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

How I prepared for christmas!

I know I am pretty late with this one! The world of bloggers are all posting their new years resolution, and yet I am just catching up with some Christmas posts. Whoops!

Now, it just so happens that the period running up to and including Christmas is my absolute favourite of the year. I usually start my present shopping in around October (or earlier), and spend many a cold night curled up on the sofa making presents, wrapping up presents and writing cards. I watch numerous Christmas films on my days off whilst making delicious christmas food and planning my presents. I choose presents for people carefully, and theme my wrapping too!

Some people may say I put too much weight on Christmas, as technically it is only another day. But seriously, who can say they don't enjoy the sight of twinkly lights, decorations, opening a thoughtful present, and of course....eating tons of wonderful food! And the opportunity to see members of your family you maybe don't got see often enough throughout the year!

Here's how I readied myself....

My mumma and little sis came to visit at the beginning of December, for Christmas shopping, Winter Wonderland, films, mince pies, putting up my tree and making some decorations!

I got my house ready for the festive period with lots of decoratons, and presents under the tree!

I crafted the following for my fam and friends...

I knitted a cushion cover for my mumma.

I made an owl cushion for my little sis (she literally nearly exploded when he opened it), and a fox for my friend.

I made my dad a set of family portraits in a Victorian silhouette style.

(top row, from l-r: my brother, my dad, my step-mum, me)

And I made some food too!

I made shortbread in 3 different made-up flavours (cranberry and orange rind, ginger liqueur and clove, spiced white chocolate).

I also made some Christmas chutney using my own improvised recipe.

I put bundles of shortbread and jars of chutney in amongst some posh shop-bought food and drink and decorations for hampers for some of my family.

That is how I prepared for Christmas in my little flat!

Pip pip xx

The Vintage Patisserie- book launch and sneaky peek!

Now, I'm pretty sure that most of you ladies will already be familiar with Angel Adoree of The Vintage Patisserie, if not from her appearance on the 2010 series of Dragons' Den then perhaps from her numerous appearances in the uk media recently, or her newly released book The Vintage Tea Party Book.

Yes, this flame-haired vixen is one talented lady!

She also happens to be my part-time boss.

On wednesday I was lucky enough to work at her book launch party, and boy was it fabulous!

I arrived straight after a shift at my full-time job, and joined Angel and the rest of the girls at the venue, which they had been working hard to transform. We added the finishing touches, donned our black dresses, aprons, heels and red lippie....and then we waited for the guests to arrive.

Here's me in a 1930's dress, serving the guests 

Photo snapped by the dear Penny Dreadful.

The night was a success- guests danced along to the live band Benoit Viellefon & His Orchestra who played some wonderful tunes, whilst we made sure no-one went hungry and no glass ran dry. An amazing array of people turned out to celebrate with Angel; friends, family, bloggers and media. I had the pleasure of doing the hair of Redlegs In Soho, and Katy from Vintage Victory, along with many other lovely ladies.

Now, as I was on duty, I of course captured no photos, but pop over to the blogs of Retro Chick and Penny Dreadful for photos of the party!

At the end of the night, the VP team were all gifted a copy of the book, with a little message from the lovely Angel, as well as a bottle of King's Ginger liqueur and a goody bag that were filled with all sorts of exciting treats.

The King's Ginger liqueur was developed in 1903 especially for King Edward VII; my favourite historical man for his influence on the development of menswear (I wrote my dissertation on this subject).

So although I'm not sure if I really like ginger, having not knowingly tried it since I was a child, how could I not try it when it was developed for my monarch of choice!

And it is 41%. Blimey.

But now, onto the book!

I can honestly say it is just the most beautifully designed and well thought out book. I mean, gosh, just look at it! Pick it up and it's weighty, packed full of ethereal illustrations by Adele Mildred and recipes, tips and how-to's. The book has lots of very tasty looking, beautiful recipes for things like a 'salad cemetary' and 'spinach and parmesan mini-muffins', alongside various tea-cocktails, and even Angel's legendary scones...which I can confirm are the best scones you will ever taste!

It is not only a cookbook, oh no! It also contains tips on where to source props, how to make aprons, how to dry edible flowers, and hair and make up ideas....perfect or what?

I may or may not be biased, but I think you probably need to own this book. Mine will certainly be taking pride of place on the shelves in my new kitchen once I've moved.

So in short, Angel Adoree is one very, very talented lady and I can honestly say that I am incredibly lucky to have the pleasure of working for her. Keep your eyes peeled because I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of her in the coming months!

Pip pip xx

A (1946) vintage valentine!

Yes it's that odd day, where we are forced to make meaningful and extra-special plans and pressure is put on to have a romantic time!
But whether you love it or loathe it, you can't deny the fabulousness of this vintage valentines card! Printed in 1946, by Barker, Cincinnati, USA. I fell head-over-heels for it on ebay, unused and everything. So Mr Mike was lucky enough to recieve my dream card for V day. I'm going to frame it and admire it. The dog's lead on the front is real string! So darling!

On saturday after my vintage adventure, I got my apron on and made a batch of valentines shortbread.

Of course we scoffled it all almost immediately!

 

 Mr Mike enjoys my forays into baking!

I might even post the recipe up at some point, if anyone is interested! It's very easy, and makes for super scrumptious shortbread!

I also thought you ladies may enjoy this cider I found....

 

 Isn't she fab!

And just thought I'd share what I wore out to a meal on Sunday:

Dress: made by me.

1953 Coronation carriage brooch: gift from my aunt.

Vintage 1930's cardigan, gift.

Belt: charity shop.

Teamed with my Clarks suede heels.

Better dash, I'm starting work at 6am tomorrow...sigh!

Pip pip xxx

A quick outfit post and a hearty dinner!

It's tuesday. Phew! One day back at work and I'm already feeling knackered!
I used to be a brilliant eater when I was at uni, but my kitchen laziness has overcome me since working full time and now having such a teeny, freezer-less kitchen.

BUT, I have been trying recently to do more decent cooking, not just the quickest oven-ready meals I can purchase from the corner shop. And more vegetables!

Here's tonights hearty homemade meal....

 

I made a cheese, chive and herb potato bake, served with asparagus in garlic butter (which is my current favourite veggie dish, I did my asparagus like this yesterday too!). It was delicious, even if I do say so myself!

 

My not-so-perfect presentation, but my beautiful blue bird's are enjoying it!

Are you an inspired foodie? Or a lazy mabel? 

And a quick snap of today's outfit (though please ignore bad quality/cheesy grin!)...

 

Pale green knitwear: Charity shop.

YSL leather belt: Charity shop.

Tweed skirt: Primark.

Wool ankle socks: Topshop.

Brown brogues: Primark.

I'm off for a gin and elderflower (oh-so amazing), a quick nailpaint and bed.
Pip pip! xx