Old Picture Post

No not the mag, old pictures of me!

A suggestion from the lovely Coedith of Life in a Pink House blog fame was to post some pictures up of some of my past and present collection of vintage clothes with me IN them! Sadly I can't take any right now, I don't fit into most of them which makes me sad, however a remedy is under way and that's all I'll say for now....

So this is very picture heavy, but it is some lovely clothes that I either still have or parted with long ago and these pictures make me regret it, however if I'd kept everything I would need more that a double 6ft rail I'd need an entire house to keep it all!

Here goes!

First up is that beautiful blue beaded dress in 2 separate pictures, one picture I love, it's one of my favourites from when I was singing, the second is probably more accurately me on a night out, I look like such a lush ha ha!

Professional singer

Lush!!

I LOVE this skirt, I no longer have it, but I love the print!

This dress and bolero were so stunning, I got rid of it a long time ago, it didn't fit and I was broke and it's so stunning I got good money for it, but what a shame, it's so beautiful and you really don't find things like that easily these days.

I loved this dress but sadly this one fell apart, although the top is velvet with rhinestones the bottom was taffeta and very delicate, it didn't make it.

This really was one of my favourite Hawaiian style dresses ever, look at that colour, stunning! I don't have this anymore either :o(

This outfit I lost to moths, I know unbelievable, well obviously not the whole outfit, but it was ruined which is weird as we've never had any problem with moths, but for some reason they got hold of this and that was it.

I sold this only last year, the girl who bought it had seen me on stage in it and remembered it, when she tried it on, not only did it fit like a dream but she was really proud to have it, so I'm really glad it went to a good home!

I still have this lovely dress and bolero to this day, I don't think I'll ever part with it I love it and I'm not a million miles away from fitting it, so it's going nowhere!

And last but not least my beloved gold lurex number, won't ever part with this either, not a million miles away for it, can't wait to wear it again!

Hope you liked the old pics, hope you see some new pics of me wearing some of this again soon!

Wardrobe sort out!

As you've guessed I'm on a bit of a roll sorting stuff out at the moment. I am not a spring cleaner, I'm an autumn cleaner, for me autumn is a fresh start, I don't know if this stems from being at school as that was quite a long time ago for me, but I suspect it does. You know the fresh school uniforms, new books, bag etc etc. Well I get that about the house at this time of year, please tell me I'm not alone!

Anyway I sorted out our clothes room this weekend, yes we're lucky enough to have a room for our clothes, it's really where guests stay when they come, but as we have more clothes than guests, it's essentially the clothes room!!

I would love to have enough cash to do this properly but I don't so I'm having to improvise. I already had a 6ft rail, which I bought an extension for so I now have a double rail

I guess we could always become vintage clothes dealers! I also have a wardrobe in here which I'm going to hang sweaters in, but currently have some of my handbags and what I'm about to sell on ebay too.

I'm not happy about the shoe situation, I currently have this rack and you can see a bookcase on the right, but I'm going to make a few sales on ebay and then buy some custom shelving for shoes.

The lovely thing about sorting through your wardrobe is seeing everything you have,  the bad thing about it is the realisation of all the lovely stuff I have that currently doesn't fit me as I need to shed some pounds :o( However now that it's all there out in the open I'm determined to get back into them. I have 2 dresses in particular that I really want to get back into again.

First one you've seen before is a beautiful 50s dress with a fabulous neckline encrusted in rhinestones and pearls, I love it

The second one looks kinda plain on my dress form but in reality it looks fabulous on! I bought this in LA several years ago, I walked into a vintage clothes shop and the woman behind the counter said 'hey there, I have a dress that was made for you' can't say this happens to me very often and I really thought it was a sales technique, but she was right. This dress was apparently tried on my lots of women who went in the store, but no one could 'fill it up top', I could and that dress was mine. It's especially nice as the underneath of the dress is straighter than the net on the top so it gives a fabulous silhouette.

It's cute huh? I have to get back into this oh and my gold lame dress too, perhaps if I don't eat for a year I might get back into them *sigh*

Last but not least I sorted my lingerie drawers, no don't worry I'm not going to show you my underwear, but I am going to show you my lovely 30s stocking holder that contains all my vintage seamed stockings, I took a pic without the stockings in. Sadly it's a little stained now and worn, but it is truly beautiful and I always feel special putting my stockings in it.

Also my collection of scarves, well I say collection, it's not really a collection it's a few! I use scarves in my hair a lot, either just a straight scarf tied round my hair or a larger scarf to cover over my curlers or pin curls. As you can see I have some vintage and then a couple of modern bandana type scarves too.

I have 3 favourites, firstly this lovely red, green and brown abstract design, it's so beautiful

Next up, very unusually for me is a floral print, I am not a floral gal, I'm not keen on florals, but I just love the colours of this scarf.

My last is my favourite, it's a little worse for wear as I do wear it a lot. It's an amazing design and honestly I think this has been made from a dress originally, it's quite a 40s crepe type material, if so I would have loved this in a dress, it would have been spectacular, as it is I'm pretty happy with is as a head scarf, check out the detail of the print!

Weekly round up!

Gosh this freelancing stuff is fun but tiring and as I said in my last post is taking some getting use to. I love all  the companies I'm working for but it's such a change from running your own business, I'm dead beat by the end of the day so anything else but work is suffering right now, but I miss my blog and I miss reading everyone elses, I had well over 300 posts to catch up on, I just had to abandon some!

Anyway I have had some fun too just mixed in with work.

Last week I went up to London for the day to drop some leaflets off at some great vintage shops. I have to confess I don't really shop in Vintage shops in London, I know a lot of vintage dealers so I tend to buy from them or at events like the Rhythm Riot or Rockabilly Rave. However I went along to some in London and was pleasantly surprised!

The first one I went to was unfortunately the only one I took pics in - bad blogger alert! - but it was worth taking pics in. It was Radio Days near Waterloo Station. I used to shop here years ago and although it has now changed hands, well actually it changed hands a long time ago it turns out, it is still as fabulous as it used to be. This shop is packed to the rafters with fabulousness, vintage clothes, homewares, jewellery, accessories, you name it they have it, definately worth a visit!

Here's a few pics I took inside.

I went to a few different places but the most notable is Blackout II in Covent Garden. I didn't take any pictures as I just ended up chatting to Ros the owner & forgot to take pictures. A friend of mine works with Ros but wasn't there at the time, still I ended up chatting for ages. Blackout II is just fantastic, it's got such a great array of clothes, jewellery and shoes, and what's great is they aren't crazy prices!

I then went over to Miss L Fire to pick something up and ladies I saw Spring/Summer 12 collection OMG you will die! Obviously I can't show you yet, but believe me you will love them.

So that was last Tuesday.

Then Wednesday we went to spend the day with friends Mike and Jan who run Home Sweet Homestyle.  Again I was a rubbish blogger I didn't take pics which is a shame cos as you can imagine they have some amazing stuff in their house, well they do deal in it! We had a lovely day and had such fun not only did we stay for lunch, we also stayed for dinner.

Apart from that I've been working working working ooooh apart from last weekend when I moved my bedroom around, which I've been wanting to do for ages, put some pictures up and it feels sooo much better! It's amazing how moving a room around can make a difference. I still need to put a light fitting up and I have some lovely wall lights to replace my crappy bedside lights but they need sorting, still here is the result of my hard work!

I know the fan in the corner is rather unattractive, but our lovely bamboo chair will go there eventually. We always need a fan in the room in summer, our house has a flat roof and sometimes the upstairs gets sooo hot.

I managed to get out a few things or put up a few things I've wanted to for a while.

First up is our fabulous Britvic lamp, sounds tacky, not in the least, well not to me anyway! It's a chalkware lamp that my mother in law found years ago at a car boot sale, I'm not keen on the shade but I'll replace it one day. Cute eh?

Next up are some lovely Hawaiian postcards, I just love the graphics on these so they had to go up!

Then a fabulous tiki painting my husband did. Sadly it got damaged when we did an event, only a little tear but it means he can't really sell it so we kept it!

In other news, I've been trying to make more of an effort lately, nope I didn't take photos, I told you I was a bad blogger! But it's paid off, I was stopped in Covent Garden by a man no less who said can I just tell you how amazing your hair is, how lovely is that?

Then the other day I went out and about wearing my Miss L Fire cute red heels

I was stopped twice by women telling me how cute my shoes were!

Really cheered me up no end!

So there you go, it's been a helluva couple of weeks, I hope you're all well!

Cocktails chairs & powder puff!

I haven't been up to much lately as I only just started working freelance last week and it's taking some adjusting too! I've worked solely for myself for 3 1/2 years and it's kind of weird being accountable to other people, they're all lovely people but it's still weird. It won't take long to get used to it, but it's all consuming at the moment  so I haven't been out to charity shops, car boot sales, or done anything to really talk about.

However last week I saw something on ebay I knew I had to have, but I just didn't have the money before the auction ended. I watched the time ticking down and I knew it would be snatched up cos it was sooo fabulous... But no, no one bid! I have no idea why, although I have to admit you need the correct place to accomodate this particular piece of furniture he he!!

I give you, my new cocktail chair

I love it and it was a real bargain at £15! It's very heavy, very sturdy and also swivels like a proper bar chair should!

Here are a couple of close ups.

I know some people would think this tacky but we LOVE it! Once we clear the stock from the business, we'll be able to move our dining table back into the dining room - which is still the stock room til it's gone - and where the dining table was we're going to create a little cocktail area in the living room, I cannot wait. It'll be a while but when I saw this, it was a sign that it was the right thing to do. It is such quality, the chair itself is really deep and comfortable, I can't wait to sit on it sipping a cocktail in wintertime, I shall have to wear something glam for sure!

Now the only problem with it is that someone has written on the seat with what looks like permanent pen, oh yeah stupid huh? Here's a pic

It's not hideous but obviously I'd like to remove it. The thing is the previous owner said she tried to remove it with normal household cleaner, it's only when you look at a close up pic that you can see this has done a little damage, you can't see this in person, I only saw it when I took the pic. Anyway it clearly didn't work, so dear reader, any clues as to how to get permanent pen off vintage vinyl without damaging it? Any advise would be gratefully received, don't forget I'm in the UK though, so only UK products only please, I only say this as I know US stuff can be amazing, but we just can't get it :o(

So where does the powder puff come in?

Well a couple of weeks ago I treated myself to something I've been wanting to try for ages, Coty Airspun powder, I bought it from ebay in the States and when it arrived I wanted to use it straight away, it smelt divine and looked amazing and I have heard excellent reports about it.

This is just a stock pic, but I was really happy to get it. Sadly it didn't contain a powder puff. I know powder puffs aren't hard to find, but when I went to Boots yesterday for supplies I totally forgot to get one, grrrr. I will let you know when I use it and whether it's as good as everyone says it is.

I'm back!

Hello all, I really have missed you but I'm finally back!

I've missed reading and commenting on your blogs too, who know that blogging would become such a big part of my life and that I would miss my 'community' when I had to take time off.

Well Notorious Kitsch finally closed it's doors on Sunday, it was more weird than sad. I'm actually someone who loves change and loves moving on to the next thing so actually it wasn't as traumatic to me as it might be for some, once I've made the decision to move on, I want to do it and do it NOW ha ha! Anyway it was strange but ok, a bit sad and some things I will miss but there is a lot that I won't! I cannot wait to get my dining room back, which has been a fitted stock room for soooo long, OH and I have already stood in there wondering what colour we'll paint it!!

So what have I been up to?

Well first up, closing your business up takes up far more time than I thought it would in fact I still have things to wrap up, I thought it would be a slow decline but orders soared in the final week!

Bye bye Notorious Kitsch, you've been both fab and a trial!

I've had fun but I've also had stress!!

So what next?

Well you all know that I'm already doing some work for the marvellous Miss L Fire and Shellys Shoes, this carries on and I know how lucky I am to be talking about shoes to earn money!!

I have to say I'm personally keeping my eye on these, they're currently in the sale and I want them, so I'm saving and praying my size doesn't sell out before I can afford them!!

Well apart from them I have a couple of new clients that I'm working for, I am really very very lucky!

First up is Robin and Colette who run the Rhythm Riot and Maddy's Jiving School, I've know Robin and Colette forever, I get on with them very well personally and have worked with them before anyway but in different formats, they used to book our band for years, I was compere at the Rhythm Riot for a few years, then of course when I wasn't working there I was a regular punter, then I had a stall there!! So I've worked with them a lot over the years, I'm really looking forward to working with them in yet another capacity and can't wait to really get started!! I went along to their dance classes for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago, it was fab, they really are good at explaining it all, I was amazed how good some of the dancers were!

Then yesterday I had a meeting with another new client Shona from Heyday! I met Shona in the chip shop at Hemsby, we often laugh about that, cos once we started chatting, we haven't stopped since!! We talked loads about stuff yesterday, plans for Heyday, what she has planned coming up, it's all very exciting. She already has a great team doing stuff for her and I'm hoping I'll be able to slot in nicely adding to the already talented team. I also got to see some styles she has at the planning stage, so blumming exciting! 

One new thing that I saw for the first time is the stunning suit she's now selling, I inspected it from top to bottom, well you know I'm very particular!! It's fabulous, the detailing is lovely all the way to the covered buttons. 

Cute eh?

Apart from all that exciting news, I had a proper day out on Tuesday, Paul and I went to see the Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, it was of course fabulous and I always come away from seeing anything to do with Frida Kahlo, wishing I lived in Mexico or wanting to paint my house in fabulous deep blues! 

Here are two of the pictures in the exhibition!

We then had a rather unsuccessful visit to West Wittering, where we parked Paul just couldn't access anything so we drove away, however we went to Chichester Marina and had lunch there which was rather lovely!

I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures on my day out, I know, terrible but it was my first 'day out' or off in ages so I just enjoyed!!

Anyway sorry for such a lengthy post, so much to say, so much to do, glad I'm back and all that, hope you are all well, I'll be back regularly commenting and saying hello on your blogs again now, I had over 400 blogs posts waiting for me, I just couldn't catch up!