Birthday week...family, fun and beautiful presents!

My birthday was at the beginning of October. My 25th birthday. This scared me. As did the fact that it was my first "working" birthday ever (I usually wangle a day off). Eurgh, adulthood.

So I decided to pootle off to Norwich for a week before my birthday to spend time with my fam, foraging in other peoples cast offs (carboots, junk shops, charity shops, but that was covered in my previous post), playing drunk pool and eating loads of food.
Plus opening presents, obviously! .....WHAT? I'm not too grown up for presents. Never.


So here is an ever so quick pictorial round up of the week leading up to my birthday, minus the previously shared bargains:

 

5 games of drunk pool with made-up rules and everyfink. These rules included removing the black ball until the end, so it didn't get accidentally potted before its time. Obvs.

  

  Family frolicking and dog harassment.

 

 Birthday bowling after my first ever day of going to work on my birthday.

 

Now onto the PRESENTS!

 

Typewriter cushion thoughtfully chosen by my little sister. Knitted gauntlet gloves. Beautiful vintage buttons.

 

Housekeepers box. Teatowel. Kitsch vintage baby ornaments....and a satchel! A lovely lightly worn black vintage one, a handy smaller size than my beloved Burt. I think I shall name her Betty. And although I shouldn't know the price of birthday presents, my mumma just couldn't resist telling me, for it was such a bargain. Two teeny pounds from a carboot!

 

A swiss chalet clock.

 A vintage telephone table. A working vintage hairdryer. A 1950's tree topper lady with a crepe paper skirt. A ballerina ring holder. A retro portable radio. A giant shoe horn, of course. Folding coat hanger and retractable airer, and a vintage flag.

 

A naked lady. A lovely apron. A floral ceramic earring and brooch set. Vintage buttons. A knitted hat needle case. A faux fur capelet. A lucky rabbit foot brooch.

 

This vintage 1950's card has a music box attached, so when you turn the handle it plays a very twangy version of "Happy Birthday". How fab is that?

 

A beautifully glamorous vintage pearl, crystal and cut glass earring and choker set. A pair of crochet gloves. A black velvet turban-style headband, lovingly made by my talented nan!

 Tara Starlet 40's style dungarees.

 

Sweeeeeeets!

 

 

A treat voucher crafted by my wonderful pal.

 

This absolutely phenomenal 1940's coat was brought down by a lovely lady for me from the storage room of a charity shop when shopping with my mumma. I gasped. And my mother kindly offered to buy it for me as a combined birthday/christmas present. £45 well spent indeed! It is incredibly perfect condition, fits me (well, not on the chesty-region, but that rarely happens!) and just look at those pleats. And hidden/top secret pockets, but I didn't tell you that!

 A beautiful trio of wall mirrors. I can't wait to get these up in my flat when they manage to get here.

Now I just need to find a space for them...cue clever Mr Mike's suggestion to just get rid of some of my "stuff" to make room for them. I think NOT!

 A gold crest motif, which now sits perfectly on the front of our fake fireplace.

 This gorgeous 1940's dress is a luxuriously soft cotton summer dress....but there's no way I can possibly hold on until then. Besides, blue and cream works with brown right? I'm thinking brown What Katie Did seamed stockings, a brown cardigan and a fur collar. That's wintery.

Phew! What a fab bunch of present buyers I know, eh? As you can imagine, I was all smiles.

Pip pip x

Ahhh. Blog, sweet blog.

Bonjour, hello and hola my dear readers!

... I am back (at least partially) from my terribly long absence!
The last month and a bit has been utter madness, involving two jobs, a freelance dressmaking job of two bridesmaids dresses (during which my sewing machine packed in), physiotherapy, and moving flats. PHEW!
It exhausted me and left me feeling a little bit frantic, to say the least. Plus, I have also had no internet in my new flat. Which is almost really a good thing, as it has given me a bit of time to settle in/unpack/defrost my brain.

So I do hope you'll forgive me for my absence?

But as I begin to settle into the new place, I can't tell you how different I am feeling! Life is good again. Me and Mr Mike have moved from a little studio flat full of mould and other problems, to a TWO BEDROOM; that's right, we now have a spare room! A spare one. Just spare. I know!? This is a massive change, and once sorted and unpacked properly, the spare room will be great for me to sew and craft in, and Mr Mike to geek out in.

Photos of the new place will follow at some point, once we are a bit more settled and out of cardboard boxes and bin bags, I promise.

In the meantime, I am back with a post about "stuff". Yes, one of my ever impending "stuff" posts. Because, I am back in Norwich with my fam for a few days for my birthday, and of course, Norwich is an amazing place to find wonderful things to purchase!

Today me and my step mum scurried around the city, in the sweltering heat and during this time we popped into the old Loose's for a spot of treasure hunting, obvs. And, as it was saturday, the fleamarket was on upstairds. HUZZAH.

This is what I came away with:

 

Clip-on fur earrings: fleamarket, £5.

Think of all that winter outfit potential.

 

A WWII era pincushion with Hitler hand-embroidered. 

So you can stick pins in Hitler.

A piece of amazing history and a total bargain.

Hitler pin cushion: fleamarket, £2.

And then I came across this wonderful dress! <3

A 1940's, cream wool dress, with brown leather-covered buttons, and brown wool pom-poms. I had seen this in Loose's a long time ago, and at the time talked myself out of even trying it on as I had already bought some other things and it was more money than I'd usually spend (not to say that it was expensive, as it definitely wasn't). But I went home pining for it and wondering if it would have fit me or not.

So today when I went to Loose's, I was absolutely astounded to see it was still there. I grabbed it and headed to the changing rooms. 

To my disbelief, it fitted me. Almost perfectly. So of course I decided to purchase it; it is my birthday on tuesday after all. Early birthday present to myself, that's all!

 1940's wool dress, £40.

 Isn't she a beauty? 

I am having all sorts of visions of wearing her with my fur earrings, and my brown suede winter boots, and my 1930's brown fur handwarmer.

A perfect wintery outfit!

I know I shouldn't be thinking of winter on such a hot day, but I'm pretty sure any girl would find it difficult not to with this dress in their possession.

What are you lovelies thinking of wearing to take you through winter glamorously?

Pip pip xx

Mr Mike's birthday surprise!

 Poster originally on 29th October 2010.

Well, today is the boy’s birthday….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHICKENPIE!
Whilst he was off at work yesterday I was a sneak and used the day to put together some very special birthday treats! Now, everyone loves a good cupcake, right? RIGHT! So, I spent the morning planning, and then went and bought all the ingredients for the “ultimate Mike cupcake”. Now, his favourite choccy is toffee crisp, and he likes chocolatey cupcakes (whereas I’m more of a simple vanilla girl). These are the resulting cupcakes:

 

They are chocolate cupcakes with chunks of fudge in, topped with vanilla icing, crunchy choccy bits, sprinkled with cinammon and topped with a toffee crisp cluster!
I hid all the cakes overnight as I didnt want him to see them til this morning, when I served him a special surprise breakfast in bed! Warm ham and cheese croissants, the “ultimate mike cupcakes”, and a glass of vimto (I know my boy well).

I also provided a nice birthday lunch for him to take with him to work (yes I know, work on his brthday? Oui) consisting of a copy of theNME  to read on the train, a pepperami, a mars milkshake and….a toffee crisp!

Has anyone got any fabulous halloween plans? I have none myself yet, which is rather unfortunate….I shall certainly be carving a pumpkin though!
Au revoir! xx

The gypsy caravan, bargain buys and the Vintage Patisserie…

Posted originally on October 18th 2010.

Yes, I am still alive! I have been very busy again. I know I know, I’m a terrible blogger!

My birthday was just wonderful!

Me and Mr Mike caught the train back to Norwich where we settled down in front of the fire and watched tv and had a whole feast of food. Home sweet home.
I got to see some of my bestests too; we drank a lot of cava and ate too much birthday cake!

As tradition dictates, we went to a carboot with my dad and step-mum and bought a whole lot of bargains...including an old cine film projector and screen, an art deco mirror, a red vanity case I intend to use as a handbag, a 1950’s atomic coat hook (to match my magazine rack, pot stand and plate rack), as well as Mr Mike’s amazing purchase of a 1930’s grooming kit in a leather case.

 Unfortunately I had to leave the coat hooks with the fam as I couldn't pack them, so photos to follow when we finally get the fabulous thing back here!

 

My mumma and step-dad took us and my sister to the caravan in Suffolk the day before my birthday and it was amazing! On arrival there were bantam chickens running around the camp site, and ducks in the pond.

We loaded our stuff into the donkey shed by the caravan, had a little nosy around the site and then jumped back in the car and went for fish and chips and a walk on the beach! I found a bit of a rather large fishes spine…I have decided it was most probably a shark’s….this sounds like the most exciting explanation! Unfortunately I had to abandon it as the parents were insistent it would start to smell before we’d got it back to London.
When my parents left in the evening, me, Mr Mike and my little sisty settled into our new and exciting (though temporary) home. We lit a fire in the wood burning stove and read books by candle and solar powered fairy lights, but promptly all fell asleep!

 

 

 

 

Next morning was my birthday! And me and the sisty were up at 7am and off to feed the pigs/chickens/ducks in our pj’s. We had a breakfast of cereal, then birthday cupcakes (and I had a wee glass of Mum-made elderflower champagne and raspberry liqueur), and then we all went off for a bike ride in the rain through the countryside! I chose a fab old red royal mail bike which I wish I had captured a photo of! We played with some poi, and went on a walk (where I gained a comedy-bump on my head from an apple launched by my sisty in a game gone wrong), and played tag, before Mum and the Step Dad arrived and took us for an indian meal. We ate so much we nearly died. Then the parents left and took the sister with them, and me and the boy snuggled up in front of the wood burner to read a whole two pages of our books before we fell asleep.

 

I was very sad to say goodbye to our caravan holiday, but it was a perfect weekend!

 

Above is a charity shop outfit that cost a grand total of….£9. absolute bargain.

Since then I have been working very hard, visited a sample sale with my pal Nelly and bought some fab presents for Mr Mike, had a bonfire in a hidden part of central london with some of the fam and fam’s friends….and I worked for the fabulous Vintage Patisserie on saturday, which was oodles of fun! Phew!

But I best be off now, as I must eat some dinner and rush off for a night shift at work….armed with energy drinks and a big bag of haribo of course!

Pip pip my lovelies x

Gypsy caravan excitement!

Posted originally on 29th September 2010.

It's been a while since my last post, as I’ve been busy settling in to my new job! Which has meant a lot of early nights for me….and early mornings too. Getting up at 5am 5 days a week means that early nights are needed to stop me turning into the ultimate grumpalump! Loving the VM team though, so I’m happy!
It happens to be that I am NEARLY 23. This sounds old and is beginning to freak me out! I am definitely classed as an adult to the rest of society, which I think is simply insanity!
On friday, when I finish work, the boy and I are going to hop on a train to Norwich for some much needed family times! And on Sunday, we are going to stay here for two nights….

 

I am SO unbelievably excited! Clever mummy for thinking up the idea. We are going to spend one night there with my little sisty as an adventure for her, and then one night just me and the boyshape for my actual birthday night. I plan on spending a fair amount of time sat in front of this:

Yes, it has it’s own wood burning stove! No electricity, just solar powered fairy lights. This means no television. No internet. Just snuggling in front of the stove reading books and I may even reattempt to better my knitting skills, who knows!
It is literally going to be heaven for me, getting away from this big, stressful, fast, grey city.
Can.not.wait.
EEEK! x