Vintage Earring dilemma!

I love wearing jewellery, I have a great collection of vintage earrings but they are all clip on and they hurt if I wear them for any length of time. I have bought those fabulous little see-through pads for the back of the clip on, but still if I wear them for a whole day I feel like my ears are going to fall off!

So lately I have been looking at repro brands on Etsy, especially for work, as I do like to wear earrings and I wear no jewellery to work, I don't feel like me without a quirky vintage pair of earrings!

I don't know if you've heard of these brands but I've found a couple of Etsy stores I particularly like.

First up is Luxulite and thankfully they are based in the UK. I've favourited quite a few of their items, just need to get some cash together so I can indulge. Here are some of my favourites, I really will be buying some, it's just deciding which ones!

Nautical Blue and Gold Earrings

Green Confetti Lucite Earrings - Sadly already reserved!

Green and Gold Confetti Lucite Cherry Brooch and earrings

Blue Confetti Lucite Earrings

Blue Confetti Lucite with Seahorse - I'm gutted these are reserved!

The next Etsy store I found Wavy Gravy Vintage, I only favourited a couple of pairs but I really like them and I like some of their other jewellery too.

Root Beer Confetti Lucite and Shell Earrings

Blue and Gold Drizzle Earrings

Of course I could make my own, not confetti lucite, I'm not that clever, but I have some lovely spare buttons and I remember reading this fabulous post by Tasha (see her below!) at By Gum By Golly about Making Vintage-Inspired Earrings, she's such a clever gal and I do mean to keep trying this. Perhaps I'll give it a go this weekend. If you haven't checked out her blog before, do it, it's a great interesting read and she seems like a lovely lady.

Do you suffer from clip on pain? What's your resolution? Have you found a great repro earring seller for pierced earrings? Or have you followed Tasha's lead and made your own? I'd be interested to know!

I'm ready for spring!

If you live in the UK, you will know what I'm talking about, I'm so ready for Spring! We had one day last week which was lovely and teased us into thinking this was it, and now what, it's going to snow today and tomorrow, I usually love the snow but I'm so sad, I want spring!

I'm not necessarily a pretty cotton frocks type, but I do like spring/summer clothes more than winter, and I want to wear them now!

I had a taster of this recently as I went to Spain at the beginning of February for the Rockin Race Jamboree. The weather was lovely, nice enough for capri pants, nice blouses and a light jacket, I need to do this again now. Look how happy the sun make British people, we see it so rarely, it's makes us totally happy and smiley!!

I didn't get a pic of me in one of my favourite summer blouses I made but I have one of it, I do love this blouse and just don't get the opportunity to wear it enough!

I also dragged this out of my closet as it's now too big but I want to take it in and wear it again, so it's now in my alteration sewing pile, mmmm maybe I should just sell it on and buy something else, my alteration pile is stupidly big, but I LOVE this print, so summery!

I also want to wear this again, the little number that I ran up last year, although again may need taking in now, I love it cos it looks like a dress but it's a top and skirt so I can mix things up.

Instead this week it looks like I'll be wearing something closer to this

I love shoes!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you know that I love shoes! I would say what girls doesn't but I'm sure there are some who don't. I however am addicted to shoes, my budget means I can't buy like I used to but I still look a lot. I am lucky to have small feet so have always been able to buy vintage shoes pretty easily, however I know many of you struggle to find vintage shoes, but don't fear there are some amazing repro brands out there, one of them is Miss L Fire. I LOVE Miss L Fire.

They have just launched there Spring/Summer 13 collection and oh my there are some fabulous shoes in there, I think I need to do some big time saving!! You can find Miss L Fire's online store here in the meantime here are some of my personal favourites.

I think if I get anything from this collection this may be the pair for me, just stunning!

Tijuana in Red - £114.99

Now these are stunning!! Now only are they an amazing design but the very talented Miss L Fire has incorporated a vintage technology that you never seem to see any more in mule shoes, despite it being the cleverest piece of shoe design, the springolator!!! Yay well done Miss L Fire, so nice to see someone finally re-using this marvellous bit of shoe technology

Lola in Brown - £99.99

 I LOVE turquoise, I love a raffia style wedge and I love a tropical flower, there really isn't anything to not love about these, ok maybe I NEED these too ha ha!

Aloha in Turquoise - £89.99

I'm not normally a fan of polka dots but only because they seem to have been hijacked by current trend for 'vintage' without knowing what vintage is *climbing off my soapbox* but I do love these, they are fabulous, happy, cheerful and summery!

Casablanca in Red - £104.99

Despite loving wedges and heels, in reality what I wear most are flats, I have flat feet and heels hurt me for any length of time, plus I have a disabled husband who I need to be steady on my feet for in case he needs help with walking, sooooo I love and wear flats a lot. These are just fabulous and probably are the most likely pair I will buy even though I want most of the range. These are not only stylish and pretty but fabulously flat and practical, my favourite combination, flat is certainly not ugly!

Mexicali - £56.99

 All pretty shoes eh? And they have so many more to drool over, now I need to start counting my pennies!!

My Favourite time of year for shoes!

It's true I love autumn and winter, but spring and summer is my shoe time. I think I must have lived in warmer climes in a previous life, nearly all my shoes are spring/summer shoes to the point where I struggle for autumn/winter wear - ok I say struggle, my husband and friends would disagree, but I certainly don't have as many options!

I should love to be modelling my spring/summer shoes for you today, but I have 2 enormous blisters on my insteps from extended walking without wearing sports socks with my trainers whoops. So all I can bear to wear on my feet right now are slippers, I have just bought special blister plasters so hopefully it will sort itself soon!

I have many shoes, I can't deny it, but when I thought about spring/summer this year, 3 pairs sprung to mind!!

First up, when I was doing some work for Miss L Fire I was lucky enough to pick these up, I love them. I did want some of the cream ones, but by the time I could afford them they were all sold out, but I'm pretty happy with these. They look kind of blue in the photos, but actually they are a mint green so I'm on the look out for some mint green fabric to make something nice in now!

Next are one of my go to pair of summer shoes, I love these! I bought them in LA many years ago, they remind me of sunshine. I also like that they are pretty inside where your foot goes, no one else knows but you do! They are obviously repro not vintage but they look fabulous with hawaiian shirts & pedal pushers, or a cute summer dress.

Last but not least my walk of shame. I bought these many years ago and they have never been worn, I just have not brought myself round to wearing them, but this is so ridiculous as I'm writing this I'm thinking am I actually crazy!! So this year for the first time since they were made - I'm thinking late 40's - I'm going to wear these wedge sandals. Aren't they just fabulous?!!

And to prove they've never been worn!

My craziness about shoes IS improving though, both last year and this year I've parted with shoes I never wear even if I loved them. In fact only yesterday I mailed a pair of shoes off that I sold on ebay, I wanted them to fit, they never did, and of course never would, so I sold them. What do addicts say, one step at a time.....

Right I'm off to sit in the sun and have a coffee for my break, hey when you live in the UK you have to take the sun when you get it!

Trousers Made by Me!

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was about time I got round to making myself some more trousers. Usually I just rattle a pair up, they don't look pretty inside but they're functional and look good on the outside.

However, since I got my overlocker I have got a bit more incentive to make things properly, previously I have always felt things were a little unfinished on the inside of garments. So with a renewed vigour I decided to do an entirely new pattern to me.

Ok well I tell a lie, I have made this pattern but I changed it this time, I also cut corners last time and didn't include the pocket.

So I embarked on my trouser making adventure. I widened the legs when I cut them out, I didn't have to make the legs longer as I'm really short so cutting them to normal length left me with plenty for the turn up but if you want to do this and you're a more normal height, add extra length for a turn up (cuff).

I'll be honest the journey wasn't easy, for some unknown reason, I put the pocket and zip on the opposite sides to where they should have been, I was tempted to leave them but thought nope I said I was going to do it properly. Then I put the turn ups in and the bloody legs were different lengths, I measured them before I did them but they were clearly not the same, so I took the turn ups down and did them again, same problem, took apart, did again, I was determined to get them right. The final time I did them I can still see a difference albeit a teeny one and I can only surmise that I actually must be cockeyed myself ha ha!

Anyway, here is a real rarity, an outfit post, I'm not very confident in how I look right now, but I'm working on it, so I thought dammit I will show off my trousers. Unfortunately as they are black you can't really see any detail at all!! I am also awful at posing AND this was the first time I'd used a timer, it doesn't bode well.....

And no I wasn't wearing sandals out but as I work from home, I can wear what I jolly well please.

I'm also wearing  a sweater my mum knit for me, I love the neckline, I must get her to make me some more of this style, so easy to wear, dressed up or down!

I've also been trying to wear a brooch a day, I want to quote whose blog I got the idea from but I can't remember I'm such a dunce sometimes.

Anyway my brooch of choice today is my Rhinestone poodle, she has a couple of teeny rhinestones missing, but who cares, she's gorgeous.

So there you have it my new trousers, they are super comfy but much wider than I'm used to and I'm not used to them flapping about yet but I'm so pleased with them I'm going to start on another pair shortly, whilst I can still remember all the stupid mistakes I made on these!!

Mid Week Love

OK I suppose I have to acknowledge it's Valentine's Day but that's not what my post is about! We don't really do it in our house, although there's a lot of love here, neither of us are much into Valentine's Day, so we might have a nicer meal than normal and a cheeky mid week bottle of wine but that's it. If you are celebrating though I hope you have a lovely evening

ANYWAY the real reason for posting. I have a couple of shout outs for blog posts I've seen recently that I'd like to share in case you don't follow them.

First up is a blog post that in fact just went up today, but my oh my. It's Charlotte at Tuppence Ha'penny and she has created the most fabulous dress for Valentine's day! It's a dress originally worn by Ginger Rogers on film and you know I saw this film last year and the dress made me gasp, I'm not really a 40s chick but I'd wear this in a heartbeat. Charlotte has recreated it and what a fine job she has made of it! (Sorry Charlotte I stole your photo...)

My second one is Casey Elegant Musing's which is a lovely stylish blog full of gorgeousness and then this week she put up a post that really helped me about blogging of all things Usually she deals with lovely pretty things but this was a really practical post about scheduling blogging and the timing could not have been better for me. I love blogging, I love what it feeds back to me, I love the people I've met through it, I love the inspiration it gives to me, yet I have fallen out of the habit, for a few reasons, however Casey has helped me, I've printed out her blog schedule and have started to fill it in THANK YOU!

Here's a picture of Casey from her blog, putting up the blog schedule would have not been quite so pretty!

And you may have noticed some changes on my blog, I'm having a play about at the moment with the design I will get a pretty header back but I ran into some problems so it's plain for the time being, come back for more changes soon!

Oh and for those who wished me luck re my appointment with the consultant, it was cancelled, I wasn't amused I'm trying to do something about it, I'll let you know how I get on.

Shoe Glorious Shoes!

As some of you already know, I do some freelance work for Miss L Fire and I've been dying to share their Spring/Summer collection for ages now! However now they've officially put pictures on their FB page I feel I can finally share my love!!

The hardest thing about working with such a great company is seeing all the gorgeous shoes and wanting every last one of them. So I'll show you some of my real top favourites. They won't be on the website until the end of this month but that gives you time to choose and set up a savings plan ha ha!

Betsey

Capri

Miranda

Songbird

Dottie

And those are just my absolute favourites, there are more I love

I'm kind of a lucky gal really as not only do I work for Miss L Fire but I also work for Shona at Heyday. I spent Tuesday with Shona discussing the future moving forward and of course looking for inspirations for new designs, of course that was our favourite part of the day, I honestly think we could spend a whole week doing that. If you want to see one of the new designs on it's way have a look at In The Heyday blog it shows a gorgeous new coat that is going to be in the Heyday range. In fact here's a picture from the blog, sorry for stealing Shona, but you look fab!

What a gorgeous coat and photo isn't it?

Lastly I just want to apologise about my lack of posting, I'm having continued problems with my knee - ongoing since October -  I finally see the consultant on Monday but I'm in quite a bit of pain and it's leading to lack of sleep and extreme grumpiness, which as you know is not my general mood so it's been hard to feel motivated to blog, but I do miss it so I'm going to try to make myself more often. Oh it also means I've been to grumpy to sew too, although I did start on a pair of trousers last weekend so I might have them finished this weekend and will show you!

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!

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!!