A room without a roof

Happiness comes in many forms.

Meeting up with these beauties brings me real joy - look at them!

Vix did a post about Our Day Out here.

 

New frocks that cost a fiver...

unexpected tulips in my garden...

borrowing my neighbour's gorgeous ginger fella...

 and seeing Nina's art work (she painted the foxes) in her school mural:

these things are happiness on a plate.

Oh look - more Nina. 

With Uncle Gary.

Two of my favourite people.

Lemon drizzle cakes (made by me)...

huevos rancheros for brunch (not made by me)...

and a Fanny that plays records.

These are Good Things, clearly.

 

 So is a visit to Chatsworth House... 

 especially when there are hats to try on...

with my gorgeous niece. 

Always good to have a weekend away - how about Stratford upon Avon?

Beautiful sunshine, blue skies, and this man...

Yes, there are lots of reasons to clap along, if you know what happiness is to you.

Hope everyone is well, I'll be popping by soon. 

xxx

Time out and about

Working full-time is certainly having an effect; the house is even more chaotic than usual, I've given up ironing, meals are variable in terms of timing and quality, and my social life has taken a nose dive.

But... by miraculous chance, Vix, Tania and I were all available on Thursday, we chose a destination we could all get to by train in about an hour, and off we went to Leicester.

There was no chance of losing these two; I just had to scan the streets for a fuck-off huge fur hat and some neon pink legs!

I'm ashamed to admit that I have never been to Leicester before, though I've travelled through the city hundreds of times on trains heading south.

There were interesting buildings and architectural details wherever we looked. 

We visited Richard III's tomb in the cathedral; there he is, shaking his tambourine, or triumphantly grasping the crown, take your pick.

 

 

 

 

 

The area around the cathedral was particularly peaceful and rather smart.

Of course there was shopping. The city centre has plenty of charity shops, and we spent ages in the wonderful DollyMix vintage shop.

There were lovely ladies all over the place, in addition to some spectacular clothes at reasonable prices. 

See? Lovely ladies!

Lunch is always in a Wetherspoons; this time, the rather grand venue was the old Corn Exchange building. 

Even if we didn't find anything to buy, we wouldn't go away empty-handed.

My gifts were a 1970s spotty dress and sewing pattern from Tania, and a sexy red 1960s slip, parrot earrings (to go with my parrot print frock) and Dr Martens sandals from Vix. As always, those girls get it absolutely right.

I found this 1970s cotton velvet jacket in the bargain basket in DollyMix - mine for a fiver.

And this 1970s dress was from Pink Pigeon vintage, just £10.

 

 

The print makes me ridiculously happy.

After losing a multifocal contact lens, I'm back to wearing my single vision lenses and reading glasses for close-up. One of the perils of full-time work is having problems making appointments with the optician...

I'll be joining Patti and co for Visible Monday, and catching up with your blogs soon, I promise.

 

However busy life becomes, I'll always make time for friends. 

 

xxx

Girls just want to have fun

It's always a delight to meet up with my lovely friends Vix and Tania. Busy schedules have meant it has been far too long since we had a day out. 

Last Thursday, we managed to rectify that situation, and thoroughly enjoyed making the most of our time together. We chatted, laughed, charity shopped and Wetherspooned like demons.

 

I was useless, I took hardly any photos, but you can check out Vix's account of the day and the treasures she found here.

What she didn't show you was this;

a stunning 1960s Jean Varon marabou-trimmed wedding dress which fitted her like the proverbial glove. Tania and I so wanted her to buy it, if for no other reason than to alarm her partner Jon.

(I love the fact that there are customers in the background taking absolutely no notice of a beautiful woman posing in a vintage wedding dress in the middle of the shop.)

The vintage was plentiful and of amazing quality, we came away with some great bargains and left plenty behind too. 

I bought:

a 1970s Harold Ingram knitted tank top, and a 1970s-does-Deco Tina Warren maxi dress.

(photo of me borrowed from Vix). There was another maxi, but I haven't taken a pic of it yet; I'll show you next time.

Tania gave me this 1970s handmade wrap top and skirt set - just look at that fabulous print - and a lavender bag she had made, which is now in my knicker drawer. 

And I also bought this 1980s velvet batwing dress, although when I tried it on in the charity shop and showed Tan and Vix, I managed to put it on back to front...

thereby flashing rather a lot of bra, as you can imagine when you see the deep V at the back. 

1980s dress and 1970s pendant - charity shopped
1970-80s faux fur (again) - Kinky Melon
Ankle boots - Ebay
Belt- retail (sale)  

The go-faster gold stripe makes me smile. I remember wearing batwing sleeves a lot in the Eighties, but I refuse to subscribe to the view that if you wore a style first time around, you shouldn't revisit it.

 Why ever not?

I'll take my Eighties-tastic dress to Patti's Visible Monday gathering.

Life is set to get even busier from now till Christmas, as I'm going to be working an extra day a week, helping out at another shop. But I'll get round to commenting on your blogs soon, I promise!

xxx

Once upon a time when we were friends

Thanks for all your suggestions about helping volunteers to spot vintage donations; I'm going to write up some ideas for the retail managers, and hopefully we can plan a We Love Vintage campaign!

It shouldn't, but it still surprises me when people recoil at the mention of the 1970s.

I was discussing vintage with a volunteer in the shop, and she thought no one could possibly want to buy anything dating from that decade. (I did happen to be wearing a 1970s dress at the time, which made us both laugh.)

1970s German-made maxi dress - Ebay
1970-80s Wallis cropped fur jacket - Kinky Melon
1960s tapestry/vinyl bag - jumble sale
Boots - retail
Vintage Austrian crystal necklace - charity shopped

Oh well, each to their own.

I'll take my Seventies Chic over to Patti's for Visible Monday. 

I have to admit, I don't look as good in fur as this lot.

Jess' fur was being buffeted by the wind, and she does not like that.

She always sits on this particular bit of fence, but both my neighbour and I have noticed that she falls asleep there and sometimes slips off, followed by an unseemly scrabble to cling on and haul herself back up.

My lovely neighbour is such a softie, he's made a little platform for her by nailing on a wider piece of wood. Now she can catnap without losing her dignity.

On Saturday, I had a delightful evening with my dear friends Sally, Claire and Martin.

First - pizza;

then ABC!

The Lexicon of Love remains a favourite album of mine. The lush strings, funky horns and basslines, Trevor Horn's shimmering production, and lyrics full of wordplay dissecting love and relationships all combine to make an epic set of songs.

Released in 1982, it coincided with my arrival in Sheffield, so it's part of the soundtrack of my youth, and accompanied my transition from living at home to being away at university.

So the opportunity to see Martin Fry with the Southbank Sinfonia (conducted by Anne Dudley, who played keyboard and was also responsible for the orchestral arrangements on the original record) was a real treat.

He was in great voice, as were the audience who sang along with enthusiasm, especially to The Look of Love. How wonderful it must be to have written songs which a hall full of people sing back to you over 30 years later.

Of course, the Sheffield crowd were always going to be partial; although Fry is a Manchester lad, he came here to study English Literature at university (the same course as me) and formed ABC with fellow musicians from Sheffield.

And after the gig, as we were deliberating where to go for a drink, who should come and introduce herself but Diane, who features her incredibly fine photography on her blog Heart Shaped. We've been blog and Facebook friends for some time, so it was really good to meet her at last.

Of course, just as there are 1970s-haters, there are those who sneer at the 1980s too. I wonder why some people feel the need to write off whole decades? Ten years; that's a long time, and so much can change socially and politically, and in terms of popular culture, music and fashion. 

For me, both decades were formative, they provide the backdrop to my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.

And any decade that produced The Lexicon of Love is alright with me!

xxxx