A Visit to the StreetPass Brighton for some Mario Kart Action

Nintendo Street Pass is network for those playing DS, you can share bits of game information, play mini-games with friends and collecting characters you meet across the world.

Around two weeks ago I went to the StreetPass Brighton meet up at the Fortune of War. To celebrate the release of Mario Kart 8 the organiser of the meet brought a WiiU so that they could hold the Brighton Mario Kart 8 championship. There were 32 entrants (one of which was me) who all raced against each other in a knockout competition.

Naturally I took this as an opportunity to cosplay (more on that later).

I had my DS, Nintendo Mag, their guide to Mario Kart 8 and a pint of lime and soda. I was ready to rock.

I didn't think I had much of a shot at the trophy, but I would have loved that special cup...

When it came down to it, I had a whole host of problems, having never played the game before (although I have played Mario Kart), being unfamiliar with the tracks, not knowing which kart to pick, but mostly... I just kept falling off the edge.

So I was out of the competition pretty early on. The eventual winner turned out to be a guy called Jon shown here with Wes who runs the event.

But while I wasn't playing, there were lots of people to StreetPass with and plenty of gaming to be had on the hand held devices. 

I also wasn't the only person who cosplayed. There was also Kerri who dressed as a femme Mario. She made the costume herself and it was her first go at making a costume. I think she was really brave using a stretch fabric for her first go!

And finally, this was the only picture I managed to get of me and the husband. Sadly it is was in a really dirty mirror, but you get the idea. I was so proud of him as he got a story published on the Argus website about the event :)

Do you StreetPass?

Outfit of the day: Pink in Brighton

The other week I had a flying visit to Brighton and decided to do a quick outfit post. I totally overshot the number of layers I was wearing as it ended up being no where near as cold as I had expected so I had to carry my beautiful vintage coat for a large portion of the day.

Anywho, as I was in Brighton, I decided to experiment with a colour I rarely ever wear. Pink.

I've had this skirt a little while, it came form Monsoon during the sale around 4 years ago when that folk look was all-the-rage-but-never-actually-the-rage.

I paired the skirt with a very pink jumper. Now this jumper wound up in my possession by mistake as it was listed on eBay as crimson, and my understanding of crimson was something a much deeper and darker colour than this. But unfortunately that is the colour it said on the label so I was stuck with it, so why not try it out right?

If I'm completely honest I'm still not sure about it...

I do adore my 80s across body bag, it is just the right size and so sturdy and well made! Its my go-to bag when I don't have much to carry.

I also had an amazing eBay find where I got 16 enamel bangles for 99p! In loads of different colours. They may not be bakelite, but they're good enough for me!

Here is my black vintage coat that I had to very swiftly remove once the sun came out...

Now my hair is a touch dishevelled in this pic but those curls lasted all day and I was really pleased with the shape of the set. I suppose you get the idea. This set was done with 25 flat pin curls, which seems a little excessive, but I really love the shape it gives and I really do think it gives the curl more longevity.

Skirt: Monsoon

Blouse: Monsoon

Jumper: M&S

Scarf: Thrifted

Coat: Vintage thrifted

Bangles: eBay

Boots: Clarks

What do you think then?

Pink jumper, yey or ney?

Hooping Around...

So... I got a new toy.

A hula hoop! But not just any hoop, one of those weighted exercise hoops, because like many of us out there, I want to trim my waist. I've heard that hula hooping can do wonders for toning your mid section as long as you stick at it. At present I am about good enough to go for 30-60s on a good turn, but I don't usually keep it up for any longer than that, but with a bit of practice maybe I'll be able to do some tricks? Hey, I can dream right?

So for your viewing pleasure, here are a few completely embarrassing pictures of me getting hoopy...

What do you think of red and orange?  Does it work?

This is a bit of a 90s combo, the dress is a St. Michaels grungy number I got from a charity shop and the cardigan is also M&S but considerably more recent. The headscarf was for hiding my ugly bendy rollers and although you can't see in these pictures, it has little blue and red cats on it - so cute! The shoes are a favourite of mine, they are Topshops current stock and are the cutest little T-bar flatties I believe on they are listed as 'geek shoes' not that I'm really sure what that means but I thought they'd work okay.

Oh yeah, turns out hula hoops are quite good for working out your arms too!

A Yellow 1970s Dress

You know, I can't help but think that this outfit was somehow inspired by bees... Even with that in mind I do still like the combination of yellow with bits of black.

When I spotted this dress on eBay I knew I had to have it! It is pretty difficult to find a good yellow dress and I was really pleased that it turned out okay once it arrived. I'm not sure what brand it is as the labels aren't very descriptive. It was sold to me as a 1970s dress and I can believe that is about right, although in my head the 70s was filled with more drab browns than bright yellows, but maybe I'm just being a bit judgemental there...

The dress does have a check pattern to it and a reasonably full skirt. It came with a matching fabric belt, but I rather liked the contrasting belt too. I wore some black shoes that came from Topshop that gave me an awful blister, but oh well, hopefully with a bit of breaking in they will be okay.

Dress - eBay

Shoes -Topshop (via eBay)

Belt & Socks - Primark

Hair Flowers - Accessorize

Sunglasses - North Laines Stall

I added a couple of hair flowers to go with my curly hair although it was fairly windy so any styling I had done was completely pointless but never mind.

I met up with Sadie of The Vanity Case for a wander around Brighton and we popped into Taj's Tea Parlour for a quick drink. I had a popcorn tea which was a little bit weird, but yummy, and it came in a huge pot which made me happy. We were too full to try any of the cakes but they did look quite good, I'll have to go back and let you know how they are :)

 Look how gorgeous that tea pot is!

Brighton Pride 2013

Well well well, what a way to come back to Brighton - for Pride weekend! After living in Brighton for 4 years I managed to miss pride every year, mainly because it always fell in August which was when I seemed to end up taking annual-leave during my PhD.

Not this time though! This time I managed to hit it about right, time wise, however I have been living out of a suitcase so I didn't really have the wardrobe resources to be able to truly dress for the occasion. I think Pride is a great excuse to celebrate how far LGBT rights have come, but are also a reminder that there is further to go.

Overall though Pride is a great opportunity to get dressed up, to dance in the street and celebrate diversity and equality. It is great to know that so many other people are able to happy to celebrate too - including cafes, shops and individuals. I loved seeing the shop windows all done up - especially choccywoccydoodah! With their Friends of Dorothy cakes, they looked so good!

I absolutely loved this boutique window with the wedding dress accompanied by rainbow shoes!

Of course, then there was the parade! There were lots of different floats, and many people on food too, I couldn't really get close enough to take amazing pictures, but I wanted to show my favourite floats:

Since I didn't have a rainbow dress I had to make so with a red and blue multi stripe dress that is Per Una at M&S via eBay and cost £9.99. I also got some new sunglasses from a stall in Brighton and they had an exaggerated vintage wing style which I really liked the look of.

I put my hair up in lots of twists on the top of my head which I think worked quite well and helped keep it out of the way in the summer heat.

Have you ever been to a Pride event?

Cotton Tail Club Brighton Blogger Meet

Back in Brighton I was invited to the Brighton Blogger Meet Up at Cotton Tail Club and hosted by Hayley of Vintage Vessel, Sadie from The Vanity Case and Matt from Southern Retro. The event was held at the regular night Cotton Tail Club at Above Audio in Brighton and I felt lucky to make it back to the south just in time to go to the meet up. In my experience Cotton Tail Club is a fairly relaxed night with good half price cocktails and lovely tunes spun by resident DJs The Gin Slingers.  

I was really really stressed about what to wear (cue complaint about living out of a suitcase...) and in the end I chose a dress from Monsoon that I felt had a bit of a 60s vibe to it. Sadly I had to spoil the outfit with a cardigan as this was the one day with bad weather in the last two weeks. I'm not really sure what happened to my hair that day, for some reason it ended up being huge! Which is one type of achievement, but not exactly what I was after with this outfit... oh well, I got rained on anyway so never mind.

Devil Horns?

A special for the bloggers meet meant there were a few stalls including some rather lovely hats from B Millinery and some extra special discounted cocktails containing Bootlegger WGS (my favourite contained Amaretto and Blootlegger and was called Flaming Boot).

I got chatting to a few bloggers and vintage specialists including Liz from Advantage in Vintage who has a great vintage eBay and Etsy store (and a love of Laura Ashley!) and another Liz aka Miss PeelPants.

A trio of vintage DJs

Upon entering we were each given a raffle ticket for a cocktail and an entry into a draw to win a bottle of the Bootlegger. And guess what? I won! Here is a picture of me with Ginger Fizz of the Gin Slinger and the, beautifully presented I might add, prize. There are some really good recipes on the Bootlegger website here so I am going to experiment with those later - thanks Cotton Tail Club!

I also got some sunglasses from Bobby & Dandy's stall and a lovely scarf from Beyond Retro who were giving them away with a handy tote bag.

I do love a good blogger event, hopefully I'll get to go to another soon!

My first wrap dress... for a very long time

Wow what a heatwave we seem to be having!

I hope you are all enjoying the warm weather and I hope it continues for a little while longer at least. It can make up for all that rain last year around this time.

Anywho, I went down south for a training day at my new job and I stopped off briefly at Brighton to catch up with a few friends. During the visit I decided to wear a wrap dress, which was possibly not the greatest choice as Brighton tends to be notoriously windy, especially by the beach.

The dress itself was bought from a charity shop and is probably from the 1980s based on the bright colours and styling. It is the first wrap dress I have bought in a very long time as I tend to find them a bit difficult to wear, they don't usually fit right around the bust and the waist, but I made an exception for this one as it seemed to hang quite well. It has a 50s style collar and is sleeveless so it is perfect for summer.

I decided to team it with a red cardigan and ballet pumps - both from M&S.

Oh yes, and that is the lovely Brighton Pavilion behind me!

...and finally

I also got a leopard print box-pleated midi skirt from a charity shop. The skirt wasn't so great but I liked the fabric and there was tonnes of it so I decided to cut it up and make it into a dress. I havent has a lot of time for sewing lately, but I did take a picture of the cut out pieces so that you could see the fabric. I'll post the finished thing eventually when I get it done.

Until then

A 'GoodBye' to Brighton

I thought that since I have finally left Brighton, I'd post a final piece with a few pictures that sum up my memories of the strange little city...

Brighton is fmous for its Pavillion, its architecture, the Sussex Downs, mods, beach, sun-shine and seagulls...

....and while I have had a lot of fun in the town, the beach, the pier and on campus...

...most of my memories are very tied up into dancing...

..but then I did spend a lot of my time doing it!

So that's if for Brighton now, I don't really want to dwell on the things I'll miss, and I'm sure I'll be back in the future but for now its 'Bye Bye'