Rosie Alia Designs: Spring floral fancies for sunny days!

So there has been this odd yellow ball in the sky for the last few days and it's freaking me out. Apparently it's called the sun, so I've been told!

When it is bright and light and spring is in the air, I feel the urge to wear lots of colours and wear flowers a'plenty in my hair. I also want to throw open the windows and get my glue gun out and make things. So last week I went on a jaunt for supplies, and then out came my glue gun to put together some new hair flower designs!

I first set to work on some sweet little flowers to go in goodie-bags for Miss Turnstiles' Vintage Starlet Parlour event, which I hope went down well with the ladies in attendance. 

 

*Pssssst....As a sidenote, she sure knows how to put on an event, and her next one is Great Gatsby themed....what's not to like?*

I was also asked by the lovely lady to make a couple of custom spring flower cluster clips to accompany her spring/summer wardrobe!

 I can't wait to see her wearing these!

I made up some lovely new stock for the Etsy shop too, in bright summery colours to satisfy any other ladies' (or is that just me?) urge to wear bright colours at the merest hint or sun!

 

If you are interested in any of theses pieces, pop over to my facebook page or the Rosie Alia Designs Etsy shop to see the full range! 

Pip pip xx

A sunny Sunday outfit post!

Tis' a lovely Sunday evening here and I am spending it in my pj's on the sofa with the window open (for the first time in about 6 months!) having been stuffed to the gills with food. Ahhhh, Sunday.

I thought I'd share with you my Sunday outfit (albeit, from last Sunday) which I wore for a jaunt to a local pub for a massive Sunday lunch with pals. It was one of those outfits which just sort of fell together, but that I really love.

I created the outfit based around the lovely rayon oriental lounging pyjama top, which I picked up from Judy's vintage fair in Spitalfields which I visited on Easter Bank Holiday Monday with some of my gorgeous vintage-loving chums. It came from the bargain box on a stall for an impressive £5, along with the belt I am wearing!

 

 Outfit details:

Cashmere 50's style coat: charity shop.

1940's beaded necklace: fleamarket.

Lounging pyjama blouse (30's/40's?): Judy's vintage fair.

Embroidered fabric cinch belt: Judy's vintage fair.

Wool pencil skirt: handmade by me.

Wooden bracelets: charity shops and carboots.

1930's embroidered handbag: Scarlet Rage Vintage.

1940's style platforms: Miss L Fire.

I also wore some handmade (RosieAliaDesigns) colourful purple orchids in my hair to top it off.

I adore this outfit, but was soon regretting the cinch belt when I had consumed a large roast dinner, a very dense chocolate pudding and some bubbly cider. I hobbled home after dinner and immediately changed into something more roomy to allow my food to digest whilst reclining on the sofa.

Pip pip! xx

Happy Egg Day!

I'm not even going to mention the time I've been absent from blogland....ahem.....nope, didn't mention it....

Anyway,

HAPPY EGG DAY!

I hope you all got to chomp on lots of chocolate and egg-based items!

I spent the day in my most glamorous dress surrounded by beautiful people (and adorable children), drinking G&T's and shooting photos for the wonderful Angel Adoree's next book.

Outfit details: 

Rosie Alia Designs hair flowers; made by me.

Victorian pearl necklace; gift from my brother.

1930's dress; fleamarket.

Silk sash; carboot.

It was all very exciting, and a wonderful time was had by all, as is always the case when us Vintage Patisserie ladies get together....

 This is a snap from Angel's 2nd book "The Vintage Tea Party Year", with the VP ladies celebrating a Victorian New Year. Can you spot me? Top left!

Today I had my talented friend Sophia (Belladonna Beauty Parlour) coax my hair into shape so thought I'd get a couple of extra snaps of it up close post-shoot.

 

You may notice from those photos (if you have eagle eyes), that there appears to be a piece of metal dangling from my schnoz. That's because earlier in the week I got my septum pierced! I am loving it now I am beginning to get used to seeing it in my face, and I can't wait to get a gold ring (they only has silver available at the piercers) in it as soon as it has healed.

Now, I'll leave you in peace while I pop off to scoff more chocolate, all in the name of Easter.

Pip pip xx

Christmas and New Year....festive time photos!

Happy New Year!

.....I'm not even going to mention the long blogging absence-shaped elephant in the room....ahem....

I hope all you lovely people enjoyed an amazing festive period, and are enjoying the beginning of this brand spanking new year!

I just thought I'd do a post rounding up how I spent my time over Christmas and New Years! As I'm cramming them all into one post, be warned, it is picture heavy indeed!

 

Just before Christmas I popped to my Mums local charity shops and picked up this amazing collection of vintage decorations!

 

A snap of a dressed down Christmas Eve (daytime) outfit...

A newly purchased 1940's silk blouse: £8, secondhand/collectors emporium.

Green and black silk headscarf: bought many moons ago from goodness knows where!

Green plastic beads: charity shop.

1940's repro trousers: Heyday.

 

A few Christmas snaps, including a photo of me and my chums at our traditional Christmas Eve gathering, and my little sister's adorable letter to Santa.

Christmas morning arrived and I awoke at the ungodly hour of 6am.....

Santa hadn't even delivered my stocking yet. I closed my eyes and TRIED to get back to sleep, but to absolutely no avail. So instead I (im)patiently awaited footsteps outside my door and a reasonable hour. But the moment I heard a rustle outside the door, I leaped up, harassed a very grumpy boyfriend to wake up, then plonked our stockings on our feet and commenced stocking opening in a frenzy of paper!

Then, we went downstairs and popped the tv on (a Christmas edition of Horrible Histories) and eagerly awaited the parents coming downstairs!

 

And then came PRESENTS! And boy did my nearest and dearest do well, as usual....

 

A flying V ukelele! This is my second ukelele, so I really should learn to play them.

 

A selection of my execellent presents....including a matching lurex bag and compact once belonging to my Step Mums grandmother, a black velvet dressmakers dummy, antique sewing scissors, a gold tea set, a book by Jon Ronson and taxidermy!

 After tearing through copious amount of wrapping paper to reveal many a fabulous present, we rushed off upstairs to get dressed before the arrival of family for more present opening and breakfast and booze.

 

This is my chosen Chirstmas outfit. Because if you can't wear red and green on Chrsitmas Day, when can you? 

Green plastic beads: charity shop.

Green cardigan: Primark.

Red 1940's dress: a birthday present from my Mum and Aunts, from Mishka Vintage.

Green belt: H&M

 

I wore my hair on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a fine hairnet hand-beaded with gold beads, over a curl set, and lots of festive hair flowers.

Hair net and hair flowers: by me (Rosie Alia Designs)

 

This was my Dad's chosen outfit. The monkey mask was worn to answer the door to the rest of the family, obviously.

Later on, after an amazing dinner, me and Mr Mike drove over to my Mum's to spend the rest of Christmas Day with the rest of my family.

This included even more present opening, and even more food....along with a one AM game of Just Dance with my little sister and cousin.

 

More lovely presents, including matching handkerchief and glove boxes, a tiny set of amazing vintage nativity figurines, a stocking made by my 10 year old sister....

...and this beauty! A 1930's toaster, which my Mum got my Grandad to rewire so I can actually use it. *Swoon*

  

Me and Mike got to sleep in my Mum's lovely Shepherds Hut on Christmas Day which is always exciting.

We then did LOTS of travelling, heading up to Mr Mike's family in Lincolnshire for Christmas number 3, then back to our London flat for 2 days, then I hopped back on a train to Norwich to spend New Years back with my family.

 

My NYE outfit. I was particularly chuffed with my hair.

Cath Kidston tea dress: charity shop.

Plastic bead necklace: charity shop.

Red patent shoes: M&S sale, £9.

Festive hair flowers, again by me.

 

I went with my family to their friend's house for a party, where we ate copious amounts of wine-spiked cheese fondue, drank very odd shots of all types, and I played a 5 hour Monopoly game with the kids!

Congratulations dear readers, if you have in fact made it this far. 

I did warn you it would be picture heavy!

I hope you all had a fabulous time too!

Pip pip x

A DIY faux-middy cut: the risk that paid off!

For those of you who may not know, a the 'middy' was a style of haircut popular in the 1940's, that was designed to allow curls to settle neatly into a beautiful shape, the layers sitting on top of each other comfortably to give those lovely graduated curls.
The cut consisted of even layers and a U-shaped bottom, with sides that slant up towards the face. The standard middy consisted of 4 inch layers, but there were many variations in different lengths.

Now, I have been wanting and meaning to go and get myself a middy cut for an absolute age, though being the hairdresser-shy girl that I am (I've only been to the hairdressers a handful of times in my life, usually utilising my mum or step-mum for haircutting needs instead) I haven't quite managed it.
So, when reading up on the middy on this Fedora Lounge thread, I was excited to find some mentions of a 'do it yourself' middy haircut tutorial- could this really work? Surely not! I was apprehensive, but read on to find that many girls had said they had tried it and it had in fact, turned out well!

So being impulsive and impatient, as I can be in matters of the hair, I washed my hair and set to work following C-Dot's tutorial.
Here are the 'after' photos...

Shock horror! My un-made up face and bedraggled hair.

But you can see the hair now slants sharply upwards towards my face.

And here you can see the U-shaped back in all it's self-cut glory!

After following all the steps in C-Dot's tutorial, I dried, spritzed with setting lotion, rollered and slept.
And then I removed my curlers in the morning with baited breath-

*Gasp* 

Hello graduated curls.

Hello curved new shape.

And hello little curls around my face!

Sorry for not having better photos, I took these when my chap was away so of course, using my iPhone I was rather limited.

But all in all, I would say that if you are pining for a middy-style and are hairdresser-wary or your purse is empty then maybe it's worth taking the risk with this clever little tutorial. I'm very glad I did.

Pip pip xx

Family, charity shops and bowling...

Hello all!

How the devil are you? This weekend has been very busy...and lovely! My mumma and little sister came to stay with me last night. They are having a big London adventure as it's half term for my sister.

Yesterday I met them off their train at Kings Cross, we popped back and dropped their stuff off at mine, then we went off up the road to crouch end. My mumma used to live here when she moved to London from Edinburgh when she was younger. Thing is, we didn't get very far, due to the distraction of good charity shops (you can see where I get it from). We bought some lovely things though!
Then after the shops closed, we met up with some family friends and went for a most delicious dinner! Fettucine with ham and asparagus in a garlic and olive oil sauce, topped with parmesan cheese. YUM.

 

You can't see that well in this picture but my sister and mum asked me to do victory rolls in their hair for the day, so here is my little land girl sister in her mum-made knitted coat.

This morning me, mum and my sister started the day with a healthy breakfast in bed of sweets, crisps and chocolate, before going out to see another family friend. Then we met up with my aunt and cousin and...we all went bowling!

 

I got this fab old printed cotton dress from the charity shop yesterday...my mum thought I shouldn't buy it. She says it's a 'Dot Cotton' dress, though I fail to see how this is a bad thing! 

I often have Dot Cotton clothes envy.

Dress: charity shop, £6.

 

Bowling shoes!

Aren't these record cases fab? I already owned the small 7" one (my Dad bought it for me from a carboot a couple of years ago, and today when we visited one of our family friends she dug out this bigger 12" version for me that she has had in her house....they are the exact same! So pleased!

She also gave me these crying kewpie baby salt & pepper shakers. Slightly odd, but I love them! They are marked 'foreign' so pretty old, though I'm not sure exactly how old. What do you ladies think about kewpies? I simply love them and their pointy heads and cute individual characters.

 

Oh poor bubbas!

Pip pip! xx

Hair experiments!

I decided to try rolling my fringe using a hair rat today, and finishing with some flowers.
I was pretty pleased with the results!

Unfortunately I then decided that, due to me being on a nightshift tonight, this lovely hair was unlikely to remain intact for the duration, so I redid it in a more secure plaited style with small victory rolls at the front...

Pip pip xx

Sunday sunday!

Posted originally on 19th September 2010.

Good morning all!
This is a photo of my new charity shop buys from yesterday….

And a wee up close snap of my hair after I slept in soft rollers and a hair net (what a treat for the boy….he probably felt as though he was sleeping next to dot cotton!)
I think it worth it though, as now I have pretty swingy soft curled hair for my dinner with the boy and his family.

Ciao xx