Dita Wig Winner - and a Discount Code too...

First of all I would like to thank everyone for the entries into the competition I had some really great suggestions for where to wear the wig! Everything from wearing it out to the shops, for special events, to surprise friends and family or to shed one's inhibitions and dress in something new and unexpected.

I'm really glad to see so many people embracing wigs as a way to change their look :)

Anywho the lucky winner of the wig is *drumroll*

Carrie T! - I'll be in contact on the email you signed up with to arrange delivery.

But there's more!

For those that didn't win, I do have a special offer from Wonderland Wigs:

If you type in the code FANCY at checkout on their site you will get a Fancy Dresscapades exclusive discount of 10% off any order (excluding human-hair extensions).

Enjoy getting your wig on everyone!

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!

Leaving Durham in a Summer Hat, Monsoon Dress and with some New Headphones

Hi everyone, I'm pretty overwhelmed by the response to my Dita wig competition, I'm so pleased to have so many people interested :) The winner will be announced the day after the competition ends - exciting!

Anywho this is my last post with pictures in Durham for a while as I am in the process of moving. I am currently staying in Hove after ferrying some of my things to the South East while I wait for references on a flat in Tunbridge Wells to go through. So its all change!

Since the weather has been so nice all over the country I have been enjoying wearing some light and airy dresses. But it also means I am able to wear a big sun hat and not look silly - YES!

For one of my final trips into Durham I wore a really light dress from Monsoon a few years ago. I managed to pick it up in the sale for around £25 which isn't too bad, to me it has a sort of 1970s feel with lovely crochet detail around the neckline and a floaty skirt. I find white dresses are usually really difficult to wear, but this one is lined underneath so its not see-through.

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I teamed the dress with some contrasting red shoes (there will be more on those in a later post) and a red belt. But my favourite item is my wide-brimmed summer straw hat. This hat came from a charity shop and cost £5 it needed a little bit of work to re-secure the ribbon around the middle but it didn't cause too much trouble given the bargain price.

Just one little side note is that I also got some new headphones. I really like bigger over ear headphones as I find the little in ear ones so uncomfortable but finding big ones that fit well and have the kind of look that goes with my wardrobe can be quite difficult. What I did find was a great pair of Panasonic headphones that have a retro vibe and come in a range of colours, they weren't cheap at £30 but I find that for a good sound unfortunately you tend to need to pay a bit more :( Let me know if you've found any cheaper ones that do the job too I'm always open to more headphones!

That's all for now! See you soon for more adventures in the south!

Blog Give-Away! 'Dita' from Wonderland Wigs

Alright everyone! I have a special post for you today. A little while ago I did a post about the Dita wig from Wonderland Wigs and as part of that I was given an extra Dita wig worth £24.99 to give away to one lucky blog reader!

You can read my review of the Dita von Teese inspired wig here, but it was a really nice shape and style and in general I think Wonderland's Wigs are great quality. The wig is brand new so if you have ever considered experimenting with a vintage inspired shorter style then maybe this is the way for you!

The Dita from Wonderland Wigs site

Here is me trying out my version of the same wig:

To win the wig you can gain entries following, commenting or tweeting and by using the widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Green Floral Vintage Dress Part II - Fountains Abbey

This is a little post where I just wanted to share a few pictures of one of my favourite vintage dresses (again). We took a little detour on the way beck from Leyburn a few weeks ago and visited Fountains Abbey it was a weird mix of sunshine and rain so I took the chance to snap a few pictures.

I do like taking trips to National Trust places but this time I didn't go into the Abbey area this day as it was late and I didn't think I would get my moneys worth by going in (although I have been before and would totally recommend it), but there is a very large park area that is free to visit and frolic in.

This is outside the main deer park entrance to the area it has a lovely lake with lots of ducks (and lots of duck poo!)

Fountains Abbey is a strange sort of place with lots of huge trees which are fun for climbing on, but I was worried about climbing in my wedges and a vintage dress...

What is your favourite place for a day trip? Can you recommend any in Sussex and Kent?

Leyburn 1940s weekend 2013

For the second year in a row my family and I took a trip to the Leyburn 1940s weekend. The event runs for the whole of the weekend but while prepping to move and such I was too busy to make it both days and had to head down for the Sunday. The morning weather wasn't great, it rained, the wind blew and the clouds were in the way of the lovely sunshine, but during the car drive things started to clear up and eventually the sun broke out.

I don't think the event was a big as it was last year, or maybe the sad morning weather kept people away, but there was a general buzz about the town centre and there were plenty of people dressed up in period clothing.

 

The square was filled with re-enactors, singers, performers and people taking part in the remembrance service - an awful lot was going on. There was also lots of room for dancing, whether that was in the station while waiting for the steam train to arrive or in the main square. At one point there were several people doing the charleston stroll to Sing, Sing, Sing which I couldn't help but join in with.

I also managed to get a bit of time to dance with the Mr. which was nice as its been a little while since we danced together.

There were a few stalls selling vintage clothing and trinkets which made for some good browsing and I got a lovely little vintage dress that I'm sure will be making an appearance on here shortly!

As for my outfit, I decided to go with something authentic. I have a lovely green and faun floral tea dress that I think is from the 1940-1950s judging from the size, fabric and finishings. This dress is a labour of love of mine. I bought it on eBay for around £26 but it had some holes that needed sewing and the bows on the sleeves needed fixing too (to be honest a price I was willing to pay for such a lovely dress). It wasn't really that much work, but it could use a bit more TLC once I get access to my sewing machine again.

I matched the dress with a pair of green sandals from Clarks via eBay, a vintage hat and beautiful gloves that I bought at Leyburn the previous year.

I was also really lucky to have my mum with me and she is a great photographer so I spent a bit of time posing, naturally, but I really have her to thank for the great photos in this post (by the way you can see her stuff on Instagram here).

Here are a couple of photos of me in front of a replica Spitfire, it was pretty cool!

Have you ever been to a vintage weekend?

Attempted Betty Bangs and Cutting my Own Fringe

Just a short post today.

I had a go at cutting my own fringe, now this is not the first time I have tried this and previously it has gone somewhat awry... This time, however, I had a secret weapon! I found a really good tutorial in the back catalogue of Retro Chick's site with a pretty comprehensive guide to cutting ones own fringe.

This is my second time cutting it using the methods outlined on the tutorial, the first time I did it in exactly the same way, but this time I tried blunt cutting the edges too so that they would go up at the sides a little more like Betty Bangs.

I didn't dare cut them short like full on Betty Bangs, as I thought I needed a little extra practice before making the leap.

The question is, was I successful? Or was it a bit of a folly? Do you think I should go for the shorter bangs?