to earn some extra cash. It's very strange doing work for other people when you've worked only for yourself for over 2 years, but if it's going to help then it's all good!

I'm on a no buying ban at the moment, obviously if I'm trying to pay debts down, no point spending money! But, I bought something to continue to sort my sewing area out. I bought this little spool holder

Handy huh? But what's funny is it holds 32 spools of thread, and I thought oh great that means I'll have some spare, mmmm I clearly didn't realise how many supplies I already had, let's just say I need another holder and leave it at that!

Today, Saturday, I decided I would do a blog post, tidy the house a little and then sew, yeah! Not quite sure what I'm going to sew today, I'm in a bit of a quandry about it all. I keep not sewing clothes until I lose some weight but I need some new things now at the weight I am as most of my vintage stuff doesn't fit right now, so really I should get on with it and sew myself some things to wear now!

Anyway, we'll see, no doubt I'll do a post to let you see what I decided to sew in the end

Oh and big news I'm nearly at 200 followers, wow how did that happen, when it does I'll finally get round to doing a giveaway! mmmm now have to think about what!

Have a great weekend everyone

A bag, risotto and some earrings!!!

Yep that about rounds it up!

So getting my mojo back yesterday was fab. I decided I would make a bag, I would have loved to use the monkey fabric but actually the flamingo one was better as it had a smaller print. So I made this Amy Butler Pattern up

And this is how it turned out

It looks full cos it is! It turned out really well actually but it's a little small for my normal size bag, it was really an experiment, so I think I'll sell it on. Here's some other pics.

There's a little pocket inside too!

And you can get quite a bit inside too, I just prefer something a little bigger.

So I'm going to try this pattern next

This is more my size! The bag I made is super sturdy and I'm pretty pleased with it.

And so on to the Risotto.... I resolved to try a new recipe every week this year if possible! I did this a couple of years ago and it totally revitalised our normal day to day foods. I'm vegetarian so I tend to get veggie mags for a bit of inspiration, in one I saw a Porcini, Tofu and Pak Choi Risotto, I kinda like the sound of it so I tried it last night. As any cooks out there know, Risotto takes some attention but actually it ended up absolutely delicious! Here it is...

Then something totally random which I keep meaning to tell you about as it revolutionised my wearing of clip on earrings! Last year I was saying to Kay from Rocket Originals about all the lovely clip on earrings I have that I never wear cos they hurt and she told me about something she'd bought on ebay that is basically a plastic cushion that fits over the back of the earring and makes it sooooo much more comfortable!

Anyway today I wore these lovely confetti lucite earrings, which I'm ashamed to say I've never worn

With the fabulous cushions on and they were great!

Here's a pic of the earrings with the cushion back showing on the earring and on it's own.

They really are a marvel, I cannot recommend them enough for fabulous vintage clip on earrings! I got them on ebay but put earring cushions or pads in google and I'm sure you'll come up with something.

I also went to a Trade Fair today to look for new goodies for Notorious Kitsch, I didn't find any new suppliers but some of my old suppliers have some great new lines so I'm looking forward to stocking them soon.

I'm back to the same Trade Fair tomorrow to help my good friend Sue on her stand Pennychoo, we sell her cards and she also has her own website, she's got some great new designs, so it won't exactly be hard work selling them to buyers!! It will be weird to be on the other side of the fence though, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Anyway that's my news for today, hope you've all had a fabulous weekend, see you in the week!!

My Mojo's coming back!

So this morning I woke up feeling miles better than yesterday, I'm not 100% but certainly not in that dazed condition where you can't actually even think!

So I thought I'd share with you some ambitious projects I have planned this year on my sewing quest.

I have sewed on and off pretty much all my adult life, but it's usually before a big holiday I sew for weeks on end, getting together lots of nice seperates, or for weekenders, or any other big event, what I have never done is sew regularly for fun and just to make day to day pieces to wear. So this is my year of sewing more regularly, I need blouses for day to day work - although I work for myself so I can have what I want style wise. I'd also like to make stuff for my husband, he's one of those annoying people who doesn't really change weight so his vintage stuff always fits, so he's not in urgent need of anything like me, but I would like to try a couple of things for him.

So here are a few ideas that I would like to try.

I want to make this in this fabric! It's more beautiful in the flesh, more gold going on, and brighter colours, I also have enough to make the dress and bolero.

And I'd like to make this!

Not sure which fabric but I love that white with red trim combo, however I am a klutz so it's probably not a great idea for someone who will get the dress grubby in 2 seconds flat!

Next up, I love this dress, I really want to make it but it's looks hard because I always have to alter patterns, my bust is larger in proportion to my waist & hips, so anything complicated on the top half of a pattern I usually stay well clear of but this in green as is the pattern would look stunning!

Next up I've been promising myself I would make myself a leopard print fur swing coat for years and never get round to it, I'm hoping this is the year, it's a modern repro pattern and I love that they re-release old patterns!

Another one I've been meaning to make up for years is this nice seperates set, and again if made in a plain colour then you can swap the seperates around, I really must get on with stuff like this!

I really need more blouses, I've made this one before and it's a lovely pattern, and not too hard to make either. I don't go for the high neck one as this makes me look even larger in the bust but the slash neck looks nice on me.

I have a couple of lots of material which would look stunning in this pattern, I keep meaning to get round to making them, but do I? So I have the pattern and the fabric, just need to get off my arse and do it!

Next up is a shirt for Paul, I have the fabric again and the pattern, so what am I waiting for?

Here's the fabric I want to make up this pattern in.

Now this next pattern is a little ambitious for me, but I'd really like to give it a go, I've never made anything like it before, however I like a challenge, so at some point this year I'd love to have a go at this!

Scary huh?

And last but not least, as I don't feel 100% yet but would quite like to do some sewing today, I'm going to have a go at a bag, in one of either of these 2 materials. Neither are vintage, but they have a vintage look to them and I love both of them!

I already have a bag in this fabric that I bought when on holiday years ago in Pasadena, they decorated it with red & green diamantes, which adds some sparkle, not sure if I have any but even if I make it up I can add them later.

Or this fabric which actually I am going to make a blind for our downstairs loo in, but I know I have extra so might make a bag in this instead, although I'm guessing I should make the blind first to make sure I have enough left! Ooooh sorry I just realised that's a bad pic, still you get the idea.

I know how much better I feel cos I can link a sentence together and I'm slightly excited at the idea of  sewing, whoo hoo! Of course the reality is I might feel poop when I start, at which point I'll stop as I have a trade show to go to tomorrow which is work and important. If I do well I'll let you see the end result, if it goes badly, we will never speak of it again.....!!

Hope you all have a great Saturday