Oh my I've passed the 300 Follower mark!

I can't believe my little blog has reached over 300 followers! Truly I never thought that when I started this anyone would be interested in what I had to write about at all.

I also wouldn't have imagined how much blogging has enriched my life, I love connecting with people all over the work, my only regret is that I'm unlikely to meet some of those fabulous people but still it's nice connecting!

As I said in my last post I'm off to trade at the Rockabilly Rave this week, in fact I'm about to go and pick up the van to start loading it, my least favourite job uuurgh!

I'll be back next week and will try to tell you of my adventures, although do bear in mind I am pretty much stuck on my stall ALL the time so I'll do my best!!

Meantime I'll have a think about a giveaway for my 300, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was going my 200 which was won by Kim at The Kim Show who I'm actually going to get the chance to meet as she is coming to the Rave!!! YAY!

This was us last year at the Rave when some lovely friends delivered a fabulous cocktail to us on the stall, see it's not all work ;o)

See you on the other side, have a great week!

Busy life means quiet blog!

As usual it seems I haven't been around much lately, I haven't even had chance to catch up with my favourite blogs so apologies I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth I'm just having a really busy time!!

I did one of my most favourite things yesterday I had my hair cut at Nina's Vintage Hair Parlour. Not only do I come out of Nina's looking and feeling a million dollars, but I have the time of my life whilst I'm there, you can't really ask for more can you. I had every intention of taking loads of photos this time to let you see it all and experience it with me, but instead Nina and I (then later Claire) just talked and laughed for hours and hours!!

Anyway what I did do is take a before and after shot, it's been ages since I've been to Nina, it's shameful, but I've been broke, so my hair had gotten completely long and out of control, and believe my hair is thick so when it gets out of control, wow, it's really out of control!

I took this shot when I got there.

Wild and unruly hair begone!

I'm far happy than I look! I'd just sat in rush hour traffic from London, uuurgh, but my hair I was over the moon about, I'm a very happy bunny

I was also lucky to get a great book delivered today, I order from the people who supply Schiffer Books and I was lucky to get this! I love Schiffer books, I could run a book store and stock only their books and be very very happy although I'd probably not make any money ever ha ha

This books makes me happy and will provide me with hours and years of joy just gazing at the pretty fabrics, it's called Conversational Print of the 50s, and you know me I do like a conversational print!!

If I could find even one print from this book I'd be pretty happy for a very long time!

I haven't just been having my hair cut and getting stock delivered, I've done a day event, been to a trade fair to check out new stock for later in the year, in fact it's been non stop. Then of course I have the Rockabilly Rave next week, as traders we have to leave on Wednesday, so I load the van on Tuesday. I haven't finished my sewing yet and I still have to go to a supplier on Sunday to get more fabulous stock so I'm not sure you'll hear from me now before the Rave, see you in a couple of weeks, hope you all have a good couple of weekends!

QUICK EDIT - I just noticed I have 299 followers, lordy, one more and I'll have to do another fabulous giveaway, how on earth did that happen so quickly. Thanks all!

Sewing up a storm!

Howdy all! Well wasn't the holiday weekend a washout in the UK? No problem for me though I planned to sew sew and sew so I was perfectly happy!

I haven't done any proper sewing in some time and I really do want to get back in the swing, the thing is that I have my lovely sewing area set up upstairs however when I sew at the weekend I liked to do it in the living room whilst watching movies, mmmm dilemma.

Well not much of one, here's a pic of the chaos of part of the living room as I got started he he!

Yep fabric & patterns everywhere, I like to see what I have around me, terrible huh?

Anyway I was going to sew something for the Rockabilly Rave coming up but I changed my mind, I enough nice blouses for wearing during the day, but what I don't have is day to day wear blouses, obviously I don't have to wear formal office wear as I work for myself but I don't like getting sloppy either and I'll be honest I have been lately!

So I decided first up to make a couple of work blouses! My first one was using some black spotty fabric, here's the pattern on top of the fabric, I decided on the bottom option.

I always have to alter patterns as I'm have a large bust and sadly a large waist at the moment :o( Anyway I messed about with this pattern and got a reasonable if a little loose fit, which suits me just fine for sitting in front of the laptop all day! I did take a pic of it finished but had to cut my head of, sorry people, I was sewing had no make up on and my hair looked a fright!!

Can you spot the mistake? I can't believe I made such a rookie error!! I got so far and then was in such a rush to finish, I put the buttonholes on the wrong side, it's very strange when you fasten it up, but you'd never really notice.

Next up was another spotty fabric, again, just for working around the house. I have this one on as I write this, I've felt so much smarter the last couple of days in my new blouses, I'm definately going to make quite a few more!

Then I decided I fancied sewing a sun suit, well a top and a skirt. I didn't have quite enough fabric to do the skirt of my choice so I had to do a basic a line with a nice top, this is the fabric. I promise I'll take a proper pic of me in it when I wear it!

Cute fabric huh?! There's a teaser for you!

Then I dug out a dress & bolero I have only worn once, it is a lovely print but a friend made it for me years ago and it just doesn't fit right, she made the bodice to short, which is a very weird experience for me as I'm pretty short! Anyway I am going to make a deep belt with left over fabric to shape it more at the waist and hide the fact that it's a little short in the bodice! I thought I'd show you this as it's such pretty fabric! Again once I've done the belt and wear it with hair done & make up on I'll show ya!

Then last but not least a project I haven't finished yet but I've started. I had some lovely 40s or 50s seersucker which I've always thought about making PJs from so I got started. This is the print, pretty huh?

And this is the pattern, I'm making it in short sleeves and actually with shorts instead of longer PJ bottoms as I think this will be more suitable for summer.

So as you can see I've been really busy! Once I'm on a roll with sewing that is it, I get the bug and can't stop, so I'm off to work for a little while on my PJs, not too long though as I was working til gone 10 last night and I'm a little sleepy!

hope you've all been great and had a great weekend.

Oh and what is with Blogger & Explorer, since I upgraded Explorer I can't use Blogger properly so I've taken to using Google Chrome, no problems there!

I'm back .... again!

Boy I seem to have been away a lot lately, offline for 2 weeks, working to catch up, off up North for my Uncles's funeral, working to catch up, no time for blogging!

Anyway I am back. It's been a strange old week for many reasons.

Obviously it was a sad reason for us to visit the North East, although as I said before my Uncle Harold was 94 and he had an amazing life, I will do a post on him at some point but I want some old photos to include and don't want to hassle his daughter right now, she has enough to deal with.

On the day of the funeral we were getting dressed and Paul had brought a double cuff shirt and no cufflinks, aaaargh! What to do? I shouted down to Mum but despite us thinking Dad must have had cufflinks we couldn't find any. So next door I went, my Mum has lived next door to Auntie Marjorie - not my real Auntie, same family as Uncle Harold who wasn't my real Uncle but just as much family! - for as long as I've been alive which is 44 years and how much longer than that I don't know. Auntie Marjorie has never been married & lived with her Mum until she died quite a while ago now. Auntie Marjorie's tiny house is like a museum, she has amazing things in cabinets and just laid around really, and I just KNEW she would have some cufflinks!!

She had a rummage and she found a pair of her fathers cufflinks, now Auntie Marjorie is 85, so these are pretty old as you can imagine, just right for Paul! They are the cutest cufflinks ever and Paul was so proud to sport them all day, Uncle Harold's daughter Elizabeth was also proud when she saw them as they were her Grandad's and she said it was like having a bit of her Grandad there!

How cute are these?

Oh yes, scotties dogs in glass! Fabulous!

Anyway the funeral went as well as these things can go, one nice coincidence happened, my Uncle was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm in the War and as we were at the graveside a military jet went over, obviously not planned but a great touch!

We did the obligatory charity shop trawl in different towns and honestly was a bit disappointed, I thought I'd find more, I did find a piece of furniture we would love but sadly only had the car and not sufficient cash and my mum doesn't drive so she couldn't pick it up so we just had to leave it. However I did find one thing at proper charity shop prices, this cost me the grand sum of 75p, bargain and will look very pretty on my dressing table!

On the way back on Friday we had a meeting near Newark in Nottinghamshire. We took a different route to the one we normally take home and it was nice as it really makes you see how fabulous and historic the UK is, we even drove past Nottingham Forest, but I didn't see Robin Hood!

Now I've never been to Newark and wow what a lovely looking place! I'm so sad we didn't get more time to explore, we literally had a meeting and a little time to spare but it's certainly worth an explore one day. There is an amazing castle as you are driving into town, we will definately revisit. However the reason we DID visit - well apart from our meeting - was to check out The Newark Antique Centre. Let me tell you I'm so glad I did and we'll be back! If you get the chance to check this place out, do it! It's 2 floors of antiques/collectables and listen up, reasonable prices!! I haven't been somewhere like this for years where the prices weren't stupid. Sadly I didn't have much disposable cash but I did buy some buttons!

I love all these, but of course I particularly love the red wooden ones, how cute are they and yes if you can see the prices they were 30p a set!! What a bargain in an antique centre! We'll definately go back one day but it's a good couple of hours drive from here sadly or maybe just as well...

Then on Saturday night we did the Cat's Meow club in London with the stall, all went along swimmingly until I packed away and took the lift, the lift door closed, the lift didn't move, yep you guessed it I was stuck! I was in there for about 20 minutes, fortunately I'm not claustrophobic or panicky, but I didn't get home as soon as I'd planned!!

BAH!

I wrote a whole post, I just needed to get the pics, but for love nor money I can't seem to save pics for blogger at the moment! I have no idea if it's to do with the great blogger outage of 2011, wasn't that annoying?!!

I haven't lost my blogging mojo, honest, but I've been so busy catching up with laptop outtage and tomorrow I'm off to my Uncle's funeral which is on Wednesday, I won't be back til late Friday, we're doing a stall at a gig on Saturday night, so I'm thinking I won't be blogging again til Sunday, sorrreeeeeee!!!

Life just conspires against you sometimes doesn't it?

It's not long to go now until the Rockabilly Rave it's in the middle of June. I'm really looking forward to meeting Kim from The Kim Show I feel like I know her already, her latest blog post is about Neil and Debbie visiting, mmmm I shared a flat with Debbie for short while in my 20s, and Neil is a sweetheart, we have a stall next to each other at The Rhythm Riot, we do love a good bitch ;o) So as you can imagine, we already have friends in common, so can't wait to meet her!

I really want to make something new to wear, yeah I know I have NO TIME! But I've been digging out some fabric I am going to try to sew up before The Rave! I think this one will be ideal for mid June, it's always hot at the Rave!

Seersucker, one of my fave fabrics, with a tropical feel, my favourite kind of print and I do have loads of it!

I've also been meaning to make a blouse up in this for ages, so I'm really going to try to do this before mid June eek!

I know this not everyone's cup of tea but it's fabulous in real life, the colour is more vibrant, goes great with my red hair and you know I'm a sucker for oriental prints!

And if I have time - unlikely eh? - I'm going to try to put something together with this!

I am nothing if not ambitious ha ha!

So tomorrow morning I'm off up North to my home town, it'll be a sad goodbye but Uncle Harold had a great full adventurous life, see you next week!

I really am back now!!

Wow that reorganising work and laptop stuff took some time!! You also get out of the habit of blogging which is weird since it is a habit.

Anyway I'm back and ready to roll again.

So what happened during my laptop absence, well honestly not a whole heap really. I kept forgetting to take photos of stuff cos I couldn't download them anyway, it's so weird how much of modern life is linked to being online or what is on our computer, I have now paid for a back up service, it's not expensive, but the loss of my livelihood is, and I ain't doing that again!!

Well one thing I did do when I didn't have a laptop is totally demoss the garden, oh yes people it was fun NOT!

This is before it's sooooo horrible!

It seemed to take days and I just couldn't see an end in sight and at the end of it, it looked like this, which anyone has to admit is pretty horrible, I was doing proper digging in the hot sun, not something I am accustomed to! Paul described it as looking like a World War 1 garden, I know he's weird!

Yep we have not one smidgen of grass left! It had all been moss and huge weeds, shameful, it's true to say I am not a gardener, and since we moved in we've concentrated on the inside rather than the outside and boy has it suffered!

So I dutifully sowed grass seed, I didn't have a lot of faith, after all I'm no gardener and I also couldn't imagine it would work, I thought I'd had to buy expensive turf, and we're so broke I was hoping against hope we wouldn't have to do that.

There were no results for ages, as we haven't had much rain, in fact mostly it's been hot in the UK lately, so hot the neighbourhood cats have been sheltering under our palm out the front of our house!

So cute eh?

Anyway a few days ago my hard work looked like it was finally starting to pay off, LOOK!

It actually looks better in person, although very patchy I'm rather proud! I thought it would cost a fortune to sort out but no, it just needed some initial back breaking work. We even sat out at our table for a mid afternoon espresso yesterday!

Talking of yesterday I could not resist this from a charity shop yesterday, it's fab, although I will be selling it on as I'm not a regular toast eater if I were I would have this on the breakfast table every day with it's selection of jams, it even has the original glass jam spoons in it, how fabulous eh?

It's so stylish for a combination toast rack and jam pot holder isn't it? We keep looking at it thinking should we keep it, and there dear friends is the reason I don't deal in only vintage stuff but repro because I would keep everything and be bankrupt!

Lastly I had some really sad news last night, my dear Uncle Harold passed away, he wasn't an Uncle by family but I called him Uncle he was a family friend but he was more like my grandad, he taught me to swim, play chess, encouraged me in studying and really encouraged my love of reading, he was an amazing man who had an amazing life but at 94 he'd live a long and happy life. I'm going to do a proper post on him after the funeral, not sure when it is yet so I may be MIA again for a few days but I am back in technical terms at least.

Nice to be back at least! Hope you are all well I have managed to catch up with some of your on your blogs, more exciting and interesting pictures and posts to come now I have got back in the swing!!

I'm back but only just...

Normal service will resume soon but I was without my laptop for 11 days, yes 11 days, blimey I was beside myself. I couldn't do much of my work, couldn't read blogs, and couldn't keep up with my online friends, it drove me mad!

Since I got it back on Tuesday night I've been putting it all back together again, well software wise anyway, I have learnt a valuable lesson back EVERYTHING UP constantly! I could have almost carried on as normal if I had and it wouldn't have taken anywhere like as long.

Anyway I'm back, I'm not back in the game yet but at least I can comment on your blogs and get on with my work!

Sorry there are no pretty pics, like I say I'll be back to normal service soon, just wanted to let you know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!