Off for a few days!

Well my second event of the year is this weekend, hoping it'll be better than the first!

I'm taking Notorious Kitsch to The Brighton Jukebox & Retro Fair this weekend. It's a lot more than just jukeboxes, look at my show report from last year here. I also love doing this event as we have lots of friends amongst the other stall holders and last year we actually managed to have dinner together! I'm hoping we can do it again this year cos it was such fun!

We'll be downstairs this year so if you're looking for us, we're about in the middle of the hall, just opposite Rocket Originals shoe stall, damn how will I resist, temptation will be all around me AGAIN! Upstairs again I think will also be Heyday with their fabulous clothes and many other fantastic goodies. I loved this event last year, soooooo much more than Jukeboxes!

So there'll be lots of this going on, sitting behind the stall

And I'm hoping we'll be making some money too!

See you next week people, have a great weekend!

Some days are just GOOD days!

Actually it's been a good couple of days but I digress.

This morning the postman rang the door bell and a package arrived. I knew a package was going to arrive as the very lovely Vix asked for my address as she had a little something for me. I love Vix's blog and I'm over there everyday, Vix is one of those people that I might not have met if it wasn't for blogland, I'm a 50's gal, she's more a 70's gal, we don't live anywhere near each other, she goes to Glastonbury I go to the Rhythm Riot or VLV, it would appear we have very little in common but that's the wonder of blogland, you find gems of people who you may never have met otherwise, well Vix is one of them and if you don't follow her blog what in heck are you waiting for? http://vintagevixon.blogspot.com/ I will publicly declare here and now I love Vix!

Anyway I digress again! So I opened my package and look what Vix got me, not one but a pair of cats to replace my sadly broken one! I immediately put them where my demised cat had stood and they look happy as larry! - who the heck was larry?

I did a crappy job of taking pics, too much sun behind the curtain but I wanted to show them in situ!

They have the cutest faces!!

So there was the good start to my day.

Also - and this is rather exciting - you know I said I needed to do some part time work to make ends meet, well I have me one small part time job, just need to build from there now. Guess who with? oh yes people, Miss L Fire shoes!! You must have noticed I've mentioned them a bit lately and I didn't want to say until I knew for definate, hate jinxing stuff, yes I am a bit superstitious! I can't think of anything more exciting than working for a fabulous shoe company part of the week, it's kinda like a dream come true, have to say though they are not only fab shoes but fab people!!

Then yesterday I cheered myself up no end by packing away all the really thick winter woolies and digging out all my spring/summer clothes! So lovely to see all the colours on the bed just waiting to be put in the wardrobe!

My wardrobe is now a feast of colour and tropical prints!

One blouse I totally forgot I had is this beauty, which I made myself from vintage fabric. I made it about 3 years ago and am yet to wear it, why I hear you cry! Well when I made it I was much slimmer and I got the measurements wrong and made it too big so it was packed away, then I gained weight :o( Now it's too small, but not a lot too small, I can't wait til I'm back in it. I reckon by the time it's warm enough to wear something with no sleeves - lets face it we're talking June! - I'll be back in it!

And just in case some of you out there think it's only women that have a vintage clothes problem, this is my husbands rail, please bear in mind most of his winter wear is packed away and not on this rail! Yes that is a 6ft rail, all to himself!

So I am buoyed by beautiful presents from beautiful people, a great part time job with a great company and my lovely colourful clothes back in the wardrobe!

I guess you could say I'm a pretty happy bunny!

Chore filled Saturday

Well today was mostly beautiful here, I thought this weekend was going to be dull and chilly but here at least we had warm sunshine right up to about 1/2 hr ago, so now I'm indoors with the windows all shut again!

But today being warm and sunny certainly made me get on with some stuff I've been meaning to for ages. What is it with small jobs that we just put them off again and again?!!

Thanks to all those who recommended good stain removers for vintage clothes. I did a couple of those things today. I have a nice grey dress that I'll be back into in no time as it's definately on the larger side, but it had stains near the hem, they have nearly gone now, so I guess one more treatment and it'll be as good as new yay!

Here is just the neckline as the dress is drying and unironed but I think you'll get the drift!

Next up was a jacket with a story. Here is a pic.

It's a beautiful 1950's gabardine, reversable jacket, just the business, here's the cute label inside too.

Don't you just love, weather wise outdoor miss!! Anyway I first saw a jacket exactly like this when on holiday in the US but it was $400 and I didn't have that. Then a friend rang who was at Hemsby Rock'n'Roll Weekend to say, you know that jacket you loved in the US there is one here and it's £80 and your size so she bought it for me. I loved that jacket more than you can know. Then one day whilst wearing it I came upon a terrible car accident. As someone who has been in a terrible car accident I stopped to help and do what I could. It didn't even occur to me that I was wearing a rare WHITE gab jacket, a guy was trapped in the car and whilst we waited for the fire brigade I held his head as his head was badly cut and he kept wanting to rest it on the door.

Of course I don't regret helping at all I would do it again in a shot, but I did stain my beautiful jacket with blood. Now as we all know, blood is terrible to get out. The jacket was effectively ruined so I thought well I'm not going to lose anything by washing it on a gentle wash. It actually got quite a lot of the blood out  there are still faint stains, I can't expect mirables BUT the red lining seeped into the white gab aaaargh! So today I washed it with colour stain remover. Actually in the pics it looks far better than it actually is in real life. The white is much pinker :o( Even after :o(  I'm actually waiting for it to dry and then see what it looks like.

So we'll see what happens, I would LOVE my jacket to be wearable again, the cuffs need mending as you can see but I'm not going to do that until I know I can wear it again!

Oh by the way yesterday it was so lovely I got to wear my new Miss L Fire sandals, loved them!

I also did some cat proofing of the front garden, don't ask!

So this evening, I get a treat of 1/2 bottle of wine, oh yes the weekly 1/2 bottle of wine on weight watchers, I'm sticking with it people!!

Sewing Ideas!

When you sew, just saying this for the non sewers, you see ideas all the time that you think, ooooh I could do that, that's a great idea, what an inspiration etc.

Sadly I'm not sewing at the moment as I joined weightwatchers and would like to get a little weight off first, so whilst I'm not sewing I thought I'd have a trawl through my 'inspiration' file. There are some really cute things in it, mostly stuff I've seen on ebay and thought, that's nice but not too hard to rustle up. Fingers crossed when I start shifting this weight I can start to experiement a little with my sewing.

Now this first one doesn't look so easy but wow I'd love to give something like this a go, it's fabulous!

This would be so easy, I do love pom poms on clothing, in fact I definately plan to make some capri pants with pom poms on the bottom!

Then lurex, I do love lurex, if only you could find decent lurex now, I can't find it anywhere, if I do I will probably make these 2 lovelies!

These next 2 dresses are very similar in design but I love the use of colour and detail on them, see not hard to make, just need to accessorise correctly!

So there you have it, some inspirations for sewing. Do you do this? Do you have an inspiration board or photos that you file away thinking, yep I'm going to use that? I'd be interested to know!

Whoo hoo!

I'm on a roll! I didn't tell anyone last week but I started Weight watchers last week and today was my first day of weighing in. I have had a lifetime of struggles with my weight, I'm one of those people who looks at chocolate and I'm 10lbs heavier! It drives me insane, but still it's who I am so I just gotta work with it.

Anyway I lost an incredible 5lbs in my first week, I rarely lose this much weight when cutting back but I think this is more an indication of how indulgent I've been lately than how well I'm doing he he!

My initial aim is to get to this weight

This is me with my lovely friend Ellie at The Bellagio in Las Vegas. I want to get to this weight cos I want to get back in this!!

I think it's my favourite dress of all time, gold lame, wow!  I also don't need to be a skinny minnie to get in it.

Then my next aim down the line is this so I can wear these dresses!!

As you can tell I'm not built slim but I'm happy at that weight and I can get into nice clothes, so I just have to be sensible about what's within my normal weight range, I can't starve myself, how on earth do people do that, and more to the point why?!!

So there won't be any posts of cocktails or huevos rancheros or risottos for a while, this lady is determined!! Although I'm under no false illusions it will be easy, or plain sailing and I've already said when we do events, I just have to forget about weight watchers, you eat what you can get in those situations!!

This is how impressive I've been I only had 1/2 bottle of wine ALL WEEK! Yes all week!

I'm off to a good start so wish me luck!

Busy week, quiet weekend phew!

I've been posting sporadically lately as I have so much on at the moment, so apologies!

I'm currently working on a project, whilst still running my business, whilst doing some temp work to bring in some extra cash so I'm really tired zzzzzzz

In fact today I'm shattered but I don't look as elegant as the lady above, it's 3pm and I'm still in PJs!

I had a proposal to do yesterday so today was rest day but as I'm not someone who doesn't rest easily I decided to do some hand sewing on vintage dresses that need a bit of mending.  I also jazzed up one that was a little too plain so I added a few rhinestones, you can never have too much sparkle in my humble opinion!!

Anyway dear readers I need some advise, mostly from the UK people if possible as it's product related. What do you use to remove stains from vintage clothing? I have a couple of dresses which need sorting I'm currently soaking them but I think I've tried before and it hasn't sorted them. So any advice would be most appreciated!!

Oh I also tried to sort out still broken loo - it's time to get in a plumber! - and before I knew it water was spurting everywhere, quick AND fast, I would have taken a picture but I was too busy trying to turn off the water, I was soaked to the skin.

I would like to think it was as fun as this

but it wasn't......

So apologies for the boring post, I just didn't want you to think I'd fallen off the planet!

Hope you are all well, I'm off for a snooze.....

Cute Shoe day oooh the excitement!

I was very lucky today to have a meeting with Lynsey who owns/runs/is Miss L Fire shoes obviously there are other lovely ladies working there like Sammi but it's Lynsey's baby!

Now going to someones place of work where they are surrounded by the most stunning shoes slightly blows my mind, I mean I'm sat with Lynsey chatting at a lovely vintage desk looking at racks and racks and racks of the most stunning shoes, every one of which I wanted to pick up and run off down Oxford street in the hope she wouldn't send for the police!

So I thought I ought to share my day a little with you. First up I can't show you the designs due out for Autumn Winter but I saw them and boy oh boy, they are stunning! Not that all Miss L Fire shoes aren't stunning but I wanted every last style, there is something for absolutely everyone *sigh*

First is a couple of pictures of the current samples, those shoes that are now being sold in Spring/Summer collection.

I know don't they make you drool. I didn't want to be a total pain so I just picked up a couple to take pics of but you can see the whole range better on their website at http://www.misslfire.com/

I LOVE these, look at that carved heel....

Then these though why I got overexcited and didn't take the pics properly I have no idea, oh yes hang on I do, I was overexcited as I was surrounded by cute shoes!!

And if that wasn't enough to get a girl overexcited, the lovely Lynsey gave me a beautiful pair of shoes, can you believe how lucky I am? I'm lucky cos my shoe size is the size all samples are made  in, oh yes people, I'm lucky!!

Look at my lovely new shoes, now I wasn't expecting to have new shoes for spring today!

The good news is it used to be much harder to find Miss L Fire shoes but they now sell directly online, if you do order play nicely though, it's only just launched.

Right after all that excitement I must have a lay down!!

Crafty Sunday & Bargain Hunting Monday!

Hey all hope you all had a good weekend!

I had a real take it easy day yesterday apart from a little bit of sewing, nothing special just needed to make a holder for both my new Blackberry and my Sat Nav. I never buy the proper cases, 1 because they're so blumming expensive and 2 they're always so ugly!

Now I have to confess I didn't make particularly pretty ones, I had a small piece of vintage barkcloth laying around that would be good for nothing else really but I also wasn't that keen on the pattern so I made my cases from them. I might remake out of something pretty when I find a small amount of material that I love!

First up, who needs Blackberry accessories when you have barkcloth!

Next up same barkcloth different view, different gadget!

Then today we had an appointment, well we thought we didn't need one but we did so when we arrived at the bank they then told us we would need an appointment! So we booked one and then used the spare hour to trudge round a few charity shops.

Guess what! We found more of the glasses we love, I couldn't believe it, I have never seen this design before, now everywhere we go we see it! However normally they are shot glasses and let's face it they aren't very useful, but today I found 6 lemonade size glasses super super cheap, much more useful, especially for a large G&T or rum & coke!

Such a great size and they now look fabulous with all the others in the cocktail cabinet, now if I could only find some wine size glasses in this design, I did see some on ebay but they really were overcharging by calling them art deco!!

Then in a basket on the floor in another charity shop we saw a fab cocktail tray so cheap it was untrue, well we just could not pass it up!

Cute huh? There are some great cocktail recipes on there too, I'm thinking I may try this one next time we do cocktails, although is looks rather strong!!

OH also got a great pair of shoes, they look new - but old - and so easy for him to walk in, which is a bonus as so many old shoes weigh a tonne and these don't, so he was amazingly happy!

Bargainous Saturday!

I'm not sure bargainous is even a word but that's how it felt!

In the week I saw a very sweet wall light on ebay that I thought would be lovely for our bedroom, I've been on the lookout but didn't want to spend much, the minimum bid was 1p, yep you heard that right 1p not £1, but 1p and I WON!!! I had to pick up but it wasn't far away.

Anyway when I was emailing the seller he said I have a couple of others you might be interested in, see below for photos, I paid a whole £2 for all this, yep I reckon that's the biggest bargain around.

I got 4 wooden wall lights all with original shades, 1 wooden ceiling light with original matching shades, 1 brass ceiling fitting with no shades but I know you can find them and I wasn't going to turn it down as part of the package, and one very sweet original lampshade which is already up on my cocktail cabinet/lamp!

First up the reason I bought them, the 1p was for one set, but I have a pair now!

I also have a pair of these, although they are a little too ornate for my liking I'm sure I can find somewhere suitable!

Then there is the matching ceiling light!

I think the ceiling light and 2 of the wall lights are going to go up in the bedroom, can't wait!!

Then I got this thrown in, it needs a darn good clean and some shades but I'm not going to refuse!

And last but certainly not least this beautiful shade which looks just right on our cocktail cabinet, the fringe looks a little odd cos I washed it and couldn't wait for it to dry to put it up!!

So not bad huh? Quite a haul. The guy even offered me a 50s radiator as we left but it weighed a tonne and there was no way I would get it out of the car on my own, so I had to refuse, and sensibly I should have anyway as to fit a radiator would mean getting a plumber in and that free radiator wouldn't have really been free any more would it?!

I'm rather exhausted with amazement at his generosity. I have to say they said the old lady had died and they just moved in 6 weeks ago, I cannot imagine what furniture or whatever else she had in there that would have been amazing if she still had these light fittings up, oh lordy! They seemed to think we were slightly crazy to love all these stuff I did say if you find any more, let us know!!

Old Photos again!

Hi all, hope you're all well!

I'm hugely uninspired at the moment I'm afraid as I still have a lot going on, it's financial stuff - not interesting - but leading to a lot of stress, plus I feel ill again today, totally stress related I'm sure, so all in all you can imagine my inspiration factor for blogging is pretty low!

However having said all that, at the weekend I spent time sorting through all my photos, putting them into sections, so I can start scanning them in to save and also I need to start getting them in albums, oh the shame!!

I know how much you all liked the post of old photos before so here are a few, less random, all the same time but with a little story behind - you know how I like my little stories ha ha!

As you know many many years ago I was a singer and had my own band, if you want to see a really amateur video you can below! It also shows at the end the fraction of a good time we used to have! Excuse the sound it was totally amateur!



Anyway the photos I'm going to share today are from a tour we did in Italy oooh many years ago.

We were given directions to the town square where we were to call the organiser and he would come and meet us. We arrived at an Italian town square bustling with life at 9pm, we rang and Angelo came to meet us, we had never met him before but what a nice guy - he now organises the Summer Jamboree in Senigalia but at that point was only organising small local shows. He took us to his house in the Italian countryside, we ate, drank wine and had a ball.

Next morning it was time to get our act together as we had work to do. But before we left for a sound check we took a few pictures! Even loading a van can feel glam in the Italian countryside in the sun!

I know how hot the whole tour must have been as this is about the most tanned I've ever been in my life! I could sure do with a bit of that sun now....

I wish this next shot showed the scene better, but the stage was outside, from where I was singing I could see the sea and all around us were fields of huge sunflowers, how much more of an idyllic setting could you get to perform in?

Then of course there is the obligatory huge eating session as with all Italians, I don't think I have ever eaten so much before a gig in my life or in fact with so many other people!

By the time it came to the gig it was dark and we could no longer see the sea or the sunflowers, but boy it was a great night, it was warm, people really enjoyed themselves and that's what makes a great gig. It was one of the most memorable places we've ever played.

Ah good times, I can feel the sun on my back even writing this!