Throwback to summer - Cottage life at Rievaulx

Possibly my favourite picture of me ever...

With winter really coming in now and the darker nights and colder days taking over I started thinking back to summer. Not the summer just gone, as that was filled with so much craziness it's a bit of a blur, what with all the... erm... baby, but the summer before that. The one that was lovely and calm. The one where I could fit into all of my pretty dresses.

I was between one teaching job and another on summer holidays and I was staying with my parents while I sorted things out and moved onto my new place. As a little treat they had booked a cottage at the tiny area of Rievaulx in North Yorkshire. I went to visit with them there with my husband.

I always thought thatched cottages were cute, but a bit weird and I never really believed they would keep you warm and rain free. Buy it turns out they do as we had a torrential thunder storm while we were there and we were still mega cosy!
 

Because of its cuteness couldn't resist a few shots of me in my lovely kitty dress. I've posted about this dressbefore but it looks so grand with the cottage I felt like sharing. It it's the lily of the valley dress which was such a staple of my wardrobe. I've had this dress for about 3 years I think and I wore if so often. I still think its lasting well, even if I can't quite fit into it riiiiight now.

That is Rievaulx Abbey in the background. The view from the cottage was amazing! And of course being an old village it had a lovely traditional red phonebox!

Have you ever stayed in a cottage? I find I end up loving the cute cottage country life while I visit but I do miss easy access to good shopping.

Outfit:

Dress: Vivien of Holloway

Shoes: Clarks

Belt: Primark (stay classy!)

Vintage Event: Riding the old trains at the Bluebell railway 1940s weekend

A little while ago I went to the Bluebell Railway for their Southern at War weekend. It was a whole weekend of memorials and activities dedicated to preserving the memory of WWII.

The Bluebell railway is a preserved heritage railway and it has many working steam trains there for visitors to ride and authentically kept stations, platforms and surroundings. This meant that the whole place was the perfect location for a weekend of vintage style frolicks.

I decided to get dressed up for the event and wore a true vintage 1940s green dress and a (late) 1940s suit jacket over the top. I got a few compliments on my look and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

 The husband and I got train tickets so that we could explore the other stations and ride on the train. I'm so glad we did as the 20 minute train journey in the vintage carriage was lovely, there were so many bluebells along the line too it was clear to see where the line got its name from.

Here is one of the lovely steam trains:

And me by one of the carriages:

There were also other period vehicals on display too from vintage army vans and trucks to fire engines.

Best name for a car ever!

Something that I really liked was the fact that they had renactors around who were playing the role of the home guard, as well as singers, dancers and stalls selling vintage wares. All of these things added to the authentic feel of the weekend and I loved it. I also really liked how many visitors had decided to get dressed up too, there were moments when you would look down the train platform and see only people dressed in 1940s clothing and it really made you feel like you had stepped back in time.

 

There was also a flypast by a Hurricane which did a pretty amazing job.

 The railway platforms were great places to be a bit silly to take pictures, there were lots of props. I especially liked the huge pile of luggage!

Outfit Details:

Dress: Vintage

Jacket: Vintage

Gloves: Vintage

Bag: Vintage

Hat: Vintage

Shoes: Rocket Originals

Yeah, I went pretty hardcore on the outfit this time around.

Have you ever been to a reenactment event?

Thrifty Vintage: A summer dirndl skirt and a retro jumper

Wow its warm isn't it! I can't decide whether I love the warm whether because it is a chance for me to experiment with new outfits, or whether I hate it because EVERYTHING is too warm.

One day when it wasn't soooooo hot I decided to wear a new to me dirndl skirt in a cotton gingham check. It has a gorgeous gathered skirt that manages to be full, but also quite flattering. I also love the black lace trim at the bottom of the skirt as it add a bit more to the look of the skirt (I am a bit obsessed with border print skirts and that type of thing so I have been on the look out for anything with a border feature).

The best part though is that it only cost £9 from eBay!

 Also on a side note words cannot describe how pleased I was with my hair in these photos!

I have also discovered a new brand of shoes, I am sure lots of you vintage lovers will know of Rocket Originals, but if you haven't you should check them out. Their shoes are not cheap (between £60-80) but they are made in the UK from old vintage designs. I want all of the pairs in EVERY colour.

Outfit details:

Skirt: Vintage

Shoes: Rocket Originals

Top: Wallis

Necklace: Vintage

 

Tutorial: A 1950s pincurl set!

Hello everyone! It's been a little while but I am back, and I have something for you that has been requested by a few people. An explination of how I do my hair!

I have always felt that the icing on the cake of an outfit is the hairdo. I love experimenting with my hair and although I am not an expert at doing my hair I am a frm believer that practive makes perfect, and the more styles I try the better I get.

At the moment my hair is a sort of shaggy bob/midi hybrid and I have tried a few different ways of setting it, such as foam rollers, bendy rollers, curling tongs and using GHDs and I have come to the conclusion that the best, and most authentic way to get the type of set I want is pincurls.

 I am aiming for a sort of Elizabeth Taylor meets early Mad Men Betty Draper:

http://www.musebeautyproblog.com/the-allure-of-red/elizabeth-taylor/

 So here is how I go about it:

Step 1: Gether equipment

I use the same equipment every time, a tail comb for sectioning, pin curl clips and section clips for holding the curls, hair grips for holding everything secure, a wide paddle brush for brushing out and I use Lottabody setting lotion because it is THE BEST!

 Step 2: Setting

I set on 95% dry hair, I let it dry naturally mostly, but as I am setting it I gently spritz with the setting lotion that has been diluted in a spray bottle. I spritz as I section, just enough to make the hair a bit  tacky.

Starting at the top next to the parting I then take 1 inch squares of hair and curl them around my fingers and clip the curl down flat to my head. I then work back towards the crown and then start a second row. I use roughly 3 rows of pincurls from front to back.

(apologies for the naff webcam pictures, it was all I had to use :S)

Step 3: Waiting

I keep pinning until I have about 25/30 pins and all the hair is clipped up.

I then wait for it to set. Usually I wait over night, but sometimes I will wait for a few hours while wearing a headscarf. I would say you should wait for at least 6 hours, but overnight is better if you have time.

 Here is me putting a hearscarf on, looking like a bit of an idiot...

 

 Step 4: Brushing out

Once the curls are set I take out all the clips. I don't do anything with the hair until it is all out, then I run my fingers through the hair giving it a thorough comb with my fingers and give it all a shake.

At this point you probably look like a frizz bomb but that's okay, the vital step is going to hapen next. Using a wide paddle brush I take sections of the hair and brush it, I brush flicking the ends as I do so and I twist and shape the curl while I brush. I tends to take a few minutes of brushing and it will get less frizzy as you go, the key is to use your hands to shape at the same time.

I often will add a little bit of pomade at this point to help shape the hair, prevent frizz and give it some hold.

Step 5: Fringe and final shaping

For the front fringe section I always brush the hair straight up and shape into a big barrel curl, this way I get to keep as much of thevolum on the top as possible.

Step 6: Hairspray the life out of it!

Once I am happy with it I give it a spritz with hairspray, either elnette or treseme usually as they hold well.

Aaaaaaand hopefully you end up with something like this:

 

Now the outcome of these sets is very variable, it depends on the twist of the curl, it depends on the shampoo, it depends on how you sleep on it, but if you follow these steps you should end up with fairly similar results each time.

It did take me about two weeks of experimental setting before I managed to get this one to work on a regular basis, but lets face it, that is part of the fun!

Do you set your hair? Do you have any tutorials to recommend?

Vintage inspired skirts in retro prints

When I began thinking about this post I very much had Dita Von Teese in mind.

Image from Betty Le Bonbon

I just love her style of big flouncy skirts in vibrant colours or tweeds and sometimes with exciting prints. It is a look I have always liked and the feature skirt and classic T-shirt was a staple of mine in my undergrad days.

I have really struggled lately to find good skirts. Especially when it comes to vintage. I'm not sure if skirts were just worn more so they haven't lasted as long as the more available 'special occasion dresses' of if skirts just weren't as popular (I lean towards the former).

So I decided that the best way to get hold of a 50s style skirt was to make one myself. I wanted to go for a gathered skirt rather than full circle as circle skirts can sometimes look a bit cliche. I used Simplicity 1369 in the longest length with a few minor tweaks.

I found an amazing fabric shop in Scarborough that was selling beautiful print cottons for less than half RRP! So I gave myself a treat and bought some cute fabrics so that I could make some skirts.

The first skirt I made was in the black apple print fabric. I made the size according to my measurements however I found that the waist was too big, so I had to take it in :S whoops... Sorry I don't have a better picture of this one.

The second one I made was in the leaf print. I also interfaced this one with more stiff interfacing around the waist which I found I really liked. I did make the really stupid mistake of having the leaves face up on the front and down on the back however... whoops. Thank goodness the pattern hides it quite well!

The skirt even has a pocket!!

I also decided to make the dress in a really amazing 60s/70s red and blue print. I made this skirt extra full.

I took quite a lot of care with this skirt to pattern match which is not something I've done before. It was quite a bit of a faff, but I think it was worth it when I considered the finished look of the whole skirt.

In these last pictures I wore the most amazing shoes. A pair of Rocket Originals in red leather. The style is called Judy and they are so comfortable and amazingly retro looking, but that is because they are designed based on vintage shoe patterns. I never thought I could wear a pair of sling backs, but these are perfect!

Outfit details:

Skirts: Home made

Shoes: Rocket Originals and Clarks

Top: Laura Ashley t shirt/Primark tshirt

Cardigan: GAP thrifted

Have you ever got an item of clothing in several different colours?

Going for the chop: Lets talk about hair...

Just a quick post today. I've been trying hard with my hair lately, trying to learn more styles practising and improving the styles I know. Which has lead to a few good hair days.

For example this one (excuse the coat hanger). Where I backcombed and teased my victory rolls for the first time. Would you also believe I slept in this style and woke up in the morning looking like this?

Or there was the time I learnt to brush out my hair properly by using a proper large paddle brush (thanks to this tutorial).

 Glasses from SpecsPost by the way.

The only problem is that on lazy days when I didn't style my hair, it looked more like this:

SCARY!!!!!!

This is what I can best describe as a frizz bomb. It was really unfortunate that the leftover perm from over a year ago had taken its toll. The thing with perms is that you need to do regular intensive conditioning and to have it re-permed, which I did not.

So I decided to chop all of that damage off. I had a pretty drastic cut, adding layering, shortening and new colour that is much closer to my natural colour.

Now styling has been fun with this new do, at one point I ended up looking quite a bit like Moss from the IT Crowd...

But I am pretty confident that I have got the hang of styling it now :) I am really enjoying how easy it is to set too as there is so much less of it! I'm starting to feel a little more like Betty Draper than a frizzy lion.

So I will have to give the complex up-dos a miss for a little while but at the moment I am totally not missing them. Several people at work have even told me that I look like Snow White :)